I almost forgot to get a new post (or 2) up before I leave for Atlanta. So now it's 1:15 in the morning on Friday night, and here I type frantically to get a couple posts on the site so that you can get your Lucas fix over the next 3-4 days. I'll get back into town really late on Tuesday night--more like Wednesday morning--and then I'll update during the day on Wednesday since I'll have the day off since it's technically my travel day.
So without any further adieu, let's get to the pictures since that's what you came to see, not my blather.
We're finally in October! Although Lucas hasn't gotten any neater while eating, he's a lot more expressive now.
I think this next picture is probably one of the best photo I've taken of Lucas and Marilu. The stars were truly aligned in order to get them both looking at the camera and smiling nicely at the exact same time. Well, Lucas isn't exactly smiling, but it's still nice.
This is from the same series, but is decidedly less serious.
Lucas got his first chance to eat cake batter off the mixer thingamajigs (it's late, the exact name eludes me at the moment). Suffice to say the kid is happy.
After this weekend, I'll be gone for most of the rest of the month as I have 2 business trips coming up: this Saturday until Tuesday in Atlanta, and then the entire following week in the London, UK, area. As a result, I need to get my butt in gear on catching up. Like the cruise, I may create a few entries that post while I am gone.
Despite what you may have heard, babies are not immune to looking pretty rough upon first waking up.
The next three pictures are from a series Marilu took of Lucas and I on the couch. I think the first one came out well, and the second two are just me and the boy being silly with one another.
If there's one thing Lucas excels at (besides crapping and eating), it's climbing. He climbs on freakin' everything. Here's an example of one of his less daring climbs, on the top of the laundry basket. I should note that I have no idea how he ended up with a soother since we only give it to him when he goes to bed.
Toward the end of September, we bought a new vacuum at Costco to replace my old one. I think I had that one since my college days (1993-1998) so it was about due to be scrapped. Anyway, the most interesting thing to Lucas was, of course, the box. Though to be fair, he was pushing the vacuum around earlier tonight.
Thought this one was cute and that was good enough for me to include.
And we wrap up September with this photo I call, "Caught!" Not sure if he was up to anything nefarious, but he sure has that "hand in the cookie jar" look. Once again, no idea where the soother is coming from since they are usually kept in his room upstairs.
Wacky fun fact for all the American readers. Today was an election in Canada comparable to the upcoming one in November. Didn't realize it? Well, don't feel bad. There's actually been more coverage of the US election up here than the Canadian one. What a crazy place. :)
I'm not sure if we just weren't doing a great job of putting his diaper on or what, but one of those days in September, Lucas got a really bad case of plumber's crack. It was hard to get a picture of it since he's always moving plus I had to wait until he bent over to pick something up, but this next picture should give you an idea of the amusing sight.
Not every picture is a winner.
And here he is, hanging out. This picture also gives you an idea of just how much hair the little wild man has.
I don't think I've taken a picture of him in his new carseat in the Torrent so here you go.
And to wrap up, part 2, here we see Lucas sitting in his Bumbo. As a sign he's growing up, he now sits himself down sometimes. Not always, mind you, but it is pretty cool to see him plant himself on the Bumbo or in one of his other chairs.
After a month where we didn't take many pictures of Lucas due to the busy, back-to-work schedules, we've taken a lot of good ones in the past few days. Before we get to those, I want to quickly review the month of September in photos. So, in this and the next few posts, I'm going to pick out the best (and where amusing, the worst) of that month. Hope you enjoy!
Just like most boys, when I was a kid, I used to love getting a sheet, covering some chairs with it, and making a fort. As you can see here, I'm getting Lucas started on that early.
Lucas figured out how to open drawers in the kitchen months ago. Now, he isn't content unless he's also sitting in said drawer...
...or hiding in one of the cabinets.
He doesn't make his cheese face quite as much as he used to, so when he does, I try to catch it for posterity.
I call this picture "On the warpath!" Just look at the intensity on that face!
And finally, for today's post, Lucas gazes into the cold, dark night.
For the record, the monster of this past weekend is now gone. Lucas appears to be back to normal though he still has his whiny and clingy moments. I suppose it is to be expected at this age.
This next picture, taken near the beginning of September, is just great. It almost feels like a preview 16 or 17 years from now when Lucas borrows the keys to the car (no doubt the 2025 Pontiac Fiero 2 when the car world re-embraces the coolest car of all time) on a Friday night.
