Lucas!

I was talking to my mom this morning about what Lucas has been up to. I realized that I should probably write some of these things down. So here it is. When Lucas sees you eating something that he would like to try, he looks at you points and says, "bite, bite" and will continue to do this till he gets a bite.

We don't let Lucas watch a ton of t.v and I am picky about what we allow him to watch. With that said, Lucas likes a show called, "Yo Gabba Gabba". It is pretty cute, they sing, dance, and teach kids important lessons. Though it can be annoying at times when the songs get stuck in my head. For example, this line has been playing over and over in my head since yesterday afternoon, "keep trying, keep trying, don't give up, never give up". At the beginning and end of the show, DJ Lance Rock brings the characters to life, and then at the end he puts them back in the case. When he does this he says, "yo gabba gabba" and moves his hands out, away from him. Lucas will say it and do it too and it is pretty cute to watch.

The other show that Lucas loves is "Sesame Street", and we are obsessed with Elmo. The other day we were at the grocery store cruising down the shampoo isle and Lucas starts to point and say, "Elmo, Elmo". I looked back and on the very bottom shelf, slightly turned inward was a bottle with a picture of Elmo on it. Who would of thought.

We have been working on naming colors with Lucas and today while I was talking to my mom, Lucas was getting into the DVDs, sneaky little guy, and he saw the spine of the movie "Follow that Bird" and at the top of the spine is a small picture of Big Bird's face, Lucas pointed and said, "yellow". Success!!! Yeah!!!

My Husband the dutch oven master!

For enrichment this week we celebrated the Relief Society's Birthday. Craig was asked to make the dessert, cobbler. I always thought dutch ovens was a Mormon thing, but I think it is more of a western thing, because I have been surprised that people in my ward don't know about dutch oven cooking. Fortunately some of them got a taste of what dutch oven cooking is and like it. Craig had his hands full, cooking three cobblers, peach, chocolate cherry, and a mixed berry with a crumble topping. The mixed berry one Craig tried as an experiment, just made it up as he went along, but it was a success! The man has skills! I thought we would have a tons of leftovers, but I was wrong, very wrong! It was wonderful, as always! One of my friends was debating whether she was going to go, then she found out Craig was making his cobbler, she decided that she would go. (It's that good!)

I have to admit I was proud to be his wife, the women were impressed. I think it is pretty cool that I married someone that likes to cook and does it well!

BUGS!!!

On Wednesday we went to the bug museum on campus for playgroup. Usually it is not difficult to park, usually, but the guy was not convinced I wasn't a student, though I had my friend in the car and three kids in the backseat. I tried to explain to him that the parking pass was my husbands, and he did go to school. Dtill he was not convinced, so while cars are lining up behind me, I had to find my wallet, get my ID out and wait for him to type it into the computer. I know it shouldn't have bugged me, but it did.

Lucas liked the bug museum, it was small and the presentation was short, so it was perfect! They show them some really bugs, Lucas tried to squish the larva, the bug people were a little caught off guard, my little child the bug killer. After that I think he was a little apprehensive to touch the bugs, but at least he was aware that he needed to be careful. He did touch the coach roaches, and liked to look at the insect that looked like a stick, which I have to admit he was pretty neat looking. I don't remember their official name, but they are from Australia, they are camouflaged to look like branches, and they even sway like a tree branch would. Lucas was ready by the end, got into his stroller and said, "go".

Shoes!

Our library has the most awesome activities ever, and today it was shoe day! Every year they pick a children's book to highlight, the author comes reads the book, and each kid gets a copy of the book signed by the author. This year the book was "Whose Shoes?", it's pretty cute. The library had different games set up involving shoes in some form or another. They also had a variety of shoes you could try on, including big clown shoes. Lucas wandered most of the time, tried on a few shoes. Then he saw the cake, he wanted it right then, distracting him was difficult, but we managed and he did surprisingly well while the author presented. At the end he had his book and a piece of cake, what more could you want, besides the fact it was past bedtime!

Happy Day!

Yesterday was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and I think it got up to the mid sixties, it was gorgeous! When you have just survived winter and have been waiting for a day like this for months, you just have to take advantage of it. So we went to the park! Lucas played and played, we were there for a coupled of hours. We even ended up taking our jackets off! It was a wonderful day! This park has ducks and a pond, Lucas loved chasing the ducks. Though he made me a little nervous when he headed for the pond. The swing set, had a bucket swing that I put Lucas in towards the end and he just sat in there swinging back and forth forever, it was great, it gave me an opportunity to socialize.

St. Patrick's Day!

