It’s only Thursday February 23, 2012

We have had quite a week. And, it’s only Thursday. Here is a recap of the past few days.

Monday:

Tyler & Luca: The boys had a fun-filled man day as Tyler had the day off for President’s Day. I wasn’t as fortunate so the two of them galavanted off to the Galleria to check out the Disney store, eat french fries, and watch Star Wars on the big screen. They loved it. Luca sat through the entire movie, even falling asleep the last 30 minutes. He had already seen Episode 1 at home before so he was quite excited to see the fish, Jar Jar Binks (he loves him), and Anakin’s race.

Me: I on the other hand went to work on Monday. I forgot my usual snack and was searching for anything to put  in my mouth around 4ish (when my classed ended). I ended up finding an old slice of  pickle that was catered to the department last week. It was in a plastic container, but was not sealed like a usual pickle. I didn’t think anything of it though and had one slice, enough to hold me over till dinner.

When we met: My grandma has unfortunately been in the hospital all week. She is doing okay, but we have been visiting her throughout the week. Tyler and Luca met me at the hospital around 5. It was at this time that I started to feel funny. And funny turned into bad. And bad turned into “we have to leave right now!” My mom offered to drive my car home later so we headed home in Tyler’s car. Half way through bad turned to ugly as I got quite sick IN the car (which Tyler had gotten cleaned earlier in the day). It was NOT good. And that was just the beginning. To spare you any graphic details, I will simply say I was literally SICK ALL NIGHT!

Tuesday:

Tyler & Luca: I was still in rough shape on Tuesday so Tyler went into work late and hung out with Luca in the morning. The two of them made their way over to PetSmart where Luca got a new fish. Out of all the beautiful fish, Luca picked out a single goldfish. He later named it “Popo.” He loves Popo! He says “hi popo” “bye bye popo,” “nigh nigh popo.” It’s quite sweet. Kudos to daddy for knowing what Luca likes. As you can see, Tyler goes all out on days that he stays home. He told me that even though I was in a sorry state, he had actually had one of the best weeks ever with Luca. I’m glad they enjoyed themselves

Me: Still very sick! I couldn’t even lift my head without feeling nauseous. I still didn’t eat anything other than crackers the entire day.

Wednesday:

Tyler & Luca: Tyler had two huge presentations for work on Wedseday so after getting Luca ready he headed off to work. My mom was kind enough to pick up Luca and take him to school. She also picked him up and took him to lunch. It was a huge lifesaver to me. Tyler’s presentations went well and Luca had fun at school. One caveat though-he wasn’t allowed to paint (his favorite activity) because he refused to put on the paint smock. We’ll have to prep him for next week as he HATES changing clothes after they are on each morning.

Me: Still sick but now able to have some relief. Early in the morning it was apparent, however, that I could not teach all day. I teach for a total of 7 hours on Wednesdays and I simply did not feel well enough to effectively lecture, lead discussions, etc. So I did something I have NEVER done-I cancelled my classes. I felt terrible about canceling, but I had to. I couldn’t stand up without getting quite queazy. By that evening I still felt bad but moved from saltines to rice. That is a sure sign of being on the mend. Another cute story from yesterday was that around 6 at night Luca pointed to our room and said, “mama nigh nigh.” I guess he had gotten used to me going to bed early the past few nights.

Today:

Tyler is at work. Luca is napping. And I am recovering. I finally felt well enough to get myself ready this morning, play a bit, and slowly do tasks around the house. Yay!

So that has been our week. It’s been very eventful in both wonderful ways and terrible ways. Special thanks to my wonderful husband for taking care of me while I was sick. He cleaned the car, bought me gatorade, kept Luca busy, rented me movies, and encouraged me that I would at some point get better. He is the best.

Meet the newest addition to the Campo family…Popo

“hi Popo”

Luca likes to really investigate Popo. Oh goodness, you might want to say a little prayer for Popo’s safety.

