Somebody from work asked me what is something neat that Lucas is doing now. The first thing that came to mind was how well he can communicate with us. I know it's normal development and should be expected, but I still find it so amazing every time he tries to say a new word or picks up on a sign after only showing it to him once or twice.
He cannot say many words, and the ones that he can say are not really used when he communicates with us... except for "Muh", which is what he calls me now. We were in the park yesterday and I had walked away from him, but was of course watching his every move. I saw him look up and get kind of a concerned look as he said, "Muh? Muh?". I love it that this is his special name for me :-)
Although there are no words spoken, we almost always know what he wants. Even Kate, who has only been here for 5 days and has never practiced sign language, can understand him. It's amazing. What is even cooler is that he is speaking in sign sentences now. He will use "more" and "please" when he's asking for something. "More water please", "More cracker please". It's not always as smooth as I just made it sound. Sometimes he just does all of the signs really fast, in no particular order. We can see his little mind working.
In the car ride home from Florida we had run out of snacks and were about to stop for dinner. Lucas politely did the sign for "cracker". When we told him that we didn't have any crackers he did a sequence of signs, "more", "cracker", "milk", and "eat". He was getting frustrated and it was clear that if he could talk he would be saying, "Feed me now people!!"
He must not have read the article on how Baby Einstein makes kids dumber because he is even more completely obsessed with his DVDs now. And, thanks to his friend Maddie, he now likes The Wiggles just as much. When we walk through the family room and he sees the DVDs he will pick one up and bring it to us as he makes a "uh? uh?" sound. If we don't respond then he carries the DVD to the DVD player and starts pushing buttons, trying to figure out how to make it work. After about 2 min of watching whichever DVD he selected he does the signs "all done" and "more" as he hands us another DVD. We're not sure if he is looking for a certain one or if he just likes watching them all. It's kind of annoying to constantly change them so I moved all of the DVDs out of site and told him that I don't know how to work the DVD player (which I don't), so hopefully this will work to get him interested in something else.
Yesterday at the park he walked over to the swings, where Christopher was swinging, and showed Jeff and me the sign for "swing". I had just showed it to him the day before, so I was so proud of him that he remembered. This morning Jeff was in the bathroom washing his hands and Lucas nonchalantly did the sign for "bathroom". Yay! I've been showing him that sign every time I tell him that I am going to the bathroom or if I'm asking him if he just went to the bathroom.
The little turkey is at the park now with Kate. He seems to like her.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
8 Things No One Tells You About Being a Mom
I guess I'm not the only one that feels this way sometimes.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/family/08/28/par.mom.surprises/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/family/08/28/par.mom.surprises/index.html
Sunday, August 26, 2007
We've been at the beach!
My parents live about an hour south of Jacksonville, FL, in a town called Palm Coast. We spent last week there and had such a wonderful time. The trip started on Thursday, August 16th. We left about 4pm, dreading the at least 8 hour drive we had in front of us. We finally arrived at 2am. We spent one hour eating dinner and then had to pull over for at least 1/2 an hour about 2 hours out because Lucas just couldn't relax in his carseat. I nursed him and he finally fell asleep for the rest of the trip. Despite this, he actually did really well. He was a trooper.
On Friday morning Jeff headed back north an hour to Jacksonville to spend the weekend golfing with his dad. Dennis had a big birthday last week and Sandy surprised him with a weekend of golf at Sawgrass, a course where they play the Player's Championship each year (turned out that course was being worked on and they played 2 other courses there). Jeff returned to Palm Coast to hang out with us on Sunday afternoon.
On Monday afternoon Jeff and I headed west 2 hours to Orlando. We spent two nights away from Lucas, our longest stretch yet. We made the best out of such a short little vacation. My parents hooked us up at a condo that was really close to Downtown Disney. We had dinner there both nights and even caught a movie, since that is so hard to do with LB around. On Wednesday we spent the day at Universal Studios and The Island of Adventures. We were there 9 hours and rode just about every ride and saw just about every show. Jeff and I are shocked at how highly those places are priced. A ticket to Universal is about $80. That gets you in the gates and then, unless you purchase an Express Pass for $33, you will probably have to wait 20-40 minutes for each ride. I don't know how so many families do it. Anyway, we had a good time. We were psyched to ride the Spiderman ride that we had heard so much about. It was awesome. We also liked the Mummy and the Hulk roller coasters. We both missed Lucas a lot. We kept saying, "Lucas would love that."
