Pinckney Family Reunion

On Saturday we traveled to Austin for the Pinckney Family Reunion. It was being held on Sunday at Memaw and Pepaw's house, and consisted of Memaw's cousins on her father's side and their families. There was a total of 80 people, most of which we had never met. The weather was perfect and the backyard looked beautiful. We also got to enjoy Rudy's BBQ, which is always a favorite. It was a great time to introduce Luke to family he had never met, and of course they all thought he was precious. =) Memaw made everything so special. There was a slide show, printed out family trees, a history game and more. Here are a few shots from the party.

Yes, he is biting Brian's nose!

Music, Mischief and Melba Toast

Today was such a fun day! It was our first day of Kindermusik at the community center. This is the first class I have ever done with Luke. We signed up with Isabelle and her mom, Corrie, a few months ago. Luke really enjoyed his first class. He loved shaking all the instruments and did a lot of giggling. The only problem we had was that I was constantly having to reign him in. Luke was always wanting to crawl towards the other babies. This normally would be no big deal, but Luke is not the most gentle. Poor little Isabelle has been on the receiving end of his grabbing a few times! Here they are playing nicely before class started. And here we are after class. We are definitely looking forward to next week for class number 2. After going home and getting lunch and a nap, Luke and I joined Corrie and Isabelle again for a nice long walk. It was such a gorgeous day and the kids had fun swinging at the playground and sitting by the pond. Here they are enjoying their puffs on the blanket. Boy those puffs go quick! Luke enjoyed sitting in the grass and looking at the pond, almost as much as he enjoyed tasting the grass. =) Ok and now for the mischief. Well, as I have said before, he is into everything! He now opens the cabinets and wants to pull everything out. I got very frustrated telling him "no" so many times, that finally I just gave in and directed him to the Tupperware cabinet and let him go to town. He thought this was just the best thing ever. Now I just need to get Brian to baby proof the other cabinets, so we don't have this problem anymore! And finally, Luke had his first toast the other day. We gave him a Gerber Biter Biscuit. My mom told me that back in the day Melba Toast was what all the kids ate. I didnt see Melba at the store so Gerber it was. Luke had so much fun eating the little biscuit, but I must say it was disgusting! It turned into a soggy mess very quickly. Here is the proof, but just know the pictures don't do it justice. =)

8 Months Old

Luke turned 8 months old on Sunday and is turning into such a little person. Here's what is new since last month:

• Crawls on all fours easily
• Pulls up to stand on anything including a wall
• Cruises around the furniture
• Can sit back down from a standing position without falling over
• Says dadada (still not directed at anyone)
• Feeds himself cheerios and puffs without help (see pic below) Luke can also feed himself other things as well. Yesterday I was feeding Luke bananas and cereal. The phone rang so I went to get it and when I got back he had grabbed the bowl and food was everywhere. It is hard to see in this picture but it was all in his hair, inside his ear, up his nose. I know this wont be his last mess! Here is another pic of his teeth. They are really coming in fast. He looks so cute with teeth and he likes to bite everything. Yesterday I caught him biting the coffee table.

Oh and Luke is finally starting to get better after a week of being sick. Today is the first day that his appetite has returned. Poor thing probably lost some pounds after the week we had. I have never seen a virus this contagious. The final count was 8 family members infected. Anyone who came to my house to see Luke from Tuesday on got sick. It was quite a week and we are starting to get cabin fever! I think tomorrow Luke and I will be able to get out and run some errands. I have never been more excited to go to Target!

Professional Pictures- 6 Months Old

About a month ago Luke and I went to a Valentines baby party. I posted pics of the party then and mentioned that he had some pictures taken. Well the pictures are in and I am very happy with them. They were done by Melissa Sanders of House of Images Photography. Her website is http://www.houseofimagesphotography.com/. The last pic is with Miss Isabelle who hosted the party for us. What a cute little couple they make!

