Spelling, drums, hugs and distractions

I have never been a great verbal speller-I hated spelling bees in school, although I love to edit publications and often catch the mistakes. Lately we, Marc and I, have had to do a lot of spelling because Lucas is learning more and more words. Elmo is a banned word in our house (if spoken it will mean cries and shouts for MELMO, pointing to the TV) and we have to watch saying Milk and Banana as well. If either of those words are said, Lucas runs to the fridge and tries to open it. I think it is better if we just have a white board and write the word not to be spoken-I would be much more comfortable with that.

Last night we went to Home Depot to get paint for Marc's bathroom and gardening stuff. I thought it would be a nice change for Lucas-I imagine he is getting tired of the Giant Eagle, Target, Babies R Us circuit of shopping. What kid doesn't get excited about grills, lawn movers and paint? He was really good and the paint lady gave us a bunch of paint stirrers. Of course we gave one to Lucas. He LOVED it-kept saying "Stick" and spend a good 15 minutes hitting the bars of the shopping cart while we looked for flower seeds. At one point he got two stirrers and boy, did he go to town. Everyone kept saying he must be a future drummer. He did have pretty good coordination with them. Once we got into the car, then the real fun began. nothing was safe from getting hit. Luckily, once we got home, Lucas didn't go after Jeff with the stirrers-they passed each other and I thought for sure Jeff was going to get hit in the head. I guess Lucas didn't need to smack him-he had already hit Jeff with a spoon earlier.

Lucas and his buddy Brian have a new ritual at the end of the day. Brian will go up to Lucas and give him a big hug good bye. It is the cutest thing I have seen. I am not sure if Lucas really likes it but Brian will come from whatever he was doing, try to turn Lucas so they are facing each other and then Brian will put his arms around Lucas and put his head on Lucas' chest-just melts my heart! Finn, another friend tried to do the same thing to Lucas two days ago.

Another new trick the Lucas does when I pick him up is to get Mia (one of my favorites) to distract me so I can't put Lucas' jacket on. It has happened the past few days. I come in, find Lucas and Mia magically appears. Because she is a sweet little girl, I always talk to her, comment on her outfit, ask if she has had a good day. At this point, Lucas has taken off someplace else in the room and tries to hide so I can't get his jacket on and get him home. How do they come up with these things? They aren't even verbal yet!!!!!!