Letters For Lucas

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

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10 Things I Love About Gilmore Girls – NaBloPoMo

Posted on November 11, 2015 Written by Tonya

I started binge-watching Gilmore Girls long before Netflix announced a series revival. I just started season 6 and couldn’t be more in love with Lorelai, Rory, Luke, Taylor, Sokie or the charming town of Stars Hollow, but these are some of my favorite things… so far:

1. Food! I love how Gilmore Girls portrays eating, between the Friday night dinners at Richard and Emily’s, breakfast at Luke’s Diner, takeout from Al’s Pancake World and Sokie’s glorious kitchen, it’s okay to enjoy food.

2. Small towns are both lovely and annoying. Everyone knows everyone. The traditions (civil reenactments, 24-hour dance-a-thon, charity picnic basket lunch auction, bike race though town,  etc.) the town of Stars Hollow upholds are sweet and endearing and make me want to live there.

3. Mothers and daughters can be close. No relationship on Gilmore Girls is more important, or more unwavering, than the love between Lorelai and Rory. While men come and go, you can always count on them to talk it out over a vat of coffee. They are always there for one another. Even Lorelai and her own mother, who mostly butt heads find a way, in their own way to be there for one another.

4. Wit is a very attractive characteristic and no one does it better than Lorelai Gilmore. Her innuendos, silly quips and smart ass comments are the best!

5. Jess (Milo Ventimiglia). Sometimes the bad boy isn’t always that bad.

6. All the book love! I can’t help but wonder if 2015 Rory would have a Kindle. For a list of all 339 books referenced, read this.

7. Lorelai and Luke… I adore their will-they-won’t-they relationship. I’m rooting for them but, I fear Lorelai will end up with Chris, Rory’s father, as she should.

8. Carole King’s song used for the theme song, “Where You Lead (I Will Follow)” is perfection and did you know that she sings the song with her own daughter?

9. The plural of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac. Thank you, Rory.

10. I still have two whole seasons left to watch of a show that ended 8 years ago! Plus the four mini movies. Yay!

Have you enjoyed Gilmore Girls? What would you add to my list?

gilmoregirlspromoseason

NaBloPoMo November 2015

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Filed Under: list, NaBloPoMo, TV Tagged With: list, NaBloPoMo, TV

Just The Two Of Us

Posted on August 19, 2014 Written by Tonya

I began daydreaming about a mother/son trip when I first saw the Expedia Find Your Storybook advertisement on TV. The one where the mother is reading her son a bedtime story and simultaneously on an awesome adventure with him.

…where villages floated on water and castles were houses, dragons lurked and giants stood tall and the good queen showed the boy it could all be real.

And then Lucas and I started butting heads.

Bad!

He’s five, so not listening, pushing my buttons and being defiant come with the territory. But I know that there’s more to it than that because when it’s just the two of us, he’s super.

Lucas has been very patient and understanding of my now divided time between him and his six-month-old sister but he doesn’t quite understand how much his Lola truly needs me right now.

I get it.

He misses me and being the center of my attention and this has been demonstrated by him asking more than once, “Can’t we leave Lola at home and go do something, just you and me?”.

Sigh.

I miss him too.

It has been particularly challenging now that it’s summer and he is not in school for a large portion of the day. We play a game of Uno or Connect Four in between diaper changes and bottle feedings. I’m constantly running back in the house to listen for cries while I should be focused on our game of Ring Toss in the backyard.

We’ve had some awesome mother/son dates, which for some reason are growing increasingly harder to schedule and since it’s summer, I really want to make an impact, leave an impression, do something grand with my son. And yes, put the mommy guilt at bay for a while.

So, with only two more weeks of vacation, what better time to get away, just the two of us? I’m hoping our mother/son trip becomes an annual tradition. This year we are tackling Chicago and leave Thursday. Lucas and I are both bursting with excitement over getting away and creating our own adventure, one that will include Navy Pier, Millennium Park, The Shedd Aquarium and deep dish pizza all without his little sister.

The idea of visiting the Windy City came from my desire to go there and all that it offers children. I’ve been to Chicago several times and I’m looking forward to seeing it through the eyes of my son.

