Wordless Wednesday - June 29, 2011

Muffin Monday - June 27, 2011

With an expected high of 115 today (*gasp!*), the Lucero men braved the more mild morning temps and headed to downtown Phoenix to ride the light rail for the first time. As you may recall, Christian loves trains, so he was thrilled to get on board and go riding around!

Show and Tell

When Christian moved up to the preschool class a while back, one of the things I was nervous about was "Show and Tell." On most days, after lunch, the kids gather in a circle and take turns showing something they brought from home. It is a voluntary activity, so not all kiddos participate, but I was impressed with most who did. Their conversational skills were terrific and their ability to speak about their object was really impressive.

I decided that every single day, Christian would bring SOMETHING so that he'd have to get up each time and face an audience. The first few times, I had just arrived to pick him up and he was painfully shy about talking in front of me - despite all the encouraging I was doing from the sidelines.

So Ms. Jo caught on and now makes sure that he's done his show and tell before I arrive. She occasionally has a moment to tell me how he did ... and I'm just so thrilled that he enjoys show and tell and likes to talk about his toy of the day.

I used to pick out his show and tell object for him each morning, but nowadays, HE picks it out ... and even tells me "No" when I suggest something he's not interested in taking. So I let him take something of HIS choosing ... even it its something he's shown several times before.

Wordless Wednesday - June 15, 2011

Muffin Monday - June 6, 2011

Put the Pedal to the Metal!

At last, Christian is using the pedals to move his tricycle along!!

Too bad HOT weather will soon bear down on us, making the outdoors the very last place any of us want to be (for three months).

Lightening McQueen

There's a store in Glendale that Jonathan has been eyeing for Christian ... the kind of store where you can walk in and "build you own car." So Christian chose to build a "Lightening McQueen" car. Really, would he have built any other car? :)

Click to enlarge.

While Mommy's Away ...

I am in Orlando all this week, so Papa's in charge. And that means ICE CREAM. Today the Lucero Men went to Cold Stone Creamery, and Christian had a big ol' ice cream.

I hear there was no room for lunch, and so ice cream is all Christian ate this afteroon.

When Mommy's away, the boys will play!

Ever so slowly, our house becomes a home.

I have not yet figured out what my "decortating style" is. Well, not entirely, but if I could have our home look like anything out of the Ballard Designs catalog, I'd be in heaven!

The past three homes we've lived in generally look like tombs. We don't have much furniture, few window coverings and not much at all on the walls. Why? For me, I have to LOVE something before I can buy it (and Jonathan has to love it, too). See the painting on the wall in the first picture? Jonathan's parents got it for us as a new home gift back in Santa Fe. Jonathan and I both loved it, and so they very kindly got it for us (thanks again!). And to this day, it is one of the few things that is on our wall.

Of course, I do find a lot of things I "love," (I could buy up the entire Home Goods store if I had a bottomless bank acocunt). But let's be realistic, I can't have it all ... and I don't even try. I acquire our treasures a very small bit at a time.

We have one picture up of our little family from a couple of years ago - and that is it. We don't even have our wedding picture up anywhere. Why? I just haven't found frames I like for the photos we'd put up on the wall.

When I saw this mirror below, I had to have it. We've got a large wall in our living room that we had no idea what to do with ... it either needed lots of smaller things, or one ginormous piece ... and the ginormous piece won! I waited for months for it to go on sale ... and finally, it did!

The three pieces are super heavy and Jonathan did an amazing job of getting them proper aligned and installed, all while having a very curious little helper who really wanted to climb the ladder and used some tools.

Now, if I could only find picture frames I'm in love with ... :)

After School Fun

We just love Christian's school, the staff and his teachers. This week, they had a social event with a jump house ... and ya'll know how much Christian loves jump houses (by the number of times I've posted pics with him jumping).

This time waa bit different, as they only let kids in the jump house by age group. They could jump for five minutes, and then they had to get out so the next group could come in. Christian did NOT like being told he had to get out ... and his teachers started to see a very different side of our boy wonder.

Ms. Jo (his current teacher and featured in the pics below in the blue shirt) couldn't believe Christian's reaction to having to get out. And that is good, becuase that means he has good behavior while at school in the classroom setting

Wordless Wednesday - May 11, 2011

The Wedding Dress

Christian loves "Cinderella," and so when I walked out in my wedding dress just for fun, he looked at me and said, "Mommy is Cinderella!" Awwww!!

He's never seen such a big, poofy dress and kept looking in amazement, so I asked him if he wanted to wear it and he said, "Yes!!"

