The End of June

Sorry about the lack of activity. I've had a near-constant headache since last Thursday, which has kept me from doing quite a lot. It's not debilitating, but if my choice comes down to sleeping/resting or "anything else," the former choices tend to win out.

I was at the doctor yesterday, and she ruled out the worst case scenarios I had floating through my hypochondriacal mind (skin cancer, stroke, tumor...I'm a ball of sunshine, ain't I?). She suspects something in my neck--muscles, nerves?--may be the root of the problem so I have an appointment on Friday to see a massage therapist. Hopefully, that will take care of the problem, but if not, I also have a referral for physiotherapy.

In Lucas news, I just taught him (10 minutes ago) how to draw a stick figure and he did a decent job of making one of his own. He'll be illustrating comic books in no time!

On the picture front, I'm going to play a little bit of catch-up. Believe it or not, I still have some photos from June that haven't been posted! Below, you'll see the highlights from the last week and a half of that month.

Although wildly inappropriate, the birthday gifts Lucas gets from his godfather are some of the best: this year, a Nerf automatic gun and Nerf two swords. We have used all of them a LOT since June. :)


There is a retention pond at one corner of our subdivision that we bring Lucas to from time to time. He likes throwing rocks in it, and from time to time, we also feed the birds that show up there.

I think this is his "C'mon, stop taking pictures, I want to feed the geese" face.


The birds are smart. You feed one...


...and then the whole flock shows up.


It's nice to make HIM pull the wagon for once.


Lucas poses with Cow, one of his oldest stuffed animals that my dad bought for him during a visit.


Speaking of my dad, here's a picture of Lucas posing with a toy he bought with money he got from my dad for his birthday. To say this castle has been well-used is an understatement. It's been a fixture in our living room since then and even made the trip to Massachusetts.


We wrap up with a couple of pictures I took of him when he helped me build a fort in his room. Good times.

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween, all! Here are some pictures of Lucas from his trick or treating earlier.




In case you are wondering about the ground, yes, we had a snowstorm last night. It should be gone within a day or two (unless we get more snow), but it made tonight very wet and very cold.

From after the trick or treating, Lucas sits surrounded by his sugary booty.

3rd Birthday Redux

I'm going way back in the time machine for this one. Last time my mom was here, I downloaded a bunch of pictures from her camera that she had taken earlier in the year. Included among them were photos from Lucas's 3rd birthday party back in June. I've already posted the highlights from the ones on our camera (seen here and here), but my mom was able to get several good ones as well. Check 'em out.




I don't think I showed any of the decorations in my pictures so here you go. As you can see, it was a Marvel Superheroes theme.

Massachusetts 2010: Part 11

And finally, the last post from our trip down to Massachusetts. Odd that the posting of the trip took about 3 times the actual length of the trip. I do plan to add a related entry in a few days that includes some extra videos of the trip, but I will likely update with some newer pictures first since I am once again--surprise, surprise--running way behind.

It's all for the best though since we haven't been taking many pictures around the house so once we do catch up, you'll just have to wait for us to become inspired with the camera. That said, I still have pictures from early June to be posted so we won't be catching up anytime soon.

On our next to last day in Webster, we made the most of the lake, spending the better part of the day in the water. Even though he can't swim, Lucas has really taken to the water. When one of us would wait in the water at the end of the dock, he would run and jump off with any hesitation. The funny thing is that he didn't just jump. He would actually leap, almost like Superman, arms out front, legs trailing behind. Talk about a little daredevil. You'll be able to see the leaps better when I post the videos.



Later that night, we had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in New England, Wright's Chicken Farm. To be honest, it wasn't as good as in the past, but hopefully that was just a bad night.


These next two photos are very similar, but I included them both since I loved Lucas's expression (and to a lesser extent, Aidan's lack of expression at Lucas). These were taken near the entrance of Wright's.



The next morning, Lucas and his Uncle Jared took a quick break from watching TV to pose for the camera.


Since it's a rarity for us all to be together at the same time, we took the opportunity to get some family pictures right before we left.





Hope you enjoyed this long adventure through New England. Next time, back to Ottawa!

For my mom

Thanks for the visit, Grammy!


By the way, Lucas was much better at soccer today and loved his gift!

Massachusetts 2010: Part 10

One more entry after this one (making this penultimate, for those of you working on your SAT Verbal), and we'll be done with the trip to Massachusetts. Roughly 76 years after we actually went there.

