Hmm

Sometimes there are no words.

Flying through January

Since I'm still so far back in photo updates, I sometimes forget to clue everyone in on the latest news regarding Lucas. Over the last month or two, he's been getting better and better at his potty training. As of this weekend, I'd say he is probably 95% of the way there. About the only time he consistently pees in his pull-up is when he is sleeping (not coincidentally, sleeping is the only time he doesn't wear underwear). When he is awake, it's only likely to happen if he can't get his pants down (a couple of pairs need to be retired since they are kinda tight) or if he is on the toilet and he has an aiming problem. So kudos to the little guy for pretty much reaching the next milestone in his young life. Oh, I should point out that he gets really pissed if you call him "little." He'll immediately respond with "No! I'm a BIG boy." Of course, jackass dad that I am, I tease him about this at least once a day.

So, back to January. On the 3rd, for some reason, Lucas got it in his head to take every single thing in his play area, including all the bins on his toy shelf, and dump them in front of the stairs. It made a hell of a mess, and we could have stopped him early on, but we were so perplexed by his behavior, we were curious to see how far he would go with it. The answer? All the way, mom and dad.



The only reason I'm posting this picture is because I dig his little outfit. It's a shirt with a tie design on it and matching pants. I really need to get a better shot of him in this before he outgrows it.


Does it get any cooler than this dude, rocking the shades, the diapers, and the Spider-Man bike?


Why yes, yes it does.

2010!

It only took 3 1/2 months, but here we are in 2010, at least in the virtual world. I have to make this quick since Lucas is itching to go outside at the moment.

All the following pictures are from January 1, which incidentally, was the next to last day we had to shovel snow in 2010. The only other day was sometime in February. That's how mild a winter it was. I think I could get used to that.

Marilu and Lucas made the most out of the snow day and decided to make a snow man out in front of our house.




After that, Lucas came inside and watched some Snow White on TV.


Ok, gotta run since he's just about ready, and I might see if he is willing to roller skate outside today. Have a great Saturday!

Farewell to 2009

It looks like winter might finally be coming to an end. The snow is almost all gone. The days are getting longer. The temperature is getting warmer. And I've probably now jinxed myself and will be shoveling the driveway all next week. The reason I mention this is that Lucas was out playing in the backyard yesterday afternoon for a good hour and making the most of the little snow that is still on the ground. I got a couple of pictures plus a fairly amusing video of him getting stuck in the container we bought last fall to store his toys, but alas, I haven't transferred them to the computer yet so this will have to wait for another day. In the meantime, let's take a look at some more December pictures as we play Operation: Catch Up to the Present 2010.

As seen below, not every picture is a magical portrait, displaying the innocence of youth. Sometimes you just gotta eat.


And then proudly show off your distended belly. The apple doesn't fall far from this tree.


Back in December, Lucas got it in his head that he wanted wine--quite often--when having dinner. Being the good parents we are, we obliged. After substituting apple juice for wine in the wine glass, mind you. I'm still shocked he hasn't managed to break one of those glasses yet.


Great shot of mom and son.


And that's it for December since all the Christmas pictures were already posted back when they happened. Onwards to January!

Back to the past

I was originally going to post some more pictures taken by my mom during her visit here last week, but I'm so far behind on older pictures (early December) that I've decided to try and play catch up. So without any further adieu, here are some random photos taken during the first couple weeks of December.

The requisite "cheese" face as Lucas hams it up for the camera.


Here we see him dressed up in what was a new, at the time, pair of Spider-Man pajamas. I think he has 2 or 3 of them now though those were particularly cool thanks to the little hood.


Getting his present from Santa at the kids Christmas party at Marilu's school. For the record, no fear of Santa, whatsoever. He saw two of them (Santas, that is) that day and both times he went running up to them.


A quick picture of Lucas and I between songs on Rock Band. He didn't really seem to understand the concept that "bang your head" didn't literally mean banging your head into your dad or the wall.


Finally, a video of us dancing--or at least me trying to get him to dance--to holiday favorite "Feliz Navidad". I'm not quite sure why Marilu turned the camera halfway through since it doesn't adjust for video like it does for pictures, but oh well. 20 seconds of turning your head to the side won't kill you.

Before and After

Before I get to the rest of the photos from my mom's visit, I wanted to do a before-and-after of Lucas from his trip to Goobers, a "hair salon" for kids here in west Ottawa.

Exhibit A ("Before") consists of these two shots from earlier in the day.



In Exhibit B ("During"), Lucas waits patiently as the hair stylist works on his locks. He was incredibly good this visit, not once complaining or trying to get out of his seat. Speaking of which, I wish they had chairs like that (Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars) when I was his age.


