Dear Lucas (6 years and 3 months),

I just love this time of the year. The weather is starting to cool down and the holidays are just around the corner. You are so excited for Halloween. It is just around the corner!

This month you finally went in for an eye appointment. Several months ago your eye doctor decided to retire so we had to find you a new one. Now that there is only one pediatric eye doctor the wait to get in was over 6 months. He said your eyes are still looking good and that he'll see you back in six months.

We were happily surprised to discover that you and your friends were in an ad in a regional magazine. The Roundhouse used a photo of you four from last years Santa train to promote the upcoming Santa train event. It is the October/November 2011 issue on page 89. The issue had two different covers and of course we bought one of each! When I showed you that you were in a magazine you acted like you weren't surprised. All you said was "I was in the newspaper before and now this, I guess I am really famous now."

All summer long you have been dying to go bowling but we just never got around to going. You got to finally go when your friend Bella had a bowling birthday party. You loved it!

Every October since you were born you've always gone with us to Helen, GA for a family reunion. This time around I was working and couldn't find anyone to work for me. You still got to go though because your Grandparents were nice enough to take you. I doubt you even missed us for one second.

You had a day off from school a few days ago so we packed up a picnic lunch, grabbed your friend Gabe, and headed to the park. The weather was perfect and there was a light breeze for kite flying.

I got to go with you to your first 1st grade field trip. Your class went to the Civic Center to watch Junie B. Jones play. You really enjoyed the performance and the music. I loved being called "Lucas' Mom" all day.

You cannot wait for Halloween. We have the yard all decorated. We are going to go Trick-or-treating with your friend Preston like we have done for the last several years. Halloween falls on a school night this year so we won't be out that late but it should still be fun.

You can't wait to go trick-or-treating. This year you wanted to be Harry Potter so I've been finding different pieces to put together for a costume. You would probably just be happy with some random prepackaged costume but I love adding little details.

I love you to the moon and back,

Lucas' Mom :-)

Rest in Peace Siren Firetruck Hose Hunter

Friday morning I noticed that Lucas' kitty Siren was missing. She was always an inside cat but she enjoyed going out in the backyard with the dogs when they took potty breaks. I figured she would turn up. I got Lucas dressed for school and we headed to the bus stop. Right as we walked out of our driveway I noticed a black cat lying in the road. I was able to distract Lucas so he didn't notice the cat and get him on the bus without him knowing anything was wrong. It turned out that it was Siren. When Lucas got home from school Curtis and I told him that Siren had passed away and he wanted to bury her in the backyard so we did.

The first night we brought Siren home 10/15/2010

Bonding with his new kitten

Siren quickly became the subject of Lucas' artwork.

She liked to jump in the empty dryer.

Even our nephew Caden loved her.

She loved taking naps on the couch just like Nicey and Jadie.

Dear Lucas (5 years 2 months)

After a few technical difficulties (meaning my laptop died last week and now your Dad and I are sharing a computer) I am finally able to sit down and write to you. It is finally starting to turn cooler and I absolutely love this time of year. It's so much fun being a Mom around fall. You are excited about Halloween (and no for the 5th time today it is NOT next week) You want to be Knight in shining armor... which really surprised me because of your current obsession with Super Heroes. Then again, you dress like a super hero every day so I guess being a Knight will be exciting because it is something new. Thank goodness the Dollar store is selling plastic knight armor. I have your costume put up in mt closet. Without fail if you wake up before me you sneak and get it out. Then when I wake up, you always make a sad puppy dog face and say, "Mommy, pwease foegive me"

It's nice to be in a set schedule again. Most mornings you ride the bus to school and we always leave the house about 8:00am and walk to the end of the street. Some mornings you will ask me to drive you and I usually give in and secretly I love taking you. You always ride the bus home though and you get off running towards me with a big smile. Well, unless you got in trouble at school, then you get off the bus slowly and looking down at the ground, but luckily those days are few and far between. You seem to REALLY love kindergarten and you are learning so much. Your teacher has recommended you for speech therapy because you don't say your "L" and "R" the right way yet. I guess by now you should be able to say them clearly, but you are the youngest one in your class.

