Hands-On

While in town last week, we visited the renovated Brooklyn Children's Museum with Mema and Mempa. We stopped by some of the old stand-by's like the pretend NYC transit authority bus, cork-sand box, and the new-and-improved Tiny Tots area filled with water, sand and drumming stations (below)...

This time we also took advantage of some of the wonderful hands-on exhibits for older children (last time it was overcrowded and Lucas might not have been at an age to appreciate them as much). They had a pizzeria (where Lucas learned the word "anchovy" and had a blast using the pretend oven), a grocery store (Lucas loved filling up his basket and weighing the produce), and other cross-cultural shopping experiences such as a Mexican panaderia, a Chinatown store, and so on. Best of all, it's free on Wednesdays!

Creating Traditions

Papi has fond childhood memories of picnicking on a fried chicken meal with his family at the Davidson River in the Pisgah National Forest (North Carolina) for Mother's Day. In honor of both of our mothers and those wonderful memories, we decided to create a new family tradition of having a fried chicken picnic at a local park, this time under the Verrazano Bridge. We were grateful to have Mema and Mempa in town for the week and to celebrate this glorious day together.

No neck:

Dancing/spinning and singing:

Trudging up the grassy hill. It was hard work for those little legs, but he was determined and would get angry if we tried to hold his hand or pick him up!




Love this expression:

Getting a ride with Mempa on the way home:

Dia De Las Madres

Mother's Day = Family Day. Perfect.

The present Lucas put together for me at preschool says "Mommy, I love you because you make me yummy food!"

Thanks, boys, for picking me to be your mama!

91 Degrees

Sometime two weeks or so ago. Can't remember. Trying to block out that it was that warm in NY in April...

First Bike

For Christmas, Lucas received a bike from Abuela and Abuelo, but we've been waiting until warmer weather arrived to give it a go. It's similar to a like-a-bike where it requires pushing with one's feet instead of using regular pedals with brakes or training wheels to learn balance and to transition to a regular bicycle. He was very cute!

It was a bit too small at first...

...but with a few minor adjustments...


...and a doting little brother following right behind him...


... he was off to join the neighborhood bicycle/scooter brigade!

Firefighter Hat

Some friends from church gave us some old hand-me-down dress-up clothes, including two firefighter hats and vests. Jesse loves the game of putting on is own hat and pulling it over his eyes, then throwing it off his head with much gusto.

Some Things You Should Know...

...about Lucas, on this day, his 3 1/2-year birthday:


He doesn't like raw tomatoes.

He creates routines and rituals for himself, such as during toothbrushing time. We hold him up to reach the mirror (the step stool is still too short), he brushes his teeth in a certain way, we give his teeth another once-over when he's done, then he spits, taps the toothbrush against the side of the sink, places the toothbrush inside the cup (he likes to change up whose toothbrush he puts his next to!), washes his hands and mouth, then uses the toilet. All in that order. If we skip a step or do one wrong, he demands that we start over.

Photo by Robyn.

He's the only one of us who calls his brother "Jes." (The other day I overheard him call his friend Andrew, "And.")

He's currently singing this song non-stop (which we think is much better than her original version and well worth watching to the very end).

He's beginning to use what we call 'middle school humor' though we know it's more about playing around with words and norms. The other day he sang, "Old MacDonald had a farm.... and on his farm he had a... DIAPER! Ha, hah, hah, hah, hah! A diaper!!"

Then he sang: "...and on his farm he had a... poopy! (Hah hah hah hah hah!)"

And then a moment later he asked, "Mom, do you want to eat my poop?!"

I played stupid and asked him if he wanted for me to eat his foot but he then corrected me and proceeded to crack up!

Ay yi yi.

Papi and I lovingly describe him to each other as our "sheep dog" because he has a way of herding the people he loves and keeping them closeby. Lucas is a happy boy in general but is happiest when we're all in the same room together.

The other day Lucas told me that he was "almost 4 years old."

No, Lucas, you're 3 1/2. We don't want you to rush it.

Soccer

This past Thursday, Lucas joined his first-ever soccer team! Lucas enjoys running and playing with balls, loves to be outside, and is so teachable, so we decided that he might be ready to try out a soccer league. A perfect mix!

The practice sessions are designed for 3-5 year olds and are focused on becoming familiar with soccer basics and having fun, so "league" and "team" are definite glorified terms. There are actually no teams to play against, not to mention that only three kiddos showed up on this day, so it was a lot of great one-on-one time for Lucas!

Lucas pretty much ran and laughed for an hour straight. He had a blast!

Lucas would throw up his arms and cheer at the end of every drill. His positive attitude was contagious, and soon everyone was hootin' and hollerin' for each other! At the end the kids and coach huddled together, received a special sticker, and yelled out together, "WE LOVE SOCCER!"

Coach David had them going non-stop for over an hour. On his way home, Lucas ate a granola bar and chugged his sippy cup of water, then half an hour later ate three huge slices of pizza (he usually goes for about 1 1/2 slices), an apple, and almost 3 more sippy cups of water! He had worked hard for his food!

Weaving in and out of the cones before having to kick the waiting ball into the goal:

Here they were told to kick the cones with a ball:

Playing "ice cream cone." It's a big ball for small hands, but Lucas carried his ice cream (ball) in his cone across the field, then the coach gave it a few shakes on top of "chocolate sprinkles" before kicking the ball and then the cone into the goal.

Liam, Maquin, Jesse and I hung back to watch and cheer, but once Liam and Jesse caught wind of the bag of soccer balls, they became focused on nothing else. Papi left work (just 3 blocks away) a few minutes early to see the end of Lucas's practice session, and at one point he had to rescue Jesse off the make-shift field and from walking into the goal filled with balls.

Go, Lucas, go!

Funky Window

Now that warmer weather is here, the windows are kept open, including this funky window located between our living room and our enclosed porch. The boys have invented a game of throwing balls back and forth to each other from either side that they like to play at least once a day.

Here comes Jesse (pre-haircut)!

Toss (if you're Jesse) or pelt (if you're Lucas) over the edge...

Repeat 100 times over.

These seem to be really good days for our boys. We've been seeing these belly-rumbling, slap-happy, full-body laughs what seems like every single day. It must be Spring!