"Baby You Can Drive My Car. . ."

Until our recent trip to North Carolina, Lucas hadn't been inside a car for some time. So it was to his (and our) delight when he discovered that he now loves riding in a car and especially watching other vehicles go by (which sure beats those awful days of a screaming baby tethered to his torturing device). So much so that Lucas at first didn't understand why it was that we couldn't just get into any car parked on the street to drive away. Since then, he'll often lead us to the storage area where we find his car seat, hinting at us to find a car and put him in it. As a compromise we sometimes set it up in the living room for him to sit and enjoy the view:

Shoes

What can we say? The boy likes shoes. He's finicky about the ones he wears: he loved the soft leather slip-ons and acted like we had tied rocks to his feet every time we'd put on thicker- or harder-soled shoes, resorting to crawling instead of walking until we took them off (he's drama, that kid). And like everything else, it takes him some time to warm up to a new pair after outgrowing the old: he'll inspect and hold them for a while before he'll finally let us put them on him to give him a try. Nowadays he hands to us our sandals before we go outside. After we lost one of his favorite brown summer sandals the other day and needed a new pair to get through the summer, he's taken excited interest in his snazzy new ones, stopping to look at and to show us by pointing to them throughout the day.

Grammy Sigs' come with painted toenails!

"Wow!," you can sort of see he's saying (Lexi's are sparkly).

Marveling at his own new shoes. . .

. . . that is, until a bus passes by (moving vehicles trump most things).

Grandparents Sig

Lucas's grandparents came up from Charleston to visit this past week and brought with them some lovely weather. Unlucky for all of us, Lucas came down with a nasty bout of strep throat (then a cold, plus 2 new teeth! Poor Lucas!) in the days before they arrived, so there aren't as many pictures of our special visit as we would have liked. We managed to be able to have a few adventures anyway:

The Aquarium. . .

Tart lemonade on the Coney Island boardwalk. . .

Lucas in action at the park. . .

Playing games on the computer together. . .

Lucas's 2nd Brooklyn Cyclones game. . .

Effervescence

Here a photo sequence of Lucas watching Papi blow bubbles at the Peacemaking Conference a couple of weeks ago, thanks to Irene, our friend and colleague from seminary, who took these pictures and was kind enough to email them to us:

And Happy Birthday today to Abuela!

Sure Signs of Summer:

Okay, so this was actually taken months before summer began, and it seems that Lucas has had scuffed knees and arms since he began walking/running (hard to distinguish the two). . . But aren't toddler limbs just so cute?

Meet Pez

After playing in the park each morning, Lucas has come to expect a visit to the local pet stores, where he waves hello to the dogs and cats but prefers to hang out in the fish tank room. He loves the fish so much (okay, so our generally exuberant child shows excitement at most anything, but this is more love than the norm) that we decided to bring home the fun.

So we took the plunge and invested in a new pet for our growing family. For you Spanish speakers out there, we realize our lack of creativity in naming him; nevertheless our little double-entendre friend (if he could only dispense candy!) is adjusting just fine to his new world. Right now Pez does require a lot of attention, which includes frequent cuddling and slingwearing. Since we don't believe in the crying-it-out approach to sleeping, he's come to expect plenty of rocking and humming each night. He's definitely a smart one: already he's learned to stand at attention and sit on command, and changes his own diaper to boot. So far there hasn't been much jealousy on Lucas's part -- he mostly just points and laughs and says "Es!" or "Wow!" (his latest favorite exclamation). We were a bit worried about how to balance having a toddler and pet, but so far we're managing. . .

Back In Business

You've probably figured out by now that when Lucas finds a toy he really loves, he clings to it and takes it everywhere he goes for many months or until the next obsession comes along and takes over. Thanks to a gift from the abuelos during our visit to Montreat, Lucas's latest loves are his miniature school bus, fire truck, and garbage truck (probably the holy trinity of motor vehicles as far as he's concerned, judging from his daily reactions on our neighborhood streets). Here's the game we began playing at the playground while on vacation and which continues now at home:

First we make our way onto the jungle gym. . .

Then the bus goes first taking a turn down the slide. . .

Then Lucas follows. . .

And repeat! Whee!

Home Again

We're back after finishing up a great week at the Peacemaking Conference in Montreat, NC. With the exception of a few moments when Lucas seemed to wonder where the heck we were and why we were dragging him around to new places, Lucas had a fabulous time enjoying a more calm change of scenery, making new friends, playing hard in an amazing park each day (complete with a creek running through with plenty of stepping stones and wading pools), and seeing his Abuelo and Abuela who drove up from Louisville for a couple of days.

Papi worked here and there as a conference pastor, and Mama and Papi both had a great time enjoying the mild weather, seeing old friends from our Chicago days, and not having to worry about grocery shopping and cooking and cleaning while the conference center took care of us.

We're sad to say that we don't have any pictures to share of the week, as we lost our camera somewhere in the town of Black Mountain! Doh! So we'll be taking a brief blogging hiatus until our new camera arrives in the mail sometime this week.

In the meantime, we'd like to give a shout-out to our new friends who were born during the time we were gone: Lily Olivia Larson-Wolbrink, Samuel Weston Harshberger, and Anna Kelley Sims! Welcome, little ones!

Fletcher Park

Here are the boys enjoying a lovely visit to the park on our last day together:

More Glimpses From Yesterday:

Abram and Lucas

Hendersonville

Yesterday we took off for a little family vacation to North Carolina. First stop: Hendersonville (Papi's hometown) to visit with old friends and have a long-awaited meeting of the kids. . .

Papi, Lucas, and Abram watching The Wiggles:

Sweet Katie:

Feeling jealous of Sweet Katie:

Brooklyn-style pizza in Hendu?!:

More to come!