Happy 17th!

Lucas is 17 months old today! Time just keeps on ticking along. In some ways I wish I could speed it up but mostly to slow it down. In just 6 weeks Alexander starts Kindergarten and Lucas will start Montessori a few days a week. Where is the time going??? It's not like we're having spectacular weather and doing things all the time. This weekend was nice though...Kalima came down from Maine late in the afternoon on Saturday and we went to a park and then had yummy take-out from a local Indian restaurant. But the main reason she came down was that for our anniversary Paul had obtained tickets for us to go see Rent in Boston. However the date of the show was Sat night and I balked as the show was at 8p and way, way too soon to leave Lucas with a babysitter, even Grandma, who would have had to put Lucas to sleep. So we sold the tickets and instead, once the boys were asleep (and once asleep Lucas has never woken up before 3:30a), Paul and I went to the local movie theater and saw Harry Potter. It was great and everyone was fine (although I was checking my cell every 10 minutes). Not that we'll do that again for quite a while as I don't like to chance it that Lucas would wake to not find us at home. Then on Sunday we mostly hung out at home and went to the beach in the afternoon. We primarily went to play at the park and maybe have Alexander throw rocks into the ocean...so we didn't bring swim gear...but nonetheless ended up with both Alexander and Lucas fully soaked and L's cloth diaper full of sand! Lucas was a madman and was at several points crawling into the ocean and not fazed at all by the crashing surf in his chest and face. Wish I had brought the camera!! But I did have the camera for his funtime in the inflatable pool on Saturday...see below.

The parts I'd like to speed up are Alexander's adjustment...it seems to be getting a little harder as it's really hitting home that Lucas will be around for a while and that he needs a lot of attention. Also, as Kali mentioned, Alexander is trying to figure out what it means to be a brother...especially to this baby who doesn't do much with him except steal his parent's time. Alexander is truly a sweet and gentle soul so it's been a little scary for me to see the amount of anger that's coming out at various times and for the oddest things. He's also exhibiting new insecurities about leaving the house unless I'm coming along...but we made a small step forward on Sunday when he left with Paul (after a lot of cajoling) to drop off the car for some work. Weekends are definitely the hardest times...during the week school provides him with a needed break from the new way of life at home. I know we need to continue to support and love him and give him special time with us but it is hard to see him struggling.

Well a little update on the little one... Lucas' expressive language seemed to have really taken a back seat for a while there for lots of other growth but since Thursday it's like a switch went on inside his head that said "OK this is the week we start trying to talk again". Here's the new list of words in the past 6 days! OK, not all are perfect pronunciations...but he's trying and getting closer each time:

ball

car

more (together with the sign)

milk

clap (while clapping)

toes

twinkle twinkle (when requesting me to sing the song with signs)

moooo

no-no (when going towards something he knows he shouldn't touch - hilarious)

do-do-do (when he wants me to hum or sing a song)

He also now will indicate what he does not want to eat at meals by frantically doing the 'all done' sign, is refusing most of the mushy foods we initially gave him in preference for crunchy foods now that he has most of his molars, and signs when he wants to eat which is huge! Yay - no more wondering if he is hungry and great to see him exhibiting some preferences. I'm trying not to indulge him too much between meal/snack times but usually just giving him a couple bites of fruit or something small...but he's hard to resist :)

All for now...

Laura