Dear Lucas (5 Years & 5 months),

It's hard to believe Christmas has come and gone and soon you will be going back to school. This has been the best Christmas yet. It's been so magically watching you get excited about every little thing. We've gone to the Roundhouse to watch "The Polar Express," you decorated a gingerbread house, we saw the nativity story acted out in front of us at the journey, and we wrapped tons of presents. In all the excitement and craziness I think the best moments were just cuddled up next to you singing Christmas carols and drinking hot chocolate.

Right before Christmas your aunt Sam and your cousin Caden moved in with us for a while. So far so good and it's been nice having them around. I think the only one having any problems adjusting is you. They are staying in your playroom so you've had to give it up for now. Also, suddenly you have a little person there trying to "mess with your stuff."

The very same day that Sam and Caden moved in three of your cousins came to stay with us for a short visit. It was a loud but fun house for a couple of days. You really had fun playing with Levi. One time he was not listening to his Mom and she was joking and told him that if he didn't behave she didn't want to take him home. You immediately said "that's okay, he can stay here and be my brother," and for the rest of his visit you kept referring to him as your brother. When his little brother Isaiah did anything you thought was wrong you would run to their mom and say "that boy is being mean to my brother." When it was time for them to leave Erica explained that she had to take Levi home because all his Christmas presents were at their house. You were fine with that but you keep talking about how now that Christmas is over your brother Levi will be back soon.

Before Christmas I took you to see Santa and luckily there was no line. You were able to talk to him for a few minutes. The only thing you asked Santa for this year was a Nerf gun and a hot wheels track. Christmas morning you were so excited to see a nerf gun next to your stocking you didn't even notice any of your other presents for over an hour.

Since we are in a house with a whole lot more room we were able to get a decent Christmas tree. Since we've had you we've always had a tiny Christmas tree. This year that little Christmas tree went in your bedroom and served as your night light. Christmas morning the tree was packed with presents and our house was full with family and it was such a great feeling.

The day after Christmas we were just hanging out at the house and I looked out the window and noticed a few snow flakes floating down in the air. It was so exciting and pretty to see snow falling around all the Christmas decorations. Just as the sun was starting to go down some of the snow started to stick and covered the roof and started to stick to the ground. You drank hot chocolate while we watched the snow fall around us. It was the perfect ending to a perfect Christmas.

Sweet-pea, I love you to the moon and back,

Mommy

I'm finally 9 months and "normal!"

Feeling a little toasty

Today was so hot! I did end up heading over to my parents house and went swimming. The water felt so good but I don't think that I did the greatest job putting on sunscreen (which I did while driving at stop lights on the way over there. I even used waterproof sun screen!) Oh well. Curt also came home sunburned, mostly on his right arm because that's the one he sticks out of the work truck window when the guy he works with drives and he naps in between jobs.

Tonight was our last childbirth class and I really enjoyed it. We made the final decision as to where we are going to have the baby (the birth center as opposed to a regular hospital). When I was going to fill out the form I looked over at Curt to see what he would say and he pointed to the birth center which I am really surprised about because at the beginning of all this he was against it. I guess going and seeing it in person and going to the childbirth classes really convinced him that it is the best place for us to go.

Curt even asked a question tonight, "When should we stop having sex" and the midwife answered "never, except after the baby is born until your partner stops having normal discharge from giving birth." Then she went on to suggest some positions that the other mom's were sort of like "hmmm that sounds good" and it was just too funny! Personally I think it is a little too hot to get "all hot and bothered" but if this baby ends up being late it is supposed to be a way to induce labor. (Especially since we learned tonight that first babies are usually late).

I actually lost two pounds since last week (which I am overjoyed with and which is fine for the baby) AND my blood pressure is at the lowest it has been all 9 months... 116/66... Remember normal is less than 120/70! Woo hoo!

Dear Lucas (88 weeks),

What a week it has been! You seem to be in your testing the limits phase and I must say I'm not a big fan. I love how you are constantly learning new things and saying new words but I hate the tantrums and the NEVER listening to the world "no" that goes along with it all. You even "yell" back at me when I am telling you "NO!" for the millionth time. It is quite an interesting thing to be yelled at by someone who doesn't speak in complete sentences. I still love being your Mom and wouldn't trade it for the world but thank goodness the times we laugh together outweigh the amount of time you spend in timeout (even if sometimes it seems like it is not by much.)

