Luke is 11 months old!

On February 8th, Luke turned 11 months old! Now that Luke is 11 months old, he is really enjoying moving around a lot. He cruises around a lot, but is still not walking. He stands up and balances for a little while before he topples over, but he does not seem anywhere near taking an unassisted step yet. He pushes his walking toys around, but won't let go. His crawling is super fast now, so he doesn't really see a need to learn to walk!

He still has only 6 teeth (four on top, two on the bottom), but still keeps his fingers in his mouth all the time. We keep expecting a new tooth all the time, but nothing has popped up yet. He had his first ear infection during his 11th month. He was so pathetic. I stayed home with him from school, and he slept on me for 7 hours that day. Then he slept for the entire night. He just finished his 10 days of medicine, and seems to be feeling much better!

Luke loves to play with all his toys now. He stands up to play with his toys, and today I even caught him climbing on top of his riding train toy to try to stand up on top of it! He loves to throw every.single.toy out of his play area. He is a true boy in that way - he likes to destroy anything that someone (usually Katie) builds, and he loves to pick up things and throw them. We think he really enjoys the crashing sound.

Luke's favorite place to play is the bath tub. He crawls around and throws everything into and out of the tub. For a couple days, all he wanted to do in the tub was spin around in circles and he loves to splash all of the water out of the tub. He also thinks it's funny to throw himself backwards and land flat on his back in the water. He doesn't seem to be nearly as bothered by hitting his head on the hard floor of the tub as I am!

We finally bought Luke some real tennis shoes and some other dressy shoes. He seems to be doing better about keeping them on his feet, just a tiny bit maybe.

Luke really loves real people food now. If we are all eating, he will not be happy with just a jar of baby food or baby puffs. He wants exactly what we are all having. He loves bananas, chicken, grapes, green beans, spaghetti, and more. But if he could have it his way, he would never eat anything but cheese all the time for every meal.

Luke does not really have many words at this point. He says Mama, ball, baba (for any type of milk or food), Dada, and he says the same word for Katie's name all the time, but it's hard to decipher ... it's something like deh-deh. He really makes a lot of noise but doesn't really say much of anything!

11 months have flown by!

Time to start planning a first birthday party!!!

Luke's 10 Month Post

Luke celebrated 10 months on January 8th. His 10th month was filled with fun activities and special times with family. During his 10th month, we celebrated his first Christmas. He started to crawl consistently (on his hands and knees, rather than his usual army crawl). He learned to clap his hands. He pulled up to standing for the first time and has started to cruise around a little bit holding onto furniture and toys. He ate lots of new finger foods during the month. His favorite foods during his 1oth month were cheese and tiny bits of chicken. He said Da-da early in December for the first time, and during his 10th month he began saying it more consistently.

Luke was scheduled to have surgery during his 10th month. His surgery was scheduled for January 3rd. However, just a couple weeks before his scheduled surgery, his clogged tear duct cleared up on its own. That was definitely an answered prayer for us!

At 10 months old, Luke has 6 teeth...4 on top, and 2 on the bottom. He keeps his fingers in his mouth all the time. He still wakes up every 4-5 hours during the night. He still wears 9-12 month clothes (sometimes 12-18 months), and he has actually started wearing shoes on a more consistent basis (although, he still keeps his foot balled up like a fist and we can only fit the squishy shoes on his big ole feet!

I can't believe how close Luke is to being a big one year old!

December 2011

December was a very busy and eventful month. On December 1st, Luke said, "Da-da" for the first time. He said it several times, but hasn't really said it consistently since then.

In the middle of our eventful month of December, we had a VERY eventful week. It was the week of December 12th. It was Daddy's first week at his new job. He flew out for training in Baltimore, and that's when it all started. While he was out of town, I noticed that Luke had a new tooth. (He now has 3 on top and 2 on the bottom.) On Tuesday, I brought home some easy reader books, and Katie read 10 of them before quitting. All of a sudden, it seemed she had turned into a reader!

On that same day, I noticed that Luke's clogged tear duct was looking pretty clear. (We had scheduled him to have the surgery to clear it up on January 3rd.) I kept waiting for it to goop back up, but it didn't. It seemed his eye had healed on its own! So, no surgery for us!!

Also, during that week, Luke sat up from lying down on his own for the first time. He also pulled up to standing from sitting down. AND, he learned to wave. AND, he crawled for about three "steps" without his belly touching the ground for the first time.

So, to summarize: During the week of 12/12/11, Katie learned to read, Luke got a new tooth, he sat up by himself, pulled up to standing, learned to wave, crawled up on his hands and knees, Daddy started a new job, and Luke's eye was miraculously healed! What a wonderful week!

Ok, on to the rest of December. On 12/20 Luke clapped his hands for the first time. By 12/28 he was crawling consistently up on his hands and knees. There were so many firsts and milestones for Luke (and Katie) during December!

We celebrated Luke's first Christmas during this month, and spent lots of time with family.
Here are some pictures from December:

Here is Zammo, our Elf on the Shelf.
Katie REALLY enjoyed finding him in his new hiding spot every day during the month of December.

