Friday, January 21, 2011

Luca at 2 1/2 years


Faces:  fifteen seconds' worth 

Sometimes I forget that Luca is still a little guy.  He's such a hurricane of activity - messes, shenanigans, sweetness, demands, proclamations, laughs - and he fills up our mental and physical space so thoroughly that most days he feels like a giant.  Then I'll step back, look at him, and remember that he's still miniature.  He looks especially tiny when bundled to the brows and attempting to traverse the snow piled all around us.

He's been up to a lot of new tricks lately.  In general he's very physical and boyish.  For example, a while back he figured out that skidding down the hallway on his knees is a pretty cool move, so he does that a lot. And whenever T is home, Luca's favorite thing to do is order his dad to recline on the couch, then jump all over him.

When he's not wrecking shop, he's busy doing all the things 2 1/2 year olds do.  He loves music - the more guitar, the better - and still likes to "rock out".  He's sweet to his stuffed animals and cabbage patch kids, and can spend hours playing with legos, playdoh, or his train set.  Though he refuses to sing his ABCs, he recognizes all of the letters and knows what sounds they make, and can count from one to "thirteen, thirteen, thirteen."  Apparently, his number elevator stops there, for now.

Some favorites from Luca's current repertoire:

"You're my best friend":  we have no idea where he picked up the idea of a best friend, but he picked it up and how, though his use of the term tends to mean something closer to "I like you."  It started with the cabbage patch kids, then playmates, and then moved on to T & me.  No matter how many times he says it, and to whom, I still feel special when he gives me the "you my bess fren, mama."

Superhero stories:  again, the concept of superheroes is one that neither T nor I remember introducing, though its arrival probably has something to do with an episode of The Backyardigans.  He started by proclaiming himself a superhero, then quickly transitioned to wanting to hear stories about them.  Though he enjoys Batman and Superman, his far and away favorite is Spiderman - to the point where he defends the Webbed One's honor against all others.  Strangely, after the big three comes the pizza delivery guy, who has attained superhero status in Luca's mind.

Riding his skateboard:  As you can imagine, there's not a lot of outdoor skateboarding going on in Minnesota right now, but that hasn't stopped Luca from getting hooked on the idea.  He regularly takes one of our couch pillows that is shaped roughly like a skateboard, throws it on the ground and jumps on for ride.  This is yet another idea of unknown origin, but he is half Californian, after all.

Big boy bed:  Luca transitioned easily to his big boy bed in November, a big relief to T and me.  Especially me, since I feared lifting 35 lbs of boy in and out of crib while pregnant.  Every night he climbs into bed with a few books and one of a rotating selection of toys.  He doesn't have one particular beloved stuffed animal, but needs some object to keep him company while he falls asleep - could be a ball, or a lit flashlight, or even a pretty big helicopter.  The funniest and most convenient thing about his bed is that once in, he acts like the ground is hot lava.  If he needs something that has fallen on the ground, he'll call us to retrieve it rather than venture out himself.  We'll take it for as long as it lasts.

And that's our boy, halfway between two and three.


Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Introducing #4

True to all the lore about second children getting infinitely less attention, our little cabbage is making a rather late blog debut. Even these photos are now several weeks old, which I'm going to say is due mostly to the holidays. Whatever the case, we'll be trying to step it up a bit so that we don't give junior(ette) a complex.

Jackie, the ultrasound tech, says this is a picture of the baby drinking fluid.
We tend to think the baby's laughing.


We don't know whether the baby is a boy or a girl, but we know that it's flexible.


Our only side shot of the expansion so far, around 24 weeks. You can compare for yourself, or take my word for it - I'm certainly growing bigger more quickly the second time around.



Wednesday, December 8, 2010

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.

Friday, November 26, 2010

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

Sunday, October 31, 2010

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!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

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.





Monday, August 9, 2010

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.


Wednesday, July 7, 2010

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.



Sunday, July 4, 2010

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.






Thursday, June 10, 2010

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.









Friday, June 4, 2010

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







Thursday, April 8, 2010

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.

Monday, April 5, 2010

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