1 Year Old (and a Little Late on Mom's Part)

Luke is 22 pounds 4 ounces and 31 inches long. My how time does fly. Pardon the lack of blogging. Luke and I just returned this week from Richmond. It was a fantastic time catching up with friends and sharing Illinois politics (Hooray! There's a new governor!). I promise to upload more pics soon and share some of our adventures. In the meantime, Luke's growth updates will be a little less frequent.

The Birthday Smurf

Before: After:

The culprit: The birthday smurf himself!

The Year in Pictures

Kaleid-o-Luke

That's what you get when you take your 11-month old toddler to the Children's Museum when he loves mirrors!

We had a fantastic time! Honestly, I think we'll get oodles and oodles of enjoyment out of this place. Reminds me a bit of the Magic House in St. Louis, although more generally focused on all ages of development. You can see, we're still at the put-everything-in-the-mouth stage.

Who is this cute baby in the mirror??

It's safe to report that we have taken our first steps, although not very many yet. Mike and I have practiced with him since, but it quickly turns into a game of flopping into Mommy and Daddy versus walking. At first, though, we can get him to walk 4 or 5 steps before he figures out that it's more fun just to dive.

I've been very remiss in my blogging as my to-do list has been vast and time consuming with preparations for the birthday celebration as well as starting my diet and exercise regiment. I'm not sure how on earth I will be ready by the time I leave to pick up Thea and Mom B. from O'Hare next Wednesday, but I'm sure we'll make it! We are super excited to have visitors to help us celebrate Luke's 1st. And, everyone tells me this is all about the parents anyhow. Celebrating that we survived the first year...ha, ha!

Luke and I are also gearing up to head to Richmond on Jan 23rd. We are so excited to catch up with our friends! And, it will give us a break from the snow and cold here.

Happy New Year! Here are some Christmas Pics...

We had a truly wonderful Christmas. I counted up that in 6 days, we played travel agent, caterer, Santa Claus, and chauffeur, but we wouldn't have it any other way. Laura was stuck in Chicago en route to Missouri, so we quickly scrambled to find an alternative means for her to get home (I'm sure you're noting the irony, but an ice storm had us playing chicken and driving down a day early). It turns out that airlines care less and less about whether you make it home for Christmas because as long as it is snowing somewhere, they're covered. So, we booked her on another airline and she spent the night in Chicago. Dad and I fetched her while Mike and Mom prepared for their Christmas Eve open house. Luke's first Christmas was truly fantastic! He wasn't so much into tearing the paper himself, but he was very into the ribbons and what was coming out of the paper.

Oh yes, and waking up his Aunt Laura..."Come on and get up, Aunt Laura!

He got to meet lots of great friends and family, including his cousins from St. Louis, New York, and California.

In case you ever wondered whether you could get four small children to pose for a photo on Christmas Day night...

And, Paul decided to let Luke try some Veggie Booty, a big hit with the Niehaus kids. I haven't been able to locate it here yet, but Luke was a big fan. I must admit, it isn't bad, but Paul isn't very keen himself on the powdered kale flavoring. Or maybe it's just the concept of powdered kale?

Luke was very fond of everyone he got to see!