Sunny Days and Seven Months

It's hard for me to believe, but Emma is closer to being one than a newborn now.  We have had a somewhat rocky month with her and sleep.  Any day now we are expecting her bottom two teeth to pop through, and when that happens, I am hoping her good sleep habits return.  Besides showing a stubborn streak with sleep, she remains a fun-loving, wide-eyed girl who is observant of everything.

We have introduced more foods into Emma's diet, some of which include a ham sandwich with the works on it and garlic spinach pizza.  Some might say that I've become lax in my parenting with subsequent children, but the truth of the matter is Emma takes full advantage of whatever is in my hand while I am distracted with Lucy.  And based on how she freaks out when I realize what she is chowing down on, it is no wonder she refuses to eat the baby food that we present to her.  As soon as the spoon laden with our homemade baby food crosses into her personal space (about a two foot radius from her) she squints her eyes shut and purses her mouth tight.  We have found a compromise fortunately, with a little mesh food bag attached to a handle that we put 'real' food in.  Sometimes we put the little mesh bag in the freezer for a little bit so that the food is slightly frozen to help with teething pain.  Meshed contents so far have included steamed carrots and potatoes, fresh apple, pear, banana, and skinned grapes.  Emma will gnaw on this at least long enough for us all to enjoy a meal together.

Emma has also found relief from teething pain in the most unusual objects.  She likes to chew on Lucy's doll's faces until Lucy notices.  Below it looks like she is resuscitating Simone, but she is really just relieving some teething pain.

So far my favorite Emma-invented teething remedy is chewing on Will's big toe.  I'm not sure if it's the special odor or tangy taste that numbs her gums, but either way it works.  Based on this method, we will know the moment her teeth do poke through based on Will's surprise when something sharp pierces through his sock.



Emma loves to stand.  If she is sitting anywhere near something she can use as leverage, she will scoot over to it and pull herself up to a stand.  This is very dangerous, as she doesn't have the balance yet to maintain her upright position and usually will do a half spin topple and hit her head on something hard.  In fact, Emma loves standing so much that she refuses to sit in her special little baby tub we have for bath time.  Because of this, we decided to try her out in the big tub with Lucy.

 As you can see, she still preferred standing.  After a couple of baths though, she finally was convinced to take a seat and relax which has introduced us to a whole new world of bath time fun - or as Will calls it, "Planned Chaos."  Lucy dumps water on Emma's head, Emma cries.  Emma splashes water into Lucy's eyes, Lucy cries.  Emma pees in the tub, Lucy screams.  Lucy takes Emma's bath toy away, Emma screams.  You get the idea.  But, it does save us a lot of time (and water!), as we no longer have to bathe them separately.

Emma generally doesn't like to get undressed and absolutely hates getting her diaper changed.  My sister Jane has classified her as a Never Nude (from the show Arrested Development) and if we weren't a cloth diaper family we would seriously consider getting those disposable diapers made to look like jeans in an attempt to recreate a pair of jean cut off shorts.

Maybe Emma is a Never Nude because she is always cold.  For bedtime I dress her in footed pajamas, a fleece blanket with sleeves that zips up from head to toe and a knit hat.  With this getup she would still wake up in the middle of the night ice cold, so I added a fleece blanket on top, which goes against all of the information the medical field warns parents about to prevent SIDS.  Thankfully, a friend of mine recommended using an afghan as a blanket since it at least has plenty of holes in it to prevent suffocation, but is still heavy and warm.  That is working great, combined with pumping our furnace all night long.  We received our first heat bill for the cold season and were semi shocked about the price.  I had to laugh though when I realized that we have finally found something to spend money on for Emma.  The clothes, cloth diapers, toys and accessories have all been handed down from Lucy.  Up until this past month, Emma hasn't really cost us a dime.  So, while the rest of us are sleeping in shorts and a t-shirt, Emma is finally warm and cozy and a part of the family budget as well.

Here Emma is below greeting Lucy in the morning.  Emma usually wakes up before Lucy, and will look around for her until we go into her room.  As we approach Lucy's door Emma pumps her arms and legs in anticipation and lets out a squeal when she sees Lucy.  Lucy in turn tells Emma, "I missed you when I was sleeping Emma" and when I ask Lucy what she dreamed about that night she always responds, "Emma."

