Big Weekend Fun

This is the 199th post on this here blog, so it should be full of fun bits.
Yesterday I officially started nesting, by cleaning out the nursery, washing all the bedding, and getting ready for Bouncing Baby Boy #2 (BBB2). While I was upstairs folding last seasons onesies, Lucas and Ben were creating the coolest train track ever. I came downstairs to discover a huge mess, but at second glance, realized it was a train track that started from the bookshelf, continued down various containers. through the barn, past the LoveSac and finished in the hallway. They had each piece taped together with painters tape and used very imaginative support beams.

About an hour later I heard giggling and went into the bedroom to discover Lucas wrapped up like a burrito. He thought it was the best thing ever. For those of us who are claustrophobic it would be quite a nightmare, but Lucas thought it was just fine. Of course we had to wrap Ben up like a burrito, too. Fun times! Just listen to the way Lucas says, "burrito" - it's the best!

Oh, and you might have noticed the beautiful pink pillow behind Ben. I've been wanting some satin pillow cases. Not for anything romantical, but just because they are supposed to be better for your skin and hair (they don't dry out your hair or cause wrinkles when you are on your side).
Anyhow, I got a couple in the mail from my mom the other day. Lucas stole one pillow from me for his nap. That night I took it back and he woke up at 4am and asked for the "mommy pillow" so I gave it up. Ben is not too happy that his son insists on sleeping on a pink satin pillow, but who can blame the kid? I asked him if he likes it because it's soft or because it's pink and he said, "because it's soft and pink."

Singing the ABC's

Ok, grandparents and aunties, here's a video of our boy singing his letters and sounds. He loves to get the letter magnets out every day and line them up in order. It's quite impressive - he can do it all by himself.

Fun with Lisa... and other recent things.

My sister, Lisa, came to visit us a couple weeks ago. We had a lot of rain that week, but still managed to have lots of fun. Lucas basically banished me from the toy room so he could have Lisa all to himself. For his birthday, Lisa bought Lucas some cool numerical rods to help with counting and math, and they were quite the hit. He's basically a genius now. Well, maybe not a genius, but he understands the basic concept of subtraction and addition. While Lisa was here we managed a walk around Town Lake, lunch at Torchy's Tacos, and a trip to the children's museum. Lucas loves him some Auntie Lisa. He was sad when she had to go, but I think the little train she gave him at the airport helped make up for her departure :).
Thanks for visit, Lisa. We can't wait to see you again so we can do math, sing the alphabet among various songs about monkeys. We love you!

In other news, Lucas really loves his bugs, books, trains, blocks, etc. Anything you can line up and put a bug on is prime real estate in this house! Also, I'd like to thank Bob the Builder for 15 minutes of peace and quiet the other day while I was babysitting. Chances are if you leave your kids with me, their gonna watch some sort of movie for a few minutes at least. Sorry.

Saturday night we had such a fun night. We headed to Dave and Busters (a sports bar/arcade) to try to catch the BYU game, but it wasn't showing there. Instead we used our gift card on arcade games. It was awesome. Lucas and Ben enjoyed numerous driving/crashing/snowmobiling games. I mostly crash in those games or drive the wrong way. Lucas didn't understand why Lightening McQueen wasn't in the NASCAR game, so Ben explained that his beloved McQueen was a fictional character.
We also had a couple sessions of family target practice as we shot dinosaurs in Jurassic Park - my favorite. It was great. Afterward, Lucas got to spend his 174 tickets on a prize. The dragon that he wanted was 1,000 tickets, so he had to settle for this delicious Flash Pop. It's basically a huge push pop with a light in it. He ate the whole thing in one sitting Sunday night. Thanks, Stebbings, for the gift card providing us the best Saturday night ever!

After our arcade experience we went to Mighty Fine for some hamburgers. Ben happened to be wearing one of the many Whataburger shirts that make up his wardrobe and the owner had him strip in front of the whole restaurant and change into a Mighty Fine shirt & hat. He took Ben's shirt and probably put it in some sort of weird collection. He said he does it to about 3 guys a week. It was funny, though. Ben was a great sport.

Another shirt needs voting!

