fun site!

found this new site today, and it is a fun way to spend a couple of minutes wishing it wasn't over 100 degrees.

make a snowflake!

sprinklers!

getting wet is fun!, originally uploaded by alibean731.

lucas loves the water! which is a good thing, because it is HOT this summer!

our poor dead front lawn needed some watering, and lucas loved playing in the sprinkler. he was cracking joel and i up, leaning into the water stream so it would get his face. love my silly boy!

more potty success!

i swear i'm not going to post every single time lucas uses the bathroom, but i'm just so excited!

tonight he peed on the potty again, but this time he really did know he was going. in fact, he looked down and then tried to grab the stream. :) while i don't really want that to keep happening, i'm glad he knew that he was going to the bathroom.

ok, i promise no more talk of pee. for at least a while.

potty time!

we bought a potty for lucas last week. while we don't expect him to magically be trained in the next month or anything, we wanted to get him used to sitting on the potty and hopefully have him figure out what it's used for.

he immediately liked sitting up there, quietly reading his book. we put him on the potty before and after naps for 5-10 minutes each time. and, what do you know, on tuesday (just 4 days after we got it) he went! i don't think he had any idea that he peed, but pee he did! i praised him a lot, and boy was he excited to get to flush the potty.

we'll keep it up, and hopefully he'll start learning how this whole "bathroom" thing works!

stay-cation: austin children's museum

the last time i went to the austin children's museum, jackson was a youngster. and, my, have things changed!

the children's museum is 2 stories, with things for kids of all ages to do. there was a penned in play area with toddler sized toys, a construction area, train area, mi casa area, reading area, plus tons of stations to create all sorts of crafts. we went on a "science sunday," so there were also animals (snake, lizard, tarantulas - yuck!) and learning stations about them.

grandma joan and aunt natalie joined us there, and we all had a lot of fun. luke's favorite things were the mi casa area (where he got to play drums and pretend at a kitchen table) and a small slide which he did over and over and over. he never wanted to slide down though - he liked walking down the slide! weirdo :).

lucas got a little overwhelmed near the end, but overall he had a good time and we will definitely be going back. on sundays, it is free from 4-5. since we found out lucas can only handle about an hour anyway, that will be perfect!

stay-cation: playing with trains

aunt marcy and uncle john gave lucas awesome train sets for his birthday and christmas, but we didn't get the tracks out then. we knew he would be interested in the trains and wheels, but back then he was still more interested in putting things in his mouth than in actually playing with them.

well, we decidedit was time to set up the track and lucas loved it! he can't quite doit perfectly yet, but he gets the basic idea. his favorite thing is to put the trains on the track, then take them off. over and over.

he also calls all the trains "cars," which i love because it's a word i understand!

stay-cation: fountain!

getting his face wet and having a blast!, originally uploaded by alibean731.

lucas really loves the water. at the shopping center near both grandparents' houses is this fun fountain. as you can see, lucas has the best time playing in it!

he likes to dunk his head in all the fountain streams - almost like he wants to take a drink. he also just likes running around and getting splashed on the head. he was probably playing in the fountain for a good 40 minutes...yet still wasn't tired for a nap after.

stay-cation: austin zoo

joel, lucas, grandma sue and i all went to the austin zoo this past wednesday. the austin zoo is pretty small, but there were some nice animals in there. however, it was HOT. i will definitely remember this for the future and never go there in the summer again.

we got to see lots of peacocks, some monkeys, lions, tigers, wolves, a bear and goats in the petting zoo. however, i think lucas's favorite animal was the cat laying in the grass. go figure.

the goats at the petting zoo cracked us up. one was standing in his food trough and didn't look like he could get out, and another was quite simply the ugliest goat i've ever seen. lucas didn't really want to pet them, but he did like looking at them and being up close. i tried to let him feed the goats their pellets, but he just tried to eat the pellets himself. ew.

stay-cation: schlitterbahn!

tuesday, my mom and dad watched lucas while joel, jackson, his friend andy, and i all went to schlitterbahn! for those of you not in the know, schlitterbahn is the #1 waterpark in the country (and "the hottest coolest time in texas").

we had so much fun down there. joel and i loved the black knight and the wave pool the best. it was such a fun, relaxing day. however, by 10pm when i got home i was pooped!

stay-cation: chill sunday

nihlean family band
Originally uploaded by alibean731

we had a pretty easy day at home on sunday, with lots of playing. joel and lucas started a family band, but i think lucas really just wants to be a solo artist.

stay-cation: saturday

for the first full day of our stay-cation, we decided to head over to grandma sue's house for some swimming! lucas is getting more and more comfortable in the water. he doesn't mind floatingon his own, and actually tries to float on his back and get his hair wet. although, he's still not too happy about getting his face wet!

here are two videos of lucas in action: video 1, video 2

after the pool, we played in the sandbox for awhile, then went in for some snacks and rest. harry potter and the chamber of secrets was on tv...and lucas was totally amazed. he paid a lot of attention to it. i knew i was raising my boy right!

stay-cation!

joel and i took this next week off, and we are super excited for a stay-cation! hopefully, it will involve lots of playing, swimming, and fun!

this morning (while it was still under 100 degrees) we went outside and played with bubbles! it was windy out, so they went all over the place. lucas liked helping dip the bubble wand, but couldn't quite figure out how to blow and make the bubbles appear. he did like chasing them.

"jackson"

most of you are familiar with lucas's inability to communicate. or, i should say, his love of exploring and running and climbing, and his boredom with actually trying to speak or point or tell me much of anything. sure, he says "key-cat" all day long , and really that's about it.

so, imagine my surprise when at my mom's house yesterday he all of a sudden said "jackson." clear as day. not sure if it was a fluke or what, i had to leave to go to work. well, apparently it wasn't a fluke because he continued to yell "jackson" at my brother when he went upstairs!

sure, he can't say bye bye, but jackson he masters perfectly. go figure.

happy 4th!

the fam had a great 4th of july this year. we started off the day at grandma sue's house. swimming, playing wii, delicious steaks. joel of course managed to get sunburned within 45 minutes.

then we went over to papa and grandma joan's house for dinner and sparklers. lucas was pretty wary of the sparklers, but loved eating the special dessert mom had made (from the directions from aunt cindy).

i love weekends when we get to hang out with family!

mom's birthday!

mom turned 50 last month, but because of her business with school and our business with all sorts of things, we weren't able to go out until this past weekend for all the celebrations. but we had a lot of fun on saturday to celebrate mom!

we went to pf changs (and were waited on by the lovely miss corey) where we had all sorts of yummy food. then we broke out the gifts. we each got mom a type of "bag," along with some money for her to pick out a nice new bag of her own! marcy and john gave her a "going out" bag. joel, lucas and i gave her a "mommy" bag. natalie and will gave her a "beach" bag. and dad and jackson gave her a "shnacky" bag. (dad even used markers and drew her a picture!) inside that bag, there were also green and gold m&m's with a special message for mom printed on them.

with cake from the cheesecake factory, it was a really fun night! we love you mom!





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