Massachusetts 2012 - Part 3 (Aquarium and Golf)

One other thing I did with Lucas before Marilu arrived was to bring him miniature golfing. My mom came along to assist, in case he got out of control. I'm not sure if I mentioned it on this blog, but the last time we went mini golfing him was on the cruise in March, and he ended up flinging his golf club around the 9th hole. I guess that's practice for when he's older and slices it. We also went to the same place (Crystal Caves in Auburn, for those of you from central Mass) last year, and he lost patience with mini golf within a couple of holes. So I was happy to see he made it through the whole course this time. He got a little antsy toward the end and wanted to crawl around the cave, but for the most part, it was a successful outing. Lest I forget, he got a hole in one on the very first hole without any help from my mom or me!

The next day, Marilu flew into Boston. Since we were there, we decided to make the most of the trip and went to the New England Aquarium. We were going to stay over and do some more stuff in Boston, but hotel rooms were around $300 a night. Yeah, I don't think so.

I wanted to comment on some of these photos, but Blogger decided to upload them out of order, and I can't easily fix it (this blog can be a pain in the ass when it comes to managing pictures). As such, enjoy our day at the aquarium.

Massachusetts 2012 - Part 2 (The Dinosaur Place)

Quick update before I get to the meat of the post. Lucas had his first week of senior kindergarten last week, and for the most part, it went well. The only issue that cropped up was that he got in trouble on the school bus. When he and his friend Ryan get together, they get a little "energetic," and I guess he was getting up on the bus, which is a big no-no. We've told him to sit in a different seat from Ryan, and so far, it seems to be working. Other than that, everything is great as he is happy to be back at school. Tomorrow night is a pizza party and "meet the teacher," so we'll get to see his classroom again (since he's in the same one as last year).

So, back to Massachusetts. As you may or may not know, Lucas and I drove down a week ahead of Marilu, who then flew down. During that week, I had to come up with stuff to do to keep Lucas busy and to prevent me from going crazy. One of those things was a trip down to south Connecticut to The Dinosaur Place. It's a neat little place that has a walking trail with plenty of lifesize dinosaur models, and it culminates in a good-sized splash pad and playground. We ended up killing a good 4-5 hours there. Below you'll see the highlights.

This gives you an idea of the scale of the dinosaurs. They were really well crafted. I have to admit I was impressed.

I told Lucas to stand under this dinosaur and try and look scared. It didn't work out so well...

...so I joined in.

This next photo is probably my favorite one from the entire trip. It came out exactly as I hoped. (that is, Lucas fleeing from a charging Styracosaurus)

If you look closely, Lucas is pretending to steal the dino eggs. My direction, once again.

"Are you ready to rumble?!"

Some photos from the splash pad.

I'm not sure what it is about upward-shooting streams of water, but both boys and girls love them.

And we wrap up with some photos from the playground. They had a very unique spiderweb-like structure that Lucas loved climbing on. I've never seen something like this anywhere else so it was nice to see him play on something less common that swings and slides.

A better shot of the entire structure. It goes up pretty high, and I was a little nervous about Lucas from time to time, but we made it through the experience concussion free.

Another milestone

I wanted to take a quick detour from the Massachusetts photos to announce Lucas's latest milestone: he's riding a bike without training wheels!

Marilu noticed a few weeks ago that when he was on training wheels, oftentimes he would have the bike balanced so that the training wheels weren't even being used. We asked him if a few times if he wanted to try  riding without them, but he kept saying no. However, while we were playing in the front yard on Saturday, he saw our newest neighbor go by, helping his son (who is a year younger than Lucas) ride without training wheels. I guess this was the catalyst Lucas needed since he immediately asked to try it himself. A couple of minutes later, and I had the wheels off.

Even though we knew he was probably ready for it, Lucas surprised us by achieving success so quickly. After one or two unsuccessful tries, he made it about 30 feet, and from that point, he just kept doing better and better. Marilu got this video of his second "long" ride.



This picture is from a little later, when he was more comfortable and we were riding up and down the street.

