Old School Candy

We all remember the black and orange wrapped peanut butter taffy that is popular to give out on Halloween.  Kids dread it like the plague, yet it always seems to appear in your candy stash.  Well, Lucian received one piece from an older gent when trick or treating. Joe and I laughed and joked about it at the time.  I forgot about it until now.  Lucian pulled the single piece out of his candy bucket and opened it up.  First he pretended it was a partially unwrapped airplane as he flown in in small circles around his chair in the living room. Then he was trying to figure out how to consume it because it was in a harder state.  He pretty much stuck it in his mouth once or twice and then looked at me.  I asked him for a taste and took a small bit off the end to soften it a bit. He proceeded to do the same thing, but wasn't very intrigued about it. One bite was enough before he passed it off to me.  Great moment in history and it needed to be documented and shared.  I just wish I had a picture of the face he made when trying it - priceless.  I really need to empty my sd card and charge my camera!

Candy Monster Indeed

Lucian ended up being sick on Halloween. Luckily, trick or treating was postponed until the 1st of November due to the weather. So we ended up going out and having a good time. Joe had to work during most of the trick or treating times. I still took him out for a bit and then we picked Joe up and went a little bit longer. It was cold and Lucian was tired, so he didn't last much longer.  We still had a good time and ended up with a bucketful of candy that we are currently eating from at the moment. I'm excited for the point when the bucket is officially empty. As for costumes, Lucian sported a wreck it Ralph costume, Joe went as Fix it Felix, and I was Qbert. Lucian had a fun time and that was all that mattered. The best part of Halloween was finding out that Lucian knows how to open up candy wrappers. He was sitting in his car seat with a small bag of candy. I opened one piece for him and let him hold the bag since he couldn't open the wrappers. Well the joke was certainly on me when I realized he was back there opening up several pieces of candy and enjoying every last bite of sugar! Happy Halloween indeed!

Since then we have been trying to empty that pesky bucket of candy. I would definitely say he has eaten too much. At least we have been trying to get out and run off that energy. Since it has been colder outside and getting darker early, we've been trying to utilize indoor activities. We now have a membership to the Wonderlab, a local science museum for kids, and he absolutely loves it there. We would be there right now if he wasn't still pretty sick.  Every time we go it is at least a 2 hour adventure.  It would be more if it was up to Lucian.  Overall, I'd say it was a good idea. Soon, I'd like to take him to some open gym gymnastics.  I'm hoping between gymnastics, wonderlab, the library and animal shelter we can keep him fairly busy through the winter when it gets very cold and windy.  Now it's time to deal with the snot issue at hand!

Tomorrow My Baby Turns Three

The last few years have been a real adventure. Both of us changing every day, trying to survive the daily challenges. Three years have been too quick. I've seen so much yet so much has been missed or overlooked. We try to enjoy each day to it's fullest. In the last month Lucian and I have had a lot of good times. We've gone to the observatory to view the moon, gone out for late night snacks, conquered new parks in the area, watched the sheltered cats come and go to new homes, and discovered new enjoyments. Lucian has discovered the joy of playing with other children, the sadness of having to leave, the unfairness of rules and not playing what you want to with other kids, and the creativity of putting new ideas together to come up with new fun things. We've watched new movies, even experienced going to the theatre on campus, created new traditions and routines, and learned to have as much fun as we can in any situation.

Some new games that we have learned to play:
cards with slapping
chutes and ladders
jacobs ladder
pick up balls with pliers, bounce balls into containers
pushing teddy in the stroller
scaring people with "boo"
drawing creations on white boards
painting and mixing dry paint for new colors
paper mache
sticker fun
squirting pedestrians while in the car with water
how to draw on pumpkins

I hope the next year is just as exciting and full of new discoveries. I never seem to know where Lucian is going to take me each day. Especially when we wander out on the bus. We could end up anywhere in town and we could end up with a bucket full of unknown nature. It all leads to more fun and knowledge for everyone.

