For those of you keeping track of such things, Lucas turns 1 on Monday. It's amazing how time flies. We'll be having a party for him tomorrow afternoon, and I hope to have plenty of pictures from it posted tomorrow evening or Sunday afternoon. Feel free to send your birthday wishes to the big guy in the comment section below.
Back to work for me...
Friday, June 13, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
At the park
One of the days I was at work, Marilu and my dad took Lucas to a nearby park. For some reason, I really like this next picture. Kind of a slice-of-life thing, I guess, as Lucas checks out the geese.
If you look close in the next one, there are some baby geese. I suppose I could look up the technical term (gander? or is that a female goose?), but that would require effort. :) As with just about any animal he sees, Lucas is visibly excited. Just wait until tomorrow's update where we go to the farm.
If you look close in the next one, there are some baby geese. I suppose I could look up the technical term (gander? or is that a female goose?), but that would require effort. :) As with just about any animal he sees, Lucas is visibly excited. Just wait until tomorrow's update where we go to the farm.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Museum of Civilization
Our next stop finds us on May 19, which was the holiday Victoria Day up here in the Great White North. We decided to head down to the Museum of Civilization since it has a children's museum in it. That, and neither my dad nor I had ever been there.
Lucas tries out his acting chops by donning some headgear in the theater area.
Lucas tries out his first rocking horse. I suspect we'll be buying him one of his own soon enough based on his reaction.
Later on, Lucas and my dad check out one of the exhibits together. My dad likes to read all the items whereas Lucas is content to simply point out that the exhibit does indeed exist. :)
For those of you in the Ottawa area that haven't been (which is probably none of you), the Museum of Civilization is a pretty good museum. The children's area is a great place for the kids and I was amazed at some of the detail in the rest of the museum, particularly the re-creation of a street in early 1900s midwest Canada. I've now been to two Canadian museums, the War Museum being the other one, and I can't say enough good things about either one of them. Hopefully we'll get a chance to come back and see an IMAX movie with Lucas before too long.
Lucas tries out his acting chops by donning some headgear in the theater area.
Lucas tries out his first rocking horse. I suspect we'll be buying him one of his own soon enough based on his reaction.
Later on, Lucas and my dad check out one of the exhibits together. My dad likes to read all the items whereas Lucas is content to simply point out that the exhibit does indeed exist. :)
For those of you in the Ottawa area that haven't been (which is probably none of you), the Museum of Civilization is a pretty good museum. The children's area is a great place for the kids and I was amazed at some of the detail in the rest of the museum, particularly the re-creation of a street in early 1900s midwest Canada. I've now been to two Canadian museums, the War Museum being the other one, and I can't say enough good things about either one of them. Hopefully we'll get a chance to come back and see an IMAX movie with Lucas before too long.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
New look...for now
I was looking at the blog this week and it occurred to me that when I initially set it up, I used a green background since we didn't know what the sex of our baby would be at the time. Well, a year later, I think we've pretty much got it figured out so I decided to change it to a blue motif. I'm not thrilled on some of the accent colors so this is subject to change.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Return to the Tulip Festival
He knows he shouldn't be in that drawer ripping out all the towels. But let's face it, how can you say no to that face?
Three generations of Deal boys during our second trip to the Tulip Festival. This was the same event I took that video of my dad running with Lucas in the stroller. So yeah, I'm a few weeks behind.
For you flower lovers out there, Marilu took a picture of the view at the Tulip Festival.
Don't worry, as interested as Lucas was in the tulip, we didn't let him tear it out of the ground.
And one last shot from the festival with Lucas and his Gramps.
Three generations of Deal boys during our second trip to the Tulip Festival. This was the same event I took that video of my dad running with Lucas in the stroller. So yeah, I'm a few weeks behind.
For you flower lovers out there, Marilu took a picture of the view at the Tulip Festival.
Don't worry, as interested as Lucas was in the tulip, we didn't let him tear it out of the ground.
And one last shot from the festival with Lucas and his Gramps.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Say cheese!