Yes, another holiday with a traditional meal! On St. Patrick's day Lucas wore a green shirt, and after his nap we went on a hunt for gold. I also found a green flute recorder for a dollar, since Lucas likes musical toys. He of course enjoyed it! At first he didn't realize the gold coins were really chocolate, until later when I found him sitting on the couch eating one. Of course for dinner we had corn beef (yes, we bought two, so we would have plenty for Rubens, mmmmmmm Rubens!) and cabbage. I saw this recipe on line where you could saute the cabbage, and we tried it but it didn't work very well so we ended just boiling it. We also had potatoes, but I felt like sauteed potatoes with onions. Our green dessert was a first for me, I made an Oreo mint Ice-cream pie, with mint Oreos on top, dark chocolate and mint chips melted and drizzled on top. Yes, it was a delicious as it sounds. It was an uneventful day, but tasty!

Tupperware

Lately Lucas has been playing in the Tupperware drawer. He will take out two pieces of Tupperware put one on each foot and walk around the kitchen. The other day he had just one container and was putting both his feet in it and then would hold on to something and slide around the kitchen floor. He was not always successful in doing this, at times he had difficulty getting both feet in, or would just crash and burn, yet he would get back up and try it again. Here is a video of this, though he kind of stopped doing it when we pulled out the camera, or maybe he just learned that it wasn't the safest game. In this video you can also hear him talking a little bit, which we thought you might like to hear.

Mardi Gras

Since I like to celebrate, especially if it involves food, we celebrated Mardi Gras. It took awhile, but I finally found a recipe that was not too spicy (since I am not particular fan of spicy stuff). For dinner we had New Orleans Chicken (which kind of reminded me of dirty rice) and hush puppies. I have always wanted to try hush puppies, yes I know they usually go with seafood, but I thought it sounded southern so we made them. They were a little difficult, but tasty really yummy! Of course for dessert we had a homemade King Cake, which looked really festive and also tasty really good. We ate more than half of it. I ran some over to the neighbors so we wouldn't end up eating it all. I couldn't find a little toy baby, but I read somewhere you could use a pecan or a slice of orange. I used an orange, Craig found it and was not too pleased, he thought it tasted bitter.

Singing Cows

We took a day trip to Hershey with our friends, Alyssa and her little ones Cooper and Sadie. The day before she had been telling Cooper that we were going to go see the 'singing cows'. When you go to the Hershey Tourist Building you can ride this ride where they talk about making Hershey chocolate. During the ride there are three cows that sing, hence the 'singing cows'. Lucas did not like the singing cows at all, he was so afraid of them and hung onto me the whole time, which is surprising. If you think about it he knows what a cow is, can say the word, and says "moo" when asked what a cow says. He just doesn't like it when they sing apparently. So while Cooper enjoyed the ride and the singing cows, Lucas was living in terror. After the ride they give you some chocolate, and when we entered the building there was a nice older man standing there, who asked the kids there names and gave them a little chocolate bar. Lucas just held his candy, I am not sure he knew what it was, but as soon as I gave him a piece, he quickly figured it out and ate it all, except for the chocolate bar, which he had hidden away in his hand. Quite a while later, when we were headed home, I turned around in the car to give him his hamburger only to find he was covered in chocolate. Literally covered in chocolate, from head to toe! Lucas might not have enjoyed the cows, but he sure loved the chocolate!

Silly Lucas

Lucas can put on his bib and take it off. However, the other day he decided he wanted it to be a hat, well sort of. I thought it was funny so here are some pictures of Lucas being a little silly!

Lucas likes KiX

Lucas usually has yogurt for breakfast, but lately he has been liking cereal and not just any kind of cereal, KiX. The other day I was snacking on some Life cereal when Lucas caught me, so I gave him some. A few minutes later he came back for more, so I tried to give him more and he said, "no". He pointed to the box of KiX on the refrigerator, said, "KiX". I am okay with this preference, after all KiX are "kid tested and mother approved."

Being Helpful, well sort of!

Lucas is in the 'let me help' stage of development and as all stages this has its pros and cons.

Pros:

• He is no longer taking the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and tossing them on the floor.
• He's always willing to carry things whether you want him to or not.
  
• It is nice to know your child is willing to help.

Cons:

• Everything seems to take more time.
• Con it takes more energy with Lucas helping, way more energy.
  

Lucas loves to help sweep the floors, fold the clothes, and hand me dishes to put away. I was carrying our cooler out to the car and Lucas had to hold onto one of the handles and 'help' me carry it to the car. Lucas also likes shutting doors every time we go out of a room. He HAS to shut the door, he also has to shut the door when we come inside the house. The other day I was in our bathroom getting ready for the day, and I could hear Lucas, but couldn't see him, I opened the bathroom door, no Lucas. I opened the bedroom door still no Lucas, but I was getting warmer. Though all of the doors were closed, I opened his door and sure enough, he was there. I don't think he meant to do that, but at least he wasn't complaining yet.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Today we celebrated Dr. Seuss' Birthday! We made a cat in the hat hand puppet with Lucas' friends, read some Dr. Seuss books and of course had green eggs and ham! We also had chocolate birthday cake in a mug (this was surprisingly yummy!). It is always nice to have something to celebrate! Adds some spice to life and gives me an excuse to try something different and eat cake. I love Dr. Seuss books, the man was brilliant. Lucas will actually sit and listen through an entire Dr. Seuss book, which is saying something! Fun Day!