Mr. Physics Craves Friends

Poor Lucian. The only friend he had in this area who was his age moved unexpectedly. So now he craves attention from other kids his age. Unfortunately, most of them don't want to play with him (or anyone else). Yesterday we were leaving the animal shelter, running up and down the ramp as usual, when he noticed a mom and daughter with a puppy in the small outdoor pen. At first I thought he want to go into the pen area to play with the puppy. It was a smaller dog, which he tends to be less afraid of. But he actually went in to talk to the girl. They were talking through the fence (I was translating Lucian's language). It was truly adorable. I felt really bad when we basically tore him away when it was time to leave. Joe had to get homework done before his session so we really did have to leave. There have been other times when Lucian has followed children around stores so he could talk to them or play with them. He's sweet though the other kids are sometimes shy about it. Or scared ha!

On another note, Lucian and I were playing at the fountain yesterday like we often do. There are certain things we always do when we are there. He throws his frisbee and shovel into the fountain and I retrieve them when they get close enough. Then we walk around or play with our hands in the water. At some point he pulls out the sunscreen and gets it everywhere. Yesterday he did something I haven't seen him do before. He was playing with a pink bounce ball I had out. He would stand on the side of the fountain and throw it. Then he would chase after it. Typical for him for the most part. Except once he threw the ball he would follow the bounce pattern to see where it possibly went. The first time I thought he just didn't see where the ball went because of the sun so he followed the first ricochet to see where it went. But after the first time of finding it he kept doing it. I found this really interesting. I've never really seen other children his age do this. It was like he was studying the physics of what was happening with the ball and the possible outcomes. I thought it was neat and a little crazy to see. His intelligence always surprises me.  On top of that a Dad at the playgroup I took him to on Friday said Lucian had really good precision for his age. Lucian was playing with a hammering toy where you place the ball over the hole and then hit it through with a hammer. I never really thought about his precision and control before. That's just how he is and always has been. I guess he is more unique than I thought?

View To The Moon

Last night was a fun evening for Lucian and myself. Joe works late on Wednesdays so we spend the whole day together.  I decided that if he ended up napping late than we would go to the observatory, whose hours are later in the evening.  If he was going to go to bed late I midaswell get him out of the house and do something fun.  He loves the moon and always points it out in the sky at night. I thought it might be fun for him to see it up close through a telescope. He had the basic idea down since we were at a store looking through magnifying glasses and kaleidoscopes earlier in the day. We jumped into the car and went down to campus for a bit of fun.  There were a few other people there but it wasn't crowded.  The observatory was extremely hot in the room with the telescope, but I think it was worth the wait. Lucian looked into the telescope several times and was able to see the moon up close.  I'm not sure if he understood that we were looking at the same moon in the sky. I explained it to him a few times but I'm not sure he truly understood what it meant. We only looked through that single time in line. I'm sure they changed positions to view other things in the sky later in their hours. Lucian wanted to walk around downtown instead, so I complied. We ended up getting honey ice cream at a little shop next to the old theater. I have to admit it was pretty tasty, though Lucian consumed the majority. Afterwards, we met up with Joe on his way home from work. It was a nice evening and break from the daytime sweltering heat.

34 months

It's hard for me to believe that my little boy will be three this year. Where has the time gone? I feel like I must have missed a good chunk. Yet here we are two months away from his next birthday. Trying to keep busy and entertained every day. Right now we are sitting in the living room of our apartment watching Little Einsteins. Lucian is counting how many times the dragon goes around the mountain while eating grapes. He's so smart and curious. He is unique for his age.

His current interests include:
Little Einsteins
Climbing
Jumping off things
Eating honey sticks
Painting

He dislikes:
Being told he is not allowed to do something
Getting in trouble
Not being listened to

His Current favorite books:
Little Einsteins first words
5 Little Pumpkins
Where's Spot

Current favorite snacks:
Grapes
Honey Sticks
Chocolate
Annies fruit snacks
Chips

Favorite meals:
Mac and cheese with peas
Beans and rice
Soup/Chili

Favorite Toys:
Geotrax cars
Any ball
Frisbees

He grows more and more everyday. I'm hoping to update his stats at age three. He usually steals the tape measure to play with so we will see!

