Car Show (From Luca's Perspective)

I've said before, Luca likes to take pictures. He uses my phone a lot, but also Josh's phone, mom's tablet, anything with a camera. He uses Josh's old digital camera, but it doesn't have a card so it doesn't save pictures and that's not good enough for him anymore.

Meet your tour guide!

Also, there was a car show with the proceeds going to the troops, so Josh took his dad's Cobra to it. It was a show he hadn't been to before, so there were cars he hadn't seen before, so he asked me to bring the little camera.

However, as soon as Luca saw the camera, he commandeered it. And took pictures of everything. And, since I totally know how to upload pictures from my camera (unlike my phone) his work can finally be showcased. =)

He and Josh walked down and looked at some of the cars. While they were walking he would stop, put the camera up to his face, move a couple steps, put it up again, and then take the picture.

All the pictures were honestly taken by the kid. Of course with so many photographers and artists in the family, it makes sense that he naturally has a good eye =)

So, I think he had a good time. He's asked for the camera every day since then. I have nearly an entire folder of selfies. My next goal is to learn how to shrink them and put them all in one picture so everyone can enjoy the Blair Witchiness that is the majority of the pictures he takes of himself. After piano lessons will be photography classes. =)

Curtains!

They look so amazing. I was going to wait so that I could post about the other crafty things I'm doing in the room, but the curtains are so awesome I just can't wait.

I mean, are they just the girliest, cutest, most amazing curtains you have ever seen, ever? I totally agree. My mom is amazing. I did the cutting and the measuring and the drawing guidelines but mom did all the sewing and ruffling. So very happy with how they turned out! The picture also shows our new gray wall color--thanks to Josh, Brit, and Dan for all the help painting!

Also, Luca has been playing with the Lincoln logs in there while I do other things, hence the mess on the floor.

Also, seven month bump! Just like that we're in the third trimester... crazy. We are narrowing down the crib we want, and I'm figuring out what other furniture should go in there. I would love to have a loveseat glider, but do you know how hard they are to find? Much less find for a price we can afford. So I'm trying to figure out a way to DIY it, because, you know, why not. =) Anyway, bump! It's about two hours past my bedtime, so forgive the glazed over expression...

Is my belly really that big!?

Two and a Quarter

I felt like the monthly posts were getting a little too much, but I know you all still want to know what the little fella is up to, so I think quarterly updates for now. =)

He walks up and down the stairs like a "big, big, big, big boy" now. It takes a while, but it's so crazy impressive. Each step comes up to his knee. Can you imagine walking up and down stairs if they came all the way up to your knee?
He is getting better at dressing himself and can do his pants entirely on his own if I just lay them out with the front side up. And help him get the waist band over his diaper in the back. Next step, potty training!

Two pieces of chalk is better than one!

Speaking of potty training, I've decided we're just going to go cold turkey. I'm planning on doing it when we've got 3-4 days in a row where we don't have to go anywhere and just putting him in "big boy pants." I'm also planning on cleaning a lot of messes the first day, but I'm optimistic that I'll clean less messes on the second day. Who knows how it will work, but he's pretty much an all or nothing kind of kid, so I'm hopeful. All of you parents who have potty trained before can quietly chuckle to yourselves at my blind optimism. =)
I got a new phone about a month ago and Luca has totally figured it out. He has one game on there, and he swipes to unlock the screen, swipes over to the game (needs a little help getting through the opening screens so he doesn't try to buy anything) and then plays. He has also found the camera. Apparently the phone saves every picture to the cloud, and I only delete them from the photo stream on my phone. So there are something like 60 pictures on my phone and 350+ in the cloud. A lot of them are very fuzzy or are of his finger, but there's a good 20-30 that I think are actually pretty good! If I knew how to put them on the computer I would, a task for another day. But he's big into the close-ups, so I've got pictures of Jude's fur, the a/c register, his toys, and a surprising amount of selfies. Kid needs a myspace account. Isn't that where you dump a million self pictures?

