Christmas Eve 2009

Christmas Eve 2009 has been a fairly quite one, but still very nice! To get the festivities going Lucas and I decorated a gingerbread house - an activity that he loved!!! We had a cousin and her husband over for dinner - we served a leg of lamb along with fresh sauteed green beans, carrots in a brown sugar and honey glaze, mashed potatoes and rolls. I had made a salad (oranges, tomatoes and avocado), but I forgot to serve it! We then had a yummy dessert I made - luscious four-layer pumpkin cake! Later Lucas watched "Charlie Brown Christmas" again! He calls it "Charlie and Brown." Before bed, Lucas got a personalized message from Santa that blew him away http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/a3ade051cbb6716354d61c4a7fa94bf6. When Santa said he had been a good boy this year he nodded. And then it was off to bed to wait for Santa to visit our house!!!

Potty Time Update

It's coming along! Over the past week there have been a couple instances in which he has proactively told me he has to go potty.

Lucas has been wearing underwear almost exclusively for the past 2-3 weeks. The transition to underwear took some time, but once I got him some exciting underwear - Cars and Toy Story - he got much more into it. In fact, he sat on the sofa for at least 30-minutes and looked at each pair of his new underwear.

There are still occasions when he doesn't want to go to the potty, but when I encounter those moments (like today before he took a nap) I give him a choice - well you can go potty or we need to put you in a pull-up. So far that's worked!

Overall, it's still a big responsibility for me and Pablo, as well as his teacher, but I think it's certainly progressing. He's taking naps in underwear, and while he sleeps in a pull up he's woken up dry all week!

YAY!

Too long since my last post...

Ok. It's been entirely too long since my last post. I feel like so many special moments have happened. So I'm here to catch up.

• I'm now 23 weeks pregnant and showing (the picture of Lucas looking at my belly was taken at 21 weeks)!
• Lucas is super excited, and un-prompted he even gives thanks for the baby when we say grace at the dinner table.
• Last weekend, Lucas had his first pony ride at Hill Ridge Farms (picture above) where we went to pick out this year's Halloween pumpkins, of course, it started raining as we were headed to the pumpkin patch so we had to grab our pumpkins from the entrance area instead of getting to take the hay ride:( Good thing he's only two and a half because it didn't even phase him.
• At the end of September, Lucas and I visited my cousin and her family in Boston. Mimi met us up there (picture above of my aunt Luz with Mimi and Lucas near Boston harbor). We were there to celebrate Alannah's 4th birthday; and on the day of the party, we all dressed up. Lucas wore his reptile costume for a whole 5 minutes, I think (picture above of Lucas and Alannah and another of Lucas, Alannah and Joshuah playing in the sandbox). Then he just hung around in his PJ, which I had put on him to wear under the costume. So! The search is on for a Halloween costume for this year...
• In early September, "Tita" spent about two weeks visiting us. During that time, Lucas spent some days at home with her and on the weekends we took some excursions, including a visits to Duke Gardens; Mordecai Museum and Gardens, which also includes other attractions like the birthplace of President Andrew Johnson, and Lucas' first Durham Bulls Baseball game (picture above)!
  
• The not so terrible twos...yet. So aside from the occasional day that Lucas seems a little more hard to please, I really don't think we've been hit to hard by the terrible twos yet. He's really happy when he pleases mommy or daddy so we play that up. He also tries to be really helpful. The job of his chosing has become to feed the dogs. This weekend, Pablo and I sat in on a Postive Parenting Solutions webinar that talked about utilizing positive reinforcement to encourage good behaviors in children. It was a good presentation. We pulled a couple really great ideas from it. It was also reassuring to know that we're already doing some of the things like giving Lucas choices. My favorite, which seems to be very effective when he's dawdling and doesn't want to walk with me, I give him two choices: hold my hand or be carried...he'll usually hold my hand and walk with no more issues. The expert also talked about how techniques like time-out and 1-2-3 and rewards are actually not the most effective methods because they can cause other issues down the line. She offered a very interesting perspective and I think the insight will serve us well as we prepare Lucas to be a big brother.
  
• Potty training is coming along too. Actually, Lucas has been wearing underwear for the past four days...no accidents yet. He's still not asking to be taken to the potty, but we and his teacher at school have been pretty diligent about taking him every hour or so. Now to get him to start asking when he needs to go...
  

Lucas learns about the baby...and shares.

