Proud of his heritage

A cute clip of Luca showing off one of his favorite new words and his new cool outfit that Joanne brought back from her vacation.

Also, makes me think that we need to get Luca and his friend Jammy together in their matching outfits!

**Edited on 2/21---I believe I switched the video from Private to Public, so you should be able to see it now. Sorry about that! ***

14 Months

Happy Valentines Day everyone! And, Happy 14 months to Luca! Here's how he's been doing this past month..

Moving

Definitely showing more interest in walking. He can walk a few steps by himself but is very cautious and prefers to walk while holding our hands. Has figured out how to crawl onto both sofas, chaise lounge, womb chair, and our bed. But, he's pretty good about being careful when he crawls down, so I'm grateful for that.  Also, he has been having a lot of fun crawling up the stairs.

Eating

Things are about the same on this front. Still doesn't like to eat much but we've been better about feeding him 5 meals a day and also upping calorie density by mixing oil, cream and tahini into his foods. So hopefully he's putting on more weight. I just noticed the return of his tiny double chin, so that's encouraging!

Talking

Some of his favorite new words from this month are Ham, China, Tiny, Home, Good night (sounds like "goo-nigh").  He has also recently been obsessed with bodily functions: Sneeze (sounds like "neh"), Cough, and Yawn (sounds like "Yah-NNNNNN). His favorite is still "Salsa" which has now morphed into an exclamation for any time he is excited (if you give him a good toy, he screams "Salsa!").  Dad's favorite is "Baaa...aaa...aa" for what a sheep says.

Schedules

Luca seems to be down to one nap a day now, from 2 or 2:30 to 4:30. Then he sleeps from about 8 pm to 6 am.  I'm hoping to move both the nap and bedtime up a bit earlier to see if we can get him back to his 7p-7a night time sleep schedule. 

Likes include watching us play "table tilt" on our Wii, new toys from China and Hawaii, falling backwards onto the bed, grunting like a pig (and hearing others grunt), kissing passionately.

Dislikes include being in his highchair, being in the car for more than 15 minutes. 

Cute stories: 

(1) Recently, Luca likes to tell us when there is a man outside the house (happens often as our neighbors are getting work done).  He will go to the window and say "a man." or point to pictures of "man" in books/magazines, or even whisper it quietly to himself when we are in the store or out and about.

(2) Agnish was permanently scarred the other day when he was leaving for work and I told Luca to say "Bye Bye"---to which Luca's bottom lip started quivering and slow tears rolled out of his eyes. It was heartbreaking for everyone involved.

(3) this was a big travel month for Luca as he went to Vancouver and Hawaii. He is definitely a better plane traveler than car traveler. (enough said)

Will post more pictures very soon!

Feeling Schmoopy about PEPS

This past Wednesday we got to see most of the PEPSters again after what seems like a very long time. All of a sudden, all of the "babies" are so big, we just couldn't get over it!  Luca had a great time catching up with his old friends, dancing, playing in Cora's cool fort, and jumping on the bed.  We were also privy to one of the sweetest interactions that I've ever seen, as Cora gave Benjamin several serious kisses goodnight, to Benjamin's shock and delight.  It was too cute. 

As we drove home, Agnish and I marveled over how amazing each of the kids are, and we talked about how lucky we are to have met such a great group of kids and parents! We've now known each other for over a year- happy anniversary fellow PEPS friends!

Jumping on the bed--blurry objects are crazed toddlers.

All of the kids loved playing in Cora's fort. What a great idea!

Shave Ice

Agnish already blogged about how much he and Luca loved the shave ice, so I won't go into the details, but these are my new favorite pics of dad and son.  I love how colorful the pictures are, and there is just something about Luca's little feet hanging down in his tiny sneakers, and his little hand on Daddy's leg, that breaks my heart!

Kauai Pics

Deborah asked for pics of the Kauai trip since sometimes the videos can be a pain. Here are a few:

Hanging out on the pool floats in the condo:

Grooving to the Ukelele (not pictured):

Playing and eating at Hanalei Dolphin Fish Market:

Hanging out at Dukes:

Building his first sand castle--serious work!

At Ke'e Beach- Note the monk seal next to them!

Strolling along the Coconut Coast:

We LOVED our condo at Waipouli Beach Resort!

Kauai Trip

We just got back from a trip to Kauai, one of our favorite places in the world. This was Luca's first time to Hawaii and our first attempt at teaching him to love island life as much as we do. We think we were successful...

Most of our days were spent at the pool or at the beach. We tried several different beaches around the island, including Poipu Beach on the southern shore (great reputation for being kid friendly), Ke'e Beach up north (very beautiful, but the water was a bit cold and rough for swimming), and Lydgate Park in the middle of the island. For people with babies and small toddlers, Lydgate is great - it's encircled by a protective rock barrier and is very sandy. There are also lots of fish schools that swim right around you in the shallow water...

Kauai is probably not the best island for restaurants but we had a good time revisiting some favorites and trying out some new places. We especially like the local fish markets, where you can grab a quick lunch and also take home some very fresh fish for the grill. Our favorite spots were the Kilauea Fish Market (get the Ahi wrap) and Hanalei Dolphin up north, and the Koloa Fish Market down south.

Luca and his father had a great time checking out the local "shave ice" stands that dot the island. For those of you who haven't seen real Hawaiian shave ice, here's how it works - you start with a scoop of ice cream (usually Macadamia Nut) on the bottom. Then a pile of shaved ice (seemingly 4 feet high) is mounded on top and saturated with your choice of several tropical flavorings. Because this treat is not sufficiently unhealthy at this point, you can also choose to have a generous drizzle of sweetened condensed milk poured on top. Luca and his father typically went for all three layers. Both Paradise Shave Ice in Hanalei and Jo Jo's in Waimea were excellent!

Needless to say we are very sad to be back, even though Seattle has given us some sunny days to ease our transition. We can't wait to get back to Hawaii again...

Kauai 2009 from Agnish Chakravarti on Vimeo.

Superbowl Sunday

Go Steelers!!