Ho, Ho, Ho!

We picked Luke up from day care on Monday to go out for family dinner. As we were driving, we hear a very deep and jolly, "Ho, Ho, Ho!" coming from the back seat. Clearly, Luke is paying extra attention to all of the Christmas stories he hears at school, as he knows this Santa thing can only mean fun, exciting things. :-)

We had a really fun and exciting weekend! Grandma and Grandpa were here to help us get ready for our first Chicago Christmas Party. You can see that Luke had a ball with Grandma's hat.
He got to see trains at the Arboretum, too, or "choo choos" as they are called around here.

The first snow of the year

Death To Christmas Lights

The Chicago weather cooperated much better this year for purposes of putting up Christmas lights outside. Last year, it started snowing the Sunday night after Thanksgiving and didn't stop until after Christmas, forcing those of us who aren't die hards to be Scrooges. In fact, last year, we didn't decorate anything for Christmas. This year, the snow waited until yesterday giving us plenty of time to work on the decor.

I had the whole master plan - new icicles that I purchased on sale last year, netted lights for the bushes, and our candy canes from Virginia. In fact, Dad and Mike finished everything the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it looked great. Everything was tested and approved. Then, night came, and timer clicked on....and no icicles. Figuring a poor connection, we waited until the next night to get out there and make a knot to hold the plugs together. The lights came on....and went out right after we had put away the ladder, replaced the bicycle that hangs in front of it, and pulled the van in the garage.

Now, it's Monday, and we're back out there, except that the first strand of icicles won't light at all. We try fumbling with replacing the fuses. It works...we pack up and head inside. Five minutes later, the lights are off.

By this time, I've decided it's time to google for a solution or throw everything away and give up until next year. But what kind of mother would I be if my kid's house is the only one on the block without more Christmas decorations?? Apparently, according to a site I found, you aren't supposed to hook more than 3 mini-lights together end to end and that appears somewhere in the fine print of the warning message stapled to the wire. We replaced the fuses one more time, and redid the extension cords, and since then....we've had brilliant beautiful icicle lights on the house. Just in time for the snow to start in earnest.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We send all our love and thanks to our friends and family! We are so very thankful for all of the blessings we have been given! We hope that your Turkey is fantastic....ours was delicious courtesy of our three camouflaged chefs!

Not Exactly What I Meant

Funny how kids have a way of creatively doing what you say. While we were out to lunch on Luke's day off of day care (schools all close for Veteran's Day here), Luke was treated to a kid's meal that included a scoop of ice cream for dessert. When the ice cream came, he was still munching on his lunch. I told him to finish what was in his mouth before he could have ice cream, and he did so by opening his mouth and spitting out his food. Certainly one way of doing it, I guess.

Our Veteran's Day outing was quite fun. We rode the train downtown and toured the Children's Museum at Navy Pier. This was really the first time that Luke was aware he was riding a "Choo Choo." With each stop, he kept doing his "more" sign, afraid it was coming to an end too quickly. He had a completely overstimulating day and enjoyed every minute of it.

Otherwise, we are readying ourselves for the busy holiday season. We've decided that after a year's break, the Bucciero holiday party must be resurrected, so the planning has begun for that! Luke is back to his usual happy self again, and continues to delight us with new words or at least attempts at new words more regularly. He continues to enjoy helping Daddy in the kitchen all the time, and has quite an affinity for all of the household appliances he gets to run in the process.

More Sicks Than Tricks

Poor guy came down with a fever Friday morning, so not only did he miss his Halloween parade at school, but his first trick-or-treating was cut short. Despite the fever and cough, though, he was in excellent spirits, and sported his dragon costume for several hours. This was all such a fascinating experience for him - he didn't know what C-A-N-D-Y was before that night, and it clearly intrigued him that these kids were coming to the door and Mommy was giving them some shiny wrappers. After watching and learning for a good bit, he was ready to try out his own luck with Daddy at the neighbors' houses. Needless to say, he now has a perfect understanding of what C-A-N-D-Y is, although he still has a pretty short memory. (insert satisfied Mommy smile here)

It did turn out that Luke had another ear infection, the poor guy. No wonder he hasn't seemed to be listening too well. It's an interesting thing that in the moment, I have wanted to scold him and it turns out that it really wasn't his fault. And then to add to the guilt trip, I had to actively participate in restraining him while the doctor and nurse tried to flush out excess ear wax just to see whether there was an infection. No, this stubborn ear wax wouldn't dislodge after two attempts at scraping, so we had to go through three ear wash episodes. It was brutal. Not only did Luke need french fries after that, but so did Mommy.

