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...