Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Hot summer days in June!

This blog post is of the entire month of June, so make sure you have a lot of time to read it all and check out the adorable pictures.

June is here and if you ever need to know where we are, just check the pool. Lucas wakes up every morning talking about the pool and goes through each of his friends and asks me if they are going to be there. I hope everyone comes to the pool at least once to watch him play; he amazes me every day.

We started learning about the concept 'hard and soft' at Gymboree this week. I don't think the kids picked up the concept while we were there; but at home, Lucas repeatedly demonstrates the difference of hard and soft by throwing each item over the banister and listens for it to land. He finds this new game very entertaining! I, however, did not approve at first; but, then decided to go with it and just add it into my daily exercise routine!

We were also very excited when Mrs. Sam and Olivia made it on time to class this week! We like to give Mrs. Sam a hard time, especially when she sang the Welcome Song for the first time and thought it was a new song! While we were all waiting for our class to start, the kids wanted to watch the other children do the train song, so I got to hold both of them for a few minutes.










Lucas loved the new class setup and barely did anything else except for the wavy slide. He did wait patiently for his turn without having to be told; which, made me exceptionally proud of him.



The following weekend, all of the moms in the playgroup finally got all of the dads together and had a big playgroup party at Mrs. Alisha and D.J's house (thanks for hosting all of us!) It was the first time that we all got together without it being a birthday party. The dads decided to get to know one another outside while the moms watched the kids inside. Little Tyler was so nice to let everyone play with all of his toys; especially, the construction truck and the ball pit that Lucas loved so much. As Mrs. Sam pointed out in her blog, we can't really say that we took the traditional baby pictures, as now all of the kids are TODDLERS! So, we took the traditional toddler picture with all of the children sitting on the couch. It's a good thing the parents are there to supervise because some of these kids can get a little personal! Tyler and Olivia got a little too close and Selina did her usual flip over to reveal her behind and then climbed on top of Lucas! Thanks again for hosting Goldsworthy family, we all had a great time!


The following week for playgroup, we celebrated Carla's first birthday. Little Carla was out of town for her birthday so we decided to have a little get-together to celebrate Carla's as well as Mrs. Sindy and Mrs. Olga's birthdays. Unfortunately, Olga's little boy Boris was sick and they had to stay at home that day. Happy birthday Sindy and Olga and I hope we can all go out and celebrate soon.

Lucas spent most of the playgroup eating all of the delicious food and trying to push Carla's new stroller around (he has good taste because it is an extremely nice jogging stroller that I would love to have!) Little Selina is still crawling and cruising around everywhere. That girl is determined to do anything but walk on her own. Selina and Lucas have always enjoyed playing with each other and sharing their toys at playgroup. Olivia made us all laugh by laying down on Carla's changing pad under the kitchen table.



I think everyone had a great time, even if all of the parents had to keep chasing the little ones away from the diaper pail that intrigued them all so much! Thanks for hosting all of us Mrs. Tina and Happy First Birthday to little Carla.

Below is a cute video of Lucas in the bath singing to Carla. Just ignore the medicine dropper he plays with and the mention of the "ti-ti" at the end!



For our second to last class at Gymboree, we were still working on the concept of hard and soft. Lucas was obsessed again with the slide and not doing as told!











Lucas not participating in class, but he found a ball to entertain himself.


Row, row, row your boat with Olivia


Sitting on Olivia's lap...


Laying on Gymbo the clown under the parachute...


Getting kisses from Gymbo at the end of class...



On Saturday morning, Lucas and Ben went to a make-up Gymboree class while I stayed at home and had the house by myself...it was wonderful! Ben even took Lucas to get a haircut after class. Apparently, Ben has the magic touch because Lucas sits on his lap while he gets his hair cut and never sheds a tear. Later that night, Lucas had a sleepover at my parent's house where he got a new riding firetruck and played in the sprinkler before dinner. Unfortunately, Lucas had to be picked up early the next day because one of my parent's air conditioning units broke and they were expecting the repair man.



















That night, we celebrated MiMi's birthday and Father's Day in Dawsonville at a new Italian restaurant. They are going out of town for Father's Day weekend so we had to celebrate a little bit early. Dinner was delicious and Lucas especially loved getting to escape with Poppie and going to get some ice cream. It was so hot inside and outside that Lucas' ice cream would melt off of the spoon onto his lap before he could get it to his mouth. I don't think he cared as long as he got some of the sprinkles and gummy bears into his mouth.










