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.