17 Month update-"More"

Agnish reminded me of a few things we wanted to add for this month...
1. This month Luca has shown his love of drumming and turning other objects into drums (e.g., beds, chairs, his car seat, balls, cheese curl canister).
2. Luca has also embraced the word "MORE"--sometimes very cute (says "more" when we are kissing him) and sometimes very bossy (last night he forced Agnish to chase him around the house for hours, and every time Agnish wanted to rest, Luca would yell "More!").

17 month update

This will be a short one as I can't think of anything to say.
Locomotion: Nothing new here, as Luca continues to run around like a monkey.
Eating: We're so happy to report that A LOT of improvement has occurred this month--Luca has not vomited in almost a month--hooray! He is eating less, but enjoying mealtime more. On Mother's Day, he ate an entire slice of Pepperoni Pizza, what a great gift. Our feeding specialist Jane is helping us to realize how much Luca loves spicy food: favorites are pizza, Aloo Bhajia (a spicy Indian potato snack), cheese and ham.
Talking: Recently, Luca has been very cute with making "non-word" sounds. For example, he will say "Aaahh!" after drinking water or in other funny situations (like if his sleeve is caught on his arm, if I release it, he will say, Ah! in relief). He also likes so say "whoops" when something falls and "bonk" when things bang and WOW when something is cool to him. He also likes to make the sounds of a monkey ("oooo ooo ooo"), snake ("Sssss") and Lion ("roar" but very softly) and car ("Boo boo").
Schedules: We've been a bit off schedule these past few weeks with traveling. Somehow the sneaky monkey has gotten us into a routine where he sleeps from about 8:30 pm to 6:30 am. not sure how he lost the last hour of sleep, I think it is the light, but hopefully he'll sleep more soon.
I guess that's it for now! I'll try to post funny stories later, but can't really think of anything right now...he continues to delight us!

First Haircut Video

Video as promised in the last post...

Luca's First Haircut from Agnish Chakravarti on Vimeo.

The dirty deed has been done.

Anyone who has spoken to me in the last few months knows that I have been agonizing over (and putting off) Luca's first haircut.  We love his flowing long locks, but Agnish made one too many comments about our son looking like Frasier, and his hair was really starting to bother him. So we finally pulled the trigger last weekend and got him his first haircut at Kids Club in U Village, where apparently every Seattle parent is required by law to take their child.

Here are the before shots--here's the true Frasier head:

And some pretty darn long bangs in the front:

During, Luca was not at all bothered and liked to drive the car:

After, he wasn't sure what the big deal was (why was mommy acting so hysterical?)

Seems to feel that he has been tricked out of something:

The comparison after shot:

Even though his haircut has made him lose some of his baby-ness (he looks about 4 inches taller and 10 months older), he is still quite handsome, wouldn't you agree?

And, because we are obsessive parents, we documented the whole thing on video tape, which I will post later tonight.

Visit with Cole and Kaia

Here's how I pictured the weekend with 3 little ones. Aren't they so cute?

Here's how the weekend actually looked, most of the time:

Three kids with oral fixations:

Breakfast at Chinooks

...and at Specialties.

Does it mean something that I realized we have no pictures with the parents of these kids? We'll have to fix that at our next visit--We miss you guys already!

Trip to the beach with Zachary

A few weeks ago, we got to hang out at Golden Gardens with Zachary.  Luca loves hanging out with big boys.

Here's Zach with his daddy. On his own blog, his mom captioned this photo "not need diaper at beach."  so true, so true.

Lukee Speakee Chinesee

Of course, it didn't occur to me to translate what Luca is saying until after we put up the post!

Part 1:

Mom: "Xie-xie, yei yei" (Thank you, paternal grandfather-this comes from the only TV show that Luca watches, Ni-Hao Kai Lan. Sadly, since Luca's paternal grandfather is Dadubhai (bengali) his lovely pronunciation of yei yei is wasted.)

Luca: "xie xie" (Thank you).

Mom: "wo di bao bae bao bae gay wo i ga tien tien" (My darling, my darling, give me a 'sweet sweet')

Luca: "tien tien" (Sweet sweet--this comes from a song that Joanne sings to Luca. You can hear a pop version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjAZGlzsFEQ )

Part 2:

"Gwan mun" means "close the door"

"Kai mun" means "open the door"

16 Month Update

Sorry we're a few days late on this one...Here we go with highlights from Month 16
Locomotion: This month, Luca finally gained enough confidence to walk mostly by himself (though he still loves to hold hands and walk). He is a busy little monkey, and one of his favorite activities is to walk up and down the stairs.
Eating: Still sort of the same here. We've decided to start having Luca visit with a speech pathologist who can help Luca begin to handle more textures (since he mostly eats hard crunchy foods and purees, but not a lot in between). I understand that it will be a sort of slow process so we're prepared for patience. On the other hand, his appetite this month has been pretty good and he seems to be enjoying mealtime a bit more!
Speaking: Luca continues to be quite the chatterbox. This month we're working on manners. He has gotten the concept of "please" which sounds like "Pooh?" or "Ploo?" He also says "xie xie" (thank you in Mandarin). Unfortunately, he has also gotten the concept of "no" which he will occasionally say to us. Also, if we say "no" to him, about 50 percent of the time he will just say "na na na" and be happy and proud that he understands the word. Uh oh for us!!!
Schedules: Luca has been fighting a cold for the last few weeks so sleeping has not been ideal these past few weeks. Also our PEPS friends have all been complaining about how their kids are up in the middle of the night, so we're not looking forward to the continued sleep deprivation.
Likes: Throwing things down the stairs, being outside (either on the street or on our deck), going for a ride in the car, DJ'ing on the iPod (his favorite song is 'you can call me Al' by Paul Simon), playing with pens, coloring, the touch pool at Seattle Aquarium and the water exhibit at the Childrens Museum, and watching videos of himself on YouTube, talking about and wearing his orange shoes.
Dislikes: being forced to stay inside if he wants to be outside; staying at home for the entire day (not an option anymore)
Other milestones or stories:
1. Don't judge us, but Luca finally learned how to clap his hands this month. Yes ,we know that other babies do this at month 3 but Luca did not find anything applause-worthy until now.
2. Luca has also started to announce when he toots ("Tah!") or poops ("Pah"). Both words are accompanied by him touching his tummy/diaper area in a very adorable way. Looks like potty training is coming soon!

Feeling nostalgic for last weekend

It's overcast, a little cold and a bit dreary (but at least not raining)...it's making me very nostalgic for the sunshine last weekend.

Last weekend highlights:

On Saturday we tried the Childrens Museum for the first time. It's an indoor activity so we were debating whether to waste any of the sunshine, but it was fun and Luca also enjoyed the Seattle Center park/water sculpture out front. Inside the museum, Luca enjoyed crawling around the tent in the faux nature trail exhibit and the miniature stream/waterfall. We will try to go more often, especially when the weather is not cooperating and we need indoor activities.

On Sunday we had fun at the Park...






..and also went to the Zoo! Luca loves the gorillas becuase they get up very close...



He enjoyed playing the drums...







And he liked pretending to be a newly hatched baby dinosaur...

Hopefully more weekends like this are on their way...

Some random pictures

From the last few weeks:

We all know that Mommy secretly wanted a girl....

Feeling snuggly...

Getting ready for an outing in the cold...