Lila Lynn and Cool Hand Luke Svoboda's Blogorama of Fun

Easter Bunny Bounty

2008-03-25T14:12:00.023-05:00

Luke's feet are getting too big for the shoes to fit in the basket

Easter weekend we enjoyed a visit from Luke's Nana and Grandpa and from the Easter bunny. Louis missed out on the fun because he was away on a trip with friends to Las Vegas. I'm sure he didn't have any fun of his own.

Easter egg snacks- the breakfast of champions

We hid the eggs from Luke's Easter basket around the backyard for an egg hunt. He had so much fun hunting them that we hid them a second time and he hunted for them again.

Working hard to clean up after this messy bunny

Cue the sunbeam

Bunny booty

Happy Easter everybody!

Spring Things

2008-03-05T19:38:00.024-06:00

We started this post over a week ago but never quite finished it... oh well, here we go...

The last few weekends we've been playing outdoors quite a bit. In true Texas weather fashion, we will enjoy 80 degree, sunny weather one day and freezing temperatures with snow flurries the next. So, we try to take advantage of the nice days which occur more often than not.

We took Luke to the first weekend of Longhorn football practice and hung out on the sidelines with his bud Vince and Vince's parents. Football season is a mere 6 months away, not that we're counting or anything.

Gotta put on some weight if we're gonna make the team

Quick, let's make a run for it!

We bought a kite a few weeks ago and let Luke pick out the one he wanted. He chose the ugliest one there-a weird robots and spaceship kite because he loves robots- who knows why- and he loves rocket ships a la the Little Einsteins cartoon. Here is Louis and Luke taking the kite out for its first flight.

Robokite

The next weekend we wanted to show off our new kite flying skills at the annual Austin kite festival. That day happened to be a super duper windy day, and our cheapo robot kite broke into two pieces within thirty seconds in the air. So sad. Thankfully, there were many other cool kites to enjoy at the festival, as well as a bouncy-house which is always a big hit.

Bouncing in Pooh kite shirt from Aunt Ariane's trip to Hong Kong Disneyland

"It's the biggest kite ever!"

Yesterday morning I came downstairs to this cute sight- Luke watching cartoons, Louis sleeping.

Saturday morning snuggles

Today Louis built an addition to our backyard playscape for Luke. The playscape has a small platform that you have to climb up onto in order to slide down the slide. The only way up was via a verticle ladder on which Luke was equally capable of climbing up and dangerously falling off. So, Louis built a ramp ladder for easier access to the platform. Luke helped out using his wooden toy tools and by stress testing the final product. Turns out he can still find a way to fall, but now it's a bit more unlikely.

Luke the builder, can we fix it? Yes we can!

Happy 2 (and a half) Birthday

2008-02-18T19:38:00.007-06:00

We'll take any excuse to eat cake

Luke turned 2 1/2 years old today! Since an entire year is far too long to wait to enjoy three of his favorites activities- singing the birthday song, blowing out candles, and eating cake- we celebrated halfway through the year. With 2 1/2 candles lit on a cupcake, we sang him the happy birthday song and then he sang it to himself about a dozen more times. Happy half birthday buddy!

As Luke says it- "I blowed it up!"

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T19:38:00.007-06:00

Koko, will you be my Valentine?

Luke's other true love- dessert.

...and playgrounds, too.

Lots of love to our friends and family. Happy Valentine's day!

Christmas in Houston

2008-01-04T20:17:00.001-06:00

We spent a wonderful week in Houston over the Christmas holiday. Luke had tons of fun hanging out with Nana and Grandpa and Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Scott.

Nana and Grandpa were so excited to give Luke one of his Christmas presents that they gave it to him two days early. Luke was very grateful because it is the coolest gift ever- a big bouncy horsie! I had one similar to this as a kid, but, as with most toys, they've come long way, baby.

Yeehaw horsie!

Christmas Eve night Nana read Luke (and a room full of adult friends and family who had joined us for Christmas dinner) the book The Night Before Christmas. Afterward, we set out milk and cookies by the fireplace for Santa so that he could have something to snack on during his stop at our house that night. Luke ended up drinking most of Santa's milk... sorry, Santa. Then Cactus (our dog) ate one of the cookies right off of the plate before we could stop her... again, sorry Santa. (We totally should have seen that one coming.) We refilled Santa's plate, then put Luke to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in his head.

I guess Santa's milk must taste better than the milk in Luke's own glass

The next morning we woke up with Luke and excitedly walked into the living room to see all of the wonderful presents under the tree and the stockings stuffed full of goodies! Santa was here!!! After everyone woke up and gathered around the tree, Luke handed out presents to everyone and chanted "open it, open it!" while exhuberantly jumping around. It was our most fun Christmas ever.

Hard evidence Santa was here- cookies crumbs and an empty glass of milk.

The next day we visited Luke's Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Scott at their house. While there, Louis and Luke hijacked their 4-wheeler and took a joyride around the neighborhood. They didn't get busted by the cops, but had they I wonder if Luke would have gotten the ticket(s)... after all, he was in the drivers seat. Building a rapsheet by the age of 2 isn't going to help his chances of getting into a posh preschool...

Daddy and Luke riding Britney-style

Luke loves airplanes, so we took a short drive to a nifty little road near the airport that crosses the beginning of one of the airport's landing strips. You can park there and watch the airplanes fly right overhead and land mere feet from where you are standing. It was pretty cool to do when I was a kid, and it is still cool now. And Luke loved it. He sat on Grandpa's shoulders to get even closer to the planes and waved at the pilots and passengers every time they flew over. We swear the pilots tipped their wings to us as they passed.

I should have brought my slingshot

On another day, we spent the morning at the awesome Houston Aquarium. They have all types of cool stuff. Giant Octopus, Electric eels, 200 lb turtles, Mexican Walking Fish, White Tigers plus an amusement park with a train ride through a shark tank! They also have a merry-go-round and a very high in the sky ferris wheel that Luke rode for the first time. We were a bit nervous that he'd have not so much fun once the rides started, but he enjoyed them as much as we did. Having a kid is the best excuse ever to ride amusement park rides. Thanks Luke.

He kissed me!

Those raisins look delicious... and you look pretty tasty yourself, little boy

Getting carsick on the carousel

Ferris wheel fever!

It was fun to see some old friends while in Houston too. We met up with a group of friends at the Jumalons' house and watched the Longhorns trounce Arizona State in the Holiday Bowl. Luke hung out with his buddy, Vincent, and they partied until past their bedtimes along with the football watching crowd. Vince has a sweet motorized motorcycle that the boys zoomed around the house in. Luke drove at first, then Vince took the wheel until the batteries pooped out. The boys finally pooped out as well, and after a late night hanging with friends we packed up the next morning and headed back to Austin. Happy New Year, y'all!

Ponch and Jon running down some crooks

Merry Christmas Update

2007-12-11T20:35:00.000-06:00

To catch us up, here are lots of pictures from the last few months. We vacationed in France, had a spooky Halloween, a yummy Thanksgiving and we are gearing up for Christmas...

Farmer Luke in Normandy

Parent tip #932: Kids LOVE balloons!

Luke's cousin Lavinia takes him under her wing

Louis and his sisters Yasmine and Ariane.
Luke and his cousins Henry, Renee and Lavina.

Luke is pleased with the French cuisine

Luke on his second birthday,
dressed up for his great grandmother's 100th birthday celebration

Just another day at the office

Luke and Jen, hanging out

Luke cheating injury once again

Too much sugar!

Luke's first pony ride

Luke on the Deauville boardwalk

Renee pointing out a butterfly to Luke at the butterfly sanctuary

Lavina, Luke and Renee turning into butterflies

Back to Austin... football season, yay!

Splash time with Gabby in our backyard

Luke and Grandpa having fun

Grandpa saving Luke as he cheats injury once again

Smile!

Carving the pumpkin before Halloween... yummy

A job well done!

At the pumpkin patch

Luke and Gabby, awwww

Luke the cowboy, yee ha! Happy Halloween!

Martin Armstrong

Luke's buddies: Gabby, Luke, Vivian, Ellie, Zach, Winston, Martin

Luke and Gabby Trick or Treating

Hanging Christmas lights around the house

Decorating gingerbread house and noses

That's all for now! Happy holidays!

A boring day in Chicago

2007-09-12T14:08:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks after moving in to our new house we were off to France for a family visit and to celebrate the 100th birthday of my Grandmother. We were scheduled to fly from Austin to Chicago, then Chicago to Paris. Our (mis)adventure started in Chicago. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly as far as killing several hours in an airport during a layover can go, and we boarded our flight to Paris in good spirits. We proceeded to sit for over two hours on an unairconditioned plane before they announced that the plane had irreparable mechanical problems and they were canceling the flight. By now it was after 7pm which is Luke's usual bedtime and we are thinking "Oh no, don't mess with the bedtime, this is not going to end well." We packed up our belongings, got off the plane, and waited an hour in line to rebook a flight. It was too late to catch any other flight to Paris and, after much heated conversation with the airline, we accepted the fact that the only other flight we could take would be this same flight the next day. A full 24 hours later. Pissed, hungry, and with a travel weary toddler, we waited for our bags in baggage claim, took a cab to a hotel and checked in for the night. Luke was a trooper and never complained (whew).

We got up to the room and having not had dinner yet, ordered Luke some room service. By 10pm he was saying, "Mommy... Lukey go night night?" and after procuring a hotel portable crib, he fell fast asleep.

Do we get HBO in this room?

Our flight wasn't to leave Chicago until the next evening so we were going to have to spend the day in Chicago. Sweet, right?! Chicago's a big town, there has gotta be lots of fun stuff to do around here! Well, not so much... It takes over an hour each way by train to get from the airport to downtown Chicago. Either that or a $75 cab ride each way. Add in that we'd need to be back for a nap and you buy yourself an exciting 30 minutes in downtown Chicago before you have to turn around and go back to the hotel.

Surely the great Chicago airport metropolitan area has numerous activities for stranded families? Guess again. Our options were a Wizards and Fantasy Convention at the airport convention center or.... anything else. We heard there was a Denny's within walking distance so we had to check that out. It sucked.

After breakfast at Denny's we went back to the hotel for a swim. That was fun but ended after Luke's non-swim diaper exploded cellulose pulp all over the place. We quickly gathered up our things and ran back to our room before anyone could blame the mess on us. Parent lesson # 16,371: Don't let your diaper wearing child in the water more than 15 minutes.

Then came nap time, checkout and finally our flight! The flight went great thanks to a portable DVD player worth its weight in gold and a steady supply of snacks. A short 10 hour flight later and 2 hour car ride we had arrived at our destination in St. Gatien, France.

Yay! We're finally here!

The Move...

2007-09-11T14:05:00.000-05:00

Hey there. Sorry for the delay... lots has been happening 'round the Svoboda house. First off, we bought a new Svoboda house, moved in, then sold the old house. So really, lots has been happening around two houses, and that has made for some very busy Svobodas.

We moved into our new house in the middle of July. As many of you already know, moving is one of the easiest things one could do. Furniture pretty much moves itself, boxes get packed by garden gnomes and our new houses are always in perfect shape when we move into them. We've decided we should move every few months, it really is the perfect was to enjoy the summer.

Luke, as always, was a great help. When Jen and I got tired, he pulled up the slack by packing boxes and filling up the Uhaul...

Things to pack: Luke (1)

Doublewide

Enough packing for today

Is this what Dad means when he says the band is going on tour?

Lucky Luke

Let's Move Out!

The first project I assigned Luke to in the new house was to put new flooring in his playroom to replace the carpeting that was there when we moved in. Not that Luke needed the help, but Nana, Grandpa, Aunt Kim and Uncle Scott were over that weekend to lend a hand.

The "before" picture (the grossness of the carpet just isn't captured by this photo):

After Luke unloaded the wood out of the truck, he went right to work...

Almost done, just a few more measurements to go...

All Done! Thanks for the help guys!

Here are some more pics of our first days in Jenner Cove:

More peas please

Teepee time! No girls allowed!

Sweet, the TV is set up. Gotta watch the Wiggles...

Right about the time we got all of our furniture moved in, we packed up our suitcases and went to France for a couple of weeks. Those pics to follow soon...

