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."