When you get home, the first thing you do is sit down and do your homework. On Mondays you come home with a couple worksheets. Usually they are just practice for writing a letter or number. They aren't due until Friday. Sometimes you do them all at once, sometimes you do one a day, it just depends on your mood. Your handwriting is getting so neat so fast and you are teaching me all these tricks for writing letters... (like j has a "money tail")

One of the reasons you are so well behaved at school is because you know if you aren't then you won't get to go to Lowe's on Saturdays. Man whoever thought of the free kid clinics is a genius. Talk about brand loyalty. Anytime you see a sign or Logo for Lowe's you get so excited. I love watching you and your Dad build things together.

You are so inquisitive right now. You want to know how things work and how words are spelled. You even want to know what would happen in the strangest of situations. Out of nowhere you will ask something random like "what would happen if I turned into a dog" or "what would happen if a dragon swooped down and ate the car." Those aren't actually "what would happens" from you but that is only because you ask so many in a day that I can't keep up with them.

I really love our neighborhood. It is such a safe place to walk and for you to play. The weather has been so nice that we walk the dogs quite a bit. I don't think Jadie has gone on as many walks in her whole entire life as she has in this last month. Jadie and Nicey like when you walk them because you like to run and so do they. In fact you like to run so much you usually run in front of me all the way to the bus stop. If you aren't too tired in the afternoons you'll also run home.

Sweet Pea, I love you to infinity and beyond,
Mom

Snuggles are the Best Medicine

Lucas hasn't been feeling so hot today. He was crying over something and then he just started getting hysterical. When I asked him what was wrong he told me, "I've got crying on my glasses! I can't see through them." It was so hard not to laugh.

Happy 6th Birthday Jadie

Peter Pan & Tink

Before heading out to a Fall Festival and Trick-or-Treating

So excited!

Trick-or-Treating with his buddy Preston for the 2nd year in a row.

Checking out his loot.

He left the candy in the pumpkin for the "Sugar Fairy"

First Day of School

Last night Lucas was all excited to go to school. I kept thinking about how I was going to be handing off my baby to a perfect stranger. I went to the grocery store and bought juice boxes and cheese sticks and teared up a little because I was buying them for Lucas' SCHOOL LUNCH! I stayed up to make Lucas the perfect 1st day of school lunch. I made sure to cut his PB&J (made the CORRECT WAY of course) with an apple shaped cookie cutter. I also packed an apple juice, and apple sauce. Don't worry, I also packed a few other things. I made sure his uniform was laid out and his backpack was all packed. Then I went back in his room and made sure he was all covered up. Then I headed to bed, setting my alarm for 7AM taking in consideration that I would need time to snooze and snuggle with Lucas in the morning (since he always climbs into our bed when Curt leaves for work in the wee hours of the morning.)

When the alarm went off I pressed snooze twice and cuddled my sweet boy and then tried to get him out of the bed. He told me he did NOT want to go to school. He did NOT want to meet new friends. He did NOT want to have any fun and he did NOT want to get out of bed. In the back of my mind I was thinking "sounds good to me," but I know that I had to suck it up and be an adult. So I was able to coax Lucas out of bed and into the bathroom to go pee. Then I managed to get him to eat some breakfast and then he crashed on the couch. He told me he was sick and just couldn't go to school because he was covered in germs. Then I mentioned that I had packed him a special lunch in his CARS lunchbox. He started dropping his guard a little. Then I mentioned how there was a special note tucked inside and he got the tiniest bit excited.

Somehow I managed to get him in his uniform and put his shoes and socks on. Suddenly it was like a magic switch turned on and he was suddenly happy and couldn't wait to get to school. He was even happy to pose for pictures.

Even when his mood approved the one thing he was still bummed about was not getting to ride the bus to school. Luckily my car is school bus yellow and I was able to convince him that he had his very OWN school bus to ride in to school. He thought that was very cool and kept saying, "I'm riding in Mommy's bus."

Right before we pulled out of the driveway Curt ended up calling so that he could talk to Lucas before school. Perfect timing! Lucas told him he was excited to go to school because his class had puzzles. Then his Grandma Valeri called and he told her about the puzzles too.

When we got to his school he hopped right out of the car and headed right for his class. All the fear that he had when he first woke up had completely melted away. All the faculty and staff were standing outside the classrooms making sure the kids knew were to go and that all the kids felt welcome.

