Thanksgiving in Florida

We have been on hiatus trying to catch up on regular daily life after some fun in the sun to visit family in Orlando, Florida.  Lucas especially had a great time visiting his grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncle and cousins.  Enjoy some of our photos!! We are blessed to have so much family all over to visit and so very thankful that Lucas has so much love and support from them on.

The Vasquez and Barajas tias and primos...oh yeah and Jordan laying on the floor!

Mickey Mouse Time!

At Downtown Disney

Hanging out with Abuelo Vasquez

Me and my daddy in the sunshine

Saying good-bye....for now!

 

Reading is Fundamental

Me and my parents posing with Mr. Potato Head

The return of the black leotard

Well not really, it's more like return of the Spio vest, for an awesome physical therapy with our favorite PT Sammy.  I secretly think that Lucas is slowly becoming a fan of this black piece of spandex because he tolerates it so well and has even done some pretty smooth movements in it.  I have learned that after about 3-4 hours in the compression garment we do need to get Lucas out of it because he gets too sweaty in it.  If nothing more I am glad to know that we have this additional tool to be able to help Lucas increase his trunk strength and fine tune his gross motor skills.

Sit to Stand positioning

 

Lucas being motivated by looking at himself in the mirror

Assisted sitting on the bench! Glad we have some of these at home too.  (Thanks grandpa!)

"Geesh....I am so tired!"

"Ok, so they want me to bend down and get those?"

"No problem, I got this!"

 

Lucas + Swinging = Happy Baby!

Anyone who knows Lucas knows that he loves our walks to the park and to swing. Since we are in November and don't know how many warm days we have upon us we decided to have a little family time and enjoy the outdoors.  These are the things in life that make me happy, its the little things, that ultimately end up being the biggest memories and moments you will carry with you for a lifetime.  Each time Lucas smiles and laughs he fills my heart and brings so much joy to his mommy and daddy's lives.  Little does he know how big of an impression he has made on this world and to many.  

Hugs and kisses always to my little prince!

Ready to take flight!

Loving this!

"Faster mom!"

Lucas getting daddy in on the fun

Mommy and Lucas swinging (sun in my eyes!)

Christmas at Brookfield Zoo

Normally I am not one to begin decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving since I tend to be a orderly type of person but I couldn't help but making a special exception this year since the MODs Squad decided to sponsor a Christmas tree and decorate it with ornaments that had all our children's photos on it. How cool!! It was a pretty awesome experience to decorate a tree knowing that the zoo has a ton of visitors at Christmastime.  Can't wait to make it back and see the tree lit up.

I love this ornament!

A beautiful tree with beautiful children!

Lucas is on the move

Anyone that knows us obviously understands how much time and energy we have spent working on the pincer grasp so that Lucas can begin to self-feed and be efficient at it.  In addition, friends and family have all watched as we have been working on getting Lucas up on 4 point so that we can finally get him crawling. Although this road it long it is surely a journey that is starting to pay off with all the time and hard we have put into it.

In this short video Lucas demonstrates that he can feed himself his favorite snack - Puffs! Go Lucas

If you can believe it Lucas began right in front of the toy with the green and then began to scoot himself backwards.  What I really think he was doing was trying to get on hands and knees and when his knees would give out he began scooting backward.  Well, no matter what the reason it is awesome to see him become more mobile and motivated to get moving. We will have a crawler soon enough!

Brusha Brusha Brusha....

Now that Lucas has a whopping 3 teeth coming in it's important that we teach him the importance of keeping those pearly whites nice and clean.  I figured the easiest way to ease into things with him would be to use the soft fingertip gum and tooth brush and then work in an actual toothbrush in a few weeks.  As you can see from these photos Lucas loves having his teeth brushed!

Where did the weekend go?

That seems to be the question I am asking every Monday because I just can't seem to ever get enough rest or enough done on a Saturday and Sunday! During this weekend we were able to get in some fun things and that included going to one our favorite places, Gigi's Playhouse, for the Crawler's class. As always it is so much fun to catch up with old friends, make new friends and see our favorite therapists who donate their time once a month. They have not only a Physical Therapist on site but also a Developmental Therapist.  We got to work on some weight bearing exercises, simple tasks to help Lucas get closer to crawling and also worked on left brain/right brain exercises to help with brain connections.  It was an awesome time!

"I love doing Row, Row, Row Your Boat"

 

"You want me to do what?"

Standing tall in my orthotics

"Lucas, your hair is kinda long right here"

The little cuties posing for the camera (Veronica and Lucas)

Hamming it up for the camera

We got a little treat this evening from one of Lucas' teachers at the daycare and this reminded me of why we are so lucky to have found a place that cares for Lucas as if he were their own. Lucas lights up the face of all who he comes in contact with and when we get videos and photos from his daycare teachers it reminds us how much they love him and he loves them.  In this video Lucas is the only one awake while all the rest of the babies are sleeping.

Love is all I need

Seems as though I often never have enough time in the day or don't get things done that I know I should have.  I often spend a lot of time beating myself up over things I cannot control but when I am feeling stressed, tired or overwhelmed I remember one thing.  That one thing is my precious child Lucas that makes life worth living. He makes everything better and puts it all into perspective. I love you with all my heart and soul. You are my little hero.

This is my definition of love!

TGIF

All I can say today is TGIF and getting this photo of Lucas from daycare surely kept me going today.  I think his smile sums it up and he is also ready for the weekend!! Such a happy camper as they were singing songs in his class!

Mommy dressed me as a koala

I sure did dress him as a cute fuzzy little koala and everyone thought Lucas looked adorable. (Probably everyone except Lucas!) Lucas got to enjoy a costume party at daycare and then got to go see our neighbors before getting home to help mom pass out candy!

"Party time, throw your hands up!"

That little face melts my heart!

Having some fun with his buddies

Lucas and one of his teachers

Strolling through the neighborhood