Rich's Work Calendar

I have switched calendar services to Airset because they have less ads and it's easier to use. There is nothing on the calendar at this time because I'm waiting to get Rich work schedule for next month. Looks like he'll be working at the Branson store next week and maybe this weekend.

Road Trip

***Lukas at the Little Rock Zoo on Saturday, April 15th, 2006***


Lukas has been improving with his sitting up. He doesn't fall over very much, and he can reach for toys then straighten up and put the toys in his mouth.

Tomorrow Lukas, Mom & I will be leaving for Dallas to visit Grandma & Grandpa Haddock. I hope Lukas sleeps the entire way! I finished packing for Lukas and he has more luggage than me & my Mom put together. That doesn't even include his car seat & stroller. In less than a month I'll be packing for our week-long cruise. I'm going to have to be more selective when I pack for that. I need to check the weather in Alaska - I'm guessing it's just cold there all the time. Speaking of weather, I'm hoping it is nice and hot in Dallas. I would love to get Lukas in the pool. If not the pool, then maybe the hot tub will be warm during the day since there's less water in it. I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to put the baby in a running hot tub. Something about cooking the baby - I don't know.

Jessica & I have been Jazzercising for the past 2 weeks. It's pretty fun, and it definitely gets my heart rate up. As soon as I get the moves down to a song, they do something totally different. Darn them. They have an incentive for you to come to class now (as though paying them money every month wasn't enough). If we go 32 times between May 15th & July 31st we get a free backpack. I must have that backpack. We can do it!

My iPod is on the fritz :(

I keep hitting "pause" but it just keeps going "waaaah waaaah waaaah". Thanks to Ashley & Tom Dixon for the adorable iPod tee from iPod My Baby. They have a gallery of babies sporting their iPod tees - very cute.

Lukas sits up - kind of

Lukas sat up tonight with the assistance of the Fisher-Price thingamajig that we got from our neighbor, Amber Jones (thanks Amber!). I put the pillow behind him for crash protection for his head. He'll be sitting alone before we know it. I guess I better go write this down in the baby book :)

Hoppy Easter

Here's Lukas all "decked" out for Easter. Maybe it looks more like a costume than an Easter outfit. Oh well, I thought it was cute.

More on Fondue

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Jessica made some kickin fondue in her new fondue pot. I've been telling everyone I know about it. When I told Uncle Kenny of this delicious party food, he pulled out his Mom's (Rich's grandmother) red fondue pot from the 70's - and he GAVE it to me. It was complete with fondue sticks (in the box) and the original recipe book. It has 3 recipes: cheese fondue, chocolate fondue, and hot oil & how to cook meat. The cheese recipe sounded a bit like Jessica's. We'll have to compare notes. So you know what this means... Fondue Party!

Beautiful Weather in Missouri

Rich and Lukas within 1 hour of arriving at Uncle Kenny's on Wednesday afternoon. They are such engaging house guests.

Somewhere around Atkins I realized that I had left our church clothes hanging, neatly pressed, in the closet. Better than leaving the baby formula and diapers. A not-so-quick stop at the Northwest Arkansas Mall fixed us right up with new church clothes, thus improving my wardrobe situation. Rich took Lukas shopping for Daddy clothes, while I enjoyed trying clothes on without worrying about what to do with the baby. Rich thinks he was getting "looks" from the ladies since he was alone with the boy. They were probably just worried that Rich was going to drop the boy since he was carrying him kind of under his arm like a folded up newspaper. At least he didn't leave him crying in the stroller.

During our stay, I was reintroduced to croquet. I haven't played that in years, and I can't even remember exactly where or when that was. The set that Uncle Kenny has is from when he & Eloise were kids, so some of the balls had seen better days. Rich did a nice duct tape patch job on one of the balls and then he played with the gimpy ball. And of course he still kicked our tails. Thursday was a beautiful day in Purdy, MO - Lukas got to nap outside and then sit in his bouncy/rocky chair and watch us play our game.

