Saunders Farm

This summer, we finally brought Lucas to Saunders Farm for the first time. For those of you not in Ottawa, Saunders Farm has a ton of hedge mazes, a splash pad area, a couple of playground areas, and lots of other things to keep kids entertained. It's almost like an amusement park without rides. We'd held off on bringing Lucas when he was younger since the admission is pricey, but we felt at 4, he was now ready to make the most of it. And make the most of it he did. We actually went back 2-3 more times this summer since Lucas loved the place. This year, we decided to buy a family season pass since it pays for itself in three visits. Odds are we'll be there more than three times, so I consider it a sound investment.

These pictures were taken during our first visit. It was in July, and it was a pretty hot day. I just looked up the temperature on Weather.ca, and the high was 31 C/88 F, and that's before the humidity was factored in. Nonetheless, Lucas and I had a good time (we left Marilu at home for some reason or another).

This first picture isn't a great one of Lucas since he has his eyes closed, but unfortunately it was the only one I took from within a maze, and I wanted to give you an idea of what those are like. I love hedge mazes and would probably do all of them every time I go there, but Lucas tired of them quickly. I would imagine the overwhelming heat had a lot to do with that.

Lucas's favorite thing on that first visit, by far, was the pirate ship. He probably spent almost an hour playing in, on, and around it. It was a slow day at Saunders Farm so except for the odd kid of two, he had the ship to himself most of the time. In our subsequent visits, the place was packed, and he was a bit shy of the bigger kids and so didn't spend as much time in that area. If you look closely in the last picture, you'll see he's up in the crow's nest.

Here are a few more random photos taken that day.

This last photo isn't from Saunders Farm, but it's the last one I have for July. Too often Lucas either makes crazy expressions or puts on his cheese smile, and while that doesn't necessarily ruin the photos, they could be better. This was one of those rare moments where I got a genuinely nice photo of him. I hope you enjoy.

For anyone that is interested in more info on Saunders Farm, you can view their website here.

Regression

Like many young kids, Lucas used to have a problem with bedwetting. We found that if we brought him to pee at about 10:30 at night, he would usually make it through the night without incident. Then, in late 2011, we gradually cut out that nighttime visit. It seemed to work as Lucas didn't have any accidents for a month or two. Unfortunately, it appears he might be in the middle of a regression as he has peed his bed the last two nights. We haven't done anything different to his schedule so I'm not exactly sure what caused this. I guess we'll return to the late night visits to the bathroom and see if that gets him back on track.

As mentioned a couple of posts ago, I want to start catching up so we're going to take a look at photos from last July that I haven't uploaded yet. These first few are from a visit to our friends' cottage. With Lucas in some of the pictures is their daughter Kayden.

A common activity for us during the summer is a trip to the pond near our house to feed the geese. Obviously, Lucas and Marilu were popular with our fowl friends.

I think eventually Lucas was creeped out, and he hightailed it out of there.

Lucas--King of the Jungle--on one of our nature walks.

And let's wrap it up with a little posing by the madman.

That's all for now. If all goes as planned, the next post will be a trip to Saunders Farm.

Lucas's First Hockey Game

Per my mom's request, I'm going to put off the July photos for at least one more entry and post some more pictures from Dec 5, when we all went to see the NHL game between the Senators and the Lightning. I've already written about it in detail here, but all I included in that post was an iPhone photo. Below, you'll see other photos that my mom took at the game.

It's not often I'm the one that ruins the photo by looking away from the camera, but in this case, Kevin, Lucas, and Spartacat were the ones on the ball.

Here's a few more from during the game.

Christmas Dinner

Great quote from Lucas earlier today while at his speech therapy session. I'm not sure how it came up, but he said, "My mommy is allergic to dogs and cats and coyotes." Good to know that Marilu will have to pack the EpiPen next time we travel through the Badlands.

Here's a couple more Christmas-themed pictures. This may be the last of them for a while since I want to start catching up on the older stuff again. For Christmas dinner, we went to the home of Marilu's cousin Michael and his wife Louise. They are the only family either of us have in Ottawa, and as luck would have it, their daughter Megan is the same age as Lucas. I know I've tried figuring it out here before, but I believe the two of them are second cousins (possibly with a "once removed" in there, whatever that means). Whatever their relation, the two of them are cute as hell together as you will see below.