201G Side Project - The Warlords of Freedom

2007-07-01T21:17:00.000-05:00

Luke likes to watch me play the guitar. He sits next to me and plucks the strings and sings along and dances... but his favorite thing to do is to take my guitar pick and throw it in my guitar. To him, this is the goal of the game of guitar. He thinks it is hilarious, I find it a bit annoying especially when I'm in the zone thrashing on some Major 7th Arpeggios in "Head Shoulder's Knees and Toes" or my advanced acoustic Legato Technique buried deep inside "Oh Susanna". The album is never going to get done at this rate... But our groupie is hot and she feeds us so we're in no rush.

Luke has his own toddler sized guitar he received as a birthday gift from Martin (I don't know where he gets all this money, he doesn't even have a job and lives on his parents couch) . Since the day he got it Luke has always liked playing that guitar. Playing with it consists of breaking strings, dragging it along the ground, using it as a Maracatar (the musical instrument he invented by putting guitar picks in the body of a guitar and shaking the guitar like a maraca). For the sake of the poor mistreated guitar, we put it away for a few months while I did some Mr. Miyagi training on Luke to improve his chops. We recently reintroduced Luke's guitar to him for another try at a demo of Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love". We're just about to get to the killer guitar solo and... well you'll see...

We are currently looking for a lead singer preferably female and under the age of 3 that can speak to our demographic in a language they understand. We're thinking Gwen Stefani meets the Olsen twins. A ganster rap repertiore is a must. Tryouts will be held in Austin area parks over the next few weeks.

Welcome Winston

2007-06-21T20:53:00.000-05:00

Paparazzi snuck into the D'Andrea hospital room and scored this picture of baby Winston. Ok, it wasn't paparazzi, it was me. But here he is! Congratulations Winston, you landed some pretty cool parents and an awesome big bro.

Bug bite, abscess, and needles, oh my!

2007-06-20T21:36:00.000-05:00

Before I begin I must warn those of you with weak stomachs that this story is pretty gross. If the phrase "volcano of puss" makes you want to hurl, then look away now. Don't say you haven't been warned.

(Now if you are like me and you read that first paragraph you are thinking, "Sweet! I love a good disgusting medical tale, don't spare me the details!" And so for you like-minded readers, I will try not to disappoint.)

So we begin our saga last Thursday, approximately, with a simple mosquito bite, not unlike any other many mosquito bites we all get this time of year. But this particular bite bit back, and somehow, probably by him scratching it, acquired a secondary infection and started to get a bit red and swollen. We thought nothing of this for a couple of days and treated it alternately with Neosporin and hydrocortisone cream. Jump to late Saturday and into Sunday and the mosquito bite became more and more swollen, hard, and scarlet red. And Luke started to run a fever. Time to see the doctor. Monday morning I paced the floor until the pediatrician's office phone lines opened at 8am and I called and got an appointment with anyone available at 8:30 that morning. We made our way to the office and as soon as the doctor walked in the room she exclaimed, "oh my goodness that is quite a Staph infection you have there". She went on to explain that it is very common to get a Staph infection after a bug bite, scratch, or scrape, but that she wanted to treat it as if it is MRSA- methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus- until proven otherwise. MRSA is a much more serious strain of Staph that is resistant to most antibiotics, and by coincidence (or not?) she had seen several cases of last week. In order to diagnose that this was MRSA she had to retrieve a sample from inside the wound to culture. What followed was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. While Luke's legs were pinned down by me and his arms held down by a nurse, the doctor squeezed the abscess again and again and again while Luke wailed in pain. Twice she attempted to drain it by using a syringe needle to pop it, to no avail. Luke was screaming "Mommy!! Mommy!!" and I was crying right along with him. Eventually we decided to stop trying to pop it and to try again 48 hours later when it would be more "ripe". (Think teenage hormone fed monster zit times 100. As an admitted lover of popping zits, this would seem as if it were a dream come true to me, but given Luke's obvious horrible pain it was a nightmare.) The doctor drew a pen line around the redness and said if it spread beyond the pen border to immediately bring him in and that we'd probably have to admit him to the hospital for a surgical incision and drainage and IV antibiotics. We left with a prescription for oral antibiotics and one mad and hurting and pen-marked up little fellow.

What is this a picture of, a heat map of Antarctica? No, it's Luke's belly

The next day the sore had grown to the size of a baseball and was hard as a rock. Half the baseball was under the skin, half was above. He didn't seem in too much pain unless you directly touched it, so all was as well as could be expected while we waited for the antibiotics to work their magic. Then Luke suddenly broke out in humongous hives. One hive was the size of his entire upper leg. We rushed to the doctors office again while I panicked and feared he was going into anaphylactic shock (which he was not). The doctor said it was a common reaction to this type of antibiotic, and that we should switch him to this other antibiotic and start him on a precription antihistamine. She tried very briefly to squeeze the huge abscess again with the hopes of getting out some puss to culture, but it wasn't budging and Luke was in excruciating pain, so we planned on trying again the next day and we left, again. Within an hour of him taking the antihistamine the hives had started to subside and my nerves were finally starting to settle down a bit.

Now it is Wednesday, today, and the dreaded second attempt at popping the sucker was here. By now our warm heat compresses had helped the sore to come to a white head and it was just begging to explode. The doctor squeezed a bit, stabbed it with another syringe needle and it suddenly erupted like hot molten lava out of a volcano. A huge surge of puss and blood shot into the air literally 3 feet high, no exaggeration. Greenish yellow thick puss and blood sprayed onto the wall, onto my shirt (which, of course, was white), all in my hair, onto the doctor, on Louis and all over the table. It was epic. It was Quentin Tarantino movie worthy. Two other smaller 6 inch to 1 foot high eruptions followed, along with a chorus of "whoa!" by the doctor and me and Louis. Definitely MRSA she says, as no other type of Staph causes greenish thick puss like this. (Of course Luke was screaming bloody murder during all of this, but I know it must feel much better now that so much of that pressure was released.) The doc said she'd done hundreds of these procedures over the years and had never had one squirt out like that. She seemed impressed and surprised, and I think that's saying a lot for a jaded doctor. We later heard her excitedly retelling the story to the doctors and nurses in the hallway and their replies of "ewwww!". She thinks it should all heal up nicely now, and it already looks somewhat better although it is still the size of a ping pong ball and remains hard and very red. But I think he is now on the mend as long as the antibiotics do their job and whip some bad bug butt.

The funny thing about this doctors visit today was that a teenage boy was in the room and had been following our doctor around for the day. Sort of a "so you wanna be a doctor" kind of experience, and he witnessed the entire screaming baby green puss eruption and was obviously slightly traumatized. I asked him afterward if he was ok, and he never really responded with more than a "wow", and I won't be surprised if he ditches the medical school plans and joins a rock band. I'm sure he had quite a story to tell his friends though.

Post volcano, all bandaged up with a Care Bears Band Aid and a big dose of ibuprofen

While growing up my mom always said to us "don't pick that scab, you're going to get a Staph infection!" I never did get a Staph infection and probably thought she was paranoid and over-protective. Hmm, maybe she was right... Don't tell her I said that. I'll never admit to it.

To hopefully dull the image in your brain of a Staph infected wounded Luke I have included a sweet picture of my sleeping beauty in one of his more serene moments. I snuck into Luke's room while he was sleeping (to check for more hives) and found this cute scene- Luke and Koko (the Koala bear) cuddling while snoozing. (His Aunt Yasmine sent him this Koala from Australia when he was born and it's been in his crib since day 1.) Sweet dreams little tough guy. You're a trooper.

End note:

While waiting in line to check out at the pediatrician's office today, my friend, Erin (of Martin's blog http://www.dandreafamilyjournal.blogspot.com/), called with terrific news. Their new son, Mr. Winston Raphael D'Andrea, was born today! Welcome to the world little guy!! And don't pick your scabs!

Cupcakes and Dreams

2007-06-13T20:52:00.000-05:00

This weekend we attended a super fun BBQ at the Weiss's house and Luke spent the afternoon hanging with his best buds splashing in the kiddy pool, playing with bubbles, and munching on tasty snacks. After dinner he was presented with his first ever delicious frosted cupcake. At first he was wary...

What is this thing you call a cupcake?

Then his taste buds danced and he realized...

I LOVE CUPCAKES!

Don't fake the funk with a nasty dunk

2007-06-11T21:39:00.000-05:00

Here's a video we recorded about a month ago when Luke received his HEB Buddy Bucks Basketball set in the mail. For those of you who don't know, "Buddy Bucks" is a ficticious currency given by the cashier at the HEB supermarket. You get 2 maybe 3 Buddy Bucks per visit depending on the mood of your cashier.

You (I mean your child), takes the buck, puts it in a skill-crane type machine and moves the joystick above a pile of plastic bubbles with a sticker inside. You hit the button on the joystick, the crane falls, grabs a plastic bubble (hopefully), and drops the bubble into a door where your child can grab it. The stickers have numbers on them and when you collect enough points you can trade them in for sweet booty like pencil sets, graham crackers and loaves of bread (seriously). The kids go nuts over this and there is usually a line three deep waiting to get their snotty hands on the machine.

Anyway, Luke has been saving his Buddy Bucks for a while and finally had enough points to "buy" a basketball set. He loves to dunk the "ba ball". This is your warning that if you try and get between him and the hoop, he'll "posterize" you...

My favorite aspect of this video is that it looks like Luke is taking direction before the camera starts rolling. It's like you can almost hear us saying (although we weren't) "Alright Luke, this time, give us lots of energy. Quiet on the set! OK, roll sound... roll picture... and..... ACTION!"

All this with no pants and never dropping his milk. I'd like to see Michael Jordan try that trick.

Jamaica-me-crazy

2007-06-11T15:34:00.000-05:00

Catamaran cruise off the coast of Negril, Jamaica

Louis and I jetted off to Jamaica over Memorial Day weekend for my friend Jaime's wedding. This was our first trip away from Luke for more than one night at a time. While we did miss him a lot, we knew he was having a blast with his Nana and Grandpa in Houston and we were having lots of fun in the sun in Negril. The wedding took place right on the beach to a beautiful backdrop of blue water and bright blue skies. Afterward we spent the next few days frolicking around the resort and taking full advantage of the all-inclusive gourmet food and yummy drinks. We went on a snorkeling trip, a catamaran cruise, got massages, went sailing, played tennis, and made fast friends with the bartenders at the beach bar. We also did a whole lotta nothing at times and it was great.

Meanwhile Luke hung out with his grandparents and played in the kiddy pool, played lots of bubbles, and racked up a major bill at Toys R Us. Suckers... and they loved every minute of it.

Bubble swallows toddler, or Glinda the Good Witch says "there's no place like home"

Finally, Luke would like to welcome his newest friend to the world, Mr. Brody Thomas Herman born May 14. Congrats Nicole and Brian and sisters Faith and Bella! Brody- Louis grew up with two older sisters and he has lots of tips and tricks for you!

Stuff We Do

2007-05-22T14:47:00.000-05:00

What kind of stuff do we do around Austin? We do lots of fun things and especially like the ones that involve lots of room and opportunity for Luke to run around and play. In other words, he can be a psycho energy ball and we prefer places that can accomodate that. We can often be found hanging out at various parks and playgrounds and other such places that are sturdy enough for his romps.

We like to go to Town Lake to walk along the water, feed the ducks, feed the birds, look at the sunning turtles, watch the dogs running and swimming, and pay homage to the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue and big guitars.

A view from the top

www.gibson.com/AustinGuitarTownWebsite

Here birdies- 1 Cheerio for you, 10 for me

A few weeks ago we went to the grand opening of a new Babies R Us location for the free cake and balloons and celebrity sightings of Clifford the Big Red Dog and the Cat in the Hat. Luke loved seeing the big red "woof" from afar, but up close he wasn't as excited about the idea. My camera phone came in handy that day.

Alright woof, that's close enough.

We like visiting the children's museum too. There are lots and lots of cool things to play with there and lots and lots of other small kids to drown out the screeches of your own. There is a mini Austin City Limits stage complete with tv cameras and music and Luke likes to bang on the drums and slam the wooden guitars into the floor. He's a true rock star in the making.

