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.