Finally February!

Just to prove how far Lucas has come in his potty training, we were actually surprised tonight when he peed in his pants since that was the first time in weeks that he has had an accident. Heck, he now goes into the bathroom by himself when he has to poop and doesn't call for help until he is done. So we're yet one more step toward the rebellious teenager.

He's been a pretty good kid the last couple of weeks, though we have resorted to a combination of bribery and blackmail to maintain that behavior. You see, in a few weeks, his Grammy (my mom) is coming to visit, and we have already told him that she is bringing him a Spider-Man scooter. He couldn't be more thrilled about this and just about lost his voice when he saw it during a webcam conversation.

So, with that information in hand, here's what we've been doing. Whenever he starts being a pain in the butt, we grab the phone, tell him we're calling Grammy and telling her not to bring the scooter, and start dialing. In 95% of the cases, this gets him back on the straight and narrow REAL quick. Yes, some may say this is not the best parenting, but our biggest worry is what we're going to use for blackmail once he gets the scooter.

Onward to pictures from early February...

I believe this is the first picture taken of him on the new hardwood floor that Marilu's brother Jonathan installed during his visit back in late January. It also shows off his wonderfully chaotic hair. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention he was trying to wear my boxer shorts (which are straight out of the clean laundry basket).


I suspect Lucas doesn't have a career in the fashion industry (thank god) after seeing this ensemble: a raincoat and rainboots over his Superman pajama top.


This next picture was taken after we made an impromptu snowman. If you look closely, you can see Lucas has cannibalized the poor thing and is eating one of its blackberry eyes.


Lucas and some of the neighborhood kids make the most of a snow hill made in the yard of our neighbor across the street.


That's all for now. There aren't too many more February pictures--just some stuff from Winterlude and his latest haircut--so we may be able to hit March by week's end. I've also been better at taking new pictures of him so hopefully I can get some recent stuff up soon as well.

Easter 2010 Videos

I finally remembered to upload the two videos we took of Lucas Easter morning so check those out below. While handling that, I noticed that Marilu and I have been quite remiss in taking pictures of Lucas. Today is April 19th, and the last time the camera was used was on April 5. Yikes! Hopefully, with more warm weather on the way, we'll have more reasons to have the camera out, chronicling our demonchild.

The silver lining of that story is that less photos means it will take me less time to catch up on this blog since I'm still back around the beginning of February. So someone wins...me!

Anyway, enjoy the videos...

Cellophane Boy

Yet one more example of how weird Lucas can be. In this instance, from late January, he wanted to wrap tape around his head. I supervised insomuch as to make sure he didn't cover both his nose and mouth. Luckily, the tape didn't stick to his hair too badly and came off without any crying.

Easter 2010

This year's Easter started off the same way as last year's (which can be seen here). That is, with an egg hunt. Lucas was a lot better at it this year, and he really seemed to have a good time. He's surprisingly perceptive when it comes to locating eggs in non-obvious locations. Of the 18 eggs I hid, he only needed help finding a couple of them.





Yes, that's chocolate on his hands. In a follow-up post, you'll see the video that explains how his hands got that way.


Later that morning, I brought him to the Canadian Agriculture Museum in order to give Marilu a chance to work on some school stuff. We've been there several times since it's a great place for kids, what with all the animals, so this year we went ahead and bought an annual pass. That ought to pay for itself well before the end of the summer.





(For what it's worth, the next to last picture with the big cow lying behind him is one of my favorite pics of Lucas in a while)

In the evening, we had our next-door neighbors over with their kids (the older one, Tyler, is only a few months younger than Lucas) and had a tasty turkey dinner. No pictures of that part of the day, unfortunately. All in all, though, it was a good Easter.

On a related note to Tyler, earlier this weekend, we took down three of the boards in the fence that separates our two yards so now Lucas and Tyler can go back and forth between the two yards without having to go out front. It's been such a hit so far, I can't believe we didn't do it sooner.

For Poppy

Easter photos are coming soon, possibly tonight, but in the meantime, this post is for Poppy, Lucas's grandfather on Marilu's side. Quite some time ago, Lucas received this outfit from his Poppy, but only recently has he been able to fit into it. If you can't see the embroidery clearly, it says, "Poppy's Little Helper," and it has a picture of one of the trucks they use at the iron ore mine in Labrador City. Enjoy!



FYI, since I sometimes forget myself, this is the breakdown of grandparents and their nicknames:

• Marilu's dad Gerry: Poppy
• Marilu's mom Barbara: Nanny
• My dad George (aka Mark): Gramps
• My mom Elinor: Grammy
• Kevin, my mom's husband: Grampy

I think that covers everyone. It's like a quiz show trying to remember who is who sometimes.

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!