Political Lucas

Lucas watched his first two political debates last night and tonight. At this point Lucas and I think that it will be McCain and Obama pulling ahead after next Super Tuesday. I think this stuff is so interesting this year. I remember it being somewhat interesting 4 years ago, but nothing as exciting as this... I guess because either way we will have a new president.

A Visit with Finn

Our super cute new neighbor came over with his mommy yesterday for dinner. It only took Ele and I a little over two hours to make dinner and eat it. Eating it was probably took longer because it was a challenge to have both babies content at the same time. Lucas watched the Wiggles while I finished up dinner, but then he decided he wanted a bath. A few min after I got him settled into his bubble bath he started screaming "mama" as loud as he could so that I'd get him out. Ele thought that his scream was piercing, but I told her that it gets MUCH louder. At the end of dinner I took the opportunity to scoop up little Finn and, just as I was enjoying holding a little baby again, Lucas noticed I was holding him and freaked out. He was SO jealous. He was crying and pulling on me and when I didn't put down Finn immediately he collapsed dramatically onto the floor and rolled around wailing. Oh my - I guess it's good there is not a baby coming anytime soon. Ele made a good point in that when I do get pregnant we will have a good 9 months to psyche him up for the baby.

Grandma!

Grandma just left after being in town for a long weekend. We had SUCH A GOOD TIME! Lucas remembered her (hadn't seen since August) and began showing off for her right away. Here they are playing a game that Lucas invented. He would hand the ball to my mom and then run away from her as he giggled. She would then throw the ball at him and he dodged it as it bounced off of the back wall. This was just a few hours after she arrived. There were MANY more games played throughout the weekend. Lucas loves Grandma - he even greeted her before me with a big hug one time (little stinker!).

I think Grandma was sad to leave on Monday morning, but she had to also be a little happy to get back home to her more relaxing life! Lucas never stops - the three of us went to bed exhausted every night.

Sweet Lucas

We were supposed to spend Christmas with my parents, but my dad got sick (kidney stones) and we all just decided we'd get together later. The first thing we did on Friday morning was go to Target so that Grandma could get Lucas a gift from her and Grandpa. I took the decision of what to get Lucas very seriously. We spent an hour in the toy store letting him play with toys and then an hour in Target doing the same thing. I narrowed it down to some big blocks and this workbench. We went with the workbench and nailed it (haha, no pun intended). Lucas played with that thing non-stop for 2 days straight. He's really into tools that looks like Dada's now. He's over the plastic toys with primary colors (never really liked them, actually). Grandma treated Jeff and me to dinner and a night out (for Jeff's birthday), which was SO GREAT, and while we were away she and Lucas put the workbench together. Jeff and I peeked in on them when we got home and we heard Lucas say "wowwwww" as Grandma put in the last screw and told him he could play with it.

Lucas isn't the only one that likes it when Grandma visits! Grandma loves Tyson and gives him so much attention when she's here. He repays her by growling at her when she picks him up, but we know it's just his way of saying that he loves her : )

Grandma and Lucas

Our kitchen table has turned into Lucas's art table (sigh). Here he is playing another game that he invented with Grandma. He would hand the playdough to Grandma as he said, "ball". Grandma would make a ball and hand it back to him. Lucas would pull off a chunk and hand it back to her to make a smaller ball. Again and again and again.

Grandma and Lucas playing while Jeff and I made dinner.

Taking a break for a sip of water.

We went to the NC Museum of Science on Saturday because they were having an astronomy exhibit that I thought my boys would enjoy (Lucas and Jeff). Turns out it was too crowded and not that great, but Lucas had a great time in the insect section of the museum. I think Goldbug is what did it, but the kid loves bugs. He is such a boy. I think next time we go we'll go straight to this floor and stay there. They even have live exhibits like snakes, lizards, and bunnies that the kids can touch. Lucas had done this with Kate, so when we got to the lizard he asked the guy if he would take him out of the cage so he could touch him. In the third picture down you can see Lucas's concerned expression - he turned around and couldn't find us for a few seconds... poor baby.

Lucas still loves to run around naked.

My mom and me at the park on Sunday morning.

"Hey Grandma, look at me!"

Sweet Lucas in the swing.

More Goldbug

Here is Lucas finding Goldbug after his bath last night. He can find him in less than 5 seconds on every page now. I'm sure he has the pages memorized, but that's still pretty impressive. The pages are busy and even Jeff and I have a hard time remembering where he is. His nanny must be pretty competitive because I hear them downstairs racing to find him... Kate will say, "there he is!" or Lucas will make the bug noise to show that he's found him.

Lucas's Go-To

After Lucas goes to bed and Jeff and I have a little quiet time, what do we talk about? Lucas. And Tyson. I think we need a vacation so that we can talk about us, but oh well, it's so fun to talk about the babies.