I've been trying to go chronologicaly in order to catch up for May, but Lucas has been really adorable the last couple of days in the way he smiles. I could go into a long description of what it looks like, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. I can only imagine what the exchange rate is for several pictures and a couple of videos.
Personally, I think he kind of looks like Popeye here.
This one isn't a smile picture, but he still looks cute trying to eat corn off the cob.
Personally, I think he kind of looks like Popeye here.
This one isn't a smile picture, but he still looks cute trying to eat corn off the cob.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Brody's Birthday Party
Another week, another birthday party. This time it was for Brody, son of our friends Wes and Kelly. This was also the first full day my dad was with us as part of a week and a half long visit so you may see him in quite a few of the pictures over the next couple of days.
Going against the whole "saving the best for last" mindset, I've decided to start off with the best thing I got with the camera, a short video with Lucas and Kayden, daughter of Brigitte and Casey. Kayden is slightly younger than Lucas, born about 2 weeks later than him on July 1. I happened to be taking a video of the two of them playing with the gift wrappings on the floor when they did something that was both surprising and hilarious. I don't want to give it away, but watch for it at about the 8 second mark in the following video.
Awesome, huh? They're totally hooking up when they are older. :)
This picture of Lucas and Brody is pretty funny too. It kind of looks like Brody is tormenting Lucas, based on their facial expressions, but I think Lucas was upset about something else entirely. Whatever the case, it was a fleeting feeling as none of the other photos taken at the window had him looking upset in the slightest.
Great photo of Marilu, but not so much for our little stoner.
I've found that when the kids get their first cake at these parties, they tear into it, and it's a messy, fun affair. In Brody's case, he seemed almost horrified by the experience. You can see here that he's not feeling too good about what just happened. For the rest of us, it was comedy gold.
Here we see the little man trying out the gift that we bought Brody, a big truck of some sort with lots of blocks inside.
Playing with the wrapping paper was likely the highlight of the party for all the under 2s.
Back with Brody, Kayden, and Lucas were only a month or two old, the three dads took a picture with the kids which can be seen here. Two months later, we took another similarly-themed picture though the dad-less one came our better (see here). Since it's been about 7 months since then, it only seemed appropriate to update with another Dads and tots photo. Thanks to Wes's overproductive loins, you'll notice he's carrying a brand new baby, in addition to the original.
My, how times have changed, huh? That's all for tonight, folks!
Going against the whole "saving the best for last" mindset, I've decided to start off with the best thing I got with the camera, a short video with Lucas and Kayden, daughter of Brigitte and Casey. Kayden is slightly younger than Lucas, born about 2 weeks later than him on July 1. I happened to be taking a video of the two of them playing with the gift wrappings on the floor when they did something that was both surprising and hilarious. I don't want to give it away, but watch for it at about the 8 second mark in the following video.
Awesome, huh? They're totally hooking up when they are older. :)
This picture of Lucas and Brody is pretty funny too. It kind of looks like Brody is tormenting Lucas, based on their facial expressions, but I think Lucas was upset about something else entirely. Whatever the case, it was a fleeting feeling as none of the other photos taken at the window had him looking upset in the slightest.
Great photo of Marilu, but not so much for our little stoner.
I've found that when the kids get their first cake at these parties, they tear into it, and it's a messy, fun affair. In Brody's case, he seemed almost horrified by the experience. You can see here that he's not feeling too good about what just happened. For the rest of us, it was comedy gold.
Here we see the little man trying out the gift that we bought Brody, a big truck of some sort with lots of blocks inside.
Playing with the wrapping paper was likely the highlight of the party for all the under 2s.
Back with Brody, Kayden, and Lucas were only a month or two old, the three dads took a picture with the kids which can be seen here. Two months later, we took another similarly-themed picture though the dad-less one came our better (see here). Since it's been about 7 months since then, it only seemed appropriate to update with another Dads and tots photo. Thanks to Wes's overproductive loins, you'll notice he's carrying a brand new baby, in addition to the original.
My, how times have changed, huh? That's all for tonight, folks!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
More May Mishmash
A few more random photos from mid-May. This first one was taken on May 13, the same day as Lucas's first video on the swing. I just think it's a cute picture of him sitting out on the front porch of our townhouse. Try to ignore my wretched lawn; I have more of a black thumb than a green one.