Thursday evening was church for all of us except Eloise (she went to her great-nephew Tylan's school play). It was past Lukas' bedtime when we got to church, so Rich & Lukas spent most of the service in the cry room. Afterward, Lukas mellowed and we went to cousins Jan, Paul, Garrett, & Macy's newly remodeled home to introduce Lukas to everyone. Cousins Tara, Michael, Tylan, and Mallory were there as well. Macy is about 2 months older than Lukas. They seem to be about the same size. Lukas wanted her very badly. He would hold out his arms to her and try to touch her. She has recently become mobile, and she was practically taunting my poor, immobile child. I got some great pictures of the 2 of them, unfortunately they were with Grandpa Haddock's camera. I'm sure he'll email them to me as soon as he returns to civilization (aka: a place with internet access).

We left early this morning so Rich could get to work at 3pm - and he's still there.

New pictures are being added at winkflash (login: LukasOliver / password: Haddock), but they are virtually unedited - sorry.

Apartment For Rent

Tell your friends - we've got an apartment to rent. Should be ready by the first of May. 1854 South Gaines Street, Little Rock, AR

Clothes & Toes

It's midnight & I'm still packing for Uncle Kenny's. Lukas has grown a ton since Uncle Kenny saw him last. Grandma & Grandpa Haddock will be there too. They saw him last month, so it won't be such a big change.

Lukas managed to wear 3 different outfits today with all the spitting-up he was doing. That's not so bad because he has so many clothes that he needs to wear 3 outfits a day to get them all worn before he outgrows them. Buying baby clothes is addictive. You don't have to worry if he'll look fat in them or if they make his butt look big. Everything fits and looks adorable. If only it were so easy for me.

And speaking of shopping for me, my wardrobe took a hit today. Somehow a black ink pen got into the wash (hmmm... me or Rich?). Although I found the pen before it hit the dryer, it looked intact to me and I didn't check the clothes. After everything was dry I realized several things, including a BRAND NEW pair of jeans, had large amounts of ink on them. I tried stain treating, scrubbing, and rewashing - but no. I'm air-drying them now and I'll try the old hairspray trick. Does anyone know if wearing jeans with funky patches on them is in style now?

I'll be out of the web loop for a couple days because Uncle Kenny doesn't have internet access. Until next time - jgh

I wants it - it's my precious

Teasing the boy with a tulip at Nanna's. 4/8/06

It's Almost a Smile :)

Lukas with Nanna's tulips on Saturday, April 8th, 2006.

Easter Egg Hunt is a Snooze...

Lukas went to his first Easter Egg Hunt today at my Mom's church. After being passed around the congregation, rolling around on the floor, and watching us eat our Easter Feaster, he crashed just in time for the hunt. There were some nice children who gave him 2 eggs and he was awarded a prize - a cowboy themed bandana. It's pretty cute. I'll probably be wearing it on my head to keep the sweat out of my eyes when Jessica & I start our Jazzercise class. Lukas also received an Easter basket from the church which was a blue sand bucked & shovel with grass & eggs & some candy (also mine!). Nanna gave him a stuffed froggy basket with froggy shaped eggs. Very cute!

Now I'm counting my exclamation points! That makes 3. After a conversation Friday night with Jessica, JJ, Ken, Tom, Rich & Bryan I realize that people are really bothered by weird things. We discussed this over a fabulous pot of cheese fondue made by the exsquisichef, Jessica. We could have dipped a dirty diaper in that stuff and it would have been delicious. It was my first fondue experience, and hopefully not my last. Thanks to Jessica for making her own birthday fondue. And Ken's orangy cake was tasty too.

Lukas is a big boy!

