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Luke got two new teeth yesterday, the front top ones! Yeah for a break in the teething!

Also we finally had his one year appointment with the Dr on the 11th. He is 29 1/2 inches long and weights 21 lbs 8.6 oz. His growth rate has definitely evened out, at least for the time being. I think he is a little on the smaller side for his age but still well within normal range.

As most of you know we are trying to follow Dr Sears' adjusted vaccine schedule to spread the vaccines out a bit. he has the MMR vaccine seperated and only gives one a year starting at age one. Unfortunately the company that makes those vaccines decided not to make them seperately any more so there are only a few left. In order to still give them seperately we decided to give them about a month apart (as commonly recomended for live vaccines). So far so good, no fever or anything!

party!

We had Luke's birthday party today! I was worried that it would be too cold to be outside so instead of going to the park like I had originally planned we met at church in one of the little kid Sunday school rooms so that the little kids would have plenty of toys to play with. Not everyone was able to make it but we had a pretty good turn out for the late notice and we had a lot of fun.

I made two cakes, both from a box and they both turned out fine.

Luke just loves kissing babies. This morning in the nursery he laid about five kisses on a 7 month old girl before she decided she had had enough. I think this is the first time he has ever had another baby kiss him back! I know it looks like they are Frenching and this is definitely going to be one picture he will regret later, but in person it was very sweet.

He enjoyed playing with balloons for the first time, I think in the pic below uncle Ben is trying to teach him how to make it squeak with his fingers. He popped one too at one point though I'm not sure how he did it. He looked a little scared but then he saw us all laughing so he decided it must be ok.

Here is the all important song and blowing out of the candles...

Luke ate his first cake, mostly just ate the frosting as you can see below.

....and tried his first pop!

He had already gotten most of his presents but he got a few at the party, a really cute jacket that he will probably wear next fall from Ben and Andrea, a coloring book and crayons from Mark and Amanda, and two Dr Seuss board books (Mr Brown Can Moo, Can You? and the ABC book) and a toy phone from Amy and Glen.

I had mentioned before that he is very verbal, and I can usually guess what he wants, but usually he just grunts. He does use signs, "lights" is his favorite, and he just learned bye-bye a week ago, and occasionally he uses "milk" for nursing. He also babbles a lot and says Ma Ma Ma, Ba, Da, and Ya Ya Ya, and has been saying those things for a long time now, but I'm not convinced that he means anything specific when he says them. This week though he has started saying "Hello", or his version of it, whenever he picks up the phone! For a short time you could hear him saying it on our answering machine. Some how when he was playing with the phone one day he managed to get just the right combination to make his own outgoing message. I think several people heard it and thought that Greg had just let Luke pick up the phone and that eventually he had hung up on them. I think I called the number three times before I realized that it was a recording and I wasn't really talking to my baby! It was really cute but Greg told me today he made a new one so if you missed it, too late, it's gone. )-: So, is "hello" his first word? I'm not sure....

goodbye

My great grandma died this morning. She was 97 years old and she had several perfectly clear days before she let go. Several perfect days of seeing her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and her one great-great-grandchild. She enjoyed every minute of it, you could see it on her face. What a gift! It still hasn't really sunk in to me yet that she is gone, I think I almost thought that she would always be here because she had come so close to going so many times before and always hung on. She was an amazing woman, I know I only got to see bits of her life but I know enough to know that. I know that she loved God and that she is probably enjoying herself immensely right now up in heaven. I am excited to see her there someday myself to know what she would be like with out her constant pain and her slow old body holding her back.

I love you, Grandma! I miss you, especially your kisses and your love, but I'll see you later!

1

My baby turned one today, March 3rd 2009 at 11:41 pm! Here is a pic from earlier today, poor baby has a cold and some seriously red cheeks!

He is changing so fast, but the changes are more subtle. He understands so much more each day, but I can't tell you always how I know he knows, I just can see it! Sunday he figured out how to wave bye-bye! He was so proud of himself he waved bye-bye the whole walk home! When I ask him to get mommy's shoes for me he goes and finds my shoes and brings them to me one at a time, and he can match them up correctly too! He now sits through the reading of ALL of his board books at a time, sometimes more than once! He loves to point at the kitties and say his version of Meow! (I don't know why he loves the kitties, I was sure he would like the doggies best but he only points at the kitties!)

He plays with cars at Grammy's house...

He likes to be naked...

He climbes onto or into anything he can, the sofa, the coffee table, the toy basket...

He loves to snuggle and give mommy kisses on the nose! He is supper sweet. I love him so much! Happy birthday baby!