If all goes as planned, we return to sunny and warm July 2011 in the next entry.

R.I.P. Fishy Fishy

It was a sad day today since I had to flush Lucas's betta fish down the toilet. It was his very first pet, which he got back in May 2010 and named Fishy Fishy. In the last couple of months, we'd noticed FF was unable to stay afloat, constantly sinking to the bottom of his bowl after eating and just sitting there for hours until the next time to eat. Basically, he looked dead most of the time, to the extent that Lucas's babysitter told me as much last week, but I reassured him that that's just how FF was lately.

We noticed FF's bowl was really smelly yesterday, and this afternoon, Marilu was almost wretching from the smell. FF was still alive and sitting on the bottom, but after talking about it, we decided that keeping him alive was just cruel. I brought him upstairs to the toilet and after putting him in it, I waited a bit, hoping he would make an effort to swim strong and stay afloat. I have to admit that I've grown fond of Fishy Fishy over the last 20 months since I'm the one who feeds him and cleans his bowl so this was actually pretty tough for me. He swam around for a couple of minutes, exploring his new environment but then slowly dropped to the bottom. I let out a pretty big sigh at that point and regretfully flushed him away. 

As sad as that was for me, here's where it gets worse. For some reason, once I came back downstairs, I opened up my laptop and Googled "betta fish unable to swim." When Google came back with several entries with that wording, I realized I might have just made a big mistake. After a few minutes of reading, I discovered that betta fish are prone to something called swim bladder disease. As nasty as that sounds, the most common cause is constipation from eating too much food, and it can usually be cured by fasting for 3 days.

Now I don't know for sure that this was Fishy Fishy's problem, but I felt absolutely horrible after reading that information. I was and still am extremely pissed at myself for not looking it up before the flush. It doesn't make any goddamn sense since I Google everything, but for some reason, it slipped my mind to do so this time. I know you're probably thinking "it's just a fish," but it's hard to see it that way from my point of view. The fact that he was Lucas's first pet doesn't help my state of mind.

Speaking of Lucas, this all happened while he was still at daycare. Initially, Marilu and I were going to tell Lucas that FF was sick and that we had brought him to the doctor. Then I would have gone out and bought another betta tomorrow, and he would be none the wiser. However, after talking about it, we decided to tell him the truth. Sort of. We left out the part where I more than likely murdered his fish for no reason.

As you can imagine, Lucas didn't take the news well. There was some crying (not just him), and Marilu told him all about fish heaven, and that helped a little. We were finally able to soothe his feelings a bit by promises of playing the Wii and eating some candy.

I thought Lucas would forget about it, but he came back to Fishy Fishy several times throughout the evening. In particular, at dinner he was asking Marilu over and over again why FF died. Then, out of nowhere, he said I fed him too much. He even made gestures with his hands about how much I had overfed his fish. Marilu and I looked at each other, almost stunned, since overfeeding is one of the things that leads to swim bladder disease. We deflected his comments somewhat, but I realized at that point that Lucas can be wise beyond his years sometimes.

What's done is done though, and there's no way I can go back and fix it now. However, we will be buying him a new betta this Saturday after his swim lessons. Hopefully, that will help him feel better. While reading to him in bed this evening, I paused for a moment and asked him what he was going to name his new fish. He said something that started with an 's' but I couldn't understand it exactly. I asked him, "Sam?" and he said more clearly, "No, Daddy, the same. Fishy Fishy." I smiled and told him that was a great name.

Rest in Peace, Fishy Fishy.

Christmas Eve 2011

As mentioned toward the end of my last post, we were at the house of our friends Andre and Tracey. It's actually become something of a tradition since we've been going there on Christmas Eve since 2006, excepting a year that we were out of town. I'm going to post a couple of pictures, but I recommend you take a look at the ones Tracey took. She's a better photographer, and her camera is far superior to our point and click. You can see those photos here (located at Flickr). The set contains all of her Christmas pictures, but if you do a little searching, you should be able to find several of Lucas in there.

As for the ones we took, this first one is a father-son moment. I was reading a Star Wars book to him before Marilu barged in for the photo opportunity. Way to go, mom!

Another good one of me and the boy.

