Mermaids are Real

Thursday after school, Lucas was trying to set up a play date with Audrey. She informed him that she was only going to have play dates with girls wearing flowered shirts. He was crushed and came to me in despair because clearly there was nothing he could do.

After the storm calmed (as 4-year-old storms tend to do) they were sitting next to each other at the Arbor and having a few bites of their lunch.

Audrey said "Lucas, did you know that tornadoes can not dig underwater and get mermaids? ... Mermaids are real. They are. Fairies are real too."

Lucas pondered this but maintained his poker face. He was just happy to be friends again.

They ended up having a play date at Hippo Hopp the next day. As we were leaving to go home they declared it wasn't a real play date so next week we'll be getting together again, this time at Audrey's.

My how they have changed!
This most recent picture I have of Audrey and Lucas is from about six months ago.

New Awareness

Sofia has reached a new level of awareness in these last couple of weeks. She is now routinely giving me part of the buckle when she sits down in the high chair. And the other day, she surprised me by feeding me a cheerio! Stemming from this is a new favorite past time of feeding me my necklaces. She's adding the verbs "see, understand, participate, give" to the list "go, do, chew, conquer."

I'm so busy these days, cooking, caring, cleaning, organizing...while making time to enjoy as many moments as I can with my favorite children. One perk of this hectic life is the spontaneous joy these "out of the blue" milestones bring while I am not anticipating them.

Lucas's First Remote Control Car

This is one sweet ride. Lucas decided to save his money for a remote control car and when one came up on Kids Woot! he had just enough to purchase it (around $25.)

I have to admit I didn't think he was choosing the coolest one but the man knows his cars and this is definitely the one. And the quality is pretty decent. This is technically his second, but the first one was a $10 lemon. He wasn't really ready for it anyway.

But now he is! He got the hang of it in a matter of moments and spent about two hours today driving it around on the driveway. And of course racing it around Sofia in the playroom while she whips her head around and tries to crawl after it is great fun!

Sofia, Eight Months

What I find even more amazing than the fact that Sofia is eight months old is that in four months she will be one. I think of how Lucas was at age one, walking everywhere, saying a few words, sitting on rocking chairs, and it seems unfathomable that this is just around the corner for his baby sister.

Fathomable or not, her accomplishments are coming rapidly and in a blur. I will try to organize them here as best I can.

PLAYTIME

With three months of crawling under her belt and an appetite for fun I have a lot of baby on my hands. I am SO thankful for the large finished room in our basement where she is able to crawl & cruise freely and chew on blocks, play dough accessories and anything her heart desires. She loves music and bounces up and down in glee whenever she hears it. Right now Lucas is constantly playing his new favorite song by Robert Cray (R&B, more B than R) about a woman who keeps trying to "pull the wool over his eyes so he's steppin' out." She squeals with delight when her brother plays a game of disappearing and then reappearing from another part of the room. And he loves it too, considering tricking people and hiding are his favorite things to do.

She is still very much a Mama's girl. She is outgoing and happy with others but usually prefers that I hold her if she has to choose someone. Most of the time, however, all 20+ pounds of her is scrambling to get onto the floor and into something she shouldn't be playing with. I have been guilty of letting her play with the dishwasher and even opening the fridge so that she can unorganize and organize the bottles in the door.

Two new past times are dropping things and putting things into a container. We are alike in this way - I too like to get rid of things and organize. The other day, she was playing with a small car and noticed the pumpkin was near her (for a couple of years now, Lucas has been using a Halloween pumpkin to carry his cars) so she dropped the car into the pumpkin over and over again. Drop, retrieve, drop, retrieve...

Lucas is playing better with her. Our rules are, don't mess with her when she is precariously balancing and don't squeeze her as hard as you want to.


TEETHING

She just got two additional top teeth for a total of six.


EATING

I'd guess she eats about 3-4 stage 2 size baby food jars of food per day. Mostly homemade things. Still nursing about five times a day/night.

She is mastering the pincer grasp. I'd say about seventy-five percent of what she picks up successfully enters her mouth. She likes soft carrots, eggs and O's best. Chris calls her the crawling choking hazard and that she is. When you mix speed, a good pincer grasp and the enjoyment of putting things like throat-sized rocks into her mouth it is never good.

For pureed food, she is still eating a lot of soups - chicken and lentil, primarily. I mix in something green (spinach or avocado) and occasionally something out of the norm, like beets. Our neighbors have a garden and she loved the butternut squash they gave us. Last night I ground up the pasta with meat sauce that we were eating and she seemed to enjoy it as she does most foods. We also do a fruit/yogurt/rice cereal combo adding just a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon if needed.

My rule is, if the taste makes me wince I'm not giving it to my baby.

She's just started using the "all done" sign and I LOVE IT! We didn't do too much of this with Lucas although he was not as big a fan of solid food and would have probably signed "all done" the moment his popka hit the high chair.


SLEEPING

We are moving towards sleeping through the night more frequently. But this often gets derailed by teething and growth spurts, physical and mental. A lot of this has been going on lately and she has been waking up once between midnight and two and again in the wee hours of the morning. She naps well two to three times a day. When she is going through many changes naps can be short (45 min - one hour) but usually she has at least one 1.5 - 2 hr nap.