Lucas has also started to 'cheese' for the camera. It is really cute, but his facial expression looks funny in the pictures that we take of him, his eyes all squinted, grinning really big while he says cheese! If anyone pulls out a camera Lucas runs toward it saying, "Cheese". I look forward to picture day in a couple of months he should be willing to smile for the camera, which will be a first.

Field Trip

We went on a field trip with our play group to the grocery store. It was a lot of fun. Lucas spent some time in the stroller, when he started to get out of control and wander away from the group, but he actually stayed by the group and listened some of the time (longer than I thought he would). They gave all the kids a hat, and explained the different food groups as we went around the grocery store. Lucas favorite part was the seafood area. The guy showed the different type of seafood, like shrimp and fish, and then he pulled out a live lobster, and told them they could touch it if they wanted. All of the kids backed away and hesitated....all but one child who pushed his way through the group and with out hesitation touched the lobster, laughed, and then touched it again, poking at its claws and thoroughly enjoying himself. I am sure you have figured it out that it was my child. You gotta love him, he is so outgoing and happy! Very social!

Bye Bye!

Lucas is now speaking on a regular basis, some of it jibber-jabber, but you can actually understand some of the words he says. It has been pretty fun. His new thing started when we were watching the clowns. He looked at Craig and I waved and said, "Bye-Bye" and headed for the door. Craig and I looked at each other and we're like 'wait a minute, I don't think so'. He has done that several times since. I will be headed to the car look at Lucas and say I am going bye bye are you coming with me, Lucas will look at me say, "bye-bye" and head the opposite direction.

Clowns

On a Saturday we took Lucas to see the clowns at the library. We were not sure how Lucas would react, but thought we would see how it went . At first he was a little apprehensive, no surprise there, but once we dragged him through the door one came up to Lucas and handed him a sticker (how did that clown know Lucas Achilles Heal?). Don't worry it gets even better, another one comes up to Lucas and starts blowing bubbles. That was it, Lucas was sold, he watched them and really seemed to enjoy himself. It was really fun, I was even entertained. These clowns were older people, probably grandparents. It was really cute, and most importantly, Lucas lived to tell the tale!

The blackberries incident

One morning on our way home from swim, I thought to myself, "I am going to be driving right past this grocery store, that has fruit on sale. I really want some fruit, so Lucas and I will quickly run in grab some fruit and leave, it will be super fast!" We get there and I think, "this is going to be really quick, rather than messing with a shopping cart and trying to get Lucas seated in the shopping cart, I will just hold his hand. We're going to be quick, it won't be a problem."

What was I thinking!?! While I was trying to get some fruit, Lucas was grabbing all the fruit containers that I was trying to keep him away from so fruit doesn't get all over the floor. I was unsuccessful, and Lucas grabbed a container of blackberries, which spilled all over the floor. As I am trying to pick them up, Lucas is grabbing them and eating them, by the handfuls! If this isn't embarrassing enough, the produce guy is standing right there, seeing all of it. He was very nice, though. I told him that I would pay for them, he said don't worry about it, because things like this happen! I quickly grab a container of blackberries and Lucas and I head for the checkout, but in the process I see some asparagus. I love asparagus, so I decided to quickly grab some. Once again, BAD idea. Lucas gets into the basket grabs the container of blackberries, and guess where they land? All over the floor. Once again I am picking them up and Lucas is eating them. I salvaged what we could, because I wasn't about to go back to the produce guy and ask how often does it happen twice in a row. To say the least it was not a quick trip, and in the future I'll more carefully reconsider before I decide not to put Lucas in the shopping cart.

YMCA

After two years of thinking about it and continuously putting it off we finally signed up to do the YMCA. I had two good motivations that pushed me to finally follow through and get it done. They were signing up for swim lessons and I thought it would be fun for Lucas and I don't want him to be afraid of the water. My second motivation was being able to exercise without freezing to death. When we first got back from visiting family, I tried to do my walk at 5:30 in the morning. Bad Idea! It was so cold, and then it snowed and I couldn't cross the street without being in the middle of the road.

It was a good decision and I am glad that we finally got it done. I have been warm while working out and it has given me an opportunity to try the exercise machines and to push myself a little more than I would while walking. Don't get me wrong, as soon as the snow melts and it warms up I will be back outdoors. This has just been a good alternative.