The next day, Marilu moved some stuff around in our cabinets. While one of the doors was open, Lucas decided to move in.
The face of innocence. "If you didn't want me to pull all your towels out, you wouldn't have put them in the bottom drawer, right?"
The next day, Marilu moved some stuff around in our cabinets. While one of the doors was open, Lucas decided to move in.
The face of innocence. "If you didn't want me to pull all your towels out, you wouldn't have put them in the bottom drawer, right?"
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Francesca's 3rd Birthday Party
Highlights from the 1st of 3 birthday parties we went to this month, taken on May 10th. This party was for Francesca, the older daughter of Marilu's good friend, Heidi.
I think it's probably going to be a few more years before you get that right, buddy. Of course, I'm 37 and still can't hula-hoop, so don't feel bad.
A dad, a boy, and his beer.
Lucas panhandles for food from Marilu and Christine, eventually scoring a used corn on the cob.
A shot of the birthday girl and her cake. The cake was pretty clever. She's a big fan of Curious George, and the cake is a yellow hat. For those of you who live under a rock, one of the supporting characters in the series of books is George's "owner," the Man in the Yellow Hat. There's also a Curious George doll on the front side of the cake.
The next video up is Lucas on a slide. Come to think of it, this is the first and (so far) only video we have of him sliding. I'll have to get a better one since this is a little too close to the action.
Successfully traversing the treacherous slide, our intrepid adventurer poses in all his glory at the base of the summit.
Sticking with that theme, our hero rides off into the sunset on his valiant steed, Blue Rocking Horse!
And finally, he retires to the lodge for a fine afternoon of coloring. Huzzah!
Later on, at home, Lucas has his first hamburger and first ketchup. Mind you, it's all bite-size pieces, but you get the idea.
I think it's probably going to be a few more years before you get that right, buddy. Of course, I'm 37 and still can't hula-hoop, so don't feel bad.
A dad, a boy, and his beer.
Lucas panhandles for food from Marilu and Christine, eventually scoring a used corn on the cob.
A shot of the birthday girl and her cake. The cake was pretty clever. She's a big fan of Curious George, and the cake is a yellow hat. For those of you who live under a rock, one of the supporting characters in the series of books is George's "owner," the Man in the Yellow Hat. There's also a Curious George doll on the front side of the cake.
The next video up is Lucas on a slide. Come to think of it, this is the first and (so far) only video we have of him sliding. I'll have to get a better one since this is a little too close to the action.
Successfully traversing the treacherous slide, our intrepid adventurer poses in all his glory at the base of the summit.
Sticking with that theme, our hero rides off into the sunset on his valiant steed, Blue Rocking Horse!
And finally, he retires to the lodge for a fine afternoon of coloring. Huzzah!
Later on, at home, Lucas has his first hamburger and first ketchup. Mind you, it's all bite-size pieces, but you get the idea.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Comments?
Just a quick note for anyone leaving comments. Due to a fairly high amount of spam comments (yes, I'm VERY interested in the Philippine lottery), I've enabled word verification when leaving a comment. All it means is that you'll have to enter a word that is showing up in a little graphic next to the text box. That way it verifies to the system that a real person is entering the comment, not some program. Let me know if you have any problems with it!
Mishmash from May
Another series of random photos, this time from early May.
May 4
If there's one thing that Lucas likes to do, it's tear things apart. And what could be better than tearing apart this laundry basket full of clothes?
I'll tell ya what's better. Riding in that same basket...and in only a diaper!
Presumably, we are to be impressed by his pancake eating skills.
Lucas hangs out in this amusing (but cute) outfit while we (mostly his mom) figured out how to install his new car seat.
Testing out the new seat. Hope you like it, Lucas, since you'll be in it for quite a while.
May 8
This one's for Lucas's godfather, who bought him the rocket car below. He still can't stand and ride on it all that well, but it and the other cars make for pretty good makeshift walkers as you can see here.
Coming up in the next few posts...birthday parties galore, a return trip to the Tulip Festival, and our first visit to the Museum of Civilization.
