giddy up horsey

lucas is nine months today, and now has been his own individual person for longer than he was part of me. and i'm having trouble fathoming how it is that he will be a YEAR old in just 3 months.. it blows my mind.

well, my dad and mimi came over here for a weeklong visit last week.. and we had a really great time. they both spent a good deal of the trip sleeping, and so didnt do too much tourism since they had come the year before. so during their waking hours they played and visited with lucas and we shared some very special family moments. notably, when my dad first walked in the door of our apartment he immediately got down on the floor with his chin in his hands to be at eye level with lucas while they checked each other out.. within the hour, grampa dave and lucas were playing like old buddies. and the next night or two while the weather was nice, my dad would take lucas out wrapped up in a blanket onto the balcony to watch the sunset... rocking him and humming a tune until lucas very slowly closed his eyes. oh! the tenderness, kinda pulled my heart strings. and watching my mimi (lucas' great-grandmother) handle lucas, it all became clear - this woman raised 5 children! she pulled him up on her knee, bouncing, singing "giddy up horsey go to town..."

beautiful chompers

 

that's my sweet little boy. 

non-lucas news

i'm starting to feel like the only thing i ever have to talk about is my son. i sometimes wonder if i'm losing touch with reality to a certain extent.,,, but oh well = it's my reality right now, and probably for the next few years. so i'm sorry if i sound a bit single minded. i vaguely realize that whenever anyone asks me how i am doing, or how is philippe.. i give an account of lucas. it's not that i dont have thoughts or feelings.. it's just that i dont have any that are unrelated to lucas. if lucas is doing good, then i am too.

but here's some non-lucas news. we finally got a dvd player, so now we're not stuck with dumb-ol steven segal movies on television. and we found a very nice big park for sunday afternoon strolling nearby. there's lots of walking trails and benches and three playgrounds, also a big church where we chanced upon some 20 people doing some traditional greek dancing in front of it. one of the neatest things about this park is this enormous climbing structure, made out of ropes and metal - presumably for adults - if you climb to the top you get some fair views.

this week is the beginning of "apokria" which is the greek version of mardi gras, so hopefully we;ll find some interesting things to see and do... especially since my dad and mimi will be here. hopefully the weather will be nice.

not too long ago we took a big walk around town starting with some sales shopping in monastiraki and ended up walking around inside the very beautiful athens cemetery. i like old european cemeteries. i think americans got it all wrong on this subject. in the states you got one square per one body, and one headstone with one name on it. in greece, each square is the family plot with a long line listing of names preceding you in death. here's what happens when you die here: they bury you (above ground, encased in marble, name engraved at the bottom of the list) and then they OPEN it up after 3 years and give the bones to the family.. i guess eventually to an ossuary.. and then they re-use the grave! isnt it strange? i love this idea.. the only thing i dont like is the fact that it's against the law to cremate remains, or have a non-greek-orthodox funeral.

i'll end this post with a list of notable things i (we) did this week:

watched lucas test the squeaky hinges on my dresser mirror.
stood by the back door so lucas can jangle the miniblind cord.
walked around the house a hundred times, hunching over to hold lucas hands while he learns to walk.
watched smiling while philippe took 20 pictures of lucas licking a window.
lucas walked along the wall from the living room to the kitchen all by himself, setting a personal best record.

what IS that song?

ive got some kiddie-tune in my head (thanks to lucas' fisher price radio, this is the music running through my head while i'm walkin down the street, ha!) i think goes something like: "dunh du dunh, dun de dunh, doo dee doo doo doo dee dunh, singin' poly-ollie deedle all the day" ... do YOU remember this song, so i can move on?

by the way, 'london bridge' has a fascinating history.
and another by the way - lucas has gotten SIX TEETH in just 24 days (OUCH!

just a quickie

the january lucas pix are up*.

im excited my dad and mimi are coming for a visit in the end of february.

the pediat said i'm feeding lucas too many carrots and sweet potatoes & pointed out he had an orange-ish nose and palms! ooops! hehe.

and finally, a couple of you were concerned that walking not crawling was a bad developmental turn.. so i did some research and have concluded that is outdated information. the finishing blow after MUCH reading, was a woman who earned her PHD from harvard, and is an accomplished dancer - who never crawled at all!

*a special note about how cute lucas clothes from evan are --- and can you believe zoey is about to be THREE?? wow.