Montreal Pics

If you haven't read about our less than perfect Montreal mini-vacation, go read the previous post. That will explain why there are only a few pictures from the trip. And with that out of the way, pictures!

Here's a picture of Lucas after he accessorized at the hotel. You'll notice one boot on, a neck warmer, and his hat. That was all him. I suspect fashion designer is not in his future, and for that, I thank the gods.


On a side note, we stayed at the Embassy Suites in Montreal, and the room was fantastic. I almost always stay at Embassy Suites when I travel and this was probably the nicest room I've seen yet. We even had a HUGE jacuzzi tub, which Lucas absolutely loved. He took a bath (with at least one of us) all 3 nights as he had a blast with the air jets and all the bubbling.

It was tough to get good pictures at the Biodome since you weren't supposed to use a flash, and these little automatic cameras seem to work best when a flash is employed. Here's a decent shot of Lucas and me in the tropical zone, the first of four climates you walk through in the Biodome.


I get a kick out of this "action sequence" from a more moderate climate zone. I'd have to look it up to remember which one exactly. Suffice to say we grabbed him before he continued his progress in the last picture.





Finally, here's mom and son at the penguin display. That was probably our favorite part as you could see the penguins zipping around under the water through the glass not 2-3 feet from you. I had a much better picture with both of them smiling for the camera but due to the darkness in the room, the lack of flash made it too blurry.


And that's it for photos from our trip to Montreal. All of them were taken Saturday morning before Marilu's cold took a turn for the worse. If I get a chance, I'll try and scan in another "photo" I got on Sunday. While Marilu was resting in bed, I took Lucas to a nearby Build-A-Bear (or the French equivalent) and we made a stuffed giraffe. It came with a passport and includes a photo of the three of us: me, Lucas, and Marty the giraffe. Yeah, I took the name from Madagascar, and yeah, I was stupid enough to confuse the zebra's name Marty with the giraffe's name Melman. They say the mind is the first thing to go, folks. Anyway, if I can get a decent scan of the passport, I'll try and post that sometime this week.

Montreal

Hey all. We just got back in from Montreal a couple of hours ago, and I'm settling in as Lucas and Marilu both nap. I'd like to say it was a fantastic 3-day weekend, but unfortunately things didn't go that well. The trip there was fine on Friday night, and we got to see the Biodome Saturday morning, but Marilu got really sick with a fever and chest cold later in the day, which basically kept her bedridden all of Saturday evening and most of Sunday. I took Lucas for a few walks on Sunday, but we couldn't go too far since there was some police brutality protest march going on, and the police officers we ran into strongly suggested staying away from it. Probably for the best since the news reported the over 200 people were arrested.

It wasn't a complete wash since we did get to the Biodome, which was our main goal, and I got a lot of reading done, but I suppose it could have been a lot better. Oh well, nothing you can do about colds, and there's always next time.

On top of all that, we got home to find out that one of the idiots working on the new houses across the street backed into our Cavalier on Friday, caving in part of the driver's side door. We have all their information from our neighbor, and I'm sure insurance will cover everything, but still, what a fine thing to come back to.

As you can imagine, there weren't too many pictures taken in Montreal. I'll upload them in a follow-up post later today since the cable I use to connect the camera to the PC is still packed away. Talk at you again then!

Off for the weekend

Tomorrow afternoon, we're heading off to Montreal for a 3-day weekend since Marilu has her spring break this week. I don't want to leave you without your Lucas fix, so here are some more pictures from February of the little guy.

I like this picture of him in his carseat since it's a rare smile that isn't a "say cheese" smile. Just a nice, friendly smile.


For those of you unfamiliar with Ottawa, there is a festival called Winterlude every February. Among other things, the canal is turned into what is called "the world's longest skating rink." We went down one to check it out during one of the weekends in early February, and I took this pic of Marilu and Lucas.


Spaceman Lucas showing the Rock Band box who is the boss.


Speaking of the "say cheese" smile...


Words fail me here. He looks like something out of a breast cancer research ad gone awry.


We'll be back in town on Monday so expect more pictures then, possibly from Montreal, though at my pace, those probably won't see the light of day until early May.

