Luke is growing up, fast!

There is going to be a lot of Luke posts in the next two weeks.  Between celebrating his birthday and then our meeting him a week later...lots of things to remember and reflect on. 

The big ONE seems to be coming at an alarmingly fast speed now.  The past week has seen the end of a lot of baby moments the beginning of some big boy ones.  It might be my urge to constantly simplify but I get a little excited about packing up clothes he's outgrown and things he no longer uses.  Then I look back at pictures and want to cry.  My baby isn't much of a baby!!

Things that have happened in the past week or so:

1) Opened what we plan to be his last can of formula.  We've been mixing most of his bottles whole milk and formula and he's been taking them fine.  This can is lasting a while since he's only getting 2-4 ounces of formula a feeding.  Once he's done I plan to switch him over to just sippy cups and pack up the bottles.  One and all milk seem like a good cutoff for that.  He drinks water in a sippy cup at most meals and is doing fine with it.

2)  On Monday evening Matt installed Luke's big boy car seat.  We did a test on Sunday night to get the fit right and see how Luke liked it:

He looks like such a big kid but still so little in it!!  I know we could have switched him out months ago but...we didn't.  Our rough weigh-in for him showed he needs to gain 2 more pounds to sit forward which is exciting.  Will be a lot easier to see him that way!

Installing that meant that his carrier car seat is finally packed away.  Left is the day we brought him home from the hospital.  Right is last night.  He's grown so much!!  (When he's finally ready for a booster seat in many years I'll probably post of a similar comparison of him using the picture above, crazy to think about that!)

 We've both lugged that carrier so many places.  Weird to realize that stage is over!

3)  We have taken down and packed away Luke's jumper.  =(  He got so much use out of that about July - December.  He spent countless hours in that thing.  He loved jumping, spinning, swinging, and playing with his toys. 

He was just about 3 months when we first tried it out (with blankets packed in to keep him up) and almost 1 year when I packed it away.  He jumped often while I worked on things in the kitchen and when I vacuumed.  We were amazed when he figured out how to spin in it, following us around a room.  When we were on vacation in August one of the home things I missed most was having his jumper because he was so happy in it.  I was excited to have a clear doorway for the first time since he came home (before we set up the jumper we pretty much always had the bouncer or napper stationed here):

But now looking at these pictures I miss watching him jump in it!!  With parenting there is a lot of trying to embrace the current stage and enjoy the present.  So hard to look back and see how fast Luke's grown up though!

(And if I worry that he's growing too fast...I remind myself that days away from 12 months he's still in most of his 6-9 month clothes, even some 3-6...he's still my little guy.)