Taking a stand

Luke has started pulling himself up to a standing position all on his own lately. He first did it on a step ladder I was using to change a battery in a wall clock. He was sitting near the ladder while I was on it, and after I finished up and walked off I turned back and he had pulled himself up to standing on it all by himself. I was so shocked. He does it all the time with us helping him, but this is the first time he'd done it alone. Later in the week he pulled himself up on his big bear chair- see the pic below. I guess we really need to get on that babyproofing thing...

Don't worry Mom, I'll save you from this big, scary bear!

In other news, Luke has yet to say "Mama" after mastering his first word, "Dada". He has completely skipped over me, alphabetically speaking, and instead says "yaya" and "zhaa zhaa". Come on, Luke- come play in the middle of the alphabet! That's where all the cool letters hang out.

Pool Party at Casa D'Andrea

Luke models the latest in French summer

fashion from Granny Svoboda

This weekend we hung out with our friends, the D'Andreas, to try and beat the heat at a super fun pool party. Their kiddo pool is the coolest pool you've ever seen. It's not even really a pool, so much as a wading wonderland, perfect for tot sized splishing and splashing. The pool is about 4 inches deep and has something cool at every turn. There is a ring toss with inflatable rings, a dolphin just waiting to be ridden, a palm tree with three silly monkeys climbing it, a slide, a rainbow cave area I termed "the grotto", and water fountains shooting out from all over the place. So sweet!

Good times swimming with the dolphins

Luke spent lots of time toiling away at trying to catch the water shooting out of the fountains. This is a really hard job- the water just keeps coming! In this picture Martin is dining al fresco, poolside, under the shade of an umbrella. Why go all the way to Disneyland when paradise is right here in the backyard!?

Pesky water! I just can't seem to catch it!

Once the party was in full swing things got a little crazy and Luke decided to ditch the swimsuit and diaper and go skinny dipping! What a wild guy.

Livin' the good life, au naturale

Memorial, and Wimberley, Days

We made the trip to Houston for Memorial Day weekend to spend with Luke's Nana and Grandpa, Aunt Kim and Uncle Scott. Luke had lots of fun, as usual, soaking up the attention and adoration of his devoted fans/family.

Tummy tickles!

Luke and Grandpa

While we were in town we visited some friends to meet their newborn son, and Luke's newest friend, Vincent Jumalon, barely two weeks old at the time. Although Luke currently outweighs and outmaneuvers the little guy, Vince by far has Luke beat in the luxuriant hair category.

We spent the following weekend enjoying a fun trip to Wimberley, TX. http://www.wimberley.org/ Wimberley is about a 45 minute drive away from Austin through gorgeous, scenic hill country. The drive alone is worth the trip. But we chose this day to go because every first Saturday of the month they host a Wimberley Market Day. There we found hundreds of vendor booths selling antiques, local homegrown goodies, and crafts, as well as live music, BBQ, and Louis' favorite- meat on a stick. Mmmm.

Entertaining his lunchtime audience

Luke had an absolute blast taking in all the sights and sounds and helped us negotiate the crowds by honking the horn on his stroller's steering wheel console anytime they slowed us up. He loves to honk that horn and does it all the time when we walk around our neighborhood. When we are in a more enclosed atmosphere we especially enjoy the horn honking when it grabs the attention of a slowpoke in our path. "Move- get out the way, get out the way- Move!" (Credit Ludacris lyrics)

We took a break for lunch where Luke chowed down on a mishmash of baby food and our BBQ sandwiches and hammed it up for the nice folks sitting around us. Since it was pretty warm that day, Louis ordered a refreshing lemon-lime shaved ice delight and gave Luke his first taste of lip puckering sweet-and-sour. Luke sipped it up and made the most hilarious face ever in the history of hilarious faces. His face scrunched up and his body shuddered as the sour flavor coated his taste buds. His eyes watered and he stuck his tongue out as he seemingly rejected this new tart taste, only to quickly recover and open his mouth again for another swallow. Another bite, painful yet hilarious face, repeat repeat repeat... so funny. The following pictures capture many of the faces he made, and makes you wonder why he kept coming back for more.

