little secrets

Luca has been hiding two little secrets from us lately...

his top 2 canine teeth are coming in. I have been watching a spot on his lower gum this week and Thursday he let me feel it. Well, I don't think the bottom one is coming in but it turns out that both top teeth have broken through.

My attempts to take a picture were in vain. You can't see much of Luca's top teeth when he smiles and there was no way he would let me keep his lip up long enough to snap a pic! So, for those of you keeping track, that makes 10 teeth so far.

Friday we met with some moms (and kids) from my mom's share group at a local park for a picnic. Luca had lots of fun exploring. He's not really into playground stuff yet but he did find the rubber tire stuff lots of fun to play with. I had to fish a couple of pieces and 1 or 2 stray rocks from his mouth. This kid is going to have one good immune system!

I'm working this weekend so the boys are getting manly bonding time like Mike teaching Luca to play with a hockey stick...so far no windows have been damaged. I spent some time yesterday morning playing outside and weeding. Yes, weeding in January, only in Texas!

pack leader

As some of you may know last week we gave Zita away...and the next day she came back to us. Unknow to us, Zita has heartworms and the sweet family we had given her to wasn't able to keep her so she came home to us. Zita had treatment on Thursday and Friday and is now resting and recovering.

Those are our instructions for now, no activity for the next month. As Zita enjoys being lazy, she doesn't seem to mind doctor's orders especially since she managed to snag a nice new bed and living room privledges out of the deal. When she goes out to potty she has to be on her leash. This has created new activity for Luca to observe and he has decided that he is a pack leader too...of his toys.

Luca takes Zita's leash at every opportunity and takes carries it everywhere draped around his neck. He also likes to put it around the dogs necks and he doesn't leave out his toys which naturally need to go for a walk too.

This week Luca has also developed an infectious giggle. It's a new sounding laugh for him and he is practicing it a lot, even laughing to himself while he is playing with toys. We think he is also trying to wink although we're not sure where he picked this up. He will look right at us and then do a series of long blinks squeezing his eyes shut tight.

Our little turkey is still not sleeping through the night but I have managed to get him "mostly" back in his own bed and we're down to just a couple of wakings on normal nights. We don't have the heart to let him cry and Mike is still worse than me for bringing him to bed. Tonight I took him to our room to put him to sleep so I could relax and watch some Food Network. As I headed into our room Luca turned and waved and said "bye" to Mike with a huge grin on his face. I don't think he realizes that he is going to his bed after he is asleep. So, on the nights when my 15 month old is still up 4 times and I think..."why won't he sleep like everybody else's baby!" I will do my best to remember that someday I'm going to miss this.

crafty kid

Today was Happy Birthday Storytime at the library. After stories there was a little party and all the kids made birthday crowns. Normally we don't participate in the craft part because Luca really isn't into that yet. But, I thought we would try it out today. Here is his finished piece...and he only tried to eat one marker!

happy new year...a little late

We hope you all had a very happy New Year! We ended up spending Christmas and New Year's in Boston because we were too sick to fly home on the 29th. It was great to spend time with Mike's family and we got to see lots of snow! In fact, our flight home on the 3rd was in question because of another big storm but we did make it home. Luca also got a nasty ear infection as soon as we got back but he is feeling all better now. We go back to get his ear checked on Monday and hopefully we will all be well for the rest of the winter!

Here are some pictures from our Christmas trip:

I would have to say this may be the "it" toy of Christmas this year. Luca loves his little pull dog. He has learned what dog means and will usually go get the dog if you ask him where it is. Luca still won't say dog although I think he is learning a first version of it, he does make a panting sound for dog...well, anything covered if fur pretty much. He thinks it is very funny when I "meow" to try to teach him the difference between dog and cat.

I think this picture summarizes the craziness of Christmas...just try to get 3 kids under the age of 6 to pose together for a lovely picture in front of the fire in their matching jammies!

Luca LOVES his cousin, AJ. There were lots of hugs and kisses between these two cuties. Yes, that is baby kissy drool on AJ's cheek!

Emily also claimed Luca as "her baby" and loved to mother him. She did not love the kisses as much. "Baby Luca drooled on me...that's disgusting." There was also lots of "No, Luca" in her best mommy voice. What a big girl!

Luca also practiced his climbing skills and managed to go up the whole flight of stairs (closely followed by mama of course!) He is learning to stick his tongue out and give high 5's. Yesterday he was belly laughing over giving high 5's at lunch. Today he was laughing and sticking his tongue out at the grocery bagger. He continues to be a very happy baby...and a very bad sleeper. We are toying with the idea of moving him to a bed to see if he might sleep better. Who knows...someday he will sleep, right?