Christmas in November

For those of you who were expecting this post last night, sorry about that. The last video got hung up while uploading (430 minutes? I think not) so I waited until this morning to re-upload it.

Anyway, let me give you a little background here. Like most boys (and probably some girls), Lucas loves the movie Cars. He's got a few of the vehicles from the movie, but one he has wanted for a while is Chick Hicks, the "bad guy." I have been looking for Chick in every store I can think of for a couple of months now to no avail. Toys R Us, 4 or 5 Walmarts, Zellers, Canadian Superstore, you name it, I've tried to find it. I've found just about every other character that was in the movie, to include ones that had one line or were freakin' background extras, but no Chick.

Luckily, my mom came to the rescue. She was able to find one in Massachusetts, and we received it yesterday. For a fleeting moment (very, very fleeting), I thought about waiting until Christmas since Lucas has asked for it for Christmas, alongside his holy grail, a Batman Cave (which we already have stored away), but then I thought better of it. Since it's just me and him for the next few days--Marilu is down in Syracuse, braving the Black Friday sales--I thought it would be a good way to keep him happy.

Because I knew it would be a good surprise, I had the camera ready for some pictures and videos. He didn't know immediately that Chick was the present since my mom boxed it with a knight and dragon that she bought him as well. Enough talking, a picture and a video are worth a thousand and a million words, respectively.











In addition to all that fun, Lucas got to watch a personalized video message from Santa. It's from a very cool site that I found last year, www.portablenorthpole.tv. If you're reading this and you have kids who are still into Santa, you have to check it out. The cutest thing about this video is Lucas responding when Santa asked him questions. He really seemed to like it. It's things like this that make being a parent fun, despite the less than splendid times.



If you want to see the Santa video, click here.

Finishing July

Tonight's post falls under the "catching up" category. Most of July was comprised of Lucas and Marilu's trip to Newfoundland. However, they were back in Ottawa for the last week of the month. Below you'll find the highlights.

Lucas and his buddy Logan hang out with a donkey (or is it a mule?) at the Canadian Agricultural Museum.


Taking a break on a hike through the woods near our subdivision.


Making faces on the couch with Gwen.


And that's it for July. Incidentally, it looks like we may be visiting the doctor yet again this week. Andrea (Lucas's daycare provider) believes he might have a sinus infection since a few of the kids have had one recently and his nose has been pretty nasty lately. Doesn't seem to be bothering him but probably something we'll follow up on.

Bangs

By request, here's a picture of Marilu and her new haircut. Rowr! Oh, and Lucas, of course.

Another Week, Another Doctor Visit

This morning, I brought Lucas to daycare and then came home with visions of taking a quick 1 hour catnap since he had made sleeping difficult for both Marilu and I last night. However, not 5 minutes after walking in the door, I received a call from Andrea, his daycare provider. She noticed that a rash that was on his face was also all over the rest of his body and it seemed to be getting redder by the moment. We had noticed it last night, but he tends to have sensitive skin so we thought nothing of it. Since Andrea was worried it might be contagious, she asked me to bring him to the doctor and get it checked out.

So instead of my nap, I had to keep him entertained for about an hour (since the earliest appointment was at 10:30) and then drive all the way downtown for his appointment. Such is the tortuous life I lead.

Here's a picture I took of him in the examination room while waiting for the doctor to arrive. It's a bit fuzzy since the iPhone isn't known for its quality, but you can see the splotchy redness. Up close, he looks like he has a red connect-the-dots over most of his body. It didn't seem to bother him at all, though, as he was full of energy and didn't have a fever.


As it turned out, it was nothing serious. If you recall, last week he had an ear infection and had to take the antibiotic amoxicillin for 7 days. He finished the prescription about 2 days ago, and apparently it is fairly common for some people to have a reaction once they are done taking the antibiotic. The doctor even referred to it as "amoxi-rash." I don't think it means he is allergic to it, but in the future, they will give him something else.

So, the only "bad" thing is the rash, which should go away in a day or two. Since it doesn't itch or hurt, it's more a nuisance than anything else. I wish all doctor visits were this easy!

The Latest First

Although "Lucas Firsts" are few and far between nowadays, relative to his earlier years, he's still having them every now and then. His latest was this past Saturday night: first babysitter! Yep, after nearly 3 and a half years, Marilu and I finally went out without him in the hands of a family member. Granted, it was for a party that was only 5 houses down from ours, but it's still a first.

His babysitter, Emma, is the daughter of one of the women Marilu plays soccer with during the summer. I believe she is in 7th grade so that would make her, what, 12 or 13? She actually met him for the first time the previous weekend. We had her come over for an hour so he could get to know her so his first babysitting wasn't a completely traumatic experience with a stranger.

For what it's worth, it went well. He was already in bed by the time she got here so she was able to do her math homework and watch Jonas Brothers in relative peace. Though he did wake up about 5 minutes before we came home so when we walked in the door, he was sitting on the couch next to her. I guess he told her he had wet his bed (he didn't), and she wasn't sure where the sheets were. Since we were due home any minute, she brought him downstairs with her. So it all worked out in the end.

