Luca's first birthday party!

The above picture is Luca and Nancy! So glad to have their family in our lives and his! The below picture is Jamie and Alicia with their cute babies. Luca was sleeping at the time:)

Luca opening his present from the Whites! He loved it!

Luca's first bday party!

Thanks Jamie and Jess for hosting and throwing us all a party in Luca's honor! It was a lot of fun and very special!

Luca's birthday party

Here is a link to pictures of Luca's party on Jessica's blog, if you want to see the pictures right away. I will try to get them up on my blog soon. Thanks again Jess! The pictures are awesome and thanks to you and Jamie for hosting the party!!! www.30photos.blogspot.com

AFO's

We are back to the stretching, crying and AFO's. Can't wait till Luca gets use to the stretching again!

Luca's birthday party

I am having such a good time at my party. Thanks everybody!
Scarlett can I touch your feet? I promise I won't stretch them:)
I got such cool toys too! I don't even know what to say.


Jessica and Jamie hosted a beautiful birthday party for Luca and celebration for all! It was full of kids, great food, and activities. Thankfully Jessica is the profession photographer so I will post some of the pictures she took soon. I only got a few but here they are.

Other highlights for today were:
New cool looking AFO's for Luca, I will take pictures but they are blue with cars, and trains on them.
He got his FIRST pair of walking shoes! They are size 7 (I guess that is big for a 1 year old) but that is was they needed to be to fit over the AFO's. He looks so cute wearing shoes. No more questions about the casts in the grocery store and everywhere else! YAY!

Weekend in Anacoratas, WA

Luca, Mari, and I went up to her parent's home Friday and Sat. this last week. It was so much fun to be out of the city. Luca loved the Becker's cows and all the wildlife. He also loved meet Janet and Larry, Mari's parents. Here are a few pics from the weekend.
Thanks Harmony and Briant for the awesome baby laptop that plays music. He played with it all weekend and loves it.
Thanks again to everyone for all the love and gifts for his first birthday!!!

I learned something new today

Hi Everybody,
Thanks for looking at my blog and celebrating my birthday. I learned something new today with my mom and the OT, Caroline. I learned how to drink out of a straw and I did it all by myself. So now my mom and dad can put a straw in my drinks and won't have to hold them for me all the time. I am pretty excited and I think they are too! I love learning new things! Don't worry there was clean water in the lemon not lemon juice:)
Love,
Luca

Pictures from the day you were born Luca

Happy 1st Birthday Luca!!!

Luca is one year old today! Hard to believe it has been a year since he was born! Thanks for all of the cards, presents, calls and e-mails! You have showered him and us with lots of love today and throughout this last year. We are proud of Luca and all that he has done and endured this last year. He is a picture of him with some of this gifts and cards. We are having a party and cake on Monday. Let me know if you want to come celebrate with us.

Luca preferences

So we found out early that Luca likes to be outside. Today I was cooking and every time I tried to bring Luca in to the living room he would start crying so he played on the steps outside by himself for about an hour. He sure loves being outdoors, who could blame him, the sun was even shining:)

I also took a picture of John taking his second load of our house to the dump. The back patio is almost clear and the walls are getting primed tomorrow! Yay!

Luca birthday present from India

Luca's great-godparent who live in Delhi send him a little Indian outfit. He looks adorable in it! Thanks so much!!!! Dewy and Carolyn.

New casts

Well, I had a feeling when I was getting excited about no more casts that we might have some more casts. At least they are short leg casts this time that only go up right below the knees and they are just to hold his feet in the correct position till his AFO's are ready in a week. Luca has grown so much since his last AFO's were made in Oct. that he no longer fits into them. I am not surprised since he wears 18 month pants now but anyway we are getting new ones and we didn't want to loose position on the feet while the AFO's are being made.
We were at Children's this morning for 3 hours. Someone even asked me if I work there;) It feels like it sometimes but I don't. We met a sweet 20 month old named Avery who was feeding Luca goldfish before his casting. The play dates in the group casting room is always a treat.

Training for 1/2 marathon

This week was my first official week of training for the Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon in Seattle, June 28th. I am excited and motivated to get in shape and even if I have to crawl to the finish line, complete another 1/2 post baby! I ran 4 times this week so off to a good start. I get to run with Steph tomorrow, YAY! Let me know if you want to run....it is so much more fun with others!

Luca's last day of casts....hopefully:)

Here is a picture of Luca on Sunday. Tomorrow we have an appointment for Luca's AFO's to be refitted or to make new ones. Hopefully today was his last full day of casts for a long time. I feel so happy, relieved and excited. We can't go swimming and give him a bath again soon! Without casts Luca should be able to learn to weight bear again, stand, and walk in the months to come.
My co-worker, Jean's daughter and son, Alina and Sam did the artwork on his casts. Looks very cute.

Progress, friends and Luca

John is making a lot of progess on the house. There is drywall everywhere now and he is on his 3rd coat of mud on the walls. He put can lights up in the kitchen and hooked up the new dishwasher. It is exciting to watch it change before my eyes. It is kind of like watching a home remodel show take place live.

Luca is teething and mister grumpy a lot of the time, unless we are out on a walk in the ergo and he gets to look at the dogs and cats in our neighborhood. How did we get such an animals lover? I am wondering what Betsy and Meagan told him while we were in Mexico:) We are hoping this grumpy stage doesn't last too long. He has two bottom teeth now but doesn't like to show them to anyone.

Luca playing with his toy

Early birthday presents

Here are a few pictures of Luca with his gifts from his grandparents. Grandpa Walker and Nana gave him the toy telephone and Papa Jay and Nana Nancy gave him some new outfits. "Stronger than you think" is what his shirt says and a great motto for Luca and all of us:)

Luca also got a hand me down barn from Kristy Hoshopel at church. He LOVES it too! It makes animals sounds when he opens the doors which is both motivating and super cute.

We are going to be celebrating on April 19th from 5-8 pm. Let me know if you want to come to the party! I will give you all the details. I think Luca is going to dive into some cake to celebrate making it through his first year and the casting process!

I am also excited because we got a camera that works!

Easter and new casts

Good news! Christ has risen, he has risen indeed! Happy Easter. We had a great day at church all morning for Katie:) And then over Andy and Jamie's to a potluck. Great food and friends.

Also Luca got new casts today! Great news, he doesn't need surgery right now on either foot! It is really miraculous! Dr. Mosca said that he has seen over 1,000 cases of club feet and Luca's were the stiffest of them all. He cannot believe that Luca did not need more extensive surgery and at how straight his feet have gotten. I really believe that God has answered our prayers and yours! Thanks again for your support along this challenging journey.

Luca and Brooke

Brooke back in Seattle for a few weeks, from her amazing adventures in Haiti. Luca loves her, of course, we all do!