Indiana

Now that we are in Indiana, again, and partially settled in I can continue to write about what is going on in our lives. We are still in our temporary apartment until the end of July when we will relocate into our year long lease. Unfortunately, we ended up by the stadium, which was our last choice due to games, but I think we will do alright in the building we chose. I wish we were able to pick an apartment with more light rather than living in a cave, but we were just happy to be able to select our apartment. We picked a one bedroom on the first floor with easy access right by the pool and office area. The other first floor options were either partially engulfed in the ground or difficult to get to or didn't give us a lot of flexibility with our move in date. So we picked the best option. The nice part about this choice is that the porch area is even with the ground making for an easy move in experience. That will be a blessing when moving the washer and dryer. This apartment also had newer appliances than some of the others (which had olive green ovens eek!). I'm hoping that will be a bit more efficient when it comes to our energy bills. Overall, I think we made a good choice. A lot of the other places we looked at would not have been a ground floor apartment, and definitely would have required professional movers to save on the hassle. I'm excited to get over to the new place so we can finally unpack and organize everything! Poor Lucian has been living in 3-4 rotating outfits.

Lucian seems to be enjoying the area so far. I'm sure he will be a lot happier now that we won't be dragging him around all the time to look at apartments. We have been taking him down to the school to wander around and to a few of the parks. He has even enjoyed playdates with our friends who have a boy his age. It's been a change for us all and we are adapting the best that we can. Luckily, Joe will be starting training this upcoming week for his bus job, and I have been able to get some hours at the massage center I worked at previously. Overall, I think we will be a lot more settled and a little less stressed once we move into the new apartment and get into a routine. Just like with everything in life, we will find a grove that works for us and than have to change it all over again to something else that works. Oh well. Here are some updates about Lucian:

I attempted to measure him with a tape measure the other day and he is approximately 35 inches tall. He is getting big and heavy. He still wants me to carry him around though!

Likes:
playing in the creek
meeting new kids at the park
playing with legos
watching little einsteins
watching construction vehicles

Dislikes:
water that is spraying that he can't control
the dinging of the clocks on campus
saying goodbye
any type of squash

Thanks for stopping by and reading about our current adventures.

Moving

For everyone who doesn't know as of yet, we are moving back to Bloomington.  This will be occurring in the next few weeks.  Joe will be starting graduate school in the Fall in Statistics.  This is a big leap for us but it is time that we move on and do something with our lives other than parenting.  We will be in that area for the next 2-3 years.

Unconditional Love

How do you explain death to a child? How do you explain why you are crying and not in the mood to play? Our family has lost one of it's own. Newton is now at peace. No more suffering, no more pain. He was the glue to our unique family. This new year brought failing health and discomfort. We had to make the tough decision to put him to rest. The last week was the hardest. He wasn't eating very much and slept all the time. He wanted to be affectionate, but we could tell it was difficult.  He would jump into my lap and I would pet him, but after a few minutes he would reclaim a spot on the floor. He would run up and down the stairs like a kitten, but contact seemed painful. He lost a lot of weight, which the vet suspects is due to his thyroid. He was a fighter and as stubborn as the rest of us. Looking into his eyes daily was getting hard. I couldn't tell if he wanted us to give him a last final fight or if he wanted us to help him find peace. In the end, we chose peace. He had the biggest heart and showed us unconditional love. We owed him peace, love and respect. We have cried and buried him next to Lizzy so he will forever be in good company. We gave him some last wishes and topped it with some lovely flowers. It was very difficult to go through; I only hope he knows we meant well, that we love him, and that he went pain-free. He was a member of our family and he will be truly missed for all the happiness he brought our way.

Let's celebrate his wonderful life!

