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.
