Catching Up

For your viewing pleasure, a buttload--nay, a veritable assload--of pictures. I just noticed that the oldest unpublished pictures are from June 24 so it's safe to say I'm way behind and need to catch up.

Not every picture of Lucas is award-winning. Incidentally, this is similar to how Marilu looks before her first cup of coffee in the morning.


I guess he's practicing for 2-3 years from now when he heads off to school for the first time.


The correct answer for this picture is "Evil Lucas." Also accepted would be "Conniving Lucas" and "Scheming Lucas."


Lucas relaxing with his Uncle Terry. Great Uncle? I don't know. He's Marilu's uncle so you figure it out and get back to me.


"Shorts...check. Inflatable bird...check. Water...WATER...hey, who was supposed to bring the water?"


The secret to life can be found in a warm laundry basket. Wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt, of course. (with this photo, we've finally caught up to July, by the way)


Lucas and his friend Carter on Canada Day, playing with sparklers. Lucas found out the hard way afterward that you shouldn't touch the sparkler after the light goes away. Just a minor boo-boo, and he was back at it again in about 5 minutes.


Lucas loves babies. Here he's playing around with Xander, Carter's little brother, before they leave. At some point, I'll try and remember to post the related video, which shows him hugging Xander. Very cute.


We now jump ahead to July 18. I've already posted the photos from our Lab City trip in early July, which you should be able to find elsewhere in this blog. No comment is really necessary for this picture.


And let's wrap up today's offerings with Super Serious Lucas, which brings us all the way to July 23. Still quite a ways behind, but we're getting there. This one has kind of an artistic feel to it, if your interpretation of art is as bad as mine.


Note that Lucas went to Niagara Falls from Jul 20-22 with Marilu, her brother, and his wife, but I'll post those pictures later since they are deserving of their own entry. Heck, the 21st alone has 75 pictures since they went to Marineland.

Enjoy!

So You Think You Can Dance - Toddler Edition

A few weeks back, we went to the wedding of a couple of my ex-coworkers. We brought Lucas, and fortunately, he was much less hyper than when I had him on my own at Marilu's brother's wedding. He's already displayed a little of his dancing moves around the house, but when the dance floor opened up at the reception, he was a wild man. In the video below (which is a bit dark so you may need to squint), you can see him having a ball.



The eagle eyes out there might notice he is wearing his Spider-Man pajamas. He was dressed up nicely earlier in the day, but by that point, it was already past his bedtime so we had him changed so that when we brought him back to the car, he could just hit the sack immediately.

Rough and Tumble

On Friday morning, Lucas and I went over to the park/playground near our place for our neighbor's birthday party (his 2-year-old buddy Tyler). As per usual, Lucas decided he would wander away from the playground. Typically, this means running over to one of the soccer fields, but on Friday, he decided to run off into the woods. I chased him down, and once I caught him, I told him not to do it again. Sure enough, 20 minutes later, there he is, running back into the woods. This time, he tried to run from me when he saw me coming and ended up doing a faceplant into a rock.

It looked a lot worse than it ended up being. Based on the shrieking, I was expecting him to turn over and see blood all over the place, either from a broken nose or maybe from missing teeth. As it turned out, he just banged his forehead and cheek. He was wailing about it for a while, but 5 minutes later, he was running around with the other kids, having fun.

Of course, dad of the year candidate that I am, I decided to take a couple of pictures that night, to show off our little prizefighter. Just another step in the long road to building character, right? Note that the red on his lip is ketchup, not blood.



On a completely unrelated note, I took the exam for the second course of my real estate license on Saturday, and unless I filled out the Scantron incorrectly, I should be moving on to Course 3. As a result, I am done with the hardcore studying--for at least a week--and will do my very best to put up new pictures every day this week. I have no excuses this time. :)

Tiding you over

It's been a busy week since last Wednesday, and it will continue to be until Saturday, as I am studying almost non-stop for the second exam in my real estate course. After Saturday morning, things will lighten up considerably. Anyway, that's why you haven't seen anything here for the past few days. In the meantime, a couple more from mid-June to tide you over.

This one is from the sidelines at one of Marilu's soccer games.


Getting kisses from Lucas.


We've seen Lucas with lobsters before, but he was really young back then and barely understood what was going on. This time around, he had fun with them. I don't think he's quite figured out the whole "eating them" thing yet.

Playing around

From back on June 19, Lucas surveys the grass as he tries to figure out where to drop his golf ball.


More fun at the water table. One of his great thrills in life is to be able to use the hose. Oh, to still have such simple desires.


And yet more hose fun from the next day.

Screw the gift, give me the box!

