I'm still alive, really.

Aloha,

I have officially been away from home for three weeks, one day, and 7 hours. I will go back on Wednesday so Ben can remember who we are and hopefully he will get to eat something besides microwave burritos (aside from what he eats at our friends' houses - thanks!)

Tonight I found out that I have been making a grammatical error (and you know I hate grammatical errors) for the past 16 months. My sister, Lisa, told me that when I write about Lucas and his posessions, I am supposed to use an apostrophe-s, not just an apostrophe. So, I've been saying Lucas' ball, etc. for over a year. Oops. The only case you use just the apostrophe in a first name is in the case of Jesus. Interesting, huh?

She did say that there are probably exceptions in rule books somewhere, so I shouldn't feel too dumb...

That said, if you wish to see some of Lucas's updated pictures, go here.

Lucas has grown and learned so much in the past three weeks. Last year, Lucas got two front teeth for Christmas. This year, he got four teeth for Christmas (his canines)! Now we only have a couple more sets molars to go and we're done with teeth!

Lucas has also really started to love animals. In Arizona he got to meet Riley, Ben's aunt's dog. He also got to see the duck pond. He was quite scared at first, but then tried to climb into the pond feet first like he goes down the stairs. He even started saying a new word that sounds a lot like "dog" or "duck".... we think it might be a German word. But, I think it is the word for all things not human.

In Albuquerque, Lucas was excited to see Nala and Oscar again. They weren't quite so excited to see him. We have made it two weeks without any bites - just a couple growls. Lucas has learned to be careful with the dogs and not poke them in the face. Last week Lisa was giving Lucas a bath and they heard Oscar walk down the hall and Lucas said, "Oska." I didn't believe her at first, but now he says it quite often when he sees the dog. (Ben isn't a fan of Oscar, so he wasn't happy when I told him this...). I now hear "Oska" and the German dog word much more than Mama.

Oh, and Lucas finally did his first sign! I've been trying to get this kid to sign for ten months. Now he'll do the sign for "all done" when he wants down from his high chair. Next we'll work on "milk" and "more."

Lucas has some fun toys to play with here (toys way older than me). There's a pretty cool Tonka dump truck, a doll crib, and a little set of wooden beads and a big string. He enjoys playing with the beads and has started to string them onto the string with some help. And of course, Lucas's favorite activity is the sorting, stacking, and organizing. Lucas has emptied every single drawer in my parent's house, and several drawers in Ben's parent's house. He loves it.

I was supposed to go home last Thursday, but stayed longer because Ben had work to do in Austin and I didn't want to go home and be alone while Ben worked. The first week home after being with my family is always really hard - the empty house, doing all the work by myself, etc. Here I have about 6 assistants to help with watching Lucas and it makes for a nice break. And the great thing is that they really enjoy playing with Lucas... and instead of being a chore, bath time is a really FUN time.

The good news is that my sister showed Lucas some pictures on the computer tonight. He got really excited when he saw Ben, so he still remembers him! Ben and I have wondered before how long it would take him to forget one of us. I said he'd be over me in a week, but now I know that's not true. He misses and loves his daddy very much. We'll see you soon, Baby!