Before he became a part of our family, he was a stray for 5 years. Who knows how many little Newtons are running around Indiana. I hope many. We first met at the Bloomington Animal Shelter in 2009. Joe and I knew we wanted to get a pet - we chose a cat. We would go there often and scope out and play with all the kitties to get to know them. We narrowed it down to a little orange kitten and Newton (Blue Boy at that time). I was constantly drawn to Newton because he was such a gorgeous cat and his scar intrigued me. Every time I would visit, he would jump down from his chosen spot and greet me. He was definitely the alpha in the room and showed me often. I continuously visited him and he would hang out with me. It was very comforting and I knew we were meant to be together, I was routing for him the whole time! He didn't like anyone else- I found out from the staff later. When we adopted him I actually had to get him down and put him in his box because he wouldn't let the staff. I thought it was funny. He confirmed our decision when we brought him home. He meowed and tried to escape the entire ride to his new home. We barely made it inside when he punched through the side of the box, extended his claws like Freddy Kroeger, and tore a hole back through the box to make his escape. He didn't sleep for two days - and neither did we really because of it. We knew we made the right choice - no regrets.

Many more memories to share. I hope Joe and I can add some together.

In the meantime, find peace my friend.

April Flowers Bring May Showers?

The weather is getting tricky, sometimes warm sometimes cold, but we have finally been able to enjoy longer periods of time outside.  Even Newton has been venturing outside. Lucian is almost recovered from his facial injury and cold. He is still coughing on flem and has bruising around his eyes.  I'm hoping by mid week we will be clear of both. Hopefully he won't contract another illness by the time this one ends.  I feel myself getting weaker on top of it. Ugh! This year has been rough for illness. All of us have been getting hit hard. It's not just us either, others have said the same thing. People who rarely get sick have all been having a rough season.  I'm ready for warmer weather, but not hot. At least we can look forward to some good playground time!

We went to the park today, it was nice.  Lucian followed around this girl on a tricycle. He would push her for a little or just run behind her while she pedaled.  It was sweet.  We eventually had to drag him away crying, but we didn't want either to get hurt.  Lucian went down some slides, hung on bars, and climbed on one of the obstacles.  He is getting very good at climbing.  Then we played football for awhile and looked at the different plants and trash around the school. Because Lucian will find every piece of trash in the vicinity.

Lucian's Current Likes:
-Cars
-Airplanes
-Watching Little Einsteins, PnF, Gravity Falls, and Spongebob
-Sidewalk chalk
-Following other kids

Dislikes:
-Having to leave
-Not being allowed to behead the neighbors flowers
-Stuff on his hands
-Car Seat (unless candy or a treat is involved)

No Use Crying Over Spilled Milk

Typical Tuesday. Joe's at work and Lucian and I will be spending the day cleaning and playing.  Ok, I'll be cleaning while he plays.  Or I should say he does the opposite of cleaning. We started out with vacuuming. I asked him if he would like to help vacuum; he used to enjoy pushing the vacuum while it was on. Instead, he decided to rip up toilet paper all over the floor. Ehh no big deal.  I'll get to it. Hopefully laundry will be just as easy.

In between cleaning, he decided he needed a snack. I gave him a pumpkin muffin that I made yesterday, knowing that he will probably get crumbs all over the floor I just swept. I pulled out the chocolate milk to go with it and shook it all over the kitchen. Ugh! The lid wasn't on all the way apparently. Sigh. After I changed my clothes, I proceeded to wipe down the spilled milk with vinegar. I was hoping this wasn't a sign about how the rest of the day was going to go.

My spirits were immediately lifted when I returned to the living room to find Lucian sitting on the love-seat,  eating his muffin, and using my saute tongs to remove crumbs that dropped onto his legs. I couldn't help but laugh. He's so funny. How could you be upset about that? I must say that he was successful picking up the recent crumb that fell. It was a bigger crumb. He then ate it off the tong. Now that is smart. No mess, no waste. That's my boy!

March into March

Well 28-28 has passed and timed has flown through March. 28-28? Yes! Lucian turned 28 months on February 28th. Thus, 28-28. That's not going to happen again until he is 28 years old. And now he is almost 29 months old. It seems like only yesterday I was helping him walk around.  Like I read someone state earlier: the days seem long but the years fly by. So true. Some days I can't wait for bedtime, and other days I think 'wow he grew'. Though he is still my baby, he is no longer really a baby.

