U-Pick

Get ready for lots of photos. I'm feeling too lazy this morning to download them into a slideshow.

Yesterday we borrowed Tata and Tio's car and took a little road trip, during which Lucas learned new vocab words such as "highway," "toll booth," and "parking lot" and insisted on hearing the same two songs over and over again.

We then spent the morning at a local-ish New Jersey farm picking fruit and had a wonderful time!

The first raspberry:

Lucas was such a great farmer, helping Mama to pick raspberries all the way down the long rows:

Stealing a taste before we pay. He was very patient, but how can you tell a toddler (or a Mama and Papi) to wait for so long?!

Lucas loved popping his head in and out of these, so we caught a few shots:

Our sweet pumpkin:

Our other sweet pumpkin:

Peach-picking season began on that day, so it was off to the peach trees afterwards:

Lucas was very focused (or maybe just really hot and wanting to finish up already):

The farm had rabbits and horses and goats (oh my!) for petting and chickens for feeding:

Finally enjoying our bounty, as well as the delish homemade blueberry ice cream:

Just hanging out and being cute:

The measure of a really good time, as well as a satisfying moment for Papi and Mami:

We'll be back in the fall for apples and pumpkins!

Gazebo

He's Still Not Sure If He Likes This

Poor Jesse, born into a house of snugglers (or more appropriately, of smotherers)....

Christmas In July

Wow, wow, wow!

Yesterday we were surprised with a box in the mail containing this perfect gift for Lucas, made by Amy, our amazingly talented friend and potter extraordinaire, just for being a good big brother. (It just so happened that Lucas was wearing his 'I'm the Big Brother' t-shirt that same day!)

It's Lucas's very own R-train bowl! And she was thoughtful enough to send it after just having had a baby! Wow again!

I told Lucas that our friend Amy had sent a regalo/present for him. After I handed it to him, he smiled the biggest smile and exclaimed, "Oh my goodness! The R-train, Mama!" He then looked up at the ceiling and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Thank you, Amy!"

Then he asked if we could eat pasta RIGHT NOW. So funny!



Dinner was only a couple of hours away, so we snacked on tortilla chips instead:

He was quick to point out all of the details that she included -- the platform, the doors, the 'R' in the circle. What more could a train and food lover want?

To Amy: You've completely outdone yourself. THANK YOU indeed!
To sweet Lukie: She is so right. You are a GREAT big brother.

Speaking of Christmas, here's a link to a video that we should have posted months ago. It was put together by Mama's brother Tio Bryan (yet another uber-talented person in our lives) when family was in town during the Christmas holiday. We thought we were posing for pictures but didn't know he was filming half the time. Look at how much Lucas has changed since then!

Pool

Some very thoughtful, very considerate, gracious, hospitable, lovely parishioners from Papi's church invited us to their pool this week to keep cool while they weren't home.

Tio managed to get Lucas into the very cold water:

Then Lucas enjoyed throwing into and retrieving pool toys from the water, as well as watching Papi's antics:




Cousin Lee-lee is such a water baby:

Jesse put his feet in the pool and enjoyed lounging around. And Lucas was having so much fun that he didn't want to leave. We were able to bribe him with french fries and lemonade (he calls it "yellow jugo/juice").

Now this is what summer should look like!

Butchered

Lucas was a very brave boy yesterday when he let us give him a new summer look with Papi's (very loud and very scary) clippers. Now his hazel-green eyes seem to stand out more, as well as his 100%ile head.

We Call This 'The Flying T'

(The 'T' is for "toddler.")

Cousins

4th of July

Things have been busy for us these days, so the holiday came and went quickly. This jumper on Jesse is just about the most patriotic we get around here anyway:

And this week, Lucas surprised us with his new ability and interest in interlocking puzzles:

A Favorite Place

When Lucas woke up from his nap and I told him that we were going to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens again, he asked if we could bring his watering can!

Subway Recording

If you're a New York City subway fan, you might appreciate this.

Here's a picture of Lucas after I caught him in the kitchen opening all of the cabinet doors, then saying "Stand clear of the closing doors please," then chiming *bmm, bmm* and finally shutting the doors.

We can relate to this illustrated NYTimes piece, which for the most part could very well have been written about our subway lover.

Faces

Here's a picture from September of '07 that Lucas made for a few months. He loved to crinkle his nose like this for everything -- when he smiled, when he was sad or pensive, or when reading a book...

This is his latest "face." We see it especially when he's being reflective, is frustrated or perplexed, or has stated very boldly (rather than asked) that we're going to do something (often followed by a sheepish "okay?").

And here's the best face of all:

His Favorite Place

Wet 'N' Wild

After dinner last night the boys went outside to the alley to play. Another heavy rain storm came quickly, and when they didn't come home, I went down to see where they had gone, and this is what I found:

Papi promises he wasn't inebriated, but I'm not so sure...