On his first day, he was able to ride well but he was having a lot of problems getting started. He needed us to give him a little push about 95% of the time. That number plummeted on Sunday, and by evening, he didn't need any assistance at all. Here he is, hotdogging it at a block party we went to.



I should note that about 10 seconds after this video ended, he tried to turn too sharply and crashed, smacking his head into the ground. The helmet did its job though, and he was back up and riding within a minute or two.

So that's my interlude for the night. Back to Massachusetts tomorrow!

Massachusetts 2012 - Part 1A

As promised the videos of us frolicking in the water.  The first one is blurry at first, but it clears up about halfway through. Check out who is driving the boat.



In this next one, I do my best to make the water around the dock kiver free.



Finally, some snorkeling fun with Lucas and me.

Massachusetts 2012 - Part 1 (Water, Water Everywhere!)

I'll come clean with you. I've been putting off posting about the Massachusetts vacation. When I first organized all the photos--from our camera, my mom's camera, and my iPhone--into one folder, there were a whopping 538 photos. Trying to comb through that and summarize the trip through 10-20 photos seemed a bit overwhelming. Earlier tonight, I went through and was able to delete just over 100 of those, the vast majority being ones Lucas took while manning the camera during a zoo visit. While he did take some decent photos, most were not so good.

So, we're down to 432 photos. Still a daunting task, but not quite as bad, and short of deleting all of them, I'd eventually have to get around to this. I expect there will be several entries devoted to Massachusetts, and I'm going to try to base each one around specific events and then maybe put the random ones in a final catch-all post. Whatever the case, expect to see lots of photos from the New England region over the next week or two. After this, I'll tackle the Newfoundland trip, which only has a paltry 280 photos to sift through.

Since one of the highlights of our trips to Massachusetts is staying at my mom's place on Webster Lake (or Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaug to the locals), this first entry is devoted to our time in and around the water. The ability to spontaneously decide to jump in the water is one of the things I've missed most from that trip. There were at least a couple of days where I went down to the dock, intending to spend 15-20 minutes in the water, and then 3 hours later, I was finally toweling off. Good times.

For the first time since I started visiting, the boat my mom and Kevin own actually worked while I was there. We took it out a few times but didn't think to take many photos. Although the one below is a bit blurry, I kind of liked the look of it as we came back into the dock. For what it's worth, that thing was so much fun to drive. It's by Seadoo, and it's a cross between an actual boat and a jetski. Someone out there might know the name for this type of vehicle, but all I know is that I had a blast.

Our little Jacques Coustaeu prepares for his aquatic adventure.

Although all the photos you'll see here show Lucas wearing floaties, he did brave the water without them from time to time. He's made remarkable progress over the last few months, between swim lessons and this trip, and I expect he'll ditch the floaties long before next summer.

I love the fact that it looks as if I am trying to catch Lucas in this photo. In reality, I was hunting kivers (bluegill/sunfish). They are a very stupid fish, and I managed to catch 30-40 of them by net alone during the trip.

Kevin and Lucas having water wars. Lucas is winning.

Great shot of Lucas with his Grampy Kevin.

While selecting photos to use for this entry, I noticed several good videos from our time playing in the water. Since videos take forever and a day to upload, I'll post those in a follow-up to this entry, probably tomorrow. Hope you've enjoyed. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

In Memoriam

Before I get back to the business of posting photos, I want to take a moment to summarize what happened back in May that led to the hiatus. I think most of the people who read this blog know the whole story, but in case there are a couple of people still in the dark, I'm going to give you the Cliffs Notes version.

Basically, we found out from early tests that there was something wrong with our baby. When we came in for a follow-up ultrasound, the doctor confirmed that things were bad, and it was very unlikely our baby would survive until the pregnancy, let alone afterwards. As such, we made the choice--not that there was much of one, given that news--to terminate the pregnancy.

Unfortunately, because of how far along Marilu was, we had to go through what was essentially a full birth. I'm not going to go into it, but suffice to say, May 28 was the worst day and night of my life. I think Marilu would agree.

For what it's worth, we had a boy. Although there is no official documentation, we named him Rory Gerard Deal. Gerard was a nod to Marilu's dad, and we came up with Rory in much the same we settled on Lucas. It was a boy's name that neither of us hated!

