Hanging Out

These were from a month or so ago.

I found him pretending to call Erin, one of his best friends from preschool:

I just can't resist the belly pictures with this cutie:

I LOVE watching Lucas care for his brother!

Rub-A-Dub-Dub...

...Three cousins in a tub!

Memorial Day 2009

Another Memorial Day spent at Prospect Park. We always walk away wishing we could live closer to this amazing park.

"He did it." "No, He did it."

Jesse and Liam snacking on a pumpkin muffin before Maquin stops by to visit. As usual, both boys vied for his attention or at least to be the one held in his lap.

I wanted to catch a photo of Lucas talking to his friend Karin (age 6?) but as you can see below, Jesse was making his way towards that blue popsicle, so I had to intercede. But I think the conversation between the two boys went something like,

Karin: [Random change of previous subject...] "Lucas, what's your favorite animal?"
Lucas: "Umm... my favorite animal is... the octopus! Because... it's purple and has eight legs!
Karin: "Oh yeah, that's a good one!"
Lucas: [I reminded him to ask Karin about his favorite animal...] So what's your favorite animal?!"
Karin: "The lion! Roar!"
Lucas: "Cool."

Just before Papi tackled Jesse and Lucas tackled me.

We all spent a lot of time rolling in the grass and playing with balls and chomping on great picnic food.

Jesse ate through that watermelon all the way down to the green rind.

This is my absolute favorite thing that Jesse has been doing for a few weeks now. You ask "Donde esta...?/Where is...?" and he puts up his hands like, "Yeah, where is he?!" Most every day he wakes up from his nap and puts up his hands like this and babbles "Ata-ta-tah?" and I know that he's asking "Where's Lucas?!" When I ask him where his Papi is, he goes to the front door and knocks. Here I'm pretty sure he was looking for Maquin:

So I asked, "Where are Maquin and Tata and Liam?" And he turns to look towards where they last were.

"Over there!!"

But first I'll do cute things with my head. (Okay, this one was taken earlier, but it's still cute in this sequence.)

And I'll chomp on things I find on the ground.

Mwah-hah-hah-hah-hah!

His Own Camera

Abuelo recently gave his old digital camera to Lucas to be able to take his own pictures regularly. It came with a small disk so it holds just a few shots. Every now and then I download them to see what comes up, and here's the last collection recently taken from a while back ago. We've noticed that Lucas is becoming more intentional about what he chooses to photograph. (Trains, blankie and his brother and Papi are clearly the important things in his life that made the cut!)

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20-Ft Tall Puppets

I realized that this post has lots of pictures but very few of the boys. This event was too fun to pass up sharing so here they are anyway.

The Greenwood Cemetery, one of our favorite local places to visit, holds a springtime event in collaboration with the Puppeteers' Cooperative called "Greenwood Awakening." It's part cemetery tour (through story-telling), part theater and puppet show, and lots of parading through the beautiful grounds and interaction with the performers and musicians. It was amazing!

First they started with the story of the little green parrots that every cosmopolitan area seems to have and that reside at the cemetery's entrance. The band led the parades or skits with an eclectic mix of music. A large group of children played the part of the green parrots throughout the entire performance, either leading the parade through the cemetery paths or disappearing behind graves and hills and reappearing later to contribute props to the various skits.

Our first stop was the gravesite of Henry Bergh, founder of the ASPCA. Using a toy piano and funky percussion instruments, they told a bit of his story with cat and dog costumes. We couldn't hear very well because the puppets scared the bejeezus out of Lucas (and half of the kids present, for that matter) but it was really fun to watch.

Here's the creepy dog appearing from behind the grave. The song and dance by the cat was even more eerie but well done. You can see the red steeples to the building entrance in the background where those green birds hang out.

The sky was overcast and the weather warm but breezy. The sound and feel of the wind blowing through the trees contributed to the whimsy and magical feel of the event. Papi and I probably appreciated the event more than the boys but they had a great time nonetheless.

We were led with music and marching up and down more paths to the gravesite of the dude responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal. The narrator likened the construction of the canal in its day to the modern space program in terms of technological advancement and scope. The bouncy-floaty astronaut puppet walking down the path towards us was Lucas's favorite! (Our sense was that the Puppeteers had these 20-ft tall puppets available and that the writers/organizers did their best to fit them into the stories of the famous people interred there.) Then they held up a huge sign with a popular song from that era and we all sang along.

A civil war monument decorated with over-sized flowers and lots of storytelling. A woman sang a beautiful, soulful solo of a war song while we watched on.