Catch my act at ACL Fest 2025

Tunnel o' Luke

Daddy hogging the slide

Maamaa, let me out, I promise I'll be good

How about stuff we no longer will do? That list includes allowing Luke to run laps around tables of shoes and jewelry at Dillards while screaming at the top of his lungs. He was happily doing this seemingly harmless activity last weekend while mom shopped for jewelry. Dad was watching, and while we may have been the recipients of other people's eye daggers, we figured that he was happy and enjoying himself and that is a whole lot better than whining and crying, so hey, what could go wrong. Well... Luke was running past one table that was about three feet high and on top of this table was multiple precariously perched two foot high metal jewelry stands stocked full of earrings and necklaces. He suddenly stopped running, gave the jewelry stand a good look and purposefully pushed the entire stand off the table before we could stop him. It landed with a horrible loud crash and jewelry went flying and I waited for Luke to scream out in fear, and possibly in pain... but no, he just laughed. A big, evil, belly laugh full of naughy self satisfaction. We hastily cleaned up a bit and hightailed it outta there before the "you are bad parents" looks burned holes in our backs.

Baby Shower

2007-04-28T20:39:00.000-05:00

Tot Teetering Teeter-Totter

I got to hang with some of my oldest bestest buds on Saturday and all of their kiddos. My friend, Nicole, of "Faith and Bella" blog fame, is due in May with her third child, a boy, so we got together for a baby shower and for party time afterward. Party time pretty much means the kids ran around like berserk-o-heads, frolicking and having a blast while the parents sat in lawn chairs drinking beers. My kind of party. We had a great time.

From left to right sit Luke, Bella, Andrew, Faith and Ally
Two handsome men, three lovely prinsesses... Good odds, boys.

Biiiiike!

2007-04-26T22:06:00.000-05:00

Look at me, ladies! I've got my own wheels now!

Last weekend we bought Luke his first tricycle, which he calls his "bike". He adores it. It is a super cool Radio Flyer trike with a handy basket on the back and very masculine tassles that hang off of the handlebars. We bought an old fashioned sounding bike bell for it and attached it to the front (not pictured) and he rings it while he cruises by. He rides it up and down our street and can now hang with the cool big kids and their bikes. They all play together in the culdesac and they like to show Luke all sorts of big boy bike tricks like popping wheelies and catching air off of their ramp. He's not quite to that skill level yet, but he practices every day. Bikes are the coolest!

Here mama, let me haul that away for you.

Easter Egg Hunt

2007-04-09T10:53:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures from our visit to Nana and Grandpa's house over Easter weekend. The Easter bunny visited Luke there and left him all sorts of goodies. Colorful plastic eggs full of treats were hidden in the grass and bushes, and Luke seeked them out like a professional treasure hunter. He had a blast and we had just as much fun watching him. We don't know why the Easter bunny didn't leave us bigger kids anything- must be age discrimination.

Here is footage from Luke's first training session for hunting Easter eggs. Looks promising...

Alright Luke, this is the real deal- This is where your training has brought you. It's YOU vs the Easter Bunny... GO!

And the young human stalks his prey, then attacks!

Wow, there is stuff inside the eggs! So... bunnies lay eggs of goldfish?

Wait a minute... bunnies lay eggs of ducks? I'm so confused...

The Easter bunny also brought Luke an awesome Easter basket!

Sweet, a basket of toys and snacks! How does the Jesus part fit into all of this?

Bluebonnets and Bubbles

2007-04-02T10:15:00.000-05:00

Hurry up Mom, these flowers are itching my bum

It's that time of year where the bluebonnets are blooming! This is a monumental time in Austin, where even the newscasters report bluebonnet sightings so that the wildflower enthusiasts can catch a glimpse of their beautiful blanketing of hillsides. A couple of weeks ago we took these pictures in the first crop of bluebonnets on the sides of the very romantic drainage ditch near our house. We plan to get better pictures soon now that the rain has subsided and all of the Texas wildflowers will be in full bloom any day.

Here Dad, this bluebonnet tastes delicious

Annual required bluebonnet pose. Pretend like you like it and smile.

And here are some other pictures from that day...

If I close my eyes nobody can see me... peekaboo!

Luke and Dad in matching outfits

Me and my shadow enjoy some quality time together

Where's Lukey?

Mt. Bridgeway, elevation 2

Luke and Martin knock back a couple of cold ones

Luke loves to blow bubbles. If he sees the bubble container in the house, he is unrelenting in his demand to play with the bubbles. He points to the container and clearly says, "Bubbles! Bubbles!" and it's pretty tough to resist, so we play bubbles a lot. He runs around the yard chasing them, squealing "Bubbles! Bubbles!" and it is very cute. He likes to blow them himself but often ends up with the wand up to his mouth and the bubble soap all over his lips. And then he is able to blow bubbles with his mouth which he thinks is a pretty neat trick. Almost as neat a trick as blowing bubbles in his milk or in his yogurt, which makes much more of a mess and is, therefore, the most fun trick of all.

Bubble boy

Mom said these two bubbles resemble mitotic cell division. My mom is a geek.

Don't make me choose between going to see the train or watching bubbles!

Nude Painting

2007-03-29T10:51:00.000-05:00

Apparently tummies are the preferred canvas of toddlers

Luke's teacher sent me this picture of him and his buddies painting. I thanked her for the great picture and for stripping off his clothes before this activity. Just glad I wasn't the one to have to clean up that mess.

Bad Hair Day

2007-03-24T12:06:00.000-05:00

To the moon, Dad! You did this to me!

Louis gave Luke a haircut today. He's done it before with decent results. The plan today was to leave the top long-ish and just trim up the back and around the ears, which was getting long and wavy. We don't know what was different this time, but somehow the haircut turned out reeeeeally short. And he shaved a big bald spot above one of Luke's ears- check out the picture below I took as evidence.

Louis says this is how the kids wear their hair these days

It could be worse. It's not tragic. Just unfortunate. Sorry dude... It'll grow back, eventually.

March Madness

2007-03-20T19:57:00.000-05:00

So here are Luke's picks for the NCAA Basketball tournament (or 'Ba Ball' as Luke calls it). As you can see from the results to far, they are not so hot. He was pretty adamant about a Maryland and BYU final and I can't really understand where he went wrong. Maybe you guys can. Here was his strategy for his picks:

#1 seeds automatically win their first game (because he can stick 1 finger in the air and sort of say "one")
The name of the team (he's a big fan of teams with "mama", "dada" or "wawa" sounds which is why he has Maryland winning the whole thing)
The seed number of the team (his favorite number is "deux" so "2" seeds got picked a lot)
He's a fan of Texas and Texas A&M (because he recognizes the Longhorn sign and Gig 'em sign when I presented their match ups)
Everything else was either picked because he was either annoyed with one of the team names I presented to him or he was bored and wanted to read his favorite book "Clap Your Hands" that I was using as a writing surface at the time we were making the picks.

This was his first tournament so we're not going to be too hard on him. Next year we're expecting results.

Here are some recent pictures. In this picture he demonstrates one of his favorite activities of climbing on large sized items we just bought from the store. His favorites include mega packs of toilet paper, 12 packs of Coke, and this big bag of dog food. If you ever wondered how that toddler sized footprint got on the Cheerios box at our house, now you know.

King of the hill

A couple of weekends ago the Jumalons were in Austin. Luke got to visit with his bud Vince and enjoy the awesome view of the lake from the house they rented. Behold the future point guard and power forward of the Houston Rockets.

Louis, Luke, Vince and Jen J on Lake Austin

Here is a pic of Luke's good friend, Martin, on St. Patrick's day at our house. We had the D'Andreas over for a Irish themed evening including green attire, Irish cheese, Guinness, Jameson Irish Whiskey, and two very shnockered blokes by the end of the night. (And I don't mean Luke and Martin. Their part of the fun ended at their 7pm bedtime.)

Martin cuts the cheese

Luke loves to drive at high speeds all over the house on his scooter. He drives forward, backward, and upward by picking up the whole thing to ride over anything that gets in his way. And on days that we bring home those big items just purchased from the store, he drives over them as well. I see monster truck rallies in his future. GIT 'ER DONE!

I rule this living room

This La Croix is la crushed

Peter Pan's Revenge

2007-03-03T21:26:00.000-06:00

This weekend, Luke's Aunt Kim and Uncle Scott came to visit him and we all had a blast. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we spent lots of time outside. Saturday morning we visited our favorite local South Austin breakfast joint, Taco Xpress. We dined on delicious breakfast tacos and migas and Luke showed us all how to properly don an empty paper food boat. You wear it on your head, of course.

Mas tacos, ahora mama.

That afternoon we enjoyed a fun game of miniature golf at the Peter Pan Golf Course. The four adults used regular golf putters and Luke was given a special big boy blue plastic putter. This game was a rematch a long time coming for me and Kim. We last visited this course over twenty years ago during a family trip to Austin in the summer of 1986 where Kim famously smacked me square in the bridge of my nose with a golf club as she rared back for a long shot down the mini golf fairway. I've been exacting my revenge ever since and she knows it. Being the good boy that he is, Luke beat her bad at golf that one glorious afternoon and properly righted a wrong from long ago. What a good son. It was straight from The Godfather.

Well actually, the way it happened is that Luke beat us all bad at golf that day. He's a genius and proved it by showing us all a much more efficient way to get the ball in the hole. Why whack at it in frustration all day with a long metal stick? Just pick it up and place it in the hole by hand. Duh. Luke scored a twenty, which has got to make even Tiger Woods jealous, especially since Luke isn't even two years old yet. He's a true prodigy. (Takes after his mom.)

Peter Pan Golf Course, the rematch

Here Luke, let me show you how to do it

No Dad, let ME show YOU how to do it

No fear

Svoboda Castle

Relaxing at Shady Grove after a long day on the links, Luke with chicken in hand.

Finally, Luke would like to welcome his two newest friends, and future girlfriends, Vivian and Eleanor, aka Ellie. Click their names to view their blogs. Luke says he's single and looking, so watch out ladies!

18 Months of fun!

2007-02-21T19:44:00.000-06:00

Luke turned a big 18 months old this week. This particular month-birthday seems like a bigger deal to us than the other recent ones. It just sounds like a milestone-ish age, like he's now more of a kid and less a baby. I guess it helps that he looks like a kid- he visited the doctor today for his 18 month checkup and weighed in at 28 lbs 8 oz and measured 34 1/2 inches long, in the 80th and 95th percentiles, respectively, so yeah, he definitely doesn't look like a baby anymore.

Here are some pictures to prove it:

Donuts from Krispy Kreme, part of your nutritious breakfast

Luke helps wash the cars by denting them with his toys

And then kicking his feet up to relax. Get back to work, minions!

I'm 18 now, can't I get my drivers license yet?

Dad said "don't ask" when asked how he scored these Mardi Gras beads on 6th St.

What we've been up to

2007-01-28T13:17:00.000-06:00

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Here's an encyclopedia's worth of what we've been up to...

Hugh Hefner is my hero

On the Zilker Zephyr train during Zach's Birthday Party

Luke loves his teddy bear chair from Aunt Ariane!

Post Thanksgiving meal bath streaking session

On the swing in Houston

Day of fun with Nana and Grandpa

Christmas in Houston

Playing in the puddles

This is what happens when it's quiet for too long...

Somebody here is guilty of something

How hard can this thing be?

Is this right, Dada?

It's snowing in Austin!

The car is breaking into pieces!

Mmmm this car tastes good...

You sure you don't want a piece Mama?

This is what happens when Luke gets a hold of the camera...

One for the money...

Two for the show...

Ahhhhh! Bright light! Bright light!

Capitol Kid

2006-11-14T19:18:00.000-06:00

This weekend the weather was superb- cooler, sunny and not a cloud in the sky. It was a perfect day for gallivanting around outside and around town. We took a short trip right up the road to acknowledge Veteran's Day by visiting the Texas State Capitol. Turns out, to our delight, that the Capitol is a GREAT place for a kid in dire need of burning off some excess energy. There are lots of wide open spaces indoors and out, ideal for running around and tuckering yourself out. And its free!

Feel the burn

Luke decided he didn't want to ride around in his stroller that day, and instead pushed it around, empty, all over the place, up hills and all. That's him in the orange sweatshirt in the picture above. We didn't object. Go on ahead and wear yourself out kiddo, ok by us.

If you stand in the center of the rotunda and look up there is a beautiful view up to the top. It makes for some pretty dizzy moments after spinning around while looking up. And it also makes for some fabulous echoes, which can be louder than you'd ever guess should your kid decide to screech at the top of his lungs. Just a warning.

A long way up...

...a long way down

For dinner tonight Luke had some leftover long linguine noodles from our dinner from the night before. I had the clever idea of not cutting them into more manageable sized pieces, thinking it could make for a funny photo op. I was right. Long noodles can be pretty funny.

The neverending noodle

These noodles are hilarious!