Lucas is so friendly to new people. He'll almost always give them a high five and a smile. After this greeting it seems like he usually starts pointing to things and naming them. His go-to, as Jeff said last night, is to point to a light and tell them that it's hot. We laugh because we don't know what he is thinking.

Date Night

Not with Jeff - with Lucas!

My little tri-athlete of a husband has signed up for 4 sprint triathlons this year and is very diligent about his training. Among other things, he takes a swim class on Wednesday nights at our gym. Our gym is in the same shopping center as our Target, a grocery store, and some restaurants, so the past few weeks Lucas and I have either gone with him or followed him over there to do our thing while he is in class.

Tonight we went to a little pizza place and had so much fun. Lucas and I requested a booth and then both sat on the same side - Lucas in a booster seat. While we were waiting on the pizza we sang songs and pointed at things in the restaurant. Lucas loved the pizza and our waitress. She liked the way that he said (signed) please and thank you to her. I was ready to go before Lucas - he kept requesting more bites of pizza.

I realize now that it is much easier to take Lucas out one on one. When the three of us go out I think he gets bored because we aren't giving him 100% of our attention.

Future Blogger

Lucas likes to look at everyone's blogs (for about 5 min at a time). Here he is looking at Ty's blog - he is saying, "Ty!"

Too Cute

He doesn't watch THAT much t.v. I just think he's super cute in his little chair and always feel the need to take a picture...

Lucas Says

Our new favorite game is Lucas Says, which is just copying whatever Lucas does. It started when we were in the bathroom one day and I was trying to talk him into letting me put his diaper on (I really try to respect him and let him make the decision - doesn't always happen that way though). He was standing by the shower and hit the side of the wall and made a funny noise. I copied him and the game was born. His actions include touching parts of face, touching things around him with his finger, touching his hands together, jumping, and making silly noises. Sometimes he giggles so hard he can hardly do the next action. We even played last night with Grandpa Schroeder on the web cam. Lucas is so much fun these days...

The "Ty" Blanket

Lucas's Aunt Jenn made him this super cool GT blanket for Christmas. When we took it out of the box I said something about how the gift was from Ty. Now every time he sees the blanket he points to it and says "Ty". It's just the right size for him to keep next to him in bed at night.

Hangin' Out with Max and Ben

Lucas LOVES his cousins. Last week we went over to their house for dinner one night and the three boys played without adult entertainment for a long time. It was so fun to sit around the dinner table and actually have a conversation. A few days later I took Lucas over on Saturday morning to play so that Jill could pack for their vacation. Lucas likes both boys, but he thinks Max is way cool. He followed him around and mimicked him most of the day. Also captured in this post is one of Lucas's first times going down the slide by himself. It's strange, the kid seems to have no fear with most things, but has always hesitated going down the slide alone.

Sweet Sleeping Babies

Here are baby #1 and baby #2 sacked out around 9:30 one night. Lucas fell asleep in my arms while we were watching t.v.

Goldbug

Have you ever heard of Goldbug? We got this book about cars and trucks in a yard sale. A few months ago Lucas started choosing it often for us to read to him. I thought it was the lamest book because all it is is a bunch of pictures of vehicles. There are hardly any words and it just wasn't that interesting (to me). Lucas liked it a lot, but that was before we discovered Goldbug - now he LOVES it. Goldbug is this little gold bug that the author has hidden in every picture. Lucas is a champ at finding that little bug. At first we would have to show him which area on the page to look, but now he finds him before we do.

One of my favorite family moments was about a week ago when Lucas really started getting into the searching game. We were in his room and the three of us were looking for the bug. When Lucas searches for him he says, "Hmmm?", and then when he finds him he makes a noise like a bug. Well we were all looking for him when all of a sudden Lucas pointed to the bug, made the bug noise, and then sqealed with delight. We were so excited that we cheered him on and he responded by jumping up and down and giving us high fives. He was SO PROUD of himself. Now this is his reaction every time. It's priceless. You can see for yourself in the videos below.

It turns out that this Scarry guy has been around for years and has many books - but only one with this bug in it, as far as I can tell.

This is what the pages look like.

You can see Goldbug peeking out of the back of that purple car.

___________________

Three Goldbug Videos

In the first video you can see that Lucas is distracted by the video camera. The next two videos show him looking for and finding the little bug. We were helping him in these videos because he was distracted, and he was still a novice, but now he is a pro and finds him before we do. Listen for the bug noise that he makes and notice how fast he moves. He's such a little spaz.