We have had some beautiful fall weather this past month.  Living in Michigan, if the calendar says November and the thermometer reads above 50 degrees we do what we can to go outside and enjoy it like it's the last hurrah for the next six months.  This is part of why I love fall so much - it makes you appreciate every beautiful day.  In the picture below, I decided to capitalize on a sunny day this past week by packing a lunch and having a picnic outside our library which has a beautiful garden and walkways.  After we ate, we sat in the sun and read the books we had checked out earlier that morning.  It was one of those moments in motherhood that was easy and beautiful.  The kind of moment that was exactly how I pictured motherhood to be before I became a mother. 

Now that I am a mother, I understand that the shiny moments are mixed in between a lot of not so shiny moments.  But because of this, I appreciate those picture perfect moments like a sunny day above 50 degrees in November.

Lucy's Two and a Half!

Lucy is officially a two and a half year old.  I must say, I really do like this age.  She is the perfect mix of independent and cuddly.  She continues to sleep well and plays on her own ninety percent of the time.  However if Will is home that percentage changes to two percent as she is a daddy's girl and well, her daddy is a lot of fun.  Lucy was super excited this month because we got to celebrate her daddy's birthday!  She told me a couple of weeks ago that she wanted to bring Will lunch for his birthday and meet his students.  We did just that, and she is still talking about it.  Here she is below with Will and Emma, eating her lunch in Will's classroom.

When we got to Will's classroom I was all impressed with myself for remembering such details as plates and napkins to go with our picnic.  Panic started to set in though, when I realized I had brought nothing to disinfect the desks we were about to eat on!  After rummaging through the diaper bag, I found some extra disinfectant wipes from the doctor's office that they give you when they want a urine sample.  That took our picnic lunch to a whole new level of classy, but at least I wasn't worried about catching any germs.

I got a little teary eyed when I realized that one day Lucy will be big enough that her feet will no longer dangle at this desk.  It seems her growing up is already catching me by surprise.  Little things catch me off guard like the steadily rising height of the hand prints on my stainless steel fridge door, or how she can put the straw in her juice box by herself now.  The other day I was on autopilot getting her ready in the morning when she shook off my hand that was attempting to get her dressed.  She asked me to leave her room and close the door and promised that when I came back she would have a surprise for me.  So I went and got Emma ready and when I came back, there was Lucy sitting proudly on her bed completely dressed beaming from ear to ear!  No matter that her pants were on backwards and she was wearing a lime green short sleeve shirt with magenta plaid shorts - the fact that she got dressed all by herself was amazing to me!  She had never done this before.  I was very proud.  Granted, the following morning when I suggested that she get herself dressed she screamed "NO!" and ran away, but still.  The fact remained that she has the ability to dress herself now.  She even goes potty by herself now too, and pushes us out of the bathroom and closes the door behind us so that she can have "privacy."  This always brings a shudder to me when I hear the splash from the contents of her froggy potty being dumped into the big toilet, as she is still too short to get on the big toilet by herself.  I've told her to leave the contents of the froggy potty there and I will clean it up - really, I WANT to clean it up, but she insists on doing it herself.  Keep in mind she really only has to use the potty when I am in the shower or feeding Emma.  One morning I stepped out of the shower and found her cleaning a smear of poop off the bathroom floor with a wet wipe.  Lovely.  It is very hard for me to be angry though, as she is really trying to be independent and I do value that trait in her.

Lucy has learned a lot about cause and effect this month.  Will chopped a tree down in our yard and Lucy watched as he swung the axe.  When the tree finally fell to the ground Lucy clapped and jumped up and down.  Then she asked Will to put it back.  When Will explained that he couldn't put it back she started crying and demanding over and over again - "Put it back!  Put it back!"  Along these same lines there was a house and a restaurant near us that both got knocked down on two separate occasions.  Lucy watched the bulldozer and backhoe level them with fascination.  Now, whenever we go by either of these sites, she demands in a whining voice over and over again - "Put it back!  I don't want it knocked down.  Put it back!"