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Filed Under: a mother's guilt, motherhood, summer, travel, TV, vacation, video Tagged With: a mother's guilt, motherhood, summer, travel, TV, vacation, video

Thank You’s

Posted on May 2, 2014 Written by Tonya

My latest crush is on Jimmy Fallon (see yesterday’s post for 10 reasons why) and I love his segment on Fridays where he writes thank you notes. He’s essentially mocking the practice by thanking everything from…

Peer pressure, for being totally not cool. Unless my friends think it’s cool, then it’s pretty cool I guess

to

Jeopardy, for being the most entertaining way to remind me of how stupid I am. 

For more, click here. 

Here is my own list of thank you’s… some serious, some not so much and none as funny as Fallon.

image

Thank you to:

  • Gardeners who turn off their leaf blowers and loud tree trimmers when I walk by pushing Lola in a stroller, but my own, even after talking to him about it still can’t grasp the concept of a sleeping baby.
  • The litterbug who threw their empty American Spirit cigarette box on the street prompting a lively discussion with my four-year-old not only about the dangers of smoking, the importance of picking up after ourselves but also the relationship between cowboys and Indians.
  • Drive-thru Starbucks! Seriously, I don’t know if God exists, but if he does, he gave moms the drive-thru.
  • The man standing at the urinal who completely ignored me when I barged in with my two kids in tow. Oops. I really need to learn to read signs!
  • The girl at the park who called me “ma’am”. As if my tired bones, dark circles under my eyes, gray roots and flabby postpartum gut haven’t been making me feel old enough. Sigh… For future reference, that salutation is  never okay.
  • The even younger girl at Yogurtland with your ass hanging out of your shorts and your midriff showing, you gave me something to think about when Lola is your age. NOTE TO SELF: Buy all of your daughter’s clothes!! Oh, and two things: yes, you’re hot and no, you are NOT dressed appropriately, not that you were wondering or care! Shame on your father, the man I presume and hope you were with for letting you leave the house dressed like that.
  • Solar power, you rock! With the 90+ degree days we’ve been having lately, running our AC doesn’t make me tailspin into panic at the thought of our energy bills.
  • Lola’s bowels that seem to know exactly when we are running late and headed out the door and decide to let loose, if you know what I mean. O_o

What are you “thankful” for?

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Filed Under: conversations with Lucas, crush, gratitude, list, question, random, TV Tagged With: conversations with Lucas, crush, gratitude, Jimmy Fallon, list, question, random, TV

I Heart Jimmy

Posted on April 30, 2014 Written by Tonya

As a busy and sleep deprived mom of two, I don’t have nearly as much time as I used to to read magazines or even my Twitter feed to find out what’s going on in the world. I have also stopped watching many of my favorite shows, but there is one that I DVR religiously… The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. I have laughed my way through every single episode since he took over on February 17, 2014 and I look forward to it each day. Of course, I’m day behind, but at least I feel hipper watching it.

I grew up begging to stay up late to watch Johnny Carson host the now 60 year old Tonight Show but not because I really cared about the show or guests, but because my parents did. I never tuned in to Jay Leno because I didn’t connect with him. I respect the Tonight Show institution and when I heard Fallon was taking over, I knew he’d breathe new life into it and do a stellar job in the process.

If you’re not watching, you should be!

10 things I love about The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon:

1. Fallon was amazing on SNL and has proven to have impeccable comedic timing.

2. His monologue keeps me on top of entertainment and world news. He also “gets” social media and uses pop culture references that I appreciate and identify with. This must be why my parents enjoyed Carson. A host you can relate to equals good entertainment.

3. He’s goofy, funny, cute, and so talented. I wish he were my neighbor!

4. I adore his childlike enthusiasm for his awesome guests. He genuinely gets visibly starstruck and it’s super adorable.

5. He doesn’t just conduct boring interviews, he makes his guests do wacky things like roller golf, participate in lip-synching contests, and play flip cup and beer pong.

6. His bromance with Justin Timberlake. Together they are truly unstoppable and hilarious. Case and point: History of Rap 5.

7. His impressions. Have you seen his Tom Petty or Vladimir Putin?

8. The endearing way he talks about his daughter and fatherhood.

9. His banter with his sidekick, Higgins. When the two of them go at it, it can be pee in your pants funny. They have an incredible connection and none of their playful back and forth is scripted.