Today I received a call from Lucas' school. When I saw the caller ID, I immediately got scared since the last call I received ended in an ER visit. But, today it was something cute. The teacher asked if we had told him about the baby already. Apparently, during their circle time weekend update he said that he had played with mommy and the baby:)

Since I'm now in my 16th week of pregnancy, we have begun to talk about the eventual arrival of a baby brother or sister a bit. This weekend, I showed Lucas a picture of me when I was pregnant with him and then I expalined that there's another baby in there now. Also, at dinner last night we talked about how the baby would eventually take the fourth seat at our table. Then, there were the times that he was sitting and bouncing on me (my belly) and daddy told him to be gentle with me because the baby is in my belly. Our mentions are usually matter-of-fact and relate to the situation at hand, but I guess those situations have made an impression if he shared.

I'm starting to get really excited for Lucas. He's going to be a big brother. How fun!

Lucas Gets Stitches

Lucas fell at school last Friday. He was in the reading center and, I'm told that, when he went to turn around he fell into a bookshelf. He cut his eyebrow area. They called me immediately to say that Lucas had fallen and his head was bleeding. I didn't even let them finish before saying, "I'm on my way." I left the office and got there moments after it occurred and when I pulled in EMS was arriving. Upon entering the school, I asked if that was for Lucas. They said yes, and I ran to his class.

Poor baby was sitting on a teacher's lap who was holding a piece of paper towel to his bleeding eyebrow, which was sliced good.

The paramedics suggested checking Lucas out so they placed him on the stretcher and wheeled him out. At first, he seemed a little uncomfortable, but I gave him his nap blanket that comforted him.

Lucas and I rode the ambulance, which seemed to be quite a treat for Lucas. On the way to the hospital, Lucas just sat up and looked out the back window as if it were a movie.

two teachers from school took me my car, which was helpful since Pablo was out of town on this particular occasion.

When we got to the hospital they got us situated in a room for kids and Lucas got to watch cartoons. They put a medicine on his eyebrow to numb the area before the shot and stitches. Twenty minutes later they swaddled him like a baby and got to work. He cried a little, but the doctor and nurses were great. He ended up with 11 stitches.

He was exhausted when we left the hospital. We were on our way to Chick-Fil-A for lunch, but he fell asleep in the car. I got drive through and came home to lie him down in his bed.

It's been a few days now and he's recovering. In fact, that same day he was doing just fine.

I must say I'm proud of the way I handled it this time. The teachers said I was really calm. I tried. I guess mom's start to build up a sort of tolerance to this type of thing. Not that it doesn't hurt and we wish it hadn't happened, but we just can't freak out about these things.

Here's a picture of his scar that I got while he ate watermelon after his nap. The other picture is of a dog shape he made when eating his watermelon - funny kid.

Lucas' First Dentist Appointment

Lucas did pretty good at his first dentist appointment. The stains on his two front teeth came off and he has no cavities! The doctor confirmed that the staining was due to the medicine he's been taking for his wheezing.

He was so happy when we arrived at the pediatric dentist's office. In the waiting room they have a safari jeep built into the wall with paintings of animals on every wall (the theme continues throughout the office).

He was being such a ham in the waiting room he had all the moms laughing. When we got back for the exam he was fine until he had to lay down. I had to hold his hands and his legs were draped over mine (I sat on the chair too). He cried a little (couple times called out mama:), but the hygienist was great. She has a two year old too and told me, before she started, that I shouldn't worry if he cries...she didn't mind. Once he had had his teeth cleaned, scraped, flossed and fluorided the doctor came in for a check. Lucas had to lie down again, which he didn't like, but it was fine. He then got up and the doctor told him how well he did. Lucas seemed very proud of himself:)

The doctor told us that Lucas should start losing his baby teeth at around age 6. They said he may have some space issues once his big teeth come in (he gets that from his daddy).

Interesting note...I learned that you have to help a child brush until they're 8 (about the time they can write cursive is when they have the dexterity to effectively brush their own teeth). Until then, he can try to brush his own, but we'll have to repeat.

Next appointment is in 6 months!

Sprayground with a friend

I've read that kids begin to develop bonds at around age 3 or 4, but Lucas and his friend Evie sure have something. They're both 2, but been around eachother in the same child care setting since they were about 6 months. We've gotten them together a couple times to play, and yesterday was the second. They had a blast at the sprayground park.

After some fun getting sprayed, they sat down for a snack of goldfish. Lucas even fed Evie. They crack me up!

