Trailblazing

Christmas Card Outtakes

True to form, we put off taking photos for a holiday card until an adequately inspiring winter weekend presented itself. About eight inches of snow fell on Friday night, so come Saturday morning the three of us slushed down to the lake with camera & tripod for a self-serve photo session. The results were mixed.

Not exactly what we were going for...

Better, except for T's trademark eyes shut move.

What is he doing?

Reluctant Snow Angel

This is what an antsy T looks like.

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving-

Much to Luca's delight, Thanksgiving 2010 was hosted by Papa & Gigi and attended by the Johnson 5, Aunt Nic and Uncle Brent, and Great Grandma Micki.

Day After-

Early season snow is the best kind. Check back in April for an entirely different opinion of the Minneapolis Winter Wonderland...

Boarding the snow train

"All aboard!"

"Again. Again. Again."

Luca and I have perfected the art of precisely timed eye-shutting

Eyes open...I think...hard to tell

Trick or Treat

GRRRR! The bear running out the door to collect some candy.

The Giants' Lincecum takes a treat break with the little bear.

Happy Halloween!

Catching up

We're severely behind in our blogging efforts. The past couple of months have been busier than usual, with a fun uptick in visits to and from the West. Plus , we've been enjoying a particularly beautiful Minneapolis autumn, soaking in all the sun and outside time before the deep freeze. We'll catch up with more photos from late summer and fall. For now, here's a glimpse of the boy at work.

Rocking Out

WE Fest 2010

We were lucky enough to get ourselves invited to WE Fest again this year, so while P & G entertained Luca, T and I ran off to Detroit Lakes for a perfect weekend with friends and lots of music. The performance highlight (other than T rocking "Hurt So Good" at karaoke) was Kid Rock. Several hat changes, an array of pyrotechnics, two different American flags, and one ripped off shirt later, and we were all sold.

Luca at Two Years Old

Our boy is 2!! He's a wild, sweet, sometimes sensible and sometimes totally nuts 2 year old. Seen here riding the zipline on his birthday with his dad, he's already graduated to riding alone in the short week since his birthday. He's a little wonder...he'll hear a song six times then several weeks later sing the whole thing from start to finish. He has some favorite phrases - here are a few:

• Ohhhhhhhhh, nice. Cool. We don't know for sure where he came up with this one, but it's probably from one of us. Better than the alternative - I think a few family members are placing bets on which other four letter words might pop up in his vocabulary.

• I did it! (or) I do it!! He wouldn't be two if these weren't recited 100 times a day, right?
  

• Hi boys. (And hi, girls.) This one often has the most hilarious effect, as when Luca patted the boy next to him at the Children's Theater and said, "hi, boy." The stunned kindergartner didn't know what to say. He also stops in his tracks when he sees groups of kids (especially boys) playing. He's probably storing up big-boy knowledge to unleash on us one day soon.
  

• Luca wants coffee...too. The cutest part of this is the delayed "too." It goes "Luca wants cereal/milk/lemonade" wait, wait, wait, "too." This is Tom's favorite.
  

• Tom, where are you? First, he just started asking "where are you" to everything - balls, dogs, cats, and now he's occasionally calling Tom by his first name. Two going on twenty...
  

• Luca loves to hug and kiss other kids, and once he gets warmed up he doesn't like to stop. He's slightly dominant about the whole operation - he likes to hold a kid steady, look in her (usually) eyes, then move in for the kiss. It's too much.

We love you, Luca! Happy 2nd birthday.

Nic & Brent Got Married!

Last weekend we traveled to Huntington Beach to celebrate Nicole and Brent's wedding. This is one of the only photos we have of the bride, but as you can see she was absolutely stunning. The wedding was beautiful and thoughtfully planned, as were the events leading up to it, and all the friends and family gathered in California enjoyed the festive weekend.


Luca, Ella, Mattie & Ben loved having the run of the Hyatt and took full advantage of the pools and beach. The girls were very composed flower girls and didn't skip a beat when their baskets went missing right when it was time to walk down the aisle.

Luca has decided to move in with Papa & Gigi

And we can't blame him. Luca spent two full days with his Minneapolis cousins over at P&G's in the last week or so, and they sent him home with these great pictures.

we like to move it move it

The last supper at 1222

We've been on blog hiatus for the last couple of months. We didn't mean to disappear, but found ourselves suddenly consumed with the business of packing and moving. Miraculously, we sold our little bungalow and, even more miraculously, found a new house that we both love.

The move was hair-raising, but we survived thanks to dear friends and hired movers, and though we will always hold the 1222 dear in our nostalgic hearts, we are embarrassingly happy with our new house and new neighborhood. We have more room for just about everything, including guests, so come on over. The new neighborhood ambassador will probably be out front to welcome you.

Luca and T showing off the "sold" sign

Luca at one and three-quarters

We've allowed a lot of time to pass without remarking on Luca's incredible evolution from baby to toddler. The change happened so much faster than we imagined it would, and every day he changes a little bit more. For the sake of posterity and since we'd both forget our names if they weren't tattooed on our ring fingers, I'd like to memorialize a few of the highlights of Luca at 21 months.


Luca Andretti

This kid loves cars and driving. We can tell because he says "cahrs" approximately 350 times per day, "drives" by putting his hands at 10 and 2 o'clock and wiggling them up and down, and puts up quite the fuss when it's time to give up a car-based activity.

Kicking the tires on his new Cozy Coupe.
P.S. That's a SOLD sign in front of our house. More on that later...

