The wait is over

The wait is over! Josh matched for a pediatric ophthalmology fellowship with a practice in Atlanta! Congrats to Josh!!
We got the news this morning and I for one am glad to finally know where we are headed. Now I can start planning.
More details to come when we know them, but I just wanted to let you all know the good news.

More Halloween Pictures

Thanks Melissa!

Trip to Houston and Halloween

As you can see we have been quite busy over the last month! We made another fellowship trip this past weekend to Houston TX. We were able to visit with our good friends Marc and Melissa Inglese and my friend June while we were there.
Again, we weren't so good about taking pictures, but here are some shots from the Houston Zoo that Luke and I visited while Josh was interviewing.


Look Mom!


an Okapi!


and African cattle!


and an American gator (ok maybe mom liked this one more than Luke)


and here is our favorite gator. Luke was a gator for Halloween, this is the only photo I have of him in the costume, he wasn't sad about it all night. My friend Melissa got some cute pictures of him, I'll get another one from her to post.

Trip to North Carolina

Josh had another fellowship interview, this one at Duke. Luke and I went along so we could visit with our good friends the Dungans and the Samuels. Luke got to meet Clark Dungan who is not quite 6 weeks older than him. They got along great, Clark was very kind to Luke in showing him were all of the toys were in his house. I guess we didn't take too many pictures while we were there, but here are a few of the shots we got. We had a great time and really miss our NC friends!


Luke is looking serious about riding and Clark is posing for the camera


another obligatory embarrassing tub photo

Luke's First Birthday!!!

Luke turned one year old today! He had both sets of grandparents and many of our neighbor friends over to celebrate the occasion. Luke had a little "smash" cake all to himself, although he didn't really get into the smashing of it. Luke was spoiled with all of the wonderful gifts he received, thank you to all of you friends and family that helped make his birthday so special!


Luke's cake


what should I do now?


ok, I'll give it a try


Here Nana, you try it


after the cake, Ryne shows Luke how to properly work the red spinny thing


on to the presents, Noah was getting a bit impatient and decided to help


fine, I'll just play with this paper

Trip to Atlanta

Luke, Noah, and I went with Josh on his first round of interviews for his fellowship. He had two interviews in Atlanta, one at Emory on Friday and another with a private practice on Saturday. It was quite an adventure traveling with both Noah and Luke. While Josh was at the Emory interview, I had to check us out of the hotel and then I walked around the campus for an hour and a half with Luke in the stroller and Noah on the leash until Josh was done. We were able to spend Friday night and Saturday with our friends Danny and Regina and their little boy Preston. Luke and Preston had a good time together, Preston was studying Luke's crawling moves and it wasn't long after we left that Preston had it down! Luke got his first busted lip on this trip, he was trying to use Noah to stand up and Noah scooted away too fast for Luke to recover. He was a trooper though, a little ice cream and he was all better!


Luke's busted lip


obligatory embarassing tub shot

Computer Problems

Hello for all of you who check out our blog (and thanks to you!), I just wanted to take a quick minute and post that we are having virus related problems with our home computer. We have lots of new pictures and a few videos of Luke to post, but we are reluctant to use the aforementioned computer to do anything other than what is completely necessary. Not to fear, we plan to get a new computer (or will fix the one we have) soon and will be back with some new pictures of Luke.
Until then, know that Luke has his first tooth! It came in at the beginning of the month and is the top right middle tooth (odd location I know). The one next to it is working its way in now. He is an active crawler and pulls up on everything. He is trying to cruise around the furniture and even stood on his own without holding on yesterday for about 5 seconds, and then realized what he was doing and sat down. He has started chasing Noah now and Noah thinks it is a game, it is pretty funny to watch the two of them. Noah will run off and Luke will chase him, Noah circles around behind Luke until Luke realizes he is there and switches direction only for Noah to circle around again!
Love to you all!

New Picture

Luke came in to work with me on Saturday, Josh had to see a patient and then we were going out searching for a coffee table or ottoman that Luke can't hurt himself on or crawl under. Still haven't found one, so let me know if you have any suggestions. Anyway, while Luke and I were waiting for Josh in my office, we played with the camera on my Mac. Here is a fun picture I got of the two of us.

Crawling...attempt #2

I tried opening all of the blinds and turning on all of the lights, but the video is still not very bright, but I think it is at least better than the last one. Luke is a lot faster now and we went out today to get a few more gates to keep him from the stairs. He can pull himself up and stand now, but I haven't been able to catch that on video yet.