Lucian's personality has really been shining lately, even through the rough patches.  He seems to be changing in his speech patterns as well.  Though he may not be saying decipherable words, it is often clear what he wants. His blubbering has added a new dimension as if it is a little more defined. It's hard to explain. I just know that I have been noticing a difference.  I'm not forcing or pushing him to talk.  When he is ready, he will. We are going to give him the time he needs. All we can do is wait and encourage when necessary.

Today was the rain date for the local Easter egg hunt. We just returned from the park a little bit ago. He seemed to have an okay time collect a handful of eggs with the other toddlers. I took a few pictures.  Lucian even took a few random pictures of his feet.  He really likes the continuous shoot function on my camera apparently. He was even more excited to find chocolates inside the eggs. Mama was not so happy.  Last year we went to this hunt (right down the road) and the eggs had packets of goldfish and cookies in them.  Some contained free coupons for meals or ice cream at local fast food restaurants.  I don't want him to have cheap chocolate made with GMO sugar and questionable dairy products. That stuff can destroy your health easily. We just talked the other day about limiting our refined sugar intake outside of the house (we don't really have that stuff in the house).  It will be hard considering he is used to hitting up the bakery at our local grocer for a free (packaged ugh) cookie. You can imagine my disappointment when he opened his eggs to find a remaining pile of cheap chocolate candies full of things we don't want to support or consume. Before you think that he doesn't get any treats or chocolate, he gets plenty. We have a special collection of chocolate just for him that doesn't contain these unwanted ingredients.  So if you are planning on sending Lucian special 'treats' for the holiday please reconsider what you are sending. And to take the whole hunt one step further, I was returning the eggs to realize that everyone on the other side of the group had eggs filled with goldfish and cookie packets. *palm to the forehead*

Watching the Cat

Ever since Newton's escapade he has been very loving.  It makes me wonder if he thinks he was thrown out of the house? For those of you who don't know, our cat wandered outside in the night time and we didn't realize it.  He is black and it was dark.  Luckily he already had dinner at that point because it was pretty late.  We just thought he was in the basement for his after food slumber.  Come morning we couldn't find him anywhere and realized he must have gotten out.  Eventually he came back.  Must have been starving.  Luckily I heard him slamming and clawing at the front storm door.  It was raining so he was all wet.  He was a little roughed up too.  Must have had a rough time back out in the wild.  He was a stray for five years but has resigned to being an indoor cat.  Well now he's a little weary when we let him go out back with us.  He probably thinks we were punishing him for something.  Poor kitty.

Today Lucian was napping and the cat wanted to play.  I couldn't play with him because Lucian was sleeping in my lap.  So Newton decided to crawl up into my lap also (common occurrence). After some readjusting we were all comfortable.  At least for a little while.  The cat was a little restless and decided to start causing trouble.  I had to push him out of the space.  He decided to retaliate by laying on Lucian's chair and watching cartoons. So there I was stuck in a chair without the remote watching the cat watch cartoons.  Who knew?

It has been a busy week for a certain little guy. He has been on the constant move.  Daddy took him to a giant ball pit/ climbing area at a local place. They also have arcades.  We took him there previously, but it was so busy that it was hard to get around, so we only let him in the small area.  He really really wanted to go into the large area.  We figured it would be a better idea on a slower day during the week.  Joe took him while I was at work.  Apparently, they had the whole place to themselves and Lucian had a blast! They spent hours in that play area. I'm kind of jealous that I didn't get to go. Next time!

Yesterday, for Valentine's day, we took him bowling.  We had a few free game passes. He bowled one game and scored a 73! Have to start them early.  I don't think he really understood what was going on, but he liked that he got to push the bowling ball down the ramp they provided for us.  He kept trying to pick up the bowling balls, but they were too heavy. Poor Lucian, he really wanted a big solid ball.  Hopefully he enjoyed the experience.

