Soccer!

A couple of Sundays ago, Lucas had his first soccer practice. Thus far, it's a cross between the last thing he did, a soccer playgroup mishmash, and the next step, playing on an actual team. The kids get out there, do some soccer drills and fun stuff, and then play a mini-scrimmage at the end (2 on 2).

The thing that makes this MUCH better than his previous soccer attempt is that one parent has to play alongside each kid. If you recall, Lucas is extremely shy so shoving him out on the field and sitting on the sidelines watching was not an option. And if I have to be out there playing with him, I'm glad everyone else does as well.

His shyness is still rearing its ugly head during the scrimmage as he wouldn't go near the other kids to try to get the ball, let alone score. However, he does pretty well at the drills and games (such as Red Light, Green Light with a soccer ball). I wasn't watching the other kids playing, but Marilu assured me that plenty of other kids were just as shy as Lucas so I'm not sending him off to the psychiatrist just yet.

Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words and all that, so here are some pictures from the first session.

Woohoo! Wheelbarrow races! In case you are wondering why I am in jeans and almost everyone else is in shorts, we had a birthday party before this, and it looked like it was going to be a cool day. Lucky me that the weather turned and I got to play soccer in the middle of a hot afternoon wearing jeans and a dark shirt.


Lucas comes over for a water break.


It looks like Lucas is stretching here, but if I recall correctly, he was just rolling around on the grass during the aforementioned water break.


This is Marilu's favorite picture from the day since he looks intense in this head on action shot.


More action as he practices his ball dribbling skills. He's actually not that bad.


Whew! All done for the day. Now just a whole summer of Sundays to go!

Born to be Wild

Toward the end of last month, Lucas had his first bike ride. Though it was short and somewhat frustrating at the time, he's come a LONG way in a month, as all 3 of us can now ride around the neighborhood. He'll get stuck on an incline every once in a while, but it's usually more of a mental thing where he just doesn't think he can make it and then we encourage him through it. (Unless I'm in a hurry, and then I just get him started with a push)

So here's a picture of Lucas on April 30, as he is about to try his new bike out.

Random Stuff from February

Since I'm still having issues with the keyboard, I'm going to keep the next few posts short. This way I can also focus on getting caught up with the pictures.

This is a cute one from mid-February of mom and son relaxing on the couch.


Give a boy some rope, and he'll find a way to spend 45 minutes with it.


Lucas had his 2 buddies from daycare over for a playdate. Here, they prepare to make cookies, I think.


Here's a priceless photo I took after he fell asleep one night.

Now I know my ABCs...

While it's not quite the moral or philosophical conundrum I addressed in my post on religion, another conflict of thinking reared its ugly head today while I was helping Lucas learn his letters. After getting him to write out the letters in his own name, I let him pick what other letters he wanted to try. After doing 'M' and 'N,' he asked me how to write 'Z.'

Now most of your probably know where I'm going with this, but for those of you who don't, in Canada, 'Z' is pronounced 'zed' whereas in the U.S., it is 'zee.' I really, really, really don't like the Canadian/British version, and I have gone out of my way not to use it since I have lived here. Luckily, there isn't much call for using it in a standard conversation so I've been free from its burden for several years. (Seriously, it doesn't even rhyme in the alphabet song!)

So getting back to the story, Lucas asked me how to write 'zed.' I cringed internally and was well on my way to correcting him, but then I hesitated since I realized he wouldn't understand why there are two different ways of pronouncing it. Rather than putting him at odds with his future teachers and classmates, I decided to just let it go. I'll adopt a "when in Rome" attitude since it is the standard for the country I'm living in. Kind of like how I control my natural desire to mock French speakers...most of the time. Well, sometimes.

It did make me realize this is just the beginning of him speaking with an accent/dialect that drives me nutty at times. For instance, the way Canadians pronounce "process" with a long 'o' (pro-cess vs the U.S. prah-cess) or the 'a' in Mazda sounding like the 'a' in apple as opposed to the American pronunciation Mahz-da). I want to correct them every time I hear it even though I realize it's their country, and I'm just the guest. So I bottle it up, and come one step closer to that ulcer or heart attack each day. I'm sure I'll snap completely on that day 13-14 years from now when Lucas tells me he is in the pro-cess of buying a Maz-da, eh?