The boys did amazingly well through all the storytelling and stopping at the various gravesite performance stations. If they became a little restless, we just let them out of their strollers to run around and explore or have a snack before moving on to the next part.

We heard songs played by the band from musicals written by Bernstein as we passed his grave and many other famous people here and there. At this gravesite below there was a Minerva statue with her hand held up and out. After hearing some stories, we were told that she was pointing to the Statue of Liberty behind us (if you click on the pictures to enlarge you might be able to see the statue in the little peak of the bay between the trees and the gray buildings.) As we were told to turn around to have a look, we saw Lady Liberty herself floating up the hill coming toward us!

There was lots of oohing and aahing as she got closer and bigger and while the music crescendoed...

And more story-telling about the cemetery residents, both funny and sad. (The saluting Minerva statue is to the far left.)

Then an invitation to join in on a big group dance!

This was basically Jesse's expression the entire time: mouth hanging wide open and fingers pointing at the larger-than-life puppets.

A split second later the puppet bent over towards Lucas and I to say hello. So neat!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Jesse has been amazing us with the way that he mimics our actions and movements. Lately during meals he's been spearing his food with a fork and bringing it to his mouth surprisingly well, and I've noticed him several times pretending to blow on his food before putting it into his mouth. Just when you think they're not watching you, they are!

We also play a game where I blow a small wooden whistle in a simple rhythm (two long blows, three short blows, etc.), then I hand him the whistle and he echoes me! Wow! He's also been playing in the basket of trains and trucks -- no longer just chewing on the parts or throwing them but actually pushing the vehicles along the floor so that the wheels turn. It's a strange but good feeling to watch Lucas and Jesse with their buses and trucks playing side by side!

When we hug, I feel his hand rubbing my back in the same way that I rub his. When we laugh, he cracks up too. When we all sing and dance, he joins in with a shimmy and a monotone hum.

I also caught Lucas doing a bit of mimicking himself. After the boys took turns feeding the doll some juice then milk, he said the baby was ready to nurse!

Balloon

It's been a big month of birthday parties around here. Every time, Jesse has managed to come home with a party balloon, often holding it with one hand throughout the day while playing with his other hand and not daring to let go. Not even to eat lunch.

Thanks, Mama B, for the super bibs!

Doodles by Lucas

His first "real" renditions of faces!!

Picture of Mama, blue marker, white fingerpaint paper, 2009:


Picture of Papi (see the beard?), blue marker, manila drawing paper, 2009:


And yesterday I watched him write his first name with sidewalk chalk! Whoa!

Little Zoo

The weather was incredible last week while Mema and Mempa were in town, so we took them to check out the Prospect Park Zoo, which we hadn't visited in almost a full year. We love this little zoo because it's small in size and relatively close to home, so it's manageable and kid-friendly and easy.

We arrived just in time to see the sea lions get fed and show off their tricks. Lucas was so impressed!

I wish you could see Lucas's beautiful green-hazel eyes in person. Sometimes they look yellow in the sun.

Since he started walking, Jesse has become a busy body, flitting between here and there and rarely stopping to rest. He was the same way at the zoo. This picture below is basically what he looks like when he walks. He waddles from side to side (those thick thighs must get in the way!) and his arms are bent and pulled up at chest level in a way that Mempa said reminded him of Bill Cosby dancing!

Last time we were here Lucas barely paid attention to the animals, so we were impressed at how engaged our 13-month old was with each exhibit, pointing and staring and laughing and searching!

Our fearless kid climbing the step and searching for the animals:

Lucas bocking and strutting like a chicken at the barn animals/petting area:

Subway ride home:

Every year on Mother's Day my big request is to take a family photo. Mempa took several shots with his lovely camera, and well, we can all guess what it's like getting two adults and two young children to look at the camera at the same time for a half-decent picture. Here's the little story about the ones that were taken:

We realized that Jesse was holding that ugly water bottle that we had purchased at the zoo because there were no public water fountains (what's up with that?!). But he was having so much fun that we didn't want to make him start crying and ruin the prospects of a family shot before Lucas became antsy.

So we plucked a little yellow flower (see two posts before) from the ground to distract him, and I'm not sure where it went, but I like the way his hands are sort of saying here, "Hey, where'd my toy go?!"

He started fussing again, so we gave him a dandelion instead, and...

... he ate it.

We took a few Mama 'n' Papi shots as well. We love this one of Jesse sauntering across the camera's view after finding that water bottle again.

Hey little family, we have so much fun, don't we?!