Palmyra

Thanks to our wonderful friends we had the opportunity to do a session in the Palmyra temple (which is one the things that was on my list to get done before leaving next year).  Granted we had to leave at 4:30 in the morning, and our wonderful, amazing friend had to drive up to Palmyra by herself with four kids all under the age of four!  Friend, you are amazing!!!!!  We went and saw the church sites, the sacred grove, visitor center, and the Hill Cumorah.  We also ate at this burger joint the Chill and Grill.  They had good burgers and yummy ice-cream!  I have been craving twist cones, with chocolate and vanilla, but they are impossible to find!!!  When we visited Palmyra three years ago, we briefly talked to a lady who was there with her family, who said they ate at the burger place that is known for their big portions, and that it is the place to go to.  Every since then I have wanted to try this place, but that was all the info we had to go on.  Thanks to a wonderful husband and asking the sister missionaries at the Sacred Grove, we found the place and my dream was fulfilled!  As for the big portions, the ice cream Lucas is eating in the picture (both in the cone and bowl, plus what he already had eaten) is HALF of a kiddie-cone.

Amish Man!

Last week I decided to get up early on a Saturday and go to some garage sales, I was looking for a little sand box and bike for Lucas.  Needless to say I didn't find what I wanted and I was frustrated, annoyed, and upset while I was driving home.  At least until I passed Ollies (a store) and saw the most beautiful site, the Amish farmer's market!  (Basically an Amish man and his family who sell a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, and pastries on certain days).  I couldn't resist, so I pulled in and bought some delicious blueberries, rhubarb (Craig loves this stuff, and I figured if I showed up with rhubarb he would be okay with the fact that I didn't come back with what I initially went out for).  I also purchased some zucchini which was calling my name, telling me that would go wonderfully with mini chocolate chips.  I have been craving zucchini bread (I am not sure if it is a pregnancy craving or just me)!  Way to go Amish man for turning my frown upside down!

Kiss

Lucas is talking constantly and you can understand him pretty much 90% of the time.  Though pronunciation is still difficult for him.  I can't remember what we were doing or how it came about, but I think Craig gave me a kiss, and Lucas decided he wanted a kiss too, so he said, "I want a kiss, kiss", unfortunately it said more like, "I want a piss, piss".  This is not nearly as bad as when we were driving and Lucas was pointing out the trucks, and saying truck, but it didn't sound like truck, just replace the T with an F and that is what it sounds like.

Del Grosso's!

A few weeks ago we went to Del Grosso (an amusement park, about 35 minutes from us).  We go once a year when we can get a good deal.  This year Lucas was tall enough to go on several of the rides, but  unfortunately on some of them he had to have an adult, and I am incapacitated and unable to go.  Lucky one of our friends was willing to make the sacrifice (especially on the spinning rides) and go with him.  Thank-you, Friend!!!  It took Lucas one ride to understand the concept.  He got on the ride, but it took awhile for the ride to start, because they were allowing more kids on etc.  Lucas decides he doesn't want to ride, I tried to explain it to him, but he is insist that he didn't want to stay on.  So knowing all to well that he was not going to be happy once the ride started, I took him off, and sure enough he was upset once the ride started to go!  "Stop", "Stop", "Stop", the entire time.  After that he went on all the rides, some of them numerous times!

Yeah! It finally happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love my little man (Lucas) more than words can say!  Every day I am learning more and more about him and how to approach things, so life is more pleasant for the both of us.  One of the biggest things I have learned is Lucas not only marches to the beat of his own drum, but he is the drummer!  He does things on his own time.  There have been times, when I am getting frustrated with the little tyke, I have to step back and say to myself, "Katie, calm down, this is not life threatening, he is not going be at a disadvantage if he doesn't hit this milestone right now, relax! When he is ready he will do it, just back off."  When I do this we eventually have success!

So you maybe asking why does this matter?  What is going on?  Drum roll!........Lucas has decided to use the potty!  He has just gone a full 24 hours without a wet pull up/underwear, this is including naptime and bedtime!  Amazing!  It all started a couple of weeks ago when we ran out of diapers, and we had not made it to the store yet.  I asked Lucas, "What do you think we should do?  We are all out of diapers.", Lucas response, "go to the store and get some."  My response, "Daddy has the car, so we can't go get diapers."  I continued to explain to him that we have pull-ups if he would like to wear those, and then asked him what he needed to do if he wore pull-ups, and he said go pee in the potty.  (Craig came home later that day with diapers, and I quickly motioned to him to hide them!)  He would still have accidents in his pull ups the first couple of days, and he found find a random diaper here and there, little stinker ("Look mom, I don't have to go pee in the potty, I found a diaper!").  It got to the point where he would become distraught if he wet his pull-up, poor little guy.  We have now officially transitioned into underwear, which he loves, especially the underwear Grandma sent.  Quote from Lucas, "We don't pee in grandma Buzz Lightyear underwear."  Lucas is very good at telling me when he needs to go.  He will suddenly look at you and shout, "potty, potty!!!" and may I add he will shout this anywhere, anytime, even if it is right in the middle of sacrament meeting!  No complaints here!  He goes poo and pee, anywhere, anytime! (He loves the port-a-potties, if there is one around he will instantly "have" to go, just so he can use it!) He is also great at holding it in, if needed (and when I say holding it, he literally holds his crotch).  On our way home from Palmyra we were pushing it, but he did a good job holding it, we finally decided it wasn't worth it and pulled over and let him pee on the side of the road.  He thought this was awesome and still talks about peeing on the rocks!  The morning after we put him in underwear, he woke up and said, "I get to go to preschool."  I had to explain to him, yes now you can go to preschool, but not until the leaves change colors and the baby comes.

Touch a Truck!

We have been living here for four years now and every year we miss "Touch a Truck", where they have a bunch of trucks:  a semi-truck, a fire-truck, a bus, a cement truck, etc. and the kids can get inside them and honk the horn, etc.  Lucas was finally able to go to "Touch a Truck" this year, and it was a tons of fun.  I hope we're around to go next year!  After signing a waiver,  Lucas was able to sit in every one of the trucks!  They had treats which totally won Lucas over, (this more or less became the priority and seeing the trucks was just an afterthought) as well as Craig (who took advantage of the treats himself on more than one occasion).

Dead fish swimming

Over the past several months we have been 'fish-sitting' more often than not as we've had various friends traveling for extended periods of time.  This has worked out really well for us because Lucas likes having a fish around, but we don't actually have to buy a fish.  However, we always have a shadow looming over us, haunting us with the question of "what if we kill the fish?".  Truth be told, the families to whom the fish belong probably wouldn't care since a replacement can be purchased for 25 cents, but we would feel terrible that we weren't able to keep the fish alive.  On top of that, we'd have to explain to Lucas why we were flushing Nemo down the toilet.

With that in mind, think how we must have felt when we came downstairs the other day to see this (warning, the following pictures may be too graphic for those with weak stomachs):

After a little grumbling and complaining, I go grab a plastic cup to scoop out the fish preparing myself for the inevitable questions when Lucas comes downstairs wanting to feed the fish.  When I return, the fish is right-side-up and swimming around like he doesn't have a care in the world.  This same scene repeated itself multiple times throughout the day.  At first Katie didn't believe me, until I heard her say "Oh, look Craig, the fish died" later that evening.  I just gave her a knowing glance, wandered over to the tank and quickly swiped my hand over the top.  Sure enough the fish turned right over and went on his merry way.

Now that I'm more conscientiousness about paying attention to the fish, I've noticed that he actually spends more time upside-down than right-side-up.  Weird fish.  He must have a couple synapses miss firing.