Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Day 1

Day 1 without Lukas.  Natalie finally woke at 8:40 a.m.  Poor girl is definitely sick.  She wanted to drink her milk but didn't want much breakfast.  Konrad and I had a fun morning doing stuff he wanted to do, without interruptions from other siblings.  He even helped me with the laundry, doing the job of "switching the laundry" that Lukas usually does.

After lunch, which Natalie didn't want to eat, she actually took a nap for an hour (so I took one too!)  The sound of her playing in the kids' room woke me.  I rushed to get her out so she wouldn't wake Konrad, and then she and I had some one-on-one time.  She was definitely feeling better!

Konrad started asking where Lukas was, but didn't seem to mind that he wasn't there.

This evening, Aunt Chris sent a report and picture of her day with Lukas:

Lukas and I had a blast today.  We did a little exploring in Little Tokyo and visited the 5th floor Japanese garden (with multiple waterfalls) at the Kyoto Grand Hotel, played "I Spy" in the lobby and checked out the plastic food samples in the restaurant windows.

On to the Natural History Museum.  The large dinosaur exhibit is closed for renovation but the two samples in the main rotunda kept him happy.  They are operating a "Dino Lab" where you can watch the workers preparing the bones for the new exhibit which was pretty cool.  We could see them cleaning, gluing, chiseling on huge dino bones.  There is also a Fin Whale skeleton (I think it's 150 feet long?) hanging in one exhibit.  The insect zoo was also "closed for renovation" so we settled on African Mammals.  The camera was a big hit but I'm not sure how successful with pictures we were.  Some were flash, some not.

I think we both loved the mineral and gem exhibit.  He took many pics, I hope some of them turn out.  He seemed to be genuinely awed by some of the samples which were mostly conveniently at his eye level.  Cindy's comment:  he is his father's son!
He has a good sense of direction and could tell me which entrance we came in and how to return to the parking lot which wasn't visible from the museum. 
Once again, he is his father's son.
He was very willing to try my suggestion for lunch.  We went to the Curry House in Little Tokyo.  They had a lovely sample of their kid's meal and more in the window.  See attached pic.  Lukas thought it was hysterical to tell you that he had plastic food for lunch:)  He had spaghetti with meatballs.  They also served corn soup, french fries, one piece of breaded shrimp and a large orange wedge with it.  He ate the orange and all the noodles and meatballs and milk.  I ate the shrimp:)  Being that it's a Japanese restaurant, the servings are not huge.  Two smallish meatballs....seemed just right.   Oh, and a green lollipop on the way out.  



We left for Ventura around noon.  He had to use the facilities when we were in Calabasas and he was very polite asking me to please stop.  He washes his hands and says "please" and "thank you" very readily.  Didn't ask me to buy him anything!!
I enjoyed the one-on-one time.  Nice easy discussions.  Loves the El Camino Real bells on the freeway.  Hope I haven't started something but I said "ding, ding, ding!" every time he saw one!  He frequently speaks highly of his Mommy and Daddy.  ("My Mommy is very smart."  "My Daddy is really smart." Etc.)  Very, very sweet!  Loves Laura Ingalls.  Thought he saw a lean-to in downtown!  


Thank you Aunt Chris!

This evening Lukas called from Patrice's house and updated us on what he had done all day: besides what he did with Chris, Patrice got him some craft supplies and he kept busy doing crafts at their business.  We all had fun saying hi to him on the phone (Natalie and Konrad had big smiles saying "hi"!)

It's definitely much quieter without Lukas around, although Konrad is starting to fill in the gaps with lots of conversation.  Natalie didn't talk much at all today since she wasn't feeling well, but I have a feeling she'll be filling in the gaps too!  We miss you, Lukas!

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