3 Year Check-Up

Today was Lucas's 3 year check-up. We'd been talking about going and practicing "doctor" for a few days. It wasn't quite as smooth as we had practiced... he told the nurse he didn't like her and he was a little bit of a pill, but he was pretty good overall.
He weighed in at 36 pounds (90th percentile), and he is 40 inches tall (95th percentile).
He managed to only cry a little after his flu shot, then went to play with the toys in the waiting room. We finally left and went to Costco for groceries and a hot dog, which was fun.
Ever since he woke up he's been asking to go back to the doctor. He really likes those toys

EdaMommy

A conversation from dinner last night: (Dinner, meaning I served my son a bowl of corn and a bowl of edamame).

Me: Here's your edamame, Lucas.
L: What's edamame, Mommy?
Me: These poppy beans. (that's what he calls them)
L: Edamame? But, you're my mommy, Mommy.

Cute kid. Likes his corn and poppy beans, too.

Future Soccer Mom

Well, folks, the results are in. Lucas will indeed have a baby brother! I am destined to a life at the soccer/baseball/football fields... and hopefully the swimming pool, too. (These boys will have perfect swimmers bodies, you know).
Ben, Lucas and I went to the doctor this morning for the ultrasound. Lucas sat on the floor and quietly watched a DVD while the doctor did the ultrasound. Ben and I watched big globs move around on the tv screen and occasionally recognized what appeared to be a head, hand, or foot. It was quite obvious that he was a boy once we got to that part of his body. The doctor actually thought it was a boy when I had an ultrasound at 12 weeks, so I wasn't too surprised.
Lucas didn't really pay much attention to the ultrasound - Word Factory was much more interesting.
This whole time Lucas has been saying that the baby was a girl named Ella. And when I said it might be a boy, he said it would be a boy named Ella. When we went out to the car we told him that the baby was indeed a boy, he then proclaimed that he needed a snack. Later he asked what that boy's name was gonna be - glad to see we've moved past Ella.
Today I am 21 weeks, 3 days along, and the average of all the measurements were exactly 21 weeks & 3 days, he was also 45th percentile, which is good. His little heart, umbilical cord, hands, lips, and nose, are all perfect. I'm sure he'll be a supermodel when he comes out.
After the doctor, we headed to IKEA to return some stuff, then headed home/work. After lunch I became a real actress. More on that later....

Happy Birthday to Grandma!

Grandma, you're so wonderful! Thanks for always being so fun, for being there since day 1, for being adventurous, and for being so nice to me even when I'm naughty. I hope you have a wonderful day in Albikiki.
Love, Lucas

The Big Reveal

We finished the room last night after Lucas went to bed. This morning before Ben went to work we had the big reveal to Lucas. He had no clue we had been working on a room for 2 weeks - he just knew that for a couple weeks his house was full of cardboard boxes, clutter, and that there had been some drilling/hammering last night. Here's the video from this morning:

All we wanted was for Lucas to say, "Oh my GOODNESS," which he says so sweetly. Instead he got hung up on the idea of a present he saw downstairs... It was actually a present from Ben's parent's last year, that we hid for a year b/c he wasn't quite old enough yet (very cool cars).

Anyhow, Lucas seems to like his new room. He thinks the bed is "cool." Ben did such an awesome job working his bum off on this room. I worked really hard at trying to help a little.

We let Lucas open the cars from last year after the big reveal. I had been saving them for a big potty training reward, but when he saw the present last night Ben told him he could open it. And guess what, Nana and Grandpa Pat? You got an "Oh my GOODNESS!" Congratulations.

Quote of the Day

"Being bad is FUN."

Lucas then expressed the joys of running away, hitting, pushing, being mean, and making messes. Ben and I were both kind of dumb founded for a minute because yes, being bad is fun. We eventually tried to talk about the consequences/rewards of our actions, blah, blah, blah.... Then we let him eat ice cream, watch a movie, pop popcorn - all so we could try to finish up his big boy room.

This was after a nightmarish experience at target this evening, where Lucas took some scarfs off the display and ran around the store with them trailing behind, me chasing him. Such a pill... but I did refuse to buy the pool toys we already had in the cart.

Pink or Blue???

We find out the baby's gender in two weeks from today. You can take the poll to the left to tell me what you think we're having.

On another note, I got to hang out with these fine folks last night:
Clay and Andrea were kind enough to let Wendy and me tag along for a visit to the NICU to meet the babies. I got to scrub in like a fancy doctor, watch Clay change the sweetest little poopy diaper, and hold the cutest 3 pounds ever. The boys are very attractive, just like their parents; although, they're a little more wrinkly. You should see their legs - so cute!