Today Lukas moved into his new big boy car seat. I thought the first one (the carrier type) would last for his first year. Ha. I know he's passed the height limit and probably over the weight limit as well. Turns out the new car seat isn't nearly as convenient as the old one. My Mom (Nanna) and I put him in the shopping cart at Target with a shopping cart protector and a blanket stuffed around him, and he still leaned a bit. And now when he's sleepy, he can't just drift off while I shop. After wearing him out at Target, we took him to McAllister's to eat. I figured he was too sleepy sit up in a high chair for his first time, so I was glad I threw the old car seat in the van. We took it in & although he didn't sleep, he was comfy.

He's also a big boy in the clothing department wearing 9 month Carter's clothing and 6-12 month Old Navy & Gap clothing.

Lukas tried Winter Squash tonight for dinner and found it delicious. But he seems to find everything delicious - even the prunes he had for dessert.

As you can tell, nothing is going on with Rich & me. Today is all about Lukas.

Passwords & Schedules & Bath Time

Lukas after a relaxing bath.

I've got Rich's schedule up & ready to view now. I thought it would be wise to password protect it. You can drop me a line & I'll give you the login & password. Sorry the calendar is full of ads, but it's free & I chose not to have the pop-up ads. Or maybe that's what I should choose since most people use pop-up blockers. Hmmmm....

I've been unable to work tonight because I've been obsessing over this calendar & password thing. Also a printer issue is driving me nutty. The printer thinks it's smarter than me. We'll see about that. Anyway, guess it will be early morning work for me. Our work computer system backs up between midnight & 5:30am so I can't use it. That's not so bad; keeps me from staying up all night working. Can't keep me from surfing the web though.

Chronological Craziness

01-02-03-04-05-06

What's this, you ask? Daddy-O from DeWitt-O sent me a text alerting me to the chronological event that took place this morning at 1:02:03am on 04-05-06. Seems this was newsworthy on television this morning & in the London Free Press.

I think I'm addicted to blogging.

Tax Time

Hooray! Taxes are DONE! That's one project down, 999,999 to go.

Lukas has slept most of the day for the last 2 days. That's good for me, but I don't know if it's good for him. We'll just say he's growing and needs his rest. Tomorrow he'll be trying a new fruit - I'm thinking yummy bananas (they shouldn't stain any of his clothes!). We got his new big boy car seat today. I haven't weighed him lately, but I'm sure he's getting close to the 20 pound weight limit, and I'm almsot positive he's reached the 26 inch height limit. The bad thing is he can't sit up yet. That's bad because when I take him shopping or out to eat, we just take in the car seat & pop it on the cart or the high chair. I guess he'll have to ride in the new car seat, and I'll have to keep the old one in the back for those type of excursions.

Our tenant moved out of the duplex this weekend. Now we get to clean & paint - how exciting.

I bought a web site for the family: thehaddocks.net
Unfortunately, I don't know what I'm doing. I didn't splurge for the web-building software (web-based) from GoDaddy.com. I thought I'd be able to figure out how to move this blog to the new site. Not yet. Probably has something to do with using a Mac, it always does. Once I get it up & running I hope to get Rich's work schedule on there so you'll never have to wonder "is Rich working?". Ken has volunteered to assist me with my site when he returns from Chicago - thanks Ken! Check out his blog on my links ------->

For MANY more picture of Lukas - log on to winkflash.com as lukasoliver & password haddock.

My First Blog

This is my first blog and I think it will relate mostly to the goings-on of Lukas, Rich & Me. Hopefully family and friends can keep up-to-date (as much or as little as they want) on the baby and his milestones.

Lukas is 5 months old already and he is SO big. A month ago he weighed 15lb 12oz at his 4 month doctor visit. I'm guessing he's put on at least a pound since then. He's already wearing some 9 and 12 month clothes. He's eating baby food now. So far he's had rice cereal, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, prunes, apples and green beans. He seems to like everything equally. Not showing any favorites yet. He's so messy that I just take all his clothes off and throw a towel on him to eat. For some reason, eating makes him sneeze, so I usually get baby food debris thrown my way too.

I just found something interesting - I can spell check this blog and when I did, the first word it picked up was "blog". Weird.