Meeting Luke

We spent the 3-day Presidents Day Weekend in Kansas City visiting our friends Mick & Tricia and their 7-1/2 month-old son, Luke. Our friend Cory from Dallas also joined us but his wife Jennifer stayed home sick. It was a fun weekend with friends from graduate school. We ate some great Kansas City BBQ, shopped, played with the babies, saw a lot of the city, and the guys went on a brewery tour. Mostly, it was nice just hanging out again with our friends and getting to know each other's babies.

It didn't take long to see that Elliot and Luke have opposite personalities. While Elliot is often quiet, shy and easygoing, Luke is talkative, loud and has strong opinions. They played well together despite Elliot's sensitivity to Luke's noise. Luke is boisterous and likes to squawk when he wants to say, "Hey Elliot, let's play!" Sometimes it would make Elliot cry which we don't understand and find a little funny. The ironic thing is that Elliot has been very talkative the last two days since we left Luke's house, so maybe he learned that it's okay to talk loud.

Elliot did great on the flights and slept like a baby on the quick flight from Dallas to Austin, which is when Drew took the picture of him zonked out. One thing we have learned about Elliot is that he is very adaptable to new places and travels well. Good thing because most of our friends and family live far away.

In other news, Elliot was 11 months old this week. At 11 months he can clap and wave hello or bye-bye. He gives Drew the best greeting when he gets home from work by clapping, laughing and bouncing up and down on his bum. Drew says, "I'm gonna get you" and Elliot goes bananas. Last week Elliot got his first major boo-boo when he fell face first against the hard kitchen tile. He cried but quickly recovered and was fine despite a bump and bruise on his forehead. His top two teeth are coming in nicely and it's becoming easier for him to chew finger foods. Mama painted him a new bookshelf and we put that in his room today.

Meanwhile the baby is kicking me a lot, and I feel it much more often than I felt it with Elliot. I'm either more aware of it this time, or this one is far more active than Elliot was. Hard to believe, but we only have about 4 more months to go in this pregnancy. We find out March 1st if it's a brother or a sister for Elliot.