Milestones

Luke is now walking. Last night he stood up, raised his shoulders in preparation, and took 6-7 wobbly steps toward me while grinning from ear to ear. Then he lunged into my arms. I'm not surprised that he's walking. He's been trying to do it for months now. As soon as he learned how to crawl on all fours, he discovered that he could pull himself up and cruise. He's 10 months now. I am definitely a proud mama, if you couldn't already tell. He also likes to shriek when he's happy or upset. He has a few words: Mama, Dada, "Aai" (hi), and "eh-eh" (uh-oh). He loves to wave and clap.
I am tired but doing well. I've been busy going out to various play dates. At Luke's age, the play dates are more for me than him. Although he enjoys exploring the knobs, drawers, doors and curtains of other people's homes.

A New Year

Yesterday marked the 3rd anniversary of my sister Ashley's death. The only thing I could think was that I can't believe it's been three years already; I haven't talked to her in over three years. Life is so precious and so easy to take for granted. I think about how fragile our existence really is. At the same time, I still fall prey to the daily grind. I still get annoyed by little things. Most of the time I am grateful for the little annoyances, though, because it means nothing big is wrong.

We got about 6 inches of snow yesterday. When it stopped, Zach and Luke and I walked down to the coffee shop and the local bookstore. It was all very cozy. Here are two pictures of Luke doing two of his favorite things-"eating" an apple and swinging.