Winterlude 2010, Part 2

It's been two and a half weeks coming, but here are the rest of our pictures from our trip to Winterlude back in February.

In the first one, Lucas poses with Marilu on yet another ice throne.


Standing in front of the massive sheet of ice with the festival's logo.


Ice skating on the canal with Marilu. In his case, though, it was more ice standing or ice shuffling, but we all gotta start somewhere, right?


Eventually, he just lay face-down in the sled and let Marilu pull him. Not the most regal pose.


A final picture of our future Gretzky.

Musings and Regrets

I don't think I mentioned it, but my mom and Kevin came up to visit this past Wednesday and stayed with us until this morning. While it's always a little sad to see family leave, this morning it hit harder than normal. When Lucas was younger, he liked it when new people were around, but he didn't really make the distinction that they were visiting and that they would eventually be leaving. However, now that he is nearly three, he's beginning to understand it more clearly.

In the days leading up to their visit, Lucas would ask every morning whether Grammy and Grampy were here yet. When we brought my mom along to pick him up from daycare on Wednesday, he had an ear-to-ear smile plastered on his face as he ran over for a huge hug. And then this morning, when we told him they were leaving, he kept repeating that "the planes are all gone!" I guess that was his way of telling them to stay.

As I thought about it on the ride home from the airport, I realized just how much I hate living so far from any family, whether its mine or Marilu's. Lucas has such a great time whenever someone visits and when they are gone, it's just the three of us. Yeah, there are his daycare friends and kids around the neighborhood, but I can't help but feel he is missing out on experiences that children with local grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc, get on a regular basis.

Part of my feelings are selfish--who doesn't want easy access to a babysitter?--but it goes beyond that. I watched how overjoyed he was to play with his Grammy and Grampy the past 5 days, and I just feel bad that these interactions are so few and far between.

Knowing that there is no easy solution due to the international situation of our living status doesn't help. Even if everyone wanted to live in one place, it's almost impossible from a logistical standpoint. So basically, the situation just plain sucks.

Enough feeling sorry for myself. In positive news, I conditionally sold my first house this past Friday so I'm actually bringing money into the home again. Let's hope that is followed by a torrent of additional business.

I know I said I was going to post a follow-up to the Winterlude pictures--and I am--but for now, I wanted to post some pictures from this past week. Thanks for the visit, Grammy and Grampy!

For weeks, Lucas has been anticipating the Spider-Man scooter than my mom and Kevin were bringing up for him. So much, in fact, that we were able to bribe a lot of good behavior out of him. "If you don't do X, you won't get your scooter!" Wednesday was the big day, and we put it together not long after he got home from daycare. I believe he rode it up and down the driveway once and then moved on to something else. Go figure. However, they also brought the outfit you see in this photo--which is actually Spider-Man pajamas--and he would wear almost nothing else this weekend. Except for when we had to go outside on cold days, he wore the PJs nearly 24/7. So at least one Spider-Man themed present was a massive hit, just not the one we expected.


Here's a better shot of the PJs.


Amazingly, we finally got him to cooperate on this photo with my mom and Kevin.


Neither Lucas nor Kevin were looking at the camera in this one, but I really like the way their looking at each other turned out.


And finally, one with Lucas and the moms for Mother's Day. Thanks for coming up, Grammy and Grampy!

Winterlude 2010, Part 1

The real estate world has been pretty busy for me lately so hopefully the lack of pictures this past week will soon be offset by an influx of money. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Last post saw me go through most of February, but one notable event I skipped was our trip downtown to Ottawa's Winterlude. For those of you unfamiliar with Winterlude, I believe Ottawa has a few things associated with it, but the main focus is the frozen canal. Also of interest are the ice sculptures. On the day in question, we got to experience both.

For some reason, Lucas got it in his head that Cow needed to make the trip with us. So Cow sat in the back seat with him.


Lucas posed with several of the ice sculptures. Just about all of them were really amazing.



In this case, he sits on the ice sculpture, a huge throne of sorts.


I had Marilu take this picture of Lucas and me since it suits my arachnophobia. Why not pose in front of a massive ice tarantula?


Sigh...this was going to be an all-inclusive post, but Blogger is not letting me upload any more pictures at the moment. As a result, more ice pictures as well as some of Lucas skating will have to wait until tomorrow. Until then...

Finally February!

Just to prove how far Lucas has come in his potty training, we were actually surprised tonight when he peed in his pants since that was the first time in weeks that he has had an accident. Heck, he now goes into the bathroom by himself when he has to poop and doesn't call for help until he is done. So we're yet one more step toward the rebellious teenager.

