A New Badger Fan

Luke was very happy about the Badgers win over Penn State a week ago. With that win the Men's Badger Basketball team went on to be ranked #1 for the first time ever.

Go Badgers and On Wisconsin!

Play Time

Luke is becoming more playful. He is interacting with his environment in many new ways. He is very busying walking from room to room. He enjoys pushing boxes or his toy bin around on the floor. When that gets boring he will push his high chair all the way across the kitchen (even though it is twice as tall as Luke). He likes to open up doors and extract their contents. Luke pulls cords from there outlets - it doesn't matter if its a light, a computer, or a working hair dryer. He likes to bang on glass coffee tables, with a new added twist of using a large, heavy, plastic block. Of course he also plays with his normal toys as well.

I have posted some new videos, which you can check out under the Video Clips section on the right side of the page.

We feel very blessed to have a healthy little toddler. We love every new thing he learns and enjoy watching him figure everything out.

Walking

Luke has always liked to stand. He has never wanted to be on his stomach. He doesn't crawl.... but what he does really well is walk. His first offical steps were on December 18th when he was 8-1/2 months old.

Video - Luke’s First Offical Steps

At just 18 pounds and standing barely 27 inches tall Luke is built for speed.

His main area for walking is the living room where we have carpet to soften the falls. He walks from toy to toy. He also scoots along the furniture. Sometimes he ventures into the kitchen. This presents a little more of a "danger" or "adventure" factor because of the hard wood floors. But.... it is usually no big deal. He has very good control in starting, stopping, standing, and starting again. He does pretty well and has only suffered one major bump on the head.

Video - Luke walking at 9-1/2 months

Luke can't pull himself up. Therefore, he gets frustrated a lot because he knows he can walk he just can't get up.

Regardless.....It's time to baby-proof.

ps....
When I get time to post I try to catch up with current events. I have 3 more new postings below. Also Luke is still very adept at maneuvering his walker, check out the video.

Video - Stoller Antics

Expressions

First Christmas

Luke had a great first Christmas. He had 3 of them: Christmas Eve (with Alyssa's family), Christmas Day (with my family), and Christmas during the week (up at my aunt and uncles house in the Twin Cities).

Luke didn’t really get into opening presents. He liked trying to chew big boxes and eating his new toys. We had a great time with our families and enjoyed being with them for an extended period of time.


Among some of his gifts were a hand-made quilt from Aunt Jackie, a piano and bike trailer from Grandpa and Grandma Krause, a radio flyer, blocks, and activity table from the Nana and Papa Unger.

Luke's Friends

At our church we are part of a Life group. This group consists of people similar in age and at about the same time in life. It is a great network of encouragement and support. This year in this group there have been 10 babies born. Luke was number 3 in the group. There are a few older kids (about 2 years old) as well.

Check out all of Luke's friends and their mothers. Somehow everyone was looking at the camera except Luke - he was more concerned about trying to walk.

Just Hanging Out

Study Hall

Besides trying to walk, cruising in his walker, playing on the floor, jumping in his ExerSauer, and eating Luke is trying to exercise his intellectual capacity by reading and helping me on the computer.

Luke loves to look at the screen and will try to wiggle out of any

grasp just to get close to the computer. He starts panting and waving his arms once he is in range. And if given the chance he is drawn to pounding on the mouse pad and key board as hard as he can (ie.. beating the crap out my laptop). When re-directed to hit it on the side he will lunge forward to smash a more strategic spot. Thankfully the laptop has survived many of these incidents so I can write you this message.

Starting to Bundle Up

We have had some great late fall days, so we took advantage of them with stroller rides and trips to local parks.

Halloween

When Alyssa was growing up her favorite stuffed animal was a cow (appropriately named "Cowey"). Guess what Luke was for Halloween.... yes.... a cow.

Luke was her own real live "Cowey".

Even though Luke didn't get to go trick or treating he attended his first birthday party for his cousins Andrew and Bennett. Halloween with all of Luke's cousins was Pirates of the Caribbean meets Buzz Light Year with tag along characters of Cowey and the newest addition of Boden (who was only 3 weeks old at the time).

Fall Fun Part 2

We recently met our friend Pam and she took some pictures of us at a park. Luke was asleep for half the time so we got to catch up with Pam. When Luke came to.... she got some good shots of us playing together.

Fall Fun

Luke likes to be outdoors. Ever since he was a very small baby one of my tricks to stop him from crying was to take him outside. He continues to like exploring and looking at lots of new things.


Here are some of the latest pictures of him. We went with Grandpa and Grandma Krause to Eberts Farm. Even though it was cool and windy that day Luke was able to see his first Billy Goat, Pigs, Sheep, and lots of other animals.


Luke also got to play in his first leaf pile with Dad. He picked up some leaves to study. Otherwise he liked to bang on them and hear the crunching sound.

Colorado Vacation

Last week we went on a family vacation to Colorado. This was Luke’s first plane ride and it went very well considering he had a cold and cough.

We spent 2 days with our friends Julie and Derek (from UW-Madison) at their home in Longmont, Colorado. Their son, Daniel is about 9 weeks older than Luke. It was fun to spend time with them and share stories about each of our kids, especially since we are going through this time of life together. Daniel was crawling around and eating a lot more solid foods than Luke so it gave us a preview of what Luke will be doing soon (update: Luke ate half a container of carrots plus a cereal for lunch today).

Luke was not his normal self the first 2 days because he was sick and not used to his new environment. Julie and Derek also gave us some advice on altitude and dehydration. After taking that advice and using a humidifier Luke was back to his normal self.

So our time at Vail was very fun. We went on shorter hikes at least a few times each day. I got to go mountain biking down Vail pass, which was a 15 mile descent. Alyssa went mountain biking on Vail mountain, which meant she went straight up. And Luke hung out in Vail village charming everyone.

Our next stop was Snowmass, which is near Aspen. We did a 3 hour hike with Luke by Crater Lake in the Maroon Bells. The Aspen trees were bright orange and yellow and contrasted with the dark green of the evergreen trees. Everyone on the trail was impressed with Luke and one older lady (about 75) said one day he would be a mountaineer.

The last day and a half of our trip it turned cold and snowed. We had about 10 inches at our condo which was at 8600 feet elevation. So we built Luke his first snowman.

We are thankful for a fun trip and the opportunity to give Luke so many good experiences.

5 Months Old

I, Alyssa, can not believe how much love I have for Luke. I kiss him 30-60 times a day because I know I will not be able to kiss him when he is older. I love to hold him and tell him that I couldn't possibly love him more. He also makes me laugh and call him a goof. Luke is now over 5 months old and starting to outgrow a lot of his clothes.

Next its off to a vacation in Colorado. We will update you with pictures when we get back.