Lucas Changes
It’s been a while since I recorded some of what’s going on in Lucas’s development. It’s been an exciting time lately. He’s acting more grown up and pleasant some of the time, and more obnoxious at other times.
The Tidoo stories continue unabated. She remains his best friend, baby sister, and partner in crime. Tidoo’s age changes about five times per day. Sometimes she’s a newborn infant, other times she is a grown up astronaut. Sometimes she’s 3 years old, other times she’s 9. Tidoo pretty much knows everything, has done everything, can do everything. If Tidoo tells Lucas something, there’s really no convincing him otherwise. Together they fly airplanes, go on safari, ride bikes, drive trains, visit foreign countries, and explore the galaxy. Tidoo got a doll cradle for Christmas, so sometimes she sleeps there. More often than not, however, she still sleeps with Lucas, and frequently ends up in our bed in the early morning when he comes visiting.
Lucas is very excited about his baby brother coming. He says he can’t wait. My grandmother bought a stuffed bear for the new baby; it can record a short message and play it back. Presumably, this is something the toy maker thinks babies like. To me, it’s pretty awful. To Lucas, this device disguised as a teddy bear is a really a walkie-talkie. He talks into it and records messages that he regards as direct communications with the baby in my womb. He usually says some variation on this: “Hi Baby! I love you! I hope you come out of there. … Fart, fart, fart, fart!” The message usually ends with maniacal laughter. Sometimes he throws in his favorite nonsense word of late: “Faguga!” Lucas thinks Faguga would be a great name for our baby.
He still really likes school, but since he had two weeks off for Christmas vacation, he’s kind of bummed about having to return to our normal weekday schedule. He claims he doesn’t like to be rushed in the morning. We have a calendar now and we marked family days and school days on the calendar. I know that as soon as he gets to school, he has a great time. But he claims he doesn’t want to go. Frankly, I don’t blame him. I have always hated leaving the house before 9 a.m. myself, especially when it’s cold outside.
Over the break, Ian got to spend eleven days at home. He and Lucas totally bonded during this time. They built stuff, put together new toys, did projects, and made about a billion things out of Legos. I was very happy to see Ian relax and Lucas warm to his dad so completely. They now have all kinds of interests in common and enjoy each other’s company. This is encouraging, considering I will soon have my hands full with an infant.
Last night Lucas told me that I was the “best, best, best, best mommy in the world. In the whole world!” That was nice to hear. He says that his favorite time of day is bedtime, when we cuddle together and sing songs and he gets to put his hand down my shirt. He usually falls asleep shortly after the lights go out because he’s not napping in the afternoons any more. Every once in a blue moon I can coax him to nap with me (mostly because I need the rest). I still love falling asleep with his little body curled up to mine. I love how he smells of energy and sunshine and mud.
My little darling is fairly obsessed with weapons and army stuff lately. It has me feeling dismayed and disappointed. We bought him a wooden biplane kit for Christmas. He built it with Ian over the vacation, and together they decided to paint it like the Red Baron. This brought up all kinds of research into fighter planes and WWI. It looks super cool and is a sturdy toy, but it bothered me how much talk of war it spurred.
He’s building Legos into tanks. He talks about bombs and bullets, guns and shooting. I know that it’s probably normal, but I don’t like it at all. I’m trying not to give this stuff power or to shame him for being interested in things that mommy doesn’t approve of. Honestly, the kid never stops talking! So when he’s talking about all this stuff that bothers me, it gets on my nerves pretty quickly.
January 17, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Not that I’m an expert or anything, but as I mentioned the other day, I think the fascination with weapons and warfare is pretty standard for boys. Dispite my parents best efforts to avert it, my brother had similar interests (in his case it was violent nintendo games, but still a lot of shooting, etc.)
Anthropologically, it’s possible that kids just like to imitate what they think powerful adults do.
But I totally understand your aversion to it. It would bug me too.
January 18, 2007 at 8:39 pm
He’s beautiful. Thanks for posting all the great pictures!