Lucas Camilo

There’s lots of good stuff to report these days from Lucas-land, especially now that we’ve survived both the earthquake and hurricane Irene.  The latter involved lots of preparation as well as an evacuation plan to a local hotel in case of a power outage.  Alas, the worst we got was some gusty winds and a lot of rain, which was fine by us.

Lucas was unfazed by all the weather madness and has been generally doing well.  His sign language repertoire continues to expand –  though not as quickly as before now that he’s mastered just about all of the animals in the kingdom – and he often combines a sign for something with his attempt at vocalizing the actual word.  For example, he’s become addicted to chewing on bananas and will let us know he’s in the mood (about 10 times a day) by doing the sign for “banana” at the same time as he repeatedly says “an-nan-na!”  We sometimes joke with him – “oh, you want an apple Lucas?” – which he does not find amusing at all.  The response is a rapid side-to-side hand wave (the sign for “all done” which Lucas also uses for “no”) coupled with a curt “nah!” and then the resumption of the “an-nan-na!” along with the sign for banana.  We should mention that the sign involves sticking out your pointer finger and then peeling at it as if it were a banana… so it’s a pretty cute display, to say the least.

Another thing he’s become rather addicted to is his iPad.  We actually got a prescription for one back in December based on its potential as an augmentative communication device.  At first Lucas hated the thing and would cry whenever we pulled it out; later, he would reluctantly play games with his speech therapist but we haven’t yet found good apps to use it for communication.  However, since we don’t have a TV the iPad is Lucas’s one source of animated visual entertainment, and he’s come to love both the Itsty Bitsy Spider app as well as the Wheels on the Bus app.  Recently we’ve downloaded a couple apps that actually have more educational potential and Lucas is starting to both learn the alphabet and identify shapes using them, which is exciting.

Another thing he’s gotten excited about is Skyping with grandparents (as well as other family and friends).  Nonna and Papa (Burke’s parents) and Gramma (Krista’s mom) all love video-chatting with Lucas from across the country, and they have a lot more patience then Burke’s three nieces (Madden, age 6 and twins Tya and Ellody, age 5).  The grandparents read books to Lucas through the video-chat and show off whatever animals they can corral around the house, which is very pleasing to Lucas.  The other day Burke picked up the phone to make a call and Lucas immediately started doing his signs for “Nonna” and “Papa”, demanding a video chat.  We called them and luckily they were home and obliged.  Lucas had previously developed the sign for “grandma” during Susan’s last visit and it may be his favorite person sign after Mommy and Daddy.  Of course, “duck”, “cow”, “cat” and “doggy” blow all us humans away.

Speaking of animals, Lucas now gets occasional visits from Bella, the friendly next door dog.  He beams when she comes into the room and starts slapping his leg and saying “nogey! nogey!”  Lucas still gets a little nervous when Bella puts her head right up to him, but he’s practicing petting and talking to his stuffed doggy, Fuzz.  The other day he was jazzed up following a visit from Bella, and took his energy out on Fuzz, which we captured in this video.  Also note his attempt at saying “elephant”…