Spotlight on...LUCAN

Sunday was Lucan's 9-month birthday, so he has officially spent more time outside the womb than in. :-) He's finally settling into a fairly reliable routine after seemingly endless adjustments, but now that I write this, it will probably change again. Recently he's begun waking around 6 or even 6:30 a.m. (after going down for the night around 8:30 or 9), which is a vast improvement over his typical 5 a.m. wake-up calls. I would love it if he would bump his wake time to 6:30 or 7 a.m., allowing me to wake, exercise, do my quiet time, and even shower before having him awake, but for now, I'm trying to enjoy the extra moments with only the baby awake. He often joins Ted and me in bed for our quiet time; when he finishes nursing, he is usually content to sit there grinning at us and playing with our hands or his pacifier until we're ready to take him to the kitchen for the rest of his breakfast.

Speaking of nursing, thank God he is doing SO much better in this area, though (for those who are interested) he's still a one-sided eater, LOL. He's a great eater, too, and he is finally ready to feed himself. He resisted Cheerios awhile back but has recently mastered the art of grasping the little O and shoving it into his toothless mouth. He's added Rice Chex, bananas, mushy pears, roasted sweet potato chunks, and crackers to his do-it-himself menu. I suspect over the next week that list will grow exponentially. I love this stage--it's fun to see how babies react to new foods, and it also keeps them gainfully occupied for a considerable amount of time!

We are now officially in Lucan's Reign of Terror. While he hasn't quite started pulling himself up or trying to crawl up the stairs, it's only a matter of time. He is, however, reaching up, pulling cabinet doors open and banging them closed, and scooting around so fast it's difficult to figure out which room he's in. I may have to get an extra-wide gate and barricade him in the family room for safety's sake. We've done "playpen time" a few times with him, and though he's not a big fan yet, he usually does settle down and plays quietly for 30-40 minutes. Since this is a new development as of a couple of weeks ago, I'm looking forward to incorporating that into our school schedule so I can focus more completely on the older kids without worrying about where Lightning Lucan is.

Lucan's temperament still greatly resembles Arden's at this age. He is smiley, cuddly, affectionate, easygoing, and easy to please. He loves people and usually goes to anyone who wants to hold him, though if he's tired and Mom is around, he'll fuss for me. He is still a "binky" baby, taking his pacifier when he goes to bed as well as when we're out and about and he gets fussy. I'm trying to make sure he doesn't use it when he's awake and at home, but I make sure it DOES travel in the diaper bag to church for the nursery workers' sake!

Lucan has settled into our family just perfectly. We can't imagine life without him and look forward to seeing how he will grow and change over the next year.