Oh, what to say about Lucas this weekend? They say if you have nothing good to say, don't say anything at all so this is one of those cases I shouldn't talk much about our son. Seriously though, if he could have been frustrating this weekend and into today (Monday), he was. Waking up crying at night and not going to bed. Screaming if we tried to put him to bed. Squirming like crazy and yelling any time we tried to change him, put him in a seat, put clothes on him, etc. Whining and crying almost all day long. Taking short naps even though he was obviously tired. The list goes on and on...
I know we've been lucky compared to some people since Lucas has been pretty good as far as behavior. Yeah, he could be better at times, but for the most part, we can't complain (too) much. However, after this past weekend, if you asked me if we wanted a second kid, I'd have to laugh in your face. It got that bad.
Anyway, enough of my bitching. Here's some pictures of the little bugger in happier times.
Haha, okay so the first one from early September is him screaming while trying to open the door. I suppose they aren't all happier times. If you take this picture and multiply it across this entire weekend, that was what our lives were like.
Lucas got a hold of Marilu's springform pan from one of the cabinets and decided to make an accessory out of it. Call me crazy, but I think he's just a future bodybuilder testing out weight belts.
This last picture speaks for itself. I'm sure what it's saying, but it's definitely speaking something.
Early this morning, the picture below was taken of noted toddler Lucas Deal. Despite his assertions to the contrary in earlier reports, it now appears that Lucas has fake curls. More on this story as it develops...
Lucas is better tonight, but his temperature is still hovering between 99 and 100. Also, his sleep schedule may be thrown off since we let him sleep quite a bit more than usual today so if his current screaming at being put to bed around 7:30 is any indication, it may be another long night. Thankfully, for me, anyway, Marilu has tomorrow off to take him to the doctor for his regularly scheduled check-up (great timing for once) so I may not have to get up quite as much tonight as yesterday. With any luck, the little guy will be clear of this fever by the end of the week.
On a related note, I've had that feeling you get when you are about to be sick for about a month now. I keep waiting for it to kick in and just happen, but no dice. It would almost be a relief at this point, kind of like that feeling when you have to sneeze and it just won't happen.
For today's photos, I've included a couple of nice shots of Lucas and Marilu from August 31. These were from the same photoset as the shot of Lucas in his red rubber boots. These are not quite as surreal. :)
Also, here's a few photos of Lucas playing with a blanket. Though I don't have too many photos of it, he's really got a thing for covering himself with a blanket/sheet and either walking around or just sitting there. So much so, in fact, that Marilu suggested we have him be a ghost for Halloween. I can't imagine him actually keeping a sheet (or any costume) on for that long, but it would definitely be appropriate.
On the brightside, since I started typing this, Marilu was able to quiet Lucas down. Thank the gods for small favors. I'll be back tomorrow with an update on his latest condition, which will hopefully be peachy.
Lucas ran into his second fever today. I got a call at work from his daycare, uh, person? I'm not sure what the technical term is so we'll go with that until someone corrects me. Caregiver just sounds too much like some person that bathes the elderly and brings them their paper. And the daycare chick may be a touch informal.
Anyway, I got a call from her telling me that his temperature was initially 103 but had moved up to 104. So I left worked, picked him up, and brought him home to take care of him. Immediately after giving him some water and children's Tylenol, he had the biggest throw up I've ever seen from him. I put him in the bath to clean him off and then gave him some more Tylenol (since the first batch was mixed in with his lunch somewhere on his carpet). His fever eventually dropped down into the 100 range.
It was rising a little again this evening as the Tylenol wore off, but we gave him some more prior to bed so we're keeping our fingers crossed that he'll be okay. For what it's worth, other than the ride home from daycare--when he was looking miserable--he's been in really good spirits. No lethargy, and he's been running all over the place. It's not until you feel his burning skin that you realize he's running a fever. So it's good to see he's staying positive. I suppose I could learn something from him.
On to today's picture. Yesterday, Lucas created his first craft at daycare. It's a finger painting celebrating the start of fall. Granted, I'm mourning the departure of summer, but that's a whole other topic. We had it on the fridge temporarily until he decided to try and tear it down, but I was quick enough to snap a picture before his destructive tendencies came to light. If you look closely at the lower left side, you can see his handprints. Cute stuff. Enjoy!
In keeping with the theme of the last picture I posted of Lucas, I'm not really sure what he's trying to do in this next video. He starts off as the (near) naked shopper, gives that up to put a blanket on his head briefly, and finally wraps it up with a little more shopping, albeit backwards. Take a look for yourself.
