Not the diaper!

The past week Lucas has started to take his diaper off (again)!  I will go get Lucas after his nap, and he will be standing in his crib without pants and no diaper, but of course his shirt is still on!  The other day I caught him standing in front of the T.V. with no diaper, just hanging out!  Luckily we have not had any accidents, but I can't help but ask myself where he comes up with this stuff?  And of course the question I am constantly asking myself "seriously?"  If this continues I might have to pull out the duck tape!

One year older!

We celebrated Craig's Birthday this past week, he is now one year older (next stop is the big 30!).  Unfortunately, Craig's birthday always seems to land on the day when so much is going on!  He did get two cakes, on two different days, and steak for dinner, however.  We tried cakes in the Crockpot, this was somewhat successful.  We are so grateful for Craig and all that he does!!!  We love him!  Hope he had a wonderful birthday!

An eventful Saturday!

Besides fixing the car last Saturday, we also took Lucas to the Patton Township Safety Fair.  Lucas was able to put out a fire with a hose, which he throughly enjoyed (probably because he loves water)!  He took a little ride in the lift of a fire truck, bounced in a couple of bounce houses, and had a sucker.  He was almost blown away when a helicopter was trying to land.   All in all a successful event for Lucas.

 

After that we headed down to the insect fair on campus.  Though we didn't try the chocolate covered crickets, Lucas did touch a tarantula, a walking stick, and a beetle!  He thought this was a riot and didn't even hesitate.  We also spent time in a tent with Monarch Butterflies!

Car Fixed?

This past Saturday Craig found himself once again under the car, trying to fix the hole in the exhaust!  After several hours of hard labor, success (we hope)!  The car doesn't roar to a start every morning, thankfully, especially at 5:30 in the morning.  Thanks Craig!

Who would have thought?

Since we have been home from vacation, Lucas has been really whiny!  I mean really, really whiny!  And for almost two weeks Lucas has been coughing!  At first I thought he might have allergies and was just trying to clear his throat, like his dad does.  I talked to a nurse who told us that if it didn't clear up within the next couple of days they would like to see him.  We put him on a cough suppressant, but unfortunately it just got worse and then his nose started to run.  So yesterday I took him to the doctor, expecting them to say it looks like he has a cold, there is nothing we can do, put a humidifier in his room.  Not exactly the answer we got.  Instead we took a trip down stairs to get an x-ray, and then went back upstairs for the doctor to tell us that he most likely has pneumonia.  For those of you that are thinking to yourself, 'wait a minute we saw and hung out with Lucas yesterday or the day before that or the day before that', don't be alarmed I looked it up and supposedly it is not contagious and he is now on some strong antibiotics.  So if you see Lucas it is not necessary for you to grab your children and run in the opposite direction unless you feel it is necessary!  By the way it was a great start to the week when the weekend had already been very busy!  You know those weekends that you think did we even have a weekend? Oh well.

Wow, Awesome!

I just thought that I needed to document this moment, not to say that Craig doesn't help out around the house because he does, but Craig has this uncanny ability to ask me if I need help at the moment I'm just finishing whatever it is I'm doing.  Today though, he asked me much earlier and I could actually put him to work.  Craig took out the trash and Lucas carried the recycling container, (he looked so cute and so proud carrying the recycle basket) it was awesome!  Lucas was happy because he was helping, I was happy because Craig was helping, I don't know if Craig was happy but it was a very happy blissful moment.

Colors!?!

Just this past week Lucas came up to us pointed to his shirt and said, "orange" which was in fact the color of the shirt he was wearing, and then he preceded to tell us that his pants were blue, denim is blue right?  We were so excited!  Quizzed him a couple of times through out the day about the color of his shirt and pants, praised him like crazy, he lives off of praise!  However, the next day I start asking him what color his shirt was, or what color the bus was, or the block, etc.  He got all of them wrong or he reverted back to associating them with the color of Sesame Street Characters.  I suspect he is just giving me a hard time, but honestly who knows, maybe it was a one time thing.  I guess time will tell!  Maybe next time I will be sneaky in how I ask him.

It's raining, It's pouring, The old man is snoring!

It has been raining constantly since last Saturday evening.  That is one thing that I don't like about Pennsylvania, the fact that it rains and rains and rains for days.  Not to mentioned that overcasts skies that we had several days before it actually started to rain.  What a bummer!  It was not until late Wednesday night that the rain finally stopped.  Here is hoping for some sunshine!

The Garden

Our poor little garden has struggled this season with the heat and then all of the rain.  I have had to plant my herbs twice and some of it still didn't make it.  Only half of my cilantro survived, but I believe this was partially due to Lucas and his shovel.  But our tomatoes survived!  When we arrived back home though, our garden needed some serious weeding and we caught the neighbor kids picking our unripe tomatoes, little stinkers!  Some still survived and there were several ripe tomatoes that needed to be picked.  So for the last week we have been eating very yummy tomatoes.

For the first time this year I planted basil.  Wow, this stuff grows like a weed!  I have made two batches of pesto, along with a few dishes that have called for fresh basil and it is still growing!  I have really enjoyed having all of this basil and experimenting with it!  I will definitely be growing this again next year!

