These last few weeks have been pretty much awesome. I think this might be the most fun I've had as a parent, and there isn't a day that goes by that your mother and I don't talk about how "crazy" you are.
You have moved into your "collection" stage. It started with Gords, which you first started calling "ba's" You had to have one with you constantly. It has since evolved into grabbing whatever you see first. It starts the moment you get out of bed and carries on all throughout the day. Whether it is a gord, a monkey, a doggie, stacked cups, whatever, you get obsessed with "things" and have to have one in your hands at all times.
Your ability to remember things is uncanny. Long gone are the days where we could hide something or distract you to make you forget. Now you seem to lock in on something and won't forget it. You are/were obsessed with the hair dryer, constantly stroking your hair and saying "dra" "dra", even pointing to our heads. And again, the moment you wake up, you roll over, hop up in your little sleep sack, and say "dra, dra", before we even have a chance to get you out of bed.
You are constantly saying new things. Often times calling something one minute, then after we say the correct name, you catch on and start calling it by its correct one. It still amazes me and how quickly you catch on. In fact I've had to watch myself a few times. One day as we were watching a Purdue game I was a little upset, as I often am these days when I watch them, I stood up and threw my hands up and almost yelled. You jumped up threw your hands up and yelled right with me. A quick lesson in fatherhood of how much you watch us for your cues.
You have a bit of independence, and need to create your own spaces. You love to pick things up and take them to your little chair, set them in the chair, sit down, then reach behind you and hold them on your lap. It's as if the chair is yours and whatever you put on there is in your "safety" zone. You also love to climb up on the big couch and push off all of the pillows. And if mom or I are sitting on it, you try to push us off. Once we get off you sit there with a proud little smile on your face.
As crazy and independent as you are, you are still very much a cuddler. You love to sit on our laps, often times sitting on us, getting up, sitting on us, getting up....You have a crazy obsession with dancing. Apparently you and mom dance while I am at work, and now you want the CD player on and want to dance all the time. So much so that you grab our hands and stick them out straight as if we are ballroom dancing. If we don't dance with you right away you stand in the middle of the room and twhirl in circles. baby. Cuddling you at this age is almost as sweet as it was when you were just a little baby.
You are growing up more and more each day. Each day is filled with a new adventure, something new learned, and a little bit more of your baby-ness disappearing. As I've said this is the most fun I've had, and I think that we have had so far as parents. Your personality is overwhelming at times, but beautiful and I hope that you continue to have this beautiful spirit as you continue to grow up!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
15 Months - The Special Place Edition
There are very few places in my life - or should I say in my adult life that I really consider special places anymore. Yes there are a few places that I love going to or that bring back fond memories but very few special places.
We went back to one of those special places with you last week. It was a place that reminded me of growing up. Of spending summers as a kid with my brother, where we got to be real brothers. Getting admonished for "horse play" in the house. Where we used to throw lawn darts up in the air and run around like idiots trying to avoid getting hit by them. The place where I learned what work really was...and not because it was hard work, but because I saw the passion that my grandfather had for his land, the perfection in everything that he did.
It was a place where you fell under grandma and grandpas rules, where you got to eat cereal with honey, from a honey pot on the table with a cool little honeycomb. The place where you stayed up late watching the Last Shogun because it was on TV and your grandparents watched that sort of thing...and you loved it. A place where magic happened not because IT was magical, but because the love, the peacefulness, the beauty of the land around it was magical.
It was the place where you played games with your grandparents friends and had fun, even when you were a teenager who wouldn't be caught dead letting your mom drop you off at the movies let alone playing games with your grandparents and their friends. Where you learned how to play lawn croquet and still, to this very day, can picture you and your brother stepping on the balls and knocking them out of the way, wondering how you had never heard about this game before!
You got to experience this place. Granted it was different than the way I had experienced it, but it was still awesome to see you there.
You got to pick corn out of the garden and pick fresh apples off the tree. And then walk around eating it for the next hour!
You got to ride around on the riding lawn mower...which I might add, we never had in our day!
You raised the American flag, just like so many of the Lucas grand and great grand kids have.
Unfortunately you didn't get to experience great grandpa singing Reveille to wake you up, like he used to do to us...though you didn't need it waking up at 4:00 AM and 5:00 AM in the morning!
It was a trip that you will never remember but I will and your great grandparents will. It was something that I wanted to do with you since you were born and will never be able to do it again.
They are selling the magical place. Moving on to something smaller, something more manageable. It is the right thing to do, they have worked hard to maintain it and its now time for them to relax. It's sad, but it is O.K. because I know that even though the house might be gone...the magic it brought to me, to our family, and now to you, will always be there. It will be in our hearts and in our minds. It has been passed on to you through experiences you will never remember but through love that you will always know.
This might differ than some of your other monthly updates but it's something I thought you should know about. Another little piece of your mother and I that has been passed on to you. Little bits of our family history, our family love that we may forget to tell you someday but that you should know about.
You can see all our pictures by clicking here
We went back to one of those special places with you last week. It was a place that reminded me of growing up. Of spending summers as a kid with my brother, where we got to be real brothers. Getting admonished for "horse play" in the house. Where we used to throw lawn darts up in the air and run around like idiots trying to avoid getting hit by them. The place where I learned what work really was...and not because it was hard work, but because I saw the passion that my grandfather had for his land, the perfection in everything that he did.
It was a place where you fell under grandma and grandpas rules, where you got to eat cereal with honey, from a honey pot on the table with a cool little honeycomb. The place where you stayed up late watching the Last Shogun because it was on TV and your grandparents watched that sort of thing...and you loved it. A place where magic happened not because IT was magical, but because the love, the peacefulness, the beauty of the land around it was magical.
It was the place where you played games with your grandparents friends and had fun, even when you were a teenager who wouldn't be caught dead letting your mom drop you off at the movies let alone playing games with your grandparents and their friends. Where you learned how to play lawn croquet and still, to this very day, can picture you and your brother stepping on the balls and knocking them out of the way, wondering how you had never heard about this game before!
You got to experience this place. Granted it was different than the way I had experienced it, but it was still awesome to see you there.
You got to pick corn out of the garden and pick fresh apples off the tree. And then walk around eating it for the next hour!
You got to ride around on the riding lawn mower...which I might add, we never had in our day!
You raised the American flag, just like so many of the Lucas grand and great grand kids have.
Unfortunately you didn't get to experience great grandpa singing Reveille to wake you up, like he used to do to us...though you didn't need it waking up at 4:00 AM and 5:00 AM in the morning!
It was a trip that you will never remember but I will and your great grandparents will. It was something that I wanted to do with you since you were born and will never be able to do it again.
They are selling the magical place. Moving on to something smaller, something more manageable. It is the right thing to do, they have worked hard to maintain it and its now time for them to relax. It's sad, but it is O.K. because I know that even though the house might be gone...the magic it brought to me, to our family, and now to you, will always be there. It will be in our hearts and in our minds. It has been passed on to you through experiences you will never remember but through love that you will always know.
This might differ than some of your other monthly updates but it's something I thought you should know about. Another little piece of your mother and I that has been passed on to you. Little bits of our family history, our family love that we may forget to tell you someday but that you should know about.
You can see all our pictures by clicking here
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