He's been a pretty good kid the last couple of weeks, though we have resorted to a combination of bribery and blackmail to maintain that behavior. You see, in a few weeks, his Grammy (my mom) is coming to visit, and we have already told him that she is bringing him a Spider-Man scooter. He couldn't be more thrilled about this and just about lost his voice when he saw it during a webcam conversation.

So, with that information in hand, here's what we've been doing. Whenever he starts being a pain in the butt, we grab the phone, tell him we're calling Grammy and telling her not to bring the scooter, and start dialing. In 95% of the cases, this gets him back on the straight and narrow REAL quick. Yes, some may say this is not the best parenting, but our biggest worry is what we're going to use for blackmail once he gets the scooter.

Onward to pictures from early February...

I believe this is the first picture taken of him on the new hardwood floor that Marilu's brother Jonathan installed during his visit back in late January. It also shows off his wonderfully chaotic hair. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention he was trying to wear my boxer shorts (which are straight out of the clean laundry basket).


I suspect Lucas doesn't have a career in the fashion industry (thank god) after seeing this ensemble: a raincoat and rainboots over his Superman pajama top.


This next picture was taken after we made an impromptu snowman. If you look closely, you can see Lucas has cannibalized the poor thing and is eating one of its blackberry eyes.


Lucas and some of the neighborhood kids make the most of a snow hill made in the yard of our neighbor across the street.


That's all for now. There aren't too many more February pictures--just some stuff from Winterlude and his latest haircut--so we may be able to hit March by week's end. I've also been better at taking new pictures of him so hopefully I can get some recent stuff up soon as well.

Easter 2010 Videos

I finally remembered to upload the two videos we took of Lucas Easter morning so check those out below. While handling that, I noticed that Marilu and I have been quite remiss in taking pictures of Lucas. Today is April 19th, and the last time the camera was used was on April 5. Yikes! Hopefully, with more warm weather on the way, we'll have more reasons to have the camera out, chronicling our demonchild.

The silver lining of that story is that less photos means it will take me less time to catch up on this blog since I'm still back around the beginning of February. So someone wins...me!

Anyway, enjoy the videos...

Cellophane Boy

Yet one more example of how weird Lucas can be. In this instance, from late January, he wanted to wrap tape around his head. I supervised insomuch as to make sure he didn't cover both his nose and mouth. Luckily, the tape didn't stick to his hair too badly and came off without any crying.

Easter 2010

This year's Easter started off the same way as last year's (which can be seen here). That is, with an egg hunt. Lucas was a lot better at it this year, and he really seemed to have a good time. He's surprisingly perceptive when it comes to locating eggs in non-obvious locations. Of the 18 eggs I hid, he only needed help finding a couple of them.





Yes, that's chocolate on his hands. In a follow-up post, you'll see the video that explains how his hands got that way.


Later that morning, I brought him to the Canadian Agriculture Museum in order to give Marilu a chance to work on some school stuff. We've been there several times since it's a great place for kids, what with all the animals, so this year we went ahead and bought an annual pass. That ought to pay for itself well before the end of the summer.





(For what it's worth, the next to last picture with the big cow lying behind him is one of my favorite pics of Lucas in a while)

In the evening, we had our next-door neighbors over with their kids (the older one, Tyler, is only a few months younger than Lucas) and had a tasty turkey dinner. No pictures of that part of the day, unfortunately. All in all, though, it was a good Easter.

On a related note to Tyler, earlier this weekend, we took down three of the boards in the fence that separates our two yards so now Lucas and Tyler can go back and forth between the two yards without having to go out front. It's been such a hit so far, I can't believe we didn't do it sooner.

For Poppy

Easter photos are coming soon, possibly tonight, but in the meantime, this post is for Poppy, Lucas's grandfather on Marilu's side. Quite some time ago, Lucas received this outfit from his Poppy, but only recently has he been able to fit into it. If you can't see the embroidery clearly, it says, "Poppy's Little Helper," and it has a picture of one of the trucks they use at the iron ore mine in Labrador City. Enjoy!



FYI, since I sometimes forget myself, this is the breakdown of grandparents and their nicknames:

• Marilu's dad Gerry: Poppy
• Marilu's mom Barbara: Nanny
• My dad George (aka Mark): Gramps
• My mom Elinor: Grammy
• Kevin, my mom's husband: Grampy

I think that covers everyone. It's like a quiz show trying to remember who is who sometimes.

Hmm

Sometimes there are no words.

