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..."

Thanksgiving in Baltimore

On the plane ride over...Mom successfully coaxed a 1.5 hour nap out of him.

All smiles at Dadu Bhai and Thamma's house (this is how you say grandfather and grandmother in Bengali).

Beautiful fall weather for our trip.

Out to DC for the day to get the American History lessons started. A sunny day on the Mall.

Climbing all the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with Mommy.

Posing with the 16th President and Thamma.

Almost as tall as the Washington Monument. He especially liked playing with the rocks in the partially drained reflecting pool.

Getting ready to eat some Maryland Blue crab (though calamari was the real hit) right before heading to the airport. We had a small vomiting emergency at the restaurant - Dad may have fed him too much spicy chipotle mayo dipping sauce with the calamari. Fortunately Mom packed an extra set of shoes.

YAY! New pics!!!

Hi All-

Wonderful Judith came over on Saturday to take our pics and she is so fast, the sneak peek is already up on her blog! As always, she did an awesome job. We're so glad she got a picture of Luca snuggling his bunny, as this is something we see about 1000x a day!
Thanks again, Judith!!
http://fernstromphotography.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/11/did-he-really-just-say.html

Enjoying C&W at Lil Abners

Okay...my last post for today...

We recently went back to my hometown of Tucson, AZ for a wedding...I insisted that we have dinner one night at the best steak and ribs joint in the city (or any place as far as I am concerned): Lil Abners steak house.

The one thing even better than the food is the music - live music from Dean Armstrong and Arizona Dance Hands C&W band, with the same line-up since 1948...I can't believe that this group (all of the members were probably in their 60's and 70's when I was a high school kid in Tucson) are still going today.

Anyway, Luca became absolutely transfixed and stood in front of the stage staring, occasionally dancing, and often trying to climb on stage himself, for virtually the entire night. Sorry for the grainy video, but it's still funny to watch...

Singing Medley

Luca has become more obsessed with singing and storytelling, demanding that we sing or tell him stories throughout the day, and especially before bedtime. He now loves singing himself as well - very cute, in his small and timid voice!

We put together a few samples on video and will try to get some more in the coming weeks (including one of him singing his own composition, "The Bunny Song" which goes:

Bun - ny
Bun - By
Boing, boing, boing, boing...

Repeat Verse

Christina can provide some background on the Chinese songs later, though one of them is a Taiwanese folk song and I think only his nanny fully understands the words...

Wholesome fun at the pumpkin patch

Monster Voice

Practicing for Halloween