More fun that you can shake a sumo-ninja at!

July brought a Super Hero theme birthday party. We dragged the old Batman costume out of hiding, but Luc found something way more fun to wear for a little while…

I'm a BIG boy!

And he just keeps getting bigger and older. Luc, that is. He recently outgrew his cute little toddler train bed (literally! His feet were hitting the bottom of the bed) so we passed it along to another little boy and purchased a set of bunk beds from IKEA. Luc loves his new bed(s) and switches between the top and bottom bunk at will. Since the train bed went, so did the train wall clings. We surprised Luc with big dino clings for his walls. It is now truly a big boy room. If you come to visit our house, expect the hard sell to sleep on the bottom bunk.






Another big boy activity that we have been waiting to do was a trip to the climbing gym. We went over the July 4th holiday weekend and hooked Luc up to a belay rope. He quickly learned the terminology and always asked his belayer, "On belay?" Before starting his ascent. After a few false starts, he did quite well on the walls and even managed to climb up higher than Mommy could reach to support him. His favorite part was the bouldering wall. Actually, he enjoyed the crash pad beneath the wall the best. He would climb up about 5 feet or so, then throw himself on to the crash pad. (For the nervous grandparents in the audience: Luc was under parental supervision at all times!) He is a natural, and even scored some comments from fellow climbers that we had a litte Spiderman on our hands.

World Cup Fever!

So we're soccer fans every four years. We thoroughly enjoyed the games over the last month, though had some loyalty issues. We were obviously rooting for the US, until they were knocked out. Spain was a family favorite, but Messi, one of the star Barca players, is actually Argentinian, so we did follow them a bit as well. Crazy Hair Day at Luc's school coincided with futbol, so we sent our own little soccer hooligan to school. Here is Luc kitted out in his Barca "Messi" gear. The picture doesn't show them, but he has on mismatched soccer socks as well. He has two different Barca kits and one year has vertical striped socks, the other has horizontal stripes. He loves to wear one of each.

It Takes a Village

Everyone likes to say it, "It takes a village to raise a child." It's true for us for sure. I didn't realize how much so until I was sitting in a Baptist church watching my baby "graduate" from preschool. The kids sang songs about how they can't wait to go to school and posed for photos with their teachers and diplomas. It was precious, but not particularly moving. Then the slide show started. We watched 10 minutes of photos that gave us a window in to a life that I am not directly a part of. Those pictures told me stories of friendship, boo-boos, learning, playing, experiencing, just being... the kinds of things he doesn't deem important enough to share at the dinner table because to him, it is just life. So thank you to our little village of friends, family, teachers. He can't even begin to understand how lucky he is to have his particular village behind him as he moves through life. But we do.

A weekend of fun

Mostly just some fun pictures of Luc with a little bit of torture thrown in for good measure... We had a nice CA weekend that included outings to the Natural History Museum to see the dino exhibit, a trip with Luc and his BFF to the Lego Land Aquarium and the family Death March (or ~3 mile round trip relaxed hike in the Laguna Mountains).

Signs of Summer

Slowly but surely the signs of summer are arriving. We've been working on making the back yard a nice place to hang out. This last weekend, Daddy put in the finishing touch: a hammock. It's a nice relaxing place to hang out... unless the little boy you are hanging out with gets the squirmies!


We like to think we live in a small town surrounded by a big city. This weekend, our small town held a small town flag day parade down what passes for Main St., complete with school marching bands, glad handing politicians, and beauty princesses riding in the backs of convertibles. Luc loved all the stickers he was handed and waved the little star spangled banner he was given.





Luc seems to be following in his parents' footsteps in the water. This is his second year in swim lessons and he is more shark than minnow this year. He can swim across the pool and is learning back stroke. He even willingly leaps off the diving board now.



The most recent sign of summer at our house is Luc's new big boy hair cut. He's always had "little man hair", but last night he came home from his hair cut with noticeably less hair. He is thrilled with his new spiky hair. Even more excited that Daddy is going to get him "whipped cream" for his hair (mousse).

The Merry Old Month of May

May is a big month for us. We celebrate Mother's Day and Luc's birthday! This birthday was especially exciting. Luc celebrated his 5th birthday with a trip to Disneyland, hir first! But we'll start off with Mother's Day...

Luc's school put on a Mother's and Father's Day "Tea" which consisted of a song program followed by cookies and water in the church gym. The boys treated me to breakfast out on Mother's Day at our favorite beach cafe.



After Mother's Day, the serious anticipation of the Big Birthday set in. The trip to Disneyland was made even more exciting because Grandma came with us. The fun started at check in at the Disneyland Hotel. We told the clerk it was Luc's birthday and he disappeared in to a back room. When he came out, he was carrying a bunch of balloons and a signed photo of Goofy. He told Luc his friend Goofy had left them for him, along with a birthday button to wear during his visit. People kept telling Luc the whole time we were there, "Happy Birthday!" He asked me how everyone knew it was his birthday. I asked him what he thought and he said, "I think Goofy must have told them. " Who am I to burst that bubble?


Luc and his Disneyland savings box.


Waiting to get in to the park on the first day.

We had great success with the rides. Luc went on Star Tours (when I asked him if he was Luc Skywalker, he said , "NO! I am Anakin!" He also asked if we were really in space, and, if so, would they take us back to Disneyland.), Astro Blasters (~7 times over the two days we were there), Small World, TomorrowLand Rockets, Tarzan's Tree House, Tom Sawyer's Island, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Railroad, the Monorail and many more. We also went in to every toy store in the Magic Kingdom.

Luc and one of his new "friends".

Another (more questionable) friend.

Somewhere behind the giant whirl of cotton candy is Luc.

We were at the Magic Kingdom on Luc's actual birthday. We arranged for a special treat at our lunch spot... a birthday cake in a pirate treasure chest. The rest of the trip is better told through pictures.

Luc and his birthday treasure chest.

Grandma and Luc on Astro Blasters for the 7th time...

We wrapped up our month with a Memorial Day trip to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaur exhibit. In case you haven't spoken to Luc in the last year, he is really in to dinos. Notice the nice dino shirt Luc is sporting. Thanks Grandpa Art for the cool glow in the dark T-rex shirt!

There was also a cool gem and mineral exhibit while we were there. Our little nerdlet was interested in the crystals, so a crystal growing kit came home with us. The boys disappeared in to the garage, donned safety glasses and gloves and set about to grow some crystals. I'll post a result photo when they are grown.

Easter

As you can see, the Bunny made a stop at Luc's house this year. He left a basket inside and lots of eggs in the backyard. Mysteriously though, the eggs could only be hunted after Luc and Daddy brought Mommy a Starbucks...

Flutterbys

Every year, the Wild Animal Park has a butterfly exhibit with live butterflies. You stand in line for a ridiculously long time, but are rewarded with as much time in the butterfly house as you can stand. Turns out Luc's tolerance for that is quite low. But we made him stick it out (2 hours in line... no way were we leaving after 3 minutes!) He thought the butterflies were beautiful and didn't mind when they landed on Mommy, but kind of had a melt down when they landed on him.


Mommy and Luc feeding the lorikeets while Daddy waited in the butterfly line.


At the playground, still waiting for the butterflies...



Finally... butterflies (on mommy's hat above, Luc's below)