May 4
If there's one thing that Lucas likes to do, it's tear things apart. And what could be better than tearing apart this laundry basket full of clothes?
I'll tell ya what's better. Riding in that same basket...and in only a diaper!
Presumably, we are to be impressed by his pancake eating skills.
Lucas hangs out in this amusing (but cute) outfit while we (mostly his mom) figured out how to install his new car seat.
Testing out the new seat. Hope you like it, Lucas, since you'll be in it for quite a while.
May 8
This one's for Lucas's godfather, who bought him the rocket car below. He still can't stand and ride on it all that well, but it and the other cars make for pretty good makeshift walkers as you can see here.
Coming up in the next few posts...birthday parties galore, a return trip to the Tulip Festival, and our first visit to the Museum of Civilization.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Breaking news
For the first time ever, we have Lucas standing on video. He holds the pose for several seconds while playing with the magnets on the fridge. I know we'll look back on this in a month or two and be amused that it's such a big deal, but for now, enjoy.
By the way, I have a crapload of pictures from the past week and a half that I need to start uploading. Between those and the ones from earlier in May, there should be a deluge of photos over the next week or so.
By the way, I have a crapload of pictures from the past week and a half that I need to start uploading. Between those and the ones from earlier in May, there should be a deluge of photos over the next week or so.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
For your amusement
First, a video from this past weekend. We were lounging around the living room and Lucas was a bit wound up. He was scampering all over the place so I turned the video on him and we tried to get him to show us his dance moves. We were only partially successful, but most of this video is pretty funny nonetheless. If you watch around the 29 second mark, he has a little lunge move that he's been doing a LOT lately. The head shaking is a riot too.
As for pictures, all hail, Captain Butterhead!
As for pictures, all hail, Captain Butterhead!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Playing catch up...again
Since I completely forgot to upload some of the April pictures that fell between the cracks, I'm going to spend the next entry or two playing catch up.
From April 7, the couch potato and little hash brown watch TV together.
Hmm, that appears to be it. I went through the rest of the April photos and all of the highlights have been posted. On a related note, while doing that, I also uploaded the rest of the April photos to the online albums. Besides general photos, these include shots from the tail end of the Labrador City trip, our California trip, and Jonathan and Chantal's visit to Ottawa. You can either click on the link somewhere to the right or, because I'm so generous, simply click here.
From April 7, the couch potato and little hash brown watch TV together.
Hmm, that appears to be it. I went through the rest of the April photos and all of the highlights have been posted. On a related note, while doing that, I also uploaded the rest of the April photos to the online albums. Besides general photos, these include shots from the tail end of the Labrador City trip, our California trip, and Jonathan and Chantal's visit to Ottawa. You can either click on the link somewhere to the right or, because I'm so generous, simply click here.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Running
For the second straight week, we went to the Tulip Festival in Ottawa, this time with my dad. However, last week we went to Major something or another park down by the Market, whereas this week we went to another location for it, Dow's Lake. I'll post pictures of it eventually, but for now, check out the video of my dad pushing Lucas in the stroller. Suffice to say Lucas enjoys speed.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Anatomy of a meltdown
Before I forget, Marilu wanted me to announce that Lucas finally has his first teeth. Well, at least one tooth though she thinks another is coming in from the top. I hadn't mentioned it since she noticed it a few days ago since all you can do is feel it (when you are able to convince him to let you run your finger along his gum). So it's not really visible yet, were he to give you a grin, but it's basically there.
I look upon the occasion with both happiness and surprisingly, a little sadness. Happy since it's always good to see another milestone reached, but on the other hand, there was something so cute about those huge gum-filled smiles that Lucas was more than happy to give. It just makes me a little sad knowing that soon I'll never see them again. As much as I like seeing the little guy grow up, there's a part of me that wants to lock up this stage of his life and just keep it forever. Yeah, I'm sure he'll do other things that are cute and make him adorable as all get-out in the future, but this aspect of his life will forever be just a memory.