BBQ and Four Shots

2006-11-07T09:50:00.000-06:00

Luke got to hang with his little bud Vince this weekend and partake in the right of passage of experiencing delicious Salt Lick BBQ for the first time. Luke showed us how well he can eat with a fork if he wants to (but only if he wants to. )

Mmm, this BBQ would be complemented nicely by a good 2006 Shiner Bock

Vince showed us how comfy a Bumbo seat can be and decided to take a nap right there at the table. BBQ and a nap, what a good life.

Hey dude, so does that mean you aren't going to eat that?

Afterward we spent the afternoon at the park and tried to keep up with Luke as he climbed up down and all around the playscapes. We secretly are thrilled he loves the park because it gives us the chance to climb the monkeybars and swing on the swings without looking like creepy adult weirdos.

Slide Away

98...99... 100 pullups!

Today Luke had his 15 month checkup, ten days shy of actually being 15 months old but at the right time to get a second booster flu shot. Big guy weighed in at 27 lbs 4 oz and measured 32 inches tall, both between the 80-85th percentiles. But in addition to the flu shot he got three other vaccinations, for a total of 4 shots this visit. Luke is totally wising up to the fact that this particular nurse always wields her body stabbing death sticks and he freaked out as soon as he saw her. She said she didn't take it personally, that right around this age most kids start to remember her and her evil ways. But a good rummage through the nurses' toy chest after the shots were over dried the tears right up, as always. Who knew a 1 cent red plastic hippo and a Snoopy bandaid could make a kid so happy?

Master Yoda Svoboda

2006-10-30T12:41:00.000-06:00

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... well, not too long ago and not too far, far away. In my belly actually. There lived a little bitty baby that came to be known as Luke. But we didn't know he was a "Luke" until he joined us in this world on August 18, 2005. Before that we referred to the growing girl or boy alien in my belly as Yoda- Yoda Svoboda.

When 900 years you reach look as good you will not

When I ran across this Yoda costume this year I immediately knew it was perfect for Luke. He won't stay Yoda-sized for long, so I had to jump at the chance to dress him up as his former namesake this Halloween.

Darnit, I left my light saber on Dagobah

The pictures are from our visit to Louis' office where he scored some yummy Halloween candy and lots of attention from the ladies. Notice the authentic Yoda swagger in the video.

Luke ditches the light saber for a lollipop and makes a run for it

Walk Like a Man

2006-10-28T12:54:00.000-05:00

This has been a pretty busy month for all of us but mostly for Luke. He's walking now! About a week or so ago he started taking two, three... ten steps around the house, and now he's walking all the way up and down our street and all around Target and Toys R Us. Here's a video of him on his second day of walking (sorry it is so dark):

He is walking really well now, although I wouldn't have him carry a trayful of mugs of hot tea just yet. The only problem now is that he sometimes will INSIST on walking- and no, I don't want to hold your hand, I want to do it all by myself, thankyouverymuch! Take the Target trip, for example. He wanted to walk around the store as opposed to riding in the cart or having us carry him. We let him walk for a while, but him walking up and down the aisles, while cute, is neither efficient nor safe. We felt like we were watching a Frogger video game as he crossed an aisle, narrowing avoiding cart collisions. After we tired of his slow pace and just wanted to finish up and get out of the store, we picked him up and what transpired can, I think, be described as his first tantrum. He desperately flailed and squirmed to get out of the cart or our arms so that he could walk on his own, and he screamed and cried for at least 10 minutes when he did not get his way. Of course, we got "the eye" from our fellow shoppers, some of knowing pity and some of the "are you kidnapping him" variety. Eventually he calmed down, or just gave up, but not before we got a glimpse of the future Terrible Twos to come.

This is what it looks like when you bump into a camera

There are unfortunate consequences to walking though, we soon learned. The fall down to the ground can be a rough one. The other day Luke slipped and landed mouth first onto a table, busting his top lip and the gums under it. His mouth was swollen out like two inches and he looked very much like Daffy Duck. His gums turned all black and he had a big scab on his lip. The pic below just doesn't do it justice. It looked much worse in person. Then two days later he face planted onto the carpet and sported carpet burn scratches up his nose and forehead. This walking thing is not for wussies!

You shoulda seen the other guy

To complement his new big man walking we decided it was time to get him a big man haircut as well. No more Flying Nun-like long curls flowing from the sides of his head. Time to dress the part, son. So, we took him to a kiddy haircut joint with cool race car chairs and cartoons showing on the tv. But he wasn't impressed. He didn't like this idea at all! How the hair cutter managed to cut his hair evenly and without slicing an ear is beyond me. She had magic squirmy kid skills. He eventually chilled out and went into an Elmo tv watching trance and she finished up his haircut without incident.

Samson is defeated

Let me outta this race car chair!

Hmm, I guess I do look pretty good now

Afterward Luke wanted to parade around at Toys R Us and show off his dapper new do. He eyed these sweet kid sized automobiles and made a bee line for them and climbed on in.

Firetrucks are so cool! (But the boy is not for sale)

In retrospect, this probably wasn't very safe at all...

Mascot- Firemen of Austin Calendar 2006

Dropping it like it's hot!

2006-09-18T18:41:00.000-05:00

Bootyquake!

This is how the Svoboda's get down on a Monday night!

You just got SERVED!

Happy 1st Birthday!

2006-08-31T15:32:00.000-05:00

Wow! Luke turned a big ONE while we were on vacation abroad. At his 12 month doctor checkup he weighed in at 25 lbs 7 oz- the 85th percentile, and measured 31 inches long- the 90th percentile! He's huge! And the primary source of all of our backaches. He's also busy growing lots and lots of teeth, with 8 front toofs in and one slowly poking through, and back molars burrowing their way out. This has made for lots of drooling, finger chewing, and pain for the little big guy. It's tough being one.

We have lots of pictures from his birthday celebrations and from our vacation and we promise to post them as soon as we can.

But for now Luke would like to welcome his newest baby cousin to this world, Mr. Henry Gray (middle name to be determined) of Canberra, Australia. Congratulations parents Yasmine and Matthew! Luke has many clever and naughty older-cousin-tricks to pass along, so watch out!

Holiday!

2006-08-10T08:42:00.000-05:00

Well folks, we're off on vacation and Luke's first tour of lands across the pond, France and Scotland. We are leaving this Friday and will be gone for two weeks and will be incommunicado for that time. We will update you once we return to the US Central time zone. Au revoir!

Cruising right along

2006-07-30T21:36:00.000-05:00

Here is a quick rundown of Luke's days these past couple of weeks:

On Cruise Control

Luke spends much of his days cruising around anything he can hold on to. He laps the coffee table countless times a day. He has yet to brave the open range sans handrail, but give him a couch to hold onto and he can run like the wind!

Hardhat required

He also insists on knocking down any pile of blocks that dare to stand tall. A sure way to get him to come over to your side of the room is to stack some blocks there. Get outta his way quick! He'll be on demolition detail.

Puppy Love

Luke and Cactus get along splendidly so far. Luke gets very excited when Cactus comes near, and Cactus does a good job feigning interest in the short human. She sits there very calmly while Luke attempts to pet her (mostly smacking her on the nose) and she is always nearby for mealtime to help me clean up the floor. Luke does this really fun trick where he throws his food on the floor, especially if he doesn't like the particular item. (I just love that trick, almost as much as I love the one where he smears food in his hair.) Cactus is always there for all my floor cleaning needs. Good girl.

While we are on the subject of eating, I'll tell you about another one of Luke's great tricks. This isn't new, but has become more prevelant. He picks up a chunk of food and chews it for a while, then spits it out. Then he picks up another chunk of the same food, chews for a bit, then spits it out. A big grin on his face follows, and why not, it's a good trick. Repeat ad nauseum. I try very hard not to encourage him by smiling or laughing, but sometimes I just can't help it. It is pretty humurous to watch. We have a few theories as to why he does it. One is that he is teething and the cold or tough food feels good on his gums while it is still cold or has texture. Then he spits the warm and smushy bite out to exchange it for another cold piece of food. My guess, however, is that the most probable reason he does it is that he thinks he needs to slim down his chubbles a bit, so he emplores one of the Hollywood diets of chewing food but not swallowing it, and instead spitting into a napkin. Well Luke doesn't use a napkin, but he is plentiful in the chubbles, so maybe this is why. Regardless, again, Cactus enjoys the fallout.

Atlas imitation

Luke loves to play catch with his bouncy ball. He is surprisingly good at throwing the ball, and very good at catching it as well. (By "catching it" I mean as it is rolled into or nearby his lap.) He also loves chasing the ball around the house, like a neverending game of fetch, minus the ball return. He must have learned that particular little "only fetch, no ball return" trick from Cactus. For any college recruiters reading this, let us know when you'd like to set up a time to watch Luke run drills.

I'm so confused...

Sometimes we play seemingly sneaky tricks on Luke, like putting his toys on top of the glass table while he tries to get them from under the table. It's my secret revenge for all the food throwing and smearing.

Earlier this week, Louis left for work giving Luke an assignment to successfully drop a colored peg into a hole in the hood of his toy car. He has a walker that looks like a pretty cool car and talks to you when you play with it. When he came home that afternoon he saw him slamming the pegs through the hood of the car a couple of times in a row. Friggin amazing. He dared us to try and get it on video so we did.

I must say we were amazed. The next day Louis gave him an assignment to construct an 20-sided regular polygon using only a ruler and compass. We haven't heard back from him on that one yet. That oughta keep him busy for a few days.

11 Months Old

2006-07-17T09:31:00.000-05:00

Zoom in and check out the two Chicklets in my mouth!

This week marked Luke's 11 month birthday! He has been very busy this month doing all sorts of exciting things. He has grown lots of hair on his head, and we now discuss when he'll need his first haircut. (I think we should grow it out so I can braid it into cornrows.) Also, he has sprouted three more teeth for a total of 5, and I am pretty sure one or two more are just waiting to pop out. He won't always let us in his mouth to feel around, but sometimes we can count the tooth impressions from the bite marks he leaves on our legs or shoulders. Unfortunately for us, that wasn't a joke. Here he is chomping down on a teething biscuit, dripping in its gooey goodness.

Mmm yummy! But not as yummy as mom's finger...

In medical news, his hives have all faded away, although it took almost a week for them to do so. Here is a picture of the hives at their scary, fiery crescendo:

Dermatology textbook page 236 (this picture makes me itch)

Yeah, they look bad. But he never seemed to act as if they bothered him, thank goodness. This picture may be a bit misleading since it was taken after two ill timed activities. First, Luke and I had just finished up a long walk, with him strapped in the Baby Bjorn, in the hot as all heck heat. Then, I gave him a bath. I thought I was being oh so smart by not using soap, thinking I wouldn't chance it adding to his skin irritation. But afterward Louis got home and mentioned how the heat from the walk and the bath probably made the hives worse. Oh yeah. The heat. Oops. Sorry Luke. I suck at this sometimes...

One good thing that came from the bumps was that when we were out in public everyone kept their distance. Usually all sorts of people like to touch him and poke him and try to get a smile out of him. But the bumps sure took care of that. They were like our own private bodyguard. I got a few slyly dirty looks from people, as if they wanted to say for me to keep my funky kid at home and away from their kid. I don't blame them, I don't want their kid's cooties either. Everyone should just keep their own cooties to themselves. I could have volunteered the fact that he wasn't contagious, that they were just hives, but I didn't. And it was great...

Until the bumps started to fade. They unfortunately began to turn a light purplish tan color and looked like fading bruises all over his body. And then we started to get dirty looks from strangers for entirely different reasons... We wanted to tell them that Luke just performed really poorly in a recent paintball game, but we didn't think they'd buy that excuse.

Here is a picture Louis likes so much because the two hives near Luke's eye resemble a gangster's teardrop tattoos. Luke likes them because it ups his street cred.

Yo, what you lookin' at?

In this last month Luke's crawling has improved a lot. For months he got around by army crawling on his belly, and we always felt bad for him because 1.) we have wood floors and it looked like it hurt, and 2.) he looked like he was paralyzed. (It sounds terrible, but it looked just as terrible.) And 3.) it wasn't very efficient. He could get to about 50% of the places he wanted to go and would often get stuck and frustrated that he couldn't go further. Now his crawl looks like a more traditional 4 limbed crawl, but, again, with gansta style. He sometimes pulls one leg under him and drags it along, like a strut. It doesn't slow him down at all though. He can be lightning fast. And now he can get to almost anywhere, and 100% of the places we don't want him to go. Like into Cactus' food bowl and doggie door. And the bathroom trash (ewww). And the toilet, especially useful to pull up on (double ewwww). And the ever irresistible kitchen cabinets. Oh, and let's not forget the stairs!