Finally, we come to Exhibit C ("After"), later on that night. The little gentleman is back!

Coming soon

My mom took some great pictures of Lucas during her visit with us the last week and a half. I just uploaded the photos from her camera to my computer and will start posting them tomorrow. I don't think he's ever been more expressive for the camera!

November

As I mentioned in my last post, I took very few photos of Lucas during November. So few, in fact, that I'll get through November in one post. How's that for catching up?

Back on November 1, we had some friends visit with their baby daughter. Some of the pictures Lucas took with her were nice...


Others? Not so much. We'll really need to have a word with him about the birds and bees soon.


Bad dad that I am, I'm trying to get Lucas into comic books at a real early age. What can I say? I still read them regularly.


Hmm, I just realized the only other pictures I took of him in November are already posted here. So that's all for November, folks. However, I do have a video from that set that I never posted that is nice and humiliating so consider this bonus footage.





Here's another cute video of Bat-Lucas running around the kitchen island. Well, cute until the kind of sad ending. He turned out okay, though.





The only other November photos I have are from my 20th high school reunion, but I doubt this is the forum for seeing a bunch of drunk 38-year-olds.

In the next post, I'll probably jump back to the present for a before-and-after of his haircut from this past weekend. BIG difference.

Silly kid

From moments ago...Lucas all dressed up and ready for school. Who needs pants?

One More Year

In my last post, I finally got through October. The good news about November (for me, anyway) is that we took very few pictures so it won't take very long to get through it. How few? I only took pictures of Lucas on 3 separate days in November. So 2 posts tops will get me into December, when I remembered to start using the camera more frequently again.

November will have to wait though since I want to post a couple of recent items. As many of you know, last Thursday was my (ugh) 39th birthday. To help celebrate it, Marilu made my favorite cake, a Coca-Cola cake, and Lucas actually posed for the camera. Below, you'll see a great picture of the event as well as a short video of Lucas helping me blow out the candles. Enjoy!






In case you can't tell, Lucas isn't waving at the camera throughout the video. He's trying to clear the smoke from the candles.

Enough with October, already!

The problem with posting pictures from eons ago--October, in this case--is that I've posted some of them already, back when October was classified as current. So I have to switch back and forth from the entry creation page that I'm on now and the blog itself, reviewing just what the heck I posted back in October and early November. Heavens forbid I post the same picture twice, what with this being a professional publication and all. So with that said, let's hope none of these are do-overs.

This is pretty much just a "Lucas Eating" photo, with the extra addition of a jungle hat I bought on a cruise I took back in 2001.


Coloring time! On a related note, his daycare provider praised his coloring ability yesterday. I guess he does a really good job at staying in the lines. I can't say I'm up-to-date with what the 2-and-a-half-year-old standards are for crayon usage nowadays, but it still sounds like quite an accomplishment. Next step: not peeing all over the couch.


This next picture is from when we were testing out his Tigger costume about a week before Halloween, to make sure he would wear it. You've already seen plenty of pictures of the costume from Halloween night itself, but what I love about this picture is his face. There is definitely something devilish going on there. Kind of makes me think I should lock my bedroom door at night...once he figures out how to open his own door (he's not mentally challenged, he just has one of those safety things over the knob). Click the picture for a larger view if you can't see the expression.


Heh, while uploading, I noticed that last picture was #6606. How appropriate. In this next picture, he was playing dress-up. Apparently, dressing up as one thing at a time isn't good enough for our son. Ladies and gentlemen, Spider Soldier.


I thought I'd already posted this next one, but then I realized I got confused since it was my computer wallpaper for a couple of months. Just Lucas posing with a Halloween decoration, but I thought it was cute.


Finally, we wrap up October with this cute one of Lucas and Marilu napping on the couch.


If you are wondering where the Halloween ones, I would advise you to visit this entry from November 3: Halloween 2009.

Next time, onward to November. At this rate, I should be through it by summer!

The Guilt Trip

Sometimes I can't tell whether Lucas is wise beyond his years or whether he just says the right thing at the right time. I have an example from earlier tonight.

After we read to him each night, it's become customary for one of us to lie down with him for a little bit before he goes to bed. Otherwise, he screams and cries and pounds on his door, and lying down with him is just easier to deal with. For the longest time, it was a clear choice--mommy slept with him. However, over the past week or so, he has wanted me in there more often than not.