We've also got our daycare provider's son ready to do some babysitting so we now have not one, but two babysitters on call. Woohoo, our social life shall rise again!

On to July!

The month of July was covered pretty well way back when since that's when Marilu and Lucas went to Newfoundland for about 3 weeks. I believe I had all those posted by early August. In the next couple of posts, I'll get the rest of the highlights from July.

For Canada Day (July 1, for those of you outside the Great White North), we went to a party at a friend's place. We only got a couple of pictures of the three of us, which is why this isn't the most high quality shot.


The morning Marilu and Lucas left for Newfoundland, I caught Lucas hamming it up for the camera as he was heading out to the car.



This is why Marilu probably shouldn't leave me alone for extended periods of time. I got to thinking about how everything tastes better when you wrap it in bacon. So the logical thing to do (in my mind) was to cook a piece of bacon wrapped in bacon. Men the world over cheered this event. Women? Not so much.


While they were away, I decided to build Lucas a sandbox for the backyard. Here's the finished product prior to putting it in the ground. Considering I am about as handy as a quadriplegic, I was pretty proud of myself. Hell, this was the first time I'd ever bought lumber!


I'll wrap up July in the next post.

In Sickness and In Health

It's been a barrel of laughs the last couple of days regarding Lucas and his health. This weekend, he managed to get pink eye, which also kept him home from daycare on Monday. The most traumatic part of that experience was not the condition itself but instead was for Marilu and I as we tried to give him eye drops. He screamed, howled, refused to open his eyes, and on the rare occasion he did open an eye, he would take a swing (or launch a foot) at Marilu. Considering we had to go through that 2 or 3 times a day for a couple of day, suffice to say it was not fun.

Then, when all looked positive on Tuesday morning, he ended up having to come home from daycare since his ear was hurting him so bad he was just sitting against the wall, holding it. I brought him to the doctor, and, surprise, surprise, ear infection. So now he's on antibiotics for that. The first time Marilu tried to get him to take them, it sounds like it was even worse than the eye drops. However, she figured out that mixing the amoxicillin with ginger ale was a winning combination so we're going with that from here on out. I learned this morning that mere milk would not due the trick, and he only took it after I added ginger ale. Yes, ginger ale, milk, and pink medicine. Yummy.

On top of all of that, the doctor noticed a heart murmur when she was checking him out yesterday. She'd never heard one before, and when she checked his heartbeat again at the end of the appointment, it wasn't there either so she believes it's probably a flow murmur, which is apparently a very common thing for kids to have. Just to be safe, she's going to have us see a cardiologist and then, if needed, we'll get an EKG for him afterwards.

So it's been all kinds of fun this week. Considering my health has been wishy washy too--we've discovered my headaches are almost certainly due to extremely tightened muscles in my shoulders and neck--I'll be glad when this week is over.

For now, I wanted to post a picture of the present Lucas made my mom for her birthday (Nov 5) with a tiny bit of help from Marilu.


Now that I'm getting used to working through my headaches, I'll get back to posting more regularly. Oh, and lest I forget, don't forget to think of the veterans today for Remembrance Day in Canada and Veterans Day in the good ol' US of A. Especially those kickass soldiers in the US Army. (no bias here!) :)

The End of June

Sorry about the lack of activity. I've had a near-constant headache since last Thursday, which has kept me from doing quite a lot. It's not debilitating, but if my choice comes down to sleeping/resting or "anything else," the former choices tend to win out.

I was at the doctor yesterday, and she ruled out the worst case scenarios I had floating through my hypochondriacal mind (skin cancer, stroke, tumor...I'm a ball of sunshine, ain't I?). She suspects something in my neck--muscles, nerves?--may be the root of the problem so I have an appointment on Friday to see a massage therapist. Hopefully, that will take care of the problem, but if not, I also have a referral for physiotherapy.

In Lucas news, I just taught him (10 minutes ago) how to draw a stick figure and he did a decent job of making one of his own. He'll be illustrating comic books in no time!

On the picture front, I'm going to play a little bit of catch-up. Believe it or not, I still have some photos from June that haven't been posted! Below, you'll see the highlights from the last week and a half of that month.

Although wildly inappropriate, the birthday gifts Lucas gets from his godfather are some of the best: this year, a Nerf automatic gun and Nerf two swords. We have used all of them a LOT since June. :)


There is a retention pond at one corner of our subdivision that we bring Lucas to from time to time. He likes throwing rocks in it, and from time to time, we also feed the birds that show up there.

I think this is his "C'mon, stop taking pictures, I want to feed the geese" face.


The birds are smart. You feed one...


...and then the whole flock shows up.


It's nice to make HIM pull the wagon for once.


Lucas poses with Cow, one of his oldest stuffed animals that my dad bought for him during a visit.


Speaking of my dad, here's a picture of Lucas posing with a toy he bought with money he got from my dad for his birthday. To say this castle has been well-used is an understatement. It's been a fixture in our living room since then and even made the trip to Massachusetts.


We wrap up with a couple of pictures I took of him when he helped me build a fort in his room. Good times.