Lucas is One!

A whole year has passed since bringing our little man home, and its been one of the most challenging and rewarding years of my life.  We had a great time last weekend celebrating his birthday with all our family and closest friends, and I will be sure to post all the details soon.  On to the details...

Lucas is now attempting to run, and is actually quite successful, even though his brain doesn't quite catch up with his feet and he still stumbles around.  He loves to wander around, and sometimes he's entertained enough that I can sit in the back yard enjoying a coffee while he meanders around the trees and rocks, and contents himself with playing in the dirt.  I have been pointing out the names of things outside like grass and rocks, and even though he hasn't mastered those words he seems to understand us since he will bring us a rock when prompted.

His level of understanding of the world around him, and things that we tell him is honestly so amazing, and makes his mama so proud.  He has this amazing sense of direction, which lends itself to a funny story.  We were at a bass pro shop a few weeks ago and it was just in time to watch the fishes being fed, which Lucas was thoroughly enjoying; however my adventurous little man wanted to get into the water, so we moved away, and I'm talking like near the end of the store, and he made his way all the way back through clothes racks, and displays.  Obviously the tantrum that ensued when we left was less than stellar, but in retrospect we were amazed. 

His understanding has lent itself to quite the mischievous and playful side.  He has this odd obsession with eating plants, full well knowing that he shouldn't, but what does the bugger do, if no one is watching he will tear leaves off of plants and just throw them on the floor, but if he has an audience then he proceeds to stuff them in his mouth and watch while everyone clamours over to him to remove said leaves.  I dread the teenage years where it seems he will relish in defying authority.

He seems to not quite know whether he wants to drop a nap or not, and we have had a few days when he has refused his morning nap, only to be extremely fussy until he finally sleeps later.  But he's still sleeping well at night which I can't complain about especially since we were just at a play group last week, and I discovered that 3 out of the 5 moms were still dealing with 12 to 14 month olds not sleeping the night.  Since we haven't dealt with that problem since Lucas was 5 months old, I'm counting my blessings.

Lucas' appetite has taken a bit of a nose dive, notable at lunch.  I think this may have to do with the nap situation, since when he doesn't have his morning nap he's too over stimulated to want to eat so he just ends up snacking.  He has taken a huge liking to eggs this month though, and boy loves his meat of any kind, just this evening he ate a toddlers portion of white fish that would put some people to shame.  He's going through a love/hate relationship with veggies right now, so I'm going to start adding them to his eggs and pancakes, and makes fritters with them which I know he loves.

Lucas' full vocabulary list right now includes: mama, dada, nonna, nonno, no, yeah, hello, bye, da (give in Portuguese), go, ba (he uses this for his bottle, and has just started referring to balls this way as well).  I have to say that I'm pretty proud of his verbal skills, he "talks" a lot, and he definitely is having conversations with us, and we are always encouraging him to speak, and attempt to understand him.  We are firm believers in "including" Lucas in conversations, and I feel that he responds really well to this form of communication.

He is still very much a people person, and loves to wave and say hello to anyone who looks his way.  He charms the pants off of any stranger, and people are always taken in by his effusive smile, and laughter.  It really warms my heart to see how social he is, and how he seems to make friends at his play groups with such ease.  We are teaching him the rules of sharing, and I'm glad to say that he is not the first kid to take a toy away from another, if anything he usually offers it.

Lucas you have brought so much love and laughter to a lot of people this year, and I can't honestly wait to see what the future holds for you little one.