Still Here

We're sorry that last week we promised lots of photos but didn't deliver. We had a few unexpected events, then Mama came down with the sickies and spent every free moment taking naps before family arrived for the weekend festivities. Now that everyone has left town, we're back with updates.

We still have photos to show you of our trip to Charleston as well as Jesse's baptism this past Sunday. Until we get those organized, we have plenty of stories to share.

But first, a final update on our Obama/Biden '08 fundraising effort: you've helped double our original goal of $100 -- and then some! Thanks to James Nelson and Amy and Brian and Guthrie Sanders, we've raised $210! What awesome friends and families we have! Just so you know, it's never too late to give and there's plenty of artwork lying around this house with your name on it...

For a while now Jesse has been raising his arm and opening and closing his fist when we say hello or enter a room. At first we thought it was just coincidence but we're all noticing now that he seems to really be waving! (Or at least mimicking us waiving.) We love it!

When we told Lucas that we were going to baptize Jesse on Sunday and explained a bit of what it meant and how it would go, he answered "I don't want the church to wash Jesse!"

After Jesse was baptized, Lucas whispered to Papi that he was disappointed he didn't get to wet Jesse's head. So we'll be doing a lot of playing with water this week. Luckily Jesse is very patient and generally up to doing anything his brother has in mind.


Lucas is full of these hilarious quotables these days, so much so that we've placed an old glass Fluff jar on top of the fridge to store the stories we jot down onto whatever scrap of paper we find nearby for us to read when we need a smile. The jar is filling up fast.

Here he is pretending to be asleep and waiting for Andrew to yell "Wake up!" before starting over again.

He's also become quite a storyteller these days. All day long -- swinging on the hammock, in the bath, on a walk, on the couch -- and especially before bedtime we read books, but now he's come to expect us to tell him a made-up story as well. Sometimes he interrupts with his own plot twist to change the direction of the story, and other times he prefers to tell it by himself. A story must begin with "Once upon a time there was a boy named Lucas..." and usually involves animals and repetition. I love to watch while telling a story as he looks away, picturing the story line and feeling it with his whole body.

Lucas has surprised us lately with a self-imposed moratorium on watching television! Maybe I abused it after Jesse's birth by turning on "the babysitter" too often while I needed to attend to Jesse in another room for long periods of time. But even his favorite Curious George and WordWorld (the PBS shows are great) don't catch his attention anymore. I often walk into the room to see that Lucas has clicked off the t.v., turned on the radio and is breaking out his best dance moves for Jesse or telling stories to his trains.

That's it for now. I should add that Jesse thinks that Lucas hung the moon. We think he'd be so bored and wouldn't stay awake nearly as long in between naps if it weren't for the built-in entertainment that is his big bro.

If you can't tell, this is Jesse peek-a-boo-ing through Lucas's crotch in the crib. Lucas thought it was hilarious and wanted Jesse to do it again and again, but Jesse just didn't quite get it.

Now Joining Us At The Table...

We're skipping the processed powdery stuff and going straight to the yummy goods! ...although technically this isn't Jesse's first taste of solid food. In the past few weeks he's sampled here and there bits of peach, peas, avocado, rice cake, and what-not from our plates. But now we've finally decided to get down to business and start meals in a big boy high chair.

Here's Jesse making his signature faces while enjoying some rockin' delicata squash (from our farm) mixed with Mama Milk. Next in the lineup for the coming weeks: avocado, brown rice, sweet potato (also from the farm), banana, maybe some yogurt... This is just too much fun!

Tickle Spot

'Art For Obama' Update And Other Goings-On

Thanks to all of you gracious folks who donated (or who tell us you plan to donate) to the Obama campaign on behalf of yourselves and/or others: Jeff (whose fund raising idea we borrowed), Gusti, Tony, Loyda, Emily and Matt, Jessa and Eric, Kerry and Allen, Elsie and David, Karla and Ben. Give yourselves a big pat on the back! And then keep an eye out in the mail for some goodies to come very soon...

We reached our $100 goal in no time so we decided to raise it to $150 the other day. Today Karla and Ben brought us to just $5 shy of reaching that goal (thanks, guys!). Whoever pushes us over the edge will get a special extra something in the mail along with their artwork! Who will it be?

