17.5 months

Whew. We have been busy these past couple months chasing after our very mobile, very funny little toddler. He is so busy, and is just constantly moving, always on the go. He's still obsessed with music and dancing and has better rhythm than his mama.

Avid reader

He's learning new things every day and it's just so much fun to see him make connections about how things work in the world. If he's listening to music, he'll occasionally put his fingers in his ears over and over again to hear the difference in sound. I put gloves on him the other day and he took one off and then clapped and was just delighted at the strange sound it made.

Over Christmas, Isabel got in trouble for something and Amber made her go to the back to calm down. She walked down the hall screaming. Lucas put down his toy, did his little old-man shuffle down the hall, found her, and gave her a hug. It was so cute! I love to see how he's growing in empathy.

His will is also growing, and we've had to start disciplining him for biting and pulling hair. A few quick pops on his hands, and he seems to have gotten that out of his system. But he's very much testing his boundaries, seeing what he can get away with, and throwing fits when things don't go his way. We're going to have our hands full shaping his character.

Eating
He has mastered the art of using a fork and a spoon. It's kind of adorable to watch and super convenient for me to have my free hands again.

He's still a picky eater and won't touch vegetables at all. If I try to disguise them in food, he'll just eat around them. If I put them on his plate, he totally ignores them or throws them on the floor. Oh well. One day he'll like his broccoli.

Sleeping
He still fights sleep and cries when he goes down, but he'll generally sleep from about 7:45 to 6ish. Many mornings we throw books, a sippy cup and an ipod in his crib so we can keep snoozing.

His napping is sporadic at best. Most days he sleeps for about an hour. He's staging a revolt at Dusty's and will only give her about 30 mins. That boy is stubborn.

Talking
He is talking up a storm. He's learning animal sounds, and we practice them in the car all the time. So far he's mastered cow, horse, dog, cat, mouse, pig, snake, bee, and a few more I can't remember.

Favorite words:
TOUCHDOWN! (accompanied by both his hands in the air like a ref does). He does this whenever he sees a football or a cornhole board.
Ball
What's that?
This is it
Papa!


Tricks
Kisses. He's giving these adorable, open-mouthed, super sloppy kisses all the time now. They're gross, but cute too.

Disobeying, but cute while doing it

Cheese. When you ask him to cheese, he squints his little eyes and makes a fake smile.

Puzzles. He got a whole lotta puzzles for Christmas and has been working on them every day, getting better about matching and getting the pieces in the correct spots. It's awesome to watch.

How he's like his mama
Super affectionate, people-person

How he's like his daddy
Spitting-image

He is a neat freak. If there is a spill, he will get out a washcloth and wipe it up. Half his time in the bath is spent wiping down the tub. He is great at picking up after himself which is good. Two against one. Maybe I'll finally capitulate and clean up my act.

I'm a terrible blogger, but not really

I'm just terribly inconsistent at updating this blog. I blame it on our outdated computer that constantly crashes and takes forever to upload pics. It's super unmotivating.

But I do have another little project -- a silly blog where I try to be grateful every day for the little parts of life that make it beautiful. My thankfulness thoughts don't make it to the blog every day -- sometimes they're written on receipts while I wait at a stoplight or are scrawled in my notebook while I sit through a boring meeting. But I do like the practice of pausing. breathing. Thinking about the parts of life that are beautiful and trying to appreciate the small things that are easy to take for granted.

Cultivating gratefulness

14 months of fun

Lucas is a total blast right now. I can't get enough of his silly antics; he constantly has us in stitches with his funny faces and new tricks.

Eating

Lucas' love affair with food has come to a close. He only wants to eat fruit or bread and has started pitching fits when I put other things on his plate. He also wants to eat with a fork or spoon at all times which is super messy and time-consuming, but kinda cute.

When I put something on his tray that he doesn't want to eat, he waves his hands back and forth and says "No, no, no" or "Stop it."

Sleeping
Lucas sleeps from about 7:45 p.m. until 6 a.m. and still fusses/whines/talks himself to sleep every night.

He decided to cut out his afternoon nap, so he's down to one 2-hour nap at 9 a.m. It makes for a very grumpy baby by 6 p.m., so we're trying to push his morning nap a bit. So far, he's not a fan.

Talking
Our little love is picking up new words all the time. He babbles constantly and tries to copy what we say.

New words:
Papa (his name for Josh's dad)
Tick-tock
Stop it (his favorite phrase)
Bubble
HOT
da (for dog or Dusty?)


Tricks

We have an independent daredevil on our hands. He has so many bruises, scrapes, and bumps from where he falls down and hurts himself. Usually he just stands back up, but sometimes he runs to me for a hug which I love.

Balancing on his garage

We go for a walk every night and he walks down the street either carrying a stick and yelling or clapping his hands and walking as fast as he can. He's on the verge of running which is a little scary for me.

He loves to go into the back bedrooms or bathroom and slam the door. He usually yells or cries just to let us know that he's back there, but then he'll play by himself for a bit.

He's a total ham and makes silly faces all the time.

