First (Real) Haircut

Luke has been in need of a cut for a while, but well, life has been busy so it just didn't happen. But the day finally came where I was sick of washing sweet potatoes out of his long locks, so it was time for a trim. He did fairly well, with some whines and wiggles mixed in, just to let me know he didn't really appreciate sitting in that chair...but did enjoy the lollipop and book for distraction.Mission accomplished.

Eigsti Farm Fun

The other Sunday, Chad's parents declared they needed their "Luke fix" of the week so we headed out to enjoy a beautiful afternoon on the Eigsti farm. Luke of course was thrilled because that meant plenty of time to play outside.

Mr. Cool just chillin' on the porch

a boy and his sticks
Mimi giving a ride in Luke's new found love, the wagon.

so. happy. Sticks-check, wagon-check, outside-check, grandparents-check check. Life is good.

Papa giving Luke the extended tour. I think our next investment might need to be a wagon.

One Year Pics

So we've had these for a while, but I'm just getting around to posting them...these are Luke's 1-year pictures. They gave us a CD of all the pics they took, which is awesome. We didn't buy this first one, and now I think it's so cute. There is so much pressure to pick and eliminate on the spot! It's stressful, people!

Luke's Life

We've been playing outside a lot lately. Luke is obsessed with being outside. Thankfully we've had a lot of nice days! His current toy of choice is his baseball. Such a boy.
In other not so fun news...it seems that Luke may have a milk allergy. Pictured below shows how his face breaks out if he drinks whole milk or has milk product. It doesn't seem to bother him otherwise. But, our doctor recommends that we eliminate all dairy from his diet and we will do allergy testing at his 15 month well visit. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. I have found it seems everything I make has some sort of dairy in it. How do I cook? I often end up having to make him something different than we are eating, which is super unhandy. Check your labels...it seems like everything has milk in it! Anyone out there ever been through this? Any advice?
Just for fun...looks like we have a natural on our hands. He doesn't know it yet, but there are piano lessons in his future...

Things That Make Me Happy

Today we went back to the doctor and got a clean bill of health for Luke! Ears - clear. Lungs - clear. On target developmentally. Blessed? Yes. Thank you Lord for healing our babe! That was definitely a happy of the day. Other things that make me happy:

1) This face: I could be having the worst day, but one smile or giggle from this person and nothing else matters.

2) Completely unrelated to all things Luke, but this is no garbage bin. It is a recycle bin that we can put all things recyclable. Then they pick it up on trash day and it goes into a machine that magically sorts plastic, glass, metal, paper, etc, so I don't have to! This makes me happy. Don't judge. So I'm a nerd, ok? We didn't have this kind of luxury in our apartment. Plus, what can I say...it's good to be green.

The Good, The Bad, and The Beautiful

About 3 weeks ago, Luke got a cold. A really bad cold...the day before we were to fly to Florida for a pastor's conference. About half way through the week after being up all night with a fussy baby, I suspected Luke had an ear infection and off to a walk in clinic we went. Sure enough, he did. So we started antibiotics. Fast forward a couple of weeks. Finished the antibiotics and Luke still just didn't seem right and so on Friday back to the dr we went. Sure enough, double ear infection this time. But that was the least of his problems. We weren't with the nurse for more than 30 seconds when she noticed a little bit of "grunting" in his breathing. They did an oxygen saturation test, and it was just ok. His breathing and lungs were raspy. That's when the doctor said that he "is flirting with going to the hospital". Chills went up my spine. They hooked him up and we did a breathing treatment. Retested his oxygen and it was too low. Waited a little bit and retested again and it was just high enough to keep us out of the hospital. Thank goodness. So, Luke is now on breathing treatments every 4-6 hours until he can get over this gunk, a steroid to try to clear his lungs, a stronger antibiotic for his ears, and ear drops to numb ear pain. Poor kid. We watch the DVD God Made Babies during every breathing treatment. It is our friend (a treatment without this distraction is torture for all parties involved). He loves this video and it is a total treat for him to watch it, which is the only thing that gets us through treatments . I haven't let him watch much before this except in extreme cases (i.e., when mommy and daddy had food poisoning). Now he's like Pavlov's dog, and sees the video come on and sits down and gets ready for his treatment.
Bad = we have a sick babe. Good = we're not in the hospital and he's still happy as normal for the most part.

our little sicky

Beautiful = Daddy brought home flowers for Mommy and Luke after a rough day.

While in Florida, we stopped at the beach for a few minutes even though it was pretty chilly.

Beautiful = SPRING is around the corner! Luke and I went out to explore our backyard the other afternoon since it was beautiful and 60-something outside. And we discovered green! This will be our first spring/summer to enjoy our yard, and I'm excited to see what flowers and plants emerge! Any guesses what flowers these will be??

Birthday Boy

They say that once you have children time really flies, but this is just ridiculous. I really and truly feel like we could have just brought Luke home from the hospital yesterday. I'm not sure what has happened to this last year, but somehow our baby boy is now 1. I'm sort of sad that he is leaving the "baby" stage, but am also looking forward to the "big boy" stage. [Sidebar: He somehow intuitively knows he is now a "big boy" and as of yesterday completely refuses to be fed anything by anyone and insists on feeding himself even though he hasn't mastered handling the spoon yet. Sigh, here we go...] He has, in his 365 days of life thus far, lived up to the title "bundle of joy", though. He brings so much joy to us and we can't imagine life without him. He is such a sweet boy and everyone who knows him is crazy about him, naturally. We love you, Luke. Happy birthday, sweet son.

about 4 days old

One of my favorite pics of my boys. Luke is about a week old.

2 months old

3 months old...and you'll have to refer to previous posts for the other months...our computer with all our pics has crashed this month, so these are all the pics I currently have access to.

The birthday boy! Can't believe he let me put the hat on.

This is as creative as I get, folks. Luke got a construction birthday cake[s].

Yummy!

He Walks!

Just 2 weeks shy of his first birthday, Luke has taken his first steps! Earlier today he did about 2 steps, later in the day about 4, and by this evening got brave and did about 8. Fast learner I guess! Sorry for the not so great footage, but seriously, I'm a mommy watching her baby take first steps...what do you expect?!? I'm so grateful though, because ever since I started back to work (though it's only part-time) I have feared missing Luke's firsts. But God has been gracious to me and has so far allowed his firsts (crawling, walking, etc.) to be on the days I am home. (Unless of course, it has happened at his babysitter's and they have not told me...but I won't think about that. :)

Visiting Grandpa

Today Luke and I went to visit my Grandpa at the nursing home. In the Alzheimer’s unit where he is staying, they have lots of activities planned to keep their minds stimulated. When we got there, another resident of the nursing home had volunteered his time to sing for this group. When he was finished, we were playing with Grandpa, and all of the residents were so intrigued with watching Luke, that they canceled the next activity so everyone could just enjoy Luke! He put on quite the show for everyone…crawling around in the middle of them, laughing, jabbering, playing peek-a-boo, reading books. As we left home this morning, I happened to grab the camera and I’m so glad I did! Grandpa was having a great day and LOVED Luke! I saw lots of Grandpa’s familiar smiles and wish he could be this alert more often.

And really, who could resist this face??? He may be the sweetest kid ever.

It's the Little Things

This first picture is horrible quality, but this was Luke's first romp in the snow. It took him a while to get into it, but eventually he started digging in it with his little mitten hands.

In other everyday news, Luke is in love with laundry. Every time I bring out a clean load he is right there to "help" me fold it. He would probably play with a load of laundry all day if I would let him.