Thanks Mama and Daddy. We had such a fun time. We love you!
PS - Lucas wants "more beach". See the picture below.

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).

Helping Dad in the Shed

"Later Mom, I've got to go".

Off to help Dad.

Eating Mud

Shanna said to Jeff:

"I think that this stage of Lucas's development is particularly challenging".

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.

Tyson's Big Day

Before

After

Kristen has got to go!

The title of this post is a little deceiving because we love our nanny and are really sad that this is her last week. However, Lucas called her "ma-ma" yesterday!!!! When he sees her packing up to leave in the afternoon he gets upset and reaches for her. Yesterday he threw in a "ma-maaaaa". We think (I hope) it's because he thinks she's going somewhere fun, like the park.

Little Turkey, I am your mama. I'll try to be more fun, like Miss Kristen!

Just so we're clear...

I want to point out that I have never once thought that Lucas's Baby Einstein DVDs will make him smarter. My goodness, do we have to take everything so seriously?

For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, there have been articles in the news all week about how Baby Einstein DVDs, and other kid oriented DVDs, make kids dumb. The article said that "researchers found that with every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos". Disney, the owner of Baby Einstein, fought back with this article today. Drama, drama.

The article also says that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no t.v. for children under the age of 2. I didn't know about this. Ooops.

Dear Lucas, it appears that we have damaged you and you may speak less words than your friends. I'm sorry about this. We'll have to work on your stacking skills. Love, Mom.

Nanny Update

We have found a new nanny. Kristen's last week is next week, and then we go to FLA the next week, so she will start at the end of August. Her name is Kate. We have a great feeling about her. She's right of college and is taking some time off to decide what her next move is going to be (Masters Degree or job). I get the feeling that when she has a baby one day that she will have a similar parenting style as I do (nurse, co-sleep, carry around all day, etc), unlike one of the other ladies that I interviewed who made me feel like a freak because my kid wasn't sleeping through the night yet.

More to come on Kate later. Below are some excerpts from the journal that Kristen keeps for us. We love to read it every evening.

Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
9:00am: Lucas got to take a trip to the Farmer's Market with his mama before work today. He had a banana on the way home.
9:20am: changed diaper; got ready for library.
9:40am: Morning field trip to Cam Village Library for storytime. We got there early today so that Lucas could explore the room a bit. When our friends started to arrive Lucas found a spot and sat down. He was really interested today. He clapped after each activity and signed "more". He really liked Miss Sue's black kitty puppet. During "where is thumpkin" song Lucas was holding up his hands and wiggling his fingers. He loved the circle dance and cried a little when we had to sit back down. Lucas had a really good time and he sat well on my lap too!
10:50am: returned home; played with race car; played in lucas's room - read books and did some puzzles.
12:00pm: lunch - chicken, peas, watermelon
12:30pm: changed diaper; we read the art book again and lucas did the sign and sound for both cat and bird. This was the first time that I saw both of these signs! Yeah Lucas!
1:00pm: Lucas was sleepy and he went right down for his nap for mama today.
3:30pm: Lucas woke up a little early, so he was a little fussy - the normal distractions didn't work today.
4:00pm: changed diaper
4:15: snack - apple slices (4-5) and chedder bunnies

Wednesday, August 8th, 2007
9:00am: watched Baby Einstein Sign Language DVD (Lucas cried when we got here today and this helped to soothe him). Lucas really loves the puppets. He "barked" today when the dogs came on and he signed "cat" again today when he saw the kitty.
9:45am: snack of 3/4 banana and cherrios
10:00am: changed diaper; Lucas was wearing a cloth diaper and it gave him a pretty significant diaper rash over his skin.
10:20am: bath (to help rash); we splashed, played, and washed in the bathtub. I did not put a new diaper on Lucas so his skin could breathe and he peed on the bathroom floor - oops :-)
11:00am: put new (disposable) diaper on; we all played, but Lucas was getting sleepy since he woke up at 5:30am this morning!
11:30am: nap
2:30pm: woke up
2:45pm: ate lunch: guacamole, cantalope, peas... he loved the guac and was so sad when it was all gone.

