Lucas Camilo

Lucas has been writing up a storm lately – usually a short blog post every day for the past few weeks. I collected them all here, including his more obscure posts written in code. Note that there are a lot of references to the Octonauts show and the various characters from it that now appear in our lives, including all the “vegimals” (creatures that are half animal and half vegetable.)

the 1st day of playgarden camp .

we did a scavenger hunt where i would pick a color & then i would look for somthing in the playgarden that is that color & set that on the right color .
mark & i picked some blueberreis for captain barnicles & kwawzee .
it was very hot .

going to the lake .

i went to the lake .
i got my vegamals in the water .
i just filled the gup v with water & then they
could just float in the gup v .
codish & barot were there to0

i went to barbras art galary .

i saw lots & lots & lots & lots of paintigs .
my favorote ones were the vivid colerd ones .
they were called outsider paintings because
the people that made them had no training . .

our first adventure of the day.

we saw a lot of friends .
we played a game where we would throw tunip
into the fountain .
we went to their house .
i saw their dogs meez & lotus .
i thought they were cute .

the concert .

we had xylophones ,drums , bells , maracas , tweecks violin . & voices .
we did nia duck & we even made up some songs.

going to the farmers market .

the idea was that every time i ran into
someone i would just act like a meerkat .
it was funny

suward park .

i got a puget soud activities book .
it is going to be fun
i saw joee .
it had been a long time since i had seen him .
i saw some friends from school .

storytime at the dugless truth library .

it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much fun .
we read 2 out of 3 books because we did not have time for all 3 .
but it was still soooooooooooooooo much fun .
this was because there was a parachute on the ground & in & in a little while we started doing it .

gg oo ii nn gg tt oo tt hh ee zz oooo .

mm yy ff aa vv oo rr ii tt ee pp aa rr tt ww aa ss ff ee ee dd ii nn gg tt hh ee bb ii rr dd ss oo ff cc oo uu rr ss ee bb ee cc aa uu ss ee ii tt ii ss aa ll ww aa yy ss mm yy ff aa vv oo rr oo tt ee pp aa rr tt .
bb uu tt ww ee oo nn ll yy gg oo tt 3 ss tt ii cc kk ss & ww ee jj uu ss tt ww aa tt cc hh ee dd tt hh ee rr ee ss tt .

tt hh ee oo pp ee nn tt hh ee oo cc tt oo hh aa tt cc hh ss ii ll ii nn ee ss

ee vv ee rr yy tt ii mm ee ii ss aa yy tt ww eeee cc kk oo pp ee nn tt hh ee oo cc tt

oo hh aa tt cc hh ss hh ee ww oo uu ll dd ss aa yy

ii oo pp ee nn dd ii tt aa ll rr ee aa dd yy .

zig zag giz gaz .

i went to the park .
each time i said zigity zagity zoo we would spin around .
we had soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much silliness there .

day 2 of aquarium camp .

this is octopus camp so evry day is a new octopus .
the octopus of yesterday was the giant pacific octopus .
the octopus of today was the red octopus.
evrey octopus is a suprise .
i saw me in a video . (me as in peso)

day 3 of aquarium camp .
the octopus of the day today was called the caribeen reef octopus .
we did a game called ocean motion very simalar to simon says but it is about the ocean .

[This section is from our trip to Portland]

how it feels to be at dashys house .

dashy is grammas octonauts name .
anyway it feels very very very very very very nice.
it was the fastest drive even though it was 3 hours .
i am having fun so far .
i went to the beaverton library .
i found some duek eligton & some elephants gerald .

tt oo nn ii gg hh tt .

hh oo ww ff uu nn ii aa mm hh aa vv ii nn gg aa tt dd aa ss hh yy ss hh oo uu ss ee ..
ii aa mm hh aa vv ii nn gg ss oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo mm uu cc hh ff uu nn .
tt hh ii ss mm oo rr ii nn gg ii tt aa ll kk ee dd ww ii tt hh cc aa pp tt ii nn bb aa rr nn ii cc ll ee ss & ii tt hh oo uu tt aa bb oo uu tt mm oo vv ii nn gg tt oo dd aa ss hh yy ss hh oo uu ss ee tt oo oo.
bb uu tt nn oo tt uu nn tt ii ll …

i s a w a w o m a n i n a w h e e l c h a i r . .

t h i s w o m a n h a d a d o g n e x t t o h e r c h a i r .
t h e d o g s n a m e w a s b e l l a .
& t h e n w e s a w 4 p u p p y s n a m e e d a t l a s , j u p i t e r ,a r t e m i s , & a p o l l o .
a t l a s w a s n i c e & s w e e t w h e r e a s t h e o t h e r 3 w e r e s q u i r m y .

g o i n g o n a n a d v e n t u r e .