Luke also spends lots of time chasing balls and our mini radio controlled car around the house. See this pic below. He gets very determined when he chases the car, hence the serious look of concentration and the pursed mouth. This picture also shows how he tucks his leg under him when he's locomoting around the house. All in all it's been an exciting month in the life of little Luke, and the fun is sure to continue. Hopefully the hives don't.

Fee fi fo fum, I smell the blood of a... oooh hey, is that a Cheerio?!

Superfunk

2006-07-11T19:23:00.000-05:00

Pink polka dotted funky Lukester

Today we woke up and noticed Luke had a mosquito bite on his face. And one on his arm. And another one on his arm... and on his leg... and a bunch on the other leg... Hmmm. I don't think that could be mosquito bites. Fleas? No... we'd all have some bites, and these bumps are much bigger than any flea bite I've ever had.

Is this a rash?

Well, let's just wait and see if it gets any worse.

Tick tock, a couple of hours pass by.

5o or so bumps later, we're calling the pediatrician's office. They say we'd better bring him in, let the doctor take a look at it. Oh, and by the way, can you use the side entrance please?

Um, there's a side entrance?

Yes, it's around the left side of the building, around the brick wall, up the stairs.

Uh, ok, sure...

My first thought is, "Oh, a side entrance, that's cool. Like for celebrities."

Then a half second later I realize they want me to take my baby through the side entrance. Of a pediatrician's office. As in they want me to avoid the regular waiting area, itself a veritable petri dish of childhood communicable diseases. Oh no, this can't be good... your kid has to have a special kind of funk to make you go through the side entrance. Yikes.

So we go, and by this time there must be 100 or more bumps all over his body. I'm praying it's not chicken pox... and I rack my brain for any stored away rash knowledge, to no avail... and what exactly is ringworm again? 'Cause I don't think it is really worms...

The doctor takes a look and says it is just hives. Just hives. I couldn't think of any new foods he'd had, or new detergent I'd used... (Although I neglected to tell her about the spider I think he may have chased down and eaten the other day. I hang my head in shame as I write this.) The doctor said it is probably a reaction to the antibiotics he just finished for the ear infection he had last week, not an uncommon occurrence, I learn.

Well, that's good right? No chicken pox. No ringworm. No contagious funk? Everything is fine, she says. Give him some antihistamines for a few days and it'll be ok.

He doesn't seem itchy at all, and the only people the bumps seem to have bothered are me and Louis. So the day turned out ok. Just an average, harmless, scare the hell out of your parents and turn our few remaining brown hairs to gray kind of day.

Happy Tuesday.

Happy Independence Day

2006-07-09T11:52:00.000-05:00

From the three amigos - Martin, Luke and Zach.

10 Months Old

2006-07-04T10:50:00.000-05:00

Luke turned 10 months old on Father's Day, and that made for a double fun day. (Well, if you consider painting the living room fun.) Luke commisioned a personalized coozie especially for his dad. What a thoughtful boy, he knows just what his father would love- something to keep his beer cold.

#1 Dad and son. Pickle eating contest... Round 12

We spent the day painting the living room and Luke was a big helper. He pulled himself up and back down his Luke-sized ladder while Louis worked on the bigger boy ladder.

Ladder Day Paint

Later that day we took Luke swimming in a big kids pool for the very first time. We bought a floatie for him and lubed him up good with gobs of sunscreen. He enjoyed the water, although he held on pretty tight at first as we floated around while holding him. Then we put him in his new floatie and he seemed to enjoy that as well for a while. But it went all down hill from there after the first time he lost sight of either of us if we went under water. He didn't enjoy that at all. I'm pretty sure my Jaws shark imitation didn't help matters either.

Lukey Rotten (sporting sunscreen spike)

Johnny Rotten

"It's Merman Dad, MerMAN!"

This last picture was taken last week when Luke first discovered that the kitchen cabinet doors open, and all sorts of treasures are waiting inside. The first time he opened the cabinet his eyes got really wide and sparkled as all sorts of naughty thoughts entered his mind. What else is there to do at that point than to pull everything out and bang it around? The metal mixing bowls are his favorites, of course, as they make the loudest racket.

Pots and Ham

Taking a stand

2006-06-16T20:39:00.000-05:00

Luke has started pulling himself up to a standing position all on his own lately. He first did it on a step ladder I was using to change a battery in a wall clock. He was sitting near the ladder while I was on it, and after I finished up and walked off I turned back and he had pulled himself up to standing on it all by himself. I was so shocked. He does it all the time with us helping him, but this is the first time he'd done it alone. Later in the week he pulled himself up on his big bear chair- see the pic below. I guess we really need to get on that babyproofing thing...

Don't worry Mom, I'll save you from this big, scary bear!

In other news, Luke has yet to say "Mama" after mastering his first word, "Dada". He has completely skipped over me, alphabetically speaking, and instead says "yaya" and "zhaa zhaa". Come on, Luke- come play in the middle of the alphabet! That's where all the cool letters hang out.

Pool Party at Casa D'Andrea

2006-06-11T09:57:00.000-05:00

Luke models the latest in French summer

fashion from Granny Svoboda

This weekend we hung out with our friends, the D'Andreas, to try and beat the heat at a super fun pool party. Their kiddo pool is the coolest pool you've ever seen. It's not even really a pool, so much as a wading wonderland, perfect for tot sized splishing and splashing. The pool is about 4 inches deep and has something cool at every turn. There is a ring toss with inflatable rings, a dolphin just waiting to be ridden, a palm tree with three silly monkeys climbing it, a slide, a rainbow cave area I termed "the grotto", and water fountains shooting out from all over the place. So sweet!

Good times swimming with the dolphins

Luke spent lots of time toiling away at trying to catch the water shooting out of the fountains. This is a really hard job- the water just keeps coming! In this picture Martin is dining al fresco, poolside, under the shade of an umbrella. Why go all the way to Disneyland when paradise is right here in the backyard!?

Pesky water! I just can't seem to catch it!

Once the party was in full swing things got a little crazy and Luke decided to ditch the swimsuit and diaper and go skinny dipping! What a wild guy.

Livin' the good life, au naturale

Memorial, and Wimberley, Days

2006-06-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

We made the trip to Houston for Memorial Day weekend to spend with Luke's Nana and Grandpa, Aunt Kim and Uncle Scott. Luke had lots of fun, as usual, soaking up the attention and adoration of his devoted fans/family.

Tummy tickles!

Luke and Grandpa

While we were in town we visited some friends to meet their newborn son, and Luke's newest friend, Vincent Jumalon, barely two weeks old at the time. Although Luke currently outweighs and outmaneuvers the little guy, Vince by far has Luke beat in the luxuriant hair category.

We spent the following weekend enjoying a fun trip to Wimberley, TX. http://www.wimberley.org/ Wimberley is about a 45 minute drive away from Austin through gorgeous, scenic hill country. The drive alone is worth the trip. But we chose this day to go because every first Saturday of the month they host a Wimberley Market Day. There we found hundreds of vendor booths selling antiques, local homegrown goodies, and crafts, as well as live music, BBQ, and Louis' favorite- meat on a stick. Mmmm.

Entertaining his lunchtime audience

Luke had an absolute blast taking in all the sights and sounds and helped us negotiate the crowds by honking the horn on his stroller's steering wheel console anytime they slowed us up. He loves to honk that horn and does it all the time when we walk around our neighborhood. When we are in a more enclosed atmosphere we especially enjoy the horn honking when it grabs the attention of a slowpoke in our path. "Move- get out the way, get out the way- Move!" (Credit Ludacris lyrics)

We took a break for lunch where Luke chowed down on a mishmash of baby food and our BBQ sandwiches and hammed it up for the nice folks sitting around us. Since it was pretty warm that day, Louis ordered a refreshing lemon-lime shaved ice delight and gave Luke his first taste of lip puckering sweet-and-sour. Luke sipped it up and made the most hilarious face ever in the history of hilarious faces. His face scrunched up and his body shuddered as the sour flavor coated his taste buds. His eyes watered and he stuck his tongue out as he seemingly rejected this new tart taste, only to quickly recover and open his mouth again for another swallow. Another bite, painful yet hilarious face, repeat repeat repeat... so funny. The following pictures capture many of the faces he made, and makes you wonder why he kept coming back for more.

Perhaps Master Luke's young mind is pondering themes from the writings of Socrates regarding the interweaving of pleasure and pain. Hmm, ah yes... that must be it... Such educational lessons are why we set out on our journey that day... or was it the meat on a stick?

One tuckered out little guy on the drive home

Second 9 months

2006-05-19T13:54:00.000-05:00

Happy 9 month birthday, Luke!

Luke had a 9 month checkup at the doctor this week and weighed in at a double whopper with cheese size of 21 lbs 11 oz, and measured 29 inches tall, both in the 75th percentiles on the growth charts. What a big boy! Looks like the two-a-day workouts and weight gain drinks are really adding some bulk. Interested college football scouts can contact me, Luke's agent, directly regarding recruitment matters.

This 9 month mark gives me pause as I reflect on the fact that it took 9 months of cooking in my belly for Luke to join us in this world. He popped out after his first 9 months of life at a skinny and wrinkly 7 lbs 10 oz, and now after his second 9 months he has nearly tripled that. And only the nearsighted would refer to him as skinny or wrinkly now. Luke, you've come a long way baby.

"Mama!"

2006-05-17T13:43:00.000-05:00

Well, he really says "dada" but he means "mama", I just know it!

A few weeks ago Luke started babbling up a storm. At first it was "doodoo", and that quickly led to "dada" (so appropriate, right), on which he is stuck and seemingly perfectly content doing so. The constant positive response he gets when he says "dada" has him saying it all the time and to anyone who will listen. The following is a video taken soon after he first started dabbling in babbling...

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To celebrate his new found vocabulary, Louis took Luke for a drive down to Laredo to join the Minutemen gaurding our Mexican border. Once they got home they looked like they must have spent a bit more time in Matamoros drinking tequila because their speech was a bit slurred... I asked Luke how his trip was, and this is how he described how things went down south of the border with Dad (the bit he says about losing our car tires to Pedro in the last poker game is a complete fabrication... )

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Busy Social Schedule

2006-05-14T13:33:00.000-05:00

We've had quite a busy couple of weeks lately. Luke had so many visitors! Our friends flew in from all over the world just to see how big this dude has gotten. Well, they really flew in town for the wedding of our friends Lori and Jimmy, but while they were here they made sure to say hi to Luke.

First, Yogi, Basia and Gabby flew in from Boston. Being the only girl surrounded by three boys, Gabby is quite a sought after cutie pants when she comes to town. Luke tries to vie for her affections, but she told him she likes a man with more to offer, a man of action. You know, one who walks and talks. A man who stays fit and doesn't sport such a round beer belly. Oh well. Maybe next visit.

From left to right: Martin, Luke, Gabby and Zach.

Luke says, "Hey Gabby, wanna see my crib?"

"Or, how about dinner and drinks? I've got Cheerios..."

Also in town, all the way from Norway, was our friend Julie. Luke had a bit more luck with her since she didn't seem to mind advances from a younger man.

"Oh Julie, she's so pretty... and she thinks my pot belly is HOT!"

And arriving from Scotland were more of our good friends, Dana and Reno... and stowing away in Dana's belly was Lil' Lauro! The Lauro bambino will be done cooking in November, right around the same time as the Thanksgiving turkey. Luke can't wait to show him/her the ropes and keep him/her up to date on what's cool and happening here in the States while they finish up their sojourn in the UK.

Reno, Dana and Luke- and Lil' Lauro (not pictured, but present!)

While Louis and I participated in the wedding weekend festivities, Luke's Nana and Grandpa traveled from Houston to stay with us and hang out with Luke. He had a grand ole time showing them his toys, showing off his eating skills and showing them his expansive library of books.

Deeelicious!