At night she has a lot of excitement to wind down from and she has finally succumbed to being massaged. She will sometimes lie completely limp in my arms and let me rub her baby muscles until she becomes quite drowsy. Nothing better than a sleepy baby.

First Shoes

She loves to play with them when they are on the floor or on other people's feet. The tassel on Daddy's dress shoe is a rare prize that makes her delirious with joy. But on her own feet, shoes are two annoying toys that won't go away. Even these leather fur-lined booties.

Daddy-Lukey Photo Booth

Last Day of the Pool Season (Through Lucas's Eyes)

Lucas wanted to capture our last day at the neighborhood pool.

Chris swimming

1 of "Pool Snack" Series

2 of "Pool Snack" Series

3 of "Pool Snack" Series

This man was telling his son that the weekend hospital deductible was coming out of his allowance this time.

Through Lucas's Eyes (2)

Lucas has recently taken up photography again. I interfere as little as possible so that he can convey his world freely through his pictures. (Sometimes, though, I suggest what not to snap - me in the bathroom, close-ups of Sofia's diaper changes, etc.) It's interesting to see how his photos have changed since the last "Through Lucas's Eyes" post.

"Acorns"

This was "a very good shot" according to Lucas.

His digging area

Favorite hiding spot - under the couch

Lucas knows a rare photo op when he sees it - an empty hamper!

My personal favorite

I would call this "Poisoning by Bell Pepper."

Biggest wiggle worm EVER

This is an interesting one taken from inside a little plastic house with a view of a tricycle wheel. House looks much bigger in the pic.

Stone Mountain

Climbing a mountain seemed like the appropriate thing to do at the near-end of Chris's sabbatical. We are planning a permanent sabbatical from negativity so really this is just the beginning.

We picked up Lucas from school and ate lunch there at the Arbor. An adorable trio of 4-year old girls (AnnaSofia, Audrey and Zoe) gathered around me to get a close-up of the new hair. Audrey said, "You look like the wrong mom." Zoe told me I look like Kit Kittredge which I will take gladly because the actress is around 15 years old.

Apparently Lucas did not get the memo about the negativity sabbatical because he was in a whiny, defiant mood. But we drove off leaving the bad attitude under a tree and things eventually got better.

Before we started our climb, Lucas had already fallen off a short wall and into a bush, touched a cactus and got a needle in his finger, and jumped over the cactus getting needles stuck in his right shoe. Luckily I brought a much better pair of shoes for the hike - his Teva sandals - and the needles made him drop the stubbornness and change into them.

The cactus needles were a blessing because I have been looking for a good reason to get rid of his first, beloved pair of New Balance (being two sizes too small with a hole in the toe wasn't enough.) He asked to keep them for decoration but I said I'd take a picture (or maybe we will cut out the N and put it in a keepsake box.)

The climb definitely got my heart rate up (Stone Mountain always seems easier in theory.) Lucas made it with no problems at all. After the run-ins with bush and cactus, the mountain goat came out and I remembered what a great hiker he is. Hiking is excellent for kids because they have to maintain their focus and continuously make judgement calls due to the uneven ground. My how he's changed from the two-and-a-half year old he was in Prague, struggling to make it over the Charles Bridge and to the playground each day - just a mile-long stroll. I think yesterday he could have run up and down the mountain twice.

Gorgeous day!

Lucas loved running through the stone pools at the top.

These pools can actually have shrimp in them!

Sofia loved every moment bouncing along in the carrier. All that fresh air wore her out and she konked near the end.

Peachy-Pink Chameleons

It's much easier to get Lucas into the bath when he can splash around with his baby sister.

Sofia would leap into the tub three times a day if she could (she really is in the tub three times a day, but not via leaping.) When the water starts running, she stands outside the tub grinning, squealing and doing baby almost-jumps in anticipation.

The froggy towel that Alison got for Lucas is still going strong, despite losing a hand in the dryer sometime back.

You know it's that time of the month...

When I schedule a same-day, emergency drastic haircut! I'm thinking six-eight inches were chopped. It was so different that Lucas seemed in awe of me and spoke politely and with interest all evening as if I were a cool visitor. Maybe all I need to do is dye my hair a new color each week to earn his respect.

Playdate with Gabe

Yesterday, Gigi, Aunt Amanda and one-year-old Gabriel came over for lunch. Gabriel and Sofia explored each other's faces and heads like babies enjoy doing. And Lucas ran around with his cars as usual and hammed it up to all the visitors.

Chris grilled some chicken and we had roasted potatoes and bean & corn salad (which came back later to haunt me with my nursing baby's upset tummy.) But the highlights of the meal, of course, were Gigi's cupcakes with Breyer's Neapolitan ice cream.

"Mmmmmmm"

o

"Want a bite?"

"Heck ya!"

Amanda's cute 'do inspired me to chop my own (see next post.)

Today is Gigi's birthday and she requested a picture with all three of her grandchildren. Happy Birthday Gigi!