After lying there for 10-15 minutes (unless I nod off myself), I sneak out. If he's awake, I'll explain that I have to use the bathroom but that I will be back. This usually works and 5-10 minutes later, he is asleep. He has seen through our lies in the past, either demanding that we stay or, in one case, he said he would come along with me.

Tonight, however, he played a new card, one that I'm not sure he even realized he was playing: the guilt card. I got up, noticed he was still awake, and I gave him the bathroom excuse. Lucas looked at me and said ever-so-gently, "I'll wait in bed, daddy." Just about broke my heart! After heading downstairs to watch a little TV, I even headed back up to check on him about 15 minutes later and found that he was sleeping. If he wasn't, I'd have almost felt obliged to lie back down with him until he fell back asleep. I tell ya, he can be aggravating as hell sometimes, but other times, like tonight, he can be just the sweetest little guy.

Minor health scare

Note: This story ends well so don't get too worried as you read it.

Monday afternoon, I picked Lucas up from daycare, and even though it was icy out, he refused to hold my hand. At the bottom of the stairs, I was trying to reach over and grab the back of his hood to help balance him when he hit a piece of ice fell back hard, slamming the back of his head into the edge of one of the stone stairs. He had his hood up, so there was a little bit of cushion back there, but he started crying real loud, real quick.

He ended up getting a massive bump on the back of his head, big enough that I called Marilu and urged her to get home from shopping asap so she could check it out. After that accident with Natasha Richardson last year, the media got me worried about head injuries. He didn't seem to have any concussion symptoms so we kind of forgot about it by the next day.

However, Tuesday night--a day and a half later--he ended up throwing up several times during the night, and that got us worried all over again, since vomiting is a concussion symptom apparently. I take Marilu's word for it since I've had none, and she has had, like, 3 or something. The thing is, Lucas has had a hacking chest cough from a virus going around his daycare, and the rest of the kids had all throw up from theirs. So we figured it was that, but we brought him to the doctor on Wednesday morning anyway. Better safe than sorry.

Short story long...he's fine. The vomiting was likely due to whatever virus he had in his symptom. At the very least, it has nothing to do with the fall so all is okay with the world again. I suppose I could have summed all that up in 2-3 sentences, but I'm all about the details, baby.

As a reward, the promised harmonica videos. Enjoy!

Older Stuff

Sorry about the delay in picture posting. For once, I actually have an excuse. Two, to be precise. First, since I bought the new laptop, I don't get downstairs to my desktop quite as often. There are some days I don't use it at all, and since all of the pictures are on the desktop, nothing gets done. Second, Marilu's brother and his wife have been in town since last Thursday, and I've tried to be sociable as opposed to being a recluse downstairs.

This has been the "cover my ass" portion of the post. On to the pictures, which come from October.

While digging through some boxes of my old stuff, I ran across a harmonica that I got when I was stationed in Germany back in the early 90s. Of course, I had to hand it over to Lucas and see what his reaction would be. He loved it, but unfortunately, it feel apart a couple of weeks later so we are now harmonica-less, for any of you trying to brainstorm future birthday or Christmas ideas.


Sometimes, Lucas loves to run around the house in just his diapers, and oftentimes, even less. On this night, I decided to join him. Well, sort of. Boxers instead of diapers in this case.


Helping mom out with a Halloween-themed cake.


Lucas shows off his Thanksgiving hat. In case U.S. readers are confused, this is a reminder that Canadian Thanksgiving is in October.


Lucas often creates his own outfits that don't always make a lot of sense. In this case, he combines a college football jersey with a pair of hockey gloves. At least he's not wearing high heels in this one.


Unless I forget (which is entirely possible), I plan to post the harmonica-playing videos tomorrow. Just need to remember to let them upload overnight.

The latest gift

Earlier today, we finally got Lucas's Christmas gift from his godfather, Jason. What he lacks in promptness, he more than makes up in originality. This might very well be the coolest present ever. Note: you may need some Star Wars knowledge to truly appreciate it.

Christmas Redux

I was looking through my photos and realized that I forgot a couple of good ones from Christmas. The reason they weren't included with the original Christmas entry is that they were taken that night. We went over to our friends Jay and Christine's house, took the pictures, and then we accidentally left the camera there and didn't get it again until New Year's Eve.

Before I get to those, I just wanted to mention that we had a pretty active day with Lucas. This morning, he had his first gymnastics class. I'm not really sure that is the official term since it's really all about running around and jumping and rolling, but there is gymnastics equipment around so we'll go with that.