Tracey took a LOT of pictures of this next photo op, and you will likely find a much better version on her page. However, this is the best we could do.

Earlier in the day, we let Lucas open up one of his presents. We picked the one from his Uncle Steven, knowing that it would keep him (and me) occupied throughout the afternoon. Look at that face. Think he liked it?

Christmas Morning 2011

As exciting as Christmas can be, Christmas pictures usually aren't all that thrilling. I mean, really, it's just the same "kid opening present" picture over and over, with the only real difference being the size of the present. With that said, let's take a look at what Lucas delighted in opening on the morning of December 25.

This was the first picture of the moment so it's probably the point where his excitement meter is most off the chart. As such, we eased him into the unwrapping frenzy by making him empty his stocking first.

A contrast in gifts: two Wii games? Awesome!

Batman toothbrush and toothpaste? Not so much. Though I guess we got some points for going with the Batman theme.

Lucas's favorite type of gift this Christmas was anything related to Ninjago, the latest line in Legos. Here, he models his new short of choice. You can also get an idea of how tall he is getting in this picture.

And here he shows off the two Lego sets he got. If you look close, you may note that they are for ages 7-14, and he is far from completing one of his own, but he does do a good job if we sit with him and help. Oh, and give a hand to Marilu for completely screwing up this shot by holding the box upside down.

A child receiving his first lightsaber is always a special moment.

Lucas's new LeapPad, an attempt to wean him off our iPhones. So if you are looking for a gift to buy him in the future, LeapPad apps (or giftcards for said apps) would be a good purchase. As if he needs more gifts at this point.

The only two non-Lucas-centric photos taken that morning. Note that Marilu's PJs were one of my gifts to her, given on Christmas Eve.

The prince with his haul. Spoiled little bugger.

This last photo was taken when we got home after a Christmas Eve party. It was 12:19 AM though so technically it counts as a Christmas Day picture. We used the timer on our camera for what might have been the first time since buying it in 2007, and I have to admit, I think the picture came out quite well.

I have plenty of other Christmas-related photos that I plan to post in the next couple of days, but that covers the morning, arguably the most important part of Christmas to millions of kids around the world.

Lest I forget, today was the first day back to school for Marilu and Lucas. It started badly enough with a 1 AM trip to the bathroom with Lucas throwing up. Then, Marilu slept late since she accidentally set her alarm for PM instead of AM. However, other than her being a little tired, the day went ok for both of them.

Also, Lucas had his second speech therapy lesson this afternoon, and the therapist was impressed with how far his 'L' sounds have come since the first lesson before the holidays. We're getting closer and closer to that magic day when I understand everything he says. Of course, by that point, he'll probably start picking up kid slang that means nothing to my middle-aged ears. Or even worse, French. Who knows what the hell those people are saying? :)

Modern Family

I just took this photo about 10 minutes ago. The Houston-Cincinnati game is on the TV, Marilu is playing solitaire on her iPhone, and Lucas is playing Lego Harry Potter on my iPhone. What would we do without technology?

Ski and Sun

To answer my mom's comment on the last post, we actually do have a couple of videos of Lucas from his first ski lessons. Marilu texted one of them to me, and I planned to put it up in that post, but for some reason, I can't get it from my iPhone to my computer. I'm not sure why, but whatever the case, once I get a chance to set her phone up on my laptop, I'll grab those videos (and more pictures) directly.

In the meantime, I wanted to post a picture that was taken this summer during a trip to Saunders Farm here in Ottawa. Why? Because it is currently -22 C/-8 F (with a wind chill much lower than that), and the more pictures of sunny days I see, the better. Hope you're warm wherever you are!

2012!

Happy New Year to everyone! Also, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! I've been on a bit of a vacation from the blog the last week or so, but it's time to start updating again. I planned to post a bunch of pictures from Christmas morning, but then I realized that Marilu has the camera with her. She and Lucas have headed over to Mt Pakenham for his very first day of ski lessons. I'm pretty excited for him and hope he enjoys it. If he does, it could be a fun family activity during the winters. Since I tend to want to stay in when I look out the window and see white-covered lawns and gray skies, the more that gets me out, the better!

Thanks to technology (i.e. iPhone), I was able to get a picture from Marilu prior to his lesson, which is going on as I type this. There will probably be more to come, but enjoy this for now.