A weekend getaway for Mommy!

This past weekend I went to Houston for my dear friend Stephanie's baby shower. It was so much fun to see "the girls" from college - we always have a good time. Four of us came in from out of town and we shared a hotel room, just like the good ol' days! Here are a few photos of our weekend together:


By the way, I have the best friends a girl could ever ask for - I love them!

Daddy and Luke stayed home together, and from what I can tell, had a great time. Lots of playing and watching sports (and probably a big Baby Einstein marathon too!)

The Video Montage

is finished ... and copies have been ordered!!!

If you would like to view it (sorry, it's almost an hour long!), you can click on the thumbnail below:

Luke's 1st Year

If you have already watched it, but want to see the updated version, just scroll the the last few minutes ... the rest of it remains almost the same as the original "rough" version that I posted a while back.

Luke's party

Saturday's party was an absolute success. Thank you to all of you who came and made it so special. We are SO VERY lucky to have such wonderful parents ... without whom we could never have pulled it all off. My parents brought so much food and wine and Michael's parents were here from NJ helping with all of the little details (yard work, setting up, balloon bouquets, running errands)...thank you, thank you!

I was really pleased with the cakes (and sad that I didn't get a photo of the one for my parents, who celebrated their 33rd anniversary on Saturday):

We were thrilled with how beautiful the yard looked (thanks to my FABULOUS husband!) and how great all the food turned out (thanks to everyone who contributed and Ernie who got off of a plane and went straight to work helping Michael)





Luke was shocked to wake from his nap to find 40 people in his yard, but he eventually warmed up and loved the cake and the present opening.




What a great party! We are so blessed with so many wonderful friends and family.

There are SO many more pictures, I've posted many of them in his monthly Kodak Gallery, which you can access here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=tyf7ieb.8p0zsea3&x=1&y=-kwmvse&localeid=en_US

Where do I begin?

Wow ... so much has happened since my last post, I don't even know where to begin to catch up. I suppose I'll start with Luke's actual birthday. We had a wonderful day

we took Brooklyn for a walk (one of Luke's favorite activities),

we went out to lunch with my mom,

we went to Los Gatos to pick up cupcakes and choose a balloon for Luke at the local florist shop (and Mom bought me a beautiful bouquet of dahlias),

we presented Luke with his gift from Michael and I - a toddler-sized outdoor play escape,

and we enjoyed a low-key dinner at home followed by cupcakes and a MUCH needed bath!

I think, all in all, it was a fabulous Luke-centered day! I was definitely more emotional about him turning one than I had anticipated, but it was certainly bitter-sweet ... my tiny baby is gone, but in his place I have an absolutely wonderful, hilarious, happy, sweet, fun-loving little boy. Who could ask for more?

Tomorrow he'll be one!

I can't wait to have a day that is all about Luke tomorrow. We're planning to do everything that he likes ... no running errands, no eating vegetables if he doesn't want them ... just a day full of stuff that makes Luke happy.

Here are my favorite pictures from the past month:

Only 2 more days ...

It just doesn't seem possible - time has gone so (too) fast!

Here are my favorite pictures from Luke's 11th month.

Three days until ONE

Because of leap year Luke's birthday this year is on a Wednesday, but he was actually born on a Monday ... which means that this weekend is (was) the Los Altos Art & Wine festival, where we spent the Sunday before Luke was born last year.

Oh, what a difference a year makes! Here is a picture of us last year on Sunday, July 15th after we got home from the festival:

Just for comparison, here's a picture from our photo session today, Sunday, July 13th, 2008:

By the way, the photo session went really well ... we have over 300 digital (unedited) images that Todd already gave us on CD, and about 100 more that are real film (many black and white) that we will have in a few weeks. I'm sure that you all will be seeing many of them!

Here are my favorite pictures from Luke's 10th month:

4 days

Here are a few of my favorites from Luke's 9th month:

Again, one of those months with so many cute pictures.

Happy weekend!

Only 5 more days ... and a cute story

It's almost the weekend - yay!

We are having our most fabulous photographer from our wedding, Todd Rafalovich, take family/one year old pictures of us and Luke this weekend. I'm anxious to see the results ... although, I have complete confidence in him - that guy could seriously make ANYone look good!

So, the cutest thing happened yesterday: Luke and I were outside in the evening playing on the grass with Brooklyn and blowing bubbles when all of a sudden Luke came over to me, climbed up on my lap, laid his head on my shoulder, put his arms around my neck, and stayed there for several minutes - my first real hug from my boy! I thought maybe I was over-analyzing the whole thing (now, that would be something new for me!), but later on the evening Grammy and Poppy came over to visit Luke and while saying goodnight to my mom he made a kissing noise (blowing kisses) and then reached towards her, put his arms around her neck, and held on tight. My little man knows how to hug ... and it is THE MOST AMAZING feeling!

On that note, here are my favorite photos from Luke's 8th month:

The countdown continues ... and a swim update

we're down to 6 days. I can't help remembering last year at this time and how HOT and uncomfortable I was! There was a lot of walking going on. I am getting really excited for Luke's birthday and party - I just wish that he understood what was going on and could share in my enthusiasm, although I know that there are plenty of years for that!

We had Luke's 4th week of swimming lessons yesterday, and he did SO well. He still cries when the instructor holds him in the water, but he's really great with me. The big news is that he is starting to hold his breath on his own just before he goes under water! He went under at least a dozen times yesterday, and every single time he very obviously held his breath. Yay!

Here are some of my favorite photos from Luke's 7th month:

One week to go!

All I can say is that at this time last year I was SO ready to not be pregnant and to meet Luke. I can't believe that a whole year has gone by!

Favorite photos from Luke's 6th month:

Favorite photos from Luke's 5th month ...

and the countdown continues - 8 days!





I am obviously going to need some help narrowing it down to just one picture from Luke's 5th month - too many cute ones!

9 days to go...

Month 4 favorites