Sick Boy

Actually I should probably have titled this "Sick Family!" So far the count is up to 6 people who have gotten sick after being around Luke. On Tuesday Luke developed the worst diarrhea I have ever seen. Let's just say I did 4 loads of laundry and changed his clothes 9 times that day. (I'll spare you the details beyond that). My sweet sister happened to be over for the day which was a great help. On Wednesday Ali and I both woke up nauseous and threw up throughout the day. Boy is it hard to take care of a sick kid when you yourself are sick! I will just have to look at it as a right of passage into mommyhood. =) Today I got a call that Brian's parents were up all night with similar symptoms. They came to see Luke Tuesday night, so must have caught it then. Brian woke up nauseous this morning and I just got a call from my mom who has it too! Dang this is one super bug going around. The good thing is that I feel great today, so it seems to be a 24-48 hour thing. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for Luke. He is still with his symptoms and isn't eating much. I have been on the phone with the doctor a few times and we are just trying to keep him hydrated. Even with everything going on, he is still going 100 miles per hour and getting into everything. Nothing can slow this guy down! Well that has been most of the week, but here are a few pics from before the plague hit! Over the weekend we went to Walmart to do a little shopping. As we were checking out a lady from the in-store bank thought Luke was so cute, so she brought him a balloon. This was Luke's first balloon, and he was very excited about it. =) Here he is with his new favorite thing, the remote. If it is anywhere in sight he will go for it. Aunt Ali had a good idea to give him a calculator instead, but this little guy can tell the difference and just doesn't think it is as fun as the remote.

Here he is playing in Isabelle's pack-n-play. I discovered that he will play very well by himself while contained in this "cage". I don't have to worry about him falling and hurting himself and can get a little break from time to time. It worked so well at Isabelle's that I had to get ours out and put it in the living room.

The main thing he likes to do is stand up in it and smash his face into the side. This gave Corrie, Tori and I some laughs during our playdate.

And one more cute picture of our guy playing. Gotta love that smile!

Tag!

My friend Jocelyn tagged me in this fun little game. Here are the rules.

1. Open your first photo folder on your computer
2. Scroll to the 10th picture
3. Post that pic and the story behind it
4. Tag other people

Here is my pic.

This was taken the last year Brian and I were at A&M. For those of you that don't know, Brian went to Iowa State for 2 years and walked on the swim team. After his freshman year the swim team was cut due to budgeting, so Brian walked on the basketball team. After his sophomore year he transferred to A&M for various reasons, but the main one was because of me. =) He was at A&M for a total of 3 years and had a great time playing basketball at the rec just for fun. He had no intention of walking on again, but in the fall of 2004 he was asked by the head coach to walk on after someone saw him playing pickup at the rec. So the above picture is Brian in action as an Aggie Basketball player. It was so fun going to the games and seeing him out there. Well there you go. That's my pic and the story that goes with it. So I thought this was pretty fun so I will tag... Corrie Jessica Brooke (no pressure though, you don't have to do it, I just thought it was fun!)

Luke And His Daddy

After my last post I really started thinking about how similar Luke and Brian are. Most people have commented that Luke looks more like me (or more like my brother, Rett), but I see Brian's traits in him more and more. Obviously Luke can sleep anywhere, in any position, which is just like Brian. Luke also sometimes sleeps with his eyes half open, again like Brian. There are several other things I have noticed, and it will be so fun to see what other new things we discover.

Luke is also getting to the point where he gets very excited when Brian gets home from work. It is so cute to see him light up when his daddy walks in the room. Luke and I play all day, but when Brian gets home the playing gets stepped up a notch! There is a lot of wrestling and giggling going on. I feel so blessed that my child gets such a wonderful daddy who loves him so much.

Here are some some fun pics of Luke with his daddy.

Luke is watching Brian throw the ball for Ernie.

Luke was waiting for him to get home and looked out the window for a good 20 minutes before Brian pulled in.

Look at that smushed nose! =)