Life With Lucas

So...this morning I set Lucas in his crib with some toys and left him there to play while I started a load of laundry and looked up some things online. He was talking to himself and playing and having a grand time. I had left him in just his diaper since he had had an accident and I planned to give him a bath before nap. I walked back in to grab him for his bath and nap and noticed he had something white in his hair. At first glance, it looked like a piece of a white bread roll. I then noticed there were "pieces" of this everywhere. All over his crib, toys, body, face hair, on the floor, on the dog who was standing at the end of the crib. This stuff was in and on everything. What was it? It was the wet crystalline substance from inside his diaper! He was pulling his diaper apart from the outside and distributing it as he saw fit - everywhere. Good thing it was bath time anyway!

I definitely think it's time to start some potty learning!

P.S. - Sorry there aren't any pictures to go with this! I wanted to get that stuff off of his skin immediately and also needed to get the dog out of the room before he started eating it, so it was a jump and run situation!

Rice Cereal - The Miracle Food - Maybe.

Ever since Lucas starting eating a couple of tablespoons of rice cereal a day he has been sleeping eight to nine hours a night. (In fact a couple of nights ago he slept almost ten!) The only problem with this scenario is that he is sleeping through the night, but he absolutely refuses to sleep during the day. Argh! I used to be able to count on him sleeping about an hour and a half to two hours in the mid morning time, so I was able to get things done. Getting a full night's sleep again is so nice and wonderful. But that sleep is bought at the price of not being able to accomplish much during the day. I have finally come to the conclusion that I am going to have to set him in his swing (where he used to do most of his sleeping during the day) and just let him fuss for the time it takes me to do a task, i.e. clean the kitchen; write this blog; write on a writing project. Then, if he hasn't fussed himself to sleep, I'll hold him for a while, put him back in the swing and so on and so forth. For a couple of months I had a pretty good little routine going when he slept during the day, but now we have to start that process all over again - which is really what this whole parenting thing is all about: adaptability and adjustment - though I may be driven nuts occasionally by all the adapting.

I love watching my children go through all of their different stages. Sometimes, though, I catch myself being worried that they are "behind." That they are not doing the things that some other kid is doing, so I must be falling down on the job and not fulfilling my parental duties. I have to remind myself of all of the things that they are doing daily and remember to be careful not to drown their love of learning, being and doing.

Life Rolls On

So, life continues to roll on. Lucas has been with us 2 1/2 months now and he is a precious addition. It's hard to imagine how we lived before he was here. I took a couple months off from other pursuits to focus on getting some sleep, but now that things are a little bit back to normal (whatever that is) I'm trying to get back into the game. I've been writing, looking for new freelance projects and even actually keeping the house clean again.

A couple of days ago the heat pump (which controls both heating and cooling) went out on our house. So, to get out of the house for the day on Saturday, we decided to make a trip to someplace at a bit of a higher elevation. We headed to Oak Creek Canyon and played by the creek all afternoon. My brother, Andrew, and his lovely wife, Kami, met us there. We had a really great time hanging out, swimming, playing games, and just enjoying one another.

I am so thankful that I am past the huge emotional ups and downs that accompanied Lucas home and now feel fully back into the land of the living!!!