Brothers & Sisters

I was watching Season 2 of Brothers & Sisters last night til really late. This morning when Lucas came looking for me, I thought it was still night (when it was actually early morning but because our electric shutters do not allow even a smidgen of light through, its all dark in the apartment and one can easily lose track of time that way) and brought him into our bed for more sleep. Before I know it, Fred hops out of bed and told me its 11.15 in the morning!!!! We had a wonderful sleep in, and are feeling rested and happy :)

Anyway, back to the series - being a mother, I worry that Lucas will grow up all alone. For sure, he will not have any first cousins here as Gilles will not be getting married or having any kids. And as I watch the series with envy (because to me that's exactly how a family should be, full of support and love and close camaraderie and that's what I want for Lucas) I find myself wishing things could be different.
I grew up in a dysfunctional family and I do not want that for Lucas at all. But I now realize that, what I cannot get from my family, I get it in abundance from my friends. My friends have become my family. I realized that during my last trip home - I am indeed lucky to have my cousin Allan, and most importantly I have really, really good friends who are true.

But for Lucas, who will grow up here in France, he will only have Fred & I and his grandma. Fred is also from a dysfunctional family of sorts (its proven that one from a dysfunctional family inadvertently attracts the same) and is not close to his cousins at all - his aunt lives less than 30 minutes away from us and we see her once a year, so for Lucas to meet up with his cousins once a year is not good enough to build a strong bond.
I would like Lucas to have childhood friends like I have, where years can pass with us not seeing each other yet when we meet again, we are still close and its as if no time have passed at all!

I wish we could give him a sibling or two or even three to grow up with but time is not on our side. If we can afford it I would have liked to adopt another child. But for now, I am glad that Lucas has gotten back into contact with his best buddy from the garderie, Plume and he has his 2 constant friends Matheo & Ixchel to play with.

Lucas @ 38 months

I found out that taking Lucas out of school for a whole month was a terrible idea even though he is just in the petit section at school, he has missed out on a lot and when he got back to school again in November, Lucas has had to readjust himself and start everything new as he'd forgotten everything he'd learnt in September.

Fred & I had a chat with his teacher and found that while Lucas is great when it comes to one on one interaction, he is lost in a group. The teacher also told me that as a parent I have been too indulgent and with Lucas I need to set strict boundaries and not give in at all. He needs to spend time by himself, and not be with me 24/7. To distance myself a bit, we decided to leave Lucas in school for lunch last week.

The first day, he was confused and asked for me repeatedly; didn't eat anything but bread in the canteen. On our second try, Lucas ate absolutely nothing at all and threw a mother of a tantrum in the canteen. When I went to pick him up after school, the teacher says we should try another day. So, on our third try, Lucas didn't eat anything (as usual, he doesn't eat much at home either) but this time there was no tantrum.

In the past week and a half, we have also noticed differences in Lucas - he has started to listen more; he definitely understands when we talk to him and he is now differentiating his languages when he speaks to me, his papa and his teachers. I also noticed that he is picking up french very quickly.

Last Wednesday, for the first time I was able to sweep, vacuum and mop the whole apartment, clean the bathroom and cook lunch without having Lucas underfoot! I told him to stay in his room and play, which he did. Periodically, I would check in and find him singing and playing at the same time.

While we are still having problems getting Lucas to go to sleep at night, he's been sleeping in his bed throughout the night the past 2 nights. Yesterday he didn't come to our bed at all.

At 38 months, Lucas loves Dora The Explorer, Pat the Postman, Oui Oui, Handy Manny and Chloe Magique. He loves balloons and bubbles, he now refuses to pee into his diapers at night (yes he still wears diapers to sleep) and he's still asking for ice cream no matter how cold it is! He is also fascinated by falling snow, he likes to taste the snow and he likes to pretend he is a cat at home, playing under the dining table and eating without hands...