Today's post focuses on our visit to Six Flags New England. Our friends Wes and Kelly (along with their kids) were in Massachusetts, and we decided that would be as good a place as any to meet up. The day was overcast and looked like it could turn bad, but other than a very short period where they shut down some rides because of lightning warnings, the weather was fine. As a result, not many people were at the park so lines were short. Heck, for the kiddie rides, there were often no lines at all.

Lucas's reactions to rides were mixed. I don't think he went on any by himself, and I can probably count on one hand how many he went on with just Brody or Carson. He much preferred if Marilu or I went with him, and even then, he usually was nervous before the ride started. Nervousness that turned to squeals of laughter once it was actually in motion. Go figure.

The day started off on a sedate Thomas the Tank Engine train ride.


He wouldn't go on this bus ride without Marilu. That's Wes in the front seat, not some random person posing for our photographs.


Family photo with some dude from the Thomas cartoons. Well, I assume he is. Lucas hasn't shown any interest in the cartoon, and I don't encourage it since the kids that sing the theme song get on my nerves.


Despite the look of fear, Lucas seemed to like the Merry-Go-Round.


I took this photo from the back seat of an airplane ride we went on.


Feeding time!


As I said earlier, it took Lucas a while to warm up to getting on a ride without one of us. Here he is on a couple of rides with Brody. I think it's safe to say he is having fun. I'll be posting videos once I am done with all the Massachusetts photos since we got some pretty good ones at Six Flags.



This one with Brody is just plain cute. By the way, despite the size difference, they are only a month or so apart in age. Brody is huge for his age.


Since Six Flags has some kind of relationship with DC Comics, there are many photo opportunities with various superheroes and villains from the DC universe. As much as Lucas loves superheroes, I was a little surprised to discover he was terrified of them. The only good picture we got of him was in front of a picture of Bizarro.


He was equally scared of both heroes and villains.



You may have to click on these next 2 pictures to see his face. In the first one, he is calling for Marilu since he doesn't want to get on the teacup ride with me.


Once it started, though, he had an absolute blast. Just look at that face!

Massachusetts 2010: Part 9

One of the days between the EcoTarium and Higgins Armory was another "relax by the lake" day. In addition, we had a BBQ with friends and family.

For those of you who haven't seen him in a while, here's my brother Jared.

There was a color version similar to this picture, but Lucas was making a bizarre face so I decided to go with this one, the "classy" black and white.

Grammy and Lucas hugging during the boat ride.

Lucas developed quite a bit of a crush on Sara, Cheri's daughter (I apologize if I misspelled one or both of those names).

And finally, Lucas helps Kevin at the helm of the boat.

Massachusetts 2010: Part 8

Finally, a Massachusetts post that covers more than 1 day! The third day I was there, I was nice enough to take Lucas out of the house, giving Marilu some much-needed peace and quiet. I decided to bring him to the Worcester Science Center or Eco-center or Sci-Eco Museum or some derivative thereof. I used to go there when I was in junior high so I thought it would be neat to visit it again since it's been well over 20 years since my last visit. In addition, my season pass to the museums up here in Ottawa was valid there and free is always good.

I'd like to say the place lived up to my memories, but alas, it was a fairly boring, tired-looking place. That said, Lucas didn't seem to mind and that's all that really mattered.

If you look closely at his arm, you can see the wicked cool (throwing in a little New England slang) Batman tattoo he got a day or so before.


He wasn't really thrilled with this area, as evident in his expression.


Walking the trail outside.


I'm not sure I understand the expression, but it's cute nonetheless.


I can't believe he stayed still long enough for me to get this picture from the entrance of the EcoTarium (<---I looked it up).
If you recall from a recent entry, I mentioned Lucas is in a phase where he loves all things knights. Well, a couple of days after the trip to the EcoTarium, we went to Higgins Armory, a museum dedicated to knights, armor, weapons, and other things just as cool. That is, after we drove around half of Worcester looking for a peanut-free restaurant. Screw you, Ruby Tuesday's.

This time around, my mom and dad were with me so I was able to get some pictures with both Lucas and me in them. If you look closely at this picture (click on it for a better view), you'll see Lucas has a very diabolical look on his face.


I'm not on drugs, despite my dazed look.


Higgins Armory was full of countless suits of armor and nifty weapons. So what impresses Lucas the most? The little castle and knight action figures in the kids room on the 3rd floor. He stayed in there for a good half hour. In fact, he only begrudgingly visited the 4th floor when I carried him up there and then quickly headed back down to play some more.


"What do you mean I have to leave? I love this castle!"


Lucas's brief visit to the 4th floor, MY favorite part of the Armory.


In case anyone is interested in my opinion, I would pass on the EcoTarium, and I would highly recommend Higgins Armory.