FYI, I am typing this post on my desktop PC, as opposed to the laptop that has the damaged 'e' key. I haven't fixed it yet since I have heard I may be able to do it myself for much cheaper so I am exploring that option. I am able to type on it, albeit slowly, so I will probably put up a new picture-filled post tomorrow. Anyway, enjoy and have a great week, all!

Intermission

Wow, this is post #600. Unfortunately, it is going to be uneventful. I just wanted to let you know that there will be a delay of a few days in getting a full post up. Lucas tore my 'E' key off last year, but I've been making due since I could still type on it without the key. However, last night, it somehow fell apart so it is much more difficult to type an E (but not impossible, obviously). Anyway, it shouldn't take too long to get it replaced so hopefully I'll have another picture-filled post up by the weekend.

Lest I forget, thanks to everyone who commented on my last post (the Heaven one).

The Religion Conundrum

This morning, I encountered an issue with Lucas that I didn't expect to address for at least another couple of years. As I came down the stairs, I found him looking at a picture of my old dog, Roenick. I had Roenick when I lived in Tampa and Atlanta, and unfortunately he died of meningitis at the young age of 4 in 1998.

Lucas knew about Roenick since I'd mentioned him before, and I may have said that he died. This morning, however, he asked where Roenick was. I started to say that he passed away a long time ago when Lucas asked, "Is he in heaven?"

This threw me for a loop since, to my knowledge, we've never talked about heaven. For those of you who don't know, I was raised Catholic but am now an atheist so there is no reason I would have brought the subject up. I don't think Marilu--who is Catholic--has had any reason to mention it to him so maybe he heard it from a kid at daycare. Whatever the case, the source isn't the issue; I'm more concerned with how to address this and related topics in the coming years.

I'm not a psycho atheist who feels the need to push my non-belief on others so I told Marilu a long time ago that I would have no problem if she brought Lucas to church with her (so long as I don't have to go). Even if I don't believe in the "invisible people in the sky" aspect of religion, I do think there is a lot to be said about the morals and character building one can gain from it. I went to CCD classes when I was growing up, and I think I am a better person for it.

That said, when Lucas surprised me with a point blank question about a place I consider no more real than Hogwarts (i.e., heaven), I had no idea how to respond. On the one hand, I don't want to lie to him about how I feel, but on the other hand, I suppose he has the right to choose for himself, when Marilu starts bringing him to church (probably in a year or two since he would be godawful in there at this age, no pun intended), and I don't want to bias him from the start.

In case you're wondering, I quickly answered his question with a vague answer of "it's possible," and life went on. However, now I need to start thinking about how I am going to handle these types of questions in more detail going forward. Any suggestions from anyone who has been in a similar position would be welcome.

Bowling

First off, let me get this out of the way...I hope the sharks find you tasty, Osama!

There, all better.

Back in February, I brought Lucas to a birthday party that was held at a bowling alley. I think he had gone bowling with Marilu once more, but it was the first time with me. It's actually an odd bowling alley, as the lanes only have six pins and they use the small candlepin balls. We didn't keep score, but the kids had a great time.

Easter 2011 - Videos

As promised, here are the videos to go along with yesterday's Easter photos.

Easter 2011

Easter 2011 was a fun time, although there was a feeling of deja vu in the air since the morning was extremely similar to the last two Easters. Lucas gets up, comes down the stairs, searches for his Easter eggs, and then eats enough chocolate to fall into a sugar coma. I suppose that's just the way of holidays.

I've already uploaded all the pictures and videos from Easter morning to the photo albums here, but here are some of the highlights if you don't feel like going there.

We made Lucas smile and pose for a photo before he could start collecting his eggs. Hence, as cute as this smile is, it's probably as fake as a 3 dollar bill.


The first egg was easy. Incidentally, it took me a while to find the last one. We kept count and realized he had found 21 of 22 eggs, and I had no idea where I had put it the night before. I finally stumbled across it, but it makes me wonder if I'll need schematics in the coming years.


Fantastic parents that we are, we had the Easter Bunny bring Lucas a SuperSoaker water pistol. I got a matching one so we got to douse each other in cold water on the front lawn later that afternoon.


If you look at last year's Easter photos, you may notice that we got him the exact same Iron Man chocolate. Hey, you go with what works.


Not every gift was horribly misguided. Here he receives a perfectly functional Green Lantern t-shirt.