As promised, here are the two videos that go with the last photo from yesterday's post. You know that old saying that states a kid will have more fun with the box from a present than the present itself? Well, here's solid proof. I'm still not sure why he felt the need to lock himself into his highchair beforehand (in the second video), but that's just the way our kid thinks. Enjoy!

The end of the vacations

We got back from our week-long Massachusetts vacation on Friday night. I think it is safe to say we all had a fantastic time. I got to see old high school friends that I haven't seen in nearly 20 years, Lucas had a blast in the lake almost every day, and Marilu shopped. Marilu probably had fun for other reasons, but that's all that comes to mind at the moment.

As always, I'm ridiculously behind on pictures so the Massachusetts ones will have to wait. Not counting the Labrador City series, the most recent photos are from mid-June. So bear with me as I try and catch up over the next few days. I'll probably post a bunch from this most recent trip this weekend, but there are well over a hundred so that will be an adventure unto itself.

The first one comes from June 17, a day after his 2nd birthday. I'm not really sure where he got the bruise on his forehead, but nowadays, those types of things are much more common as he continues to find things he can run into, fall off of, et cetera.


The next day, the two of us spend some time together coloring dinosaurs at his table. I take my time, coloring in the lines, while Lucas attempts to see how many different lines of various colors he can make on a single picture.


Later on, he tries to figure out how to use a screwdriver on the new turtle he'd just received from his godfather. It's funny how observant little kids are. He watched me use the screwdriver to open the battery panel and then immediately tried to replicate what I did. Granted, he doesn't get the whole turning thing yet, but it surprised me how well he has retained that knowledge.


Lucas and his turtle. Note his impression of a bulimic.


I leave you with this picture. Tomorrow (which will likely be later today for most of you), I'll be posting 2 videos that will expand on what you see here.

Another trip to the Agriculture Museum

Back on June 15, when my mom was visiting, we took Lucas for another trip to the Canadian Agriculture Museum. This was his 4th or 5th trip there, and he seemed to have just as much fun this time as the first.

One of Lucas's more amusing poses is the one you see below. I get a kick out of it since it looks like he is in deep concentration while observing whatever the heck it is he's staring at. In this case, cows.




On less frequent occasions, he'll take the kneeling approach.


No stop at the museum would be complete without the simulated ride on the tractor. At least this time, we weren't interrupted by a bunch of rude French kids (redundant, I know) trying to push him off and get on themselves.


Later that day, he made the most of the dirt area near the back of our yard, in which promptly made a mudhole and stomped it. That was definitely a bath night (or afternoon).


Finally, here is a perfect example of what it is like to try and take pictures of Lucas. In the first photo, he is doing a great job at looking at the camera while my mom is looking at him. In the second, she finally looks at the camera, but Lucas uses the occasion to make a face. Sigh...my job never gets any easier.

The rest of the story

As promised, here are the remaining photos from our Labrador trip, taken in the days after the wedding.

Cute one of Lucas and Marilu from the gift opening.


No sharing here! Lucas takes the entire bowl of chips.


He may still be a toddler himself, but man, does he love babies.


Kicking back on the bed with Uncle Bub and Aunt Chantal.


I don't think "giddy-up" is gonna do it here, buddy.


"Why won't you let me ride you?"


"Seriously, dad, what's up with this dog?"


This one kills me. Just look at that face. Someone's been a bad boy.


I suspect he was screaming to be let down here, but let's pretend he was overjoyed to be taking pictures with his Nan.


Sharing drinks at Mike's Restaurant on the way home in Baie-Comeau, Quebec. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, apparently.


And that about wraps up the trip. If that's not enough, the rest of the Labrador pics can be found on my photo album page in the folder "July 2009 - Labrador Trip." Just click the photo album link over on the right side of the page, or if you are feeling lazy, click here.

We're off again on Thursday for a week--to Massachusetts, this time--so I'll try and post some older stuff every over the next couple of days to try and back some futile attempt at catching up. Hope you enjoy!

More from Labrador

Highlights from our trip to Labrador City in early July.

Lucas mugs for the camera with soon-to-be Aunt Chantal and Lily.


When in Rome, do as the Romans so Lucas lay on the floor with Darla and Lily. Man, he enjoyed being around those dogs, and I think they miss him as well.


More mugging for the camera, this time with Uncle John, though Lucas calls him Uncle Bub.


We finally found the best way to manage Lucas on those afternoons when he is totally out of control.


Over in Fermont, a town near Lab City, they had one of the mining trucks on display. As you can partially see here, these are not small trucks. Lucas enjoyed his time in the wheelwell.


On the other hand, he didn't like it when Marilu got in his picture. What's the male version of a diva? He was literally pushing her, trying to get her out of there.


Those are the pre-wedding day highlights from Lab City. In the next post (tonight, I PROMISE), I'll put up the post-wedding day highlights from the trip.