Letters For Lucas

Wonders, Mishaps, Blunders and Joy.. commentary on my life as a mom in the form of letters to my son

Over 400 Miles To Go

Posted on Written by

Another lovely holiday with lots of goodies in tow,
We had over 400 miles to go.

You slept the first two hours full of bliss,
And then suddenly awakened, you were completely pissed.

We stopped for a break, new diaper and food,
Jammies, we thought surely would help achieve an improved attitude?

Then back in the car,
Mommy and Daddy became the ultimate rock stars!

Your expression was priceless and your face all aglow,
As a tiny TV came out of the roof and there appeared your favorite show!

Was it Thomas the Train that saved the day,
Or that nice Toyota dealer who said we couldn’t buy it any other way?

We made it home safe and sound, but the secret is out,
And I think it’s safe to say, car rides will never be the same for our little sprout.

post signature

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts

I Love It When…

Posted on Written by

I love it when Lucas is sitting on my lap for a story or next to me on the couch watching TV and his body goes limp and melts into mine. I love feeling him let his weight go. After a while, the rhythm of our breath is in time with each others.

He’s a toddler on the go, so these are fleeting moments that don’t last very long, but we are learning how to relax together.

I love when Lucas runs up to me with a big sparkling smile, arms open wide and gives me a hug. He is starting to be very affectionate, especially when he’s done something naughty. It must be his way of apologizing?

He’s a toddler but somehow already understands the power of touch and importance of affection.

I love overhearing Lucas try to sing along with me, the radio or television. He doesn’t yet know the words to any songs, but he tries his best and often gets the inflection spot on.

He’s a toddler and is already experimenting with his voice and musical abilities.

I love it when Lucas is playing with his “choo choos”, cars or stuffed animals and makes sweet sounds, dances as goes along and creates pathways that not only go all over the house, but up and down my arms and legs too.

He’s a toddler but is using his imagination to expand his world.

He’s a toddler and he is growing up right before my eyes.

post signature

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts

Week One

Posted on Written by

In our first week in Orange County we’ve been to Disneyland, the annual Newport Beach Boat Parade and a shopping trip to South Coast Plaza and have managed to settle in to our new home. There are still many boxes to unpack and a garage full of items to organize, but the basics are done.

I was five years old the first time I went to Disneyland in the Summer of 1977. How my parents managed to get this shot without another soul in it is beyond me. Fast forward to 2010 and this is what Sleeping Beauty’s Castle looks like today:Lucas loved his first visit to Disneyland or “the Mickey Mouse park”, as it has come to be known in our house. If you ever get the opportunity to visit during the holiday season, it is really worth it. The Happiest Place on Earth becomes the Merriest Place on Earth with holiday decorations abound and it even snows!

We took Lucas on the It’s a Small World ride and he was bright-eyed and excited the entire time bouncing along to the soundtrack and enjoyed being on the boat, even after waiting in line for 40 minutes.

I was pleasantly surprised that he sat through the entire “A Christmas Fantasy” Parade, which includes all the Disney characters and Santa Claus too, after waiting another 40 minutes. He was mesmerized by the lights and dancers.

photo 5

Handing us the park map so we can find our way to the “choo choo”.

IMG_0178

Way more interested in his Mickey balloon than meeting Minnie.

 

IMG_0184

It was a memorable and magical first of many trips.

Back to unpacking…

post signature

Related Posts:

The House That Built Me

Posted on Written by

I love this house and I will miss it.

Today is moving day and I am excited, exhausted, nostalgic and sad.

Walking downstairs this morning, it hit me: last night was my last night here.

No matter how frustrated I have become with this house in the last few months due to its lack of space for Lucas, it’s cold, hard slat floors, it’s barely large enough to turn around in kitchen and it’s distance from good friends and family, we have spent four wonderful years here.

I was proposed to in the dining room.

I became a wife in the backyard.

I saw my parents for the last time in the living room.

I’ve enjoyed meals prepared by my husband, lots of takeout and countless bowls of cereal from the bar in the kitchen.

I’ve walked hundreds of miles on the treadmill in the office.

With my husband by my side, I have cried myself to sleep out of immeasurable grief within the safety and comfort of our bedroom.

We became parents in this house as we paced the floors comforting, soothing and getting to know our newborn.

We turned the upstairs guest room into a nursery and have read, sang and fed our son in the rocking chair in his room night after night for the past 18 months.

We’ve watched hours of mindless television catching up and trying to decompress from our busy days in our family room.

We’ve played “choo choo” and cars in every. single. room.

We have walked to and from the mailbox in hopes of running onto our neighbor’s cat, or better yet, one of our great neighbors.

We’ve hollered at one another at the top or bottom of the stairs, tripped on items that needed to go one way or the other and met each other halfway.

We’ve entertained family, celebrated birthdays and made new friends on our patio and watched a beautiful olive tree grow and bloom in the side yard.

