The one with a new bear.

We took our last and final trip to lagoon with the girls, and enjoyed the swings the most.  Or just I did, I don't know.  Kate has officially ridden everything, and she should be most proud!

As per tradition, Jose and Nicole did the free fall thing before we left, they were moving so fast, so of course it is all blurry--but still! They are the black dot on the left up there ^^^.

Luca was having a blast--of course, getting everything he wanted from grandma, grandpa and Gaby, he didn't want to come home with us when we got back.

We did a little more shopping with the gang, and Luca was "lost" for a bit (I knew where he was, but nobody else did, it was amusing) he was just chilling under a rack of clothes.

Then we stopped by the build a bear, to let Luca experience that joy.  H was terrified of the noise of the fluff thing when he had to step on it, so daddy did that part, and he picked out 3 hearts for his bear, and the worker was nice enough to just let him stick all of them in there.

We let him choose a dog first, but while we waited in line he changed his mind, and I was glad because he always seems to favor bears over anything else.

^^my lovely first attempt at some happiness with his new bear.

The Jose came and helped.  We told him to say cheese--which he is, and he is pointing to make sure we are all aware that he is listening. 

He wouldn't put that bear down for forever.  I had to pry it out of his hands at the park so it wouldn't get all gross.

The one with Lucas skills.

Luca loves to carry things around like phones, and say "hewwo" over and over again.

I brought Grandma Mary's coffee table inside to see if I liked it enough somewhere to keep it, and it has become Lucas favorite toy ever.  He hides things in it, and climbs in it, through it, on it and anything else he can do.  He has been most recently using it as a stool to climb over the back of the couch.

On pioneer day people were doing fireworks when Luca went to bed, and really needed to see them--he stood there watching forever, and then would lay down, and more would go off so he would peek again.  Luckily he still falls asleep with them going off every few seconds.

Whenever I can't find something I look in the table first now, usually its a winner.

Luca has also been dragging the yellow dishes out of the cupboard all over the house.  But he has progressed to the entire stack of bowls.  He also likes to line them up all nice and neat around the house, I haven't remembered to take a picture of that yet.  He may be crazy, or just like mommy.  Who knows.

We are working on colors, he basically uses "wellow" as his word for color, if he is the one describing it.  If I ask him to find colors he can usually find real yellow, blue and red.  

We went on a visit with the sisters to my friends house the other day, and she was making cupcakes while we were there, and gave luca the spatula to lick, and then her husband gave him a whole bowl full.  He was crazy wild after a while.

This was actually our 3rd trip to Lagoon--I think I was wrong on the other post.  We finally got Kate to ride Cannibal, and she LOVED it, of course.

Always the swings.  I would be happy only riding those the entire time.

And all our picture fails.  Whatever.  Its hard when you're moving constantly!

^^I spy Kate the creeper.

Luca has been taking selfies lately, thats all he wants my phone for now a days.

We facetimed kenz, tony and baby Lyla yesterday, Luca wasn't super impressed, but he remembered mackenzie name, and Tony's after we reminded him.

We roasted marshmallows with the girls after Luca went to bed, man oh man was that eventful.  Luckily we didn't catch anything on fire except our sad marshmallows.  That was a lot of fun, a lot of laughter and a whole lot of smoke.

Today was so dang nice outside, overcast and like 70 degrees and it made me so happy and feel fallish, so instead of getting all the fall/halloween decorations out already, Luca and I compromised by watching Frosty.  It works in my mind, don't worry about it.

This is what happened after he said no when I asked him if he was ready for a nap.  Pretending to sleep counts right?

Luca is in the hardest stage of toddler-hood so far--I'm sure it will get harder--but he is also at the prime of wanting to learn!! I love when something new clicks and he catches on.  He is like a sponge.

He still loves letters like crazy, and knows about half of them by sight, and will repeat the whole alphabet when he feels like it.  He knows A, C, E, D, H, I, L, M, N, O, Q, R, S, T, U, W,  and X.
Currently M and O are his favorites.

He knows lots of words, and says more every day, he is getting giant.
These are the ones I can remember at the moment.

Please--peas
Ball--Baw
Mine--MINE (always yelled) Yellow--Wewo (which is his word for any color) Blues clues--Bues cues Car--tar Juice--jish (with the sign for Juice) Shoe--Shh Fish--ish Jesus--es-us It's hot--ISH HAW (also yelled) Who--ooo Oww
Cheese--chez Pool--poo Pizza--iza Ana--Nana Nicole--Icole Sara--ara Grandpa--gapa Grandma--gama Dada Mom Shhhh Elmo--Memo Balloon--baoon Tie Hurts

choochoo

The one with a trip to Lagoon

The girls favorite thing to do here is of course Lagoon.  We all joined them this year, Luca wasn't impressed.  They went right when it opened with Ana and some friends, and we waited until Luca napped--and it wasn't so hot--so I would survive, and met them later in the evening around 5.

We put our phone numbers on his arm, just in case--and after we did he held his arms out like this ^^ for like 5 minutes, he was just so confused.

By the time he realized he wasn't being attacked by permanent marker, he had to get his stamp--and it started all over again.

We rode the tiny teacups first, so he could see what a ride was, and wouldn't freak out when he rode alone.  He loved the ride, with us, and even put his arms way up in the air while we spun.  He is a daredevil.

Then we tried out the airplanes--which actually turned out to be whales, whatever.  Luca was happy when he got in, and then Jose had to come back out and he moved.  That was the end of the fun.

So we stuck to rides for all of us for a little, but there are only so many we could do.  We rode the train, the little pirate ship, the carousel, and a few others I can't remember.

This was the only ride he loved and smiled through on his own.  Because he could put his hand in the water--which was actually against the rules of course, "please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times" just doesn't mean much to a 1 year old.

Luca even rode the haunted house rides with us!  I still haven't decided if that makes me a good or bad mom, but he loved it.  It holds lots of memories for me, when we would come visit the wiseman we would go through the haunted house at the front of Lagoon over and over and over again, the workers wouldn't even make us get out of our car, they just let us keep going when there wasn't a line.  Luca was in awe the whole time, not scared, but not laughing.  He just watched, and I narrated with a bright twist--"look theres a doggy!" for the werewolf, don't worry, he bought it.

Kate, Luca and I hung out while we waited for Nicole and Jose to ride some roller coasters.

We found $180 on the ground, turned it in--Luca almost got on a roller coaster, thankfully a stranger grabbed him at the gate while I was booking it toward him, and we all survived and had a fabulous night!

Then we rode the swings of course!

^^Dont worry--the boats actually had wheels around them to keep them about 10' away from the wall at all times, so his arm didn't get chopped off here.

I found Luca like this that night, getting ready for bed after his shower, brushing his teeth.