A Lucas Update
It’s been a while since I wrote about Lucas, where he is in space/time.
The books say that 5 years old is a dream age. I now see glimpses of that in my son, almost as if he’s still settling into the age (he’s just over a month into 5 now).
Verbally, Lucas has adopted a couple of new quirks. He now says things like, “I SO want to do that, Mom.” Or, “I SO need to have a cookie right now. I’m starving.” It’s SO cute. He also seems just a tad more sophisticated. When he speaks now, I hear echoes of Tish-Tash (which is the handle her mommy gave her, I believe).
He’s growing again, too. I had to wrestle him down yesterday morning to cut his toe nails. His feet are freakin’ huge! Perhaps having Asher around as a contrast has made me realize how much Lucas has grown. His feet are kid feet now. They’re dirty and stinky. They have calluses and rough spots. His brown body is sprinkled with little white scars here and there. He’s lived long enough to acquire scars! He’s longer and leaner than ever before. Every week or two I put another shirt or pair of pants into the too-small pile to be stored for his brother to wear someday.
There is less tantruming now and instead he uses more sophisticated and subtle means of defiance. Lucas is a master at stalling, dilly-dallying, delaying. He can be coaxed along in dressing and the like, but we have to be rather tricky about it. We have races in the morning, for example: Can Lucas get dressed and ready for school before Daddy gets out of the shower?
Except sometimes there is a tantrum. If it gets to that point, he is as likely now to strike out physically as when he was two. His increased worldliness has brought him an inflated sense of his own physical prowess. Exposure to things like Ninja Turtles TV ads, a smidgeon of knowledge about karate and boxing, have turned him into a little fighter when he gets mad. It frustrates me immensely. Play boxing with Daddy seemed harmless at first (and Ian might still say it’s harmless), but in my opinion, it coincided with Lucas’s trying out fighting moves on me when he is pissed off. He boasts, “I’m stronger than you, Mom! I can box you!” We come down on him like a ton of bricks when he raises a hand to me. There can simply be no tolerance for that behavior. It won’t be too many more years before he is bigger than me. Fortunately, there aren’t reports of him fighting other children, but I don’t know that for sure.
Lucas is a motion machine. Not that I have an experienced eye, but it seems to me that he’s extremely athletic. As such, injuries abound. What in the world would we do without the boo-boo bag (cold pack) that we keep in the freezer?
Nobody can make Asher laugh the way Lucas can! Lucas enjoys clowning. He even gets jealous if someone else makes the baby smile or giggle. “Daddy! You’re getting all the smiles!” “Mommy, you always put Asher so he’s facing you!” What he means is we’re hogging HIS baby. Lucas is very gentle with Asher. He’s shown nothing but love and kindness to his little brother. We praise him for this as much as possible. We flatter him and tell him how much Asher loves him, how Asher is going to look up to him, how Asher is going to want to do everything like his big brother. Lucas is proud to show off Asher to his friends. He’s proud to be a big brother.
He’s also very excited to finally be “an older kid” in the Red Rose. Next fall, when school starts again, there will be new classmates who are younger than him.
Today we all celebrated five “pee-free” nights in a row. For the last two weeks or so, Lucas and Daddy have been working on nighttime potty training. Up to now, Lucas has been wearing pull-ups at night. We are delighted that he’s finally having success staying dry at night. (I wish I had known about EC when Lucas was a baby!) I’m hoping that he can completely master toileting this summer.
Lucas is doing pretty well with his new chores. He’s learning to fold his own clean laundry, and so far is doing it with joyful enthusiasm. Today, he revealed that he could help me fold sheets. He volunteered to help and then taught me the rhyme that they say in kindergarten when folding up sheets or big pieces of fabric. Wonderful!
Here’s Lucas playing his electric guitar and rocking out!
June 13, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Come on then, kick down with the rhyme! Maybe it will inspire me to actually FOLD the sheets before stuffing them in the kaundry pantry.
June 13, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I guess it’s not technically a rhyme: “Birds fly! Fold your wings.”
Two people grasp the ends of the sheets. They both lift their ends up while singing “Birds fly!” This flattens out wrinkles. Then they each fold their corners together, saying “Fold your wings.” Repeat until sheet is really long and skinny. Place it on the ground and then roll it up like a sleeping bag. Stuff into closet.