Jonathan, er um, Christian ... er, um, Jonathan

As I've mentioned in the past, a lot of people comment that Jonathan and Christian look alike, but I don't see it.

I don't see it until I come across photos of Jonathan as a young child.  And I had to do a double-take on this photo, because wow!  It could be Christian in that photo!



Another Lesson Learned: Monsters

I've come to realize that parenting is all about lessons learned.  Our most recent lesson learned:  monsters.

Christian loves Disney movies and so we recorded Monsters Inc. the other day after he caught a few minutes of it on TV by chance, and seemed really interested.

He does, indeed, like the movie ... but there are some scary parts - like when Boo is in the room when Scully is being really scary - and Boo goes running out in tears.   The movie shows monsters in bedrooms with sleeping children, monsters under the bed, etc.

So naturally, Christian is concerned that there may be monsters in his room, hiding under his bed.  Jonathan and I have both done what we can to tell Christian that monsters are pretend and just in a movie on TV and there are absolutely no monsters in his room, or in our house.

Fortunately, Christian isn't terrified, just concerned.  He continues to sleep through the night just fine, in the dark as always.   But we have to answer several questions about monsters before we can leave the room.  And that is fine - we'll spend as much time with him on the topic to ensure he feels safe.

Since Christian can read and see that Monsters Inc. is part of our DVR lineup, we've removed it so he can't request to watch the movie and be reminded of his concern over monsters.

Christian has got some big life changes in store for him in the next few weeks, and hopefully we can put this issue of monsters behind him before those changes take place.

Lesson learned:  no more monster movies, no matter how happy, funny and harmless they may seem to be.

We Three Luceros

My sister got some great photos of we three Luceros ... look for more to come!

Wordless Wednesday - November 30, 2011

Me and My Shadow

Livin' the Dream at IKEA

Today we made our semi-annual mecca to that great big giant of retail heaven:  IKEA.

Christian disovered a display of vegetable pillows, lined them up on a nearby bed and hopped inside for a pseudo nap.   It was pretty darn cute, and amused many a passer-by!

Sure do wish he'd love real vegetables the way he did those veggie pillows.

A mommy can dream!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

Auntie Liz joined us for Thanksgiving this year.  She was kind enough to once again to take our annual family photos.

Doing so was a bit tricky this year as Christian is full of energy and not interested in staying still.  Thankfully, Auntie Liz is full of patience (more patience than I had) and just kept taking pics with the hopes of getting a few good shots.

Afterwards, we headed home for Thanksgiving dinner.  I admire people who make Thanksgiving dinner for large groups of people.  I think making it for three people (excluding Christian, who doesn't eat very much of anything) is enough work.  I haven't figured out how to have everything ready at the same time, though I did a fairly good job of it this year.   Having tasty appetizers certainly does buy the cook some time!

Christian's Fall 2011 School Pictures

A Very Special Muffin Monday - Union Pacific Engine No. 844

Arizona is celebrating 100 years of statehood and as part of that year-long celebration, Union Pacific Steam Locomotive Engine No. 844 is making a ceremonial Arizona Centennial journey along the historic Southern Arizona "Sunset" route ... and the engine had a stop in Phoenix.  And that's pretty cool because a steam locomotive hasn't passed through Arizona since 1977.  

Engine No. 844 is one of the largest engines ever built - so it's quite a thrill for train lovers - both young and old.

So naturally, the Lucero men made their way to the train station to check out this gigantic railway marvel!

A news reporter from our local Fox TV station took the above picture.

Jonathan called me while there to say they had just been filmed on our Fox station, but by the time I turned on the TV, the train segment was almost over - they had aleady shown my men.   A few minutes later, I got a message on Facebook from somebody telling me she thought she just saw Christian on TV.  So ... SOMEBODY saw him!    Too bad I missed it and couldn't record it.

Go Speed Racer, Go!

It has been a few weeks since I've taken Chrstian out on his tricycle, but he's gone out with Jonathan.

Last time I took him out, I'd need to push him along sometimes ... and he'd come to a halt if his tire ran off the sidewalk and into the grass or rock.

When we went out today, however, it was a different story.  First, he was going so fast that I couldn't keep up with him.    He went up the little hills by himself and didn't let a tire off the sidewalk bother him one bit.  I was amazed at his progress in such a short timeframe!

