summer friends

Luca has been having a busy summer. We have had a lot of fun hanging out with our playgroup on Tuesday mornings. Here is a picture of him with 2 of his friends Rachel and Madilyn. Rachel calls him her Luca and they always have fun together. This Tuesday we all met at the splash pad in Belton, Luca was much more interested in exploring the park and swinging than in the sprinklers. He was rarely without his drink since it was hot!

We also continue to make friends with lots of God's creatures. We have caught a few gecko's. Luca tried to share his dinosaur with this one before mama freed him outside.

We made another trip to the zoo with Rachel and her mom. Luca loves the zoo, he always has such a good time. This is the first time he really understood where we were going when I told him the zoo. He immediataly made his sign for elephant and then roared for lion. He still loves the fish and so do I...it's air conditioned!

The alligator was too funny. Luca loved looking face to face with the alligator but he wasn't so sure he should turn his back to it!

We have also spent several early mornings at the park. Luca keeps trying to be nice to the geese but they are not very friendly.

See, this goose almost met a mama bear when he charged at us.

The ducks are much happier to see us coming. Luca likes to give the ducks a bite and then take a bite for himself. It's all about sharing.

Luca's personality continues to evolve. The last month has brought on lots of changes. He is climbing on everything and scooting the kitchen chairs everywhere which makes virtually nothing out of his reach. We have moved the bar chairs out of the house because Luca was using the kitchen chairs to get onto the bar chairs to get onto the upper part of the bar. There is no stopping him anymore!

He is also more easily frustrated lately. Luca want's be be understood immediately and is more impatient which has led to much more crying than we are used to. I guess this is the beginning of the twos. At the same time he is suddenly very affectionate and requests "kiss" frequently as well as giving lots of smooches of his own. Maybe he's trying to equal it out!

first dentist

On 7/13/10 Luca had his first trip to the dentist. Mike was out at a doctor's appointment. Luca and I were getting ready for a play date when he fell off the potty and hit his mouth on the sink. His left front tooth got chipped and I thought it was bad enough that it should be checked, so Mike and I took Luca for his first trip to the dentist. I was suprised at how well Luca did, his tooth needed to be filed a little and they put a little bit of filling on the end to protect the nerves more. He was most upset about being wrapped up while the dentist worked on his tooth, he stopped crying as soon as I picked him up! The verdict was that there doesn't appear to be any nerve damage and so we will watch to be sure his tooth remains ok. All in all, I think it was a more traumatic day for his mama!

Last week we were back at the surgery center for Mike's 3rd knee surgery of the year. This is becoming old hat for Luca...literally!

While Mike was in surgery, Luca and I headed down to the clinic to visit old friends, then we had a quick lunch and took a nap. Mike is doing ok, he has been very stir crazy since the last surgery and we've been out of the house several times. There is still lot of swelling and it's too soon to tell if his knee feels any better so we will wait and see for now. He has follow-up scheduled next week. Luca has figured out how to pull the kitchen chair over to help mama get ice for daddy's boo-boo and has also been doctoring it with kisses.

blueberries

While we were in Mass we got to go to a farm and pick blueberries. The kids had a great time and Luca loved eating the blueberries. I don't think any berries picked by Luca made it into the bucket!

Back home, this weekend is supposed to be the hottest so far. The dogs got a reprieve and came in the house yesterday when it got over 100. Luca likes having the dogs in and they don't complain either becuase they get lots of treats. Luca looks for food to give them at every oppertunity! Luca was up very early this morning and decided he needed a nap by 830am. He's up now so I think we are headed out to play in the sprinker and bubbles before it's too hot!

fun in the sun

Luca got some one-on-one time with Emily today. These little cousins are so sweet playing together. They played in the sprinkler and the bubbles this afternoon and Luca managed to drag out every ball he could get his eyes on. Emily is doing a good job of babying Luca, she is even calling him honey. This is their first full day together...so, we'll see how it's going next week. For today it is all fun in the sun!

vbs

So, as I mentioned a couple of days ago, Luca and I are going to VBS this week. For anybody who may not know, VBS is Vacation Bible School at our church. I'm teaching in the 1st grade and Luca is hanging out with the toddler class who are all kids of workers. We are both exhausted!

It has been a big change in our house to have to be somewhere by 8am. We are doing better than I had expected though, due largely in part to the fact that Luca likes to get up early and is always in a good mood in the morning. Night is another thing however. Everybody knows Luca isn't a great sleeper but he has turned into a terrible sleeper this week. Mike and I have caved and have been sleeping on the couch with him just to get him to sleep so we can!

He has been having a great time in his class. He has two very nice teachers who appear to be spoiling him. Luca is reluctant for mama to leave him but he is happy as soon as I'm out of view. I usually sneak down a couple of times to check on him and he is always having a great time. Here he is at snack...hopefully not trying to steal Ms. Kaylie's food!

on the go

We have been having a busy summer. We went home to Missouri a couple of weeks ago and will be headed to Boston on Monday. In the meantime Luca and I are also squeezing in a week of VBS this week. Luckily, Luca is a pretty easy traveler and he really likes to go. He gets excited to see the suitcases coming out. I wanted to share some pictures of our recent trip. Luca spent about 90% of the time in only a diaper, barefoot and wet. We all had a great time.

Our trip also overlapped with daddy's retirement and my Grandma June's 93rd birthday. We had lobsters sent for dinner one night. Luca was very interested in them and called them "bugs". He also had his first taste of seafood. He liked it...suprise! Luca still hasn't met a food he doesn't like.

I didn't do a very good job weeding through the pictures. Well, I guess I did do pretty good since we had over 100 pictures. I can take a lot of pictures! So, our suitcases are still out and we will be off again soon. Looking forward to spending some time with everyone in Boston...see you soon!