After we heard how much fun Lucas had in the sprinkler, we went out and got one of our own. Lucas loved running in and out of the water and spent all afternoon outside.



Lucas has finally mastered playing in the little pool area without me helping him every minute. He now wears little" swimmies" on his arm so I don't have to worry as much. I know I say this a lot, but it is true and every day that we go to the pool, he learns something new and amazes me.



For our last Gymboree class, I went crazy and practically either recorded or took pictures for most of the class. Olivia and Lucas must have known something was up because they were wild that day! Our new concept was top and bottom; but, those two could have cared less because they just did their own thing and it was just not worth making them do anything they didn't want to. So far, the favorite activities from week to week have been the small trampoline, the green circle slide, the wavy slide, and the boat. The kids entertained us and let us take some good-bye pictures with our awesome teacher, Ms. Michelle. This last class did bring some classic moments that between Mrs. Sam and I, we were able to capture in the videos below.


Favorite green slide...


Running from top to bottom with Mrs. Sam


Lucas and Olivia going down the green slide (not participating in what everyone else is doing)


Olivia was entertaining the class and helping call Baby Gymbo...


Getting TWO kisses from Gymbo at the end of class...


Lucas giving Olivia a major hug under the parachute...


After class, Mrs. Sam, Olivia, Lucas and I decided to celebrate with a special lunch at Jason's Deli. Lucas was such a little gentleman to Miss Olivia and even helped flag down a waiter when she needed something. Apparently, we still need to work on some manners because even after all Lucas did for Olivia, he still got a big eye roll from her when he took a cracker off of her plate. I guess you just can't win them all baby boy!










Since Father's Day is approaching and we are hosting my family over at our house, we finally went out and found some new curtains to hang in our living room. Ben (and Lucas) did such a great job hanging everything. Lucas loves to 'help' his daddy with all of the home improvement projects we do.










Look at the tan this kid has already!
Happy Father's Day to my amazing husband and Luke's Daddy! We love you very much and are so proud to have you in our lives.

Ben works so hard to ensure that I get to stay home and raise Lucas. We are so fortunate that he takes such good care of us. Ben is an amazing husband and tries everyday to show us that he loves us. Some of the things that he does for us around here are: comes home early so that he can help me do the grocery shopping at our multiple stores, takes Lucas out on the weekends for some guy time, works at home as much as he can so that he can be there as Lucas grows up, surprises me and will do the dishes without being asked, surprises me even more and will vacuum and mop the floors while Lucas and I are out, gives Lucas a bath every night, buys me the best phone out there and soon a new laptop, washes my car (on Father's Day), and still has time to make sure we are all happy and feeling loved. We love you so much, Happy Father's Day!

When we went shopping for Father's Day, Lucas picked out a new green shirt for him and was so proud of his choice. We hid it in the closet for about two weeks and I really thought that Lucas was going to ruin the surprise and take him to it. During the days he would pat the door and say "Daddy present, no tell." Ben's big present was a new center channel speaker for our living room surround sound.

After Lucas' nap on Father's Day, my family came over and we all went down to the pool for a swim until GiGi arrived. When we came home, we hung out until my mushroom stuffed pork tenderloin was ready and we enjoyed a delicious feast made by everyone. Lucas has been a little picky about what he eats lately so I spent most of the meal enticing him to eat, without much success. By the end of the night, he was one tired little boy and just laid on the floor.
Happy Father's Day also to my own dad and Mr. Wheeler. They are both wonderful men and I am so proud that they are a part of our lives and get to help us raise our son. Love you all!









After such an exciting weekend of celebration, Lucas napped really hard! He is so picky lately about which books he wants to read; some times they are truck books and sometimes they are holiday books. On this particular day, we read a lot of Halloween books and one even made it into the crib with him for a nap.