Happy Valentine’s Day February 17, 2012

We aren’t a huge Valentine’s family. It all started in high school when Tyler and I broke up two days before this glorious day. For some reason, Valentines just hasn’t had the same feel sense. Good thing the break up only lasted a week…who knows where I’d be (probably still crying. Yes, there was lots of crying).

This year, Luca got to celebrate his first Valentine’s Day with friends. They passed out Valentines at school (his were of course Cars themed) and he also made a few Valentines for us. He was particularly proud of the heart he made out of finger paints. Luca’s Valentine from mommy and daddy was a new Nemo stuffed animal. He loves fish and we thought it would be fun to get him the real deal. Luca, however, was a bit unsure of the new Nemo. For the next day or two he kept going back and forth between his old Nemo (a small stuffed animal Tyler won at the state fair a few years ago) and the new and improved Nemo (Disney certified! : ) He still likes to carry both around (and sleep with both), but I think his preference has switched to the new Nemo.

Here are a few pictures of Luca.

Receiving Nemo…you can see both the little Nemo and new Nemo are in staunch competition.

Luca was pretty quiet yesterday morning as I was cleaning up a few things. I ended up finding him on a chair in the kitchen youtubing. He had pulled the chair over to the counter to get my phone. You can’t see it in the picture, but he also found the rest of his Valentine candies and had to have one.

We had kindof a lazy day yesterday so Luca decided he wanted to stay in his PJ’s. Here he is eating lunch. Notice all the “friends” that eat lunch with him. Three stuffed animals, a bus, four cars, and a valentine he created at speech. He also ate chili mac for lunch, which is one of our favorite meals.

Luca took off the stickers from the wonderful Valentine he made and recreated them on my arm. He was so proud he wanted us to take a picture.

Listen to this… February 11, 2012

Well, Tyler and I finally shot a little bit of video while Luca practiced his speech this afternoon. This video demonstrates a lot of the stuff we have been working on lately. In addition, Luca has finally started adding some ending sounds to words. For instance, he says “mom,” “up” and “boat,” all while adding the ending consonant. This is huge as he has ommitted these sounds in the past. And while I say “finally,” I am thankful that it really hasn’t taken him that long to start saying these sounds. We only began working on this a few weeks ago. Go Luca!

 

And before I get ahead of myself. Here are two more quick Luca stories.

1. Luca is quite the stinker these days. A personal favorite was a few days ago when Luca was slap happy just before bedtime. He wasn’t listening particularly well and Tyler asked him to look him in the eyes so he would pay better attention. Luca’s eyes immediately turned directly toward Tyler. Instead of actually looking at his daddy, however, Luca closed his eyes as tight as he could and just giggled. It was so hard not to laugh (in fact both Tyler and I had to turn our heads). He definitely takes after Ty.

 

2. Luca loves YouTube. It is a special treat for him to play with our phones or iPad and watch YouTube videos of either Cars or Hero of the Rails. The other day Luca kept saying “tube” and I immediately knew what he was referring to. I then taught him to say “U-tube.” However, every time he would say it, it came out “I-tube.” I could not figure out why he was not imitating me. We are long past his vowel sounds by this point so it made no sense that he would be having trouble with “I” and “U”. It just didn’t make sense. Finally, it dawned on me that Luca was switching “you” and “I” because he has recently learned to switch the pronouns (e.g., you, I, me) when he normally talks. So for the past few days, he keeps asking to watch “I-tube.” Hahaha.

 

Winter Retreat February 6, 2012

We took the middle school and high school students on a Vineyard retreat this past weekend. It was a wonderful weekend to grow closer with our students and also grow closer to Christ. I always end up getting just as much out of the weekend as the kids do. I love seeing our students worship and bond together through events like this. What a blessing to have such wonderful students, wonderful fellow leaders, and a great retreat to attend (which we didn’t have to plan!!!).

The important stuff must come first…Tyler was pumped for the annual dodge ball tournament. He was so pumped up his shorts ran a bit high : )

These boys are serious!

