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

Top Baby Loves

My favorite baby things from Luke's first year
1 - Our days at home together - being able to spend the year at home with Luke ... and feeling so incredibly fulfilled (thank you, Michael!). I feel so lucky and grateful to have had this opportunity

2 - Sweet smell of clean baby after bath time ... and just bath time in general as it has always been one of Luke's favorite parts of the day

3 - Soft, bald baby head - when else can you look so good with a bald head?

4 - Uncontrollable laughing from Luke ... sometimes it even sounded like he was crying because he would laugh so hard. It is contagious.

5 - Loud squeals! Those few months when Luke would squeal at the top of his lungs regardless of where we were (airplane anyone?)

6 - Getting so incredibly excited over the smallest (yet monumental) things like a tooth coming in, rolling over, or crawling ... it truly makes you realize the importance and joy in the "little things"

7 - The sheer excitement on Luke's face (and the waving of his arms) when Daddy walks through the door at the end of the day

8 - The obsession with the cat - he just can't get enough of his furry friend. Some of Luke's first words have been "kitty," "cat," and "hi-kitty" ... and the clucking sound we use to call the cat

9 - Soaking it all in - Luke has such an amazing ability to watch what we do and then attempt to do it himself.

10- Dancing and the rolling motion that he does with his hand (and has done since he was VERY young) whenever he hears music ... TOO cute!

11 - Snuggles - we did a lot of snuggling when he was tiny and now it seem more and more difficult to get in because he just doesn't want to sit still. But, occasionally he just wants to lay with Mommy and Daddy and I LOVE it. I also love how he snuggles his face into "blankie" after he wakes up.

12 - The love of yogurt and cheese (he's his mommy's boy!) ... cracks me up!

13 - Smiles, which Luke has been generous with since he was just a few weeks old - they light up a room

14 - Baby babble - it fills the house with such a sweet sound

10 days and counting...

Pictures from Luke's 3rd month:

Favorite pictures from month 2

Here they are:



Only 11 days to go!

The countdown to ONE

I can't believe that my little man will be ONE YEAR OLD in 12 days! At my baby shower I received a frame that holds a picture from each month of his first year. I just started working on pulling some of my favorite photos together for the frame and converting them to black and white - I figured it would look best that way with so many pictures in one frame. I thought, since there are 12 days until his birthday and I have 12 months (almost) of favorite pictures, that I would post my favorites here as a countdown to his birthday.

Here are my favorites from month #1




I'm obviously going to need to do some narrowing down to select the one that will go into the frame, so leave a comment to the post telling me which one is your favorite - maybe that will help me choose just one for each month!

Just a boy and his dog

It melts my heart ... there's nothing sweeter



A woman by the name of Erma Bombeck once said,
Every puppy should have a boy.

I think that quote fits this picture perfectly ...

1st birthday montage

Okay, so I've been spending TONS of time pulling pictures and video together to create a montage for Luke's 1st birthday. I'm hoping that it will be something that we will always cherish. The plan is to finish it after his birthday party, so that I can end the whole thing with pictures from that ... but, I can't help myself and I'm going to post a "rough draft" of it here so that you can all have a sneak peek. It's SUPER long ... which is why no one other than parents and grandparents will ever probably want to watch the whole thing, but I simply couldn't bring myself to cut much out. After all, the first year IS really important (right?!) :)

Once it is complete, I'll post the final version (and, grandparents, don't worry ... you'll be getting DVD copies!)

Just click on the icon below to view


Luke's 1st Year

"Helping" Daddy

Today Daddy is busy working on phase 2 (I think that's the phase we're in) of fixing up the yard a bit before Luke's big birthday party. Today's project includes moving rocks and laying down some mulch. Here's Luke helping Daddy out.