Luke reading Grandpa a bedtime story

Besides entertaining our many guests lately Luke has been making great strides in feeding himself. He has been practicing for quite a while with tasty, melt-in-your-mouth Gerber puffs and has gotten so good at feeding himself that he almost refuses for you to put them in his mouth for him. He wants to do it himself. He's not a baby, after all, right? He's gotten so good at this feat and at chewing (well, gumming) that he's moved on to all sorts of delicious texture-ific delights: Cheerios, bread, crackers, Goldfish, shredded chicken, etc. He's also gotten really good at drinking out of a straw and loves to show off his cool skills at restaurants. Luke orders his own drink now- glass of water, neat, no olive, with a straw- and impresses all the ladies as he drinks it down with only minimal dribbles down his shirt.

Luke's Law of Percentages- the greater the number of puffs on the table the greater percentage chance one will make it into his mouth.

8 Months Old!

2006-04-22T16:22:00.000-05:00

Last week marked Luke's eight month birthday! He is working very hard at trying to crawl and trying to talk, but hasn't really accomplished either just yet. He can scoot backward on his belly pretty well, and he talks and sings all day long, just nothing discernable as English. It is better described as baby babbling mixed with high pitched whale or dolphin sounds- his own highly advanced multilingual human-cetacean language. What a genius.

Here are a few recent pictures:

I told you I knew Kung Fu

I need to see all the blueprints

I'm Crazy Countrywide Home Loans Man... Gimme candy!

Happy Easter and Proofs of the Toofs!

2006-04-18T10:20:00.000-05:00

We had lots of fun on Luke's first Easter Sunday. The Easter Bunny left him a basket of colorful eggs and fake grass that he highly enjoyed chewing on. Since Luke isn't allowed to eat chocolate or eggs yet, all of the eggs in the basket were plastic- but contained coin money! Score! The eggs made a very satisfying jingle jangle clanking noise as he rattled them around and bashed them against one another. And although Luke was happy to add the coins to his piggy bank collection, he was also glad the Easter Bunny promised that next year's basket would be more yummy.

Plastic eggs! Fun!

But where are the peeps and hollow chocobunny? I got gipped.

But I guess money is ok too... This Easter Bunny is a cool guy!

Ready for church- let's go!

Fun in the tub at the end of the day

My two teeth!

What Do We Do All Day?

2006-04-06T13:10:00.000-05:00

Hey, Louis here. I know a lot of you are wondering what Luke and I do all day during my time off work to stay home with him. Here's a little peek:

Nothing says "I'm on vacation" like a little facial hair experimentation

One of the first things on my list of things to do was to make sure our address post on the curb was easy to read in case of an emergency. I've had problems with the Chinese Food delivery guy finding the house...

Luke and Cactus helped any way they could while I painted and nailed new numbers on the post. Luke was a great help and here he stands next to his work sporting new shoes from Aunt Ariane and family.

Future Engineer

Gym 1504 provides all types of the equipment necessary to prepare children to be sent out into the world. Here is Luke doing a leg workout on one of the Nautilus machines sent by Aunt Yasmine...

Giant steps are what you take, walking on the moon...

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After a good workout, Luke gets silly while toweling off. A.K.A., "The Peek a Boo Monster"

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With all the gym time he is putting in, I wanted to see how his legs workouts are coming along.

Bartender... another drink on my Dad's tab

We take a lot of strolls around the neighborhood as well. Here are some pics of Luke getting his "roll on".

#1 Stunner

Rolling on Dubs

Peace, I'm out of here

Every now and again we get some visitors. Recently, Master Yogi dropped by to check on the training of the Youngling. Here he tests the progress of Luke's legs...

Do. Or do not. There is no try...

The Force is strong with this one...

Thanks for taking the time to see what we're up to. Here's your round of applause...

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Supermodel Luke

2006-04-03T14:12:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the poses from Luke's photo session a few weeks back on his 7 month birthday:

Just say no...

2006-03-30T09:25:00.000-06:00

Just say no to crack

Technical Issues

2006-03-28T21:13:00.000-06:00

After many annoying episodes of text not loading and other technical posting problems we are trying out a new blog template. Hopefully the issues will now be resolved. If not, we may have to get a new webmaster. He's been slacking on the job lately...

Hitting the bottle

Barton Springs drool

2006-03-28T09:14:00.000-06:00

I love swings- yipee!!!

(Check out my cool shoes- thanks Aunt Ariane!)

We enjoyed another fabulously beautiful weekend... however, as I write this it is raining and thundering and pretty gloomy. But, Saturday and Sunday were great nonetheless. We spent the afternoon at Zilker Park and Barton Springs and had a grand ole time on the playground and down at the water.

Me and Mommy, the coolest girl I know
(not that she's writing this or anything)

Austin is awesome

While hanging out near the water, we plopped Luke down and he watched the birds and other people playing in the vicinity. He then started playing in the mud, which he loved. But then he started to put one muddy hand in his mouth- "no, Luke, don't eat the mud". So he tried to put his other muddy hand in his mouth- "no, Luke, don't chew on that muddy hand either". We eventually succumbed to the inevitablilty of the situation and elected to photograph the crunchy munchy mess. See picture below.

Umm, wait a minute... this tastes like dirt

Brusha, brusha, brusha

2006-03-26T16:04:00.000-06:00

I now qualify for the tooth fairy college savings plan

Believing it is never too early to teach good dental hygiene, we gave Luke his first toothbrush. Actually, Luke's friend Martin enjoyed chewing on one when he first got teeth so we thought Luke would too. Boy does he. It also doubles as a drumstick, which complements his ever burgeoning drummer skills. Oh the untrained eye may dismiss his talents as mere slapping, but this kid could rival Matthew McConaughey's bongo playing skills any day of the week. But I digress. In the pic below we inadvertently captured Luke's new teeth- look bottom row center. They have just broken through the skin and are vewee vewee wee, but if you zoom in we promise they are there.

If you can't see them go get your reading glasses

Two teeny toofs!

2006-03-24T10:30:00.000-06:00

Dripping drool drenches this dude's duds

Luke's got two teeth! Over this past week I've been able to see what I thought was a tooth, and this morning it was clearly not one tooth but two! We have suspected that some sharp little boogers would be rearing their painful little heads soon. Between gnawing his own hands off as if we never feed the poor fella, and drooling so much that he sometimes requires a couple of costume changes a day, the emergence of teeth seemed imminent. He has also been uncharacteristically whiney lately. He evens whines through smiles, as if he really wants to act his usual jolly self but just can't do it. We've been keeping him sauced up with infant pain relievers and it seems to help somewhat. I assume those are the only two little teefers at the moment, but he won't let me get too good of a look. Quit touching my mouth, Mom!

Quit taking my picture and leave my teeth alone...

Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was that they escaped teething.
~Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson, 1894

If you were to open up a baby's head - and I am not for a moment suggesting that you should - you would find nothing but an enormous drool gland.
~Dave Barry

7 Months Old

2006-03-19T16:56:00.000-06:00

Handsome devil

Either we printed Luke's age on an index card or this guy is getting big! We celebrated Luke's 7th Month-Day by dressing him in his smartest sweater outfit to have his first professional photographs taken. We should be seeing his face on the cover of 'Varsity Baby' magazine in the near future. The photo session went great, although it was a bit difficult to get Luke to smile without sticking his tongue out. The tongue trick gets rave reviews from the audience at home, so he expected no less while at the portrait studio. Hence, the photo chosen for purchase features a precious smile with a tip o' tongue for authenticity. Luke keeps it real like that, y'all.

Luke's newest trick is how he plays while in the Jumperoo. This kid goes to town on that thing. He gets a bouncin and a rockin and stomps his feet and runs in place and dances a jig until he's nearly out of breath. Then Cactus will walk by and he pulls out all these tricks to get her attention while reaching with both arms toward her. Sometimes it works and Cactus stops and sits patiently, sweetly next to him while he pets her in his uncoordinated manner. Cactus then likes to lick his hands, face, ears, etc until we stop her from grooming him like she has groomed other puppies we've known in the past. Luke is not a puppy, but the love is the same. We think they'll grow to be great pals.

Flintstone Feet

Luke likes to keep his gut under control so he regularly gets together with his personal trainer, Martin. Here Luke is doing some arm curls while Martin works with the medicine ball. Martin is trying to teach Luke to roll the ball, not chew on it.

New toys are delicious

Here's my little buddy teaching me how to play his favorite tunes. Special thanks to Zach for letting Luke borrow the Bumbo seat. His bum has never been so comfy.

Human capo

Revised blog description

2006-03-16T10:57:00.000-06:00

"Luke was born on August 18, 2005. He is a Leo and enjoys pacifiers, being dry and the Beatles. This is his story..."

That description is so passe. Although Luke is still a Leo, likes being dry and likes the Beatles, he has long since ditched the pacifier. He stopped using one around four months old or so, and when given one now he just sort of chews on it for a second and then spits it out. So now we are tasked with editing the passage with a more age-appropriate sentence to characterize our young dude.

A more fitting description follows:

"Luke was born on August 18, 2005. He is a Leo and enjoys chewing on his own fingers, mealtime and the Beatles. This is his story..."

Buddha belly, evidence of Luke's love of mealtime

Wayne's World Extreme Close-Up... Woahhhhh!!!

2006-03-12T20:05:00.000-06:00

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Wonderful weather

2006-03-11T19:24:00.000-06:00

We've been enjoying fabulous weather lately, allowing us to spend lots of fun time outdoors. We have been taking lots of walks, dabbling in a bit of gardening, and having tons 'o fun at the many parks around town. Here are some recent pics of Luke's adventures in the sunshine.

Just chillin, stroller style

Working on my tan while Dad checks on the new vine he planted

While walking to one park outing we witnessed the preparations for a kiddos birthday party. One delivery was particularly exciting- horses! Wait a minute... a horse with pink spots? Makes explaining the difference between real and make-believe a bit more challenging. Also possibly raises the bar for entertainment at Luke's future birthday parties.

A horse is a horse, of course??

Saturday Luke had a fun day at the park with his friend Zach (WeeZ). Luke sported his best Aggie outfit to cheer on A&M during the Big 12 basketball tournament. (Mom invoked the "first downstairs rule", which provides for the day's wardrobe choice to be made by the first one downstairs that morning.) The fact that he can now fit in this particular outfit gave us pause as we recalled the time that we received it as a gift. Luke's Nana in Houston gave it to us before Luke was born, and since the size on the tag says 6-9 months, we couldn't imagine a time that it would fit him. It seemed huge! Now it fits like a glove. Crazy...

While at the park, Luke had fun on the swings and slides, and learned from Zach and the other bigger kids how fun rocks can be! He also was told how delicious rocks are to chew on, but as far as we know he didn't nibble on any just yet.

Luke and Zach just a swingin'

I'm flying!

Rocks are fun! I like to grab handfuls and throw them down. These rocks are just about the size of my delicous toes, I bet they'd taste just as yummy...

Weeeeeeeee! Slides are fun! I'm starting to suspect that Mom and Dad are using me as an excuse to go play on these playgrounds, but I'll keep going along with it.

Future Engineer

2006-03-10T19:31:00.000-06:00

If television isn't in Luke's future (see previous Quizno's baby post), he could follow in Dad's footsteps and strive for an engineering degree that he does nothing with.

He's getting good with the blocks and balls, I see Statics and Dynamics in his future.

Quizno's baby doppelganger

2006-03-06T13:17:00.000-06:00

After repeated comments from both family and strangers alike regarding the resemblance of Luke to the Quizno's baby we thought we would examine side by side photos.

Perhaps Luke has already found his calling and will make a million bucks touting products on commercials. Or at least, do you think the likeness could get me some free sandwiches? Mmmm sandwiches...

Six Months Old!

2006-03-01T11:44:00.000-06:00

February 18, my half- birthday! Woohoo!

Wow, it almost seems like a month has gone by since Luke turned five months old. To celebrate his half-birthday, we introduced the little guy to two of God's finer creations: fire and chocolate; specifically, chocolate brownies decorated with half of a candle. Unfortunately, he's not allowed to eat brownies yet so the adults had to help devour it. And unfortunately for the adults, a half candle melts very quickly onto a pan of brownies. Luke said it was proper revenge for not giving him any of his own half-birthday treat. He'll have to wait for his full one-year shindig for that privilege.

Hee Hee... FIRE!

Aunt Kim and Uncle Scott came to visit that weekend and helped us party down. They witnessed Luke's hearty appetite at dinnertime as he opened wide for spoonful after spoonful of delicious carrots, sweet potatoes, and prunes. Mmmm prunes (he loves 'em). Then they got to witness (as did we for the first time) what happens when his little eyes are bigger than his littler tummy- he pukes it all back up. In Mommy's lap. It was a pretty accurate re-enactment of The Exorcist pea-soup projectile vomit scene, sub the orange veggies for green peas. He hasn't been introduced to peas yet. Thank goodness, whew! That would have been freaky.

