Tyrannasaurus Medley… and other dinosaur news (May 25)

We stuck around home for Memorial Day weekend and though the weather wasn’t great, we enjoyed a visit from Gramma, as well as walks around the neighborhood, and fun activities like composing our own Tyrannosaurus Rex medley, which we’re officially launching on youtube today:

Lucas worked with me to choose segments from his six favorite songs about T Rex (can you believe that we actually know six different songs about one dinosaur!?!) and then picked out the various pictures for the youtube video as well. I told him that there’s a good chance that this sucker is going viral… and he said, “what’s going viral?” Needless to say, he’s doing his part by insisting on watching it 10 times a day… and you should do the same to get us on our way!

In other dinosaur news, last week the first dinosaur fossil ever discovered in Washington state was unveiled to the world. We haven’t made it to the Burke Museum yet to check it out in person, but everyone who has seen the news has been talking about it with Lucas. Amazingly, this comes on the heals of a the unveiling of a vegetarian therapod (!) discovered by a 7 year old in Chile and dubbed Chilesaurus, as well as a new member of the velociraptor family called Saurornitholestes langstoni. Wow, its a great time to be a dinosaur lover.

Oh, and did we mention that Nonna and Papa brought twin dinosaur pajamas for Lucas and Ida back from their recent trip to England? They both seem even more excited to cuddle before bed when sporting the new threads.

Of course, our life as a family isn’t just about dinosaurs. As Ida grows – and boy is she growing FAST, already having doubled her birth weight to over 16 pounds – its fun to see Lucas continue to engage her, follow her movements and actions, and comment on how she’s doing. (Also, we promise more of an update about Ida soon.) In particular, Lucas can always tell when Ida is smiling – even if she’s on the other side of the room and he’s working on his iPad or reading a book. Basically, he picks up on the joy in someone’s voice in seeing her light up, or their laugh, or the change to baby talk, and then he exclaims “IS IDA SMILING??”

Another fun tradition we’ve begun is the weekly “Bath-a-palooza” in which Lucas and Ida bathe side-by-side — him in his mesh bath chair, which we can strap him into for safety, and her in her little plastic tub on the floor, which she promptly splashes half of the water out of. Getting Lucas into the bath is a bit of an ordeal so we don’t do it every night, but its always fun when we do.