Really, can you try to refuse this adorable face?

Yesterday we returned from a week of enjoying the beach and spending time with Papi's side of the family in Charleston, SC. We have tons of photos to share with you soon, but first a few cute updates to whet your interest for what's to come...

Lucas is still excited about helping us cook in the kitchen these days. He likes to pull up the stool to the counter right beside us and mix or cut soft things with a butter knife or pour or season the food. He makes a royal mess but the clean-up is worth the experience. Below you can see that the boys made strawberry waffles and a special drawing for my birthday last month. Now you have a major hint for guessing what the little man will be for Halloween this year.


Since today was Papi's 32nd birthday, Lucas chose to make a cake instead of cupcakes, so we made a pineapple upside down cake when he came home from preschool. Our friend Andrew was there to help us sing (below) and blow out the candles. We tell Lucas that his bday is coming soon and that he'll be able to help us bake his own cake. He can't wait!


The days of blob baby are officially over. Now that Jesse is crawling, (and getting faster by the day) here's a common scene, below. Lucas usually laughs and is really sweet to his brother at first, asking him nicely to stop touching or grabbing the toys while he's playing. Obviously Jesse doesn't understand, so after a minute or two of fruitless negotiating Lucas gives up on the nice-guy tactic and starts to get frustrated.

Meanwhile Jesse can't keep his eyes off of his big bro and wants everything to do with Lucas. Luckily, if they make eye contact while Lucas is fussing, Jesse erupts in smiles and babble-speak and Lucas can't help but laugh and change his tone of voice to flirt back with him. We'll see how long such lovin' lasts...

Here's a shot of Andrew and Lucas playing "chase" with each other throughout the apartment. You can see here and above the battle wounds from Lucas's big fall down the front stairs the night that we returned tired and napless (and evidently very clutsy) from our travels. Doesn't his face look awful? Just in time for all the pictures we'll be taking at Jesse's baptism this coming weekend...

Check back tomorrow for more. But first, check out the previous post and donate!

Art For Obama... For You!

After Jesse was born Lucas suddenly became very interested in coloring and drawing. All day, every day, for weeks he'd sit at his little table in the corner and scribble away. We ended up with a few notebooks worth of works by Lucas that we couldn't bring ourselves to rid of, so we cut them up and made stationery out of them for us or to give away for others to use.

And still we had more art lying around the house.

Once things returned to normal, Lucas seemed to no longer be interested in drawing and coloring. He stopped cold turkey. We could barely coax him to draw us a picture. We figured the phase was over, and it was back to the world of trains.


Then preschool started, and though he transitioned much better and faster than we expected, all of a sudden he returned to the box of crayons and markers with renewed energy. Turns out our kiddo was likely needing a bit of art therapy during stressful times.

In fact, when Lucas gets to preschool first thing in the morning, he asks "to go paint a picture for my mama." His teachers have even begun to reserve a space at the easel and/or art table just for him. When I tell him that it's time to say goodbye, he says "It's hard to say good-bye to Mama and Papi, so I paint a picture."


The result: beautiful works of art everywhere! Most every wall space is now covered with Lucas's colorful pieces made at home or preschool.

And now you have a chance to own one... because we're putting them to a good cause!

Here's how it works: if you've considered donating to the Obama/Biden campaign but haven't gotten around to it, now you have an offer you can't refuse. And if you've already donated, what's a few more bucks in the name of art and progress and the future of our children? ;)

Click on this link to donate $10, and you'll receive from our home an original Lucas work of art sent in the mail. It might even come with a story or description of what Lucas says he illustrated.

So get crackin'! (You can also send a check instead -- just email me at vajasigmon [at] gmail [dot] com to let us know). Help us to meet our humble goal during this last push before election day.

In the meantime, Jesse will be doing his part by catching up on some light reading...

Little Yogi

It's All About The Mouth

Milk Teeth

Can you see 'em? Sorta?

I'm struggling to get a good picture because neither the camera nor Jesse like me getting so close. A good 2 mm or so of teeth have quickly pushed their way out this week.