w e d i d n o t f i n d m y d i n o s a u r b u t w e d i d f i n d s o m e d o g s
2 n a m e d r u b y & b r u s e
1 n a m e d l o g a n & 1 n a m e d h a r v y .
w e g o t s t u c k b e c a u s e o f t h e b e a v e r s b u i l t a d a m .

h o w f u n i a m h a v i n g a t d a s h y s h o u s e .

i a m h a v i n g s o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o m u c h f u n h e r e .
l e t m e t e l l y o u a b o u t t o d a y .
i w e n t t o a p a r k w h i c h r e a l y w a s a n t r e a l y t h a t m u c h b e c a u s e m y v e n t & m y s u c t i o n m a c h i n e w e r e d i e i n g . .

g o i n g t o o m z i e a s c i e n c e m u s e o m e o n e w i t h i n o r e g o n .

i s a w a t r a k e j u s t l i k e m e
h e r n a m e w a s p h e e b e .
i d i d t h e s e a r m r o b o t s .
i g o t a d i n s o s a u r p r o g e c t e r w h e r e i t p r o g e c t s d i n o s a u r s o n t h e w a l l .

the solar eclipse .
it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cool .
me & my new tunip were wearing eclipse glases .
i looked at it many times .
at first it looked like the sun but then when we reached Jefferson Park the sun looked more like the moon .
& it got very cold .

Photo credit: Burke

Photo credit: Burke

Photo credit: Naomi Ishisaka

Today is Lucas’s 8th birthday. Over the past few weeks we keep saying to each other, “has it really been eight years?!?” I’m sure kid birthdays have a way of doing that for a lot of parents, but when your kid has been through what Lucas has — barely surviving the first week of his life, living with a tracheostomy and ventilator, a near-death experience when he was three… I could go on — it feels even more triumphant that we’ve made it this far.

We also find ourselves getting nostalgic about his different phases of his life, which are often fueled by the fact that we have a 2 1/2 year old who is going through similar stages. “Remember when Lucas was two and he demand that we read the same three books over and over again, and therefore could recite them from beginning to end as if he were reading it himself?”… “Remember when he was Ida’s age and loved his Roy and Silo penguin figurines so much that he carried them everywhere?”

More than anything lately, watching Lucas hang out with his suddenly much-more-interactive sister has been wonderful.

The other day we got Lucas in the bathtub and Ida insisted on getting in with him… which, as both of them grow bigger, proves to be somewhat of a challenge. But we pulled it off, and then watched as they had a hilarious exchange about the plastic dinosaurs that Ida brought along. She went through them one by one “ceratops… kylasaurus… stegasaurus… rackisaurus… t-rex!” holding each up to Lucas as she named them. And Lucas just beamed. In fact, he turned red with joy and could hardly speak he was so proud of her. Finally he managed to sputter, “she knows all her dinosaurs!!” Then Ida started plopping them one by one into the water and saying, “down he goes… and swiiiiimmmm!” And Lucas turned even more red with laughter and shouted “do it again Ida!” as she grabbed another dinosaur and plunged it into the tub, sometimes smacking his leg in the process.

It’s hard to explain how happy it makes us to see them interacting in this way. There are other games that they play together but almost always with our help, and on this occasion they were going at it alone, fueling each other, cracking up. But one thing really struck me at that moment: just how amazing Lucas is to feel so much pleasure and pride in watching his sister. You could imagine it being very different, because when Lucas gets lowered into his bath chair there’s not much he can do on his own. He can’t pick up the dinosaurs himself or do much to splash around and play, except with our assistance in holding and guiding his arms. So at that moment and many others, Ida is walking embodiment and demonstration of his own limitations. Yet is he resentful or upset about it? Not a bit. To the contrary, he feels pride in all of Ida’s ability, and absolute pleasure to be able to just sit back and witness her doing her thing. What a kid.  And Ida clearly sees it, too.  She sometimes declares, unprompted, “I give Lucas a hug!”

Here are a few of Lucas’s most recent blog posts, starting with an email to one of his favorite bands in advance of seeing them in concert today:

dear recess monkey .

i listend to one of your albums this
morning . are you going to sing any wonder
bees songs? this is because it is one of my
favorote albums . one of my favorote
songs on there is the wonder bees reemix .
see you at your concert today .
Love Lucas

the recess monkey concert .
they played jet pack .
i got a new recess monkey album .
i figured out that wonder bees is actualy wonder stuff .
it was in curcland .

my day
i went to the park .
we saw crows & a squirrel .
we went on the swayfun .
we walked around the tennis court .
we saw a trail .
it went uphill .
it was very steep .

the 2 advetures
i went to the issaquah library .
we found a book about a fish that makes jaz music .
we also found a book called pete the cat & the bedtime blues .
then i got a butterfly kit at the goodwill .

august 2 2017 .
i went to an emoji movie .
it was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo funny
the part i liked the best was when gene went up in a balloon .

going to a park in bellevue .
no one had ever been there before .
i got my toes all wet .
i bounced on a trampleene
i laid down on a swing .