Dinner with a friend

Last night Lucas and I went to dinner with my friend Laura. It was fun and Lucas was pretty well behaved, but there's certainly a time limit that kids will sit still and be pleasant. His was about one hour and 45 minutes. After that he got fidgety and a bit unruly. It's sort of funny, but you have to try to not laugh because I think it'll just make those
undesirable actions pop up more frequently.

We probably stayed 30 minutes too long, which is when I uncharacteristically gave him the Oreo cookie that came with his meal. Last 20 or so, he sat in my lap. Once he started trying to look over to the other booth, we got the bill.

It was nice though to spend time with a friend and to have a peaceful child for a while:)

So happy Lucas did well with the babysitter!

Lucas' first night with a babysitter went famously!

When I arrived home, Morgan gave me the report that they spent time upstairs playing in his room, then they colored for a bit before eating dinner. She said, "he was really hungry. He had three pieces of pizza." ...Keep in mind, he ate more than the high school babysitter who only had two.

After dinner, they played a bit more, brushed teeth and then read two stories before bed.

Best of all, when Lucas woke up in the morning, the first words out of his mouth were: "Where's Morgan?"

When I told him she was at home, he started crying:( Poor little guy. But, I guess it tells me one really important thing: He liked the babysitter!

No more TV...for now at least

We recently decided to withold TV from Lucas. Not that he was watching a lot, but we were starting to see it exhibit certain things in his behavior that we didn't like. Basically, we're going back to our original position of no TV (except on really special occasions when he may be able to watch a movie).

About 6-months ago we began allowing a little and, recently, have observed that he's stopped doing little things for himself - like putting on his shoes, playing by himself like he used to, etc. - and he's become more whiney at times.

It's probably been less than a week since we stopped letting him watch TV or movies and he's turned around. He's more flexible and is willing to play by himself. More importantly, we noticed that the day he stopped watching TV he also stopped getting out of his bed after we put him down...interesting. But hey, it's great. Less stress at bedtime!

Where it goes, no one knows...

About a week ago, I made a felt board for Lucas and my plan was to create some sort of story with felt figures - I did this for my sister when she was little and I seem to remember her enjoying the activity. Anyhow, I noticed recently that pieces began to disappear and over the past weekend, Lucas developed a new interest in flushing the toilet. I thought it had something to do with the fact that we're trying our hand at some potty training -- very preliminary, we've just begun to talk it up more.

Early this morning while Pablo and I were still groggy in bed, I heard a toilet flush. It wasn't until I witnessed his experiment later this afternoon that I realized where the other felt pieces had dissapeared to.

After we got home in the afternoon, I was putting away some clean clothes in Lucas' room and Pablo came to. We were talking about our day when suddenly Lucas took the felt cow I had made and he ran into the bathroom...then, I heard a toilet flush! I couldn't believe it. This is the stuff you hear about and you don't believe it until it happens to you.

After he flushed it we explaied that he would never see the cow again. Then he said bye luna (moon)...that's one of the other pieces that's no where to be found now.

We soon after locked the door to that bathroom - his potty's in ours which we are able to monitor more closely;)

Glad we did too because here's what he was planning on flushing next. The tree, a grassy hill and river...

Poor Kid

Poor kid got a black eye on Friday and he wasn't even horsing around! We were leaving his class and he tripped on his way out the door when he went forward he fell onto a table, which he then ricocheted off of and fell onto the floor. I thought he had hit his forehead, but when he got up it was immediately obvious that the impact was just below his eye and when he fell on the floor, he hit the other side of his face. The result: It's now Monday and his eye has turned all shades from black to purple and green. It's finally fading though.

I think I'm getting a little better at handling his falls though. I didn't panic this time.

Comprehension

This evening I had an event, so Lucas was at home with papa and abuelo Fer who is visiting (Mimi went to visit her cousin who lives nearby). When I got home they told me that before dinner, he watched a bit of Pinnochio while papa cooked. Apparently, right around the time the Gypsy put Pinnochio in the cage, abuelo Fer noticed that he had tears coming down his cheek and grabbed papa's attention. When papa asked him what was wrong, he just started crying and pointing to the TV and said "Pinnochio!"

Lucas has seen this movie a couple times now, and his reaction was so different. Pablo says this time was a bit different because he was so focused on the movie and what was going on. It's like he was really understanding it for the first time.

Lucas quickly calmed down, Pablo scooted him closer to abuelo Fer since he was still cooking and they continued to watch the movie together:)

Inquisitive

Yesterday when I picked Lucas up at school, they told me he had a GREAT day, which is not unusual for him. What was interesting to me was something he did...