Flying through January

Since I'm still so far back in photo updates, I sometimes forget to clue everyone in on the latest news regarding Lucas. Over the last month or two, he's been getting better and better at his potty training. As of this weekend, I'd say he is probably 95% of the way there. About the only time he consistently pees in his pull-up is when he is sleeping (not coincidentally, sleeping is the only time he doesn't wear underwear). When he is awake, it's only likely to happen if he can't get his pants down (a couple of pairs need to be retired since they are kinda tight) or if he is on the toilet and he has an aiming problem. So kudos to the little guy for pretty much reaching the next milestone in his young life. Oh, I should point out that he gets really pissed if you call him "little." He'll immediately respond with "No! I'm a BIG boy." Of course, jackass dad that I am, I tease him about this at least once a day.

So, back to January. On the 3rd, for some reason, Lucas got it in his head to take every single thing in his play area, including all the bins on his toy shelf, and dump them in front of the stairs. It made a hell of a mess, and we could have stopped him early on, but we were so perplexed by his behavior, we were curious to see how far he would go with it. The answer? All the way, mom and dad.



The only reason I'm posting this picture is because I dig his little outfit. It's a shirt with a tie design on it and matching pants. I really need to get a better shot of him in this before he outgrows it.


Does it get any cooler than this dude, rocking the shades, the diapers, and the Spider-Man bike?


Why yes, yes it does.

2010!

It only took 3 1/2 months, but here we are in 2010, at least in the virtual world. I have to make this quick since Lucas is itching to go outside at the moment.

All the following pictures are from January 1, which incidentally, was the next to last day we had to shovel snow in 2010. The only other day was sometime in February. That's how mild a winter it was. I think I could get used to that.

Marilu and Lucas made the most out of the snow day and decided to make a snow man out in front of our house.




After that, Lucas came inside and watched some Snow White on TV.


Ok, gotta run since he's just about ready, and I might see if he is willing to roller skate outside today. Have a great Saturday!

Farewell to 2009

It looks like winter might finally be coming to an end. The snow is almost all gone. The days are getting longer. The temperature is getting warmer. And I've probably now jinxed myself and will be shoveling the driveway all next week. The reason I mention this is that Lucas was out playing in the backyard yesterday afternoon for a good hour and making the most of the little snow that is still on the ground. I got a couple of pictures plus a fairly amusing video of him getting stuck in the container we bought last fall to store his toys, but alas, I haven't transferred them to the computer yet so this will have to wait for another day. In the meantime, let's take a look at some more December pictures as we play Operation: Catch Up to the Present 2010.

As seen below, not every picture is a magical portrait, displaying the innocence of youth. Sometimes you just gotta eat.


And then proudly show off your distended belly. The apple doesn't fall far from this tree.


Back in December, Lucas got it in his head that he wanted wine--quite often--when having dinner. Being the good parents we are, we obliged. After substituting apple juice for wine in the wine glass, mind you. I'm still shocked he hasn't managed to break one of those glasses yet.


Great shot of mom and son.


And that's it for December since all the Christmas pictures were already posted back when they happened. Onwards to January!

Back to the past

I was originally going to post some more pictures taken by my mom during her visit here last week, but I'm so far behind on older pictures (early December) that I've decided to try and play catch up. So without any further adieu, here are some random photos taken during the first couple weeks of December.

The requisite "cheese" face as Lucas hams it up for the camera.


Here we see him dressed up in what was a new, at the time, pair of Spider-Man pajamas. I think he has 2 or 3 of them now though those were particularly cool thanks to the little hood.


Getting his present from Santa at the kids Christmas party at Marilu's school. For the record, no fear of Santa, whatsoever. He saw two of them (Santas, that is) that day and both times he went running up to them.


A quick picture of Lucas and I between songs on Rock Band. He didn't really seem to understand the concept that "bang your head" didn't literally mean banging your head into your dad or the wall.


Finally, a video of us dancing--or at least me trying to get him to dance--to holiday favorite "Feliz Navidad". I'm not quite sure why Marilu turned the camera halfway through since it doesn't adjust for video like it does for pictures, but oh well. 20 seconds of turning your head to the side won't kill you.

Before and After

Before I get to the rest of the photos from my mom's visit, I wanted to do a before-and-after of Lucas from his trip to Goobers, a "hair salon" for kids here in west Ottawa.

Exhibit A ("Before") consists of these two shots from earlier in the day.



In Exhibit B ("During"), Lucas waits patiently as the hair stylist works on his locks. He was incredibly good this visit, not once complaining or trying to get out of his seat. Speaking of which, I wish they had chairs like that (Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars) when I was his age.


Finally, we come to Exhibit C ("After"), later on that night. The little gentleman is back!

Coming soon

My mom took some great pictures of Lucas during her visit with us the last week and a half. I just uploaded the photos from her camera to my computer and will start posting them tomorrow. I don't think he's ever been more expressive for the camera!