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."