The school's roof has been under repair, so the kids haven't been able to play outside for the last week or so. To give the kids an opportunity to burn some energy, an empty classroom is being used as a gymnasium of sorts. The teachers go in there and do running, dancing type activities. Anyhow, the teacher had put a CD in the mini stereo and all the kids started dancing. Then, the music suddenly stopped. When the teacher looked over, she saw Lucas holding the CD and looking at it as if he were wondering how the music came from the object...

I can only picture him in my mind!

Daddy and Mommy

I never really thought about it too much, but daddies and mommies really bring different things to the table. Pablo has been out of town on business for several weeks now (he came home last weekend), and while Lucas is doing fine there are little things that I don't offer that I'm sure he misses - like play ball or rough-house...

I also think that this lack of daddy play has made him more interested in receiving affection from mommy or "mimoso," as I would say in Spanish.

Recently he's begun to refer to himself as "pollo," or "bebe." Both are words I use to refer to him occasionally. I know this is just a phase -- the other day when I was carrying him to the car after we exited a store he adjusted himself so that I ended up cradeling him then he called himself "bebe" -- but he will always be my "bebe."

Memory

One of Lucas' birthday gifts was the game Memory - one of my all-time favorites. It's taken some practice, but he's getting the hang of it. Right around his second birthday, we started by laying out a few pairs face up. Now we're playing with about 10 pairs face down, and he is able to retain some of the information to make matches. It's funny, if he sees an image he recognizes from a previous turn, his eyes light up!

Marbles Museum on Good Friday

Last Friday we visited Marbles Museum in Raleigh. It's a place that's 100 percent for kids. We met up with a friend from work, her twin girls and her relative and daughter. We had a nice time. While the girls seemed to transition easily from activity to activity, Lucas (the only boy) seemed to gravitate more toward certain things like cars and trains. He also played a bit with some "farm animals" taking a "horse" to a kid-sized phone booth.

He really enjoyed himself and was ready for a nap by the time we got home.

On your mark...get set...GO!

I don't remember Easter egg hunts being so competitive! We went to Lucas' first this weekend and I was caught totally off guard. When they gave the signal, we were left in the dust! We managed to snag one egg and then it seemed my only option to get him another was to physicially pick him up and carry him across a river of rocks so that he could have a chance to get some on the other side -- he got one more. It was fun though:) He even got a little stuffed chicken that the organizers were giving out to all the little participants!

The Art Museum

Lucas and I visited the area art museum last weekend. We did a little art project and then walked around to see the exhibits. This particular sculpture really caught his eye - maybe he felt sympathy because he had recently had a similar situation. In fact, he kept on saying "Lucas callo cabeza!"

The Day with Mama

Yesterday, I took some time off from work to spend the day with Lucas. In the morning, we did some quick cleaning around the house and then headed off to our Kindermusik class. It was a lot of fun because there were so many participants - about 4 moms and 6 kids!

After class, we headed into my office for an internal PR team meeting -- while I was taking some time off, I decided an internal meeting was a good time to test him in the office environment. That said, I went into this well armed - Chick-Fil-A for lunch and a bag-o-activities from home:) He was pretty well-behaved for the 2-hour time period and I think he enjoyed flirting with all my co-workers.

Lucas fell asleep on the drive, and I carried him to his bed once we got home. I always miss him so much while he's napping:)

When he woke up, we ran some necessary errands before returning home for dinner. At bedtime we read a couple books, and bed time went a bit smoother - he only got up 4 times!

While there was a lot of running around in the morning, these moments are the ones that make me reflect on how much I love being a mama.

The Big Boy:)

We're coming on about a month that Lucas has been sleeping in his big boy bed. I think he's doing great. While there are still nights that it takes him a bit to settle down and stay in bed, we're making progress. We started at about 10-20 times that he would get out of bed before finally falling asleep. However, there have been a couple occasions that he's only gotten out 2-4 times, and there was one night that he just went straight to sleep!

Slowly but surely, he's getting used to his new room. I think he actually enjoys having most of his toys in the same place. Not to mention the best view in the house!