No teeth showing in these next photos but I'm posting them as a "just because." Watching these two delight in each other all day long makes my heart swell.

Sweet Reunion

Here's a glimpse of what happens when I go to pick up Lucas after preschool.

But first, can I just mention how PROUD we are of him and how amazingly well he has adjusted to saying good-bye and to his new routine? Gush, gush, gush -- how we love our precocious big boy!

I turned on the camera as I saw him come up the stairs to notice that the camera batteries needed to be replaced. Darnit! It was able to manage catching just these few shots...

After spotting me and Jesse and jumping up and down a few times, making all the parents and nannies waiting outside laugh at his loud cheers through the glass doors, here he seems to be negotiating with his teacher to LET ME OUT ALREADY:

Move over, little lady:

"Mama, Mama, Mama!!"

My hands are tied and the camera is delaying, so no more pictures from here on out. But I'll tell you the rest of the story anyway because the routine pretty much goes just like this three days a week:

He then says, "Here!" and throws his pile of artwork at me before I can get a grip on it so that it all falls to the floor.

Then it's endless hugs and rubbing my back and cuddling and "Oh, Mama!" over and over and telling me how much he missed me. If I don't have Jesse on me, he wants me to carry him every step of the way home.

Notice that he has his tried-and-true blankie to keep him company if he ever feels sad. We keep this one in his backpack; it smells like preschool and is covered in grime and tempura paint.

Then he smothers Jesse with hugs and kisses, saying with the sing-songy parent-ese he's learned to mimic from us: "Hey, little sweetie!" Sometimes Papi comes holding Jesse and sometimes Lucas and I meet them at home.

Then he chugs a mini juice box, a special treat that he's learned to expect after each session. We figure that after 3 1/2 hours since breakfast and only 3 pretzel sticks and a sip of water at snack time, he can handle the sugar kick until we get home for lunch.

And then it's story-telling and cuddling in his bed before a good nap.

Have we mentioned that we love preschool??

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And for a little Jesse fix, here he is not letting us get a good look at his two beautiful new teeth:

Uncle Reid

Uncle Reid had a double good excuse for visiting these last few days from Tampa because of a wedding in town. Now all of four uncles have officially met Jesse.


We went out looking for puddles (see the previous post) after an early morning of rain but didn't find as many as we had hoped. Uncle Reid and Lucas found a puddle of sorts on top of our trash can.

Rain Boots

Fall Carnival

We had way too much fun yesterday for me to choose between all of the pictures that we took, so we're including them all!

The catholic church at the end of our block holds a fall carnival every year. For days Lucas has passed the lot filled with trucks and unassembled rides, waiting for the carnival to start. (It doesn't help his patience when we can see the carnival from our porch window.) Yesterday it opened at 5 p.m., so we were some of the first ones there after Papi came home from work.

The last couple of years I've had to ride along with Lucas, but for some reason they didn't allow us to ride together this year. Lucas was so brave and never hesitated to get on all by himself! He was beaming with pride and happiness while giving huge grins as he passed us on the side in between focusing with much seriousness on driving his car.


Papi and I just laughed and laughed and cheered him on. When he came out, he yelled "I did it!" and gave us big hugs.

Then he wanted to go on the ferris wheel. He became nervous as we sat in the car and insisted on sitting in my lap, then he was more than fine. Papi and I were expecting him to demand that we get off once it started moving but to our surprise he loved it! (Mama, on the other hand, isn't crazy about such heights.) He had a great time looking for Papi and Jesse on the ground below and looking at our neighbors' rooftops.




Spinning cups:


Getting dizzy:

And then the real highlight of Lucas's carnival experience: a dragon roller coaster! Normally he's happy to watch it go around the tracks and to share in the excitement of the lucky passengers, but this time he wanted to try it! It was surprisingly fast and jerky and gave you that good belly-sinking feeling.

And there you have it! What fun!

The carnival is around for another couple of days. We've had to walk by it to prove to him that it's indeed still closed until later in the afternoon/evening, so this just might not be the last picture you see of us there.

Move Over, Jamie Oliver