I will carry with me all the warm memories this home has provided and hope that it’s new residents will treat it well.

I love this house and I will miss it.

Here’s to the next chapter…

This post was featured on the BlogHer Home page, in the featured members section on January 5, 2011.

post signature

Related Posts:

A Year & A Half

Posted on Written by

Lucas is 18 months old today and is a constant source of amazement, joy, fulfillment, love and lately, complete and utter frustration. I believe that the Terrible Twos have begun early in our home.

I thought being a mom to a newborn was tough, but toddlers are way more complicated and exhausting!!

Lucas is starting to test his boundaries and the limits placed upon him and throwing temper tantrums over the littlest things are a daily occurrence. Sometimes hourly. For both him and me.

The incessant repetitive chatter has been the biggest change in the last month. He gets one thing stuck in his head and cannot and will not let it go. Hmmm… Sounds like someone else I know.

His progression is astounding from grunts and groans and lots of crying to making connections between things. He’s a sponge, absorbing everything and in his expanding vocabulary repeats back to us what he’s learning.

He knows where turns off are to parks, that checking the mail means we might see the neighbor’s cat, where I hide his favorite snacks and when I sing a song we learned in music class, he’ll say the teacher’s name.

He lives to push elevator and crosswalk buttons, loves trains and Thomas the Tank and I must put this starter train track set together 19 times a day.

Lucas enjoys watching videos of himself and is proving to be smarter than my smart phone. It’s incredible, he can navigate through different applications, finding the one he wants and operate it. I’m sure he has called Tokyo more than once. The iPhone really needs a lock button!

Lucas’ latest accomplishment is learning how to climb on and off our bed; a fact I learned recently when I left him in our bedroom while I ran downstairs for something and came back to find him like this:Scary!

He loves playing with hats, not wearing them and is a master at peek-a-boo.

No matter how long some days seem, Lucas is my pride and joy and greatest blessing. I look forward to the next month of milestones, behavioral challenges and smiles.

post signature

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts

Here Is Your Best Shot

Posted on Written by

With holiday greeting cards starting to arrive in our mailbox, a ‘To Do’ list a mile long, an impending move and having already previously canceled twice, I had to keep my appointment yesterday at Sears to have Lucas’ 18 month/holiday photos taken.

I purposely picked a time mid-morning when he is usually happy and playful, full from breakfast and hours from lunch or his afternoon nap.

Lucas is really into bargaining right now, or rather being bargained with; eat three more bites and you can have a cracker, help Mommy clean up your toys and then you can watch Elmo, first we need to go to the super market and then we will go to the park, etc. I’m building trust so I never let him down. He seems to “get it”, but he is only 18 months old, so I wonder.

After I told him how long it would take and what to expect, I told him we would go for a ride on the choo choo (his current major obsession) after we got his photos taken.

Big mistake!!

It was all he could focus on.

“Choo choo.”

“Choo choo.”

“Choo choo.”

900 times.

It was insane.

I can laugh about it now, but I wanted to ring his neck during the 45 minutes we wasted in the studio.

He wanted nothing to do with the photographer or her fun antics to get him to smile, show some teeth or demonstrate his sparkling personality. Between the two of us, we must have looked like complete fools as we jumped, danced, sang, fake sneezed and peek-a-booed. Lucas was not amused and not cooperating.

Lucas only wanted “choo choo”.

Of the 45 shots the poor woman (a consummate professional with way more patience than me) took, exactly ONE picture came out. And that’s even debatable.The rest looked like mug shots. And I am not kidding.

This will definitely be a photo shoot to remember.

Needless to say, I followed through with my promise and took my son on that god damned train and I’m going to have to go with Plan B for the family holiday card.

Sadly, I don’t have a Plan B.
post signature

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts

Project Smile – November

Posted on Written by

A smile is the light in the window of your face that tells people you’re at home. – Author Unknown

Another month of reasons to smile!

1st – Last day of our Kindermusik class. This was our fourth session
2nd – I voted!
3rd – A glorious walk along our beautiful ocean with my beautiful friend, Jenn.
4th – A happy little traveler.
5th – Officially in escrow!
6th – Enjoyed a nice long lunch with a dear friend and Lucas turned 17 months!
7th – Celebrated my niece’s golden birthday.
8th – I got to hold my girlfriend’s newborn baby boy and remember back to when Lucas was so tiny.
9th – Took a peaceful walk along the beach and saw dolphins. A walk is always better with dolphins.
10th – Remembered my mother with love. She would have been 62 today.
11th – Finally got my hair cut and colored. It had been almost THREE months. So long, grays!
12th – Daydreaming about a brilliant future.
13th – Lucas found a mud puddle and he was happy as a clam to play in it.
14th – My best friend’s birthday and a fun day date with my husband complete with movie popcorn.
15th – Exercising my freedom of speech.
16th – Epic carrot cake.
17th – Dinner, wine and good conversation with a dear friend.
18th – Children that take three hour naps.
19th – Family.
20th – I threw a little shindig and brought some of the coolest bloggers together that I know: Kludgy Mom, Surfer Wife, Mommy of a Monster, The Little Hen House, Mommypants, Not Just Another Jen, A Beautiful Mess and Mamaondago
21st – A visit to the bookstore and train table.
22nd – Oprah’s final Favorite Things episode.
23rd – Hiring a mover.
24th – Catching up on TiVo.
25th – Family, friends, good health, a little money in the bank and a clean kitchen.
26th – Sushi and pool with our neighbors.
27th – Dinner and a movie with my sister.
28th – Family picture in front of our new house.
29th – Story time and shaking our sillies out at the library
30th – Donating three huge bags of clothes and other household items to Goodwill. Purging feels so good!

