Little Helper

There has been a lot of fixing going on around home recently. From the dryer needing a new belt to light switches buzzing and a need for a new outlet, Josh, my dad and their power tools have been busy. Luca learned the word "fix" and now uses it when he sees Josh with a screwdriver. So, because Luca was so blessed/spoiled at Christmas, our current toy storage wasn't cutting it anymore. We bought a cube storage and some baskets and Luca was kind enough to help...

by running off with the screwdriver. That's the best kind of help, right? But he did actually lend a hand, putting in the dowels and hammering them in. And he steadied the screwdriver while Josh turned it. My little handy-man in training!

Cheese!

Vacation

I should start by saying this is probably going to be super image heavy... sorry.

I was so nervous/excited about our vacation. It would be my first time traveling out of the country (not counting Canada), there were layovers both ways, I'm not a huge fan of flying, wasn't sure how little one would do with the eating and sleeping being different, not to mention doing a lot more in a week than we normally do. But it was going to be a whole week in the sun and on beaches and expected to be in the 80's. Plus there was a heat index. I forgot when it got warm enough there was a heat index.

So we started off at 5am to make it to the airport. We were all enormously benefited by the fact that Dad does so much traveling for work that we all got Premiere service from the airline, not waiting in long lines, several upgrades, good stuff. And Luca seemed mostly entertained by the adventure and did well waiting.

Reading with Dad on the plane

The first two flights were full (the first one kept saying that people needed to put things under their seat instead of in the overhead because if any more bags had to go under the plane people would have to get off due to weight restrictions. Yikes). But kid was happy bouncing between Josh and I and my parents in the row in front of us.

And during our hour layover he found the moving walkway...

One... two... three... jump! Around and around and around.

On the second flight we actually got him to sleep. And he was nice enough to cuddle in such a way that he wasn't bothering the other guy in the row and I got to play my game boy. =)

We made it to the Cayman Airport relatively on time, found the car rental place, managed to shove 2 scuba bags, 6 suitcases and 4 back pack carry-ons plus the 7 of us all in the car and headed to the resort. They drive on the other side of the road and there are a total of 7 (I think) stop lights on the island, the rest are round abouts. Dad asked us to every once in a while remind him to be on the left side of the road. When we got to the place it was too dark to see anything very well, so a quick trip to the grocery and some unpacking rounded out the day.

The middle of the first floor was our room. So very very close to the beach. Amazing.

During the week we were there Dad and Alan dove at least twice a day and we spent so much time on the beach. Luca would walk down to it and just sit down on the edge of the water and play. I thought to bring a bucket and shovel, Mom found a volleyball and a little angry bird guy on the beach, and he had a blast.

We also managed to see some of the sights and do a little shopping. We went to Georgetown which is where the cruise ships come to port so there were A Lot of jewelry stores. Tiny bit of history there too. They have lizard statues like Chicago had cows and KC had bears several years ago. We of course took a picture with it.

Thank you robopod for the group picture =)

One of the highlights for everyone was swimming with the Sting Rays. All of the pictures of that are on the underwater cameras, though, so I don't have any to put up. But it was awesome. They are technically wild in that they are free to leave the sand bar, but they know that people come to feed them so they don't usually stay gone for long. There are rules that you can only be on the sand bar for an hour and you can only bring a pound of food, so the rays have learned and travel from boat to boat to boat, looking for something to eat. Local lore says that if you kiss one you get seven years of good luck. I totally kissed one and Luca gave one a high five. That's got to be good for a least a couple years of good luck. =)

We also went to a turtle wildlife encounter where we got to pick up and hold turtles and watch them get fed (they look just like Hungry Hippos) and Luca totally chased a lizard.

A gorgeous beach where Alex and Josh snorkeled and Luca slept in a tent on the beach.

I mean, beautiful...

A petting zoo/Pirate cave. They had bunnies and goats and chickens and lizards and birds and pigs and peacocks and all sorts of random animals. Luca loved the bunnies best. The guy had coins and a cannonball that were found in the cave, and Mom and Josh went back into the cave with flashlights and saw bats. I was, of course, safely above ground instead.

The boys went kayaking in the water around the resort

The blowholes and Lovers' Wall

I think Josh took this. Incredible timing!

We went to Hell. Seriously. It's a city there.

Looking at the Hell rocks

Saw Santa at the mall and played in the fountains

The boys also went on a brewery tour and to a car museum, naturally. ;)

I'm also sure you're wondering if all the time spent on the quiet book was well spent. It was! He played with the book a couple times on the plane and most every evening in the condo. Yay!