Poor Little Car

This has not been the year for our little Camry.  The heater when out at the beginning of the year, so that needed to be fixed.  Surprisingly enough you can't fix it until it is warm enough outside, so needless to say it didn't get fixed till late winter.  Then summer came and we soon realized our A/C was out and you have to have a working A/C when you have a little person and humidity, plus it was really, really hot this year.  A more minor repair was our gas door broke and you had to manually open it, that was tricky, but an easy fix.  When I went home in July, Craig was driving along and one of the tires blew so we had to get new tires.  Our newest incident is our poor tale pipe has a gaping hole.  I apologize to our neighborhood who has been woken up to the noise of our car starting at 5:30 in the morning.  Sorry!  We attempted to fix it, but this morning I started up the car and could hear the muffler again, looking on the bright side of things at least it is not at loud as it was, before we tried to fix it.  Even with all that we have had to fix this past year, it has all worked out because Craig has been able to fix a lot of it on his own, which has saved us a lot (good thing I have a mechanically inclined husband).  So with this newest incident, I am sure it will work out, Craig already has a plan.  All things considered it is a good car and the things that have been wrong is all wear and tear, nothing too serious.  So in the end 'Go Us' and 'Go Little Car' you can make it!

Peaches!

With the fall comes canning.  I have been looking forward to canning this year, because I have been wanting to try to can peaches.  I love fresh peaches so much better than store bought canned peaches.  So image how excited I was when I found out that I had not missed peach season when I got back into town.  I feel so productive when I am canning, I am building up my food storage.  That is right I have thirteen jars of peaches sitting in the office just waiting till one of these days when it is really cold and dreary and I want a peach to brighten the wintry day.  I will be tasting some pretty sweet success!

So it begins.....again

Yes, it is here again that time of year when I have to coordinate our activities on Saturday depending on what time the "game" is.  When I know what I will be wearing every Saturday for the next few months.  When I stock up on Brats and chips, and apple beer (yes! the apple beer that we stocked up on when we were back west, boxed up, had examined at the airport, weren't sure it was going to make it, but it did! Success!).  Bring on the football!  When football officially started on Saturday we were ready.  Lucas was dressed from head to toe in BYU paraphernalia, carrying his BYU bookstore bag across the parking lot to the football party.  Poor child being indoctrinated into this ritual that is BYU Football at such a young age.  He even knows how to say "Go Cougars" and "touch down".  Of course you can't celebrate this monumental moment without friends.  Till next Saturday and the Saturday after that and the Saturday after that and so forth.

Watching the game at the James' with the Van O's.

Grange Fair

It is that time of year again.  One of the biggest events in Centre County, the Grange Fair.  This is a pretty important event, school is delayed due to this fair, people would kill their grandma to get a tenting spot at the Grange Fair.  It is that serious!

I like taking Lucas to see all of the animals, it has been fun to see how he reacts to the animals over the past few years.  This time around he was so excited, I think the rabbits were his favorite part, he would name the animals as he saw them and make the appropriate animal noises.  It was pretty cute!  We went with several of Lucas' friends, had some ice cream from an enormous ice cream sunday, and watched the Bald Eagle Band.  Lucas seemed to enjoy himself.  Lucas was able to walk part of the way with me and he was good to not wander off.  It was a very enjoyable day.  It is always an experience when going to the Grange Fair.
 

What Neighbors

We have lived here for three years now and in that three years in the apartment next to us we have had three different families living there and it has been empty for several months between those families.  Craig and I are beginning to think that there is something going on.  The management claims that there is a waiting list despite there always being empty units.  The apartment at the end of the building moved out after the apartment next to us, but it has been filled already.  Kind of strange.  Maybe we're horrible neighbors.  Our washer and dryer are pretty loud,  the floor moves when the washer is going.  It is kind of like having a mini earthquake every time we run the washer (I'm not joking either.  You can stand in the upstairs opposite corner of the apartment and feel the floor shaking slightly).  Don't get me wrong,  I am not complaining.  It is nice have no neighbors, but now that I have mentioned this I am sure will have neighbors move in and it won't be pleasant.  Here's hoping that won't be the case.  All of our neighbors in the past have been really nice.

New skills and joys

Lucas is still obsessed with cars, if you ask him what movie he would like to watch nine times out of ten it will be, Cars.  He can say "Lighting McQueen" and "Mater".  He loves playing with his Lego versions of the Cars characters.  He also has little car figurines of the characters and plays with them non stop.  The other day I even discovered some of his toys in one of my reusable shopping bags while we were at the farmers market.  He is quick to point out the cars on the road, especially school buses!


Lucas knows his colors if you coordinate them with a Sesame Street character.  For example if we see a school bus and I say, "Lucas what Sesame character is the school bus?"  He is quick to respond, "Big Bird."  We have also done this with objects of solid colors, green, yellow, red, and blue.  If you say which color is cookie monster he will grab the blue object.  I love Sesame Street so educational!


