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!