 

Lucy's imagination is still quite vivid.  This month she has been talking about her brother "Hev-Nah" which is a name she made up.  Upon further questioning to find out exactly who this person is, she has told us it is her brother in heaven.  We think Hevnah's name is a variation on heaven and we are wondering if this is her way of processing the fact that she really does have a brother in heaven.  She calls Hevnah on her play phone and tells us about conversations she has with him.  Fortunately, he is a good amount more friendly and well behaved than the tales she tells us about Simone.  Lucy continues to tell us all of the bad things Simone has done.  The other day I had just finished telling Lucy about how it is hard work for me to have to clean up all of her messes (okay, maybe I was yelling a little bit) when she went and told Will that, “Simone is really messy daddy and I am tired of cleaning up after her.”  That only gave me slightly elevated levels of mom guilt when Will related the story to me.  What really sends my mom guilt levels into overdrive however is lately Lucy has been telling me in a sweet and calm voice right after I finish venting my frustrations to her, “Mom, I love you.  I love you mom.  Mom, I just love you.”  She continues to repeat these various endearment combinations until my face changes and the anger is gone.  I’m not quite sure if she is genuinely being sweet or if she is that smart and has found a way to disarm my anger.  Either way, it works.

Some of my favorite vocabulary from this past month includes:

-Lucy tells me, "Mom, type in Dot-Com" any time she sees me on the computer.  Or even better, I find her at the computer pretending to type saying, "Dot Com."

-She calls a head band a "Rubber band"

-As we were driving home from trick or treating at the Farmer’s Market, Lucy stuck her head in her Halloween bag, inhaled deeply and said, “Mmmmmm, it smells like candy in here.  Want to smell it mom?”  Choking back immense feelings of pride, I took the candy bag and as I inhaled deeply, I thought finally, someone who appreciates the same things I do!

-"Mom, I just got to tell you something ____".  Fill in the blank with whatever randomness you can imagine.

-When Will was driving the other day and exhibiting somewhat hurried behavior Lucy piped up from the backseat “Will, be careful not to tip the car over.”  This almost made me pee my pants, because I was thinking the same thing, just in different words!  To represent Will fairly, Lucy also comments on my driving – “Whoa, Mom!  Slow down!” or just “Whoooaaa!”  Might I add that these comments are always appropriately timed too.

-And the vocab word of the month "Squirt".  She uses this word in all sorts of combinations but my favorite one was when she told us that, "I just squirted a fart in my pants."

Happy Halloween!

We began our Halloween festivities at our local farmer's market on Saturday where the vendors had trick or treating for the kids. It was a lot of fun, and a great way to say goodbye to the farmer's market until spring.  Lucy was a huge hit with the kids.  You would have thought Lucy was the next big thing, because throughout the morning random kids would shriek "ELMO" and practically pass out from excitement when they saw Lucy.  

People had no idea that Emma was Oscar the Grouch, and instead commented on her cute hat, and asked where we got it.  When I informed them that the fur was supposed to be a grouchy eyebrow, they either gave an awkward laugh or just stared.  So much for the homemade costume!  

And speaking of homemade costumes, when we were leaving JoAnne Fabric last week with the items for Emma's costume Lucy stopped us in the check out line, and with a look of horror on her face proclaimed, "What about Simone!?!"  She then proceeded to tell us that Simone was going to be Abby Cadabby, Elmo's pink and purple fairy friend on Sesame Street.  She was so convinced of this, we went back and picked out some pink and purple felt and pipe cleaners to create Simone an outfit too.  Below are the three Muppets along with the head Muppet Handler taking a break at the farmer's market.

The following day we visited the cemetery and put a pumpkin on Luke's grave.  We had hoped to get Emma in the picture too, but she was fast asleep in the car and we didn't have the heart to wake her up.

After the cemetery, we went to a family Halloween-themed birthday party where Lucy had a ton of fun running around with her cousins, playing Halloween games with the big kids and eating candy.  Here she is below with Will's cousin Jake who wrapped her up like a mummy.

Here's the family tonight, minutes before trick or treating.

Not only was it Emma's first Halloween, but her cousin Ellen's as well.  We had a great time with my brothers John and Mike, sister-in-law Jenna, niece Ellen, sister Jane and her boyfriend Matt.  Here's Ellen the football with her biggest cheerleader, mom and football star, dad.

 Here's Emma wanting out of her trash can.

My proud brother Mike looking at his cute little football girl.

This picture of Lucy was surprisingly taken BEFORE trick or treating where she was wound up on pure excitement!

Below is my brother John getting smiles out of Emma and proving that she really is no grouch.

Elmo decided that we needed to go trick or treating NOW!

Here Lucy is waiting by the pumpkins we carved, while the adults gathered coats, costumes and babies for trick or treating.

 Here's the gang trick or treating.  Every time Lucy got candy from a house she would quietly and shyly say "thank you" and then turn and run for her Aunt Jane while yelling at the top of her lungs, "AUNT JANE, I GOT MORE CANDY!"

