Random things to remember

Just random stuff that only parents (and maybe a couple of others) would understand...just saving for the future:

• "more daddy laugh herfy" to request that daddy say "her her her fy"
• "her-be-der" (Luca says both "herfy" and "herbeder" when he is cold)
• "what was under the hose?"..."Regular blue bunny"... laughing ensues (this is a crucial line from the 'grass story' described below)
• "put it onto the mat" : where Luca is allowed to play with his messier toys
• "gran cru" and " Bapi chalo" from Baltimore: One is a Bengali phrase, the other the name of a restaurant in Baltimore
• "more watch the man dance and the lady dance": Luca's request to see a clip from Pulp Fiction
• Daddy: "What's this Luca?"; Luca: "Hmm" (Luca says hmmm to cheat when he doesn't know the name of something)
• "There it is!" which is really pronounced "There dis" and occasionally "chair chiz"
• Pointing in an ambiguous direction and saying "There it is" dismissively
• "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,6,7,8,9,10,12"
• "Just tang" (which means 'just soup' in Chinese)
• "No jook" (which means no chunks in his soup)
• "No cold one" or "Too big" which means he doesn't like the bite of food we've given him.
• "Its hot"...makes blowing sound
• "More orange balls", "More chicken crunchies", "more touch the orange circle and the blue circle, and the green circle" (based on his obsession with Blue C Sushi. He also sings a song in happiness when we pull up to Blue C: "We're going to eat sushi, we're going to eat sushi, we feel so happy! We just want to sing!"
• "That's not for babies"
• "More mommy throw up", "More daddy throw up", "More daddy throw up in the shower", "More daddy blow his nose"
• "It fell down, onto the GWOUND"
• "More SEE that"
• "No bun"
• "Bunny...mmm..mmm"

Home-made Bedtime Stories for Luca, in order of current preference:

• Bunny story (3 bunnies in search of carrots)
• Blue bunny story (about regular blue bunny, pink bunny and soft blue bunny)
• Baby horsey story (about a young horse's search for his father)
• Horsey story (about a horse snow globe)
• Red light story, Green light story, Yellow light story (about driving)
• Blue light story, white light story, orange light story (about other various lights in his life)
• Shark story (about a mean shark who scares other animals in the ocean)
• Grass story (about daddy planting grass seed in the lawn)
• Yellow bunny, Red bunny, and Green bunny story (stories about imaginary bunnies)

I hope I still remember all of this in a few years...I'l have to keep writing it all down...

Random Things about Luca

Luca calls his thumbs "fingerthumbs"

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In the last month or two, Luca has gotten really good at counting. He understands the concept of pointing at groups of objects and saying numbers until there are no more things to point at. It's pretty cute!

**Reasons why we believe that Luca will be a frat boy***
- He loves to wear sweatpants
- His favorite foods are chips & cheetos
- he loves beer and beer bottles
- he loves watching sports while eating said chips and cheetos
- his favorite songs are power ballads by Journey
- He cracks up EVERY TIME he hears a burp, fart, or sneeze

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His first nightmare (we think)--this happened in about August when he was about 1.5 years old. he woke up crying in the middle of the night. When I went in and picked him up, he clutched onto me and said: "Mommy and daddy are stuck. People sing songs."

***Movie Buff****
One thing that Agnish likes to teach Luca is random movie quotes. Some of our favorite Luca movie quotes are:
- "I had a pony!" (Not from a movie but from a Seinfeld Episode)
- "It puts the lotion in the basket" (SOTL)
- "Luca I'm your Daddy" (which is obviously adapted from 'Luke I'm your father' which Luca says every time he sees a cup or tube)
***
The other day, I was reading to Luca and he said "Mommy is not doing a good job" and brought the book to Daddy to read.

Guh-Guh's Room

Now that Luca is going to be a big brother ("Guh Guh" in Chinese), we didn't want him to feel left out of all the exciting changes happening to the rooms...so his room has gotten a little spruce up as well.

That means more fish on the walls (those who are Mario Puzo/Coppola fans will know why we chose this theme for Luca's room)

AND, a fancy new wall gallery of photos taken and inspired by the fantabulous Judith Fernstrom (Sorry Judith, my novice photography skills and the fact that these were taken with my iPhone means that your pictures of your wall galleries are much nicer than these! Sorry that I"m not giving your gorgeous photos their proper showing off!)

Didi's Room

We're putting the finishing touches on the new nursery for Didi (Chinese for little brother).

Since this baby is WAY more active in the womb than Luca ever was, we think of him as our little monkey, and so his nursery is appropriately themed....

Luca starts School!

One of the (many) big changes happening in our little corner of the world is that Luca has just started preschool/day care at a little school very close to our house. So far, the transition is going great--he seems to like it there, and the teachers and his new friends are very loving and sweet.

Here are a few glimpses of Luca's new daytime activities---

Eating lunch with his new friends. Agnish and I are hoping that one positive side effect will be better eating due to peer pressure. A mama can only hope...

Story time with teacher Val

Luca was happy to see that they have balls at school as well. This was a big selling point for him.

Story time with Teacher Martin (this was his first visit and you can see that he was a bit more apprehensive, the picture with Teacher Val was after a few days and he was more willing to be part of the group)---don't get confused by his doppelganger Cooper, who everyone thinks looks just like Luca!

Big welcomes for Luca during the transition time!

Happy Birthday Tai Po!

Luca's Ode to Daddy

Like most people, Luca realizes how great and wonderful his daddy is. He almost always prefers daddy to mommy (or anyone else), and his love of daddy has gone so far that now he has taken to singing a song to describe his love of daddy. Isn't it cute?

(BTW for some reason the viewer is cutting off half the video, but if you double click on the video it will open in you tube and you'll be able to see it in full)

Post Holiday Cheer-Luca meets Santa

Seems like the holidays were so long ago, so here's a little video of Luca meeting Santa. I dare you not to laugh while watching this!!

(ps Like the one above, you have to double click on the video to see it in full)

Happy Birthday #2 Luca!

Happy Birthday Luca!

We can't believe that we've been blessed with you for two whole years now. It would be a huge understatement to say that we can't imagine life without you and have been grateful for every second of the last two years. We hope you are enjoying your young life so far!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Christmas Tree Temptation

This is Luca's first year with a Christmas tree since becoming mobile. Life with the tree started out rough - we built up lots of expectation by telling him how much fun he would have decorating the tree, and then proceeded to prevent him from throwing around the ball ornaments and eating the toxic glitter on the snowflakes. Needless to say, he complained loudly and persistently.

Over time, though, he has come to love the tree even with all of the rules: no throwing the ball ornaments, no pulling on the tree's necklace (the bead garland), and only gentle touches for other ornaments. He walks around the tree, repeating these rules himself ("no touch shiny ball", "no pull neck-a-lus") and has been surprisingly good at following them. The tree lights are also a big hit.

We'll see how he does when presents begin appearing under the tree...

A tempting silver star.

Gentle touches.

"Let me see if anyone's watching..."