So that's the story in a nutshell. It's a lot easier to talk about it now, almost 3 months later, but there will always be a special place in my heart for our little boy who was taken from us far too soon.

Rest in Peace, Rory. Your daddy, mommy, and big brother Lucas will never forget you.

New Beginning

We're back from Massachusetts and Newfoundland and all points in between. As you can see, I've finally renamed and restyled the blog. I think the new name is appropriate.

I have to transfer the Massachusetts pictures from the camera, but once I get that done, I'll start updating with new photos. Talk to you again soon!

Oh Captain, My Captain!

Lucas and I are in Massachusetts this week, with Marilu flying down next Thursday. Earlier tonight, he took a ride in the boat my mom and Kevin own. And by "take a ride," I mean he was actually driving it. You'll have to look closely in the following video, but that's him at the wheel.



I know I've been gone a while, in light of everything that happened back in May, but I'm going to try and get back on track while on vacation here in Massachusetts. Please bear with me!

Another Lucas Birthday

Believe it or not, Lucas turned 5 today!

I'll post more pictures from his special day later this week.

Tragedy

I think everyone who reads this blog has heard by now--whether it was via word of mouth or Facebook--but in case you haven't, I wanted to quickly update what has happened in the past week and a half. Basically, we found out that our baby had severe developmental issues, and we would need to terminate the pregnancy, which we did this past weekend. It's been an extremely hard time for all of us, but we have received a massive amount of support from friends and family so for that we are thankful.

At the moment, I don't really have the words to talk about the experience further. Maybe later I'll be able to do it justice, but for now, I just don't want to think about it. The blog will continue, but I just need some time before I'm ready to come back. Thanks for your understanding.

Baby Bump

By popular demand (i.e., my mom has asked a couple of times), I'm going to provide weekly updates of Marilu's profile so you can see our new addition as he/she grows. I've been pretty good at getting pictures of her once a week since the ultrasound with the only missing one being the weekend she went to Syracuse with the girls.

April 21, 2012: 13 Weeks Pregnant

April 30, 2012: 14 Weeks Pregnant

May 13, 2012: 16 Weeks Pregnant

My intention is to take a picture of Marilu's belly every Sunday night from here on out, and I'll post it by Monday. Feel free to chastise me if I slacken in my endeavors.

Ottawa Comiccon 2012

Earlier today, Lucas and I went to the Ottawa Comiccon, Ottawa's first comic and sci-fi convention ever...or at least since I've lived here. I figured he'd get a kick out of it since there would be plenty of people dressed up as characters from shows/movies he likes, and it definitely didn't disappoint.

Right after we got there, they had a Star Wars Kids Hour which was essentially an arts and crafts session with Star Wars characters. They broke the kids into four groups, and Lucas picked the most evil one, the Sith. As you can see in the pictures below, his "mentor" for the hour was the Sith Lord Darth Maul. (Considering Lucas was wearing a Sith hat, I guess this was kind of a given.)

Once that wrapped up, we walked around the convention. There were quite a few Star Wars-themed characters walking around so photo ops were pretty easy.

I thought this was a pretty good idea. Life size Star Wars action figure packaging. Not exactly sure which character Lucas is pretending to be since I don't recall the devil horns in any of the Star Wars movies.

Lucas had no idea what this car was, but for those of you older than 30, you'll likely recognize the DeLorean from Back to the Future.

Before we left, one more picture with a Stormtrooper for good measure.

Blast Ball

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, Lucas had his first Blast Ball session last week. After locating his coach, we found out that he was on the dark blue team. That works out well since his favorite color is blue. The coaches let the kids name the team, and I think a couple of the older kids (it's 4-5) came up with the stunningly uncreative Blue Jays. Compare this to Lucas's daycare buddy who is on a team named the Green Goblins.

The way Blast Ball works is that during the first half of the session, the coaches work with their own team, teaching them basic fundamentals like batting, throwing, and fielding a ball. At this point, no gloves are involved though it's expected they'll start using them by the end of the season. In the second half of each session, two teams actually play a game of Blast Ball against one another.