A Lucas Bryant Proof Dinner Out

We didn't go out to eat much before Lucas was born, and we don't go out to eat much now, because of Lucas. It's really a lot to ask of him - to sit still for an hour. Tonight, however, I just really wanted to eat out so that we wouldn't have to deal with dishes. After 20 min of the usual "where do you want to go...I don't care, where do you want to go?", we decided on a cafe at North Hills. It's not great food, but we figured it is about the same as any other place that is Lucas Bryant proof.

We really had a great time. We got through dinner with only two trips outside - one with each parent - to explain to Lucas that we can't squeal in a restaurant like we do at home. Lucas sat in a booster seat, which was way more successful that the high chairs usually are, and he ate all of his veggies and pasta plus some of my potato. During dinner he asked for a cookie, so we told him that we'd go to the cookie store after dinner.... and we did! It is starting to be so fun to do things with Lucas in tow. We took him to the cookie store and he was excited, which was exciting for us. We ate our cookie on a bench outside, which was interesting because the place was buzzing with people that still have a social life. We ended the evening with 20 minutes in our favorite toy store (a.k.a indoor park). Of all of the toys in the store, Lucas spent the most times playing with the pens next to the check-out counter.

Lucas with his booster seat and his veggies.

"Dada, I want THAT one!"

Enjoying a cookie with mommy.

Lucas really likes pens.

Lucas's Day Today

Today Lucas woke up at 7:50 (after over 10 hours of sleep...yay!!!) and immediately asked to nurse. We cuddled on the couch for about 15 min, but then I had to leave for an appointment. I told him that I had to leave, but that I'd be back soon. Jeff came in and asked him if he wanted to watch The Wiggles. He reached for him and turned to me and said "bye" to me as he waved.

I got home as Kate was taking him to see the ducks. She said they had a great time today. They took cheerios, but Lucas ate most of them before they got there. She took a couple of pictures with her cell phone.

They got home around 12:30 and Lucas immediately asked to nurse (as usual). He fell asleep a few minutes later, in my lap, as I talked to someone at work about an important work issue (sometimes I feel like super mom). He took a normal nap and after I get off of this work call we are going to go play with Charles at the park!

Kate said he liked the flowers today....

"bak! bak!"

Lucas at the Children's Museum

Lucas has really gotten into a great routine with his new nanny. Each day she has something fun planned out for them to do. They have two parks that they like to go to - one is close by with a playground and the other one has ducks that they can feed. When she says they are going to do this Lucas starts quacking and quacks all the way to the car... "bak-bak-bak-bak". They also have 2-3 museums they like to visit, the library and then there is always Kate's house to see her kitties.

He is usually a little reluctant to let go of his mommy when we tell him that it's time to go on their daily adventure, but after a couple of minutes of explaining what lies ahead for him, he reaches out for Kate and says "bye" to me in his very southern pronunciation.

Here they are at the children's museum yesterday. Kate said that as the tower got taller he would clap and say "yay" after each block.

From ma-MAH to MAH-meeeeeeee

All of a sudden Lucas is calling me mommy. I loved the way he said "mama", but this is cute too. He and Kate just walked in the front door and the first thing he said was, "MAH-meeeeeee!". I'm upstairs in my office working, but love it that I can hear things like this throughout the day...

Through the Night

We're so proud of Lucas! Last night he slept in his own bed for 10 hours without one single peep. He had a busy day yesterday morning, took a good nap, and then went to a fast dinner with Jeff and me and ate a lot of pasta and okra. He fell asleep around 9:30 in my arms as we were watching Obama and Hilary battle it out during the democratic portion of the political debates. Jeff and I actually woke up at 5:30 and talked about how we couldn't believe it. Two hours later we heard "mamaaaaaa" and "dadaaaaaaaa" and then we saw a happy little Lucas emerge from his room. Can he do it two nights in a row? I doubt it, but keep your fingers crossed.

Lucas's First Tea Party

Happy Birthday Sophie!

Lucas's sweet friend, Sophie, had her 4th birthday party today. Lucas enjoyed being the only prince among all of the princesses. He got to have his very own cupcake and tea (pink lemonade) at the tea party. And since Sophie's mama is a Kindermusik teacher he got to sing along and participate in some singing and dancing. They were singing one song about a tea pot being hot and Lucas was very smart to gently touch the teapot before accepting it to make sure it wasn't hot. I think he also enjoyed all of the pink things - a color we don't have much of in our house...

Sweet baby with a baby teacup

Lucas and the birthday girl!

Rosy little cheeks

"Wow, they have ice cream too!"

Lucas had his eye on those cupcakes from the beginning!

Katrin and her mommy were also there!

just chillin' with the ladies

singing and dancing with the ladies

sidetracked by the cool instruments

sweet Lucas

"Hey, this is just like dada's!"

"Now that all of those girls are gone I check this stuff out..."