Dancing Fool

It's been a while since I posted a video of our little troublemaker so let me remedy that situation with this one I took during out trip to Syracuse in March. Lucas found that the music on the radio in our hotel room was to his satisfaction and decided to express himself creatively. Enjoy!

Snow, Anyone?

Seeing as it currently "feels like" 33 C/91 F, it seems as good a time as any to revisit our past winter. As we do almost every year, Marilu, Lucas, and I once again made the trip down to Winterlude. I think this is the 3rd time we went as a family and the 4th time in total. For us, that's pretty much tradition. For those of you who don't know what Winterlude is, let Wikipedia be your friend here.

Lucas tried his hand (foot?) at skating on the canal for the second straight year. This year, he wore real skates for the first time whereas last year, he was on double-bladed training skates. I don't think he's going to be the next Olympic skater, but he did okay, considering how little we bring him to skate. Actually, if I recall correctly, this was the only time he used them this year. What can I say? I was born in California; I have better things to do than slide around on a sheet of ice and fall on my butt.



Of course, what is Winterlude without the ice sculptures, and there were plenty of those.



We wrap this post up with a picture of Mr. Rosy Cheeks.

Yes, I'm Alive

New pictures tomorrow! I promise!

Birthday Party #4

Lucas's 4th birthday party was held on Saturday, June 18th, a couple of days after his actual birthday. We held it at our house for possibly the last time since he may want to start having it at other locations after this year, but for now, we're happy with the convenience. Wow, that just made me realize this was his last birthday party before he is in school. Time flies...

The party started off with a craft. Since the party's theme was Batman, Marilu used her Cricut scrapbooking machine to make little Batman badges that the kids could glue together.


I love this shirt.


Afterwards, some of the kids played around the house with Lucas's vast collection of toys. Honestly, he has enough toys to fill a couple of daycare centers. Other kids played in the backyard as evidenced by this picture of Lucas and his friend Ryan. Lucas knows Ryan from daycare, and I would say he's as close to a best friend as Lucas has. Luckily, they will be in the same class this fall.


Next up was lunch. Of course, Lucas had to ham it up for the camera.



Here's the cake Marilu made. What a great job!


Blowing out the candles...


....and then eating as messily as possible.



There weren't any fantastic present opening pictures, but since it's a birthday party, I feel obligated to put at least one in so here you go.


All in all, it was a good party, and I think everyone had a fun time. Many, many thanks to my mom for taking these pictures since Marilu and I were too busy hosting to focus on camera duties.

FYI, today is Lucas's last day of full day daycare. His daycare provider does a teacher's schedule, and since Marilu's last day of school is today, Lucas will be home until fall. Then, when daycare starts back up, he'll only be there in the morning and afternoon since he'll be in junior kindergarten. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, where the heck has the time gone? Next thing we know, he'll be going to prom and heading to university.

I'll be posting all the birthday pictures to my Picasa online photo albums shortly so I'll post a link to that in the next entry.

In case I don't post this weekend, Happy Canada Day and Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Lucas Turns 4!

My mom left yesterday, but before she went, I was able to download over 100 pictures from her visit to my computer. There are lots of good pictures from his birthday and the subsequent party so the next 2-3 posts will likely be devoted to that.

Before I get to that, I wanted to relate a funny little story from earlier today. For some reason this morning, Lucas used the word "ass." I can't imagine where he learned THAT word. Anyway, I told him that "ass" was a bad word and that he shouldn't be using it. However, I then corrected myself and said that using "ass" when talking about people was bad, but if you used it instead of the word "donkey," it was ok. So this afternoon, when Marilu got home, I asked Lucas to tell her what he learned about words today. He thought about it for a moment and then said, "Ass with people is bad but ass with donkey is good." Ah, the apple of my eye.

This first batch of photos is from Lucas's actual birthday, June 16. In the first shot, he's about to check out a Harry Potter sticker book. He doesn't have any idea who HP is, but it's stickers, so that's all good in his world.


I'm not sure how well you can see his face here (click the photo for a bigger version), but that is nothing short of "ecstatic" written on his face. In his defense, the present was in a pretty big bag.


In case you are wondering, this is what the present was. Marilu and I bought him a big Playmobil pirate ship. He's become a huge fan of Playmobil toys, and his birthday definitely added to his collection. Besides this pirate ship, he got a ghost pirate ship and a large dragon.


Afterwards, we had dinner at Lone Star, which was his choice of restaurant. He took the time out of his busy schedule to pose with all of us.




Up next: the birthday party!

Birthday Photos (well, sort of)

It appears I misspoke in my last entry. I can't post any pictures from Lucas's 4th birthday since, quite simply, we didn't take any. We didn't have anything official for him since his party is on Saturday so I guess it never occurred to us to take pictures. I do believe my mom got some on her camera, but I haven't used her camera before so downloading those pictures will have to wait until I can figure it out.

In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures from June 14th, when Lucas got his birthday present from his godfather Jason in the mail. So technically, it's birthday related. Enjoy!

Four!

Yesterday, June 16, was Lucas's 4th birthday. I planned to post some pictures of the event, but it turned out to be a busy day so I didn't get a chance. I'll try to get something up before the end of today. Also, his actual birthday party is on Saturday so there should be many more photos after that.

Seems like just yesterday he was born, huh?

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.