Today you and your Great-Grandma seemed to be competing in the "hey pay attention to me and my fake whining" contest. You of course out whined her... but then again you are my child. Your Great-Grandma loves having you around and just lights up when you pay attention to her. Lori came to play with you today because I just knew it was going to be "one of those days" when you threw yourself on the ground at least 5 times just on the way to the car because you didn't like the way I looked at you.

You were pretty calm though once we got to Grandma's and only had to have one time out because you pushed Lori. The reason you pushed her was that she had the audacity to tell you that to go outside you have to put your shoes on and bent down to help you. After time out you gave her the world's longest "I'm sorry hug" and we put your shoes on you went outside. From inside I could hear her tell you "don't throw the ball down again if you do I'm not going to get it." For some reason that made me crack of laughing.

When we got home it was time for lunch and I decided to try pushing your highchair up to the table and letting you eat without the tray. I figured you would like it because you are always wanting to do grownup things and use grown up dishes. You seemed to like it okay but you didn't eat much because you were so tired.

You ended up not sleeping for that long (I think you were too hot to sleep since all this week your AC has been out in your room.) and you kept saying "eat, eat" and so I pushed you back up to the table and then you flipped out. You wanted your tray back on so back on it went.

Since you wouldn't go back to sleep we played Easter Egg hunt for the fifth time since yesterday. I think find the eggs is your new favorite game. I have a feeling after Easter is over we are going to be picking up some clearance eggs and keep the game going. Sometimes you forget they are eggs and call them balls and then I remind you "no, they are eggs remember" and you will repeat "ehhh, ehhh" over and over like you are committing it to memory. You are saying and signing so many new words this week. I've noticed though if you can already say a word then you have no use for the sign.

Ever since the tonka incident last week you have started to play with your dump truck again. You push it from one end of the house to the other and climb in and out of it over and over. A few times you will sit in it and rock your body in such a way that it will scoot forward an inch or two and you become so excited that you rock harder and then fall out. When this happens you always look all around you like you think one of us pushed you out.

Tonight your Daddy installed your new AC unit in your room. Hopefully you will get a good nights sleep. You haven't slept that well all week because you are like your Daddy and like it to be so cold that polar bears wouldn't even sleep in there. I'm hoping that the hot room is part of the reason for your hot temper lately and as your room cools off you will too. Chances are though you are just being a toddler. Hey, a Mom can dream right?!?

Bugga, I love you to the moon and back,

Mama

Dear Lucas (94 weeks),

Today we weren't able to go on our normal morning walk because my alarm clock didn't go off like it normally does, and by alarm clock I mean you. For the last few months you have been getting up by 8:15 AM or 8:30 if I am really lucky. You never sleep in past 8:30 anymore... not even when I wake you up at 11:30 PM because you are throwing up in your sleep and don't get you back to sleep until 2:00 AM like this past Friday... even then you were up by 8:30 AM on Saturday. I never ever set my alarm anymore because you are just that reliable, except for this morning. You woke up at 9:29 AM... one minute before we were supposed to meet everyone to go walking. Since there was no way we could get up and ready and drive to the park in 1 minute we stayed home. It was one of those stay in our PJs all day kind of days and I cleaned and did thousands of loads of laundry while you watched way too much TV (which is ironic since yesterday I was telling your Grandma just how little TV you watch.)

When I was pregnant I read all those studies about how kids under 2 should NEVER EVER watch TV and I made up my mind that you would NEVER EVER watch TV until you were at least 2 years and one day old... then I actually had a toddler and realized that along with my other "I will nevers" things change when you become actual parents. Hey, in our defense you didn't even get interested in TV until after you turned one and your cousins Steven was watching a movie and that is where your love of Veggie Tales was born. Besides normally you only watch a few minutes of Veggie Tales or Sesame Street a day. I quickly learned that it is a whole lot easier to put on makeup when you aren't trying to get to it so you can eat it!