So, how did Lucas do without his mommy and daddy for such a long time? Awesome! He is such a sweet, smart, loving, little guy. From almost the moment we arrived he loved his Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa would fly him around the house and Grandma took him to the pool. The ONLY issue I was worried about was getting him to sleep since nursing is a part of his routine. That part didn't go so well the first night. This is how my mom said the night went: My parents took Lucas to the beach after dinner, like we had done the nights before. He played hard and was tired. When they got home Lucas took a long bath, as usual. Around 9pm, when he usually gets tired, my mom started trying to get him to go to sleep. We had tried the Pack and Play, and it didn't work, so the plan was for him to sleep in my parents king size bed with my mom. I don't know all of the details, but basically it took almost an hour to get him to go to sleep and there was much crying. At one point, right before falling asleep, Lucas looked at my parents and did the sign for "help". My mom told me this the next morning and I started crying. I could see Lucas's face, exhausted from crying with tears and snot pouring out, looking up with a look of desperation and asking for someone to "please help him!". Ugh, that was such a horrible feeling and I feel guilty about it. He also woke up at 1am and had a similary episode, but Lucas finally let my mom rock him to sleep. Despite this, my mom said that he was happy when he woke up in the morning and didn't hold any grudges. For his nap the next day and for bedtime the next night he told my mom that he was tired by showing her the sign for "night-night". My mom rocked him to sleep and it was a piece of cake. She thinks, looking back, that he just wasn't ready for bed that first night. I think he was in shock that I wasn't there and didn't know how to handle it. But he's such a fast learner. My mom said that he didn't do the sign for "milk" when I was gone. Instead, he did the sign for "cracker" to show that he wanted to eat. He knew that Mama wasn't there to give him his milk.
Jeff and I were so happy to see the little turkey when we arrived back at my parent's house on Wednesday. I swear he looked bigger and older. We picked up our daily routine where we left off, which was breakfast, morning visit to pool, lunch, nap, dinner, evening visit to beach, bath, bed.
I really, really enjoyed myself. My parents have just recently joined their pool. It is also the pol for a resort, so it has that "vacation" feel to it. I felt like I was in Cancun or the Bahamas at a resort. Best of all, they really cater to the kids. There is a kiddie pool with sand, a slide and a lazy river. I can't wait to visit again.
Here are the pictures. There are a lot this time.
On Friday morning Jeff headed back north an hour to Jacksonville to spend the weekend golfing with his dad. Dennis had a big birthday last week and Sandy surprised him with a weekend of golf at Sawgrass, a course where they play the Player's Championship each year (turned out that course was being worked on and they played 2 other courses there). Jeff returned to Palm Coast to hang out with us on Sunday afternoon.
On Monday afternoon Jeff and I headed west 2 hours to Orlando. We spent two nights away from Lucas, our longest stretch yet. We made the best out of such a short little vacation. My parents hooked us up at a condo that was really close to Downtown Disney. We had dinner there both nights and even caught a movie, since that is so hard to do with LB around. On Wednesday we spent the day at Universal Studios and The Island of Adventures. We were there 9 hours and rode just about every ride and saw just about every show. Jeff and I are shocked at how highly those places are priced. A ticket to Universal is about $80. That gets you in the gates and then, unless you purchase an Express Pass for $33, you will probably have to wait 20-40 minutes for each ride. I don't know how so many families do it. Anyway, we had a good time. We were psyched to ride the Spiderman ride that we had heard so much about. It was awesome. We also liked the Mummy and the Hulk roller coasters. We both missed Lucas a lot. We kept saying, "Lucas would love that."