The neighborhood watch community

He is loving the swing set. He's gotten really good at climbing the rock wall (no rocks, he just sticks his hands and feet in the gaps in the wood and gets up that way. He can also go part way up and back down the ladder without any help. Once he gets up in the eagle's nest, though, he's stuck. He went down the slide a bunch of times the first day, but because he doesn't have any weight to him and the slide is a little steep, he was catching air on the second bump. We're guessing he bruised his tailbone or something, because the next day he said his tushy hurt and now he won't go down it. My guess is he'll be back at it before summer is over though. He also loves swinging and loves to push us on the swing.
Funny story, we use time-out as punishment. So I ask him to correct his behavior. If he refuses I ask him to correct his behavior or go to time out. And sometimes he takes forever deciding which one to do. So one day I tried to introduce the "I'm counting to three." Except explaining that to him didn't go so well. He was so excited to count to three with me, he forgot about the behave or time out thing and now he asks to count to three with me often. Always when he's standing in the same spot as he was when I first explained it to him. Kid has a memory like an elephant.

Helping Dayuh water

 He loves routines and knowing what to expect next. We feed the birds on the rug by the front door. I bring in the feeder and take the top off of it, he uses a measuring cup to scoop in the bird seed, and then I carry him and the feeder to the post and he hangs it up. When we get back inside he goes to the guest bedroom where we keep the vac, wheels it out, tells me to plug it in, disconnects the hose, and says "ready, go" to turn it on. After he helps me vacuum up the extra seed he tells me to wrap the cord back up and pushes it back into the bedroom. All of this, in exactly this order, every single day when we feed the birds.

Cheese!!

Chasing ducks

I think I've said it before, but Luca loves to chase birds. As soon as one lands in the yard, he looks at me and says "Chase birdies?" and when I nod he's off running. Well a couple months ago we had a pair of mallards land in the yard. They spent a lot of time in the back corner of the yard where we have some decorative tall grasses and we were afraid they'd build a nest. While I love love love baby ducks, we were pretty sure Jude would not be content to just marvel in their cuteness. So we scared them off. And continued to scare them away when they kept coming back.

And they still come back every once in a while. On this day Luca looked out the back door and saw them. He went supersonic he was so excited and screeched "DUCKIES!" Next, naturally, he asked if he could chase the ducks. I said sure and he went out after them.

Getting closer...

They took a lot longer to fly away then I was expecting. Luca got pretty close to them before they finally decided they were in danger. When they took off, they were a little bigger and displaced a little more air than the robins he's used to...

His reaction to them flying off was priceless, he was so startled! And still Luca keeps a weather eye on the back yard, hoping they'll come back.

Swingset Building Day 3

With a forecast of a 50% chance of rain all day, we were expecting the last day of the holiday to be a bust for building. Jordan offered to come out again, but we figured there wasn't much point. We even called Dad to tell him that the rain was only supposed to hold off until early afternoon so Josh was going to do what he could with the help of Luca and I. Dad wasn't satisfied with the ladder he had built yesterday, though, and Mom wanted to do more work on the curtains, so they came out.

One wall up, and taking apart yesterday's work to do today's.

Left to do was to put up the swing hardware and hang the swings, build the rock wall (minus the "rocks" since I haven't bought them yet...), put up the bones for the tarp (minus the tarp because I haven't bought that either), install the slide, build the picnic table and bench that goes under the play deck, and put up the boards that serve as walls at the top. Kind of a daunting list, but by this point Josh and Dad had a sort of a groove going.
Once Luca saw the swings and the ladder, he of course wanted to try them out. Never mind that the thing was still being built.

After trying out the ladder and slide a few dozen times, he felt it was also important to try out the swings. Oh his face the first time he was doing this stuff, just beaming. And laughing. Dad said the gleeful shriek the first time he went down the slide made the whole trouble of putting the thing up worth it. He is really, really loving the swing set.

Yes I'm still in my pj's, don't judge.

 In between playing and being super helpful outside, Luca was equally super helpful inside. While I worked on another decoration (which remains unfinished and therefore unphotographed) Mom was getting some help sewing the curtains.