The middle school girls.

The high schoolers got to take a special coffee trip during rec time. I’m pretty sure we provided most of the revenue for the shop owners that day. 

Dancing to I Believe I can Fly. Gotta love how uninhibited our kids are when it comes to dancing. They rocked the house with their sweet moves.

 

They also had a photo booth rented for one of the evenings. Since most of our kids don’t attend weddings as frequently as the leaders, they were impressed with all the props and making crazy faces.

Tyler schooled these innocent souls in a tough match of bloody knuckles.

And the worship was amazing. They sing a great deal of Jesus Culture music at these conferences. If you haven’t heard their music, check it out. Really great!

Group shot!

Is it Spring yet? February 2, 2012

Like most everyone else, we have been taking advantage of the nice weather this week. On Tuesday we utilized our new zoo membership for the first time (thanks Grandma and Grandpa). Luca loves the zoo and I was excited about the (a) free parking and (b) free access to the kids area. The free parking backfired a bit as Luca threw Acer the pacer (a car) onto the street as we were walking across the bridge that connects the parking lot to the zoo. I saw it coming but couldn’t act quick enough to stop it. Thankfully another mom was down below and rescued Acer for us. The rest of the day Luca did not carry his cars close to any body of water or animal habitat. We were lucky to get Acer back (the King was not as lucky as he recently got flushed down the toilet). I didn’t want to lose anymore.

Luca’s favorite part of the zoo had to be the neon blue fish. You would think elephants, penguins, giraffes, etc….but no, a single blue fish in a rather small tank. I’m thinking we need to take this kid to an actual aquarium. He LOVES fish. In fact, we have been watching the AT&T access channel as of late to simply enjoy the fish. As much as I don’t want to buy a fish, maybe we will have to invest in a goldfish sometime soon.

Here are a few pictures hanging out today and enjoying the nice weather.

Mommy thought Luca needed a jacket (although I’m not sure Luca agreed). This is what happens when you ask Luca to smile for the camera. “eeese”

Getting serious about his bike.

Luca’s favorite part of his trike is the trunk. Today I found a car that had been lost since Tuesday (the last time we hung outside). Luca has conveniently stored the car in the trunk until today. He enjoys putting the cars in, riding a bit, getting the cars back out, playing a bit, and then putting the cars back in. And mind you all of this occurs in about 3 minutes.

Birthday kids January 27, 2012

Tyler’s birthday was last Friday. We had a wonderful date night at the Drunken Fish (Ty’s favorite). The celebrations continued Sunday as the kids at church made him a cake and in general made him feel extra special. And the festivities continue as we ate out with my family Monday night and Ty’s parents are coming into town this weekend. We love celebrating birthdays (especially Luca), so I’m glad this one has been particularly long.

 

I didn’t take any pictures of our date night, but here is the lovely and yummy cake the high schoolers at church made Tyler.

After church we went and watched Sesame Street live. I would rate 4/5 of the event as a success. The last ten minutes (and then walking to the car), however, were pure torture. Perhaps next time we will pick an evening event instead of nap time. While Luca is quite capable of staying up through his nap time, his grouchiness rivaled Oscar’s toward the end.

The birthday girl this week happened to be Miss Madigan. We are bummed we can’t be there to celebrate with her at her party, but glad we got to see her.

Hanging out with his buddies. Luca gravitated toward every car Madigan and Marlow owned. He also found it funny to knock over Madigan’s princess dolls. I’m glad she was a good sport. However, when we got home he was proud to show daddy the picture Madigan made for him and tell him he was her friend.

Hmmm…are boys and girls different? Don’t tell some of my old psychology professors, but I’m pretty sure this picture says it all.