A (Mostly) Finished Bathroom

Despite my coming down with a case of the flu, Mike managed to finish the bathroom, right on time! It looks tremendously brighter than in did, and for our first really involved DIY project, we're very pleased, we're still speaking to one another, we finished it on time and within a 10% variance of our budget, and we managed to still watch Luke at the same time!

Before:
After:

My Little Gypsy

Luke loves to try and load up his arms with as much stuff as he can possibly handle, whether it's a drink cup and a snack cup, or several water bottles, or all of the toiletry bottles from underneath Daddy's sink, he loves to carry stuff around. So, every single morning when Luke is ready to be freed of his crib, he insists on collecting EVERYTHING in his crib - pillow, blanket(s), stuffed animals - in his own arms and carrying downstairs. And, no, Mommy cannot assist, so every morning, Mommy carries Luke and a huge wadful of crib peripherals all the way downstairs where it all gets deposited and quickly forgotten about.

More is definitely better for nearly 21-month-olds. One jacket is definitely not enough when you could wear three! Even though you can only see two in this picture....the third is under there.


Weekend before last, I got the wonderful treat of the 3rd annual Niehaus/Lukens girl weekend! This year, we went downtown for a night and toured around various museums and eateries. Lucky for me, I had the camera at the 3D Dinosaur movie at the Field Museum...hee, hee:

And, what women wouldn't go crazy to have their photo taken with the plastic pirate? (BTW - Luke is perfecting his pirate, "Argh!")

And, yes, I took this from atop the John Hancock tower, which Laura and I did while waiting for Aunt Marlo and Mom to arrive from Midway.

Child Proof, But Not Luke Proof

It Must Be a Record

Two in a row! Thanks for the wonderful comments about the blog yesterday. It's wonderful to know that I haven't lost all of my readers (Marcia - I promise to call very soon!).

I was tickled to death to pick up Luke tonight for a little Mommy and Luke time. I talked Mike into going out to dinner with work friends, so I was geared up. I tried to cook with Luke, but clearly, there is just something about doing that with Daddy because he decided to have a tantrum. Oh well. At least I tried! He may have just been hungry judging from the amount of pasta he wolfed down!

I was very excited to hear some new words on the way home from day care today. You see, my son has a complete love affair with towers...still. For a long time, it came out "paw" whenever he saw one. And, he can pretty much find one wherever you are - it's amazing! Mind you, there is one that he insists upon driving by on the way to and from school. The good ole' Bartlett water tower. Today, as it came into view, he said, "tower" - plain as day! Then, we I told him we would be cooking pasta together, he said "cook" and tried really hard to get "pasta" out. Ah, what fun!

Excuses, Excuses

Yes, I probably have a million since it's been OVER a month since my last blog! It's pretty bad when even an almost three-year-old avid reader is reminding you to blog more. (Hi, Millan!) As a token of my appreciation, I promised him a picture of Pinochle. For now, here's a picture on the blog for you:


And, hopefully, all of my other faithful readers haven't given up on me yet!. My goodness, where on earth does the time go. Somewhere in the midst of an ear infection, work, a visit with Grandma and Paw Paw, work, a visit with Grandma Bucciero, work, a bathroom remodel..(and did I mention work?), time has just slipped away again! Luke has been doing just awesome these days. Somehow, he's managed to turn 20-months....it's going so fast! The words are coming more readily these days and he's less frustrated when we don't understand what he wants, so that's a good thing. He loves his new therapist, getting all excited when he sees her standing at the front door and then rushing to sit on the family room floor to see what toys she's brought with her. He's an eager learner with her, and in 4 sessions, we've already seen a great deal of progress. He's still doing really well in day care, and the weather has cooperated for some great outdoor play.