So, how did Lucas do without his mommy and daddy for such a long time? Awesome! He is such a sweet, smart, loving, little guy. From almost the moment we arrived he loved his Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa would fly him around the house and Grandma took him to the pool. The ONLY issue I was worried about was getting him to sleep since nursing is a part of his routine. That part didn't go so well the first night. This is how my mom said the night went: My parents took Lucas to the beach after dinner, like we had done the nights before. He played hard and was tired. When they got home Lucas took a long bath, as usual. Around 9pm, when he usually gets tired, my mom started trying to get him to go to sleep. We had tried the Pack and Play, and it didn't work, so the plan was for him to sleep in my parents king size bed with my mom. I don't know all of the details, but basically it took almost an hour to get him to go to sleep and there was much crying. At one point, right before falling asleep, Lucas looked at my parents and did the sign for "help". My mom told me this the next morning and I started crying. I could see Lucas's face, exhausted from crying with tears and snot pouring out, looking up with a look of desperation and asking for someone to "please help him!". Ugh, that was such a horrible feeling and I feel guilty about it. He also woke up at 1am and had a similary episode, but Lucas finally let my mom rock him to sleep. Despite this, my mom said that he was happy when he woke up in the morning and didn't hold any grudges. For his nap the next day and for bedtime the next night he told my mom that he was tired by showing her the sign for "night-night". My mom rocked him to sleep and it was a piece of cake. She thinks, looking back, that he just wasn't ready for bed that first night. I think he was in shock that I wasn't there and didn't know how to handle it. But he's such a fast learner. My mom said that he didn't do the sign for "milk" when I was gone. Instead, he did the sign for "cracker" to show that he wanted to eat. He knew that Mama wasn't there to give him his milk.
Jeff and I were so happy to see the little turkey when we arrived back at my parent's house on Wednesday. I swear he looked bigger and older. We picked up our daily routine where we left off, which was breakfast, morning visit to pool, lunch, nap, dinner, evening visit to beach, bath, bed.
I really, really enjoyed myself. My parents have just recently joined their pool. It is also the pol for a resort, so it has that "vacation" feel to it. I felt like I was in Cancun or the Bahamas at a resort. Best of all, they really cater to the kids. There is a kiddie pool with sand, a slide and a lazy river. I can't wait to visit again.
Here are the pictures. There are a lot this time.
"Mom, do I have to wear this outfit AGAIN?"
We went to a dinner at my parent's club. Lucas had a blast running in the big hallways. You can see him on the left laying on his belly - silly boy.
Mama's little turkey.
Getting used to the waves. He LOVED the beach.
My view of Lucas.
Plopped down the sand, as he always does.
Lucas with Grandpa. It was great to see how much Lucas loved my parents. I expected him to warm up to my mom since she'd be the one taking care of him while we were away and my dad was working, but I was surprised at how fast he warmed up to my dad and loved on him all weekend. There is a bond between them - it's very neat.
"Where did everybody go?"
Grandma and Grandpa having fun with Lucas.
Dragging my dad down to the ocean, again.
My mom, Jeff and me were relaxing on the beach just watching as my dad would play with Lucas in the water and then, the moment they stopped, Lucas would say, "Mmmm, Mmmm" and do the sign for "more".
After the beach that night we sat in these chairs and listened to music. It was just my mom and me this night. There were about 100 chairs and a huge open area of grass. We thought we'd be able to relax since Lucas had such a big area to play in. We were amazed that he insisted on playing on the edge of the wall, or in the drain, or wherever wasn't safe! So much for relaxing
Totally pooped.
Playing airplane with Grandpa. He kept going up to my dad and showing him the sign for "more".
Sweet kisses from Grandma.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Kitchen Island - Before and After
The guy that built our house told us when we moved in that he had ordered the kitchen island and that it would be in in about a month. It had been about that long when he called us last week to come look at the island that he was still "working on".
When we pulled up to the garage I said to Jeff, "It's green".
Michael assured us that it was going to be the nicest piece of furniture in our kitchen and not to worry. He hadn't disappointed us yet, so we didn't. He delivered the island the other day and it really IS pretty. It is an old piece of furniture (what is the difference between "antique" and "piece of junk"?) that has some wear and tear, but it goes with the character of our house and I think we like it. And if we don't, I know a four legged friend that does...
(We plan to get baskets to use on these shelves).
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Eating Mud
Shanna said to Jeff:
"I think that this stage of Lucas's development is particularly challenging".
Jeff's Response:
Jeff's Response:
"I have a feeling we'll be saying that a lot with Lucas Bryant".
Lucas decided to taste the mud while we were working outside.
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