CHARLOTTE : because i wanted to.

the trip was the quickest i've ever made. work is busy, so all i had was saturday + sunday. but i wanted to go, so i went. a 13 hour drive (south charlotte is closer than north charlotte!) for a 27 hour visit (including sleeping) will never not be worth it.

my nephew is maybe my favorite person on the planet. not because he's my nephew (or, probably, because he's my nephew) but he is seriously the best and i cannot get enough of him and his little personality.

first of all. that outfit. how can you not just want to squeeze him? and those cheeks! they are the most perfect for smooching, and you can be certain that i got in ALL the smooches. even as i was leaving, i kept going back for a couple more. i cannot resist them. and you know what is one thing you can't do via facetime? snack on those cheeks, is what.

sorry, but is he not the cutest, lounging there with his dad, sending emails and watching tv? how old is he again?

lee told me i was only allowed to come if i was on luca duty all weekend and i'm not exactly sure why he thinks i wouldn't have done that anyway. oh, you need someone to hold him? change him? feed him? put on his pj's? make him laugh? give him high fives? build tower after tower with his blocks so he can army crawl his way over to knock them down? PICK ME, PICK ME.

let's not forget about THOSE TEETH. he has two on the bottom that are ...well, i call them "tall" but how do people normally describe the way babies teeth have grown in? he also has two on the top that have broken through but are still making their way down. !!

but for real. no tower will be left standing as long as luca has anything to say about it.

he especially likes it when you make sound effects or cheering noises when the blocks tumble over. he finds great joy in knocking them over and appreciates when you do too.

he does not, however, have any interest in eating which i don't even have any words for. my mom pulled out his food soon after i got there and i asked if we would start with the veggies since usually once you give them fruit it's all over. she laughed and said it would be considered a win to get him to eat anything. i didn't really understand what that meant until i came at him with a spoon and he fought back with two hands. if you did manage to get any in his mouth, or if he opened his mouth to eat one of those puffs, he would look at you like it was some kind of torture.

he does, however, have no problems eating cereal. like a true boy. except i am told it took him five months to open up to it.

he still does the hand holding, but the thing he does now is high fives. which is the greatest because he gets so excited about it like he just won some kind of prize. and, who doesn't like high fives?

i'm pretty sure we high fived about all the things. sitting in your car seat? high five. successfully getting a bite of food into your mouth? HIGH FIVE. (caps worthy, for sure.) just because your within arms reach? high five. aaand what about now? high five.

i mean. the sweetest.

he still loves to give kisses too, although those are harder to come by. i got plenty though, don't you worry. my favorite part is probably the look he has on his face before he gives one. also, every time nana would see that auntie got a kiss, she'd ask if she could have one, and he would respond by either burying his head in my shoulder or giving me another kiss.

because we are best friends, you guys.

i am determined to teach him how to say auntie, we have been practicing. it's funny because sometimes you can tell by the look on his face that he's trying to say what you're saying, but it all comes out sounding like dadada. and sometimes he's intentionally saying dadada because it's not what you're trying to get him to say.

he turned 10 months old on monday, and as i was writing this out, i thought about how someday, maybe even a month from now, i will look back and chuckle, thinking of all the things i find so neat about 10 month old luca. because he will have grown and learned new tricks and new words. but you know what? i will always love 10 month old luca, even if he tries to swat the spoon out of my hand or doesn't know how to say auntie. because right now, 10 month old luca makes me the happiest.