10. This video (okay, so it’s from his old show, but still)…. Dave Matthews GPS spoof.


This post was written for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop, Prompt 5) List 10 things you love about your favorite show.

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Filed Under: crush, current events, DMB, funny, list, mama kat's writer's workshop, me time, TV, video Tagged With: crush, current events, DMB, funny, list, mama kat's writer's workshop, me time, TV, video

Obsessions

Posted on February 20, 2014 Written by Tonya

Lucas goes through phases when all he wants to talk about are planets or dinosaurs, pirates or sea life, Legos and most recently learning and belting out every last word of the Frozen soundtrack, but every now and then he gets a true obsession for something and it becomes all consuming.

The first and thankfully shortest lived obsession was with Elmo. Now he won’t give Sesame Street the time of day. While there was no annoying red squeaky voiced monster when I was growing up, I loved watching Sesame Street and the Muppets and learned a lot from those shows, but there far too many [better] options nowadays.

Next came his Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends obsession. We have tracks of all shapes and sizes and dozens of trains, we memorized the theme song, spent a Day Out With Thomas and have logged countless hours around the train table.

Still going strong is his passion for Cars and Cars 2. Lucas has at least 100 die cast cars from the movies and has expanded his collection to include Microdrifters, Squinkies and Mighty Beans. He owns half a dozen track sets and loves lining up cars by color, gender, bad guy vs. good guy, first movie vs. second, World Grand Prix racers, Radiator Springs friends, etc., etc. It’s exhausting but a passion that both my husband and I encourage and enthusiastically contribute to.

Lucas’s dad sells cars for a living so I’m sure he’ll always have a love for them too, he even talks about being a race car driver when he grows up (God help me and my poor heart if in fact that happens). One of my favorite things he has ever said is, “I wish Lightening McQueen and Tow Mater were real so they could teach me how to be a race car driver”.

Lucas’s latest obsession is with Angry Birds and more specifically, Star Wars Angry Birds. This started with the original app/game, which I still refuse to play or download on my phone but his dad has. It soon became a favorite and then graduated to more apps/games, books, light sabers, stuffed animals, underwear, Telepods, dishes, Angry Bird GO! carts, Star Wars Angry Birds Jenga game sets and to date as a family, we have watched four of the six Star Wars movies [SIDE NOTE: can you believe the first Star Wars movie came out in 1977??] and are constantly being quizzed about all the characters, their strengths and weaknesses, weapons of choice, home planets, alliances, etc. We don’t leave the house without his Star Wars Angry Birds Character Encyclopedia.

Recently Lucas lost one of his tiny Telepods (C3P-YOLK) in the car and days after Todd tore the thing apart trying to find it, it rolled out from underneath the passenger seat. Look how happy he was to be reunited. Notice the shirt.

IMG_8639This current passion is cute, but exhausting. I suppose real strategy and vivid imagination are being used to play these games and act out different scenarios, so he’s benefiting in that way and I’m quite sure another obsession is waiting lurking just around the corner…

What is your child’s current obsession?

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Filed Under: cars, elmo, play, question, raising boys, TBW, toys, TV Tagged With: cars, elmo, play, question, raising boys, TBW, toys, TV

Character Driven

Posted on October 17, 2013 Written by Tonya

From the toys Lucas lusts after, the food he’ll tolerate, the books he begs to be read over and over and even his toothpaste, it’s all character driven…

Just to name a few in our house:

  • Sponge Bob Squarepants yogurt sticks
  • Clifford the Big Red Dog juice boxes
  • Monsters University Cheez-Its
  • Star Wars Angry Birds water bottle, board game
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle clothing, dishes, Band-Aids
  • Cars bedding, clothing, macaroni & cheese, soup, fruit chews, cutlery, dishes, napkins, tissues, Band-Aids, (clearly his favorite, but Ill take Lightening over Elmo any day!)
  • Thomas the Train toothpaste
  • Dora the Explorer hand soap

And I know I’m missing at least a dozen other items.

Every show Lucas enjoys watching, there’s a toy or other product available. I get it, it’s marketing, brand recognition, merchandising, cross promotion, product tie-ins, etc. but it’s too much. 

I know I’m partly to blame because I buy the crap for him, but whenever possible, I do try to steer him towards the classics or something unknown, when it comes to books and everyday products and screen time (TV watching, iPhone or iPad play) is very limited in our house. 1-2 hours per day and sometimes none at all.