To make sure we did all the math right and the base for the curtains were the right length, we took one set of ruffles upstairs and roughly laid them out. With the help of Luca and Jude, naturally. I'm 100% sure they are going to be amazing!!

By the time the rain started (two hours later than was forecast, thank you Jordan for not coming to help...) All that was left was to put the walls up. When Josh counted out how many boards he would need and how many we have left, it looks like we will have just scrap left over. For eyeballing things and guessing at numbers and changing plans along the way, that is just incredible. So, as Josh has a free minute here an there he's cutting the rest of the boards and attaching them. Then I've got to get shopping to buy the toddler swing, climbing wall "rocks," and the tarp. Plus a few extras. We're pretty sure he needs a steering wheel, and Josh is convinced that a Ferrari flag would be the perfect finishing touch. All in all, most of the work done in 3 days--here's to all the help!! And of course none of this would have even been possible without the generous help of all our friends and family in funding this endeavor, THANK YOU!!

Our new swing set!!

Swingset Building Day 2

On the to-do list for today was to put up the swing set part, build and hang the ladder, and to buy the slide and hardware to hang the swings. Josh was up early cutting boards to size so things would be ready when everyone got there. Today in addition to Josh and Dad, Jordan offered to come back and Dan was coming. That let Mom and I make our own inside to-do list. We were working on Baby Girl's room--hoping to get started on her curtains and continue my work on decorations. I think on Luca's list for the day was play with Uncle Dan and Jordan, harass Jude, and be an all around stinker/sweetheart.

All four boys checking out the angle

Josh, Dad and Dan were able to put up more bracing on the play deck and start measuring and planning out the swing side when Jordan came. With the rain. I'm not saying those two things are necessarily related, but it did seem to happen that when Jordan was here to help, it was also raining. Of course we were still grateful for his help. And it was a perk that when Jordan came so did his truck, since the slide wouldn't fit in any of our cars...

Now five to put up the swing side

So, a lot of measuring, cutting, remeasuring, recutting, and attaching. At this point I was starting to feel bad about picking random plans online instead of buying a kit, because I know their job was ten times harder because of it. But, it gave them opportunity to learn new skills! And practice math no one has used since high school! The last task of the day was hanging the ladder. That dad had to finish in the garage because of the rain.

In addition to being building day 2, it's into week 24 for Baby Girl! Can't believe it's been 6 months... In the upcoming month I have the glucose test and blood work to look forward to, ...woo-hoo... Belly shot! She's a-growing!

Swingset Building Day 1

According to my dad, when you are figuring out how long a project will take, you figure out how long you think it should take, then double the number and go up a unit. For example, if you figure a project will take 1 hour, you should plan on it actually taking 2 days. For the swingset, I hoped it would take 1 weekend, so I was figuring it would actually take 2 weeks.

The building started out with looking over the free plans I had found online, and realizing there weren't any measurements for how to build it. The plans were part of a kit that comes with pre-drilled wood, so it was enough for them to say to attach B and C to A, because you just found the holes and fastened it. But without the pre-drilled holes the boys had to do a lot of guess work. We made the modifications we wanted and Josh and Dad went to HD to get a truck and all the lumber and hardware. Did you know that Memorial Day weekend is the busiest weekend for truck rentals? Neither did we. There weren't any at the closest HD, and only a 26 foot truck at the next closest one.

Three hours later, Jordan had met them there and they filled his truck full of our lumber and were headed back home. There was a handful of sizes of lumber that HD doesn't sell, so they were having to modify plans on the fly, and then get hardware to match the modifications. Unload the wood, quick lunch, and they were ready to get started! Of course it couldn't be smooth sailing from then on, though. It rained off and on, just enough that the tools needed to be brought inside for an hour and then brought all back outside again.

They got the bones for the play deck all put together on the patio, and went out to survey the yard (With Luca's help, of course). Where I wanted it needed so much work to level it out and make it a sturdy base for the swing set, so we shifted it forward. They brought it out, dug a little trench to level it out, and we called it good for the day.