Recently, for Mother's Day, we went to lunch in downtown Denver after church and then took Luka to Cinco de Mayo at Civic Center Park. We went straight for the kiddy rides and he had a blast on the clown train, the bouncy castle and the pony rides (though that scared him a bit, he was proud to have been a "cowboy"). Also did the petting zoo which he liked till the goats started attacking us to get at the pellets of food we bought to feed them. There was a little goat that was cute and eating the carrot pieces Luka offered him, saying, "Here little goat - tu veux manger des carottes ?" But the rest of the goats were very goat-like (i.e. eating everything in sight and kind of disgusting).
Luka has a fun time at "school". He goes to day care several days a week. His best buddy is Kristin. She left for a while, which was very traumatic, but she recently started attending again - what a relief. Luka was very sad and often asked me, "Mommy, where Kristin?" and "I want Kristin!" The day care has very low (no) turn over of teachers, but it is still traumatic for a little kid when his friends no longer attend or move up to the next class. His friend Austin left several months ago and he still asks about him. (Austin was the one that bit his finger in the beginning, but they became buddies.) Josh was his friend too, but he moved up to the 3-year old class. Amy used to be his favorite, and I think they still hang out, but Kristin is the favorite now.
Luka loves puzzles and has several 24-piece puzzles that he can now do on his own. There are two Pooh ones and two Sesame Street ones. He likes Elmo a lot and likes to talk through the puzzle pictures - Cookie Monster playing the cymbals, Ernie playing the trumpet, Elmo playing the drums. Or, Elmo at the beach with his friends. Pooh has also been fertile ground - allowing us to learn some good vocabulary like "telescope" in French. If you have read our website, you know we are raising Luka bilingually. For my thoughts on that, you can check out that part of our personal site at http://www.bodeuxinternational.com/per/Eve/Eve.htm.
Little man #2 is on his way - our second son will arrive the beginning of August. This pregnancy has been somewhat more uncomfortable than the first (Luka), but in the bigger scheme of things, the inconveniences are small and we are very excited for number two. No name picked out yet -- Luka was not name till he was 4 days old. We want to have one that fits the following criteria: sounds good in French, sounds good in English, and, we like it. In any case, Luka usually accepts now that he is having a little brother (and not a little sister) and seems excited about it. He wants to look at, and pat, Mommy's tummy often and comments, "My little brother is in there."
As a last hurrah for Mommy (me) before #2 is born, and as a celebration with my college friends for the year we turn 40, I am leaving for a trip to Arizona - hiking, spa'ing, hanging out. This will be the first time I will be away from Luka overnight. I think it will be good for all of us, but am still a bit nervous about leaving my little man. But, he and his papa are planning fun things like going to see Sesame Street Live (www.sesamestreetlive.com) and I am sure they will have a blast.
Some of Luka's favorite books are T'Choupi stories, Coco the Elephant, Green Eggs and Ham (which he calls Sam I Am) and Are You My Mother (which Auntie Tammy gave him last Christmas). We just read the latter two times this morning before breakfast! He also is really into "reading" books on his own lately. He looks at each page and summarizes the story as he knows it - this is usually in French since the vast majority of the books we read are French-language. It is fun to sit back and watch him remember the details of stories and to see how he interprets them - which is usually quite accurate. I was really impressed with the level of detail he recalled and the vocabulary he used when recounting "T'Choupi fait le manège" (T'Choupi on the Carnival Rides), and others.
In the past months, he has lessened his attachment to his Baby (doll), and no longer takes her (him?) everywhere. However, Baby is still mentioned as part of the family (along with Gorille, Doudou, and sometimes, Goblet (his ever-present Sponge Bob sippy cups). He plays a lot with his Thomas the Train pieces - including Thomas, Percy and Jack along with the rail cars and the rails. He uses the magnets on them to stick them to Mommy's office chair. He also likes to take a part and reassemble the rails. He likes Baby Tad who sings in French, he likes his Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and Kitty figurines, though he has played with them less lately. He also likes his Elmo that says "Let's play!" and "Tell Elmo a secret" and "Elmo loves you!" in that funny Elmo voice (that Mommy bought a few months ago at a garage sale). He also likes to color a lot and play with play dough. "Play dough" or "pâte à modeler" is a frequent request.
Hi, Mr. Potato Heads - or as we say, Mssrs. Patates!
He doesn't watch that much TV (as far as little kids go), but in past months, he has liked the Baby Einstein videos with animals. He loves Baby MacDonald (he calls it Eee-i-e-o) and also Baby Doolittle and some of the others. Some are in VHS (English), but the ones that are on DVD we can program to play in French. He also likes Carole la Luciole (Carole the Firefly) and Petit Potam (Little Hippo). He often likes to "play" Petit Potam where Mommy is Petit Potam and he is Fleure de Miel. He also likes his T'Choupi DVD's a lot - especially the story with the T'Choupi Tcha Tcha Tcha. He learns interesting phrases from these as well ("Le papi de T'Choupi dit que T'Choupi est un farceur.... Mesdames et Messieurs, je vous présente....!")
Lately, he has learned that Mommy has a name other than Mommy (Eve) and Papa has another name too (Reynald), as well as Grandma (Joan) and that Jean-Claude is his Grandpère and Annick is his Grandmère. He likes to tell people "Grandma s'appelle Joan" - but often they don't speak French and don't understand (till we translate) that he is saying "Grandma's name is Joan!"
He also has favorite things to say. Lately, he has been really into saying, "Oui" (yes). We don't say it that often, but obviously, its meaning got through to him. Months (a year?) ago, I tried to get him to say it. He would respond to questions in French with "Yeah." I am sure he got that from me....! In any case, he finally came around to it on his own and lately, he loves to say "Oui" (when appropriate), but he uses it every chance he gets and is very formal about it: "Oui, Maman, j'ai soif" or "Oui, Papa, je veux manger du fromage." It is pretty cute to hear his sweet little voice saying "oui" so seriously.
