Take a look at my baby countdown and it says ONE DAY! Yep, one day until my official due date. However, I would be surprised if the little man decides to come out on time. He seems pretty content in there. I don't blame him, it's still pretty cold in Ohio these days.
Lucas is doing well and full of energy. With ice and snow on the ground it's been a bigger challenge for us to drain up excess energy during the day. Lucas is getting good at doing laps around our house which helps but we will be happy for Spring and our long hikes again.
I thought it would be fun to document what Lucas is into these days right before his brother arrives. So, here's a few things I can think of right now...
- PBS's Caillou is still a huge hit and really the only thing he cares to watch on TV. We're not complaining because it's pretty wholesome and teaches him things about life and having a sibling. He would watch it all day if we let him. He recently figured out how to use the PAUSE button on the DVD remote. Some days, a 20 minute Caillou turns into an hour production because he pushes pause so many times. He gives us play-by-play account of what Caillou and his family and friends are doing.
- He has been really into imagination and pretend play. He's content playing by himself more these days which is fun to watch. He loves all airplanes especially flying his Transformer airplane around shooting bad guys. He's our home doctor, Doctor Lucas, and uses his doctors kit to make sure we are all healthy. He's also into starting pretend fires and putting them out with his fire truck. I took a small box and cut out a door and windows. I then stuffed it full of red tissue paper so it makes perfect flames for his fire truck to come put out. It's always those simple homemade toys that go the furthest.
- He loves having Mommy or Daddy join in during his playtime. However, he likes to dictate "how" we play and likes to run the show. No room for Mommy & Daddy's ideas if they don't match his expectations.
- Loves to make a mess and then tell us, "
It's too hard to pick it up." Little stinker!
- He is learning to identify all his lower case letters. These are a little tricky compared to the upper case ones.
- He can almost count to 20. The "teens" get a little confusing and sound the same to him I'm sure. We were playing hide-n-seek and this was Lucas counting the other night..."
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fifteen, eighteen, Saturday....Ready or not, here I come!" Too fun and hard to correct when it's sooo darn cute!
- Loves playing cards and his favorites are Go Fish, Old Maid and Slap Jack. He gets really distracted by Slap Jack and just wants to have all the Jacks in his pile. We recently looked at the deck and he has hidden more than half the Jacks somewhere. He knows that if you have the Jacks and slap first you win. I guess hiding them means no one else can win.
- He likes the Memory game but gets obsessed about finding the match to the first card he turns over. He'll over look other matches just to find that one card.
- He is very particular when it comes to things. If you do it one way one time, that's how it goes each time and it's a huge deal if things don't follow those rules. Many times a 3 year old fit are the result.
- He loves to sleep in his clothes which is fine with us. We are just glad to be totally potty trained.
- Still loves books, piles and piles of them. They are a must throughout the day and repeating his favorites is the best. Whenever we read a new book, he'll ask numerous questions about what is happening on each page. He's very in tuned with and concerned with emotions and expressions on the characters faces. We have to discuss what each one is feeling and why they have the expression that they do. He'll ask, "
What is his face saying?" which is always followed by,
"WHY?"- He loves the carpet steamer vacuum and is a big helper to get it all set up. I use our Shaklee non-toxic Basic H2 so he can help with all aspects. Today he got to dump out all the dirty water in the toilet and this is what I heard coming from the bathroom..."
Oh-oh, M-O-M-M-Y! I spilled a little on the floor!" A "little" would have been nice, it was all over but he quickly got his towel to help clean up.
"It's okay if you spill Mommy, as long as we pick it up...it's just a little spill."- Playing TACKLE with Daddy is a big hit too. It can be played with a football, basketball or balloon. Some times it's called "Take Out!"
- Cutting with scissors and using as much glue as possible to glue his cut shapes on construction paper is so much fun. There is no holding him back with the glue and of course, he's in charge (I'm the one who...) always comes into play.
- He already has about 1o things on his Christmas list for Santa next year. Anytime he sees something he likes, he asks if we can put it on Santa's List. It's actually quiet nice, there are no fights or argueements...he just wants to make sure it goes on the list. I can do that. :)
- Anything grown up or used by adults that he finds interesting i.e. snow blowers, snow makers, snow plows, etc. he wants a TOY one, just his size. And yes, these things are on his Santa List too.
- He wants to be as "
Big as Uncle Micah" and he's sure that his world will be complete as soon as he's that big. We hear it daily...
