Tucker's First Christmas

It was a good first Christmas for Tucker that he'll never remember and we'll never forget. Spent Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa  and Uncle Rob. Tucker of course slept through the gift portion. That will be the LAST time for that I'm sure! He got most of his presents from us on the Saturday after Christmas. Come to think of it he ate and slept through our presents Christmas morning too, which we didn't open until about 11:00. I'm sure that will be the LAST time for that too!

Music Man

Tucker likes music. He likes it when we sing to him. Especially the Lone Ranger theme song while he "dances" to the beat on the changing table. He likes rockabilly too. When I play my guitar, he just watches intently. It's pretty cool.

Sniffles Too

Tucker still has his cold. But we think Libby has it worse than he does. He has the sniffles and he coughed once, but otherwise he's fine. Libby however is tired and has the sniffles. So far so good for me.

Baby's First Doughnut

We went to the Chicago Botanic Gardens to see the Winterland Express. It's a room in the green house with trains, and Chicago landmarks built from all natural materials. It's pretty neat. We walked through the tropical greenhouses too for some winter blues relief. While we were there it started snowing outside. By the time we were ready to leave there was quite a bit. And Tucker got to do his first doughnuts!

Sniffles

I suppose it was inevitable. But with all the social time this weekend, Tucker caught his first cold. He's so pitiful when he starts wheezing with the stuffy nose! :(  He doesn't care for the suction thing too much, but as soon as we're done, he's fine. He's still smilie, so he's not letting it interfere in his busy schedule. :)

Back Home for Christmas

We went to the extended my side of the family Christmas. It was the first time we've been in several years because of conflicting schedules, but this year we finally were able to go. It was great to see everyone, and to show off little Tucker. Looking forward to next year.

Well... hello

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Tucker got to meet his Great Grandma this weekend. She was pretty excited to meet him. It's pretty wild to think they are 98 years and 16 days apart. It made me proud to see how happy she was. We love you Grandma!

Four Generations...

Goodbye Grandpa

Not sure what happend with the log in, but it was my Grandpa that passed away.

Goodbye Grandpa

My Grandpa passed away on Saturday. He was 88. I didn't really get to see him very often because he lived in Chicago when I was growing up and moved to Florida but I know he loved me. He and Grandma Joanne (his second wife) submitted one of my drawings to a kids magazine when I was 6, which I guess you could say started my path in life to this point. He was pretty excited about Tucker and had his picture by his bedside. Mom said he would be sure to show it to all the nurses. Now I'm sure he's watching down on all of us.

This is Aunt Rosie, Uncle Bill, Grandpa, and Aunt Bettie in the 1920s.

U. S. Army during the war.

Grandpa and Granny in the '40s.

Night Owl

Last night, Grandma came over to babysit Tucker while we went to a surprise birthday party for Rebecca and Romeo. Libby really enjoyed being able to get out and drink a couple glasses of wine and it was great to see our friends.

One thing we have noticed is when Libby takes him out to the store during the day and of course he can't resist the power of the stroller and the truck... and he crashes. A relaxing trip to Sleepytown. And then that night, he doesn't want to go to sleep. He'll usually be up until 1:00 instead of his usual 11:00. Which is of course harder for us! 

Paid in Full

We got our economic stimulus check from the IRS, so now we can pay the boy off! Yay!

Holiday Season!

Tucker's first Thanksgiving went very well! He had a wild night with us the night before playing Poker with the Blacktop Barons. And of course he got to meet future girlfriend Theresa. Thanksgiving day was busy as well with a stop to Bernie and Camille's house before heading on to Libby's parent's house. He went for 5 1/2 hours that night too! Yay! Somewhat of a rarity, but we'll take it! Here he is yesterday giving his Biggie-sized high chair a spin so Mommy can actually use both hands to eat!

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A thank you to everyone

I guess this is a good time for thank you's since tomorrow is Thanksgiving and all.

I also want to thank everyone for their support during the pregnancy and since Tucker's birth. People have been wonderful with the visits and the gifts. Plus many of our friends and my co-workers have had babies recently and gave us baby stuff like clothes and furniture etc. It means the world to us to have so many wonderful people to help us learn our way around this parenting adventure!