We went to play with his two-year-old friend Brady the other night. Brady carries around a little stool so that he can always get an adult view of the world and is always jumping off of toys and chairs and couches. After playing with Brady for one night, we came home and Lucas got out his garage and got on top of it -- he's trying to be big kid.

Hugs. He finally gives intentional hugs and it's heart-melting.

We love our little man. He's growing up too fast, but he's getting to be more fun and interactive each day. I like watching his little personality form into a funny, strong-willed, outgoing little boy.

1st Hair Cut

Good job, Dad!

Mr. Dave has cut Josh's hair his entire life, and Josh is incredibly loyal to him. He's only let one other person cut his hair and then only because we were in NZ and I couldn't deal with the afro for much longer.

Our plan was to take Lucas to Mr. Dave for his first haircut. It was going to be a family affair with a pic of the three generations of Mitchell boys getting haircuts from Mr. Dave. But, alas, life happened and we couldn't get our act together.

Plus, grandma told us if we didn't cut his hair soon, his eyes would cross because of the hair falling in his face. I know it's not true, but I have that thing about crossed eyes, so I pressured Josh into a change of plans for Lucas' first hair cut.

We let him watch a cartoon for the first time ever and Josh went to town quickly, turning our growing baby into a proper little boy. Funny how a few snips of hair can transform someone so completely.

Beach fun

We went to Indian Beach after Lucas' birthday with Tom and Cindy and Eric. We got a little condo on the beach that also had a pool, so it was perfect for us.

This was Lucas' first time being able to play on the beach and in the ocean, and he was quite a little fish by the last day.

The first day he was a little sceptical and didn't want much to do with it.  We set his pool up under the umbrella, so he chilled there for a good bit of time. Josh made it feel like the ocean by filling it with sand crabs. awesome.

He also spent time relaxing in the new fun chair that Grandma Con got him. Just like the big boys:)

I love my chair, Grams!

Once he figured out that the ocean wasn't all that scary, he couldn't get enough of it. He did his little monkey crawl and Josh would run with him through the waves and he would just laugh and laugh. Tom would put him on the boogie board and pull him around, which was fun for about five minutes until he almost drowned.

When we weren't at the beach we were watching the Masters or playing games and running after a busy one-year-old. It was a fun trip, but definitely made it clear that the days of relaxing beach vacations are a thing of the past with a baby in tow.

Cuddling up with Papa.

1st Birthday Party

We celebrated Lucas' first birthday this past Sunday. We just did a cookout for our friends and had a fun time playing in the yard and hanging out. 

Our theme was red and teal, and we spent many hours cutting triangles and stringing them up, making pinwheels (that's all Josh) and finding enough balls for his ball pit. 

Pardon that all of the pics are only of Lucas. My camera died after about 5 minutes, so I just had to borrow these.

"Good job on the cake, mom and dad"

Lucas loved all the pinwheels -- especially when they all got going  at the same time.

I love these shorts. Thanks Di!

He played in his ball pit for about 10 minutes and then was done. 

Hanging with daddy

Trying out the new slide

family shot -- ignore my monster thighs

My sisters came. love them

Lucy laying down the law about the ball pit

Callie was all about the slide.

Lucas clapping after we sang "Happy Birthday"

Not so sure about this

I do not want to eat this cake, mom. Seriously.

Lucas at 12 months

Lucas at 12 months is so.much.fun.

I could laugh all day with my silly, charming, vocal, loving little boy. He makes my heart so happy.

Eating
He's staging a strong and steady revolt against veggies. If he doesn't want to eat something, he just throws it on the floor which was cute at first but has quickly gotten old. If he had his way, he would eat watermelon and frozen raspberries all day long. Throw in a peanut butter sandwich every once in a while, and he'd be happy as a clam.


Sleeping

He's still rocking his two naps and sleeping through the night as well. He's perfectly fine, though, when he misses a nap or stays up really late which is nice and flexible for us.

Playing
He loves to crawl all over us and wrestle. If I'm on the floor, he'll crawl on top of me, drum on my belly, give me raspberries on my legs and neck. Try to entice me to tickle him. And then he laughs like a wild man.

He lunges out of my arms all the time, trying to get down to do his crazy bear crawl all over the place.

Speaking of crawling -- we finally have a walker! He will walk about five steps, usually from one of us to the other. Then he stops and claps for himself. He still very much prefers his bear crawl because it gets him where he wants to go faster.

He's completely obsessed with books. He wakes up at six every morning and I go and put a bunch of books in his bed so he can read and I can keep sleeping.

He says "mama" over and over and over again in a very shouty voice pretty much all day, every day.

Bath time is a huge hit, as is the pool. He's gotten so brave about getting water dumped on his head, and he likes to put his face down in the water to drink the water. He splashes like a hurricane and douses the entire floor.

I think if I let him, he'd dance all day long. We listen to Spotify on the television, so he will crawl over the tv stand and start dancing and pointing to the tv until we turn on his music. Then he bounces and points his little finger. Such a trip.

How he's like mom

• Loud and bossy
• Morning person
• Strong-willed
• Bookworm
  

How he's like dad 

• Introverted: He likes people but he needs time to himself to get recharged
• He's got rhythm -- great dancer and great drummer
• Flirty
• Strong-willed