Monday, November 28, 2005

$801.90 for a hot chocolate??

I've been having a tough time sleeping lately and I'm probably not functioning at 100% capacity. Most likely because of the nightly wake up calls from the little elf who lives with us, also known as Lucas.

After dropping Lucas off at preschool this morning, I debated on where I should get my hot chocolate. I decided on Semifreddi's in the Kensington Circle, since they know how much "extra chocolate" to put in my drink.

I saw a spot in front of a fellow Volvo. Pulled in in front of it, and heard metal on metal. Yes, I side-swiped this car while trying to park.

The estimate from the body shop, approximately $800, which makes this morning's hot chocolate the most expensive ever!

Sleep issues and pillow talk

I'm sure most everyone remembers how much I used to brag that Lucas slept 12-13 hours straight through the night. That was true from when he was about 5 months until he was out of his crib. But basically, since he's been out of the crib (July), we've had a lot more late-night wake-up calls.

Though it's somewhat frustrating and tiresome, there are some advantages to the sleep issues at this age. For instance, this morning, around 3am, I was in bed next to him. He was patting my cheeks very softly and said "Hi, my tiny little mommy" in a very very sweet voice. Then he was asking about who people's brothers are. He said, "Mommy, I'm your brother." I replied, "No, you're my son." Then he said, "No, you are my sunshine." Then he asked me to sing him the song ("You are my sunshine").

A few hours later, Lucas was tossing and turning in his sleep and he kicked me in the back then pushed me off the bed. But it was worth it!

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Homemade telescope vs. the electronic toys

Every Thursday, Lucas brings a toy to share to his preschool. Lucas usually brings a Teddy bear or some type of car. Last week, as we were getting ready to head out the door I reminded him that he needed to bring one toy. Lucas said, "I'll bring my telescope!"

Lucas has always been interested in the cardboard rolls from toilet paper and paper towels. Since we like to encourage make-shift toys around here we dubbed these rolls "telescopes" and have had a lot of fun with them.

This "telescope" looked a little sad. It was kind of squished and still had some toilet paper remnants stuck to it, which I did my best to remove. So to help embellish his toy, I picked up a sheet of star stickers and we headed out the door. Lucas had a great time in the car applying the stickers to his telescope. I put some inside and said, "Look, you can see the stars in the telescope!" We both thought this was very clever.

When we opened the door to school, I heard the "beep beep beep" of not one, but three electronic hand-held toys. Lucas walks in proudly with his telescope. He started waving it in front of some of his friends, "Look at my telescope, you can see stars in there!", but most of them were pretty busy running around and looking at the noisy little high-tech toys. As I was leaving, I saw one little girl sit next to Lucas to take a look. (Thank you Leah!)

When I picked him up from school, he had his telescope in hand. I asked him how his friends liked his telescope. In his optimistic and earnest little voice, he replied, "They liked it A LOT!"

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

The things we do for love


One of Lucas' favorite games these days is playing "train". Not with the train table, but with his chairs. He enlists one of us and we take turns driving and being the passenger. Yesterday, he asked that we wear our bike helmets. We both had a lot of fun!

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Breakfast conversation

One of the fun things about living with a toddler is I have absolutely no idea what new, fun topic might come out of his mouth.

This morning, we were sitting at his little table eating cereal and milk. Right next to the table is Maggie's den. I had just said something about what a nice day it will be for us to go to the park and Lucas picks a new topic.

Lucas: Is that Maggie's butt? (pointing to Maggie's backside)
Me: Yes, it is.
Lucas: Where is her penis?
Me: She doesn't have one. She's a girl dog.
Lucas: Yes, she has one. It's on her tail.
Me: No, that's just her tail.
He ponders this for a few seconds.
Lucas: Maggie has a big butt. It's big and black.
Me: Yes, she sure does.

Is that Sunny at a football game??!!


Yes, it is! That's me (Julie on the left, Karen on the right) at the Cal stadium for the Cal-USC football game. The pull of seeing old friends outweighed my lack of enthusiasm for football.

Saturday morning, Julie and I donned the appropriate USC football attire: tall boots, jeans, and cute tops; and went to a Trojan tailgate party, hosted by Karen.

At the tailgate party, we scored tickets to the game with other fellow Trojans. So we trudged in our now somewhat uncomfortable boots up to the stadium.

So, there I was, surrounded by avid SC football fans. We were in the 3rd row in the Cal endzone. One fellow, Klaus, was particularly vocal with many a "Cal sucks!" directed to any Cal fans or football players who walked by. We called him "The Ambassador".

The last time I actually went into a stadium to see a game was my freshman year at USC, fall of 1988. I never managed to learn the basics of the game. However, I did learn to take my cue from other Trojans. I can cheer on cue and mimic some of the football fan jargon. I found myself joining in the chant for "Reggie, Reggie!" I would also repeat things I heard, like "Excellent field position!"

We left at the beginning of the 4th quarter, once we saw "our boy" Lendale White, score a touchdown at our end of the stadium. And we saw the spunky little USC band during half time, which was a nice perk. I saw some people who I have not seen in a while, which was nice. One of them, Hunter Ellis, I am told was a contestant on "Survivor".

Stay tuned for my next foray as a football fan, which should be in another 17 years.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Lucas on rain

When the rainy weather hits, I used to like curling up inside with a cup of tea and a good book or movie. But it's quite different with Lucas. He LOVES being out in the rain, stomping and running through big puddles. The rainy weather also gives us a lot to talk about.

This morning at breakfast Lucas gave me some new information about rain.
Me: Lucas, did you hear the rain last night?
Lucas: Yes, I did. It was raining and raining and raining!
Lucas: (pointing at Maggie) Look Mommy, it's raining in Maggie's mouth.
Me: Hmmm, is it really? That's interesting.
Lucas: Why you say "that's interesting"? Why you say that, Mommy?

Then as we were walking down to the car, he could see that it was wet.
Lucas: Mommy, why is the car all wet?
Me: Because it rained last night.
Lucas: Why?
Me: Because the clouds were heavy and full of water so they had to let out some rain.
Lucas: Why?
- 10 seconds later -
Lucas: Mommy, why is the car all wet?

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Did someone say "genius"?

As parents, we all believe our children our little geniuses. People must remember, that often times true genius is not understood for many years (remember Van Gogh?). I think this may be what is happening with Lucas.

Lucas has recently completed a few projects that I'm sure are of great meaning to him, but leaves the rest of us saying, "Huh?".

The other morning, Lucas dug in and got to work. He put a little plastic baggie on his hand and began to pile an assortment of gizmos on his table. After about ten minutes of intensely putting things on, removing them, and rearranging, he stood back proudly to admire his work and said, "There, I'm all done!"

Then a few days later, we came in from outside and I asked him to take off his tennis shoes. When I came back to the room, this is what I saw. I may have no idea what these things mean now, but mark my words, the boy is a genius.

New pictures of our house

We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will be back in our house by the end of the year. (Hey, we can dream, right?)



Here are some recent pictures of our house, complete with windows, doors, walls, and our whole house fan. By the way, we are going with concrete counters.