Lucas has also learned how to open doors, it was a sad day when we figured out he can do this.  He now has access to the office, the food storage upstairs (where he quickly discovered the fruit snacks) and the bathroom downstairs (where I found him the other day with about half a roll of toilet paper on the floor).  Right now as I am writing this I can hear him upstairs and I am pretty sure he is in the extra bedroom where the food storage is, probably looking for the fruit snacks.  This problem will quickly be resolved as I picked up some child proof door knob things.  The only problem with this solution is I have yet to master opening a door with those things on the handle.....

Oh, how I detest that phrase!

This is the conversation we having been having with Lucas numerous times the past couple of weeks!

Lucas, "I can do it!"

Mom, "Okay, Lucas do it."

Lucas, "NO! I can do it!"

Mom, "Lucas, how about mommy helps you."

Lucas, "NO!  I do it!"

These conversations usually end with me helping him, and all the while he is screaming at me, "I do it, I do it."  Though, there have been a couple of times that he has let me help him do it together.

The second most common conversation with Lucas:

Mom, "Lucas you stinky do we need to change your diaper?"

Lucas, "no, daddy do it!"

- not that I am complaining on this, I do not mind in the least when he makes this request.

Daddy, "Lucas let go get ready for bed"

Lucas, "no, mommy do it!"

-This is the one where I draw the line, I am the one that has just spent the entire day meeting his needs, and this is the one thing that Daddy does (not to say this is the only thing). 

Lucas is definitely coming into his own and developing his opinion.  If you ask him what he would like for breakfast he will tell you, "cheerios, with milk, and a banana."

The other morning I was putting a show on for Lucas and he was quick to tell me he didn't want to watch that show he wanted "train", i.e. "Thomas the Tank Engine".  This I cannot seem to figure out, he gets all excited when I put it on, but it doesn't seem to keep his attention for very long.  We continue to pick movies out at the library and he insists on getting a Thomas movie though he never really watches it.

Lucas seems to want to go the opposite direction that we need to go and he lets us know by saying, "no, that way!"  I don't think he cares where it leads,  as long as it is not the way we are going.


Another common phrase for Lucas has been, "Mine" or "hey that's mine!"  Which has lead to teaching Lucas the concept of sharing.  This is a bit hit and miss, but we will continue to teach it!

The littlest tasks that used to seem to trivial now seem to take forever!

Bryce Wedding!

At the end of our vacation came the much anticipated and primary purpose of coming out west, my brother's wedding.  It was a very long day, but it thankfully didn't rain, though it looked like it might and it did in some of the surrounding areas.  Mid-afternoon came and it was hot, really hot!  But it was beautiful!  We are so happy for him and wish him all of the happiness in the world!  Lucas looked really handsome in his black slacks, white shirt, suspenders, and gray tie.  His dad didn't look too bad either!  It was a wonderful experience!  Very much worth the trip out there!

Lucas in the great outdoors

Craig's family happened to leave for Youth Conference the day he arrived in Utah (one day later than planned and including a no expense payed stay in the Denver airport overnight, thanks Southwest!), so we drove up to camp to see them.  Lucas had a lot of fun seeing all the kids and running around free.  Just look at him, doesn't he look like he belongs in the great outdoors?

Why can't we be friends

Eevee is just a few months younger than Lucas.  I was excited for Lucas to have time to spend with his cousin, as Eevee is at Grandma's house a lot.  Within moments of there first interaction it quickly became clear, that this was not going to be the case.  They did not get along at all!  They were constantly on each other, at one point I caught Eevee holding Lucas by the collar slamming him up against the kitchen cabinets.  This isn't to say that Lucas didn't antagonize Eevee as well.  We were, after all, in Eevee's territory, and she saw Lucas as an invader.  Not to say that there weren't a few small moments of peace.  Toward the end of our visit, when we were getting ready to head to Craig's parent's house.  Lucas looked at Craig and said, "daddy no more, no more."  Craig's reply was, "no more what Lucas, no more grapes, no more drink?"  Lucas, "no more Eevee, no more."

Happy Birthday Eevee!

Lucas' cousin Eevee turned two while we were in Utah.  We were able to celebrate with them, which was really fun!  It was a backyard BBQ, which was thankfully covered because it rained.  However, this did not stop Eevee, Gage (Lucas' other cousin), and Lucas from playing, it just made it more fun!  Lucas needed his clothes changed by the ended he was dripping wet!

Colter Bay!

Towards the end of July Lucas and I headed back west to visit the family.  The day after we arrived we packed up and headed up to Colter Bay, which is a camping area next to Jackson Lake, in the Grand Tetons.  We spent four days there hanging with the family.  It was wonderful to be in the great outdoors (yes, I live in rural Pennsylvania, surrounded by mother nature, but it is not the same thing), to see the majestic mountains and evergreen trees.  It was gorgeous!

Looking down at the lake while on a hike

 My extended family has gotten into kayaking, so we went kayaking with them.  Honestly, at first I wasn't interested in participating in this activity, but they needed someone to get the kayak down to the day spot, and I was available.  It was a lot of fun, and surprisingly really works the upper body.  Lucas was also able to get a little kayak ride in.  He appeared to somewhat enjoy it.  Thanks Aunt Kenzie!