Bananas in the fish bowl, eh?

Our last day we only had time to eat breakfast and pack everything up. We were of course bummed to be leaving, it was so beautiful! And it didn't help knowing we were going back to temperatures in the teens...

We all had a wonderful time!

Bye Caymans!

21 months

This is a hard one to write. I feel like the major developmental milestones are further apart now, so there's not a long list of changes each month anymore. That being said, here's some new stuff.

We tried to see Santa a week ago. What I mean to say is that we went to see Santa, I held Luca while he looked at Santa and smiled at Santa, and as soon as I moved him lapward, he started screaming. But Santa was very nice and gave him a little stuffed penguin. Once I was again holding him Luca (through tears) told him bye. Now he picks up that penguin and says "ho ho ho." At first I thought he thought that's what penguins say, but if you ask him he does a version of that tickle laugh that penguins do, so he just remembers it was from Santa.
When he was last weighed he came in at 24 lbs, been hovering around the 10-12 percentile for a while, I think.

Cheesing, eating lunch with an ice cream scoop

He has started putting together two word phrases, "up mama," "bath daddad," "more crack." (He calls crackers "crack" and obviously I'm not correcting him.) He is using "real" words a lot more and babbling a lot less. Which is frustrating for me because I know he's trying to tell me something, he'll stare at me and repeat the same word again and again, but I have no idea what he's saying.
He loves "Itsy bitsy Spider" but always starts at "down came the rain" and mostly just does that one line a lot. And he's so sweet, we rock for a little bit before he goes to sleep, and sometimes I sing and sometimes I don't. If I'm not singing and Luca wants me to he starts singing while his sweet little head is laying on my shoulder. When I get to the end of a song and stop, if he wants and encore he'll start singing again. I just love it. Currently the rotation is Silent Night, Away in a Manger, and of course The Gambler by fun.
My mom found a keyboard in the basement that my Grandpa gave us years and years ago and thought Luca might enjoy it. Oh my goodness, we're getting this kid piano lessons as soon as it's appropriate. He spreads his hands out on the keys and uses his thumb and pinky at the same time and alternating and gets the black keys too and just looks like he knows what he's doing. Plus sometimes he sings while he plays.

We are very excited for Christmas, I have no idea what Luca is going to do. We opened a gift from his god parents early, and he took the present to the rug, sat down and opened it, then put the tissue paper back in the now empty bag and put it back under the tree. He hasn't bothered any of the other presents under the tree. When we tell him he can keep opening he's either going to get overwhelmed or go crazy and start opening everyone elses. We'll see!

As an aside, Luca is currently in the bath. We have a basket full of those foam letters that stick to the sides of the bathtub when they're wet. Luca picked out three letters, W, T and F. Ha.

Luca's new chair

When kid is in the high chair he has these super awesome annoying habits of kicking the foot rest hard, rocking front and back so violently that the whole chair inches forward, and pushing off our our leg while we were sitting so that he was far away from the table, among other wonderful things. So it was decided he needed a booster. I naturally did way more research than the average person, and settled on one that connected to the table instead of to a chair. Figured since we don't have a lot of space around the table, and it's kind of long and skinny, I didn't really want to be at the opposite end of the table as Josh. It would feel a little like that meal in Beauty and the Beast. So one that connects to the table could be put in the corner same as where we pulled the high chair up. Hopefully, it would work.

While we tried to take a cousins picture and my kid was the only one crying and refusing to smile, it was suggested that I leave and see if that helps. Gave me an opportunity to go buy the chair, and naturally I got a text after about 10 minutes saying they were done and he was busting a gut through most of the pictures and out of the dozen pictures taken only one or two didn't turn out. What did I learn from this? No more will I take him to get his pictures taken, since I apparently bring out the diva in him.

ANYWAY

I wanted to test the chair and make sure it was installed right and wouldn't fold up under his weight or anything. But kid was sleeping. So Jude volunteered.

Doesn't it look like he's happy to help? But it worked just like it was meant to. We got to test it at dinner and it worked like a charm! He swings his feet like you can't help but do while you're waiting for a roller coaster to start, but there's nothing to kick against! Win Win.

Of course the first meal we ate Jude wandered aimlessly under the table, very confused about where the food was going to drop from and where he needed to be to get to it first. Poor puppy.

Finished Book!

