Little Lucas Updates

Lucas is doing so many new and fun things that if I miss a day of posting I am behind! Kids at his age are amazing. They are like little sponges. Lucas is no exception - he pays very close attention to what we do so that he can do it too. He wants to do everything that we do - peel veggies, wash hands, water flowers, unload dishwasher, read books, etc. Here is just a medley of updates on our little Lucas...

Books

In the past couple of weeks Lucas has become really interested in books. He'll select one from his shelf and bring it to us to read to him. He doesn't have enough patience to let us actually read to him, so we usually flip through and make sounds and signs of things on the page. He will turn the page and then look at us to see what sign our sound we are going to show him. His favorite books right now are: The Wheels on the Bus, Baby Animals; Brown Bear, Brown Bear; and A Children's Art Book. The other night we were in his room and asked him to go get a book to read. He toddled over to his bookcase, looked seriously at the books, swiped a few onto the floor, toddled over to his closet and looked in it, and then looked at us with a discouraged look and kind of cried out. I knew that he was looking for the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, so Jeff and I started looking for it. As we were looking Lucas started really crying and getting upset. We found it a minute or two later and showed it to him and he quit crying, smiled, and sat down to read the book. It was so awesome that he was able to tell us what he wanted and we were able to understand and bring peace to the situation.

Sleep

For the first time in Lucas's life he is on somewhat of a schedule. I am not a schedule person and am not really enforcing this one... he fell into it on his own. Oh, and he's now sleeping in his crib all night. I loved co-sleeping, but it got to the point where Lucas would sleep right on top of me and neither one of was sleeping well. When we moved into to the new house we decided that we'd just get up with him and rock him back to sleep instead of bringing him to bed with us. To our surprise, Lucas liked this and adapted quickly. He still wakes up twice a night, but it's predictable and he is easy to get back to sleep.

Our daily sleep routine is that Lucas wakes up around 7am, takes a nap from 1-4pm, and goes night-night around 9pm. Luckily I work from home and am able to rock him to sleep during my lunch break (although Kristen can get him to sleep if I am unavailable). At night we eat dinner and then give Lucas a bath. After the bath we go to Lucas's room to put on PJs, play, read books, etc. After about 20-30 min Lucas gets frustrated with something and we can tell that he's tired. We ask him if he wants to go night-night and he'll usually put his hand by his ear to tell us that he is ready. Then he gives Jeff and Tyson a kiss and waves bye-bye to them. We turn out the lights and sit in his rocker as I hum or sing to him. The past few days he will rock for a while and then squirm out of my arms, walk to his crib and reach up as he says, "uh-uh-uh". I was shocked the first time he did this! I will put him in his crib and he'll turn on his aquarium and then ask to get out of the crib. I know he's going to do this so now I just get in the crib with him. We lay there for about 20 min before he falls asleep. I'm a pro and getting out of the crib without waking him up. When he wakes up at 1am and 5am I just get straight into the crib with him - it's much easier than getting him out and rocking him. When he wakes up in the morning he turns on his aquarium music toy and yells out for us. When we go into his room he's standing up and looking at the door with a little grin on his face.

Music

Lucas still really enjoys his CDs. We just ordered a CD from Kindermusik that inserts Lucas's name into all of the songs. Lucas's favorite is "My Friend Lucas had a Farm, E-I-E-I-O". When the song is on he says, at the correct time, "A-E-A-E-O" (his version). We took a break from Kindermusik, but plan to start going again in September. Lucas will move up to the 18month to 3yr old class, so it should be fun for him since big kids are so cool.

Attachment

Lucas is still very attached to me and cries when I go upstairs in the morning for work. He is easily distracted, however, by a fun activity. This morning I asked him if he wanted to wash his hands with Miss Kristen. He stopped crying, sucked in his breath, reached for Kristen and waved bye-bye to me.

I know that he associates fun things with Kristen because when she leaves in the afternoon he reaches for her and waves bye-bye to me. I KNOW this is because he thinks she's going to the park and NOT because he loves her more than me :-)

Sign Language

Signing is working really well for us. I know some of my friends don't do it and don't think it's necessary, but Lucas's personality is so intense that he gets frustrated quickly if he can't communicate his needs to us. For example, if Lucas gets bored with something he does the sign for "all done", waves bye-bye to the area, and blows a kiss. We know without hesitation that it's time to move on to something else.

The signs that he uses the most are "all done", "eat", "more", and "hot". He just learned how to sign "water" this week and I already love it because I know when he's thirsty.

He'll do "all done" anytime that he wants a change: in his high chair, in the grocery cart, in his car seat, in his crib, at the park, etc. Even though we can't always do something else, we know what Lucas wants and can talk to him about it.

I need to learn more signs because it seems that Lucas is really soaking them up right now. He can't do every sign we show him, but he looks for us to do signs when we're reading to him. I can see the little connections being made inside his head.

Afternoon Play Dates

Lucas's buddies Charles and Christopher live only a few miles away now, so we get to see them nearly every day for an hour after work. We go to the park, to someone's house, to the grocery store, to a museum, or to the pool. Over the past week Charles and Lucas have really started to play together. It is the CUTEST thing ever. They have invented a little game where they chase each other and then Lucas plops down on his belly laughing (he's crazy) and looks back to see if Charles was watching. Charles usually is watching and cracks up at this. Charles tries to copy him, but isn't as crazy as Lucas, and plops down knees first and then belly. Then sometimes they crawl on the floor and chase each other. They are getting better at minding their own business with the toys, but Wendy and I have had to remove a couple of toys from the room to distract them.

Food

Lucas eats what we eat now and is enjoying eating with a fork. We are going to the Farmer's Market every week, so he's getting to taste all the locally grown fruits and veggies. He'll eat just about anything, just not very much of it. He likes to eat a banana like a big boy now, holding the banana with the peel still on (like he sees daddy do). He still nurses a lot (bedtime, twice during night, morning, and a few times throughout the day, so he is more of a grazer with real food than a meal eater. He's been introduced to cow's milk, but I think it's kind of a waste because he only takes sips from a sippy cup, and never drinks the whole thing.

Vacations

We're going to Florida to see my parents in a couple of weeks. During our stay Jeff and I are going to go to Orlando for two nights, sans Lucas Bryant. We're going to go in the middle of our trip so that Lucas will realize how fun Grandma and Grandpa are and not mind being away from us. The longest we've been away from him his 15 hours, so it should be interesting. I think he'll do great during the day... just not sure how the nights will go when he wakes up.

Time Outs

Lucas clearly knows what is right or wrong, most of the time, so we feel that it's okay to dicipline with time outs. We've only done it a few times, but I think he's already caught on. An example of when we use it is if he's playing in the dog bowl. He looks at us and grins when he's doing it, so we know that he's testing us. We say, "Lucas, playing in the dog food will get you a time out". If he doesn't move away then we count 1-2-3. If he doesn't move then we say, "Okay, we need to have a time out for not obeying mama and dada". Our designated area is the bottom of the stairs. There is NO WAY that Lucas would stay there alone, so I sit beside him. We set a timer for 1 min. He sits politely with a little grin for 10 seconds, and then he gets up to leave. I don't say much, but just hold him in place. He gets so ticked and screams for the remaining 50 seconds. (Dr. Sears said it was okay to hold them in place!).

Yesterday when he went to Tyson's food we counted to 1 and he threw the food down and ran away. He totally gets it.