More Photos, By Lucas

Representin'

Mr. Celeriac Head

We're quite the veggie-lovin' family. Even Lucas is known to eat most every green vegetable under the sun.

BUT, we draw the line at celeriac, which we dread every time it appears in our farm share box (whoops -- we forgot to use the swapbox when picking up the veggies this past week). After almost 5 years of a CSA share in Chicago with absolutely no success from experimenting with recipes to make the wacky root taste good, we've given up. So what does one do with food one can't eat?

Play with it, of course!

Generally, to us celeriac looks something like Wilson from "Cast Away." But with some minor modifications by Mama and Lucas, you have... Mr. Celeriac Head!

Meet his girlfriend, with earmuffs and glasses sort of a la Sarah Palin (in other words, she looks nice but she's actually quite scary):

Finally, here's Lucas and our new friend Skyping with Tio Bryan:

(Anyone else out there wanna Skype with us? If so, shoot us an email!)

Bedtime Routine

Irresistable

Jesse looked so cute in his outfit last Sunday when Mema and Mempa were in town that I couldn't help but throw out my No Shoes On Babies Until They Can Crawl/Walk rule and put on these cute Robeez from our friends.

And speaking of crawling, look who really wants to! So far he only goes backwards, unless he decides to propel himself forward and takes a minor chin dive. Those cute shoes just might have to come out again very soon!

First Day Of Preschool!

There he is! Lucas on his first day of 3-year old preschool!

Though Lucas will be the youngest in his class, we think he might be ready for the part-time program (3 days a week, 3 hours a day). Today we were required to attend a short session as a family, then they'll gradually build up the hours until next Friday when he attends a full session.


We've been helping to get him ready all summer -- learning to use the toilet, speaking in English, practicing opening and eating out of his lunchbox, meeting future classmates, learning the name of his preschool, identifying with stickers which days of the week on the calendar he'll attend, and reading many books at bedtime about what goes on inside. Because it's less than 2 blocks away from home, Lucas was disappointed to not be riding the subway to preschool, though he's happy to walk instead of taking the stroller.



Here he is sporting his new backpack (thanks, Abuela and Abuelo!). It contains: a lunchbox (thanks, Mema and Mempa!), a change of underwear and shorts (just in case), wipies, and a bag of tissues (for me more than him).



Mama is looking forward to having a few hours of uninterrupted Mama-n-Jesse time, but it's still hard for us to see him go. Our little baby is growing up!

Shaving Cream Fun

It's back-to-school time, and fall is in the air, so we're trying to take advantage of the warm summer days that are left. For us that means wearing minimal clothing, playing in water, and making messes.

This stuff is probably full of cruddy ingredients but we couldn't resist seeing Lucas's reaction to something new.

Making footprints and squishing the shaving cream with feet: yes!

Dumping the cloudy rinse water onto body: yes!


Smearing the stuff with hands: get it off NOW!


Mama's footprint and Lucas's... er, footsmear:

Tomatoes

'Cooking Mema's Birthday'

Lucas LOVES to cook. And we've had tons of carrots piling up in the fridge from our CSA share. So we decided to fire up the oven for the first time this summer and make carrot cake cupcakes to celebrate Mema's 60th birthday when Mema and Mempa came to town for the week. We had so much fun!

Lucas was such a fine helper, sampling each pre-measured ingredient -- the nuts, pineapple, raisins (they were more like muffins) -- before pouring each into the big bowl and stirring it all up. As he waited for me to tell him which ingredient came next, he'd pause to yell, "I'm cooking Mema's Birthday! I'm cooking Mema's Birthday!"

After we poured the batter into the cups, he surprised me by stating that the ant better not come to take the cake away. I finally remembered that the reference came from a book we used to read at bedtime about some farm animals baking a birthday cake, and while they were busy making the icing, an ant came along then stole and ate their cake!

Jesse participated by slobbering on the cupcake cups and wearing his "I Love Grandma" onesie that Papi put on him that morning.

Waiting is hard...


Later - helping Mema to blow out the candle.


Over and over (and over) again...

We gave Lucas his own turn before we finally cut him off.

Happy Birthday, Mema!

Parcel Post

Poor Jesse was a victim of one of the many ways I kept a toddler entertained while waiting in a long line at the post office earlier that morning.

No. 1 Fan

Thanks Ben, Eli, Kerry, and Allen for all of the custom-made shirts!

And a loving welcome to baby Ella Joy... Congrats to Amy, Matt, Jackson and Emily!

The Only Picture

Later after a couple of hours of rides at the amusement park, we headed to the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball game, and here's the only picture (and the only one that matters, I think) that we caught at the game.

If you click on the picture to view it in a larger form, you can better make out that he's blowing raspberries (and get a closer view of those delicious rolls).

Carousel

(Lucas came into the room just after I uploaded this picture...)

Lucas: "Oh! And there's Lucas and Mama riding the horse!"

Mama: (Do you remember how much fun we had on the carousel?)

Lucas: "Yeah. Up and down!"

Mama: (And the horse went around and around in a circle, too. Right?)

Lucas: "Yeah! And so fast! And then we went on another ride!"

Mama: (Which ride?)

L: "We pushed the button!"

M: (That's right. We pushed the buttons on the fish ride.)

L: "Yeah, the fish ride."

M: (And where is this?)

L: "In Coney Island."

M: (And what did we do there?)

L: "On the rides!"

M: (Which rides did we go on?)

L: "On the train, the fish, and the horse!"

M: (What did we do after we rode the train, the fish, and the horse?)

L: (Long pause.) "I want a pickle please, Mama."

Just The Right Size

The same day that the Abuelos left, we hopped on a bus to neighboring Staten Island, then transferred to the Staten Island Railroad to visit the home of a parishioner and friend Martie.

Lucas loved flying on the bus and looking at the boats and water over the Verrazano Bridge, and especially riding on the "real train" outdoors (even though it looked just like a subway train inside).

At Martie's place he entertained himself for a while by crawling in and out of the Lucas-sized doggie door before we headed out for a dip in the Lucas-sized kiddie pool.

And of course, he loved every minute of every moment.

5 Months

Yesterday at the post office somebody thought you were 9 months old. And since at 5 months you're wearing the clothes that your big brother wore when he was 9 months old, I'd say we're in big trouble.

During these last couple of weeks you've been into blowing raspberries, pulling up your feet and rolling from side to side like a roly poly, and just last night you discovered how tasty your big toe can be. I often get into trouble with your Papi when I'm supposed to be trying to help you wind down to nurse and/or go to sleep because all we do is laugh and get silly and laugh and wrestle and laugh and snuggle and laugh.

But you are all eyes for your brother. We've rarely had to tell him to be gentle with you or teach him how to touch you -- he just knew! And when your cousin Liam comes over, the three of you provide enough entertainment for each other that the adults don't need to do much in the way of baby care.

So fun! We love you, you sassy and silly baby.