Pow-pow-power wheels

For his birthday Luca got a power wheels. The next warm weekend he and Josh spent a morning building it. He thought ahead and so the battery was fully charged by the time Luca got up from nap. The thing has three "gears:" reverse, turtle, and bunny. We have it set so that it won't go into bunny because turtle is plenty fast for Luca for now.

We're still working on the whole "steering" concept. It has a really wide turning radius, and that gives him some trouble. He will stop far from something, tell us he's going to hit it and ask us to move it. Sometimes it is just his bubble mower, sometimes it is the swingset. Luckily, it's easy enough to lift up the back of the jeep and adjust his direction that way.

He is very excited for when he can give rides to Tessa. We sat her in it and he wanted to take off. We had to explain that she is just not old enough yet.

Man she loves her brother!

For now we're staying in the backyard. The grass slows him down a little and, you know, we're not worried about him driving into the street and getting run over. Once he figures out how to steer and keep it on the sidewalk, watch out neighborhood!

Luca's new camera

Luca has always enjoyed taking pictures. My camera, our phones, he is a little photo bug. So when Alan gave him a camera for his birthday (with an underwater housing) he was super excited!

His swing set telescope

He carries it around, happily clicking away.

Me in NCAA, Tessa in KC Royals--we're not sure what sports season it is

We'll just be sitting, or walking around doing stuff, and out of nowhere we'll hear "Say Cheese!" and then a flash. And then another flash.

The camera card holds about 200 pictures, and I've already had to empty it once.

What the sliding door to the back patio looks like when you're less than 3 feet tall.

He even asked to take extra baths just so he could use the camera.

He sure is enjoying it! It's fun to see the world from his angle. =)

Go, Luca Go!

We had a record turn out for Luca's 3rd Birthday party. So glad that so many people were able to come from all over the Midwest to celebrate our Little Man! He finally decided on a Go, Dog. Go! theme. There was some discussion of a dinosaur party, crayons, rocket ships, and simply "happy birthday", but I think in the end he picked a winner!

It was the tree where the dog party is--in cupcake form!

He had so much fun, running around and playing with everyone. He sang "Happy Birthday" before nearly every bite of his cupcake. He tried opening presents and cards with his monkey toes.

As he gets older, I get nervous about his reaction to some gifts--namely clothes--that he won't be appreciative. Which I can understand (and I know others understand), but it's still a behavior I don't want to see. But our little man is amazing. Everything he opened he was so excited. And the faces he made! Oh the faces. =)

Of course people were also excited to spend a little quality time with Tessa.

Hanging with Papa and Pa

After most of the crowd left Luca decided to try out the roller skates. Dot was kind enough to help steady him a little bit, and he loved it!

A quick picture with some of the Winn girls and the newest addition to the clan and we had to say good bye to the KC family. Hopefully not for too long!

Happy Birthday party Luca!!

6 months

It's Tessa's none and a half birthday!

She rolled over the couple times about a month ago and hasn't again. When she's on her tummy she's much more likely to try and pull her knees up under her. It's possible she's planning on crawling normal instead of scooting like her brother did.

Everything within arm's reach goes directly to her mouth. Sometimes she takes it right back out and makes a sour face, but she tries it again anyway.

She is officially in love with her toes. They're fun to pull on, they're fun to eat. When there are socks covering them it only adds to the fun--pulling them off and eating them too.

There is no doubt that she loves Luca. She will give smiles to Josh and I, but almost as soon as she sees Luca she starts laughing. And he is still a sweetheart to her.

Those eyes!

At her 6 mo well baby appointment she weighed just shy of 17 pounds. It is now clear she had her 3 month growth spurt and hasn't had her 6 month one yet. Something to look forward to =)

I was getting six, sometimes seven consecutive hours of sleep each night, until a couple weeks ago when we all had colds. Now she's back to getting up every 3-4 hours. Can't wait until she's back to her normal routine! She seems to think in general that sleep is for the weak. She takes maybe three naps a day, two of which are 20 minutes, 30 if I'm lucky, and the third one is rarely more than an hour. But she's not really crabby like she's not getting enough sleep, so I can't really complain.

Meeting Uncle Steve

I think she has a tooth starting to poke through. I can't feel it, but there's a white spot on her gums.

She's a little magpie, she nearly lunges at anything shiny. And I don't remember when kids develop object permanence, but even after I hide my necklace under my shirt she keeps pawing at my neck. A clever one, she is.

She sits up very well, we still sit behind her or have a pillow behind her, but she rarely needs it. She's getting to be such a big girl!

Three!

I heard this for the first time recently, and man there is a lot of truth to it: "The days are long but the years are short." It's been a whole one thousand ninety six days, but just three quick years...

Our baby boy is Three!  (Unless you ask him, cause he says he's 20.)

He is a walking test of our memories. Reading is far and away one of his favorite things to do, and he will recite lines from books randomly throughout the day. So we're left trying to remember where on earth he got it from. For the last couple days it's been "I have dreams you know" which is from the Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus book. Also "Turny turny turny turny" and "Stop turning the pages!" from Another Monster at the end of this Book. For a long time it was "Curse you Red Baron!" from a Snoopy book. But he started using it "appropriately" and we had to put the kibosh on it.

Other phrases he says frequently:
Absolutely
So, what are we going to do today around town?
This looks interesting
Happy Much to you!

He just started developing a little sass and back talk, we are trying hard to nip that in the bud!

Luca is impressed that Steve's head is hollow

He learned how to whistle when he was really little. I mean, really little. And quickly surpassed my skills. It was just something he started doing one day. Now he snaps. Again, just something he started doing. We were impressed when he first showed us! He's tried doing it under the water in the bath and discovered if he does it just right he can get a little squirt of water. So fun =)

Whenever I am in the kitchen doing anything, he wants to help. We have a little collapsible step stool that is meant to be in bathroom for him to reach the sink, but he folds it up and carries it around wherever he needs to be taller. So he goes to retrieve it, brings it into the kitchen and sets it up right next to me. He pours things into bowls for me, stirs, turns on and uses the hand mixer, and even cuts vegetables with a dinner knife. My little sous chef!

I love this picture so much! =)

I have just started looking into preschools for him, there are so  many choices! He's been asking to go to school for a long time, and I hope he won't be disappointed when he realizes he won't take a school bus there...

He sings so many songs, including ABC's, Twinkle Little Star, Jingle Bells, The Mommy Song, The Daddy Song, The Jude Song (Those songs go something like "Mommy, she's the best mommy ever, I love her so much, she makes lunch for me, Mommy, Mommy, I like to give her big hugs, I love Mommy")

Today for his birthday dinner he picked dinosaur sticks to dip (fish sticks), applesauce (what he dips his fish sticks in), yogurt and oranges. Yum =) And I made a puppy cake!

I am pretty proud. It's covered in chocolate covered raisins. Which Luca doesn't like. But it just wouldn't have been the same without them!

We are excited for his birthday party! Happy Birthday to our Big Boy!

Adventures in baby food

Since Tessa is doing so well with nursing, we put off starting solid food. But as she approached her six month birthday, it became important to start it. So, we did about a week of cereal at dinnertime.

"Just gimme the spoon, I'll do it myself"

Then it was time to break out the ice cube trays and start making food again. I did not miss washing those trays... But as long as she's not starving when we try to feed her, she does pretty well eating. We started her with sweet potatoes and she was pretty happy about that.

We moved on to apples, carrots, and pears, and have plans for butternut squash and bananas. In the next month or so we'll be able to move onto green vegetables and keep adding in fruit. So much mess, so much fun =)

Chewing on a piece of apple