Although he was never really gone, I feel like I finally have my husband back. For the last 9 months, Nate has been working hard on his National Board Certification portfolio, an advanced teaching credential. As soon as he drops it off at the post office tomorrow after school, he will be DONE! Then he has to take a test in June to prove his proficiency in Spanish and wait until November to hear the results. It's not exactly over, but his weekends spent working on the portfolio are over, so we went out to celebrate!
We went to Chili's, because we knew it would be Lucas-friendly and pretty quick. Lucas did really well too, and even sat in his high chair the WHOLE TIME! That doesn't always happen. We ordered him a kid's meal with broccoli as his side, because we knew that he would have a couple of Nate's french fries. Sure enough, as soon as Nate's burger came out, he asked for a french fry. But he was not happy with the small french fry he was given. He wanted a "big french fry." We weren't sure we heard him right the first time, but sure enough, that's what he was saying, and he was not happy until he got a "big french fry". He's definitely 2.
I am thrilled that Lucas is age appropriate right now in both receptive and expressive language. But, I always fear that he won't maintain that level. Our ongoing challenge in the coming years will be to keep it that way. Well, tonight confirmed for me that Lucas continues to progress in his language acquisition and usage.
Lucas is quite the flirt when we're out in public. He waves to people as they arrive and says bye-bye as people leave. Older people especially enjoy his waves. As one couple was leaving the restaurant tonight, a gentleman waved back and told him that he liked his "flashing light". It was very nice of him, and at least he didn't mention contacting outer space...
On the way home from dinner, I caught a little video of what Lucas regularly sounds like when he's narrating his own play. There are a few intelligible words, but mostly jargon. He's usually more understandable than this, but he is definitely trying to tell a good story here about the sun. You should be able to understand "bye-bye & sun". I also hear him reference a snowman at the beginning. Enjoy!!!
*Don't forget to turn off the music player to the right. This video is not captioned, because I don't know how I would caption jargon..."