Lucas is now on Christmas holidays for 2 weeks, going back to school early January. He is asking for Eliane (the teacher's assistant in his class) everyday and wakes up thinking he will go to school. Its a shame that when he is making so much progress we have to have a break from school but then there is always January to look forward to.... :)

Public again

This blog has been made public once again - In the many months before someone who didn't like (or could not accept) what I said about him and decide to go crying to mommy, when it was public I have made many friends through this blog and I decided that its just not worth hiding anymore; I'd rather take out that one post and continue to meet new friends through my blog.

December in photos

Before the snowfall

Our tree is finally up!

paper wreath made from recycled wrapping paper & my 2008 Starbucks diary

Sleep and nursery rhymes

Lucas has been having sleeping problems since we got back from Malaysia, but things took a turn for the worst 2 weeks ago when he would not even want to sleep in his room anymore. Before that, he would fall asleep in his room, call for me in the middle of the night, sometimes 3 to 4 times a night to sit with him til he falls back asleep again. Then he started to come over to our bed, but mostly its around 6 am, so I let him sleep with us for another 2 hours. 2 weeks ago, his 6 am wake up call started to become 4 am, and then 2 am and then midnight. He would climb into our bed to sleep.

So I decided to put a stop to it and put up the barriers in his bed so he could not climb out without me. It worked for 2 nights, but he would call out to me to sit with him. Then on the 3rd night, he appeared next to me at 3 am in the morning and whispered "mama"... He'd managed to climb out of his cot. I put him back into his bed (screaming and crying) and 5 minutes later, he's back.

A few nights ago, I was so exhausted that when Lucas came looking for me in the middle of the night I told him that there is no place in the bed for him, and he has to go back to his bed to sleep or else he can sleep on the cold floor. I repeated it 4 times and then he finally climbed onto Fred and fell asleep on top of his papa.

Last night though, at 6 am, he didn't call out to me, he just crept into our room, stood looking at me for a second, then he walked to the end of the bed and started to lie down on the floor! I waited with baited breath and it really looked as if he was going to sleep on the floor! So I called out to him and he climbed into the bed with us.

So that incident is proof that he does listen AND he does understand fully what we tell him, but Lucas and his selective listening has gotten him into many spots in the naughty chair at school. In fact everyone in his class knows him and calls his name, but when I ask Lucas about names of his friends at school, he stays mum. We are starting to worry about his speech and have considered sending Luc to an orthophonist to help him. However, while Lucas doesn't speak to us as fluently as we'd like (he is bi-lingual after all, and he also watches cartoons in Korean, Japanese, Italian and Spanish) he does sing fluently in English and Korean! The words are clear and precise when he sings, although his "Twinkle, twinkle little star" is a bit off key sometimes :)

Lucas sings Humpty Dumpty, Wheels on a bus, Incy Wincy Spider, 1-2-3-4-5 Buzz Buzz, Barney's Mr. Sun and his 2 favourite rhymes are Snail, Snail and This little piggy...

Lucas still peppers his speech with made up words, my guess is he doesn't know the words but wants to speak, so he just makes up words! But he is repeating things we say, and is catching up fast with new words. His teacher at school says Lucas doesn't recognize his own name, but we beg to differ. Lucas has this annoying habit of ignoring his teacher when she wants him to do something he doesn't want to do. Which is stressful for me as well because everytime I pick him up from school, the teacher complains that Lucas doesn't listen.

I am trying out the Shichida 5 minute suggestion to see if I can get him to coorperate and listen. I started just 2 nights ago, and will update you all on this method if it works!

Jake Gyllenhaal

I just watched Prince of Persia - Sands of Time. And none was more surprised than I to see Jake in the role of Prince Dastan! I really could not believe my eyes when I saw him, I was talking to myself "looks like Jake Gyllenhaal, but nah.... cannot be la, not the same Jake Gyllenhaal from Brokeback and Zodiac???!!!!!"

But I quickly checked online and yes! it is Jake Gyllenhaal. He got all buffed up for the role AND speaks with a Brit accent.
*sigh* I never thought the day would come when I find myself saying this - that Jake Gyllenhaal is HOT!!!!