When we walked in Lucas' class he immediately walked straight over to the wall to hang up his backpack like the other kids were doing. He saw the kids playing with toys at the tables and instantly ran over to play. (Mom who?) I helped him find his name on a table and gave him a kiss goodbye and left. I stood outside the door watching him for a few moments. He never looked up from the table to see where I went. He seemed perfectly fine without me, so I started crying, pulled my sunglasses down over my eyes and walked to my car.

Curt and I both went to pick up Lucas from school today. The car pool line was HORRIBLE but I'm sure it is to be expected on the first day. I guess if you want to get your kid at a decent time you need to line up REALLY early. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Lucas' school ended at 3:50 and it was almost 4:30 before we even laid eyes on our baby. Curt spotted him first. He knew the minute he saw the curls. His teacher walked him to the car and said he did great and had a great first day. I got Lucas buckled in and he burst into tears and said he didn't do so great at school. I told him that his teacher said he did wonderful and that seemed to calm him down. Then he told us that he loved new friends and he got to eat in the cafeteria and carry his own lunch box there. He always says that he wants to go back tomorrow.

Oh, and the ONLY thing he didn't eat out of his entire lunch... the PB&J sandwich. Good thing Jadie LOVES apple shaped sandwiches.

Traded In

Jadie used to snuggle in with us but lately we've been catching her cuddled up in Lucas' bed. Hmm... maybe this is why he is waking up in the middle of the night crying about monsters.

Joey & Jadie

"Hmmm... how do I go about tasting that puppy dog with my mouth?"

Our 4th Annual "Day in Pictures"

Every April since Lucas has been born I have done a photo essay of our day. Usually I take pictures on April 20th, but this year we did it on April 21st.

View our 2009" Day in Pictures" Here

Go Away Sickies!

Last night Lucas woke up and was BURNING up with a fever. He asked for a drink of water and fell right back to sleep. He woke me up this morning and was still burning up. He told me he was hungry and wanted to eat breakfast. I was a little worried that he might do a repeat of Saturday so I told him that if he could keep down water for a little bit then I would make him breakfast. He seemed fine with this and after a drink, he laid back down and fell asleep in my bed. I curled up next to him and before I knew it I was fast asleep too.

We woke up to Jadie barking and when I looked at what time it was I was so surprised to see that is was noon! Lucas still had a mild fever but seemed okay. I made him something to eat and he spent all day ON ME. If I was sitting in a chair he had to be sitting ON ME. If I had to go to the bathroom he had to go with me and lean on me.

When Curt got home I headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things. I took my time going up and down each aisle. When I walked in the door I found Lucas curled up on the couch with Curt and he was fast asleep. He had only been up for four hours AFTER sleeping for more than 14 hours the night before!

He woke up after we finished dinner and ate a little bit and watched the Wiggles OVER and OVER before curling up on the couch and almost falling asleep at 9. I took this as my cue to put him to bed. His fever finally seemed to be gone and he didn't want to go to bed and kept coming out of his room. This prompted us to have the same conversation OVER and OVER.

"Go back to bed Lucas"
"But"
"BED"
"BUT MOM..."
"BED!"
"BUT MOM..."
"What?"
"I love you."
"I love you. BED!"

He would go lay in bed again and then come out of his room again just a few minutes later. He finally fell asleep around 10PM and with all the rest he got today I am guessing he will be up BRIGHT and early in the morning.

A Little Weekend Update

Friday afternoon Lucas and I dropped off his the rest of his applications for pre-k. We were on our way home when my car started to overheat. Luckily I was right by our friends house so I went there. Sean was nice enough to look at the car for me and Lucas played with his friends David and Gabe (they are Sean and Priscilla's sons.)

In the wee hours of Saturday morning Lucas got sick. We are thinking now that he might have choked on his baby, (he likes to suck on it in his sleep.) After throwing up he went to sleep and when he woke up he was fine (and very hungry.) We were very glad that he wasn't sick because we had plans to get together with Curt's Grandparents. They stopped on their way back to Michigan from their trip to Florida. We ended up having dinner at Ruby Tuesdays and then back to their hotel room to visit for a while longer. Lucas ended up playing photographer.

This morning we went to church and Curt and Sean worked on my car. After church we let the boys play while the guys finished up with the car. It was such a pretty day outside! Curt and Sean were able to fix the problem with my car for pretty cheap. Turns out the car was overheating because the fans weren't turning on to cool off the car. Luckily it just took a $17 part!