Hi!

Hi everyone, It's Libby and I am finally posting on this blog.

It has been great staying home and taking care of the boy ... the large boy. It amuses me that I have a kid that the doctor said was in the 70th% for weight and 90th% for height! What the heck? She said it was due to my good health and eating during pregnancy (I ate like  pig the whole time) and now Tucker's hearty appetite. The great thing is this helps him sleep longer at night.

Speaking of sleep -- Tucker slept for 5 and a half hours uninterrupted last night! He sleeps a lot but the fact that it was that long was very exciting for his mother that has to get up to feed him.

He has started to smile a little intentionally lately (as opposed to smiling in his sleep or having gas). But this morning and afternoon he started the huge open mouth smile! It was too awesome. He did it a few times again after he spit up all over my sleeve and his clean outfit. I guess that made him happy.

Busy Day

Tucker had a busy day yesterday. After spending the morning with me working on the shop website and listening to Gene Vincent and Bob Wills, he spent a not so quiet evening with us and Tanya and Mike and Rebecca and Romeo at the Texas Roadhouse. Great food and we had a fun time, but Tucker missed the whole thing. Slept all the way through our 70 minute wait, and our hour and a half long dinner. :)

Growing Boy

We went to the Dr. today. We placed bets on his weight. I said 9 lbs 15 oz. Libby said 9 lbs. 13 oz. Turns out he was 10 lbs 15 oz. Wow! Doc said he's doing great though.

Best. Birthday. Ever.

When you hit your 30s, it's supposed to be such a big deal. When I turned 30 it signifed the start of a new life... my true path in life. So I've had some pretty good birthdays in my 30s. 

Turning 30 was a surprise party with my family, the few old chicago friends I had, and a group of new chicago friends, whom the year before I didn't even know. And I got my first tattoo.

Turning 35 was pretty cool. We had just gotten back from our honeymoon in Hawaii.

Turning 37 was no big deal as we had just gotten back from our trip to Spain, my first trip to Europe.

But 38 rocks. We have a son. Best birthday present ever.

Start 'em young

Tucker got to play with his first '36 Ford yesterday. He wanted to show it off here...

What's in a name?

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Here are some pics of my Uncle Lewie. In the wheat field, taken in 1980. With the 1946 Minneapolis Moline cab tractor after he and all of us restored it, in 1984. And a pic taken sometime around 1952 with my Granddad, uncle Lewie and my Dad (the youngest).

And here are some pics of Preston Tucker, designer and builder of the 1948 Tucker.

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On sunday while Libby was on some much needed adult time, I gave Tucker his first bottle. I'm not the greatest bartender, so the first bottle wasn't enough. He was still hungry! So we got the formula out, the bottle warmer and did it all over again. So now we know we will be good for the Pileup Thank You Party this weekend and luckily Grammy and Grandpa, and Aunt Jaima will be babysitting! Yay!

We named him Tucker after one of the great Automotive designer/entrepaneur visionaries, and Lewis for my late Uncle Lewis. The two men who had the greatest impact on my life growing up were my Dad and Uncle Lewie. He was the mechanical guru and could fix anything. He kept the family farm running on '50s technology for decades. And he was a saint, taking care of my Aunt Marilyn who had a stroke and couldn't talk or do alot of things for herself. Honestly when I was a little kid, she scared the crap out of me. I didn't understand what was wrong with her. He took care of her until the very end without question or fail. He passed away in '85 and we all still miss him. I'll try to find some pics later.

Whew, we got some sleep! Well, Libby and Tucker are still sleeping, but they sleep when they can. Eat. Sleep. Poop. Repeat. :)

It's definitely been a baby boom around here. So all of our swing dancing friends have had boys in the last year and a half. All or our hot rodder/rockabilly friends have had girls. Which way would we go! A girl would have been great for sure, but I'm so glad I got to be the one to break the HR/RAB all girl cycle! And even better, only my cousin and myself were going to carry on the family name.

Welcome

What better time to start a blog than at midnight, when Tucker, our 3 week old baby boy is screaming his lungs out for no good reason! Rock on. We love him though!! So welcome to our blog. We'll keep you posted with updates and pics, so stay tuned...