Lucas and TT

Doesn't L look older in this picture?

Emotional

Totally sobbing after watching this video...

Thanks Jenn : )

Still Negotiating...

Setup: When we want to transition to something else (like bedtime or leaving the park) we tell Lucas that he has 2 minutes.

Mama: "Lucas, please lie down so I can change your diaper."

Lucas: "Oh mannnn. Nemo. Black couch!"

Mama: "We can watch Nemo on the black couch after I change your diaper."

Lucas: "Mama. 2 minutes!"

Daddy's Boy

We have seen a change in Lucas over past few weeks... he wants to spend more time with Dada than before. I started really noticing when we got that new train table. Around the same time we also pulled a big box of puzzles out of storage for Lucas to work on (they were Jeff's when he was little boy). Jeff is really good with Lucas during puzzle work. He explained to him how the first step is dump the pieces onto the floor and then to turn each piece over. Next step is to look for the corner pieces. Lucas listens to every word he says - it's so cute! If a pieces is difficult to fit in Jeff will explain to Lucas to look for a comparison in the puzzle piece and the puzzle board. I notice that when I'm doing puzzles with Lucas he whispers to himself these instructions as his little hands feel the puzzles pieces.

In addition to the puzzle and train work, Lucas likes to help Jeff mow the lawn, water the plants, and work on his bike. He still copies a lot of Jeff's actions and does not copy mine. And for some reason he now calls him "Jeff" half the time! We were looking at pictures yesterday and he said, "Jeff is?" and this morning in the car he called him Jeff to get his attention... ha!

It's kind of bitter sweet that he is weaning himself away from me (slowly), but it's good timing (almost like he knows) since I'll be spending a lot of time with the baby when she is born.

Thomas Treen Table

A couple of weeks ago I stopped by a sidewalk sale at a local toy store and found this great train table. It was a store model, so it was pretty inexpensive. I figured I'd get it and if he wasn't interested I'd sell it. It turns out that he absolutely loves it and wants to play with it whenever he is at home. The first things he says when he wakes up in the morning is "Thomas Treen Table?" and that is also what he says as soon as we walk in the door in the afternoon. Since his room is so close to the playroom now, we can hardly avoid going in there. We've gotten into a routine where Jeff plays with him in the morning while I make us breakfast and get our stuff together. He gets upset when we tell him it's time to leave (he never did this before his beloved train table), so we've gotten the portable DVD player out again so that we can make a smooth transition from "thomas treen table" to "thomas treen t.v."

Belly Gallery - 29 Weeks

We are a couple of weeks into the third trimester now. Only about 2 and a 1/2 more months. Well, wait, why did I say "only"? I can't believe I have that much longer because I feel today like I felt when I was in the last 2-4 weeks with Lucas. All of a sudden I am very pregnant. I'm starting to think that what they say about girl pregnancies being more difficult than boy pregnancies is true. However, I do have a 2 year old turkey now to keep up with, am only sleeping 6 hours a night and find it hard to exercise regularly. What do I expect?

I had a checkup last week and all was good. The midwife said the baby is measuring the right size and my blood pressure was the same as usual. I've gone from 118lbs to 142lbs, which means I'm on track to gain 35lbs. I gained 33lbs with Lucas, but started out a few lbs lighter with this pregnancy (thanks to nursing), so all in all it's about the same weight gain. Although they did tell me that I had gained 6lbs since my last visit, so my projection may be way off.

This baby moves WAY more than Lucas ever did. My sister said she heard girls do move more than boys. Who knows, but it's neat. She moves the most at night when we are sitting on the couch before bed and she always wakes up if I wake up for Lucas in the middle of the night. I swear that she kicks him and wakes him up sometimes... when Lucas and I are snuggling in bed his legs are usually resting against my belly. He'll be almost asleep and then she'll make a sudden movement and he stirs.

We're working on her nursery now. I've decided that I don't like any of the furniture that we had for Lucas's room for a girl's room, so I'm trying to sell it and replace it without spending much money. It's a fun little challenge since I'm not stressed about getting the nursery perfect before she's born, like I was with Lucas. We are going to have her crib in our room for the first few months, so her nursery won't look finished for a while anyway.

These work outfits are getting harder to put together...

"I did it!"

What Lucas says when he accomplishes this task of alligning the chairs up just right...

Look at that form!

The turkey likes to play catch with us, but it is usually with a baseball size ball... and I must say that he has quite the arm... like his mama : ) This weekend he wanted to play catch with the bigger yellow ball. Jeff and I were rolling on the floor laughing because when we told him to put his arms out he would quickly raise his hands up high above his heard. He was very serious about it. Somehow, despite the rare form, he was able to catch the ball just about every time.

Supper Club

We started a supper club with five other couples a few months ago. So far we've only been able to get everyone together for one supper, so it's more of an email and talk-about-supper-club than an actually get together and eat club. But maybe that will change because last night was a lot of fun. We don't have a babysitter for Lucas, so we invited all the kids as well as the adults. Jeff, Lucas and me started preparing at 8am on Saturday morning and sat out the last glass as the doorbell rang at 5:30 (we did take a 2 hour break to go swimming before nap). So it was a lot of work, but we were proud that we pulled it off and were still able to enjoy ourselves. Here is how the day went...