Dancing for the Super Bowl

For once, I'm actually going to follow up on something I said I would do in a previous post! Hell has frozen over!

During the Super Bowl, there was a car commercial with music by the Smashing Pumpkins, and literally as soon as the music started, Lucas began dancing. He was so into it that I rewound it (god, I love PVRs) and played it again, with the same result. At that point, I ran and got the camera, played the commercial a couple of more times, and taped the whole thing. The first video is funny enough, but the second one had Marilu and I laughing out loud both then and when we rewatched it about an hour ago. Hope you enjoy!





The ending to that second video is priceless. Admit it.

Some February fun

Still feeling sick, but the cold medicine is keeping me going. Suffice to say, I can't wait until the weekend arrives. In the meantime, let's look at some pictures from the beginning of February.

Just like a rabid NFL fan, Lucas apparently felt ripping his shirt off during the Super Bowl broadcast was a great idea. This weekend, I'll try and remember to post a funny video of him dancing to one of the Super Bowl commercials.


Yogurt aftermath.


I guess today's theme is barechested babies. Here, monkey boy drinks his milk while crouched on his chair at the table.


I decided to buy Rock Band 2 with money I'd received for my birthday, and here, Lucas tries to show off his drumming chops. Of course, of all the pictures in this post, this would probably have been the ideal one to have seen him sans shirt.


Ok, maybe I spoke too soon on drumming. Mick Jagger, anyone? Let's just hope his lips stay normal sized.

Blecch.

I was going to post something tonight, but I feel sick as hell. I think Lucas passed something on to me since he's had a regular cold going on for the last week or so. Or maybe I have Fifth Disease too. Well, whatever the case, I'm heading off to bed at the unprecedented time of 7:30 (for me, anyway). Hopefully, I'll feel better tomorrow, and we can start seeing his February photos.

Night all.

Friendly Neighborhood Lucas

In the latest health news, a couple of other kids at Lucas's daycare have got Fifth Disease so it's more than likely he'll end up with it, if he hasn't already contracted it. Although I'd never even heard of it, apparently it's extremely common and to be honest, it doesn't even sound as bad as getting a cold. You get a rash, maybe get a runny nose and slight fever, and that's it. Lucas already has sensitive skin so who know if we'll even notice a difference.

The next couple of pictures are from way back on Jan 31, but coincidentally enough, that's the same outfit Lucas wore to bed tonight. Go figure. One of Lucas's favorite things to play with lately is Play-Doh. He even tries to say it, but it comes out as Bo-Do or something like that. Marilu could tell you better than I could since she hears it more often.

As you can see, he has a little container that contains all his Play-Doh items. We've bought even more Play-Doh stuff since then so that barely contains his current inventory.


He hasn't quite figured out how to get the lid off yet. I guess he needs just a little more finger strength.


I just thought this was a cute full-body shot of him in his Spider outfit.


Here we see him intent on working the Play-Doh in some sort of nifty shape.


And then inevitably, it all comes back to this. Every Play-Doh play session so far has been halted since he either tries to bite a piece off, or he actually does manage to get a chunk in his mouth and he fights us to prevent us from removing it. Oh, the timeouts he's had and no doubt will continue to have.


Just wanted to add that although he is speaking really clearly yet, he definitely is getting closer to being able to talk. He has some "words" that are very close in sound to the real word so he knows what he's doing. As far as him understanding us, he's doing fantastic. We can give him multistep tasks and he will usually be able to follow them. For instance, we can tell him to pick something up off the floor and throw it in the trash. He'll grab it, run into the kitchen, open up the cabinet door, throw the object in the trash basket, and then close the door. It's really quite neat to see him learning almost in front of our eyes.

Anyway, that's all I got for now since it's quarter after midnight, and I'm getting tired.

Visit from the grandparents

My mom and Kevin, known to Lucas as Grammy and Grampy, visited at the end of January. I have a few pictures from their visit, but I think the majority of them ended up on my mom's camera. Never get in the way of a Canon-wieldin' grandma.

Here Grammy and Lucas read 101 Dalmatians, one of Lucas's favorite movies as of late. Of course, the inverse is true for me: the more I see that movie, the more I want Cruella DeVil to win once and for all.


