Cute-O-Meter

I believe that all children go through various phases of extremes. Phases where they are eating more than usual, or whining more than usual or sleeping more than usual, etc. These phases can last days or weeks or even months, but you can usually pick up pretty quickly on what phase your kid is in at any given moment. They always seem to be doing something more than usual. Currently, Lucas is going through a Super Cute phase. Not that he isn't ordinarily cute (I mean look at him - he's always been adorable!) but lately it's as though all the stars have aligned in the Cute-iverse and they are shining right on him in a perfect storm of cuteness. No one can resist his charms! How does a child have a "perfect storm" of cuteness you ask? Here's how:

1. Friendliness. Lucas has always been pretty friendly with strangers but he's been taking it to a whole new level lately. Out in public, he just can't resist saying hello to everyone he sees and strangers can't help but melt. I often refer to this as the Lucas Parade. He sits there in his stroller/grocery cart/etc or just wanders around and smiles and waves at everyone in the vicinity and gives a very endearing "hi" in his adorable little baby voice. But all that is just regular cute. In order to rank off the charts on the cute-o-meter, Lucas takes this to a whole new level, cocking his head to one side and waving his little hand under his chin and saying hi like he's being shy (but he's obviously anything but shy). It's like a took a class in how to say hi in the cutest way possible. At restaurants, he charms everyone at nearby tables with this adorable faux-shy greeting. But then the cuteness continues. If he has you hooked, he will then also engage you in a game of peek a boo, which is accompanied by adorable giggles and random strangers sighing about how cute he is.

2. Enthusiasm. There is nothing cuter than a child getting genuinely thrilled over seemingly mundane things. Like when you return from the bathroom and are greeted with an enthusiastic "Mama!!" and he runs to you, throwing his little arms around your legs as though you has been gone for months not minutes. Or when Elmo pops up on the screen during Sesame Street and he cries "Melmo!" and looks up at you expectantly perhaps hoping that you are just as excited as he is that Elmo is on screen (for the 15th time in the last 5 minutes). Or when he sees a dog or a cat and points and grins and giggles repeatedly saying "dog!" or "cat!" until said animal has left his sight of vision (this never gets old to him).

3. Talking. When a child first starts talking, practically everything that comes out of their mouth is extremely exciting, for both the parent and the child. Breaking down the communication wall is thrilling - as a parents it's fun to hear new words and to be able to communicate with your child in a whole new way. Plus the adorable way they say words as they are just figuring them out is always so cute. For Lucas, Phone = Bye-bye, Elmo = Melmo, Milk = MuK (emphasis on the K), Surprise = Pise and so on. For the child, having someone actually understand what the heck you are trying to say is a relief. Lucas gets super excited when you figure out what he's trying to tell you. He will be crying or whining and I'll tell him to use his words to tell me what he wants. So he'll point to the window and say "ou-side" and I'll say "You want to go outside?" and he erupts into a hilarious, excited laugh as though he never thought I'd ever crack the code. So. Cute.

4. Age. No doubt about it, this is just a really cute age. Lucas likes to mimic what other people are doing and saying and it is adorable when he randomly picks up a baby doll and shooshes her while patting her back, or lays on the couch and pretends to be asleep, or throws his little hands up in the air and says "Whoo hoo!" - things that are just cuter when done by a toddler than an older kid for whatever reason.

Yup, where ever we go, everyone is talking about Lucas these days. We can barely take a step without hearing it: Look at those curls! Look at that red hair! Look at that smile! Look at that wave! What a sweet boy!

And those strangers don't even know the half of it. Luke's cute-o-meter is definitely off the charts and Marty and I are simply smitten with our little boy. Like when we were all sitting at the diner table the other night laughing and joking and Lucas shouted "Happy!" Does it get any cuter? I think not.