My own weakness aside, I blame television commercials. I read recently that advertisers spend more than $12 billion annually to gear commercials to children. The average American child watches more than 40,000 television commercials per year, and their ability to recall commercials is extremely strong. Studies show that children only need to see a commercial one time to develop a preference for the particular product, and that preference is strengthened with repeated exposure.

TV commercials also create something called the “nag factor,” when a child will cry, complain and nag his or her parent to buy a particular product seen on TV. The nagging continues until the sucker parent purchases the product. According to research, 2- to 12-year-olds indirectly impacted another $320 billion in household purchases. Over the past five years, children have had a bigger influence on the purchase of durable goods due to the nag factor.

When I four, I knew about Holly Hobbie, Mickey Mouse, the Sesame Street crew and Raggedy Ann and Andy. There were only four channels on TV, my parents couldn’t afford to take me to the latest kid movie the minute it came out, I wore mostly hand-me-downs and there was zero screen time except for a few precious hours on Saturday mornings. There was too much fun to be had outside! It was a simpler time. How do we get back there?

Is your house full of TV driven products? How do you limit your kids screen time?

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Filed Under: elmo, parenting, toys, TV Tagged With: elmo, parenting, toys, TV

Just Thinking Out Loud…

Posted on August 5, 2013 Written by Tonya

Okay, so bear with me, this is a random post in order for me to purge… I have a lot on my mind these days. Stupid, ridiculous, trivial crap and big, life changing, important stuff too. I think it’s imperative to get it all out sometimes, so here goes:

  • First and foremost, how in the hell is it already August?
  • Only 34 days until my next Dave Matthews concert… not that I’m counting or anything.
  • Moving. Or more importantly, finding our (close to and within our budget) dream house. Open living space, big backyard, guest room (or not), Jack & Jill bathroom, two-story (or not) and back in our old neighborhood. It’s not that much to ask for, is it? And yet, we have looked at dozens of houses and haven’t quite fallen in love with any and if we have, they were bought within days or hours of us seeing them.
  • Dog training. Charlie Pasta is having a hard time and will be going away for training for two weeks later this month and I am absolutely thrilled!! He hates apartment living as much as I do and has decided to act out and turn skittish (AKA bark like a maniac at every noise he hears). We’ve become very frustrated and turns out are not the best dog trainers, so it’s time for professional intervention. 
  • North West. When and how are Kim & Kanye going to introduce their daughter to the world? I’m so curious. Unless, they have already and I’ve been living under a rock?
  • I’m so happy America’s Next Top Model is back!! Cycle 20, baby!! This time it’s girls vs. boys. No judging… you know you watch it or something equally embarrassing, right? Right?!
  • Speaking of embarrassing TV, another guilty pleasure show that I have gotten sucked into this summer is Mistresses. It’s so bad.
  • How many times does a day does “Blurred Lines” play on the radio and how soon before it really starts to bother me that my four year knows almost every lyric?
  • There is more substance to me than bad television and pop songs, I am currently OBSESSED with This American Life, the weekly public radio show broadcast and I recently downloaded the app and have listened to some of the most amazing stories from learning how to count cards in order to beat casinos to the love of summer camp and an incredible story about babies switched at birth only to find out 40 years later. The host, Ira Glass is my new hero.
  • I’m looking forward to the day when I don’t have to hear “butt”, “poop” and “pee” 900 times a day or reprimand someone for using them in excess. Seriously, how do you make it stop?!

There is definitely a lot more going on in this brain of mine, but this really helped. For now…

What’s on your mind?

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Filed Under: celebs, DMB, list, move, puppy, question, random, TV Tagged With: celebs, DMB, list, move, puppy, question, random, TV

A Proud Mommy Moment

Posted on July 15, 2013 Written by Tonya

First of all, allow me to clear away the cobwebs and spray a little Endust. It has been nearly three weeks since I last blogged, the longest unintentional break I’ve ever taken. I have to say I liked it.

A lot!

What have I been up to?

I turned 41, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the sun, at the beach and pool with my family and friends, riding my beach cruiser while wrangling my dog and trying to keep up with Lucas on his scooter and reading! I am completely devouring the Veronica Roth Divergent series and counting down the days until the third installment comes out. Anyone else hooked? Speaking of being hooked, I have also discovered Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Don’t ask!

