Lucas Camilo

Over the past few days because we’ve been very focused on Lucas and spending time together as a family, and the little guy, of course, has been soaking it all up.  We thought the two of us were pouring on a lot of attention, but it turns out that Lucas finds snuggling, playing and absorbing the attention of six people every day even more enjoyable than getting it from just Mom and Dad.

Lucas’s attention and awareness seem to have sharpened significantly lately, and with that his purposefulness of movement.  He makes eye contact longer and looks around with more curiosity than ever.  We’ve also been finding new positions to enable him to move his head on his own.  Lying in our arms he can usually move his head back and forth a bit, but on Monday he was in Nonna’s lap looking up at her and he slowly and more purposefully moved his head and neck to follow her head moving side to side.  Then during his physical therapy session yesterday we all watched with rapt attention as Lucas lay on his side and slowly but surely brought his shoulder and arm from the back of his body to the front to reach for a toy.  When he got it all the way over the five of us – Krista, Burke, Nonna, Papa, and Evan (the physical therapist) – let out a triumphant whoop.  Of course Lucas is still limited by his low tone — most babies at Lucas’s adjusted age of three months old would be able to do all sorts of head and arm movements — but his health challenges make it that much more beautiful to watch him accomplish these slow, purposeful movements.

Lucas’s breathing has also slowly been getting stronger.  He’s been consistently going three or four hours every day off the ventilator.  And lately when the secretions build up in his lungs he can breath through the congestion without dropping his oxygen saturation level very quickly.  His breathing has been so strong that he’s using the second “nose” again, making him vent AND tube free for occasional half hour stints.  One afternoon he used the nose-facilitated mobility to practice rolling in his crib, with his Dad and Pappa helping and cheering him along.  Yesterday, the extra nose mobility meant he could go all the way to the kitchen to watch his Nonna make her famous minestrone soup.

Lucas was sad to see his aunt Ashley and cousin Madden go back to Seattle on Monday.  Madden is the first of his cousins he’s met in person, and they both seemed to love it.  Although Madden’s lingering cough kept her away from him most of the time, she made him “I Love You” Lucas decorations and waved his favorite toys in front of his face, many of which used to be hers.  On the last day she was here she got to hold Lucas’s hand and read to him from one of her old books, “That’s Not My Puppy.”  The book is filled with different textures, and Madden gently rubbed Lucas’s hand along the velvety poodle tail, the rough doggie paws, and the furry puppy ears.  Lucas hadn’t totally understood the concept of “cousin” before the visit, but he’s now in love.

A few days ago we elaborated some big ideas around parenting, and this past week proved that another idea of ours holds water: that everyone benefits from bigger families.  (And by bigger families we mean lots of different kinds of relationships, not the Duggar’s version of a big family.)  Lucas spent so much time snuggling in his grandparents and aunt’s arms over the past week, and his increased awareness and expressiveness seems to correlate with that experience.  His love of snuggling has also increased exponentially with their visit (he gets a very satisfied look on his face whenever he finds his way into someones arms these days), so we’ll try to keep up with the snuggling mandate after they leave.  We look forward to having more help from Lucas’s tios and tias in Washington DC once the flu season ends and open season on Lucas snuggling begins…