Saturday mornings

Saturday mornings have got to be the best day of the week! I love it when Lucas wakes us up in the morning. We venture downstairs just like any other morning, but it's more relaxed. We hang out after breakfast, and while Pablo and I enjoy our coffee Lucas plays with building blocks or other toys of choice. We read books and just lounge as we enjoy the time together:)

Distinguishing between two languages

Before Lucas was born, we made the decision that we would speak Spanish at home so that he would pick it up like we did. We've done just that. Sometimes we do get a little nervous that he might get confused or that it'll take him a bit longer to develop his vocabulary because he's got two languages to learn, but I think he's been doing really well. I even feel that he's beginning to distinguish between both languages. For example, when we get to school all the kids have to wash their hands upon arrival. One morning, Lucas was washing his hands and we were talking about how he was "lavando las manos." Then his teacher came in the classroom and he said "Look, wash hands!" That was my first clue that he was beginning to make a distinction between both languages. Since then, he has continued to show his bilingual skill in other ways like when we read a book in English he'll sometimes translate or explain what he sees in Spanish.

To me, it's all about habit. That's why we made the decision early to speak only Spanish with Lucas. Once you've established a pattern of speaking a certain language with someone, it's hard to break that pattern. We just have to keep it up!

Where does he get this stuff?

Lucas cracks me up sometimes. He's developing a personality all his own, and he has quite a sense of humor.

One day, while we were eating, he looked down at his elbow macaroni picked up a piece, put it up to his ear and said "hello!" Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that moment.

Also, now he's got this thing with Pull Ups. Several kids in his class are potty training and they use these instead of diapers. I guess he's noticed because he occasionally asks for a Pull Up. Last week, when he was home sick from school, Pablo e-mailed me a picture of him wearing a Pull Up over his PJ. Apparently, he insisted.

Memories...

Now a fully-fledged two-year-old, Lucas is beginning to noticably retain memories. He remembers names, songs, things people say, even some ideas.

In the car he'll sings songs like A-B-C and Twinkle, Twinkle; he remembers people's name long after he last saw them; he recalls the sequence of things -- when we eat out he'll remember that fruit comes after his main course and asks for it early...sometimes even putting his chicken fingers off to the side as if to say, "I'm done."

We've had lots of visitors in the past couple weeks . In particular, Grandma Tita and Grandma Mimi visited last week. They both have had such an impact on him, and both were surprised at how much he's able to communicate.

Now, every time he sees a motorcycle he says "Yaki-Moto." It's funny because not only does it sound like a foreign language when he says it, but it's something he picked up from Tita who does not like motorcycles. I'm not sure if he actually realized what "Yaki" means though.

When the grandmas left, Lucas felt the good-byes more than on previous occasions. He and I took Mimi to the airport and I think he noticed that she was leaving because he got really upset and didn't want to say good-bye to her:( When we took Tita to the airport a few days later, we were able to walk her inside. There was a bit more anticipation and I think he made the connection that she was leaving on a plane. Now, when he sees a plane in the sky he says "Tita avion."

I guess I just need to remember that my baby is growing up right before my eyes. I doesn't make me sad; I think it's exciting to experience his realizations and development in general.

Nursing

I named this blog "The Joys of Familyhood" because, as I thought of what I would write, I considered that I might want to chronicle some parenting or family experiences in general.

Before I had Lucas, I can honestly say that I hadn't made a decision on whether or not I would nurse him - perhaps because I wasn't sure if it would work for us. Well, once he was born, it seemed the right thing to do even though it wasn't the easiest. We worked until we got a hang of it and once I returned to work it was also a committment on my part; I ended up nursing him until he was about 14 months old.

A negative observation I made during my nursing experience is that not a lot of people are understanding of this natural choice. I was really surprised to see how the public sometimes looks at nursing moms in a disapproving way - I felt peering eyes on more than one occasion even though I would make a great effort to maintain modesty.

So, I think its great that celebrity nursing moms have, in a way, said "take this!" by nursing, and sometimes in very public settings.

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/angelina-breastfeeding-and-me/

http://www.breastfeeding.com/celebrities/celeb_main.html

The BIRTH of my Blog!

About six months ago, someone suggested that I begin a journal to chronicle special moments in Lucas' childhood. But, starting and maintaining a hand-written journal has been a slow start. I probably have eight entries, at the most, so far. Since I'm usually fiddling on a computer, I thought a blog would be an easier avenue for me to record my joys of familyhood on a more regular basis. So here it goes...

Lucas does little things that astound me almost on a daily basis! He's such a sweet little boy and I wonder how this happens - is it nature or nurture?

Yesterday, I picked him up from school and his teacher, Ms. Sandra, told him to go give Ms. Cristina (his other teacher) a hug. He did...no questions asked. But, what got me thinking about this nature/nurture question was that, as he headed toward me to leave, he looked around and gave all his classmates hugs and said "bye-bye." I called my mom to share and she commented that he's just so "thoughtful." He really is. I hope that he never changes this way about him.