The rules for BB are pretty simple. Each inning, every player on a team gets one at-bat. They hit the ball off the tee and then need to reach the base--located approximately where first base would be--before the other team gets them out. To get an out, the other team must pick up the hit ball and yell, "Blast ball!" Keep in mind that no score is actually kept so it's all for fun at this stage. Also, the base honks when you step on it so the kids get a kick out of that.

I got a few pictures and videos from Lucas's first day at Blast Ball. They aren't the greatest quality. but it's a long season--until the end of June--so hopefully I'll have a chance to get plenty more.

Before we started playing, Lucas wanted to test out the honking base. About 20 times.

Here he models his new hat and t-shirt.

This is the only shot I got of Lucas's team on defense. If you look closely, you can see a white blur on the left side of the photo. That's the ball, and Lucas is the leftmost player so I think he's the one who fielded it.

This was Lucas's third or fourth time up to bat.

I had the foresight to videotape Lucas's very first time at bat. So on the off-chance he's one day the starting shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, he can look back and see where it all began. It wasn't the best start, but he finally did figure out the tee. Also, once he realized he needed to run, he *was* pretty quick, even if he completely blew off the coach trying to give him his hat back.



One other thing I'd like to point out is that Lucas exhibited almost no shyness whatsoever. He stood with all the other boys, did what he was told, and never came running over to me crying. His mind did wander, and he didn't always pay attention to the game at hand, but I can live with that!

Update

New pictures are coming very soon! I've been sick for the last week and a half (fever at first and then strep throat, which I'm still suffering through) so I haven't been terribly motivated. However, I'm on the mend and plan to have pictures from Lucas's first Blast Ball practice/game up within 24 hours so keep an eye out!

What's Happening?

I can't believe no one commented on that last post! I thought it was hilarious. Oh well, different strokes for different folks, I guess. You may notice that I fixed the column width issue so that video shouldn't cover the right side of the blog anymore. If you are still having problems viewing it, let me know.

Tonight is Lucas's first game of Blast Ball. From the description I read as well as a couple of YouTube videos I found, it's sort of like T-ball. As with most sports at this age, it looks like it is fairly non-competitive, but it is intended to teach kids the basics of baseball so that they are prepared to play that in a year or two. Although I am not a fan of baseball--hate it, actually--it's such a quintessential game that you play in your childhood that I felt I would be doing Lucas a disservice if I didn't let him try it out. If he wants to keep playing after this season, great. If not, that's his decision. I'm sure we'll have plenty of pictures and videos in the coming weeks of Lucas's  Blast Ball adventures so keep an eye out for that.

One other thing I wanted to mention before I post a few pictures from the archives is at Marilu's request. Last night, about a half hour before Lucas's bedtime, all three of us went upstairs and sat on our bed and played some games. We started with rock, paper, scissors, which eventually morphed into webs, bombs, shield since Lucas wanted flashier hand gestures, I guess.

After that, Lucas wanted to pretend we were in a restaurant so one of us would be the waiter and the other two would be the customers. Once the customers ordered, the waiter would go make the meals and then serve them. It may sound simplistic, but what really stood out to both of us was how creative Lucas has become. It used to be that if you asked him to name something, he would name it almost literally (case in point, Fishy Fishy) or just name it Lucas. But now, you can see the wheels turning when he is asked a question. Sometimes, he'll even be the one to prompt his own creativity. For instance, for a couple of items I ordered, he informed me they were out of it or that they didn't carry it ("there's no beer at McDonald's!"). If the restaurant was out of a selection, he would then tell us what they did have. I know this probably doesn't translate well, and I wish we could have recorded it, but I gotta say, we were really impressed and proud of him last night.

Now that you've read through that wall of text, here's the last of the pictures from October. I can't recall why  Lucas was dressed up in these first two pictures since that was a week before Halloween. My best guess is that it was a daycare craft.

Sometimes, the only qualification for a photo to get posted is the cuteness factor. I think this one manages that quite well.

This is one of Marilu's favorite photos from around Halloween. While we were decorating the house for our party, Lucas decided to do his impression of the skeleton.

I think he actually came up with this on his own, which is pretty impressive. It's damned funny looking to boot!