Luke is 1

The number of changes we have undergone as a family over the past year is almost unimaginable. One year ago this month we lived in a house (which we owned) in a town 750 miles from where I sit this morning. I was working full-time at a hospital pharmacy, while Sarah was a full-time mom. Most of our extended family lived within a 2 1/2 hour drive from our home. And our little family was just the four of us: Mama, Papa, Julia, and Mary.

Sarah and I have gotten in the habit of saving our kitchen calendars. It gives us something to use to cue memories (both good and bad!) and also can make us laugh quite frequently. Although March seems like the longest and most tedious month of the year, the page for March in last year's calendar is filled with more things than probably any other three months. One of us was taking Omnicef for the first 2 weeks of the month. A wedding reception. Some friends visiting from out of town. Multiple overnight ER shifts for Sarah. "Did You Match" day (coincidentally on the Ides of March), followed by Residency Scramble, and then actual Match Day three days later. On March 31 I see an entry that says "List house by this day (meet w/Julie before".

And last, but certainly most life-changing and important, on March 26: "DUE DATE. Ed comes to stay."

Fast-forward to today. "Ed," in the person of Luke, is now 1. Can you believe it? Chattering, crawling, munching fuzzballs off the floor, and providing comic relief, he has become an adorable blond attention-stealer. He's one change we wouldn't exchange for anything.

Sarah invited over a couple families from church who have children the same age as ours for Moosie's birthday.

Mmmm...waxy.

Is it OK if I eat this?

It was fifty degrees!!!

Yesterday, it was FIFTY (yes, five-oh) degrees here in Ypsilanti. (Ip-suh-lan-tee) and we took advantage of it! We walked Luke around the neighborhood and greeted the new green grass as it peeked out from under the snow. Living in Michigan has its perks: winter is literally cut in HALF. It feels like we went straight from November to March. It went from fall, to the "brown crunchy stage" to SNOW, snow, and more SNOW, and now it's melting. So far it's been all of the fun parts of winter without being cold! I don't think we even made it below zero. So our fifty degree day in February was met with welcoming arms and we attempted to replenish the stores of vitamin D.

Mike was our photographer. I love this one!

Almost all the snow is gone.

OK, so the pics are a bit out of order. Not sure why. Also not sure why this text is suddenly underlined. I am such a computer guru...shoulda made a career out of it!


Hi everybody!

First Haircut!

Last weekend, while we were in church, some well-meaning lady came over to us and said, "what a beautiful family you have!!! Three daughters! They are beautiful. And you must have so much pink at home!"

"Thank you. We do have a lot of pink at home. But our youngest is a boy."

"Oh! Sorry, I assumed he was a girl with all of that beautiful blonde hair."

....

It's time. From the minute I first saw Luke when they held him up over the sterile blue drape during my c-section, I have loved his hair. I never thought I'd have a blue-eyed blonde kiddo. Julia and Mary had hair at birth, but they got dark mohawk-style hair that started to look like male-pattern baldness by three months and were completely bald by six months. Luke's mop just grew to epic proportions, kind of like the rest of him. So his Mama just didn't want to cut his hair. I won't let Mike grow his over his ears, but I had a beautiful son with.....I hate to admit it....but.........a Mullet. Long and flowing in the back. And only in the back. And after that comment, I knew it was time. And just yesterday, a coupon from Great Clips arrived. So today's mission was set in stone. Operation Haircut commenced.

Before the 'do. Isn't he just so cute? Mullet and all?

Profile view.

Mullet Baby to the REscue!

Our stylist said that six months is the youngest client she's ever had. Her co-workers agreed. Luke is now the reigning champion in the category of "Youngest Baby to Need a Haircut" at the Ypsilanti Great Clips.

Here is Handsome, trying to snack on his apron. Mmmmm.....hairs

By the end, he was getting a little impatient. Luckily, Mama had a tootsie roll in her purse to share.

Finished product! Isn't he so handsome!!!!

New jammies!

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Beeby Loot!

Beeby Loot! aka "Baby Luke," according to Mary. We are so blessed with such a wonderful, darling, good-natured little boy and couldn't be happier. I'm not even being sarcastic...he's a great addition to our family. These pics are from two weeks ago. The other little baby in the pictures is the little lady that he's betrothed to....baby Ameila Anne Linde, the daughter of our dear friends, Dan and Jessi. He is ten days and a few pounds her senior. These pics are from their first "date." :)

HI World!

Luke's hair gets all cute and curly after a bath. He hasn't lost any of his mop. It's blonde and long and curly...and it's staying that way! Yay!

Hey baby!

I have curly hair after my bath!!!

Luke's Photo Shoot.

I am hereby taking the right to brag. He's such a beautiful baby! The c-section and pregnancy were worth it. Now if I could just wear jeans again.... :)

Naptime

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Here he is...

Luke Michael Roger Sprengeler
Born 11:15 pm March 26th
11 lbs, 5.6 oz, 22.3"



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Baby Ed, at 30 weeks

Modern technology never ceases to amaze me.

Yesterday, I remember being annoyed because my iphone's internet connection wasn't fast enough for me download a pizza place menu so I could to call in a take-out order from the interstate. I stopped and thought of how silly it was for me to be annoyed. I have this little box-shaped phone thing in my hand that can surf the world wide web from almost anywhere. I can get up to date news from around the world, and I can upload (or would that be "download?") pdf files of pizza restaurants from miles away, order a pizza, and pay for it...all from my phone. It seems rather peculiar that I can walk into a place I've never been and see folks whom I've never talked to...and have them know exactly what kind of pizza I want and to have made it ahead of time. whoa. Sci fi movie? Not anymore.

This morning, I wasn't exactly sure how to find the babysitter's house to bring Mary to, so I typed the address into the thing and within two seconds, it showed me exactly where I was, and where I needed to turn to get where I was going. Again, no futility here. Had it been a few years ago, I would have done the Sarah thing...drive around until I finally discovered Crescent View Avenue. Because of technology, Julia got to preschool and Mary to the babysitter, and thus I made it to my appointment...on TIME!


This morning, I went in for an ultrasound at the OB's office. They were able to get an amazingly clear picture of our baby's face using SOUND WAVES. It was incredible. They can put an ultrasound probe on my belly and bounce some inaudible sound waves off of the baby through my anterior abdominal wall and then a computer takes the data and....zap! A picture of "Ed." More amazingly, the tech was able to copy the images to a disk within seconds so I could put it on my home computer and post them to the internet. In less than two hours, we have digital images of Baby's face plastered all over the blog.

And now, may I present the latest "pics" of baby number three, gender still TBA. He or she was swimming happily and posed for a few pictures.

PS: Baby is rather large (measured at 33 week size on 30+5 weeks...) so there will be another ultrasound around 38 weeks. More pics to come! And boy am I glad I'm seeing OB...they aren't afraid to induce you at 39 weeks if they think the baby is big. Halleluiah!!!!!!!!!