As I said earlier, our days are spent at our amazing, kid-friendly pool. Lucas talks about going down the big blue slide every day and even says good night and sweet dreams to it. I know he will be swimming by himself at the end of the summer because every day he learns something new. One day he mastered going under the water fall and next going down the little pool slide all by himself. He never fights me when it is time for his swimmies because he knows that it just means freedom! He swims on his belly through the one foot deep pool and is trying really hard to blow bubbles and hold his breath. Recently, he moved on to the big pool and likes to jump off the steps into my arms. With his swimmies on, he is able to float around and just the other day, he learned how to do a modified doggie paddle back to the steps. The next thing I am going to teach him is how to swim to the side and hold on if he needs help.

Last week, we spent every day down at the pool. Mrs. Sam and I spend half of our time at the pool taking Lucas and Olivia down the big blue slide. They are trying to be so grown up and walk themselves there holding each other's hands (not the Mommies because they are too cool for that apparently!) I am not too concerned though because Olivia takes very good care of my little man and just pulls him along when he gets distracted. When they get tired and ready to eat, we all enjoy a picnic lunch at the pool before heading home for a long, much needed nap. Lucas is usually so worn out that he can't wait to get in his bed and go to sleep.











One evening when we went to the pool this week with Daddy, we met another family that just moved into the neighborhood a few weeks ago. Jennifer and Nathan have two adorable children, Montgomery (19 months) and Macie (2 1/2 years). Mr. Nathan works in computers so Ben and he hit it off from the start and Mrs. Jennifer is a stay-at-home mom too, so we really hit it off. The dads organized a dinner over at our house for Friday night. Lucas did a great job sharing all of his toys (after an entire day of reading books on sharing and talking about all of they toys he will be sharing). I think Macie won Lucas' heart first when she started bossing him around and showing him how to use all of his toys. After a tour of our house, we all sat down and enjoyed a fun and delicious dinner with everyone. Macie waited long enough and after dinner, we finally went outside to play with all of our toys before they headed home for bedtime. We really enjoyed having their family over and are so glad we met them. The picture below on the left captures how mesmerized Lucas was in Macie! We had to take a few shots because they all gave their best 'cheese' face, which means some eyes were closed!








Saturday we enjoyed a day at the pool and even got to see Olivia and Mr. Steve. The kids showed off their moves, Lucas jumping and Olivia kicking, to both of the dads. Later that night, we headed out to the Coo Coo's Nest for a surprise 30th birthday dinner for Ben's friend, Mr. Keith. MiMi and Pop's were even there to help celebrate and entertain Lucas. Keith's girlfriend, Ms. Lianna did a great job organizing the entire night. At first, Lucas was not quite sure why everyone was crouched down hiding and looked like he could either smile or break down in tears any minute. But when everyone yelled surprise and started clapping, he perked back up and continued to play with his monster truck. Happy 30th Birthday Keith!










On Sunday, Lucas got a special treat when we went to GiGi's for dinner. GiGi's friend, Ms. Wynell, bought Lucas an entire construction vehicle set! He was so excited to have new toys to play with; and, behaved the best he ever has during dinner so that he could get down and play with his new trucks. Before we walked over to give Ms. Wynell her thank you card, Uncle Taylor and Lucas played like old times on the floor with trucks. Lucas really misses his Uncle Taylor since he started working and loves their special playtime together.



Mrs. Lisa from Poppie's office gave Lucas the cutest matching Speedo bathing suit and hat. When I told Lucas who it was from, he allowed me to get a few pictures so that we could send them to Mrs. Lisa. Thank you Mrs. Lisa for thinking of Lucas this summer!










The last, but not least, event we celebrated this June was Poppie's birthday at Provinos. Lucas loves eating all of the garlic rolls and shredded cheese that is supposed to be on the salad. MiMi and Poppie also brought along a huge container of Tonka sized cars from when Ben was younger, which kept Lucas entertained the entire meal. Poppie was even nice enough to share his birthday ice cream with Lucas and let him blow out the candle on top. Happy Birthday Poppie






































June was pretty jam packed with a lot of fun and great times. Our little boy is just growing up so fast and learning new things everyday. He recently started singing traditional children songs like Pat-a-cake, Twinkle Twinkle, Happy Birthday, Rock-a-bye baby, and Row Your Boat (however, the last line to Row Your Boat has now turned into "life boat down drain" instead of "life is but a dream"!) We love to hear his little voice, especially through the monitor when he sings himself to sleep at night.

Until next time, see you all in July!