A sticky sticker

This is what happens when a little one goes to bed with a sticker on his shirt.

Yes, that is a drool spot under his cheek.  Isn't it the cutest drool spot ever? 

I couldn't resist running to get my camera this morning when I saw this.

Me to the sleeping babe: "Lucas, you have a sticker on your head!"

Tossing, turning and the normal why do you insist on waking me up noises.

Me: "Hey silly, you have a sticker on your head!"

Without opening his eyes, he reaches for the sticker (he must have felt it there, how could he not?) then he pulled it off, opened his eyes to check it out, stretched a huge smile across his face and slaps it on his shirt.  Then he crawled into my arms for my normal morning hug that I referred to yesterday. 

It was a great start to our day.

Toddler love

When I was pregnant with Lucas, I signed up for emails from a website about the baby's development.  After Lucas was born, they continue to send emails about baby milestones and now we are on to the toddler emails.  (How did my baby turn into a toddler?!?!)  Last week the email was about "7 Signs Your Child Loves You."  I read a few of the sentences, but then I started thinking about how Lucas shows love. 

How OUR toddler shows us he loves us:
- Pulling on my hand and saying, "Come. Come." when he has something he wants to share with me. 
- When I wake him up in the morning, he climbs into my arms and always gives me a tight squeeze.  Then I smother him with kisses. 
- When he is upset, his first instinct is that mommy and/or daddy can fix it.
- When I pick him up from daycare and he runs to the door and exlcaims, "Mommy here!"  He does this for Brent, too, and it is absolutely one of the best highlights of the day. 
- Or the days at daycare that he looks at his friends and says, "No, my mommy."  (Because another two year old might steal me...!)
- He equates love with the strength of his hugs; he squeezes really hard when I tell him I love him.
- The way he looks at me when I read him a book... like he is the luckiest kid in the world that his mommy is reading to him. 

We are so blessed to have him love US.

The growing weed:

Wounds

Last week was a woundful (I think I just made up that word) week for our little man.  On Monday, he got bit at daycare.  On Tuesday, he jumped off a chair and landed on his head which resulted in a big goose egg.  On Wednesday, he had a big scratch on his cheek when I picked him up.  It turns out he was holding hands with his friend, Ava, and he walked right into a shelf.  He's already distracted by pretty girls at the young age of two!  Here is the shiner a few days later. 

It's in that brown/green stage now, but I know this is only the beginning.  Boys seem to attract scratches, bumps and bruises.  We just hope the injuries stay this simple.  And daycare did offer to wrap him in bubble wrap... I think I'll save that for when he starts playing tackle football, or gets his driver's license! 

I love that, for now, mommy's kisses fix most owies.

Weekend get-a-way and Valentine's

We had a get-a-way with friends last weekend.  With scheduling for four families, it just happened to land on Valentine's weekend.  It was a fun treat.  We rented a house in the Galena Territories that we found on http://www.vrbo.com/.  The outdoor photos are obviously not from February! 

This one IS from February!  I don't know how well you can see it, but this is a snow angel.  Six of the eight of us jumped out of the hot tub and made a snow angel in our bathing suits.  The yard was scattered with angels.  No one suffered any frost bite, but I wouldn't encourage children to do it.  :) 

The company was great, the house was beautiful and the fireplace & hot tub were welcoming; I hope we can do it again. 

I'm not sure how I managed to do it, but I also kept Lucas from opening his "school" Valentine's until Sunday afternoon.  He was so excited to look at the cards and wanted every.single.piece.of.candy.  I would read the card and then he would repeat his friend's names with this sheepish smile. 

Playa Del Carmen adventures

Although a lot of the time on our trip was spent relaxing and soaking up the sun, we did have some other adventures.

 

Me on the zipline.

Rappeling into a cave.

Mayan Ruins at Tulum.

Iguana hunting for a mate.

We took this ferry to Cozumel.  It was a rough ride and we were surrounded by people with motion sickness.  Thankfully, none of us got that sick. 

Trista making sure the boat was not going to capsize on our snorkeling trip.

Greg climbed a coconut tree.