Guess I'll just have to get Marilu pregnant again so we can see it with his sister Raya. :)
Anyway, on to the topic of this post. Earlier tonight, I let Lucas play around with the digital camera for the first time. He was entranced by it for several minutes, looking at it from all side, and particularly interested when I turned it on and he could see pictures on the screen. As with all good things, this had to end when he started trying to chew on the camera. I took the camera away from him and this sent him into an instant meltdown. A pictorial journey of said meltdown, in both videos and photos, follows.
I tell ya, what a horrible life that kid leads, not being allowed to indiscriminately chew on digital cameras, huh?
I look upon the occasion with both happiness and surprisingly, a little sadness. Happy since it's always good to see another milestone reached, but on the other hand, there was something so cute about those huge gum-filled smiles that Lucas was more than happy to give. It just makes me a little sad knowing that soon I'll never see them again. As much as I like seeing the little guy grow up, there's a part of me that wants to lock up this stage of his life and just keep it forever. Yeah, I'm sure he'll do other things that are cute and make him adorable as all get-out in the future, but this aspect of his life will forever be just a memory.
Guess I'll just have to get Marilu pregnant again so we can see it with his sister Raya. :)
Anyway, on to the topic of this post. Earlier tonight, I let Lucas play around with the digital camera for the first time. He was entranced by it for several minutes, looking at it from all side, and particularly interested when I turned it on and he could see pictures on the screen. As with all good things, this had to end when he started trying to chew on the camera. I took the camera away from him and this sent him into an instant meltdown. A pictorial journey of said meltdown, in both videos and photos, follows.
I tell ya, what a horrible life that kid leads, not being allowed to indiscriminately chew on digital cameras, huh?
Growing boy
As promised, pictures from Lucas's 11 month old day!
Reading Curious George.
Trying out some Canadian beer after dinner.
And finally, a couple of poses before bedtime.
I'll be getting back to this in a future post, but today we went to the 1 year birthday party for Brody, another of Lucas's friends. We took lots of pictures, but the one in particular I wanted to post right now was Lucas, Marilu, and Gramps (ie, my dad). Gramps is in town all week, and my brother wanted to see a picture of Lucas with him so here you go. Enjoy, Jared!
Reading Curious George.
Trying out some Canadian beer after dinner.
And finally, a couple of poses before bedtime.
I'll be getting back to this in a future post, but today we went to the 1 year birthday party for Brody, another of Lucas's friends. We took lots of pictures, but the one in particular I wanted to post right now was Lucas, Marilu, and Gramps (ie, my dad). Gramps is in town all week, and my brother wanted to see a picture of Lucas with him so here you go. Enjoy, Jared!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Getting old!
Just a quick entry to point out that Lucas is eleven months old today (Friday). At times, it seems like just yesterday since he was born, and at others, it feels like he started crawling months and months ago (it was only about 2). We took some pictures of the big guy today that I'll post as soon as I upload them tomorrow. Have a great weekend!
At the playground
Here's the video associated with Lucas's swinging at the playground a couple of posts back. Now you can see AND hear the fun he's having.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Video success!
I tested out the video editor earlier and it converted a 106 MB AVI video to a 9 MB WMV video. The quality difference is nearly imperceptible, especially for the types of video I'm taking so hopefully this will resolve any video issues in the future. It also means I can take longer videos so that's cool.
Below is the video I converted. I referenced it the other day as being a good video since it had Lucas both moving around a bit and "talking." I've noticed in YouTube there are some small black bars on the left and right side of the video, but I think that's because the aspect ratio of the video changed slightly during the conversion. Other than that, it's as good as the original and only a tenth of the size. Enjoy!
EDIT: After posting this, I realized embedded videos get trimmed a bit automatically so the black bars I referenced shouldn't be an issue at all on this blog.
Below is the video I converted. I referenced it the other day as being a good video since it had Lucas both moving around a bit and "talking." I've noticed in YouTube there are some small black bars on the left and right side of the video, but I think that's because the aspect ratio of the video changed slightly during the conversion. Other than that, it's as good as the original and only a tenth of the size. Enjoy!
EDIT: After posting this, I realized embedded videos get trimmed a bit automatically so the black bars I referenced shouldn't be an issue at all on this blog.
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