Thursday, August 9th, 2007
9:00am: snack of bagel and cream cheese
9:20am: free playtime; got ready for storytime
9:45am: storytime at Cameron Village Library. Luca was SO excited today! He clapped his hands and smiled and signed "more". When we played "where is thumpkin" he wiggled his poinger fingers. He wanted me to hold him during the circle dance, but also had fun dancing on his own with a few kids after storytime. On the way home he closed his eyes for a few minutes.
10:45am: home; changed diaper; diaper rash looks much better, but I put some cream on his bottom.
11:00am: playtime: lucas and I were playing blocks - I asked him to "help please" with signs and he signed back to me, "help, please" and picked up a block and added it to the tower. Lucas also signed "thank you" to me for the first time today. It is so neat to actually see his brain developing from day to day!
11:45am: lunch - chicken, ham (1pc), peas, watermelon, and couple of grape bites
12:10pm: all done and ready to run!; we all went into Lucas's room to play some more. We were all having fun until Sophie pulled Lucas's arm. He fell forward and hit his forehead on the wood floor. Needless to say, this left a mark, a bump and a bruise... sorry Lucas!
12:30pm: Lucas was ready for his nap. Mama left the room around 1:00pm.
4:30pm: Lucas is still sleeping!!

Crazy Afternoons

Here is a video of our house one afternoon after work. Lucas usually sleeps until about 4:30, and Sophie has to have quiet time during these few hours. The combination of Lucas waking up, her quiet time ending, and me coming downstairs is very exciting to Sophie. She gets very excited and loud, which usually rubs off on Lucas and Tyson. Luckily they don't act like this all day long! This particular day Lucas woke up a little early, so he was a little crabby and clingy. He usually runs around screaming and diving on the floor, showing off for Sophie.

Kristen and Sophie's last day is next week. We are going to really miss them. It's going to be so quiet without Sophie here. I'm working on setting up play dates for Lucas in the mornings.

Our Sweet Lucas

Our little Lucas has developed into such a sweet little boy, with a heart full of compassion. He greets Jeff, Tyson, Sophie, Kristen and me with kisses in the morning, before going night-night, and a few times throughout the day if we are lucky. You know that Lucas wants to give a kiss because he makes the sound "hmmmmm", puckers his little lips, and leans toward you. One of the things that Jeff and I will probably always remember about Lucas is how he puckers his lips for a kiss - instead of the usual way, his juts his upper lip out above his bottom one. It is such a Lucas face. We love it.

When one of us is taking Lucas to the park or something we tell him to say bye-bye to the other person. He responds by waving and blowing a kiss. He now thinks that is how you tell anything bye-bye, so anytime he wants to move onto something else he waves and blows a kiss. He always wants to play with the remote to the fan. This morning I let him play while I supervised. To my surprise he played for a few minutes, and must have gotten bored, because he waved bye-bye to the fan and ran out of the room.

Yesterday I heard lots of crying downstairs from both Sophie and Lucas. I thought about going downstairs, but I could tell Kristen had it under control. I figured they were fighting over a toy. When I asked Kristen later she said that Sophie had gotten a time-out for something and that is why she was screaming. She said that Lucas was crying because he felt sorry for Sophie getting in trouble. She said that he would only stop crying when Sophie went up to him and told him that she was okay. It's amazing to see how much they love each other - it gives both Kristen and me a peek into what it will be like to have two kids one day.

Here is the little guy waving and blowing a kiss in the bathtub (promped by me, not because he was ready to get out... he's never ready to get out of the bath lately).

Hot Days in Raleigh

The yucky August heat has set in. Yesterday Lucas and I met Naomi and Sara at the park near our house. We were only there about 20 min before both kids became sweaty and flushed, so we finished the play date at our house (video to be posted later).

Doesn't Lucas look like such a little boy in this picture?
I think it must be the sleeveless shirt, the sweaty, dirty face and the spiked hair.

Sara and I couldn't wait to get Naomi and Lucas together. They have always been so much alike and we wanted to see how they would interact at this age. They had a great time. At the end of the play date, back at our house, Lucas let out one of his screams and Naomi screamed right back at him. They thought this new game was cute and, unfortunately for Sara, Jeff and me, kept it up for about 15 min.

You can see in these pictures how Naomi has the same serious/intense expression that Lucas often has...

Serious faces from these April 4th babies.

Red Keds

Lucas got his second pair of shoes over the weekend - a red pair of Keds. He's styling now. His foot is measuring at a size 6, but the shoes are a size 7... hopefully they will last a while.