Like Father, Like Son

To put it mildly, Tom likes sports. To put it even more mildly, Luca is interested in playing sports. It's as if balls and sports come as naturally to him as walking. He pretends to be at bat, calls basketball "hoops," and has a seriously accurate and strong throw. Maybe the interest will peter out, but from here it looks like we're going to be sitting in the bleachers at some t-ball games in a few years.

Luca is also showing some similarity to his dad in another category: chattiness. Tom was a notoriously talkative child from 0 - 12, and Luca is exhibiting the same propensity for communication. For a minute a couple of months ago, we were a little worried that his verbal development wasn't quite up to speed, but since then he has quickly racked up a healthy list of recognizable words (car, of course - and ball (gawl - he says g for b), drink (dink), milk (nilk) water (wah-wah), mama (finally), and daddy, just to name a few). Deciphering his mix of Chinese and Russian can be a challenge, but thankfully he's a master at sign language, so we can often figure it out eventually.

(Since I first posted this, T pointed out that I left out a few important words and phrases. In addition to the above, these are a few that make the highlight reel: garage (gawahj - one of Luca's cutest and most frequently uttered words), clouds (kwowds), and no (pronounced with a heavy throat-clearing sound at the end, like "nohnh"). And one of my very favorites is this: to indicate that something/someone is sleeping, Luca says "shee-hah-shee-hah," his interpretation of the more conventional "unh-shuh.")

And otherwise...

Our boy has always been a good eater, and he continues to have plenty of interest in food, though he has become a bit pickier. Both Tom and I were disgracefully picky, and I hope that he can avoid decades of veggie-phobia. He's clearly unafraid of a bowlful of blueberries.



In broad strokes, Luca is an enthusiastic personality, with a touch of caution thrown in. He's not the first one to storm the playground, but he gets in there eventually. He likes to observe others, particularly other children, but he mostly does his own thing. His run is about the cutest thing you'll ever see - he balls his fists up near his chest and charges on, hips wiggling. We love his big personality and his charm. Most of the way to two years old, our only complaint is that this is all going by a little too fast.

baseball & bunnies

We had some firsts this Easter weekend:

1. Our neighbors invited us to an exhibition game at Target field, for what was our debut trip to the new Twins stadium. The ballpark is pretty amazing and reminded us quite a bit of Pacbell (AT&T) Park in San Francisco. And thanks to the jaw-droppingly good weather we've enjoyed this spring, no one had to shake their fists at the concept of open-air baseball in Minnesota. Yet.

2. Luca petted (poked) a llama and neither one of them freaked out.

Luca and the Sedated Llama

Dallas

Last weekend the little cowboy and I flew down to meet T in Dallas, where he has been working for the past several weeks. The pilgrimage to D-town was an overdue opportunity for this Mavs fan to see Dirk & Co. on their home court. American Airlines Center was everything it's cracked up to be (thanks, Mark Cuban), even while watching a 13-game winning streak get snapped by the lowly Knickerbockers.

new truck, new look

Here's Luca taking his new deluxe fire truck (complete with extending bucket ladder & realistic sound effects) for a spin, and sporting his new haircut. T and I have had a difference of opinion about the little man's hair since the get-go, with T in the "buzz it" camp and me in the "doesn't he look like a little rocker?" category. Well, it only took 19.98 months but T finally got me to concede to a real haircut. We bounded out on Saturday envisioning a sweet, side-by-side "daddy and me" haircut but found the places that do that kind of thing were closed. So we ended up at the next stop on Tabatha's Salon Takeover, pre-makeover if you know what I mean. The experience was actually fun, and certainly memorable, and we can now see our little peach's eyes.

"I want that thing over there, the thing I can't quite see through my bangs. Yeah, that's the one."

February is brief.

February photo collection: Kid, Kids, Ball Kid, Walking Kid, et al.

So long, January. January was so long.

Well, January came and went with barely a peep out of us. Maybe we had our heads in the snow for most of the month. January is notorious around here for bringing the worst of winter in the form of post-holiday blues and frigid temps, and everyone does a little dance when February 1st rolls around.

Probably the real reason for our radio silence is that T started back to work. That's right, after two years in school and seven months as daddy supreme, Mr. R is once again picking up a paycheck. Three weeks in we're still getting used to our new lifestyle. Although it's not without some significant concessions (and daily "daddeeeee" searches conducted by Luca), so far we're all feeling better than expected about this stage, and T is certainly glad to put his business school knowledge to work. Of course, we could all revolt at any moment and beg for a return to our carefree road-trip days...

Where's Dad going?

Better try on Dad's shoes.

A Very Allen New Year

This New Year's Eve, we traveled to Portland, Oregon where we gathered with the Allen family to celebrate Auntie Kasi & Uncle Dan's wedding. Once Luca and T forgave the travel agent (me) for our terrible two-pronged flight, we happily settled into the 8th floor of the downtown Embassy Suites, with family and friends around every corner.

Come wedding day, everyone donned their finery and met to witness the lovely Celtic ceremony uniting Kasi, Dan and their children. And once the first dj-amplified note rang out at the reception, Luca hit the dance floor and didn't leave it until the place was shut down three hours later. Must have been the dancing shoes...

or all the pretty ladies...



Either way, Luca very nearly stole the show and had the time of his life dancing with his cousins and friends, giving & getting a hundred hugs and kisses along the way.

We heard a message loud and clear from many parents this weekend that we should savor this time in Luca's life, that the time passes all too quickly. Between seeing Luca's cousins whose births I remember as if they were just a year or two ago, and watching Luca who is growing and changing in fast forward, it's clear that the advice would be well taken. We're all the more thankful for having had the luxury of time together over the last six months.

Squeezes for L & T

So grown up...H & N