Back to School January 23, 2012

Spring semester is in full gear in our household. I am teaching three courses, Tyler is taking two, and Luca began Toddler Time at a church near our house. As much as I loved being on break, it’s kindof nice to jump back into the swing of things. Tyler and I were a little unsure how Luca would take to school. It took an entire year to get him to actually enjoy Sunday School (thank you to all who had the patience and perseverance to love on him during those difficult mornings). And gymnastics can still be a bit chaotic at times. But, Luca does enjoy structured activities. He loves being with other kids. And, we hyped up school for a good week before he went the first time. We even bought a book on the first day of school and read it the night before. So, when the big day came, he was ready!

We call it school, but it is really part of a mom’s day out program at a church a few miles away. I had scouted this church out as a potential preschool for next year (I know, that’s kindof obnoxiously early on my part but procrastination has never been my thing), but had ruled the school out because of the age requirement. Then a friend of mine told me they had a mom’s day out program in addition to the school. We had only visited for five minutes before I was hooked. Luca is going once a week for now, but will start going two mornings a week in the fall. He is in a room of 6 or 7 other two year olds. They play for a half hour, have a half hour story time/bible time, play outside, make crafts, and even have music time. It is very structured, which is great for Luca, yet also age appropriate in the sense they encourage lots of play time and hands on activities.

 

And…here is how it went. First, Luca didn’t think twice about jumping in and enjoying his first day. The boy didn’t even say good bye to me as he was too interested in the cars they had. According to his teachers, he actually sits for the story time (I’m not entirely sure I believe them). And, he hasn’t hit enough kids for them to tell me it is a problem. Yay!!! Last week, I got a chance to spy on him the last five minutes of class. Amazingly, he listened well, sat in his chair, participated in the activity….who knew? I’ve always heard that kids do better in situations such as these. In a sense they rise to the occasion. I’m so thankful Luca fell into this mold. For a kid that tests every single boundary in our house (just yesterday he (1) lost a toy to the toilet, (2) tried to throw his shoe onto the stage at Sesame street live, and (3) refused any drink other than Pepsi for lunch), Luca has transitioned great with his pre-preschool program.

Luca has now been three times and really seems excited each time we go. Let’s hope his enthusiasm maintains throughout the rest of the year. Much of his enthusiasm is related to his pride in his worksheets. He LOVES his artwork and how we oohh and aahh over it each week. Unfortunately I can’t find the pictures I took of his first day on my good camera. I did take this shot as he marched up the stairs. Luca never even said goodbye to me, but simply ran in and started playing with the cars.

And here he is working out with mommy. Lifting five pounds is sadly a workout for both of us these days.

Ahhh Sheeee….a speech update January 17, 2012

I thought it was time for a speech update (and in general, a Luca update). Speech has been going quite well for the last month or so. Luca has really taken to the private speech pathologist we visit once a week. She is quite firm with him, which has worked beautifully with his personality. He knows she doesn’t mess around and therefore he works to talk so he can play with the toys and receive snacks. Luca is a master bargainer and she gives him a run for his money.

 

So, here is what we now can do and what we are working on with speech. First, Luca has many more sounds. All of his vowel sounds are great! Woo Hoo! In addition, Luca can now say /m/, /n/, and /w/ sounds, in addition to the consonants he was saying in my original post. He can say each of these sounds with a vowel at the end. For example, “he,” “ha,” “ho,” “hu,” and “hi.”

 

Luca also has a handful of additional words that go along with these consonants. It is really exciting for him to utilize his words to talk. We practice his speech about once a day during snack time, but in general, Luca has been utilizing his new words throughout the day as well. Some of his favorite words right now are “blue” and “chick” for the King and Chick Hicks from Cars. He also loves to say “two” for Cars 2, his favorite movie. In addition, mama, dada, Pat, Sue, Tom, Be Bop (for cali), and mine are additional favorites. He can now count to three by saying “wa” “two” and “wee.” And he also has some additional words to help communicate his needs and wishes. And believe me, he communicates his needs and wishes!