Lucas is doing swim lessons and he is doing pretty good. It is new, so at first Lucas was really apprehensive and clinged to me, but after a few times he is doing great. We're still working on kicking his legs, floating on his back in the water, or jumping into the pool, but at least he isn't afraid of the water, it is all about the baby steps!

I also take Lucas to this indoor playgroup they have on Fridays, he loves it!!! It is in a gym like area. They have a slide, a little basket ball hoop, a miniature trampoline, some rider toys, and other fun toys to play with, and of course they bring out a couple of those big exercise balls. Lucas thought he had died and gone to heaven.

Friends!

Lucas hanging out with his friends! They get along pretty well together. The little girl on the right is Sadie. Lucas really likes her, when he sees her, he calls her name and gets all excited. When we say something about Sadie and he points out the window and starts to whine because he wants to go see Sadie. He is more willing to follow me if he knows were headed to see Sadie.

Valentine's

We did not do anything too amazing on this day. We did get some packages in the mail from the grandparents and that was fun. Thanks Grandparents! I made a German Chocolate Cake completely from scratch for dessert. This cake takes a lot of time and effort, but after you have a piece you quickly remember why you go through the hassle. Yum! I attempted to make heart shaped blueberry pancakes, it didn't work as well as I would have liked, but the pancakes were good. Craig pre-ordered a copy of Tangled which I am so looking forward to. Awhile back there was a good deal online, I asked Craig if we could get it and he said no it was not that good of a deal. Liar! He had already ordered me a copy. Happy Valentine's Day!


I was really proud of this cake! Doesn't it look ooh so good?

Dance to the music!

We bought some headphones for Lucas for the plane ride. They were unsuccessful, he kept taking them off. One day I was listening to music while I cleaned the bathrooms, Lucas notice me and decided he wanted to listen to music, so we found his headphones. Surprisingly enough he loved it and kept the headphones on. Dancing seems to be his thing, second only to playing with balls.

The rest of January in a nutshell!

Craig headed by home the second week of January, Lucas and I stayed through the rest of January. The fun didn't stop when Craig left (although it should have! -editorially note by Craig). Kim and I took Eevee and Lucas to the Bounce Zone, it is part of Classic Skating. Once again Lucas was a little whiny and apprehensive at first, but was soon bouncing up a storm!






It was unseasonable warm at one point during our trip. Eevee and Lucas wanted to go outside so bad, made us put there jackets on and everything, so while they were still in the PJ's we let them go wander in the front yard. They really enjoyed it! When we came home I was so sad that we don't have a yard where I can just let Lucas wander.

Lucas putting his younger cousin to work! Free ride!

We had tons of fun during the rest of our visit!!! During this time Lucas language skills took off. He was saying people's names, imitating the words you would say, he would say "happy", it was sure cute! If you say, "ready set," Lucas will say, "go". Lucas loves to play ring around the rosies and head shoulders knees and toes. These games were especially fun to do with his cousins. He also grew and is starting to look like a little boy!

Foot Zoning

My friend is going to school to learn how to zone people's feet. I had never heard of this before. Foot Zoning, or Reflexology, is an alternative medicine that involves massaging the feet. In case you don't know what this is, the Reflexology Association of Canada defines reflexology as: "A natural healing art based on the principle that there are reflexes in the feet, hands and ears and their referral areas within zone related areas, which correspond to every part, gland and organ of the body. Through application of pressure on these reflexes without the use of tools, crèmes or lotions, the feet being the primary area of application, reflexology relieves tension, improves circulation and helps promote the natural function of the related areas of the body." While my friend is in school she has to zone a certain number of feet. So being the wonderful wife I am I volunteered Craig, he has so many issues, allergies, messed up knees, etc. so I figured he needed all the help he could get. Here are pictures of my cute friend zoning Craig.

Jungle Jims

While the Swenson family was sick, and before Craig ended up getting sick, we decided to get out of the house. We met up with Craig's younger brother Alan, his wife Sarah, and their little girl Elise (who is about a month and half older than Lucas). They get along pretty well together and it is fun to watch them interact.
We went to Jungle Jim's, which is a place where they had a bunch of kiddie rides. It was pretty fun, and there was not a whole a lot people so Lucas and Elise were able to ride whatever rides they wanted numerous times! Lucas did not like the ride that went around and around really fast, the first time he looked apprehensive and the second time he cried. Lucas is cautious, when trying new things. He is pretty apprehensive, might wine a little bit, and you can tell from the look on his face that he is trying to figure it out and understand what is going on. Once he figures it out and decided he likes it he really enjoys it! He loved the swings! We had lots of fun! Were glad Sarah, Alan, and Elise came with us!






It was pretty entertaining to watch Craig and his brother try to fit into the little rides. Though I have a suspicion they enjoy it!