Beer Pong

In honor of Lucas turning 16 months old, we took him to his first keg party and let him partake in his first game of Beer Pong.

Splash Park in Charlotte

We went to Charlotte this weekend to visit Johnny and Erin. It was Johnny's birthday, so Jeff and Johnny played golf, while Erin and I hung out with Hunter and Lucas. It ended up that the only thing Erin and I could do for fun was go to lunch. Between the two boys, one of them was always napping. After golf we went to a nearby park. Lucas was a little scared of the fountains at first, but quickly warmed up and had a good time. He got a little cold at the end and showed us the sign for "all done".

Serious Lucas

Group shot

Conklin Fam

Schroeder Fam

A bath with a buddy... what a great way to end the day.

Kindermusik Registration

For any local friends, we just signed Lucas up for the Our Time class on Saturday mornings at 9:15 at the studio in North Raleigh. The teacher is Mary. She is a Montessori teacher and does Kindermusik on the side.

Kindermusik folks take teaching so seriously - I love it. I just called to sign Lucas up and had a long discussion with the owner of the studio about which class would be best for Lucas. I think he should take the 18 months - 3 years class, and not the 0-18 months class... even though he'll only be 17 months old when classes start in September. Diane, the owner, told me that what they like to do for kids that qualify for both age groups is to try them in the older class, so the teacher can evaluate them, and move them down if she doesn't think they are ready. She said they expect 18 months - 3 years kids to stay seated for longer periods of time and follow along with the group, whereas the younger class is a little more flexible with if kids are roaming around and not paying attention.

I don't know how Lucas will do. Kristen says that at story time he sits in her lap and is pretty serious about checking out his surroundings, but sometimes when he gets comfortable he likes to roam and check things out.

Katrin, Lily, Charles, and Christopher... come and take the class with us!

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.

Pre-Renovation

Here is a picture of our house before it was renovated by the builder. It was originally built in the 1940's. When we found it the builder had already torn it down to the frame and it was in the sheetrock stage. You can see that he kept the basic look of the front of the house. The window on the right is where he added that little room in Lucas's big boy room, so he extended that room and added a porch. I never went in the old house, but I think our family room used to be two rooms. Our kitchen, master bedroom and some of the upstairs was added on. Anyway, I like the before and after pics.

Pictures of New House

I finally got around to taking pictures of our house! I'll try to navigate you through by putting a caption under each picture. (All robbers, please log off now).

View of front of house. I love the trees.

Side view of front porch.

Another view of porch. I love the trees!

View as you walk in front door. Family room to right, stairs in front of you.

View of Family Room from area near front door. Looking into hallway that leads to kitchen.

View of hallway that leads to kitchen from a different angle. Lucas's room is the door that is closed to the left of the bathroom.

Downstairs guest bathroom

View walking into kitchen. Our bedroom is right beside the kitchen.

View from back door.

View from Lucas's high chair.

Master bedroom. Looks out into backyard.

Master bathroom.

View standing on back porch looking to the left.

Looking straight back.

Looking to the right.

Okay, I've taken you back to the front door and you're now looking up the stairs.

When you come up the stairs there is a bedroom to the gold bedroom to the left and a grey/blue bedroom to the right. The two steps in front of you lead to the little office cubby hole. The room in the far back is the bonus room (full of stuff right now).

Office at top of the two stairs.

Grey/blue bedroom. This is Lucas's "big boy bedroom". Notice the little "fort" in the back of the room. This was going to be a storage closet, but the builder decided to make it this cool little room instead.

Since Lucas is still downstairs in his nursery, this is where I work.

Guest bedroom and the room where Lucas watches Baby Einstein DVDs.

Lucas enjoying his new bathtub.

Playing peek-a-boo with shower curtain.



Pics of Lucas's room coming soon!

Bye-Bye Binky

Lucas has weaned himself from his binky. We didn't do anything special - he just got sick of it. At 12 months our pediatrician told us that we should focus on what was causing distress and soothe him without the binky, so we tried to keep it out of site except for naps and nighttime. That was fine with Lucas and then over the past few weeks if I tried to give it to him in the middle of the night he would throw it on the floor. I realized yesterday that we hadn't even seen one in the past few days, so I guess we're done with them.