"When I'm as big as Uncle Micah, I'm going to use sharp knifes....drive a REAL snowplow... jump really, really high...be a doctor...be a really fast jet pilot and shoot bad guys." "Mommy, why do we shoot bad guys?" Oh, the questions keep coming but then again, I would want it no other way.
- He's been pretending to be back in Mommy's belly. He'll get under the blankets on the couch and tell us he's in my belly again and getting ready to come out in 8 weeks, 30 seconds, 5 minutes or whatever he thinks of. (I understand, TIME is confusing especially for a three year old). He then askes if it's been 8 weeks yet and then he "pops" out on the floor and starts to pretend cry until we give him his pretend bottle. Then we start over and do again and again and again.
Too much fun, we love this kid!
Such a big boy and what a super big brother he'll be.
Proud Daddy too!
Anyways, the tables turned the other night. He received a late Christmas gift from Uncle Micah that had been on back order. It's a Lego Cargo Plane with propellers and cargo cars...his first Lego kit with normal sized Legos. Daddy and Lucas set to work while Mommy did very important computer work...blogging!
and accessories too!
Lucas braved the weather and cleared all the icicles for us.
Then more pretend play. Lucas has been very involved checking out all the baby stuff which has recently emerged from the basement.
I'm mean really checking it out...I had to explain to him that he was a little too big for the baby swing. "That makes me sad, I wanted to try it!" At least the car seat checked out!
Being silly inside with Kristina's boots on during our "big" super bowl party night at the Anderson's. HA!
With all the snow and ice, it is really hard to spend time outside or even go for a walk. We try to get out everyday and it's usually to the sledding hill. These days, it's more of an ice rink which Lucas quickly realized wasn't much fun. Mommy has a few tricks up her sleeve and pulled out the Silly String! Luckily, our friends taught us a valuable lesson about using Silly String inside their home last Decemnber so we opted for the outdoor experience.
It was a little hard for Mr. Do-It-Myself so he let Mommy help a few times.
Then Mommy was no longer needed...look at this determination!
And then he got it!
So proud of himself. He loved the Silly String but hated the clean up. So did Mommy, what a mess that stuff makes and boy was I happy to be outside. Thanks Susie!
Today, I ventured to the store today to stock up on food. Lucas has been really into strawberries lately so I bought a few packages of them. Lucas wanted to have some for snack and Mr. Big Stuff likes to get things out of the fridge (all by himself) announced that he was going to eat ALL of them. I was happily blogging and said, "Okay Lucas, but you might get a belly ache." A few minutes later he was carrying the empty container. I thought, there is no way he ate all of them?! Mommy was right, although he did a great job trying.
Here's the aftermath of a three year old monster at do-it-yourself snack time which was scattered all over the counter top.
Strawberries anyone?!
We headed back to Mad River Ski Resort with Daddy, Kristina, Tommy & Jim. It was an early start and a rough one for Lucas. Mommy took him up the rope tow a few times and he got a glimpse of the real ski lift. Daddy took him up the "magic carpet" but he was just not happy and was ready to stop skiing for the day.
We headed in for an early lunch and our little skier had an instant attitude change. He bounced back and then right into Jim's arms. He hadn't seen Jim in months so it was very exciting.
Lucas had a hot dog the first time we went skiing so now it's tradition and lunch is not complete without one. We almost got in trouble not getting him one the first time around. Watch out Mommy & Daddy and be careful when "setting the bar" for new activities.
However, they jumped in line and Lucas was very excited.
With a little help from Daddy, they were on their way.
We decided to try the climbing harness and leash idea. It worked pretty good and they both survived the first real run of Lucas' skiing career.
Big smiles were back to stay!
Kristina, Jim and Tommy went up to help out and check out Lucas' skills. I was happy to have friends to take photos because I could only see so much from the bottom of the lift.
The leash came in handy for sure. Lucas still has no control over where he goes. He'll follow the fall line or naturally turn if he's looking at you. Other than that, he's along for a fun ride.
More practice.
Getting better.
Daddy & Lucas headed towards Jim & Tommy. Everyone was so helpful and made the experience so much fun.
Jim even helped out with a little pole turning here and there.
Big stuff now!
More team work.
Keepin' those skis together...so much for snowplow! :)
Lucas' Ski School: Kristina, James, Daddy, Lucas, Tommy and...
a BIG GIANT PUMPKIN!
What a day! Lucas skied and skied and skied. I thought he would get tired of it but no way. After at least 4 hours of skiing, Lucas cried when we had to go home. A stop for hot chocolate helped but he was not happy about leaving and said, "I want to ski all night time too!"
