Inpromptu Playdate with Lucian

It had been forever since we had a play date with Lucian, but he came by a few weeks ago to visit us. I was so excited to have him over.Him and his Mommy recently went to Vancouver to visit all of his great Aunties. prior to there trip, Tracey was returning a new Infant seat to Babies-R-Us because she previously brought his old car seat with her to Vancouver and decided to instead by him a new Convertible "Big Boy" seat which had not arrived yet.So we lent them our infant seat to take to the Airport. Tracey brought Lucian up to play with us while she uninstalled his car seat, packed it back into its box, and installed our car seat. Lucian did really good playing with Holly and being very entertained by the various toys that were new for him. He was so sweet, and though it took him a few minutes to get used to the new environment, he soon found a tasty toy to chew on.We played with the blocks, and with the shakers. Holly was so hospitable and waited patiently for Lucian to knock them down, she was very intrigued with his restraint.Eventually though, she couldn't control herself and had to show him how it was done. I think he just liked having them stacked up around him, and they were good to chew on.Eventually though he took a turn and he knocked down a tower of his own, just to show Holly that he too could do it, if he wanted to.Finally they all got knocked down and Holly put them away. I think Lucian really liked the clean up song. He sort of started to bop his head a little when I sang it.I think Holly almost didn't know how to react to Lucian, he is so cute and cuddly. He is also very calm and laid back, and she isn't used to that calmness.At first i think she almost thought he was like a doll, she would get up close and look into his eyes and smile, and be very curious.Then suddenly he reached up and tried to touch her face. Well she knew right away that he was another baby and backed right up and gave him some space.After she cleaned up all the blocks, he wanted to play with them some more, she she took one out and gave it to him. it was the sweetest thing ever, and about the longest I have seen her sit still and play.It didn't last for long though, soon she was crawling around and trying to get Lucian to follow her. He is quite the crawler and can get himself from one place to another.Since Lucian didn't run after her, Holly decided to bring him toys, and I guess she thought that perhaps he would like to play with a ball. He really liked the big blue one.It was about this time though that he started to notice mommy had been gone for a long time and wondered where she was. he got a little fussy, but he was easily distracted and enjoyed playing too.But it didn't take long for Tracey to finish, and she came up and joined us. She was exhausted, she had been running around all day doing errands and getting ready for her trip which was the next day.I convinced her to take a break and catch her breath, gave her some soda and a little snack and she sat with Lucian and Holly as they played.Lucian became much more adventurous once his mommy was there. He climbed up on the house and crawled right through the door and off into the next room.It was really late in the afternoon when they arrived maybe 3:00 and Holly had been refusing her nap all day, I think her semi-tiredness had a lot to do with her calm when playing with Lucian.Exploring Holly's room Lucian found this fuzzy "Ewok" teddy Bear of Holly's made from Alpaca Fur, if I recall right, Joel brought it back for me from Ecuador, but if I recall wrong he can comment and remind me where it is from. Lucian loved it, and gave it a hug hug and cuddled right up with it.Isn't he such a sweetie! On a previous trip to Vancouver Lucian's Granny gave him a haircut. I think it makes him look much more grown up, but he doesn't have as many highlights or curls now as he used to.He was having so much fun with Holly and I think Tracey was enjoying her break, that while she kept saying they should leave, they would stay a little bit longer. We loved the company.We took advantage of the time to read books and play games, and catch up, as Tracey and I hadn't really had a chance to talk much in the previous several weeks.Lucian was very interested int he Stuffed Animals, and he really liked the puppets, this is a little fish one. He is also really on the verge of walking, he was cruising and pulling himself up and walking around with mommy holding his hands. Last time I saw him (except for the kite festival a few days earlier) he hadn't even crawled yet.So it was amazing for me to see him so grown up. They ended up staying until almost 6:00, which I think in the end was good, as it allowed her to avoid bridge traffic back into the city, and miss Holly was exhausted and finally went to sleep after being up 9 hours. I thought she was out for the night, but she got up at 10:00. I worried when this happened,but then by 11:30 she was ready to sleep for the night, so it wasn't too bad, and definitely worth a skipped nap to play with Lucian.