Happy 1st Birthday!

Yesterday was Lucas' first birthday! We celebrated with a potluck bbq with some of Lucas' Grand Rapids family.  He loves watching older kids play and he loved being in the middle of all the action.

Lucas sporting his birthday shirt (from Pat and Chuck's travels to Indonesia) and birthday hat (from Auntie Em).  He is working on his retiree, shuffle-board look. 

Lucas enjoys his strawberry shortcake!  Finger-licking good.

What a year this has been.  Starting in Portland in a tiny attic apartment, up all night figuring out how to take care of a little newborn.  First we learned about diapers, feedings, and maintaining basic sanity.  In time we progressed to the better joys of parenting, like smiles, playing, eating food, crawling, and kisses. Now we are (or rather Sam is) hard at work on our first house in Grand Rapids and we have a one-year-old!  Thanks everyone for supporting us on the way.  

The morning after...Lucas is taking his new chicken balloon for a stroll.  

1415 Milton

Our new home!

Last month was all about finding and signing for our new home in Eastown.  We both feel so lucky to have found this little (or rather large) gem in our favorite neighborhood, and possibly our favorite street in Grand Rapids.  Wilcox park is a block away.  Tessa & family is a block away.  The Fulton Street Farmers Market is 5 blocks away.

We're doing some repairs and updating before we move in, starting with the kitchen.  Sam and Todd tore out the kitchen cabinets and uncovered the chimney.

 

Portland

Our little family took a vacation to Portland last week.  Lucas was a little traveling champion, and Sam and I learned how hard parents have to work to keep a baby happy on an airplane. 

Being back in Portland felt so natural; it felt like home.  Walking into our friends' houses and being together again felt so natural, like we had never left.  Departing that last morning was sad, saying goodbye to our friends and to the city.   

We had lots of highlights on our trip, and sadly we didn't capture very many photographs.  Here are a few:

   

11 months - belated

We celebrated Lucas' 11-month birthday this week!

The little ham is on the go now.  He crawls, pulls himself up, and stands against things.  Lately he has a renewed interest in reading books and he helps cook by playing with kitchen utensils on the floor.  His favorite activities still include eating and going outside on walks.  He is also communicating words like "book" and "fishy."  (edit: Sam says I should note how he says those words.  Book is "hkh" and fishy is "shee-shee")

In other news, we will soon be first-time homeowners!  We started the whole house-buying process this month and we'll be signing next week when we get back from our vacation to Portland.  We celebrated with a picnic at Wilcox Park, our new neighborhood park down the street...Lucas seems to like it.  Thanks for reading!

black eye

Today Lucas got his first black eye.  And it was sad.  Casualty of crawling.

10 months old

Lucas is now a 10-month-old baby.  So big!  This month has brought lots of changes.  

He hung out with Grandma Donna, Grandpa Carl, and Uncle Michael, who visited Easter weekend.  

He went through our parenting transition of mama working nights...

(and started sleeping through the nights - lucky papa)

He still loves eating and will eat just about anything

  

Grandma Donna taught him "how big is Lucas? SO big!"

He plays with little farm animals and knows that the cow says "mooo"

He knows what socks are and where they go (he is not very concerned about them matching)

He is CRAWLING! and is quickly on the creep

And perhaps most exciting of all, he said his first word: "creek"

Last summer Grandpa Chuck built this bridge over a small creek that flows next to their house.  

Lucas loves visiting the creek - we visit it at least once a day. 

 Last weekend we went to the Blandford Nature Center and every time we came upon some water (a creek, stream, pond, large puddle) Lucas said "creek."  Was it our imagination or was he really communicating?  We stayed quiet to see what he would do when we saw water next.  He definitely said "keek", slowing down and speaking with intention, different from the sounds he makes for dog or anything else.  His first word!  Certainly makes papa proud.  

Morning coffee and sunshine

Playing with Tessa & Peter

Today we had a fun time with Tessa & Peter Henry.  We met at Wilcox Park where Lucas experienced swings for the first time!  He got to crawl all over grass and cement, eat some leaves and wood chips, then we played at their house.  Thanks Kwants!