Lucas Camilo

It’s been a while since we’ve had a regular Lucas update, especially since the last one was a long-overdue review in Spanish (for our friends in El Salvador, among others.)  But it’s been a great month since his birthday, as we’ve been taking full advantage of the beautiful weather in Seattle.  Among the highlights were a trip to Snoqualmie Falls (overshadowed only by the nearby dog park); a Labor Day rally in which Lucas learned to chant political slogans and met the mayor; going to the zoo with Gramma and meeting a baby giraffe; having dinner and talking a walk in the park with our friends the Bowers, whose son Chris has the same disease as Lucas; and participating in a anti-war vigil at our neighborhood park.  See pictures below.

Among the most exciting recent developments is that Lucas is learning to read!  For so long he’s been obsessed with letters, language, and books.  Over the past few months, he’s started to put it all together and sound out words, from 3 and 4 letter words in his “Bob Books” to occasional longer words, to reading street signs when we’re out rolling around the neighborhood.  It’s so cool to watch his fascination and determination with reading, and so fulfilling to see his pride in sounding out a long word or making a connection between something he sees in real life with something he’s read about in a book.

Lucas’s focus with reading can be really amazing to witness.  We can stack up a box of Bob Books – about 12 in all – on the couch next to him and over the course of a half hour he will read them, one-by-one, carefully turning each page and meticulously sounding out each word.  When he gets to the end of a book he exclaims “nice job!” and slams it down on the floor… then slowly reaches for the next book.

On Monday Lucas starts his second year of preschool and needless to say they won’t be teaching reading to Lucas and the other 3, 4 and 5 year olds.  But Lucas gets plenty of attention to reading when he’s at home.  School promises to be an opportunity to interact more with other kids, something that is still a huge challenge for Lucas.

Another exciting development is that Lucas has decided that he likes yoga.  (As long as there’s a dinosaur, or spider, or panda bear involved, that is.)  It all started one day when Krista did a few twists and yoga activities with Lucas and he loved it.  Needless to say, given that she’s a yoga teacher it was not the first time that Krista had tried to get Lucas into yoga… but it was the first time that he complied.  She even got him onto his tummy (which hasn’t happened in years) and practiced “wagging his tail like a dog.”  Check out the video:

And here are some shots of the Snoqualmie trip:

And of Lucas and Chris playing hoops:

And from the zoo!

 
And at the Labor Day rally & picnic (w/ the mayor):