Now this is an unexpected shot. Lucas is looking straight at the camera and both grandparents are staring at him. Sigh...


Remember the really cute (and amusing) photo of Lucas from a few weeks back where he was wearing reading glasses. Well, the following is from the next day, but this time it's in video!



Finally, portrait of a true couch potato. Lying on the couch AND eating potato chips.

No rhyme or reason

Hey all, it's been a busy time lately since we had visitors in town (Marilu's brother Steven and his gf) and then I went ahead and got sick a couple of nights ago, which has put me in a non-creative mode. To tide you over for now, here's a couple of random pictures.

Lucas doing what he does best--acting weird.


This picture amuses me. For some reason, he pushed both of his chairs right up to the stove. He never did anything further, such as use them to touch the top of the stove. However, the positioning of the chairs just makes it look the most boring television show EVER.

Strolling through January

Yes, this is another one of my patented "catch up" posts. I just uploaded from the camera a couple of nights ago and realized I'm a bit behind, like usual. At least you won't have to worry about me running out of material anytime soon.

Here's a cute one of Marilu and Lucas from Jan 9 showing off his new moccasin-like shoes.


Back on Jan 10, he still hadn't quite grasped the concept of sitting at the chair instead of on top of the table. He's since gotten much better. Not perfect, but much better.


If I'm not mistaken, we were trying to get him to wink. It's so cute when he tries to wink since he can't figure it out just yet. He ends up closing both his eyes, and his mouth opens up like his "say cheese" smile. I'll have to try and get it on video. Just adorable. As for his outfit, ya got me.


During the football season, we taught his how to do the touchdown signal that the referees do. Here he proudly displays what he learned.


And wrapping up today's entry, the macho action movie star tries to hide from the paparazzi when they catch him in his scandalous pink hat. Oh, the shame!

Uncle Toots

In other sad news this week, Marilu's Uncle Tom (more affectionately known as Toots) passed away on the weekend after a long, off-and-on battle with cancer. I only had a chance to meet him twice--he read at our wedding in 2003, and we visited with him in Newfoundland in 2007--but I feel I know him better than those brief encounters would imply since both Marilu and her cousin Tanya frequently spoke of him and had nothing but good things to say.

During that vacation to Newfoundland, Marilu took some pictures of Toots and Lucas, and I'd like to repost a couple of them here. I'd like to think this might help some of you enjoy a happy memory in this sad time, and it will also be a way for Lucas to look back in a few years and see one of the many family members that loved him that he'll never have a chance to know better.

Peanuts

Well, we just got some crappy news regarding Lucas: he tested positive for a peanut allergy. The allergist said 1 in 10 kids grow out of them, but I don't really like those odds, so yeah, great.

I know it's not the end of the world, but it's still going to cause a (relatively small) lifestyle change for us, and it could be life-threatening to him down the line so it's depressing. One of the few upsides I see to it is that with so many kids having peanut allergies nowadays, it should make the world an easier place to exist than a decade or so ago when it was a tiny fraction of people with it. And the fact that peanuts appear to be the only nut he's allergic to so down the line, he can try other nuts if he so chooses.

Anyway, there you go. I can think of better ways to celebrate his 20 months.

20 Months!

Just so everyone is aware, Feb 16 is/was Lucas's 20 month anniversary. Technically, it's now the 17th, but since I haven't gone to bed yet, I'm going to go ahead and act like it's still the 16th. I still find it hard to believe he's been with us that long, but when I look at him now and see him acting like a little boy and compare that with how he was in his first year, where he could barely crawl (let alone walk and climb on things), it's amazing to see how far he's come. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures today, but here's a picture from January that shows he's definitely not a baby anymore. And that he's most certainly my child!

Gotta learn somehow

Lucas tries his first popsicle...



...BRAIN FREEZE!

Lots of videos - Part 2

I wasn't on the computer much last night so no videos. However, I didn't forget. Here you go!

For some reason, Lucas got it in his head that it would be a good idea to run around in his 101 Dalmations top and NOTHING else. Hilarity ensues.



We've been trying to teach Lucas how to wink, and it's very amusing when he tries since not only does he close both eyes, but his mouth contorts into his "cheese" smile. Check it out.