Don't worry, we haven't screwed you up yet. You still LOVE to go outside and you would rather be outside doing anything than sitting in front of the TV. Even if we have just come in from spending all day at the park you will run to the door and ask "Mama, side?" and if I tell you not right now you will throw yourself at my feet as if I was about to put you to death and you are begging for your life. Just so you know, before you came around I liked to spend my time in air conditioned places but now because of you I get more than my share of fresh air and sunshine.

The only thing that will cheer you up when you are not allowed to go outside is if I let you "help" me do something, especially if that means cooking. I think you have helped me make at least part of our dinner for almost a week now. Mainly I give you things to pour or stir and you know to stay away from the oven because it is hot. If you see me going to put something on the stove you remind me "mama, hot!" and blow air to cool it off. You aren't a big fan of the actual cooking process though because you don't understand why you have to wait for things to cook.

To distract you while we wait for dinner to finish you've become quite the coloring connoisseur. Just a few weeks ago you had no real interest in coloring, you would scribble for 2 seconds just so we would clap our hands and cheer for you and tell you how "pretty" your picture was but that was it. Now you will sit for quite a while and color. Sometimes you will grab my hand and take me in your room and ask for "colors" and not let go of my hand until I sit down next to you and color one side of your coloring book while you color the other. When you want to color alone I set up your little desk for you and you happily sit down and get to work

Even though you start out coloring at your desk you never stay there long. You always end up taking your paper or coloring book with you and sitting down somewhere else with your book stretched across your lap and your toes peeking out from the top. Personally this doesn't look comfortable to me but it is how you seem to do your best coloring.

Another cool thing you started doing this week is matching up pairs of animals from your Noah's ark. Usually you just liked putting them in the boat and dumping them out or pitching them across the room at poor Jadie but today you started matching them together. I think you thought they were Mom and baby pairs because you would call one of them "baby" and hug it before you set it next to the matching animal.

Bugga, I love you to the moon and back,

Mommy

Magic Kingdom

This time last week Lucas and I were at the Magic Kingdom in Disney World. He was so excited to be there and so well behaved. Every day since we have been home he has either begged to go back or told me that he misses Mickey. He says he wants to go back soon, but next time he wants us to take his Dad with us. Sounds good to me! We got to the park a few minutes before they opened and saw the Welcoming show.

We were able to ride several things with no wait the first hour we were there. Then we went straight to meet Mickey Mouse with barely any wait (thanks for the tip Becky)

Lucas also got the autographs of a few more Disney friends. We rode a few more rides and caught a show in front of the castle. We also watched a parade before we headed back to our hotel room to rest for a few hours (since The Magic Kingdom was open until 3AM!!)

One of the first things we did when we got to the Magic Kingdom in the morning was get Lucas a birthday button. I guess it got so hot that his name rubbed off and when we were walking through the resort to catch our bus back to the Magic Kingdom, one of the employees suggested we go to the front desk to get his name rewritten. They ended up giving him a brand new button. He was so proud of it and enjoyed everyone wishing him Happy Birthday. When everyone anyone asked if he that specific day was his birthday he would say "I'm celebrating 4!"

When we got back to the park we rode a few more rides and watched some amazing fireworks.

One of the last things we did was visit Pooh's Playful spot and Lucas had so much fun running free with other kids and getting wet in the fountains. Luckily I remembered to bring extra clothes. However, I didn't have extra shoes so I used that chance to put Lucas back in the stroller and start wrapping up our Magical day.

On the way out of the park we stopped to let Lucas pick out a pair of ears and got a quick snack before catching the bus back to our resort. I think we were in our room about 2AM.

The whole day was a lot of fun and we pretty much rode every ride in the park that Lucas was big enough for and usually with little to no wait at all. I think the most we ever waited in line was 20 minutes. My only complaint the whole day was how hot it was, but then it was the middle of July. I lost track of how much water we drank but Lucas did AWESOME with letting me know when he had to go to the bathroom. The day couldn't have been more perfect.

Dear Lucas (6 years and 5 months),

I just love, love, love this time of year. You are out of school for most of it and I just love all of our holiday traditions and developing new ones with you.

