4th of July Texas Style! (11 months)

So, Luke turned 11 months a few weeks back.  As we are planning his first birthday party and recovering from an amazing trip to Houston to spend time with Jason, Kristy, and Bowen, I thought this was the perfect time for a blog post to get everyone caught up on little guy's progress over the past few months.

The major story is that Luke is no longer a quadruped.  Standing isn't anything new...he has been pulling up and walking along things for a couple months now, but every time he got to the end of something, he would plop down on his butt and start crawling.  However, on June 18th, he got to the end of the couch and forgot to sit down.  He took about five steps towards his big Penguin, and then grabbed it and held on for dear life.  Talk about priceless faces - once he got there he looked at us like he was totally confused, excited, and terrified about what just happened.

In the 2 weeks that followed, he would occasionally take some steps here or there, but he was still primarily (90-95%) crawling.  He continued to rock anything that rolled that he could walk with, whether it be a chair that rolled that he could push, or a toy made to roll along with him.  He also started liking to walk around while holding both of my or Kara's hands for support.  However, if he didn't have support, he would still be too nervous to try to walk on his own.

More after the jump.


Here's a couple "before" videos of him learning to walk before we left for Houston.  You can see there was still a lot of learning to go!

And here's one on the last day we were in Houston.  He's a completely different little kiddo.  He is a full blown, crazy fast, walker now!  It's so weird for Kara and I to just watch him walk around.

Fourth of July in Houston

Thanks to all my work travel, we were able to take another free trip to Houston over July 4th to celebrate the holiday, relax in the pool, and let Bowen and Luke play.  As always, it was a great trip with the perfect balance between kids activities - like kids playing in the park - and adult stuff - like cocktails in the pool while the little ones are snoring away.

We spent a good portion of the weekend in the water - both in Kristy and Jason's pool and also in the community pool nearby that they have access to.  It was great to watch Luke get more and more comfortable with the water as the week went on.  He really likes crawling in and out of the pool, and is getting more comfortable walking around in water.  He occasionally allowed me to take him into deeper water and throw him up in the air a bit.  When he was in the mood, this made the little guy smile like crazy.  However, there were times when he was NOT in the mood also.  Scream crying.  Whoops.

We also had some great dinners out, one at a Texas BBQ place that was built with a giant playground, and one at a Mexican restaurant that had the best tortillas I've ever had, AND, they served their fajitas with a side of butter.  Amazing.

It was also a great weekend for Kara and I to relax, spend some time talking and letting the normal stresses of life melt off.  I really cherish our trips to Houston.  It's the only time where we can step away and just completely shut our minds off from the day to day and just relax.  I came home feeling refreshed, emotionally recharged and close to Kara, and with a new frame of mind.

Last thing I'll say (before a photo dump!) is this - My favorite part of the weekend was when Jason and I turned on School of Rock music and danced around with Luke and Bowen in the kitchen.  I pray that as we get older and life wears on us, that we never lose our inner child, and the ability to be goofballs with our kids.  

My favorite group of people!  Love you guys! Thanks for having us down for the weekend!