This is another attempt to get him to wink, but this time, there's a prop! Short but cute.



And finally, Lucas and my dad goofing around during our vacation.



Back to photos tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed!

Lots of videos - Part 1

I've been meaning to convert, upload, and post a bunch of videos from the last couple of months for a while now, and I finally found time this weekend (about 2 hours ago, actually). There's 9 of them in total, and I'm going to spread them out over 2 posts rather than having one giant honkin' one. Expect Part 2 up tomorrow night. Or, if you simply can't wait, they are already uploaded to my YouTube account so just check em out over there. So without any further adieu...

The first video is from Dec 22, our last day in Ottawa before our vacation, and also the day we did our Christmas gifts. I took several videos of Lucas opening gifts, but I'm wise enough to realize they aren't that thrilling to everyone else so I've only included the following one from the Dec 22, and that's just because Lucas's reaction to tape stuck on his fingers amuses me.



The next one is another "Lucas opening a gift" video, but it's from Christmas Day itself, when we're already in Florida. Nothing too special about it, but it's a cute video of my brother Jared helping Lucas open a box that is bigger than him (Lucas, that is).



Remember the pictures of Lucas hugging and kissing the stone turtle in front of my dad's place that I posted a few weeks back? Well, here's a video of Lucas interacting with it. He really liked that thing.



There was a fantastic playground near where my dad lived that we brought Lucas to one night. We didn't get many pictures, but I like this short video I took of him in a car at the playground.



Finally, I now have a video to go with those pictures I posted of Lucas feeding the ducks and geese. It's so much better when you get to hear squeals of excitement.



Watch this space tomorrow for 4 more videos!

Early January

Some random pics from early January.

If you are going to drink a beer, Lucas...


...you need to learn how to control yourself (and before you ask, no, there wasn't anything in the bottle).


I can't recall if I've mentioned it before, but Lucas loves his 101 Dalmations outfit. However, on New Year's Day, for some reason his pants AND diaper ended up off of him and he was running around with just the top. The picture doesn't show it very well so I'll try and get a video up in the near future. Funny stuff.


Honestly, there is nothing in the beer bottles. He just thinks that anything shaped like a bottle should give him liquid of some sort.


This had accident written all over it, plus it showcases how weird our kid can be at times. Not only did he decide to stand on one of his vehicles, but he did it while holding the little shopping cart. It amused him so more power to him.

New Years's Eve! (remember that far back?)

Wow, you know you're running behind on the photos when it's February 1, and you are just about to post the New Year's Eve photos. My bad.

Before I get to the photos, I'd like to mention that Lucas had a new milestone tonight, one that came out of the blue actually. It was the first time he used the toilet. Not only did he use a toilet, but it was an adult one. Though come to think of it, that's probably not that uncommon. Anyway, Marilu was holding him over it just prior to his bath since almost without fail, the first thing Lucas does when he gets in the bath is pee in it. So we gave him a chance to take care of that tonight. The attempt was half successful. No pee but he did manage to poop. Just another step down the road to getting rid of diapers, I guess.

So, back to December 31. Adult life is truly on pause for now as evidenced by our attendance of kid-friendly New Year's Eve parties. Since kids can't even stay up to the New Year's, it's not really the same thing, but what is, nowadays? Besides, I can't recall the last New Year's Marilu made it to midnight either so it's probably for the best.

Earlier in the day, before the party, Marilu was folding laundry and Lucas decided my boxer briefs would look just wonderful on his head. Hence, the following...


Once we got to the party, Lucas spent like 20 straight minutes at or near the food trays. All the other kids are playing and there Lucas is, chowing down like we never fed him. I guess that's proof he IS my kid.


Houston, we have a problem.


He hasn't stuffed things down his shirt in a while so that phase may be over. So hold on to this picture for the happy memories.


We tried to get all the kids on the couch for a group photo, but it was impossible to get full cooperation. Lucas actually waited patiently for a while, but at some point, even he decided enough was enough.


During the party, they simulated the dropping of the ball. Like any smart male, Lucas took advantage of the opportunity to steal some kisses from the ladies.





And finally, a couple of photos with Mom and Dad.