You may notice that there aren't quite as many updates lately. With Marilu going back to work, we simply aren't taking as many pictures which equals less updates. I'm going to make an effort to get more on the weekends to make up for that. I'm also thinking about posting less pictures per update and spread them out over more entries. Or something like that. I got a few cute ones of him this weekend so I should have something for you soon.
Apparently, Lucas doesn't trust us when it comes to buying a car seat. Back in late August, when we were about to install the new car seat, he performed his own inspection. That's responsibility right there. Though someone should probably tell him it's made for sitting.
A couple of weekends ago, Lucas and I had the place all to ourselves since Marilu went with to Toronto with Tanya to see the musical Dirty Dancing. Yeah, Dirty Dancing is a musical now. Makes you throw up a little in your mouth, doesn't it?
Anyway, since the two of us had the run of the place that weekend, I decided to get Lucas over his fear of water. It used to be that he loved anything to do with water. Get him in the bathtub and he would splash up a storm and he giggled if you sprayed him with the shower head. Over time, though, he somehow became terrified of the thing and really anything else that would splash him. We brought him to a little water park/playground about a month ago and he just freaked when water got sprayed on him. So with that in mind, I began my quest to cure him of his aquaphobia.
Step 1. Set up an oscillating sprinkler in the backyard. Step 2. Run through it a couple of times myself to let him realize it wasn't going to kill him. Step 3. Repeat Step 2 but hold him in my arms to help him build confidence. Step 4. Put him on the ground and encourage him to run to me in the dry area when the water would start spraying on him. Step 5. Step back and let him have fun.
Thankfully, it didn't take long to get to Step 5 as you'll see in the photos below.
As we've seen in the Olympics, swimmers have their pre-race warmups. Unlike Michael Phelps, Lucas's warmup involves standing in the living room, chewing on a plastic maraca. Hey, whatever works for ya, I guess.
After we got outside, Lucas cautiously took stock of the situation. "Hmm, this doesn't look too bad."
Lucas taunts the sprinkler in a tauntingly taunting baby fashion.
Things didn't go well at first. Lucas fled to the corner of the yard.
Never one to be deterred, Lucas returned to battle and slayed the savage sprinkler.
Afterwards, Lucas posed in his cape, as all good warriors do after battle.
We wrap up this post with a couple of videos filling in some of the blanks from the above pictures.
Lucas has always liked climbing into things, from boxes to drawers to the subject of the following video, cabinets. However, lately he's been trying to hide as well. In particular, he likes to walk into the bathroom when the light is off, close the door, and stand there in the dark. Odd child.
Yesterday, Marilu took an amusing video of Lucas sitting in a cabinet playing peek-a-boo with the door. I think the cutest part is when you can see his tiny fingers sticking out.
When taking pictures of Lucas, or any young kid I suppose, a lot of luck is involved. They don't much care for sitting still while you try and get that perfect picture so it sometimes takes many shots before you get just the right one. Or in cases like the one below, you may think you have the perfect picture until you upload it and realize it is more blurry than it looked on the back of the digital camera. Nonetheless, I think his facial expression was great here and more than made up for the fact that the picture itself isn't crystal clear. What do you think? Was it worth posting?
I'm going to be driving down to Massachusetts today (in less than an hour, probably) for my Aunt Julie's funeral, and I won't be back until Sunday night so no updates until then. Before I go though, I wanted to put up a couple of pictures of Lucas to tide you all over. :)
Here's a shot of Team Cool. Unfortunately, the flash is covering half of my face but that probably just improves the photo overall.
Facial expression notwithstanding, I think this picture does such a good job of making Lucas look like a little man. On a completely unrelated note, this is the 4700th photo (or video) I've taken on this camera. I'd say we got our money's worth.
Here's a photo from the new horror film Night of the Adorable Zombies.
Finally, Lucas stares in amazement at the new mini-fridge. Hey, I gotta have somewhere to put all my homebrewed beer. For the record, he was much more entertained by the box than the actual fridge.
Have a good weekend, all. Talk to you again on Sunday or Monday!
Earlier tonight, I received the news that my great Aunt Julie had passed away yesterday evening. To say she'd lived a full life is an understatement when you learn that she was a remarkable 103 years old. Even so, it's a big loss as everyone in the family loved her. The last time we saw her was around Christmas last year, and I swear she had more energy than me. Up until she went in the hospital, she was still living on her own and taking care of herself. On top of that, I don't believe I ever saw her in a bad mood. Maybe happiness really does extend your life, in which case I better stop grumbling about work so often.
In any case, I wanted to dedicate this entry to my Aunt Julie. As long as we had you, it wasn't nearly long enough. I love you and miss you, Aunt Julie. Take care wherever you might be.