Perhaps Master Luke's young mind is pondering themes from the writings of Socrates regarding the interweaving of pleasure and pain. Hmm, ah yes... that must be it... Such educational lessons are why we set out on our journey that day... or was it the meat on a stick?

One tuckered out little guy on the drive home

Second 9 months

Happy 9 month birthday, Luke!

Luke had a 9 month checkup at the doctor this week and weighed in at a double whopper with cheese size of 21 lbs 11 oz, and measured 29 inches tall, both in the 75th percentiles on the growth charts. What a big boy! Looks like the two-a-day workouts and weight gain drinks are really adding some bulk. Interested college football scouts can contact me, Luke's agent, directly regarding recruitment matters.

This 9 month mark gives me pause as I reflect on the fact that it took 9 months of cooking in my belly for Luke to join us in this world. He popped out after his first 9 months of life at a skinny and wrinkly 7 lbs 10 oz, and now after his second 9 months he has nearly tripled that. And only the nearsighted would refer to him as skinny or wrinkly now. Luke, you've come a long way baby.

"Mama!"

Well, he really says "dada" but he means "mama", I just know it!

A few weeks ago Luke started babbling up a storm. At first it was "doodoo", and that quickly led to "dada" (so appropriate, right), on which he is stuck and seemingly perfectly content doing so. The constant positive response he gets when he says "dada" has him saying it all the time and to anyone who will listen. The following is a video taken soon after he first started dabbling in babbling...


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To celebrate his new found vocabulary, Louis took Luke for a drive down to Laredo to join the Minutemen gaurding our Mexican border. Once they got home they looked like they must have spent a bit more time in Matamoros drinking tequila because their speech was a bit slurred... I asked Luke how his trip was, and this is how he described how things went down south of the border with Dad (the bit he says about losing our car tires to Pedro in the last poker game is a complete fabrication... )


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Busy Social Schedule

We've had quite a busy couple of weeks lately. Luke had so many visitors! Our friends flew in from all over the world just to see how big this dude has gotten. Well, they really flew in town for the wedding of our friends Lori and Jimmy, but while they were here they made sure to say hi to Luke.

First, Yogi, Basia and Gabby flew in from Boston. Being the only girl surrounded by three boys, Gabby is quite a sought after cutie pants when she comes to town. Luke tries to vie for her affections, but she told him she likes a man with more to offer, a man of action. You know, one who walks and talks. A man who stays fit and doesn't sport such a round beer belly. Oh well. Maybe next visit.

From left to right: Martin, Luke, Gabby and Zach.

Luke says, "Hey Gabby, wanna see my crib?"

"Or, how about dinner and drinks? I've got Cheerios..."

Also in town, all the way from Norway, was our friend Julie. Luke had a bit more luck with her since she didn't seem to mind advances from a younger man.

"Oh Julie, she's so pretty... and she thinks my pot belly is HOT!"

And arriving from Scotland were more of our good friends, Dana and Reno... and stowing away in Dana's belly was Lil' Lauro! The Lauro bambino will be done cooking in November, right around the same time as the Thanksgiving turkey. Luke can't wait to show him/her the ropes and keep him/her up to date on what's cool and happening here in the States while they finish up their sojourn in the UK.

Reno, Dana and Luke- and Lil' Lauro (not pictured, but present!)

While Louis and I participated in the wedding weekend festivities, Luke's Nana and Grandpa traveled from Houston to stay with us and hang out with Luke. He had a grand ole time showing them his toys, showing off his eating skills and showing them his expansive library of books.

Deeelicious!

Luke reading Grandpa a bedtime story

Besides entertaining our many guests lately Luke has been making great strides in feeding himself. He has been practicing for quite a while with tasty, melt-in-your-mouth Gerber puffs and has gotten so good at feeding himself that he almost refuses for you to put them in his mouth for him. He wants to do it himself. He's not a baby, after all, right? He's gotten so good at this feat and at chewing (well, gumming) that he's moved on to all sorts of delicious texture-ific delights: Cheerios, bread, crackers, Goldfish, shredded chicken, etc. He's also gotten really good at drinking out of a straw and loves to show off his cool skills at restaurants. Luke orders his own drink now- glass of water, neat, no olive, with a straw- and impresses all the ladies as he drinks it down with only minimal dribbles down his shirt.