 

We are currently working on words such as “daddy” and “mommy.” These words keep the same consonant, but change the vowel for the second syllable. Luca will often say these types of words, but skip the consonant on the second syllable. For instance, he will say “da ee” instead of “daddy.” Some words seem to come easier than others. Luca can say “purple” and “turtle” quite well (the l’s are silent, but usual for his age) but has trouble with many of the others words. We are also working on adding ending consonants to words. When Luca says “eat,” he actually only says “ea.” I didn’t even recognize this until we started working on this at speech. In fact, come to find out, I often skip the ending consonant when I talk as well. So, Luca and I are both improving this aspect of our speech.

 

And since Luca has made so many improvements, it has been fun to hear what he comes up with these days. For instance, the first week or two that he began saying “no,” he would say “no, no, no, no” in the most condescending tone I have ever heard. As if to say, “no mommy. How could you be so silly to think that I wanted this.” And my personal favorite has been his new phrase, “ahh shoo.” A few weeks ago I dropped something and said, “ahh shoot.” Luca, immediately responded with “ahh sheee.” Tyler and I couldn’t hold back our laughter. Here we are trying our hardest to get Luca to talk and he starts cussing. It was pretty hilarious. Since then, he now says “ahh shooo” and ironically in context. For example, we are currently in the process of redoing the floor in our kitchen. This weekend we had all of the chairs out of the room as we were pulling tile up. I asked Luca if he wanted to go upstairs and eat breakfast. He ran into the kitchen like he normally does, but then noticed his high chair was not there. He promptly stated, “ahh shooo.” Hahaha!

 

Here is Luca playing in the snow last week.

 

His favorite activity in the snow was making snow balls. Too bad that is Cali’s favorite activity as well. She kept eating his snow balls. It was a bit of a squabble between the two of them.

Cali had just as much fun as Luca in the snow.

One final Christmas January 13, 2012

We hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Nash and Grandma Schutte the day after Christmas. We started early and stayed late, and had a wonderful day. One of the highlights of the day was the food. For lunch we had appetizers, which is one of my favorite ways to eat. And then for dinner, we caked everything with hollandaise sauce. It’s always a special treat when you get that much good food in one day. And in between we snacked on chex mix and cookies. Yay for Christmas food!

 

I had been taking so many pictures the few days prior, that I really didn’t take too many for this celebration. Here are a few.

Grandpa got a new Thomas train table as his Christmas gift. I’m not sure who was more excited, Grandpa or Luca.

Daddy and Luca opening up a few gifts together.

Luca made Grandpa a calendar for Christmas for his desk. He enjoyed looking at all of his pictures (oh wait, Luca was really watching youtube on the iPhone).

A family picture. This was around 8 at night and Luca was starting to get slap happy from all the excitement of the past few days.

3 generations.

 

 

Christmas Day January 10, 2012

We had a wonderful Christmas day celebrating with both sides of our family. We had a quiet morning opening gifts with Grandma and Grandpa. After opening gifts, we watched a thrilling Thomas movie. I love watching a movie on Christmas morning. I did this growing up in between opening Santa’s gifts and going to my grandma and grandpa’s. It was fun to have Luca partake in my silly tradition. Uncle Steve and Mike came by a little later for lunch. We were able to celebrate with Stephen and Erin as the two of them got ENGAGED the night before. How exciting!?! And then we headed over to Uncle Scott and Aunt Tammy’s for another Christmas celebration. Luca was in Christmas bliss all day, although he did crash pretty quickly in the car on the way home.

Opening gifts with grandma!

Hanging out with his uncles! Love the smile! Luca has been into saying cheese lately. It comes out “eese” and brings a smile to his face.

Opening even more Cars gifts. “aww two” is all I hear these days. Between Cars books, movies, figurines, etc…it’s all about Cars (and of course trains).

The boys enjoyed  playing with this new track all evening. Even I thought it was pretty cool. Not many train tracks have a glider as well.

Family pic! By this point, Luca was no longer interested in taking pictures. He was, however, very interested in his new Mac truck.