This is very exciting to me for several reasons. One, it's a craft project that was actually finished. Unless I'm making something as a gift, I don't often finish projects. My guest bedroom is a graveyard of projects that have a couple hours work into them. So Yay for finishing something! Second, it's amazing because it just is. Really. Let me show you.

There's a cover page but that's not the exciting stuff. It does explain that it's a book of seasons, though, so I'll just tell you that part. So the first spread is Spring. Because I say the seasons "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter." So does Alex. Josh says "Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall." So does my mom. There was a great deal of discussion about what order to put the pages in.

Anyway, Spring. On the left is a garden with carrots, potatoes and lettuce. They all are in little pockets and can be taken out to put in the basket on the right hand page. The watering can isn't attached so can be used to water the garden and the plant on the right page. When not in use, it hangs on the little hook you can see behind it. The plant is fun because it grows! If you pull the plant it comes out of the pot until it has three levels of leaves. And then you can pull the button at the bottom of the pot and the plant shrinks until just the top little bunch of leaves is visible. Still trying to teach Luca it only goes so far in either direction.

On to Summer!

These have six different flips flops spread across the beach, and the pail on the right side holds the mates. They all have a little magnet in them so you can match the pairs. Or just put a couple together, if that's more fun. Which it sometimes is.

Time for Fall!

On the left side is a basket with a bunch of leaves and acorns that can go in and out of the basket. We thought about trying to make a rake or something, but have you ever tried to make a rake out of felt? It's tricky to make it look like something other than a very spaced out broom. So, no rake. On the right page Luca learns early to root for the KC Chiefs. Very exciting, the goal post folds down flat but also will stand upright so you can paper football like flick the ball between the uprights. That will be more of an in the condo game than an on the plane game.

Finally, Winter

On the left side is an adorable little penguin who is on a ribbon like the plant on the Spring page so he can go in his igloo or hang out with the seal by the pond. Seriously, that penguin is super cute. On the left page is a build your own snowman. You can make two, or a big tall leaning one, or whatever you little heart desires. And the pieces all hide in the snowbank when they're not being used.

The back cover has a pocket on it for any loose pieces if we don't have time to put them on the page they belong. I am so immensely proud of this book! AAAAANNNDDDDD, we are almost done with another one! It's looking like by the time all is said and done there will be three books. I hope Luca enjoys playing with them as much as Mom and I enjoyed making them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Shocker, I made cookies for Thanksgiving! Got to use something new to do them too: food mist. It was a little weird spray painting the cookies, but it really had a cool effect.

Used sprinkles on a cookie for the first time too. Josh thinks it looks like the acorns have little afros. I wanted to use just brown sanding sugar but couldn't find any anywhere. And I looked lots of places. But every store had the chocolate jimmies. Still cute =)

This year we are all thankful for the stuff we are lucky enough to take for granted: our health, housing, employment, all that stuff. We are happy to spend the holiday with lots of family, many that we haven't seen since the last holiday season. I am thankful that Mother Nature has so far been holding off on the freezing temps and snow. Mostly, though, I am thankful that Josh doesn't have a leg to stand on anymore when it comes to his ban on Christmas music, lights, and trees in and on our house! ;) Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a delicious leaf pile!

Recently...

Josh and I had Chinese the other night, and I always use chopsticks to eat mine. While we were getting dinner ready Luca was driving me crazy, so I gave him a pair to play with. And then he wanted to bring them to the table. Since they're an eating utensil (that I was going to be using) it didn't seem right to tell him no. Good thing too, he showed us he's a pro! That's a corn kernel wedged in between those chopsticks. Now he's ready to travel with Grandpa =)

One time (One Time!) I stuck a clip we use to close chip bags onto Luca's shirt. One time. Now he likes to take them and try to put them on himself. On this particular day we had a lot of clips not holding onto anything, so Luca gave them a purpose.

We have a bunny that has been sitting most all day in the same spot for about a week. You can see him from the window over the kitchen sink and from Luca's bedroom window. He's there when we're washing up after breakfast, he's giving himself a bath around lunch time, and I've never seen him leave, so I have no idea how long into the dark he stays. Luca learned the word "bunny" because of him. Josh named him Reginald. He doesn't even move when Jude goes outside. Reggie has learned that Jude is way more interested on the dogs that might be on the other side of the fence than the bunny on his side. So he just stays still until Jude leaves. Then he goes back to staying still... Luca asks to check on him several times a day.

And, in super duper exciting news, mom and I are almost done with a quiet book! Pictures to follow soon!