Monday, February 6, 2012

6 Months of Grace . . .





Luke will turn 6 months old this Thursday!  Here are a few discoveries we have already made about this little fellow:


About Luke at 6 months:


-  Loves our dogs, though Casper is still adjusting to Luke, to put it nicely...


- Favorite song: ABC's.  When we try to soothe him by singing, no song compares to this one.  It works every time.  

-  Loves screens of any type:  laptop, iPhone, television (though we try to limit his exposure to them!).

-  Hates baths! (I'm hoping that the bath toys that his aunties gave him will soon help with this!)

-  Smiles at the drop of a hat, especially when our friends hold him. 

-  Daddy = laughter.  Almost every time that Paul walks in the house, Luke grins from ear to ear and immediately begins to laugh.  This is by far my favorite part of the day.

-  Loves for us to read to him, and he "talks" along whenever we read him Dr. Seuss books.  Those seem to be his favorite!  (Thanks, Mimi and Aunt Kathleen!)

- Loves sleep as much as his mommy does!  Since 7 weeks of age, he has slept from 10 p.m.- 8 a.m. (or later).  I'm hoping for his sake that he will take after his daddy and become a morning person.

-  100% boy.  Though he loves to snuggle with Mommy, not much makes him laugh more than when Paul flips him upside down on the bed, drags him around the perimeter of the bed by his legs, or tosses him up in the air.  His apparent fearlessness brings me great fear.

- Loves peanut butter fudge flavored ice cream from the Homemade Pie and Ice Cream Kitchen, peanut butter, Little Caesar's bread sticks, corn chowder, annnd... as of tonight, mashed potatoes (one guess as to which one of us fed these to our infant before he was 6 months old!  Some of those reading this are my witnesses!).

- Loves to sleep on his tummy (see puffy-eyed picture above!)

- Loves to spin around and dance in the kitchen with Mommy, especially when we spin really fast.... and when no one else is watching!

-  A talker, for sure!  These days, about half of the time that he is awake, he is making some sort of noise.  Instead of the "ba, ba, ba" sounds that I'm told he should be speaking at this point, Luke is preferring loud squeals and long - but happy - screams these days.   Paul and I joke that he will probably be one of those kids who walks into his parents' room hours after he is supposed to be in bed saying, "Mom? Dad? Just one more thing...."



Luke obviously has his quirks and personality traits.  While my sensitive and emotional tendencies range at the average level for most girls, the overflow of love in my heart leads me to cry at the most random, unexpected moments on a regular basis.  During the first few months of Luke's life, I assumed that those tearful emotions were due to postpartum hormonal changes, but given that he's almost 6 months old, I do not believe that is the case. Sometimes I wonder if it's so easy to love Luke because we have yet to see anything but sweetness from him.  This may seem insensitive, but we occasionally laugh when Luke cries, because even his cry is cute and endearing.  He has yet to disobey us; he has yet to strike us with venomous words; he has yet to make a decision that isn't in his best interest.  

But I'm convinced that we can only love someone this much because Jesus Christ is our source of love. I've seen enough of my own sinful capabilities to know better than to think that the source of such love can come from myself alone.  For example, I can think about how much I love my husband throughout the day, and the moment that he offends me when he walks in the door, I can disrespect him as if I've been brewing bitter thoughts about him all day long!  I'm reminded of the book of James, where the author rebukes Christians for praising God with the same tongue that we curse each other.  Just like I cannot sufficiently love and respect Paul without the power of God, I'm entirely incapable of loving Luke without God enabling me to do so.  So when my heart fills up with such love for our little boy, I praise God for so graciously and gladly filling this selfish heart with bountiful love.

And then I think about those little ones in orphanages throughout the world- specifically, those babies in an orphanage in Kinshasa, Congo.  In less than 2 minutes, I just typed 12 personality traits about our boy who makes him Luke.  Those babies across the world are little Lukes!  And at the same time, they aren't.  They have their own names; they have their own quirks; they have their own likes; they have their own dislikes; they have their own sides they prefer to sleep on; they have their own senses of humor; they have their own ways of being consoled.  But they don't have a mommy and daddy to delight over these traits, to challenge their development, and to celebrate their individual little selves made in the image of their Creator.  They don't have a mommy and daddy to sing to them before they nap, to anticipate the big day when those two arms and two legs coordinate enough to create mobility, to kiss their chubby cheeks all day long, or to pray over them before they fall asleep every night.

Luke Karlyle Tennant, I hope to turn these blog entries into a book one day.  And given the opportunity to read this, may you see how God has used your 6 months of life to grow my heart for you and your siblings more than I could have ever imagined.  Isn't God great?


No comments:

Post a Comment