He was so cute trying to walk around surrounded by all the poofy layers of tulle. Maybe I'll save these photos and share them with his fiancée one day. :)

Muffin Monday - May 2, 2011

Muffin Monday - April 25, 2011

For today's Muffin Monday, the boys went to the fountain in our community, and then out to Christian's very first Happy Meal at McDonalds.

Yes, that's right. Christian is just about 3 1/2, and this was his first McDonald's Happy Meal. We try hard to get him to eat as healthy as possible, and fast food is typically not part of the menu.

We are pretty fortunate that Christian doesn't have a taste for fast food (not yet any way ...).

Easter 2011

Christian somehow remembers Easter from last year - and how much he loved looking for eggs. This year, he got to hunt for eggs at our town's Easter Egg Hunt. He got to hunt for them at school, and then in our yard.

As Christian would say, "Yay for Easter!"

Additionally, God spoke quite clearly though Christian. You see, we haven't been to church since November. Christian often gets sick a couple of days after going to church, and since it was cold and flu season, we just kind of bypassed church for a while. And then not going to church became our routine.

But yesterday, Christian and I had hair appointments and we drove past our church. Jonathan (who was with Christian in a separate car), tells me that both coming and going, Christian got upset as Jonathan went past the church and didn't pull in.

So, we decided that this morning, we'd better stop our streak of laziness and get to church.

Christian's Spring Portraits

Wordless Wednesday - April 20, 2011

Sharks!!

Our sweet boy had a bit of a shark fascination (er, um, obsession).

The moment he wakes up in the morning or from his nap, he asks to watch whatever his latest shark documentary interest is. We have several shark DVDs, and found a whole collection of shark documentaries on Netflix Instant View.

He's got shark books, and asks us to draw sharks everywhere. He talks about sharks a lot, too. He probably knows more about sharks than the average adult.

So you can imagine his excitement when we had lunch at a nearby restaurant that features a huge aquarium with several small sharks. Unfortunately, we were unable to get a table right against the aquarium ... but he was still able to sit right at the aquarium for a few minutes.

Next time, we'll make reservations for a table in front of the tank.

After lunch, we took him to the gift shop and got him some toy sharks ... and he was thrilled!

Buzz Gets the Naughty Corner

Tonight, Christian surprised us - and made us giggle - when he took Buzz Light year, put him up against the wall, got down to Buzz's level and said,

"Buzz, I'm putting you in the naughty corner because you're hitting and not listening. THREE MINUTES!"

Hmmm ... I wonder where Christian has heard THAT dialog before. :)

So he walked away from Buzz and we sped time along and told Christian, "It's been three minutes. So, go tell Buzz, 'Buzz, I put you in the naughty corner because you were hitting and not listening. Now say you're sorry.' And when he says he's sorry, give him a hug, and tell Buzz you love him."

Christian went over to Buzz, got down to his level again and said, "Buzz, I put you in the naughty corner because you were hitting and not listening. THREE MORE MINUTES!!"

Ha ha ha!!!

Happy Birthday to Jonathan!

For Jonathan's birthday, Christian requested "a cake with lots of candles." Since it's just the three of us, I got small cake about the size and shape of a brick. And 44 candles. That's a lot of candles on such a small cake. Pretty much a lil' bonfire.

Christian thought it was pretty cool!

And I thought it was pretty hot as I lit all those candles and walked it over to the table. After Jonathan blew out the candles, we had to turn on the fan and open the windows so that the smoke detector didn't go off. Seriously! 44 candles create a lot of smoke when blown out.

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

We love you!

Wordless Wednesday - April 6, 2011

Founder's Day Festivities

Jonathan had to work today, so Christian and I headed to Verrado's annual Founder's Day Community Picnic. They had a bounce house there ... and guess where we spent most of our time?

Since Jonathan missed the festivities, we had a little picnic of our own when he got home. They weather was perfect, and nobody else was at the park. Gotta take advantage of this beautiful weather before it gets too hot.

Today's Temperature

It was a bit warm today, as you can see.

It is a little early for temps this high, and thankfully it starts cooling off tomorrow. And thankfully, the temps are still quite cool overnight.

Wordless Wednesday - March 30, 2011

Presenting ... "Christian the Preschooler."

This week was Christian's first week in the preschool class! He's left the two year old behind and now joins the three and four year old kids.

He didn't eat much for lunch this week ... and we had to work with him on going potty in a new room. But, he was a star and didn't have any potty accidents!

Each day after lunch, the kids gather in a circle and do show and tell. The teacher lets Christian go first, since we are leaving. He was pretty timid, but I made sure he bought something every day and then helped him show it to his friends.

Christian now gets to take his backpack to school each day, and he's very proud of that backpack that he can wheel around.

We are really looking forward to watching him learn and grow and become more confident around all those "big kids."

Here are some pictures from his first day. (click the photo to enlarge)