Two Thousand Nine

Happy New Year, Everybody!

Luke playing in his pot and bowl cupboard in the kitchen.
It's loud, but at least it keeps him occupied for a bit.
Luke going to the pub with dad to meet some friends.
A couple days ago I left Luke alone in the living room for a minute and when I came back he was standing and looking out the window like he is here. It was so darn cute, but made me feel nostalgic already because he is growing so fast. (There's the Wrigley Field hockey match Chicago vs. Detroit on the TV.)
Luke pondering what 2009 has in store for him.
How Luke got there.

First Christmas

Luke had a great first Christmas! Thanks to all of Luke's grandparents and aunts and uncles for their generosity and making Luke a very lucky boy.

Luke's first look at the tree on Christmas morning. He still had no idea what he was in for.

Going through his stocking.

Displaying the loot from his stocking. Notice the frog. He'll play a major role in the video at the end of this blog entry.
Puzzles from Aunt Tara.
A phone from Grandma and Grandpa Presley.

An electronic pony from Grandma and Grandpa Siorek.

Uncle Matt made Luke a beautiful truck!

Luke's two-tooth smile.
Luke and Uncle Matt
Luke just a couple of seconds before he grabbed Langston's Santa hat.
Even Luke can't resist pinching Langston's cheeks.

And finally, here is a two-minute video I made from the various video clips of Luke's first Christmas.

Time to Get Serious

It's Christmas Eve Eve.
Have you done all your Christmas shopping?

Luke is taking stock and making room for new toys.

Hey everybody! Let's crawl!
Peek-a-boo

The little professor wearing Mama's glasses.

Nine Months

Today Luke had his 9-month check-up. He weighs 24lbs 5oz (11.1kg) and is 31" (78.74cm) long! He continues to be in the 95th percentile for both weight and height.

Here's the big boy showing us what boys do.

Portland Blizzard

Portland got about 5 inches of snow this weekend coupled with an arctic windchill. On Sunday we bundled Luke up and took him outside for his first breath of snow.

Here's the little joey hanging out in Mama's Ergo carrier.

Yeah, this whole being outside thing lasted for about 10 minutes. It was cold!

We put up the Christmas tree last Sunday. Luke is used to it now, but at first he was very confused. Why would we bring a tree in the house and put lights on it?

Luke will stick his tongue out once in awhile on his left side.

Luke can pull himself up to stand pretty easily now.

Poor Roosevelt gets grabbed, pinched, and pulled a lot now. He's pretty good about it.

Luke got a second bottom tooth in. You can kind of see them in this picture.

Apples!
Daddy's boy

The Latest in Crawling

Here are videos of Luke's latest crawling style.

From the back.


And the front.

Friends and Family

Here are some more pictures from St. Louis.

Luke with Uncle Mark.

Luke with Uncle Andy.

Luke with his cousins, John, Annie, and Leo.

Luke meeting some of Papa's friends.

Luke in the sink.

And from today, Luke eating an apple.

Fun in STL

Here are some photos from Luke's first visit to St. Louis!

Today we went to The Magic House. Luke had a ton of fun in the water room.

Playing with water makes him very happy.
We had to make a visit to the gift shop shortly after these pictures were taken to buy some dry clothes.

In the mirror room, Luke couldn't stop staring at himselves. At first he kept trying to grab the red ball in the mirror.

Wow, here's what it would have been like if Luke had been quadruplets.

Here he is putting his mouth on the mirror. This freaked him out a little bit so we went on to something else.

In the ball room.

Luke practiced a lot of skills while he was in St. Louis. He got pretty good at playing catch!

And playing the piano.

He liked playing in this bouncy thing . . .

. . . and going outside . . .
. . . and taking naps with Grandma and Miss Kitty.

On Thankgiving, Luke joined his cousins in a group photo with his Great Grandfather Siorek.

Good-bye St. Louis. We'll miss you.