 And finally, here is Lucy getting a lift between houses.  She made out pretty good this year and had a blast.

We hope you had a blast too!  Happy Halloween!

You and me baby are stuck like glue

This past week Emma celebrated her half birthday!  When Lucy turned six months, we celebrated with a fall photo shoot so we decided to carry on that tradition.  It was a lot harder this time around to get two kids looking at the camera.  Emma was freezing cold and more interested in eating leaves than smiling, and Lucy was hard-pressed to sit still.  The three 'unique' pumpkins came from our garden.  Below is our best attempt at showcasing both children and pumpkins.

Here is the photo from Lucy's half birthday fall photo shoot two years ago.  I like to compare Lucy and Emma pictures and see how similar and yet how different they both are.

Emma is such a big girl, now that she is half a year old.  This past month we introduced solid foods to her.  First, we brought up Lucy's old high chair from the basement and let Emma get a feel for sitting in it.  We even gave her an empty bowl to try out.

She seemed to pass these steps with flying colors, so we decided she was ready to try something a little more substantial.  We were temporarily delayed however, as we couldn't find any of our rubber coated baby spoons from Lucy (Will thinks I donated them, which is entirely possible - if we haven't used it in a year, out it goes!).  But then last weekend when we were at our local supermarket making the samples round, we realized the little black plastic spoon that came along with the bite of cake in the paper cup was perfect for a baby spoon!  

So far, she has eaten rice cereal, bananas, butternut squash and applesauce.  Banana is her favorite but she gags every time she tries the squash.  I can't really blame her, as I prefer butter, cinnamon and brown sugar on mine and she can't have those ingredients yet.  Until then, I mix the squash with a bit of apple sauce and she only makes mild grimaces when the food touches her mouth.

It seems Emma is starting to exhibit more of her own personality.  As much as I have tried to let her be her own person, I need to admit that I have been routing for Emma to be the 'laid back' sister.  And although she may be laid back in certain aspects she is definitely beginning to show her own stubborn streak.  She also has become a genuine 'mama's girl' and refuses to be with anyone else if she can see me.  For some reason, this has taken me by surprise as I only assumed that subsequent children naturally accept that their parents have divided attention.  Nope, Emma could care less that it is difficult for me to cut her older sister's food, wipe mouths and bottoms, cook meals and generally run a household one-handed.  She is stuck to me like glue.  She can hold out for hours, screaming until I can feed her or rock her to sleep.  It makes having evening plans almost impossible and extremely stressful for babysitters.  And as tiring as it is to be someone's one and only, I melt whenever she cries and reaches for me.  So I guess it is a two way street and a better description would be that we are like Velcro.

Fortunately, Emma does peel herself off of me for plenty of floor time.  She loves to be on the floor next to Lucy while playing and rolls to whatever it is she wants.  

She even gets up on her hands and knees to rock back and forth, causing a bolt of terror to run down my spine as I realize it is probably time to re-baby-proof the house.

Besides being a mama's girl, she is also Lucy's number one fan.  She lights up whenever Lucy comes into the room, and wants to be wherever Lucy is.  Lucy is the only one that can make her laugh uncontrollably and just when I think Lucy really hurt her, Emma breaks out in giddy laughter.  Emma adores Lucy.  Here Emma is below playing baby doll with Lucy in the bouncer...

in the doll stroller...

 and in Lucy's play car.

Emma eventually gets her fill, and finds her way back in my arms.

She has been a little Miss Fussy Pants lately.  Her crying really flusters me, and I find it extremely difficult to concentrate on whatever task is at hand when she is upset.  This past month I shook up a container of orange juice with the cap off, left a cup of water filling in the fridge door and didn't notice until the water spilled into the dining room, and almost blew through a stop sign.  Fortunately, none of these incidents happened on the same day, and I did stop halfway into the intersection with only a mild reprimand from my backseat driver - "Whoooa, Mom!"  We are hoping that she is cutting teeth and that this fussy phase will go as fast as it came.  Until then, stay tuned for next month's post and I will end this one with a picture of Emma at her very first annual Timmerman Apple Picking event.

Apparently the only person looking at the camera was the only person interested in the numerous aunts, uncles and cousins behind the camera who were jumping up and down and making strange noises.