Vacation in North Carolina

At the beginning of the month, we went to Fontana Village in North Carolina for a family reunion (my Mom's side). Luke and I got to spend nearly a full week there relaxing. Josh had to work and go to a seminar in Fort Worth, but he was able to join us for the first few days. We had a great time and Luke got to meet more family, including his Great Grandpa and Mummu (Finnish for grandma). Anyone know how to say great grandma and grandpa in Finnish? One of our favorite things to do was to go the pool and float around in the lazy river. My mom and dad bought this little turtle for Luke to float in and he loves it. It keeps him mostly shaded and he can enjoy the water.

all the playing in the water tires the little guy out
We went and visited the Fontana Dam, one of the many dams built by the TVA during WWII, Luke slept through most of that trip :-)

Luke with his grandpa and great-grandma

Luke with his great aunt Lynn and great uncle Victor

The best thing about the trip was getting to see my grandpa play Table Tennis. I had heard stories from my Mom growing up about how good my grandpa was at table tennis, he once was the champion of the upper peninsula (or the 'UP') of Michigan. He's still got the skills at 87 years of age!

Crawling and chasing Noah

I took several videos this week of Luke crawling, unfortunately when I loaded them on the computer just now, they all turned out pretty dark. I'll post this one anyway for those of you who'd like to try to make out his moves, but will try to get a better video soon. He pretty much army belly crawls and although he's not super speedy yet, he is proficient at getting where he wants to go!

Incision at 2 weeks

Here is a picture of Luke's incision 2 weeks post-op...yes he is in the bathtub, but it is a tasteful picture :-)

9 months old and a good looking scar

Luke is 9 months old today, and what did he get for a present? A chance to finally see what was hiding under the bandage he'd been wearing since his surgery. For one week out, his incision is looking pretty good, the redness and swelling will continue to get better, and our surgeon said that in about 6 weeks time the area should be completely healed and we won't have to protect it anymore. For all of you who've been wondering what his arm looks like (as we have been!) here are a couple of pictures.

Trip to the Zoo 7-12-08

We've never been to the Birmingham Zoo in the 3 years we've lived here, and we felt like Luke might be old enough to enjoy the animals. My Dad was with us as he came up to stay with Luke this past week after he had his surgery. We were pleasantly surprised with all that the zoo had to offer, especially for children. Luke really enjoyed watching all the various types of monkeys. He also saw camels, every animal you can think of on a farm (except cows and horses), birds, giraffes, and reptiles (mommy did not go into that exhibit!). He even saw his first outhouse...but didn't want to go in. Here a few pictures from our trip.

The big day

We arrived at the hospital at 5:45am (luckily it is not even 2 miles from our house!). Luke was taken back to the operating room just after 7am and by 7:20am the ENT doctor came and told us that his tubes were in without a problem! He said they were prepping his arm and that our plastic surgeon would begin removing the hemangioma shortly. At 8:45 am our plastic surgeon came and told us that Luke was doing well and was in the recovery room. He said that the hemangioma was taken off without any complications and that it essentially had no blood in it. Luke did terrific, he didn't cry (that we know of) and he only got fussy right before they took him back because he was hungry. We left the hospital at 10:25am and Luke ate some breakfast and is now napping. All the nurses were taken with him and his cuteness :-)
Thank-you all for your thoughts and prayers! After a few days of antibiotics and some follow-up visits, we may be less frequent customers of the medical system!

Here is a picture of the hemangioma before surgery. I'll have to post an "after" shot later (probably next week) as it is covered and I was told "no peeking."

Crawling? Birthdays?

Luke is getting so close to crawling, he can get up on his knees and arms, but can't quite get that forward motion going, he'll have it soon no doubt!




Later in the day, Luke went to Ryne's first birthday party where he watched Ryne eat his cake with interest!

Trip to Illinois

Luke and I recently flew to Illinois for my cousin's wedding. Luke got to meet his papa Floetke's side of the family and take his first airplane ride! Luke did great, he fell asleep shortly after take off and slept through the landing.

While we were there, Luke went swimming in the heated pool at the hotel.




Luke had a great time partying at the reception, he danced and entertained :-)

Luke meets Violet

My friend and roomate from college, Vim, and her 10-week old daughter Violet came to visit us while we were in FL. Luke loved watching Violet, and I suspect she thought he was pretty cool as well :-)

Trip to Cypress Gardens

Luke visited his first theme park, Cypress Gardens, in Winter Haven, FL. He got to ride on the train with his Papa. He had a good time waving (mostly at the little girl in front of him).

Video of Luke laughing

Luke's Uncle Neil sure knows how to make him laugh!

Family Vacation

This Memorial Day Josh, Luke, Noah, and I made the trip to FL. We were able to attend our good friends Linc & Lindsay's wedding (Josh was a groomsman) and my cousin Holly's High School graduation (we'll forgive her for going on to FSU). While we were home, we took Luke to the beach again, but he didn't enjoy the water like he did at Christmas. He did have a good time playing in the sand, the little bit that we let him. Mostly, he just looked fashionable in his hat and shades :-)