Luke's Law of Percentages- the greater the number of puffs on the table the greater percentage chance one will make it into his mouth.

8 Months Old!

Last week marked Luke's eight month birthday! He is working very hard at trying to crawl and trying to talk, but hasn't really accomplished either just yet. He can scoot backward on his belly pretty well, and he talks and sings all day long, just nothing discernable as English. It is better described as baby babbling mixed with high pitched whale or dolphin sounds- his own highly advanced multilingual human-cetacean language. What a genius.

Here are a few recent pictures:

I told you I knew Kung Fu

I need to see all the blueprints

I'm Crazy Countrywide Home Loans Man... Gimme candy!

Happy Easter and Proofs of the Toofs!

We had lots of fun on Luke's first Easter Sunday. The Easter Bunny left him a basket of colorful eggs and fake grass that he highly enjoyed chewing on. Since Luke isn't allowed to eat chocolate or eggs yet, all of the eggs in the basket were plastic- but contained coin money! Score! The eggs made a very satisfying jingle jangle clanking noise as he rattled them around and bashed them against one another. And although Luke was happy to add the coins to his piggy bank collection, he was also glad the Easter Bunny promised that next year's basket would be more yummy.

Plastic eggs! Fun!

But where are the peeps and hollow chocobunny? I got gipped.

But I guess money is ok too... This Easter Bunny is a cool guy!

Ready for church- let's go!

Fun in the tub at the end of the day

My two teeth!

What Do We Do All Day?

Hey, Louis here. I know a lot of you are wondering what Luke and I do all day during my time off work to stay home with him. Here's a little peek:

Nothing says "I'm on vacation" like a little facial hair experimentation

One of the first things on my list of things to do was to make sure our address post on the curb was easy to read in case of an emergency. I've had problems with the Chinese Food delivery guy finding the house...

Luke and Cactus helped any way they could while I painted and nailed new numbers on the post. Luke was a great help and here he stands next to his work sporting new shoes from Aunt Ariane and family.

Future Engineer

Gym 1504 provides all types of the equipment necessary to prepare children to be sent out into the world. Here is Luke doing a leg workout on one of the Nautilus machines sent by Aunt Yasmine...

Giant steps are what you take, walking on the moon...

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After a good workout, Luke gets silly while toweling off. A.K.A., "The Peek a Boo Monster"

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With all the gym time he is putting in, I wanted to see how his legs workouts are coming along.

Bartender... another drink on my Dad's tab

We take a lot of strolls around the neighborhood as well. Here are some pics of Luke getting his "roll on".

#1 Stunner

Rolling on Dubs

Peace, I'm out of here

Every now and again we get some visitors. Recently, Master Yogi dropped by to check on the training of the Youngling. Here he tests the progress of Luke's legs...

Do. Or do not. There is no try...

The Force is strong with this one...

Thanks for taking the time to see what we're up to. Here's your round of applause...

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Supermodel Luke

Here are some of the poses from Luke's photo session a few weeks back on his 7 month birthday:

Just say no...

Just say no to crack

Technical Issues

After many annoying episodes of text not loading and other technical posting problems we are trying out a new blog template. Hopefully the issues will now be resolved. If not, we may have to get a new webmaster. He's been slacking on the job lately...

Hitting the bottle

Barton Springs drool

I love swings- yipee!!!

(Check out my cool shoes- thanks Aunt Ariane!)

We enjoyed another fabulously beautiful weekend... however, as I write this it is raining and thundering and pretty gloomy. But, Saturday and Sunday were great nonetheless. We spent the afternoon at Zilker Park and Barton Springs and had a grand ole time on the playground and down at the water.

Me and Mommy, the coolest girl I know
(not that she's writing this or anything)

Austin is awesome

While hanging out near the water, we plopped Luke down and he watched the birds and other people playing in the vicinity. He then started playing in the mud, which he loved. But then he started to put one muddy hand in his mouth- "no, Luke, don't eat the mud". So he tried to put his other muddy hand in his mouth- "no, Luke, don't chew on that muddy hand either". We eventually succumbed to the inevitablilty of the situation and elected to photograph the crunchy munchy mess. See picture below.

Umm, wait a minute... this tastes like dirt