Model Citizen

My neighbor summed up this past month with Lucy quite nicely the other day.  He told me that he hadn't heard any defiant screams of NO! or out of control crying lately.  I told him that is probably because it's been cooler out and our windows are now closed.  But seriously, even with the closed windows, he is mostly right. Lucy has had a great month.  She has been helpful when Emma is fussing and plays really well on her own most of the day.  She is taking solid naps again and sleeping well still at night.

That is not to say that we don't have our setbacks still.  A couple of weeks ago she had a horrible bladder infection that seemed to come out of nowhere.  She lost all control of her bladder, and would just stand helpless as puddles formed around her and she screamed in pain.  If you know Lucy, not having control of her bladder was almost as bad as the pain.  At one point, there were seven different puddles strewn about the first floor of our house with random cloths thrown on them - a baby blanket on one, kitchen towels on another, bath towels on yet another.  They were happening so fast all I could do was grab the nearest absorbent object, throw it on the puddle, and comfort her.  Earlier that day we had taken her to the doctor for an emergency visit because she was in so much pain and peeing blood.  That doctor visit will go down in the record books as one of my most stellar mom moments.  There I was in the doctor's office bathroom with Emma strapped to me in a carrier, squatting next to a toilet holding a little plastic cup under Lucy who was perched above while I pleaded with her to pee in the cup.  I tried every tactic I could think of to convince Lucy to pee.  As my legs grew numb and Emma's fussing turned to full on screams I grew desperate.  I wondered if the nursing staff could hear Lucy's screams over Emma's.  I hoped that no one was waiting to use the bathroom.  Finally, I said something no mother should ever say - "Lucy, I'll give you anything you want if you pee in this cup.  Anything.  You name it and it's yours!"  As my mouth said the words my stomach clenched and I immediately started regretting it.  What would she come up with?  I was really in trouble now.  Lucy looked me in the eyes, stopped crying and told me without pausing, "I want two juice boxes and Elmo stickers."  "DONE!"  I replied with a ton of relief.  Her eyes had not unlocked from mine though, and she repeated, "TWO juice boxes mom.  AND stickers."  And with that she filled up the cup.  Once she hopped down I was faced with the dilemma of whether or not the top for the cup that had earlier dropped in the toilet would flush down or if I had to pull it out.  As I reached my hand in the public toilet, I told myself at least Lucy didn't demand a Barbie Dream House and hot dogs every night for dinner for the rest of her life.  I am happy to report that the antibiotic worked within the first eight hours and Lucy has been fine ever since.

Yup, Lucy has been a model citizen and we think it is because she now has an alter ego who does all of the bad things that Lucy used to do.  Simone has taken over where Lucy has left off.  Lucy is forever telling us of the things that Simone has done.  The other day she told me, "Mom, Simone just pooped on the floor.  On the carpet.  With no pants on Mom!"  My response, "Wow, what did you tell Simone after she did that?"  Lucy, "I told her, 'Simone, no pooping on the floor!  Poop only on the potty.  Poop is dirty Simone!'"  Then, a brief moment later Lucy added, "Mom, can you clean it up please?"  Or she will tell me, "Mom, Simone just woke up Emma.  I told her, 'No Moan, you can't wake Emma up!  She is sleeping!' But she wouldn't listen Mom.  She just woked her up."  Even better, after Will tucked Lucy in last night she called Will back up stairs multiple times because "Simone isn't eating right dad.  I think she needs to burp."  and also, "Simone is hurting me dad - I told her 'No Moan!  No hitting!' but she keeps hurting my arm dad."  I'm thinking of maybe getting a special doll-sized chair for Simone to sit in for some quiet time when she acts up.

Lucy continues to be a picky eater, although she eats the most odd things at times.  She loves helping herself now to the fridge, and continues to drive me crazy by leaving the door wide open.  I tried explaining to her about the baby penguins and how we need to conserve energy, but she doesn't seem too concerned.

 Here she is below eating salsa out of the container with a spoon.  Now keep in mind she would never eat a tomato cut up on her plate, but a vat of salsa?  Apparently that's different.

 Lucy likes to think outside of the box when it comes to her vegetables, as last week she ate a mushroom in the backyard.  Again, she would never have eaten it if we had put it on her plate and told her it was dinner.  We freaked out and called poison control who was super helpful.  They even called back twice in the following 24 hours to monitor Lucy's condition.  She fortunately was no worse for the wear, but gained some new material to tell people that Simone did.

