Blue Eyes, Buzz and The Buddha

I mean seriously, how many chins does Luke have now? And those cheeks!!!

Jackson's School Pic 2007

What does he know that we don't??? Such a knowing smile....

Santa 2007

Yesterday we visited Santa at WillowBend after school. Cody was excited to see him and tell him he wants a Dora Talking Kitchen (lol), but when he actually got up on his lap, the shyness struck. So Santa had to do a lot of cajoling and finally resorted to tickling Cody with his beard to get him to smile....but I love how it came out.

Jackson's Thanksgiving Feast

Jackson has been learning about Pilgrims, The Mayflower, and the first Thanksgiving this month. He worked on his Native American costume all last week at school, and today he and his classmates got dressed up and sang 4 turkey songs for all the parents. Jacks did all the motions and even moved his mouth through most of the songs (unlike at his Christmas program a couple of years ago)! Then they sat down to a delicious "traditional" feast of popcorn, oreo turkeys, and Capri Sun.


Cody felt the best way to see the show was from atop Daddy's shoulders, through Mama's sunglasses:
Baby Luke slept through the whole thing, luckily, allowing me to take pictures. But here's one of him from this morning, making friends with Mr. Sun. :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Cody!

We decided to celebrate Cody's birthday at home with just family. Anthony made an incredible multi-layered rainbow cake and brought home Cody's favorite, fried chicken. Gramma and Grandad joined us and we had a nice little party, complete with Backyardigans decorations, a brand new electric guitar (kid-sized) , and enough supplies for the play kitchen to enable Cody to prepare 3 gourmet meals a day for us all.


Here he is in the official "Birthday Boy" hat:

Change of hat, with his amazing cake (of which he proudly told ANYONE who asked, "It's GREEN!"):
Check out those layers!
And here's the little rock star with his very own guitar...yes, that IS an amplifier you see. He's wired, and ready to bring down the house. How much does he look like Anthony in this picture?

Cody's School Pic 2007

Jaundice Update

Good news! On Monday, Luke had gained 5 oz (since Friday) and his bilirubin level was down from 14 to 9.9! He's off the bili-bed for now, and we go back in on Friday for his 2 week check-up to see if his level is back up again and how high. :)

Little Thinker

Life's a Beach

Lucas was discharged from the hospital last Sunday with slight jaundice, but when we went back for a recheck on Monday, his bilirubin level had gone up and he had lost more weight. By Wednesday, he'd begun gaining weight (yay!) but his jaundice was getting worse. He's not at a dangerous level yet, and he's actually at a remarkably low one (14) compared with how high Cody's got (26, requiring hospitalization), but we've been on a phototherapy light off and on all week. On Friday, our pediatrician said he wanted me to stop nursing and give formula for 48 hours to see if that made a difference. This is what we did with Cody, and he never resumed nursing. :(

I told the pedi that I really wanted to give it through the weekend and see if we could make some progress between round-the-clock feedings, and keeping him on the bili-bed (special lighted bed) except when we're changing his diaper or when he's eating. I'm so hoping we see a change in the number come Monday. Lucas is a champion nurser so I'd hate to take that away from him (and me). Think good thoughts for us, please!

(The picture above is from before we received the bili-bed...sunlight is supposed to be effective in breaking down bilirubin as well, so Lucas has been sunning himself as much as possible.)

Welcome Littlest One!

Lucas James Miller came into the world on November 2, 2007, weighing in at 8 lbs 7 oz. The labor was our shortest and easiest, and also as perfect as we could have hoped for...no NICU team, and we got to hold him right there in the delivery room. He even began nursing not an hour after he was born. We are a happy family of 5!

Here are some pictures we got at the hospital....

Snuggling with Daddy:
My 4 Men:


Proud Big Brothers:
Jackson soothing the baby:
Lucas' first storytime!
Yaaaaaaaaawn!!