The first thing we did to kick of the Christmas season was go to "The Journey." It's an interactive living nativity that lets you experience the night Jesus was born. This was our second year going. Afterwards just the two of us went out to dinner. I let you pick the place and we wound up at WAFFLE HOUSE. Boy, are you a cheap date. We were the only ones in the whole place and you thought that was pretty cool.

Two days later it was time for another Christmas tradition, the Santa Train. You were even in the ad for this years event. You decorated ornaments, drank hot chocolate, talked to Santa, and we topped it all off with a train ride.

I love that even though I am a part time working Mom I still get to go to your school events. During your class Christmas party everyone got to decorate their very own gingerbread house. I know I've said this before but I really mean it, I love any chance that I am known only as "Lucas' Mom." I also love getting to bring you home early from school after classroom events.

Yet another Christmas tradition is to go and see Christmas lights. I've taken you to see the Halderman's lights every Christmas since you've been born.

This year we created another tradition when we went to Madrac Farms in Rincon, GA with your friend Preston. They had a Christmas tree farm, a hayride through Christmas lights. Santa was there and they had all these campfires for roasting marshmallows. It was really neat.

Another new thing we did this year was to go ice skating. You were so excited to finally be on a real ice skating rink. It was a little tricky to get the hang of and you probably spent more time on your knees and your bootie than on your feet but that's okay. I was so proud of you. You never gave up or got frustrated, not even for a second. You just kept on trying.

To take a break from all the time we spent out of the house we invited your cousins over and you decorated Sugar cookies with them. I ordered a Sugar Cookie decorating kit from Preston's Mom (she made all your amazing birthday cakes the last 5 years.) I loved being able to watch you guys get a sugar rush without having to actually bake the cookies myself!

The last Friday before Christmas the two of us always head to downtown Savannah. Your Dad always has to work at least half a day so we go to the Westin to look at the Gingerbread houses and the gorgeous Christmas trees. We always ride the ferry over to Riverstreet (this year we saw Dolphins playing in the water) and we always end up at the candy store before riding the ferry back and returning home. This year it was so hot outside we skipped the candy and got ice cream instead.

This year we had a guest that I am sure will be back next year. We adopted an elf from the North pole and you named him Tweetie. You were so excited when you realized he had brown hair and blue eyes just like you do. Tweetie was here to watch you and report back to Santa each night what was going on back at our house. To keep himself entertained he would land in a new spot in the house each day and often played a little joke on us. One day he toilet papered the tree, another day he drew funny faces with a dry erase marker on a few framed pictures and on Christmas eve you woke up with a "Rudolph nose." When Santa came on Christmas eve he hitched a ride back to the North Pole. You were so sad to see him go but I have a feeling he will be back next year.

On Christmas eve we headed to my parents house and we played our annual game of Dirty Santa/Chinese Christmas/Racist Santa (depending on who you ask) Everyone brings a random wrapped gift and draws a number and we go in that order to pick a gift to unwrap. You can steal someone's gifts or decide to take your chances. Some of the gifts this year included light up snowmen signs, bacon flavored popcorn, and a trivia game based on MTV's Jersey Shore. You ended up with a big fluffy teddy-bear.

After Christmas eve with our family we headed to our church. Before the first Christmas carol was over you were sleeping snuggled up across my lap. You slept through the whole service. I couldn't even wake you up for the candle light singing of "Silent Night" that you were looking so forward to.... talk about sleeping in heavenly peace! You didn't wake up when I carried you out to the car or on the whole drive home.

You woke up just as we pulled up to the house and you were awake long enough to take a bath, get dressed in your new PJs and put out cookies and milk for Santa before you were back to bed.

Christmas morning we woke up to you snuggled between us and we all ventured out to the living room together to see if Santa had come. He brought you just what you asked for... Harry Potter Lego sets and a hammer and nails. We also opened family presents. You were so excited by everything but the first thing you opened was the Chess set that was from us. You've been wanting your own since the beginning of school when you first learned how to play in your gifted class.

We stayed in our PJs and headed over to your Grandpa Hunter's house for breakfast. We visited for a little while and headed back home to take to nap and play with your new toys (we napped, you played.) Then your uncle David and Aunt Ashley came over with your cousin Aubrie. We ended the night together grabbing Chinese food.

Sweet-pea, I love you to the moon and back,

Lucas' Mom