I got Marilu an herb thing that she saw on Oprah. I think she was expecting it for Mother's Day so it was nice to surprise her. Of course, now I have no idea what the heck I'm getting her for that holiday.


Everyone knows Kinder Eggs kick the butt of normal eggs.


Lucas surveys his haul.


Finally, nothing says Easter like a water pistol that would make Dirty Harry proud.


I've got five videos uploading, but they are going to take a while so I'll post them in a separate entry tomorrow. Enjoy!

The Answer

There was only one answer to last night's question, but it was the right one so kudos to you, Mary Jane! For those of you who didn't see her answer, all three of the photos in the last post were taken by Lucas. He has actually taken a LOT of photos this year, and believe it or not, some of them are pretty good. Those ones from January were the first good ones he took but his skill is definitely improving.

On the other hand, here's a not-so-stunning self portrait of the artist.

A Mystery

Who can guess what these pictures from mid-January have in common?




The answer tomorrow.

Underwear Pirate

I'm not really sure what his goal was here, but it's amusing to look at.



And this was from a phase back in January where he wanted to be a dog. So, of course, he had to eat/drink from a bowl on the ground.

Let's Finish December, Shall We?

Ok, time to close out 2010 once and for all. This is just getting ridiculous. I've also taken some good pictures of Lucas recently, and I want to wrap up last year before I get to those. As a result, I present a mish-mash or random pictures from December.

As they always say, a child will find more entertainment value in a box than the actual present it contains. Lucas is proving that old adage true here.


We go to our friends Tracey and Andre's place every Christmas Eve, and it's become a tradition to take a picture of all the kids together. As you can imagine, this gets more difficult each year as their attention wanders that much easier. This was the best of the bunch I took. I should note that Lucas was looking at a different camera in every single one I have.


Here, he gives the camera a very forced smile.


And that is 2010, ladies and gentlemen! All the Christmas Day and Newfoundland trip pictures were posted at the time so feel free to go back and look at them if you are feeling nostalgic for winter.

The Hair Up There

A legendary picture of Lucas from early December. I think Marilu is STILL using this as her Facebook profile picture.


(After uploading this, Marilu reminded me that I posted this picture way back in December. My bad. Still, it was probably worth a revisit.)

Kid Flash

Lately, Lucas has really taken a shine to a show called Young Justice, which is a cartoon about the sidekicks in the DC comics universe (DC is Batman, Superman, etc). In particular, he likes Kid Flash. I'm not sure if it has to do with his speed or the way he acts, but if I had to bet on it, I'd say it was the uniform. Lucas loves the goggles Kid Flash wears so the other day he dug his old swim goggles out of one of the drawers. He then wore them either on his eyes or resting on his forehead for the better part of the day.

Here's a few pictures of our superhero in action. First off, a some good-natured mugging for the camera.


Then ya gotta show off the guns.


Finally, our superhero prepares to dash off.


Of course, any superhero worth his salt has to have an archenemy, and in this case, it's apparently Laptop Mom. I have no idea where his shirt went between this picture and the last one.

More from December

Here's a few pictures from right after we decorated our Christmas tree last December (man, I really need to catch up).




And completely not keeping with that theme, Lucas slices up some celery on the cutting board.

Children's Christmas Party at St Pat's

Now that we are through with November, time to plow through December and hit 2011 before 2012 gets here. It shouldn't be too bad since I already posted all the Christmas photos way back when they happened. Well, sort of. In today's update, we'll take a look at a few pictures I took from the children's Christmas party at Marilu's school.

I'm pretty sure this is right before we brought him for a haircut. It was starting to get a bit, shall we say, unwieldy?


I love this photo. This is his reaction to Santa coming in the room.


Although he can be ridiculously shy, when it comes to getting presents, all bets are off.



Tearing into his gift.


A nice photo with Santa.

November in a Nutshell

Once again, Mom has reminded me that I'm neglecting my posting duties so here are some new pictures from November for you. (note that "new" is a very relative term here). I should point out that November may have been the lowest photo count since Lucas was born so there isn't a whole lot to see here.

The Artiste! Lucas drew the two figures on the left. I don't know what other 3 year olds are able to accomplish with chalk, but I thought it was impressive.


Being very patient as Marilu takes his temperature.


Not really sure why he looks so upset here, moments after he was caught playing with a bag of flour.


This is a really nice picture of Lucas and Marilu.


And that's it for November. Told you so. Next time...December