So yes, with all we have going on, why not add DIY home improvement? Well, our powder room was in major need of a facelift, so we've taken everything out except the floor. The demo and painting have gone very well thus far (except for the thick layer of dust on everything in my house from the drywall sanding), and then next weekend, we hope to have enough time during naps and after bedtime to install the new toilet and sink. We'll see how that goes! Here's Luke getting in on the action:

Some other cute pictures of the Lukeman...he's in a phase of trying to put his own socks and pants on. Today, since neither was available for play, I guess his foam letters were the next best thing. And yes, he walked around like this for a while.
One of my recent favorites. Mike's already training the sous chef. Luke won't stay still for much, but give him a box to stand on cooking with Daddy, and he's happy for an hour.

This Silly English Language is SO Confusing!

It's been a while! My lack of blogging this time is due to vacation and things being completely out of control at work! Luckily, I'm through with that and don't plan on it being an issue in the future. Let's just say that I've learned a few lessons.

We had a fantastic vacation over in western Michigan with the Lukens. Aunt Laura flew in albeit a bit later than planned, but we had a great time visiting with Grandma, Paw Paw and Aunt Laura. There are some very cute adventures to share, but first I must relate a terribly funny story that can only happen with a toddler who is still learning this crazy language of ours!

There were ducks on the lake we stayed at...lots and lots of ducks. And, they quickly learned that Grandma was a very easy mark (just ask her how many loaves of bread we went through :-). So, she taught Luke how to feed the ducks. It took quite a while to understand that he was supposed to toss the bread to them rather than stuff it in his own mouth. Very, very cute. By the 3rd or 4th day, he had it, and some of the ducks even ate out of his hand.

While we were on vacation, we celebrated Mom and Dad's 36th wedding anniversary with a surprise dinner out in St. Joseph. Mike ordered duck confit, and since Luke was tasting everyone's meals, Mike offered him a piece of duck. He immediately took the piece and tossed it on the ground. We adults are just so confusing...one minute we train him to feed the ducks and the next minute he's supposed to be eating some? Very funny moment...even for those sitting around us hearing the story.

Luke has now become a bonafide boat captain, thanks to Paw Paw's excellent instruction.

During our boat outings, Luke decided that he need to wear Paw Paw's sunglasses for the ultimate cool experience. He sat there for a long time just enjoying the ride and wearing his cool shades.

The Trip to Brookfield Zoo

Several weeks ago, we ventured out to the Brookfield Zoo - a rather awesome family outing place, for sure! This was Luke's first live encounter with wild animals, or at least the large ones you can only encounter at a zoo. We didn't start out the morning too well, as with all these really cool animals to look at, the storm drains were much to fascinating at first. We quickly got over that, when we got to see them letting out the giraffes.
He was mesmerized.

They have a really neat Dinosaurs Live exhibit going on right now. There is this huge brontosaurus in the middle of the zoo, and it moves and spits water. Very cool.
We tried out the petting zoo. Luke wanted none of it at first, refusing to let Daddy put him down. He slowly warmed up and even decided that the longer haired goat was worth a pet, especially after the younger little girl showed him up.
Luke got to ride the carousel, which turned out to be a huge hit.


The unfortunate thing he learned was that the ride does eventually stop. Had so much fun....just....couldn't...keep...his...eyes...open. Zonked out before we even made it out of the parking lot.

18 Months Old!

Lukeman is 18 months old today! He's somewhere in the vicinity of 25 pounds, I think, but it's hard to get him to sit still long enough for the scale to register. He'll be heading to Dr. Carol later this week for the official tallies, but for now, I can report that he's fitting nicely into 18-24 month clothes. He must have had a small growth spurt because only a few weeks ago, I bought some new 18-month sleepers, and I had to go back last week to get the 24-month size. Oh well!

Luke is very busy...so much to do and so much to see. We are still working on discernible language, but we get some "uh-ohs" and "da-das" and a whole lot of babble. He does play with his phone and very discernibly holds it to his ear and says "eh-o." Very cute. And, we do get lots of "more" signs still for anything.

In honor of his 18th month birthday, we decided he needs a Luke-sized table and chairs. At day care, they have them trained so well to go and sit in their little chairs that whenever Luke thinks there is something about the right height to sit on, he tries to plop down. So, now we have a proper almost Luke-sized chair, courtesy of Ikea. After all, with a birthday in January, it's a long haul to get all the way to Christmas or birthday for something a little new.

Some of Luke's favorite activities include playing with blocks, riding around on Daddy's bike, running around outside, scooting the clothes basket around, yanking on the cats, eating, drinking, and swimming.

Oh yes, and playing in his "office." See what I mean about the need for a chair?

