Lucas Christmas

We had a great Christmas.  We spent a week in Wyoming with my mom and sister.  My sister and I drive each other crazy, so that was plenty of time.  Lucas loves to play with his cousin, Treydon.  And of course this year he fully understood the whole Christmas thing (including Baby Jesus, Grandma Mary and Papa John. . .er, uh Mary and Joseph).  We heard a fire and brimstone homily at Sunday Mass before Christmas about how awful we were for emphasizing Santa over Jesus and how St. Nick would be rolling over in his grave.  Of course throughout this sermon, Lucas was jabbering loudly to everyone around us about the Nativity Scene and the 3 kings on the stained glass window (which were actually just guys with Halos), so we did not feel too bad about it.  That is not to say that he did not understand the Santa part, too.  When Santa stopped by our house his wide-eyed pure joy was uncontainable.  We wrote a note for Santa and left him 4 cookies, and he ate 2!.  Lucas got lots of stuff, but Santa brought a 2'x2' wooden castle and all the little people and their horses to go with it.  Maybe Santa knew what Dad wanted, but we've had lots of fun with it (especially the catapult).  Both boys were (and still are) overwhelmed with all the new stuff.  On Christmas morning, the boys were playing with the castle when I asked Treydon what Santa brought to his house.  He held up his 2 yr old hand like a stop sign and said "Not now.  I'm busy." 

You hear me?

Lucas' funny new line is "You hear me?" He will sit in his car seat babbling like there is no tomorrow, then he will suddenly stop and ask, "You hear me, Daddy?" I just about drove off the road laughing the first time he said that. He knows hundreds of words, but usually we need to be in his context to understand them. Then every once in awhile, a phrase like that is crystal clear. I was not aware that we say that very often, but the other day, I caught him following the dog around saying, "No, no! You hear me Stitchy? No, no!"

Lucas seems to be a sponge now. We bought him some flash cards with letters on one side and words on the other. We will tire of the game way before he ever does. He loves it. He is smart, and he is thirsting for knowledge. We also bought a "Leap Frog - Memory Mate" game. It has a lot of cards with pairs of pictures. One picture has the English word, and the other picture has the Spanish word. He loves that game, too. Maybe we will even learn a few Spanish words along with him.

The picture is Lucas' first attempt at ice skating. He did ok. For a while I was basically propping him up, but he eventually got a little better. He could scoot along the wall for a ways. He could also skate a few feet all by himself if he took his time. It was fun. It won't eb long, and he will be ready for some hockey!

Snoring. . .

Lucas and I were shopping for Mommy's birthday present. The salesclerk was wrapping it up. I was holding Lucas with his head on my shoulder. He was obviously bored. He started pretending to be sleeping - complete with snoring. This was in the quiet jewelry department. After a short while, Lucas had several clerks and customers laughing. The attention made his snoring louder and more obnoxious. Don't feel bad Lucas. . .I feel the same way about shopping!

Emergency room super glue. . .

Lucas took his first trip to the emergency room on Sunday. He fell down the stairs on the deck. He must have screamed in mid-air, because we all turned just in time to see him flying head first over the entire fight of stairs. He hit his chin on the bottom step and earned a pretty deep cut. He is fine. They superglued him back together, but it looks like it will probably leave a mark.

Now, he is not supposed to swim for a few more days. It is killing him. He has been getting wet almost everyday this summer. We open the door and he heads for the lake. He has been spending most of the summer in his life jacket.

Potty. . .

I am sure that Lucas will be proud of this entry if he ever reads this stuff. However, as a parent who has grown weary with diaper duty, it is a sign of hope. Lucas has finally started to use his little potty sometimes. We have to ask him all the time now, and sometimes he just plays. But. . .every once in a while, the endeavor is successful. Yeah!!! I conscientiously savor and enjoy everything that I can about Lucas growing up. That being said, I seriously doubt that there will be anything that I will miss about diapers.

Swimming. . .

Lucas loves the water. He is not scared enough. With the lake in the backyard, he finds an opportunity to get wet almost everyday. Most of the time, he has to live in his lifejacket. He likes to swim around. He likes to jump off the dock either by himself or with me. Wearing his life jacket, he will jump off all by himself. I just stabilize him after he pops back out of the water. He is not crazy about it, but I can get him to float on his back in his lifejacket, too. It is fun to play in the water with him, but we get too busy around here. We really have to make a conscious effort to goof off.

Colors. . .

Lucas is learning his colors these days. He can say "oh-ween" (orange) and "ye-do" (yellow) when we ask what color things are. He can also identify red, blue, green, purple, black. He says these color names too, but usually needs prompting. It is fun to see him. He is obviously proud that he is so smart.

Words. . .

Lucas is talking up a storm these days. He learns lots of words. I think it is interesting which words he feels compelled to learn. You can tell what interests him - choo-choo, tractor, truck, boat, airplane, car, bubbles, hockey, Nemo, etc. He told my mom "I love you" on the phone last night. I think that she just about fell over.