Plus, I honestly haven’t felt like writing or sharing even though there is never a loss for subject matter and my head is buzzing with post ideas. I suppose I’ve been a bit lazy too. Blogging is hard work and those of you that pump out material on a daily basis, my hat is off to you now and forever. I truly don’t know how you do it.

At any rate, while my blog posts may be sporadic, I am not quitting, just enjoying life.

I recently had one of those “I’m so proud to be this boy’s mother moments” and wanted to document it.

I took Lucas to the park after school one day last week and I neglected to grab his scooter or helmet. I knew that there may be hell to pay. While he enjoys being pushed on the swings, playing in the sand, climbing on the monkey bars and sliding down poles, he really loves riding his scooter most of all and no park outing is complete with it.

As suspected, he complained at first but was overall okay with Mommy’s mistake.

Leave it to Lucas to notice a lone PlasmaCar. He inched his way towards it and promptly got on and zoomed away. I chased after him and told him that it probably belonged to another child at the park and he’d have to return it when asked. It took exactly three minutes before a little boy about his Lucas’ age came over and exclaimed, “Hey, that’s mine!”. Lucas gave it up without a fight and then proceeded to sulk around the park.

Next thing you know the PlasmaCar is available again and Lucas gives me that look and I give him one in return and tell him that he better ask the boy if he can ride it. “No, you, Mommy!!” he whined.

I give him a three sentence script, a kiss for luck, hang back a little and watch and wait. He runs back to me twice without having said anything to the little boy but getting closer to him each time.

I know this is a huge undertaking for a four-year-old and I know he’s nervous. But I also know he wants to rides that PlasmaCar and I am confident that he can do this. I keep encouraging him and ask him what’s the worst that can happen? The boy says no and that’s it. You’ll say, “Thank you, anyway.” and move on. I’m trying to teach him self confidence and social skills and it worked.

On his third or fifth attempt, he is talking to the boy and seconds later, he rushes over to me with the biggest smile on his face.

“He said yes!!”

Because their conversation was very short, I did double check with the boy and indeed, he had said yes!

Proud son, proud Mommy!

IMG_3779

Sometimes all you have to do is ask.

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Filed Under: blog, books, outing, parenting, play, praise, TV Tagged With: blog, books, outing, parenting, play, praise, TV

Guilty Pleasures

Posted on January 23, 2012 Written by Tonya

Before you watch my Vlog Talk, I’m excited to share that I am this week’s Guest Star at Alison’s (Mama Wants This) place. Please come visit me there after you hear my confession…


Vlog TalkThis post is for Vlog Talk. The prompt I chose was #2 Favorite guilty pleasures.

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About Last Night

Posted on January 12, 2012 Written by Tonya

Last night Lucas finally went to sleep somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30, after multiple pleads visits from both Mom and Dad to “settle down”.

I love this time of the day, the hours that we reclaim our house and get to enjoy the peace, the calm after the storm, if you will; a real conversation, a movie from start to finish or other adult activity.

Tonight, however, went something more like this….

Todd nestled in our bed with his laptop to write an appraisal for work and I was in the living room spread out on the couch watching TV, computer on my lap and wine in hand. I was tweeting, pinteresting, catching up on blogs and above all, relaxing, in other words, I was multitasking.

It was after 10:00 by the time I made it to bed. Todd was asleep shortly there after. I laid next to him quietly and read for an hour and a half… 100 pages!

At 11:45 I turned off the light.

There in the dark, even though I said I wasn’t going to do it, it beckoned me.

And you know what happened next… one Website sent me to another and then another and another and another and…

I played six turns of Scrabble (scored one bingo!), five turns of Words With Friends, tweeted more, pinned five new items, checked out my Facebook news feed, commented, “liked”, listened to the whirl of the dish washer run through nine cycles, nudged my partner a couple of times to stop the snoring, thought I heard Lucas open the door to his room twice and all the while cursing myself for being up past my bedtime AGAIN!

Then I wrote typed this post.

Stupid phone.

(Written and) sent from my iPhone

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Filed Under: annoyances, books, facebook, internet, iphone, me time, sleep, TV, twitter Tagged With: annoyances, books, facebook, internet, iphone, me time, sleep, TV, twitter

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