May, May, Marvelous May!

May is always a busy month for Master Luc. We started building the birthday excitement as soon as May hit and he wasn’t disappointed.

Luc’s Ticket to Ride
Mommy and Luc went to visit Grandma and Papa for Mother’s Day Weekend. Mommy had a free ticket and it was Luc’s last chance to fly for free before he turned the big -2-. Luc was very excited about going on the plane until we actually took off, then he wanted down. Fortunately, we sat next to a very nice lady who was, I am sure, delighted that we were not traveling all the way to Pittsburgh next to her. He showed her his books, his cup of apple juice and everything in his backpack. He played the shy boy in the airport but was soon hanging out with Grandma yelling, “BANG!” as he watched the luggage come down the chute. By the time the Mead families showed up Friday night, Luc was read for action. Cousin Wes showed up with his Daddy and crawled after Luc just as fast as can be. Luc kept the party going until 9 PM before he crashed. He did manage to get to a few presents that night. Aunt Lou-Lou’s 4 pack o’ balls was the hit of the evening. The next day, Mommy and Grandma headed off for a little Mother’s Day spa action while Luc hung out with Papa and Auntie Sarah. Luc took a special liking to Papa’s big leather chair and ultimately passed out in it for his nap that afternoon. Luc celebrated Mother’s Day by waking Mommy up at 5:30 AM. We let Grandma sleep a little longer before going to feed the ducks. We ended up feeding not only ducks, but turtles and carp as well. Back at home, Grandma made Luc “wapples and strawbabies” for breakfast, with plenty of whipped “keem”. Luc’s cousins, Billy and Camden, came over for a barbecue that afternoon with their mom and dad. Luc adored playing with the big boys, even following their lead and jumping off the side of the pool in to my arms. He screeched with delight each time someone jumped in. He loved the pool so much that when Mommy was done, he went back in with Auntie Sarah. Grandma took us to the airport early the next day and we went home to prepare for the big birthday!

Luc turns 2
We started out Luc’s birthday like we do every Sunday. Daddy gets up with Luc first thing and Mommy tries to get a few more minutes of sleep before taking over. Mommy packs Luc up and we head out to the dog park to meet up with Mattie and Stella, Luc’s two schnauzer friends. Because it was a special day, we stopped and got Luc a celebratory “Moo Latte” from his girlfriends at Starbucks. Last minute party errands after the walk meant no morning nap for Luc. His friends started showing up around 11 AM and the party really started when Daddy turned on the kiddie music and the bubble maker! Luc had a “Cars” theme birthday and seemed to get a kick out of yelling “kachow!” every once in a while. Mommy gave herself a nice case of carpal tunnel decorating his Lightening McQueen cake, but it was worth it when his face lit up upon seeing the cake. The presents were a big hit and we spent some time explaining to Luc that sharing didn’t mean the kids were going to take his toys home with them. Luc experienced the After-Birthday-Sugar-Crash and had to be woken from his nap lest he not go to bed later that evening. When I asked him if he was a good birthday, he groggily replied, “yeah Mommy.”

Arrrggg Matey
Luc is very popular this month and has been attending parties galore. Paola invited us to a Pirate’s Party Memorial Day Weekend in honor of Captain Jack Sparrow. We declined the movie invite, but did partake of the pirate booty including some serious bling and dip with chips. His buddy Max was there as well, so there was fun all around. Well, the mommies did a fair amount of chasing, but the boys definitely had a good time. We had a quiet day off on Monday that included a trip to Fiesta Island with Loki, breakfast in PB with Grandpa Art, some play time in the back yard and finally, to wrap up a great long weekend, some play time with Sadie and Ethan Henry. Daddy and Luc also harvested their first summer bounty, a beautiful zucchini! We can’t wait to see what June has planned for us!

November/May Romance

OK, so the Editor is cheating. She sincerely regrets the circumstances that have lead her down this primrose path (extremely busy work and home life), but is trying to make amends by making this post mostly pictures. She will post an actual May blog in honor of the Big Boy's 2nd Birthday as soon as she get some pictures together.

Turkey Time!

Once again, we packed up the car and headed East for the Thanksgiving Extravaganza with the Mead family. Thanks to Aunt Anita’s portable DVD player, we had a fairly smooth ride. Luc watched “Finding Nemo” several times over and took a nap so he arrived fully charged at Grandma and Papa’s. Luc found Grandma’s potato colander and led the Charge of the Light Potato as Sir Spud, head of the Knights of the Round ‘Tato. He put the colander over his face and charged up and down the hallway. Entertainment is cheap when Luc is around, what can we say? The actual Thanksgiving was a veritable smorgasbord of food, cousins, and all consuming excitement. We also took Luc down to Tucson that weekend to celebrate a friend’s wedding. It being Luc’s 6th or 7th wedding, he was very practiced at eating the favor candy conveniently left on the tables.












Let’s hear those sleigh bells ring!
Who are we kidding??? There’s no sledding in San Diego. In fact, it was warm enough to eat Christmas dinner on the patio. Uncle Deric came to visit from San Francisco, providing Luc with the one person audience he needed to show off his antics. Daddy outdid himself and cooked up a fantastic Christmas dinner that we enjoyed sitting on our back deck. After dinner entertainment included bocce on the lawn and a trip out to La Jolla Shores for a walk along the beach. As for presents, Luc really got in to the spirit of wrapping paper this year and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of every present, his or not.

Back to the Daily Grind

January brings us back to the mundane world of everyday life. But, life with Luc is actually not that ordinary. His language skills are exploding and each day brings a new word to the surface of the bubbling pot of alphabet soup in his head. Below is a brief list of the words we have found most amusing (only amusing after we have deciphered them, of course). I am sure there are more, I just can’t remember them at the moment. On top of these, his own interpretations, he repeats EVERYTHING you say.

Pinkos = flamingos
Macky totos = mashed potatoes
Yolget = yogurt
Mimi = pacifier
Nolk = milk
Eye keem = ice cream
I dood it = I do it
strawbabies = strawberries
mackanoly = guacamole
bluebellies, bloobies, boobies = blueberries
wapples = waffles
Moo Latte = Organic milk at Starbucks

We also made a big change to our lives in January and got Luc a dog. Not just any dog… we adopted a Great Dane. He was named Luke (somewhat confusing, as you might imagine) so we changed it to Loki, the Norse god of mischief. He is rather big, sheds a lot and likes to sleep on the couch. But, he is excellent with Luc and protects him from whatever he thinks Luc needs protection from including small yappy dogs at the dog park, friends that come over to play and random skunks, possums and cats that wander through our backyard. Thanks to Aunt Shanley, he also attended his very first Charger's football game. He made until half time before falling asleep among 30 bazillion screaming fans.


February, March and April passed in a blur of work, home, and back to work again. Luc keeps us on our toes and had become fast friends with Max Cortopassi, Toler Pfaff-Carano, and The Henry kids, Ethan and Sadie. All mommy can say is thank goodness for play dates! The backyard and trips to the zoo are infinitely more fun with friends.