Wordless Wednesday - November 9, 2011

Cabelas - Another Ideal Muffin Monday Location

Another perfect location for Muffin Monday is Cabela's!

They have realistic animals, fish, an escalator, a cafe, a mountain and a cave.  Christian's comment, "Wow, this is amazing!!"

And of course, what is Muffin Monday without a visit to a park!

Happy Fourth Birthday, Christian!

Christian's Pic in the School Newsletter

It has been a while since we've seen a pic of Christian in his school's newsletter, and so we were excited today to see he was in TWO pictures this time.

I love the face he's amking when his hand is in the pumpkin! :)

Christian's 2011 Birthday Card for Sprout

Our little guy's fourth birthday is tomorrow - I can hardly believe it!

This year's Sprout card is similar to last year's card, in that "Calliou" is the "theme" (the card must feature a character from "Sprout").   I selected this same theme again because Calliou is a four year old kiddo, and the theme song (which is on the front of the card) works nicely for Christian.

I was down to the wire on getting this card in by the deadline.   If I was successful, the card will hopefully air on Sprout sometime tomorrow!  And if it does, hopefully I can record it and post the video online, like last year.

front of card



Inside of card

Happy Halloween!

As always, Christian makes me laugh!

For two weeks preceding Halloween, Christian would say - out of the blue - "I don't want to go trick or treating."

As the big day approached, I told Christian he was going to be a train engineer for Halloween.  Since he loves trains, he seemed pretty okay with the idea.

So we got him dressed last night and took him to the part for pictures.  Initially he refused to wear his hat and bandana, saying, "I don't want to be an engineer!!"    But eventually he warmed up to the idea.

Two houses down from ours, several neighbors had gathered to hand out candy.  I carried Christian over there - crying and protesting - with the hopes that he'd get inspired to do a little trick-or-treating.   He was really hesitatn at first, but when he was given three big handfuls of candy, he got very excited, "I GOT CANDY!!!"

He told everybody, "I'm a costume!"   Oh, it was so funny ... he thought he was a COSTUME!   I reminded him he was a train engineer.  So then he'd say, "I'm a costume!  I'm a train engineer!"

I went back home to hand out candy, and Christian and Jonathan went trick-or-treating for a few minutes.   When they returned, Christian was VERY excited to dump out all his goodies - it was so cute.

Wordless Wednesday - October 26, 2011

Three Years in Pumpkin Pics

This year marks our third year of going to the local Pumpkin Patch ... and that makes the event an annual tradition.  

I present to you three consecutive years of Christian picking a pumpkin.   How cute!

(Click on any picture to enlarge)

2009

2010

2011

Pumpkin Patch 2011

More Pumpkin Patch 2011

(click to enlarge)

Muffin Monday - October 17, 2011

One of the best places to have "Muffin Monday" is Barnes and Noble.  Here's why:

1. It's always nice and cool
2. It's clean
3. There's a bathroom
4. There's food and drinks
5. Christian is entertained the entire time
6. We adults can grab something of interest to look at, too.
7. Christian no longer gets upset that we don't buy him something every time. WHEW!
8. And ... he no longer gets upset when we tell him it's time to leave.  DOUBLE WHEW!

Dancin' Dancin!

We paid a visit to Best Buy today, and Christian discovered the Xbox Kinect and the "Just Dance" game they had on the TV and started dancing all over the place.  He was so energetic and so happy!

Funny thing is, we have the "Just Dance" game at home on our Wii.  It's been a few months since we tried it with him, and back then, he wasn't interested.

Time to break out the game again.  I think he'd LOVE it now!

Wordless Wednesday - October 12, 2011

We Found More Trains!

In case ya'll didn't know, Christian LOVES trains.  And happily, we found a new train place in Phoenix to take Christian to.

Waiting with Papa for the train to arrive.

 Getting on board!

Anxiety starts to kick in when Christian sees Mommy won't be coming along for the ride. 

Christian decided the train wasn't for him.

Papa still wanted to ride the train, so Christian and I ventured off to the model train exhibit.

Papa returned from his exciting train ride (which broke down along the ride,

so I'm glad Christian didn't go after all.  It was a hot day).   We went outside to look at a larger model train.

We gave Christian a few minutes of doing that and then told him it was time to go.

WHOOOO LAWDY!   The fit Christian had ... unbelievable!

Papa's awesome solution?   On-site time out for three minutes.  

It worked ... Christian sat there and calmed down.