Today, was his normal gymnastics class.  The good news is he didn't try to get me to leave the building in the first half of the class like he usually does.  The bad news.... well he found a lollipop downstairs and I walked into the living room to him slurping away on it.  What a sugar rush he had! He was running around the gym like crazy.  During the songs he was all over the place.  I couldn't help but smile because it was so cute.  Plus, I couldn't do anything else about it at that point.  At least he was releasing a lot of energy.  On the way home we stopped at the playground where we garden.  I wanted to be absolutely sure that he ran off all that sugar he consumed.  When we finally got home, he ate lunch while watching Phineas and Ferb and then took a nice nap.  It was certainly needed, by both of us. I love my little busy bee valentine.

Two Year Molars

Did I give my son a freeze pop at 9:30 in the morning?  Darn right I did! His teeth have been hurting him a lot lately.  Would I prefer a better alternative? I sure would, but this is the best thing we have at the moment.  I know Lucian isn't complaining about it.  Some ways we've come up to make it smoother:

-cut off the amount we want him to have or "select a size"
-cut the top down as you go along, since he doesn't get push it up very well
-wrap in a cloth or, even better,wear mittens!

When all is said and done we have a sugared up toddler with a color-stained mouth. The next best thing to do is take him outside and let him run off his sugar coma. *Sigh* We need a better alternative.  I was making him special popsicles, but now that he discovered freeze pops it will be hard to break him.  Next time we move, we will be leaving the freeze pops behind!

A journey to Health

Well, We've been dealing with sickness for the last week or so.  Now all four of us seem to have a lingering cold. Hopefully it will pass by the weekend.  Nobody likes being sick.  In the meantime, I'm sticking to my PJs unless I have to go out. One glance at the fridge suggests tomorrow, Sigh. The chorus of sneezes and freezing weather is all the motivation I have right now.

On the brighter side of things, Lucian and I painted today.  This was his first experience with paint and paintbrushes.  I thought it was a lot of fun. We had three different colors of non-toxic paint, 2 brushes, and a bowl of water for cleaning. He liked the fact that there was a bowl of water and made his own little mess. He was very good about cleaning off the paintbrushes with the water and towel.  We only used to sheets of paper in the process as well.  It was fun to watch him at work. Too cute.

I also feel compelled to share a story of what the little stinker did to me while he was sick. One day while Joe was away, Lucian and I were upstairs playing.  This is when he was still pretty sick.  He was also very emotional about everything.  Mama needed a potty break and he wasn't too happy about it.  Nonetheless, it had to happen.  While Mama went potty, Lucian was very upset and would cry on and off.  Eventually he came into the bathroom to cry in front of me.  I told him it was going to be okay I'd be done in a second.  Instead, he decided to steal the only roll of toilet paper in the bathroom, run to the front room, and throw it across the room.  Then he ran all the way back to me in the bathroom and collapsed on the floor crying.  I told him I needed the toilet paper, but he just cried more. Eventually I just got up and got a new roll.  I took him back into the front room (his playroom) and found the toilet paper roll in a jumble.  He really annoys me sometimes - little prankster.

I feel like he is going to be the emotional kid from the movie "Parenthood".  I feel ya Steve Martin.  Not an easy situation.

What day is it?

Ever since the new year I have been lost. It never feels like the day of the week it actually is, and it is totally messing with my internal clock.  Tomorrow is Friday, but it doesn't feel that way.  I'm still excited though. First of all it's Friday what's not to like? Second of all we start gymnastics back up.  Last week was off due to the holidays. I'm happy to let Lucian burn off some extra energy! He is so full of energy - it is crazy. Even when I think he is about to settle down and relax for a little, he is back up again running around.  On one hand, I get tired just watching him.  On the other, I'm glad he is so full of life.  I want to take him outside more, but it's cold and he often refuses to put his jacket on.  Other days he seems perfectly content playing inside all day.  I'll even ask him if he wants to go out and he shows no interest.  I know if I took him out anyways he would love every moment.  Maybe if it's nice out tomorrow we will play outside a bit. Or Saturday, perhaps? We need fresh air and exercise! At least we will get some of the latter tomorrow morning. Can't wait!