12 month stats

Liam had his 12 month check up on Monday. He is now 30.5' long (73rd percentile) and weighs 22.2 pounds (40th percentile). The doctor said he is all caught up and doing well.

And, just in time for Liam's first birthday, he is now enrolled in his first frequent flyer program. As a result, he got his first Visa card application today. And we wonder why there's a credit crunch . . .

Birthday videos

Here are some video clips from Liam's party. The first video is Liam with his first birthday cake. He went hand first into the icing but he was very reluctant to give up his pacifier, which made eating cake a little tricky.

The second is Oma and Liam playing with the birthday blower - - a big hit with Liam!!! This video is low quality because I was using my cell phone.

Liam's birthday party

Liam's first birthday party was this afternoon. We had a small get-together with family to celebrate the day. We were very happy to celebrate today especially when we think back to what we were thinking and feeling one year ago at this time. We are so thankful that Liam is a healthy and happy boy. We are also grateful to our family and friends for the support and help that allowed us to make it through this year.

The birthday boy

Playing with his new tricycle from Kay and Tim Diemont

Liam LOVED the birthday 'blowers'

Enjoying Liam's birthday cookout

Cake time. Liam's first 'sweets'
He also got his first taste of hotdog

Presents!!!

Family picture -
Not sure what was so funny but we are all laughing

12 month pictures

Tomorrow will be Liam's first birthday. We are so excited to celebrate this milestone. Both parents and child survived the first year. Our friend, Derrick, took some pictures of Liam and us for his birthday. Here are his official 12 month pictures. Tomorrow we will post pictures from his birthday party!

12 months old

We took several pics with the sunflowers.
Check out the number of petals in this picture.

Now check out the number in this one.
Guess who loved pulling the petals off! :)

Liam woke up 1.5 hours early this day, which meant the time we set for the pictures now fell during his nap time. He was nearly out of gas when we started. Throwing him up in the air was an attempt to stretch him out a little longer. As it turns out, we got one of our best pictures. Wasn't it nice of Liam to position the shoes just right so we could read his name in this pic?

I am German. I do German things

Yesterday the Janke Jungs watched Germany play Azerbaijan in a World Cup qualifier.

Liam in his German National Team Uniform
(BTW - he looks a lot older to me in this picture!)

Germany won 4:0 and we figured that Liam needs to learn to celebrate like a German. We figure by 1 year old he should be ready for German beer. :)

Hit me, Oma!

Race day

Sunday was race day! For us it was a symbolic and literal victory lap. It was symbolic because the day of the race was the same day one year ago that I went in the hospital with my abruption. It was such a scary and uncertain time for us. It's hard to believe that we woke up that morning, a year ago, saying 'we need to start working on the nursery because we are going to have a baby in 2 months'. By lunch time I was in the hospital and Liam would come one week later. At the time we did not know how dangerous abruptions were and we certainly did not appreciate how serious the situation was. Running the race was not only my way of getting back in shape after pregnancy, it was my way of celebrating the life that is and giving thanks that Liam and I both left the hospital healthy and happy.

The race was a literal victory lap because Tobias and I had both done our training and now it was time to celebrate. We both experienced injuries in the final two weeks of our training so we had to run very carefully and not push things. We were very lucky that the weather was nearly perfect. It was humid but the temperatures were much cooler than normal.

The staging area: 530 AM

Tobias in the sunrise

Portaqueue :)

Getting closer to the start

The family reunion area after the race

Official times: Lori 2:11:57, Tobias 2:18:35

If you'd like to see us cross the finish line, use this link:
http://www.rnrvb.com/videoreplay.html

Search by name and click on the green text 'Watch Tobias (or Lori) Janke cross the finish line'. Tobias will be running with his hands in the air, finishing on the left side of the screen. I will be limping and stopping my watch on the right side of the screen.

First time in the surf and sand

This weekend was the Rock-n-Roll half-marathon in Virginia Beach. Mami and Papi are here we all headed to the oceanfront for the festivities. This was Liam's first time going down in the surf and sand. He has been to the beach before when Nanna and Poppa were there but we didn't take him out. This weekend he got his feet wet for the first time. He wasn't really a big fan but we think this may change over time.

Papi and Liam on the boardwalk

Just too much to see

Mami and Papi

Liam on the beach - just a little concerned . . .

Really not sure about all this . . .

Feet in the sand

At least at 1 year old Liam was afraid of the beach, but he LOVED getting to play on the bed in Mami and Papi's hotel room!!