Luke Bucci-walker and Darth Pinochle

There is so entirely much to blog about, so I'm sitting down to give it my due attention while Mike gets his fill of his guy tv. But, before I get to all the goings on, I must relate one of the funniest moments of our weekend, taken right from a George Lucas film. Luke found this novelty pen that I picked up at a Peoplesoft conference oh so many moons ago, and when you press a button, it blinks this blue neon LCD light. He carried it around for hours...very timely given that it was "Force of July" on Spike and Return of the Jedi was on. (His hand is covering up the light below).


At one point, he pointed the pen right at Pinochle and made his fighting grunt, usually associated with making clenched fists. Mike vocalized the caption of Luke and Darth Pinochle, and we got a pretty good chuckle out it!

Last weekend, Mike and I got to go on our first getaway sans Luke. Grandma and Pawpaw came to visit and completely spoiled Luke for 4 days while there were here. But, Mike and I headed downtown for the weekend and enjoyed sightseeing, including a stop at the Taste of Chicago.

Friday night, we had dinner at the most amazing restaurant, called Moto. Apparently, the chef was on Iron Chef America and I will tell you, he has to be one of the most creative and artistic chefs ever! You start off with a melba toast cracker and dipping butter that has your menu printed on edible paper and glued to the front of it. They only do tasting menus -10 or 20 courses (we did the 10) - so the portions are smaller, but we definitely did not leave hungry. One of our favorite courses was The Cuban, which was all of the flavors of a Cuban sandwich, rolled up to look like a Cuban cigar, complete with edible paper wrapper, burning "embers" of red sauce, ashes from crushed black and white sesame seeds, served in an ashtray. Very cool.

Saturday night, we hit the Harry Potter exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry.
Even though they were closing things off when we got there, we still managed to sneak in to the Lego display of tall structures.

The rest of our holiday weekend has been spent doing some family things. Friday, we went to the zoo, which I'll save for another blog entry since it involves a great deal of pictures. Yesterday was a bit of a washout, but today was warm and sunny enough to enjoy some outside time. We even went for a family bike ride through the Forest Preserve on our new bikes. Luke loves it so much that when we get home, he does his sign for more. This afternoon, we tried our first Icee pop (not a big fan of it frozen, but warm it up to melt it a bit, and you'll have a taker).
And, he's getting a lot better about using the spoon himself. Trust me, this is a lot less mess than the first time we tried!So, working for me is going well so far. The hardest part has been adjusting to a long commute, which really extends my time away. The job itself has been good...a great team of people and a fun project. Luke has been an absolute star with adjusting to day care. Rather than some tears, most days he'll just wave goodbye to Mike as he drops him off. And, whether it is day care or natural causes, he has started babbling like never before. He has a few word approximations now and routinely says "Da-da." I'm keeping an open mind about what the fall will bring and trying to not rush into any decisions in the midst of my job experiment.

32

What a wonderful weekend! Father's Day and my 32nd birthday. Last year, for Father's Day, Mike was driving to Chicago with my parents - 14 hours with 2 cats and a whole lot of wine. This year, we finally could celebrate together. And, long awaited warmer weather to get out the new toddler pool. Of course, we have pictures of our little water bug, who is the most fearless kid in his swimming class. And, now that he understand the toddler pool, he couldn't quite figure out why his water table was any different. Our little climber here...eek!

Daddy took Luke to the barber shop on Sat morning for some Daddy and Luke time. Amazing how much they look alike after Tony puts a little gel in their hair. It's a whole experience - doughnuts, suckers, and hair gel. You know, guy stuff.
And here we are celebrating Father's Day and Mommy's birthday at a nice breakfast. This has to be our new favorite spot for yummy pancakes and such. Luke follows in his mother's footsteps and has developed quite a passion for raspberries. Needless to say, the raspberry french toast was a HUGE hit.
And, yes, it was a good birthday. We are actually going to celebrate a bit more - our 6 year anniversary, my birthday, and Father's Day - this coming weekend. Grandma and Grandpa are coming and letting us go downtown for our first little getaway. We have dinner reservations Friday night at Moto and then we're going to visit Taste of Chicago and the Harry Potter exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry. We are so totally excited that we can hardly stand it! I have a strange feeling we'll come home to two very tired, but very happy grandparents!!! So now, only a week of work between us and a little vacation...woo hoo!