Luke enjoyed lots of new finger foods.

This was one of the funniest moments from the entire month. Katie was trying to rock Luke and sing him a lullaby. He was obviously trying to escape. She kept saying, "Come here, Luke! I'm trying to sing to you and rock you!"




Cute Christmas pictures:

Christmas with Mommy's side of the family in Locust Grove:

The cousin scavenger hunt

The cousins

Luke found the perfect place for a nap!

Luke enjoyed his new tricycle at Honey and Pop's house.
Where are the rest of the pictures I took at Honey and Pop's house?!?

Fun in the bathtub

After Christmas, we went to the Pink Pig.

Luke's first time riding in the shopping cart at the grocery store. He loved driving the spaceship cart with his sister.

At Grandma's house, Katie and Luke enjoyed their new toys from Grandma. They enjoyed playing together.

What a wonderful month!
It's months like this one that remind us how blessed we are!

Christmas Morning

While we were sleeping, Santa visited our house!

Katie and Luke stopped to pose for a picture before going downstairs.

So excited to see what Santa brought.

Reading a new book from Santa.

Luke loves his new toys. (Look at those cute teeth!!)

Sweet siblings playing together.

This is Luke's first time ever opening a present.

Trying on his new hat.

Katie's job this year was reading the tags and giving the presents to the right person.
Here, she is telling Luke that this present is for him.

Helping Daddy open his present.

Luke's funny Christmas faces:

We really enjoyed Luke's first Christmas!

Luke is 9 months old!

Luke celebrated 9 months on December 8th.

He has been so busy in the past month. He has been moving all over the place (still not "crawling," but rather inching (think inchworm) wherever he wants to go). He started moving around like that in his 8th month, but he got even faster this month.

We've been very impressed with Luke's coordination. He seems to have very good eye-hand coordination and can pick up and stack those little rings on the post (I don't know what that toy is called).

Luke increased his tooth-count to 4 during his 9th month. He had his two bottom teeth already, but his top two teeth started growing in during this month.

He also said, "Da-da" for the first time. He doesn't say it consistently, still (like he says, "Mama") but Aaron was starting to think Luke would NEVER say "Da-da."

Luke is still wearing 12-18 month clothes. He still likes sweet foods. He has tried more finger foods, and he doesn't choke every time he tries to put something like a "puff" in his mouth. He LOVES yogurt the best, and enjoys eating puffs and shredded cheese. He has also tried little bites of table food like baked beans, green beans, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, etc. He really seems to like the "real" food, and I think he's looking forward to eating more and more of it. We have just been a little nervous to give him much, because he wants to eat it so fast and has choked on the puffs in the past!

We went to the doctor for Luke's 9 month well visit on December 8th. He weighed 22 pounds, 7 ounces (which puts him in the 89th percentile for weight). He was 28.25 inches tall (47th percentile for height), and his head circumference was 18 inches (73rd percentile). So, he's short, but heavy (which we already knew from trying to carry him around all the time)!

November 2011

It's late (again), but here it is: our update from November.
Some exciting things happened in November. Luke's two top teeth showed up. We noticed them for the first time on November 4th. One was poking through the gums, and we could see the bubble where the other one was getting ready to break through. Because of these teeny little teeth, we had lots of fussy nights and sleepless nights. But, you would never know that he was in any pain or discomfort from teething during the day. He stayed happy and content, just like always whenever he was awake during the day.

We went to Disney World over our Thanksgiving Break. We went last year during Fall Break, but Katie didn't remember any of it. This time she is a year older, and was much more excited about it and we all had a super wonderful time.

We celebrated Thanksgiving during the month of November (duh!).
On Thanksgiving morning, Aunt Kat and I (Kim) ran in the Gobble Jog. Katie ran in the Tot Trot. Katie has run in 3 races now, and she really enjoys it. She keeps asking when our next race will be. I look forward to when she's older and can run the 5K with me.


Also, in November, Katie learned to finally include "13" when she counts to 20. Grammy and Mommy both worked tirelessly with Katie to try to get her to remember "13," but she just left it out EVERY SINGLE TIME. Now, she can count to 30 (even higher with just a little help)!

Some pictures from November:

Disney 2011

We had a GREAT time at Disney World over our Thanksgiving Holiday.

We decided to fly down to Orlando this time. Here we are ready for take off!

Luke slept for most of the flight.

In the car, ready to go to the hotel!

It was beautiful in Orlando!
We went swimming as soon as we arrived at the hotel.
Perfect weather!!

The view from our room.

Katie's favorite ... Mary Poppins!
(We tracked her down and waited for her, so that Katie could meet her.)
Katie and Mary Poppins sang Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (sp?) together.

Luke loved his balloon!

Dumbo ride

Carousel

Splash Mountain
Katie was tall enough to ride this time! (40.5 inches!)

We just saw a girl pull it out right before this.
Katie just knew she could do it, too!

We stayed late for the parade and fireworks.

Day Two:

Mommy and Katie rode the tea cups.

We waited in lines to get more autographs.

We rode on the People Mover ... so relaxing after a long day!

Two long days at Disney World = very tired children (and parents)!