I hope I wasn’t the only one that found so many reasons to smile this month!

Alicia is the brain child behind this wonderful meme. Be sure to link up at her blog, A Beautiful Mess or check out other people’s lists.

You can see my October reasons to smile here.
post signature

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts

17 Months

Posted on Written by

We are just weeks away from the year and a half mark and Lucas is growing and changing and learning everyday. Here’s what he has been up to this month:
  • Asks for help when he needs it most of the time.
  • Says “thank you” most of the time. We are working on “please”.
  • Grabs our hands and says “hand” when he wants to take us somewhere, but isn’t always quite sure where.
  • Climbs on everything.
  • Loves to practice using keys, utensils and hair brushes.
  • Has officially given up his morning nap and fairly consistently sleeps from 1:00 – 3:00.
  • Has major separation anxiety upon one or both of us leaving, but it soon subsides, or so we’ve been told.
  • Has become leery of the dark.
  • Still prefers the bottle over a sippy cup, but will drink juice and water from time to time.
  • Has started drinking cow’s milk!! Yay, no more stinky formula.
  • Enjoys throwing toys when he’s grown tired of them and dumping his food on the floor when he’s done eating. Good times.
  • Loves being a passenger on Daddy’s bike ride.
  • Is learning family members names.
  • Has learned how to pull his pull toys.


    We are so lucky to have this little boy in our lives.


    post signature

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts

Looking For A Silver Lining

Posted on Written by

The holiday decorations are up in stores, our mailbox has been littered with catalogs for weeks and there is no escaping the toy commercials on television.

It can only mean one thing: It’s officially the holiday season!

Again.

Ugh.

On top of all the preparations that go into Christmas: finding, wrapping and delivering the perfect gifts, capturing a suitable holiday photo for the yearly greeting card, addressing, stamping and mailing the cards, digging out the decorations, streaming the lights, selecting and trimming the tree, attending the gatherings and displaying and maintaining a sense of good will and cheer to all, we are moving!

We are on Day 12 of escrow and provided everything continues to go smoothly, we need to be out of our house the week of Christmas. Gulp. Happy holidays to us! Can you say “bad timing”?

Rather than freak out about about all the tasks at hand, I’m going to look at the bright side:

  • We’re no strangers to moving. Since I graduated from college, I have moved 10 times and my husband, three.
  • Moving = purging and if not now, then when?
  • We don’t have to decorate our house for the holiday.
  • It will be wonderful to start the New Year and a new chapter with a new address.
  • Our holiday card can double as a “we’ve moved” notification.
  • This could be the year I solely use gift bags without guilt instead of painstakingly wrap our presents.
  • Lucas will enjoy playing in and with packing boxes, also known as cute photo ops. Too bad we can’t put him to work.
  • We have an excuse not to attend or more importantly host any holiday parties.
  • Our gifts to each other can be items we need/want for our new home.

Any other silver lining aspects of moving during the holiday season?

post signature

This is my 400th post!

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts

It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane….

Posted on Written by

Last night we took Lucas trick or treating for the first time in downtown Encinitas, where many of the merchants handed out candy to goblins, ghouls, fairy princesses and super heroes alike.

Needless to say, Lucas was a little overwhelmed. Before we left the house he could say something that sounded like “Halloween” but once we got in public, he clammed up. He did say a lot of “thank yous” though and really enjoyed filling up his bucket, even if he wouldn’t try any of the candy. I suppose that’s a good thing, right? For him, not for me or his dad.

post signature

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts
BlogWithIntegrity.com

What I Write About

a mother's guilt annoyances aunt leah birthdays blog books challenges conversations with Lucas DMB exercise family friends grandparents gratitude grief guest post holidays KRA Letters For You list loss love mama kat's writer's workshop memories me time milestones motherhood MSA NaBloPoMo parenthood parenting photos praise pregnancy2 question quotes SAHM school siblings simple joys TBW TDA bio travel update writing

Creative Kristi Designs