That following Monday Luke had his 6 month checkup with the doctor and her mean needle- stabbing nurse, but luckily this time there were only two shots to be had. He weighed in at an even 17 lbs and measured 27 inches in length, which is in the 50th and 75th percentiles, respectively. Gordo!

Dr. Luke Svoboda: Infant Scientist

2006-03-01T10:39:00.000-06:00

In an effort to influence future enrollment, the University of Texas conducts "experiments" on infants under the ruse of measuring cognitive responses to various stimuli. The "study" began by applying a thinking cap to Luke's noggin and injecting him with some sort of truth serum to ensure an optimal response... (well, it could have been truth serum)

After Luke was properly caulked up, he was shown random adult women faces, some more attractive than others. The electrodes in the cap were measuring his brain's response to the faces, or so that is what we were told.

Just before the cap was removed, information from various Google databases were uploaded to his brain. He is now fluent in seven languages and can move objects with his mind.

I know Kung Fu

Of course, Luke's mind is not easily influenced and he has no problem expressing this via his freshly enhanced non-verbal communication skills (otherwise known as sticking out his tongue).

Ain't no one can break me

Texas Wildflower

2006-02-07T09:13:00.000-06:00

Look what sprouted up in my planter!

Sorry Luke, couldn't resist...

Smokin' Superbowl Sunday

2006-02-05T21:11:00.000-06:00

We had a bit of excitement Sunday morning at our house. As we were enjoying the gorgeous weather and anticipating the Superbowl that evening, we smelled something funny... and it wasn't Luke's diaper. It was smoke. The smoke alarm started blaring and we quickly scrambled to find out from where the smoke was coming. Room by room we looked and smelled but we never saw a fire, and the smoke started to clear once we opened the windows and turned off anything we thought could possibly be the culprit. We called the fire department to help us determine what was going on, and over the phone they told us they suspected the motor of our air conditioner/heater unit was to blame. They said they'd be here right away to check it out, and mere minutes later we heard sirens getting closer. It felt pretty dramatic knowing the sirens were headed for our house. The fantastic firemen and women checked out the place, and, after doing some tests with their fancy instruments, assured us that everything was ok but to have the AC/heater evaluated by a pro.

A nice policeman pulled up soon after the firetruck and a crowd of kids on their bikes soon circled our driveway. They, along with Luke, were all given their very own City of Austin "Police Pal" badges, and Luke enjoyed feeling like one of the big boys. They all thought the firetruck was very cool.

We were very grateful that this did not end up turning into an even scarier scenario, and we must take this opportunity to remind all of our readers to check the batteries in your smoke alarms and make sure they are working properly. You just never know...

Food, glorious food!

2006-01-31T21:11:00.000-06:00

This weekend we decided to further expand Luke's refined palate and give him his first taste of, well, anything. Until this point he has enjoyed exclusive VIP status at mom's All Boobie Cafe. Now he can add delicious rice cereal and veggies to his repertoire. Luke has shown intense interest lately in any food we eat in front of him, following the fork or spoon from the plate to our mouths seemingly without blinking. He showed similar interest in the rice cereal he received as his first meal, although you'd never know it judging by the amount that actually made it into his mouth, then stayed in his mouth, then actually was swallowed. In between bites he started sucking the food off the the highchair table with better success than eating it off the spoon. I was sure less than 1% of what was presented to him actually made it to his tummy, but judging by the 'end result' I can say he must have swallowed more than it appeared at the time. Now, you might be thinking, why must they comment on poop? Well if you are reading this then you have at least a mild interest in the daily goings on in the Svoboda household and Luke's poop is a surprisingly common topic of conversation. So, now you can feel just like you are here with us!

Rice cereal? This is what all the excitement is about? This takes like cardboard... maybe just one more bite...

And water? Is this a joke? Cardboard and water?!

Sweet potatoes! Now that’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout!

Hey kid, remember our deal, 'accidentally' toss your food on the floor and I’ll clean it up for you...

Here's a pic of Luke's other favorite pastime- playing with his toes. He likes to stare at them and hold them, and he tries to suck on them and succeeds only if his belly isn't too full. He loves his piggies.

I don't know when these little piggies get the time to go to this so-called market. They're always here when I look for them.

Five Months Old

2006-01-27T20:19:00.000-06:00

Taa Daaaaa! Look who's five months old!

Wow, look at this dude grow. Just scroll down through the blog and you can see how far he's come. One day he's drooling and kicking all about, the next he's.... drooling, kicking all about and rolling over!

G'day Aunt Yasmine

Shortly after our last post, Aunt Yasmine came to visit all the way from the land Down Under. We had a great time showing her around town and she brought some great gifts for Luke. He loves reading his new books and playing with his kangaroo puppet. He also learned the finer points of backgammon after a marathon multiday tournament. We're looking forward to taking Luke to visit the land of the Koala one day.

Luke is starting to get the hang of many grown up things in the last few weeks:

- Sitting up for many minutes at a time (who knew a head could be so heavy).

Speaking of heavy, he has surpassed the double-birth-weight milestone. What a chubba hubba! Luke says it's just the holiday weight and he's made a resolution to hit the gym more.

- Lots of pushups (to impress the chicks with his bicep workout) and rolling over, always accompanied by cheers from Mom and Dad and self-satisfied chuckles from Luke

- Laughing (when tickled or when told the Seattle Seahawks are in the Super Bowl)

- Grabbing people's faces (especially with wet slobbered hands)

- Learning the concept of compounding interest, as seen here. (Dad is very patient)

- Laying down tracks for the album

- Making monster sounds (to scare away the real monsters or get the attention of Cactus)

Dude, nice drool, I'm impressed... let me get that for ya...

National Champions!

2006-01-05T21:13:00.000-06:00

The UT Tower, lit in orange and the office lights on in the shape of #1

The Texas Longhorns defeated the USC Trojans 41-38 in the Rosebowl for the National Championship! Go Horns! The game was very exciting, coming down to the final seconds as Texas scored their game-winning touchdown. All of Austin erupted in cheers as the clock hit zero with people flooding the streets around the UT campus, 6th street and downtown, as well as the campus bookstores and Academy stores that stayed open into the wee hours to welcome the massive crowds hungry for their UT National Champs t-shirts.

Luke wasn't able to stay awake for the game, but he did some reading up on the Longhorns in preparation for the big event. He dressed up in head to toe UT colors and even posed for some pictures on the orange side of the beautiful half UT orange-half Texas A&M maroon blanket that Nana made him for Christmas.

Here he tries very hard to get his little fingers to make the Hook 'em sign.

In another historic event, for the first time in my life I voluntarily wore a UT t-shirt. Although I attended UT for grad school I still consider myself an Aggie at heart and stock my wardrobe as such. Since this game was an extremely extenuating circumstance, I joined the masses and wore one of Louis' t-shirts for the big day. (And surpise surprise! The shirt didn't burn my skin on contact!) I like to think the added support of Luke and me in spirited clothing helped the team to victory. Congratulations to Texas and to Austin!

Dear Blog: an apology, updates, and a promise

2006-01-01T21:21:00.000-06:00

Dear Blog,

It has been 42 days since our last entry. We are so sorry for not updating you lately. I can list a number of reasons for our absence- sicknesses, visitors, traveling, Christmas holiday- but the fact remains that we have neglected you, and that was wrong. We have taken advantage of your patience, knowing that, as in the immortal words of Richard Marx, you'd be 'right there waiting' for our return. We apologize. We promise to try to do better. Please forgive.

XOXO,
Jen & Louis

Thanksgiving
We made our first road trip with Luke to Houston for Thanksgiving weekend. Following a fabulous dinner prepared by Nana, we braced ourselves for Luke's first ever Texas A&M/Texas football game. Before Luke was even a twinkle in our eyes we have foreseen with anticipation laced with dread this yearly rivalry and its affect on any future Svoboda babies. In particular, what would he/she wear??? Many different plans were made for this occasion, one being for the baby to wear a different outfit per half of the game, one for the baby to don the outfit in support of whichever team was the home team that year, etc. For this year we struck an agreement that had Luke wearing an Aggie onesie and socks with a Longhorn sweatpant bottom. Not exactly fashion forward, or even complementary colors for that matter, but it worked for this 'house divided' family, for this year anyway. (Pictures do exist documenting this event, but elude us at the moment). Texas did end up winning the game, barely, and is now in contention for the National Championship at the Rosebowl on January 4! Go Horns!

Dana visits from Scotland
Our good friend, Dana, visited from Scotland for a few days and brought fun gifts for Luke. One cute present was a pair of Scottish booties that Luke has been wearing throughout this holiday season. We look forward to visiting her and Reno in St. Andrews, hopefully this summer, and introducing Luke to bagpipes and The Old Course.

Plaid is back!

Yogi, Basia and Gabby visit from Boston
More good friends of ours also visited and got to meet Luke in person for the first time. We had a lot of fun hanging out with the Cohen family-Gabby has gotten so big! On one group outing with many of our friends we managed to catch all of the babies in the same photo, not a small feat I must say.

From left to right: Luke, Gabby, Martin, Zach

The Drool Squad

With their dads

Louis, Yogi, Jesse and Arthur

And with the moms

Jen, Basia, Erin and Meredith

Aunt Ariane visits from Hong Kong

We also had the pleasure of a visit from Luke's Aunt Ariane who traveled many miles to meet her new baby nephew. We all enjoyed having her stay with us, and Luke made out like a bandit with some gifts and clothes that she brought with her. We very much look forward to visiting with her and Uncle Angus, and Luke's cousins Renee and Lavinia this summer in France.

Luke and Aunt Ariane

Goodnight Ariane

Luke loves his new bear chair!

Lounging in Style

4 months old
Luke celebrated his 4 month old birthday with another visit to the doctor and the mean nurse who stabbed him again with her 'booster vaccinations'. Unfortunately, I came down with a nasty stomach virus the night before this appointment and could not peel myself off of the bathroom floor to accompany Louis and Luke, but Dad did a great job representing us both. Luke weighed in at 13 lbs. 14 oz. and measured 25 1/2 inches long, healthy and chubby and right around average according to the charts, and we'll take that just fine.

All I got for Christmas was my Daddy's cold...
We traveled to Houston again for about a week for Christmas and looked forward to a great visit with Nana and Grandpa and our friends in Houston, eager to show off Luke's increasing cuteness, smiles, and playfulness. We instead rode out the bumpy storm that was Luke's first cold. He had successfully fought off contracting the many little colds that both Louis and I have gotten in the last month or two, including the stomach flu that I had. But this most recent cold that Louis so generously brought home finally bested our little sweetie's immune system. He was a snotty, crabby, tired little baby, and after several long days and longer nights we were snotty, crabby, tired parents thankful that Nana and Grandpa were around to help. So, our plans for taking cute pictures of the Christmas baby never panned out, but here is a picture from our Christmas card photo shoot.

Other pictures of note

Playing with the wind chimes
(Lightbulb changing exercise)

That baby looks just like me!

I leave for a few hours and Louis geeks the boy out

Laundry day is a fun day!

I love my daddy

Sometimes I suck on one finger...

Sometimes two...

Birth announcement finally sent out, included with Christmas cards, but sent out nonetheless

Three Months

2005-11-20T20:43:00.000-06:00

Here's our little cowboy at 3 months. His newest tricks in the last few weeks include:

Blowing spit-bubbles
Drooling like Cactus at a steak dinner
Staring at his hands in front of his face
Desperately trying to suck on his fingers but only regularly succeeding at sucking the side of one hand while shoving it in his mouth with the other (it's always a two handed job).
Almost laughing
Almost rolling over

We're looking forward to our first family road trip to Houston for Thanksgiving so Nana and Grandpa, Aunt Kim and Uncle Scott can witness his new tricks in person.

Hey there pretty darlin', lose a baby?

Y'all come back real soon, ya hear

Luke's Product Review

2005-11-13T21:41:00.000-06:00

As Luke is getting a bit older he is showing interest in the toys that he previously never noticed he had. In the last few weeks he has really gotten into his bouncy chair that Aunt Kim bought him. The chair has an aquarium display filled with water, fishies and lots of bubbles, and there are two plastic fish that hang down from the display. There are two functions to choose from, one that plays different songs and lights continuously and one that is controlled by Luke's movement.