Trista and Ben met Spiderman!

The yummy Japanese restaurant. 

The boys having a sake shot.  Sake is a Japanese alcohol made from rice. 

Recent conversations with Lucas

[Brent is putting honey on a biscuit.]
Lucas: Honey!
Brent: Do you know where honey comes from?
Lucas: Bees!

[Brent and I exchange looks of awe and astonishment.  This is the first time in months the honey bottle has been out of the cupboard.  How does he know that?!?!]

Me: How do you know that bees make honey?
Lucas: Papa.

A follow-up phone call confirms that Papa and Lucas watched a tv show about bees making honey. Boy, he was really paying attention – that was three weeks ago!

--------------------------------

If one of us coughs, Lucas imitates it. If we sneeze, he imitates. Driving yesterday, there was a sneeze. This is what followed:

Lucas: aa-choo!
Me: Oh, bless you! Do you have the sneezes?
Lucas: aa-choo! Key-nex peeze.

[Remember, these are fake sneezes. But I looked for a Kleenex and couldn’t find anything in the truck, not even a napkin.]

Me: Sorry, bud, I can’t find a Kleenex.
Lucas: AA-CHOO! KEY-NEX PEEZE!

Then, there was some whining and I remembered the diapers wipes, so I gave him one of those. Ah, the smile of a child - you would have thought he won a lifetime supply of suckers as he wiped away the imaginary boogers.

Another snow day!

     

                              

MELT reunion

Three of my high school girlfriends and I got together a few weeks back.  We do it at least once a year and start planning months in advance to make the calendar work.  The first letter of each of our names spells the acronym MELT and that is how we've referred to ourselves since high school.  Erin and I have been friends since diapers.  Leah's mom and my mom were in Le Leche League together all those years ago.  E & L met Mindy in middle school, but she and I became particularly close sitting next to each other our freshman year in Environmental Science.  MELT was born...

We all have very different interests and hobbies and went four different ways after high school graduation.  But through it all, we've maintained an amazing friendship.  There was really only one hiccup that I can recall, and yes, it did involve a boy.  Fortunately, we resolved that and I didn't no one married him.  We have seen each other through a lot of things - college, boys, weddings, career changes, health issues, buying homes, babies and much more. 

There are a lot of miles between us, but when we get together it feels like just yesterday we were cruising the loop together.  I am blessed to have these girls as friends.

A look back... always a smile

February 2008

(2 months old)

February 2009

(14 months old)

February 2010

(2 years, 2 months)

Chu Chu Ua

On our trip, our resort had a children's music show.  The show was in the theatre bar and we would gather there for a drink before dinner, so we saw the show a few nights.  There were several songs the kids would sing and dance to including The Hokey Pokey and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.  Of course, these were all in Spanish, so we couldn't exactly sing along.    One particular song really caught our group's attention and really stuck in our heads.  Chu Chu Ua. Chu chu ua means "I can make you move."  There are lots of different hand motions and gestures that the kids loved, like sticking your butt up and tongue out! 

What do you do with a song when you can't get it out of your head?  Make someone else think about it!  This is from You Tube, so you won't get the exact feel for it from our lounge seats, but you get the idea.  (I apologize if the clown freaks anyone out. The resort music leaders were much cuter.)

First dentist visit

Lucas had a successful first visit to the dentist.  Fortunately, Dr. Anderson is a dear family friend and Lucas really didn't have any issues letting her investigate.  Plus we'd been hyping it up that Sara was going to brush and count his teeth.  He did great!  I hope Lucas inherited Brent's no-cavity history because I have had a mouthful lots of cavities (it's not my fault - it's the sweets). 

Lucas sat on Brent's lap in the big chair and Brent forbid me from taking pictures, so I had to wait until we were all done.  A sticker and toy from the toy chest go a long way with a two year old. 

Showing off his pearly-whites:

RIU Palace Mexico

These might look like postcard photos, but they are the real deal (some are Trista's, some are mine)).  You might see a yellow caution cone in a couple of them - the sidewalks were slippery from the humidity.  Hey midwesterners, remember what humidity feels likes?