After breakfast, at 8am, Jeff and Lucas made the cookies and the cornbread. A little later Lucas helped me make the brownies. We cleaned a little, went to the pool, put Lucas down for a nap at 1pm, and then Jeff and got serious about getting all of the food cooked. When Lucas woke up around 3pm we did some water work in the kitchen (dishes), vacuum work, Jeff and Lucas cleaned the toilets, and then some mop work. Lucas really did play a big role in preparing for the party.

Here he is spraying the wood cleaner on the floor so that I could mop it up...

After all of the dirty work was finished, Lucas put on his Goa Elephant t-shirt (one of his favs) and waited for his friends to arrive. He and Charles wasted no time in starting their part of the supper club...

And then he kept Lucas and Mr. John company while Lucas had some supper...

The dads enjoyed a little baby break and a few cold ones...

And three of the boys (Lucas, Lucas and Charles) entertained us with some tunes.

We've decided that Lucas and his friend, Lucas, are the most alike out of all of Lucas's other friends. As soon as Lucas arrived they started monkeying around on the couch and diving into the beanbag chair. We got them to stop for a picture, but not long enough to get a good one (of my Lucas).

Lucas's playroom was a hit. This was the first time that we'd had more than one friend over since we finished it, so it was good to see that they were able to enjoy it. Here are the turkeys doing some marker work...

And here are all of the mamas and babies hanging out (the dads did switch with us, I just don't have pics to prove it).

See what I mean...

We wanted to get a picture of all five boys so we told John it was his job to corral them long enough to get a shot...

But this is the best we could get...(Pierson, Charles, Lucas, Lucas, and Christopher)

Busy Social Week

All of a sudden we have a social life again. On Monday I went to dinner with Kim and Ele. We had been talking about this for weeks, but all being moms of little boys, it's hard to find the time. I forgot my camera, but Ele took a picture of Kim and me.

On Tuesday Lucas and I went on a date with his friend Lincoln (from school) and his mom - "Lincoln's Mama." We somehow convinced them both to sit in a high chair. They had so much fun acting silly with each other. We'll definitely do it again.

Tonight we were invited to a surprise party, but couldn't find a sitter, so I'm going by myself for an hour or so. Tomorrow morning Lucas and I are going to the pool and tomorrow night we are hosting our July Supper Club. I'm tired just thinking about it all! No more time for blogging, have to start making lists...

Fort Lucas

I posted a few weeks ago that we had an idea for Lucas's big boy room. My idea was pretty lame compared to the final result, but I'm happy it ended up that way because Lucas's new room is AWESOME! My idea was a nature theme with some simple grass and wildflowers along the bottom of the wall. The walls were painted blue already, so that would serve as the sky backdrop. I randomly went to lunch with a friend one day and brought this up. She just happened to have the name of two artists in her cell phone! I called them, got ideas and quotes, and then we made our decision. We went with the lady who had the idea for Fort Lucas. It turned out so much better than I ever imagined. Check it out...

View from the door of Lucas's room

View from the reading corner

View from the kid's bed

View of the cubby hole and the canvas flap I made for the opening
(we plan to paint something in the cubby hole next year)

I'm proud of this because I can't sew : )

Mr. Frog helped paint the fort

Jeff and I were SO excited to show Lucas his new room, but we were waiting for his fan to arrive. It came this afternoon, so we installed that and then moved his rug and mattress up from his old room. As soon as Jeff and Lucas got home from school we took Lucas up to show him. When we opened the door his face lit up and he said, "wowwww..." and then hopped down to check it out. He's asleep in there now and we're placing bets on how many times he'll wake up tonight... although I must say that he went down very easy (as usual for the past few weeks) and didn't seem phased by the change of rooms... we'll see.

Look at that smile!

The fan and fan remote was a big hit

And he also enjoyed the new placement of the rug

Curls

Lucas's hair is curling in the back now, especially when he's sweaty. It makes him look more like Jeff than ever before...

He also has his daddy's blue eyes (mine are blue too, just not as blue as Jeff's).

Sunday Morning Park Outing

Now that we are in such a wonderful routine during the week, I need a routine on the weekends too. It doesn't matter if we just stay home, but I need to know the night before that that is the plan. On Friday night we planned to stay in on Saturday morning since Lucas had a pool party to go to in the afternoon. We made pancakes, played with trains and puzzles, and then made a quick trip to the hardware store. After nap we went to Katrin's birthday party and had a fun time hanging out with some of the kids and parents from Lucas's class. (I forgot my camera and will have to steal some pics from Katrin's blog soon).

On Saturday night we planned to go to the park on Sunday morning. Luckily Kim and Wendy had the same idea, so we got to spend the morning with them.

Do you think going to the park is easy? No way. You need lots of snacks, water, hand towel, diapers and wipes.

water, goldfish, granola bar, nut mix, popcorn, watermelon and wet towel

But once you get there it is worth it. Everyone has a great time and you can break for a snack at anytime...

And then we can look for bugs and spiders! In this picture Lucas and Charles were looking for a spider with a little girl they met at the park today.

"Where did it go?"

After looking for bugs it's always fun to play in the branches of this old tree...

And luckily the boys found some time to play with the diggers today so that the mommies could take a little break on the bench nearby : )

What we've heard today...

"Dada. Dada. Pst. Golf over. Thomas Treen please. Thomas Treen please. Thomas treen please."

Jeff finally got to relax and watch a little of the Brittish Open tonight after Lucas went to sleep.