What do you mean the square root of -1 is an imaginary number?

If the fish that hang down are kicked or otherwise moved, or if the whole thing bounces, then fun sounds are played and the fishies swim and bubbles are released along with bubble sounds. I refer to this particular sound as fish farts. Anyway, Luke LOVES to play in this chair set on the kid controlled function. He flails his arms and legs, arches his back and gets the whole thing a-rockin'. It's like a video game for babies with little to no limb control. He gets a look of concentration on his face like he's solving complex calculus problems. Each time the bubbles come on he yells out one of his few noises- either an "ah-goo" or a pre-squeal. Very cute nontheless.

His other new fun toy is the Deluxe Jumperoo that Aunt Yasmine bought for him. It is a freestanding seat on four springs in which he can push off the floor and bounce like a kangaroo. On the lowest, shortest kiddo level his feet barely touch the ground, so we put a phone book under his feet. He can get much more grip that way. It took him a few minutes to figure it out the first time, but then he started standing, shaking his hips and bouncing a bit. He got so excited at what he was doing that he started yelling out like he does in his bouncy chair. Each time he is in it he bounces more and more and squeals in pride at his mastery of the jumperoo. It won't be long at all before we can remove the phone book booster step, what a big boy!

So that's what my legs are for!

In other big boy news, Luke now faces forward in his Baby Bjorn. He seems to really enjoy this position, and instead of quickly falling asleep while facing our chest on our walks he now looks around and stares at the trees and flirts with the passerbyes. Here he is pictured with Louis on our very first forward facing walk.

Wow, this is a much better view than your hairy chest, Dad.

Happy Halloween, bwaa ha haa!!

2005-11-02T11:15:00.000-06:00

During the last week that Granny Svoboda was in town she carved us a pumpkin for Halloween and bought mom and baby little devils costumes. We outfitted the babe with his costume and the pumpkin with a candle for a dress rehearsal while Granny was still here. You can't tell from this picture, but it was pitch black outside minus the glow from the pumpkin; hence, Luke was blinded for a good thirty or so minutes after this photo op, poor kiddo.

That Saturday after dropping Granny off at the airport, we dressed up in our best 1950's duds for a themed party at the Weiss house. I demonstrated my mad hot glue gun skills (my friend Jaime would be so proud) and spruced up a vintage poodle skirt (not pictured, unfortunately), and Louis channeled Dean Martin. As you can tell from the pic, we were the bad parents who brought a baby to a party. But after a martini or two Luke just slept through the whole night, so he was no problem at all. Lightweight.

As Halloween grew nearer, the folks in our neighborhood really got into the spooky spirit and decorated their houses and yards. On one of our walks, the hair on Cactus' back stood on end and she started to growl deep and slow. Danger! DANGER!! And as I saw what she was reacting to I about fell over laughing... see picture below.

In the same instant I was so proud of Cactus for wanting to protect me and the baby from the evil villian about to pounce on us. To get a better look at the "man", we ventured closer onto the sidewalk but Fearless Cactus did not follow, and instead pulled away to the other side of the street forcing Luke and I to fend for ourselves. As soon as we walked a few steps back away from the man, Cactus' fierce bravery returned, growls, teeth snarling and all. But then as I stepped closer to the scarecrow again, well, you get the idea... Good thing Luke's Jedi training is coming along well. After fighting the blue killer horses from outer space, this was a cakewalk. South Austin is safe.

Then Halloween came, and in an effort to regain her reputation as Fearless Cactus, it was time for her to don her killer man eating shark costume. So scary!

The trick-or-treaters we receieved, having fine palates of course, dined on their choice of an array of delectable goodies- Reese's peanut butter cups, KitKats, and Sugar Daddies. Mmm mmm good. We greeted each guest with devilish Luke in our arms, always to delight and squeals, especially to the parents accompanying their kids. What a ham.

Can't tell which is scarier- devil tongue or man eating shark's vicious teeth!!

Two Months of Livin' Large

2005-10-21T17:05:00.000-05:00

I have a donut in each cheek

Sorry we haven't posted in a while, we've been busy the past two weeks with visits from Granny, Nana and 'whatever he wants to call me' (Grandpa).

Last Friday Luke had his two month checkup and weighed in at a whopping 11 lbs 3 oz and measured 23 inches long. Chunky monkey! As he was basking in the glow of his impressive weight gain, the mean lady in scrubs stabbed him four times with her death sticks. Two in each thigh. We tried to explain to him the importance of these "vaccinations", and through his tears we could read his intention to tuck this little incident away in his fragile psyche and take it out on us when he's a teenager. Happy friggin' two month birthday.

The next day, Saturday, we went to the wedding of Crystal (Jen's Mom's best friend's daughter) and Luke was dressed to the nines in a seersucker suit from the Martin D'Andrea collection. The ladies couldn't keep their hands off of him.

Ladies, ladies.... there's enough Luke lovin' to go around... please be patient.

Nana and Grandpa were there as well and were amazed with how much he's grown since they last saw him on Labor Day.

I'm a gangsta, but y'all already knew that.

Then it got embarrasing when the Notorious L.U.K.E. got busted for ordering drinks at the bar and was taken away by a handsome undercover Federal Agent.

"Lady, I'm going to have to ask this baby some questions..."

Luckily, Luke was allowed to leave Burnet County with only a warning.

THANKS FOR THE BEAR GRANNY!

Unfortunately, Granny has to go back home to France tomorrow. We all had a great time during her visit and we're sad to see her go. But that's TOMORROW, today we went on a fun walk on the Greenbelt and were excited to watch Cactus splash around in the water. We should have known that since it hadn't rained even an inch in the past month that there wouldn't be any water down there. The river was bone dry. Sorry Cactus, maybe next time.

The weather was great for a hike and Luke celebrated his freedom by sleeping the entire time snuggled in his Baby Bjorn. Lucky for us, he woke up for these photo ops.

Wait, this doesn't look like my room.

I'm as tall as the trees!

Here are some more pics for your Luke fix...

Happy Birthday Mommy, I Love You

2005-10-10T22:53:00.000-05:00

Saturday was Jen's 30th birthday and Luke (being the galant young man he is) surpised her with a flower, I gave her a custom made music CD and Grandma Svoboda gave us the best present of them all, 8 glorious uninterrupted hours of sleep!!!

After watching the Texas/OU game (go Horns!) that afternoon with Arthur, Erin and Martin, Jen and I checked into a hotel in downtown for the night while Grandma babysat.

Earlier in the week, we went for a walk on Town Lake to enjoy the great weather and to introduce Luke to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Luke wasn't impressed and found Stevie cold, stiff and ignorant to his cuteness.

Thank you Sun gods for bestowing your benevolence on Austin, take this boy as a sign of our devotion...

Just kidding little buddy.

After the long walk, our two tired puppies chilled out.

Click here to see some more pictures from last week...

Hi Grandma!

2005-10-05T21:58:00.000-05:00

Grandma Svoboda has come to visit for a couple of weeks from France and Luke sure is happy to see her!

No, he can't smile on demand yet but they are instigated by more than just gas now. Here are a few pics of Luke learning to use his face muscles.

I don't understand what you said but boy you crack me up!

I'm smiling cuz I'm clean.

3 out of 4 dentists say this counts as a smile.

Dreaming of boobs.

Where's my arm? You are so funny Dad!

Click here to see some more pictures of Luke at six weeks!

Flying Blue Killer Alien Horses From Outer Space!

2005-09-28T09:18:00.000-05:00

Here's the latest update from Svoboda Studios: After a month of martial arts training, Luke felt he was ready for his small screen debut. We got the green screen studio ready and let Luke have at it. He hates the term 'method actor' but it's amazing to watch his process as he goes to 'that place'.

He can't take all the credit though. In post-production I used some state of the art CGI effects by super-imposing a background that looks just like his changing table, then adding the 3-D effects of the Flying Blue Killer Alien Horses (that coincidentally looks just like the mobile Jennifer's co-workers bought Luke). The grainy effect was done by photographing a digital projection of the movie on a white wall, to create a negative from which prints for release could be made. Enjoy.

Take 1

Take 2

Sunbathing after a few Margaritas

Luke and Picasso (Is something there?)

2005-09-23T08:46:00.000-05:00

I had a dream of Picasso's visage last night and his resemblance to Luke. He can barely hold his head up, his arms flail around like a monkey, but could Little Luke be the next Picasso? Only time will tell.

When I get home today, I'm putting some pastels in his hand...

One month young

2005-09-21T22:31:00.000-05:00

Sunday was Luke's one month birthday! We can't believe how quickly it has gone by. He is gaining some major chunky chubbles and is almost too big for his newborn sized diapers. We have been hesitant to move him up to the next size, size 1, diapers because the little teenie weenie ones are just so darn cute. But alas, time and time again the wee cute diapers are no match for his formidable poopage bombs and we must admit that the baby, and his digestive system, is growing up fast.

In other news, we hope that our friends and family in the Houston area will remain safe as Hurricane Rita makes her way to Texas. Luke would love to see all of you and you are all welcome to stay with us. We also hope the Austin City Limits Festival is not totally rained out, as Louis was very much looking forward to telling Luke all about the Oasis show.

Also, we have to give shout outs to G. Rose, Wee Z and Tiny D for giving us links to this page from their blogs. Luke is looking forward to many fun times hanging out and causing trouble. This crew will be the cause of many a gray hair for their parents, we're sure!

Pool Party

2005-09-17T22:22:00.000-05:00

Today we went to Louis' company party at a neighborhood pool center. His coworkers were so excited to finally meet Luke and we were happy to show off his cuteness to them all. He took his first dip in the pool and Louis tested the absorbancy of his newborn sized diaper. The pool won.

Welcome to our OOL, notice there is no P in it.

Pictures from first weeks

2005-09-15T14:44:00.000-05:00

The Svobodas

Louis & Luke

Luke loves his mobile

Cactus meeting her baby brother

Wrapped up in bear towel after his first bath in the little pond (kitchen sink)

First bath in the big pond

My Dad says my favorite music is by U2, Oasis, Willie Nelson and Ice Cube

You know what they say about a baby with big feet...

I'm Popeye the sailor man. Toot Toot!

For more pictures click here and here and here!

Birthday

2005-09-12T21:44:00.000-05:00

So let's talk a bit about Thursday August 18, a great day commemorating the birthdays of great American entertainers such as Robert Redford, Patrick Swayze, Christian Slater and Malcolm-Jamal Warner.

In fact, the build up to the great day started one day earlier when Jen started having contractions at around noon while munching on salad and breadsticks at the Olive Garden with Dana. She left work at around 2pm and started timing the contractions. She called me and said that I may want to think about wrapping things up at work, but no need to hurry too much. She then called about 30 minutes later saying I should probably leave work and come home...

We timed the contractions the remainer of the day until they were consistently between 3 and 5 minutes apart for around 3 hours. Then around 10:30pm it was time to go to the hospital!

Jen called her parents and sister in Houston and they started their drive to Austin fearing they would not make it in time for the birth. Little did we all know that there was no need to hurry since she would be in labor all night long and most of the next day. A little after 4pm on Thursday, August 18, it was finally time to start pushing, and at 4:55pm little Luke made his grand entrance into the world!

Luke Allen Svoboda
Weight 7 lbs 10 oz
Length 20 1/4 inches

His birth was even more exciting for me because I got to deliver him! I had discussed this with the doctor a few times during the pregnancy and the doctor said that if everything was progressing ok that she would let me participate, maybe by placing my hands over hers as the baby was coming out. But when the time arrived and the head was crowning she said, "Alright Louis, come on down here. The baby should be born on the next push. Go ahead!" So all by myself I put my hands on his head and as his shoulders came out I put my fingers under his little armpits and pulled him out and placed him on Jen's chest. I then took a peek and announced "It's a boy!!!" We had not found out the baby's sex ahead of time so this moment was extra exciting. Then, almost anticlimactically, I got to cut the cord. Who needed a doctor?! It was such an amazing experience.

Examining the goods

Cute!

My first post

2005-09-05T20:06:00.000-05:00

After Mommy and Daddy explained to me what a blog is, I figured I'd have a go at it so that my family and friends around the world can watch me grow!

Alright, now that I've set up the blog for Mom and Dad, I have to get back to what I do best: eating, sleeping, pooping and looking cute. Follow along as they tell of our first days at home...