The other day when we were shopping at Kohl's, Lucy saw a double seater shopping cart available, and decided it was perfect for her and Simone.  Slightly annoyed I told her no, I wasn't going to push that big thing around with one hand because I had Emma already in a front carrier on me.  A sales lady overheard the conversation and misunderstood - she thought Lucy was fighting me and wouldn't go in the shopping cart.  This well meaning but highly aggravating woman picked Lucy up and put her in the shopping cart while telling her that she should be a good listener for her mommy.  The good fortune was not lost on Lucy and she shot me a smile as she was placed in the cart.  Deciding it wasn't worth fighting I placed Simone in the front seat and off we went.  As we were waiting in line after we were done shopping, Lucy started telling me about how there were three Christmas trees next to us, one for Lucy, Emma and Simone as she pointed to her upheld three fingers.  An older woman behind me was listening and asked which one was Simone, as she loved that name.  Slightly embarrassed, I pointed to the doll in the front seat of the double shopping cart and watched as the woman took a step back and said, "Oh, I thought you had another daughter in school."  Needless to say, she was not amused.  Awkward silence ensued as we waited for what seemed like forever for it to be our turn.

Life is never dull at our house.  I did discover a great alternative to a Pack and Play (a.k.a. portable crib and play pen) though.  Lucy and Emma actually sat in here long enough for me to throw together dinner.  Priceless!

A message from heaven

Fall especially reminds me of Luke.  Since he was my first pregnancy, my experience with morning sickness and other early pregnancy symptoms are still vivid in my memory and they took place in the fall.  The smell of ripening tomatoes on the counter, the chill in the air, apple picking and back to school all bring me back to when he was here with me.  I still have a hard time eating tomatoes, and it's not so much the taste as it is the smell.  There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about him and wonder how his personality would have unfolded and what types of things he would have done to drive me crazy and melt my heart.  I wonder how he would interact with Lucy and Emma.

The other day as I was tucking Lucy into bed for the night she had me retell the story of before she was born.  I told her again of how Luke visited me in a dream one night as she was growing in my tummy.  In that dream, Luke told me that I was going to have a healthy baby girl named Lucy.  She interrupted me in the story and asked, "Lukey called you on your phone, mom?"  I told her I wish, but that people can't call you on the phone when they are in heaven.  Instead, they can visit us in our dreams to tell us things.  But geez, how great would that be if we could just dial up heaven?

Last week Lucy picked out the story Puff the Magic Dragon from her bookshelf to read before bed.  I had never read it to her before, but I had read it to Luke, and I had completely forgotten about it until I started reading it to Lucy and the words choked up in my throat.  I read to Luke often when I was pregnant with him - I had lots of free time then, since I didn't have any other kids to chase around!  Will even took a picture of me reading this exact book to Luke.  Based on the date of the picture, I am estimating that I was 33 weeks here - two weeks before we lost Luke.  It hurts to see the happiness and hope on my face.  Little did we know how short our time was with Luke, and how much a simple story would mean to me over three and a half years later.

Luke continues to show us his presence in subtle ways.  Last month I enlarged a photo of our family from Emma's baptism to hang in our bedroom.  This picture held special significance, as it is part of the tradition we started in front of the stained glass window at our church where Luke was laid out in front of at his funeral.  At Lucy's baptism we made sure to get a picture of the three of us in front of the window as a way to include Luke's memory in the day.  With Emma's baptism, we continued the tradition.  It became an obsession for me to make sure we got a picture in front of that window before the baptism so I wouldn't have to worry about it during the ceremony.  Things did not go smoothly however, and our camera's memory card was full and we didn't have a backup.  My dad tried taking it with his camera but accidentally hit a button that changed a setting and he couldn't get it to work.  Finally, the priest came over to us and asked us to go sit down so he could get started.  Reluctantly, we sat down but I couldn't keep my mind off trying to get that picture.  As soon as the baptism was over, we went back and tried the picture again.  My dad had figured out his camera and took a couple of pictures.  I didn't think about it again until I ordered one of the photos in a 5x7.  As I was hanging it up in our bedroom, my eyes locked in on a fifth person in the picture.  There in the stained glass window, perfectly positioned between us was a little boy looking at Will.

Now I know why we couldn't get the photo on the first try.  We weren't standing in the right spot!  I like to believe that Luke is showing us that although we can't see him, or call him up on the phone, that he is still very much present with us, every day.  We love you Lukey!