In the afternoon, after Lucas's nap, we took him skating for nearly an hour. A couple of days ago, we bought him the double-bladed ice skates that attach directly to the boot. He had a pretty good time skating and hitting a puck with his stick. He's still quite a few years from breaking any of Gretzky's records, unfortunately. After that, we went sledding on a hill near our house. When we bought the skates, we bought a couple of sleds so all 3 of us were able to go at the same time. All in all, it was a fun day, and it definitely helps makes winter a little less depressing, something I've been quite susceptible to in the past.

On with the pictures!

In the first one, we interrupt Lucas as he is trying to eat. No wonder he doesn't like us using the camera anymore.


Later, we all posed for shots. In this one, Lucas poses with Carter and Xander.


Afterwards, we got a great family shot in front of Jay and Christine's tree. It would have been perfect if Lucas was looking at the camera, but you take what you can get.

New Year's Eve

As promised, I have a new post for you today. I've already taken tonight's Percocet, in anticipation of going to sleep in the next couple of hours, but the effects of the pill aren't starting to hit me yet so I should be fine for the next ten minutes or so.

Before I get into the meat of this post, I'd like to refer you to last year's New Year's Eve post right here. It took me until February 1 to get it up on the blog so my October and November 2009 pictures that are still sitting on my hard drive nothwithstanding, I'm getting better at the big events. Right? C'mon, someone agree with me.

It's actually kind of funny to look at last year's photos alongside this year's since the subject matter is nearly identical. Both years, we're at a kids' New Year's Eve party and Lucas is kissing lots of pretty girls. I'm such a proud father. The only major difference between the two parties is that last year's was at Heidi's and this year's was at Christine's.

Before our little lothario got down to business, he took some time to eat dinner at the table with the rest of the kids. This was as close as I could get to him looking at the camera. He's not as paparazzi-friendly as he once was, unfortunately.


A little bit later, he and Sherri (spelling?) worked on a fire truck puzzle in the hallway.


In the following video, Lucas gets kisses from Heidi and Francesca. He also got a kiss from the third girl in that clan, Genevieve, but I didn't get that on the camera. He does seem to like that family. :) Also, I love how he downs the rest of his "champagne" after the second kiss.





More champagne, please!


Of course, ya gotta close out the night with a kiss for mommy.


Hope everyone has a great 2010! Oh, and for all my Canadian friends, in honor of last night's hockey game, I just wanted to say, "USA! USA! USA!" :)

Temporarily delayed

I was planning to post something new this evening, but the Percocet I got from the doctor for my back (as mentioned in my last entry) is telling me that several paragraphs of coherent writing is not going to happen right now. However, I should be back tomorrow with many new tales of wonder, or at the very least, pictures of Lucas doing something cute.

Night!

Children's Museum

I'll be out of commission for most of the day so I wanted to get a post up since the last one was on Christmas. I'm going to the doctor at 4:10 this afternoon (yay, rush hour traffic) to get my upper back looked at. I've had a sharp pain, somewhat like the whiplash-like pain you get in your neck, that has been bothering me off and on since a few days before Christmas. It really intensifed last night, making it impossible to get into a comfortable position in bed. I finally was able to fall asleep in Lucas's bed, due to the firmer mattress, around 4 something. Don't worry about him, he had already crawled in with mom hours earlier. Hopefully, the doctor can prescribe something for me or at least point me toward someone else who can help since I was in so much pain last night, I was ready to head to the emergency room.

Enough about me, let's check out Lucas. The latest pictures of him since Christmas are still on the camera, which is upstairs, so for this post, we're jumping back in time again. I plan to get the new ones up later today or tomorrow so you can see what he did to entertain himself over the holidays. Though we did forget our camera at Jay and Christine's house from Christmas Day until New Years Eve so that will make catching up easier.

Way back when, in October, my mom came up to visit. I didn't get many pictures, presumably since she took most of them with her camera. However, I did remember to snap a few during a trip to the Museum of Civilization across the river in Quebec. Part of the museum is a children's museum, and suffice to say, Lucas had a blast.

The quality of this first shot is so-so, thanks to our camera, but I think I make up for it by providing a video from inside the Indian bus that Lucas is pretending to drive.






Sticking with the driving theme, Lucas also tries out an Indian mini-taxi vehicle...


...and wraps it up with a ride on a motorcycle. (eh, why not wear a construction helmet?)


Whoops, how could I forget the camel?


Amusing story about this last photo. In one section of the children's museum, there were several animal cutouts. You can see Lucas holding an elephant in the photo. Right next to them was a fountain. Well, Lucas took literally every single one (elephants, giraffes, monkeys, etc) and brought them over to the fountain to give them water. He would hold the mouth end of the cutouts near the water, presumably giving them a chance to drink. Very cute stuff.