Sleepy Head

Just a few Lucas pics (surprise, surprise!) to get your week off to a good start...

I really didn't want to share that banana split you know... it's just that...well...

By the way, I keep forgetting to put a link to my friend Randy's blog called Harper 3, Abbey 1. He's been posting a comic strip he created about his daughters, and I've really been enjoying it. I think many of you other parents would too. Randy is of Tracey and Randy who lived in Vancouver not too long ago, then moved back to Ontario. Harper was just little little then. Abbey is a couple of months older than Lucas.

budding artist

Well, I finally feel like the holiday season is now over. All our guests have come and gone for the time being, and Rob, Lucas, the dogs and I find ourselves alone in the house for the first time in months. We are looking forward to slipping into a bit of a routine of work and play. It is going to take a little juggling of schedules as the class I'm teaching is at the very inconvenient time of bath and bed time. On the flipside, it has been really great to see Rob and Lucas develop their own bedtime routine when I'm out at work, and it is a great relief to me to know that Lucas will go down happily for his Dad. Might I dream of a night away one day soon?!

I've been trying very hard to find some other kids for Lucas to play with. The new play place that opened has given me the opportunity to meet two other moms, but the class I enrolled Lucas in was a bust. The anticipated enrollment turned out to be just Lucas... so he had the class to himself. Needless to say, it wasn't really what we had in mind. I'm going to give a try again in February. This week I also tried to organize a Mom and Tot get-together at our house. Had everyone who said they would shown, we would have been eight moms. Unfortunately we were only three. The two who came loved the songs I taught them, but they both have itty bitty babes, so Lucas was VERY disinterested. Again, I will try again in couple of weeks and see if I have any more success.

So that's where I'm at now. We have a couple of possible play-dates this week, and I think Lucas and I will wander over to a couple of the daycares and see what we think. Other than that we are happily playing cars, smushing playdough, drawing, dog-walking, cooking, watering plants, and of course endlessly sweeping up sand and dog hair! (One of Lucas' favorite activities.) My apologies to many of you to whom I owe emails, I'm simply not finding the time these days, and am exhausted when I get back from work in the evenings.

Uncle Scottie and Trucks

It has been a very busy, and very testosterone-filled couple of weeks...! Lucas was thrilled when Uncle Scott arrived; especially because he came bearing a new hummer to add to the collection. Lucas has been inseparable from both the truck and his Uncle since. I'm afraid my "way" of playing trucks just won't be the same when Scott leaves!

Lucas compares the colour of a maraschino cherry to Uncle Scott's burn (day 1... I promised not sure show pictures of the next set of burns.)

The Herman boys plays trucks over morning coffee.

New Years, Friends, and Starts

On the 27th of December we welcomed our friends from Vancouver Rob, Paula and Nate. (I'm not sure who the woman with the braids on the left is!) They joined us for six days of surf and sun, and helped us ring in the New Year. It was wonderful to get to know them better and share some laughs. It was also fun for Lucas to have a friend to play with...although at this age playing seemed to consist of toy-stealing and crying for Lucas! Nonetheless the boys were laughing and interacting by the time Nate left. It was really great to re-connect with Paula, get to know Rob, and see how much Nate had changed.
We also shared some wickedly-competitive games of Pick Two; our newest game obsession. (Thanks Santa Justine!) New Years was rung in amongst shouts of "pick two!" fireworks, and gunshots, of course. Quite exciting.

Quite likely due to Nate's older-boy influence, Lucas has begun to really put the push on developing his linguistic abilities. He is now grunting a little less and trying to form some "real" words beside his current repetoire of mama, dada, aba, dog, and mangled versions of car and truck. Yesterday it was ball and boat that he was obsessed with. He went to bed talking to himself happily. I was a little worried that he was talking in tongues and we were dealing with some sort of a religious prophet until I remembered that Logan did much the same thing at this age. Phew...

Pics: Enjoying Troncones with the Gills.

Sadly we said goodbye to everyone, including Mom, yesterday. The house has seemed quiet and I'm finding that morning nap is not quite the same without mom to distract me with food and conversation. Lucas dragged me into her room to play "Abuela games" this morning, and seemed a bit miffed at me for what I suspect was the fact I was playing them wrong. We hope she has a great visit in Vancouver and look forward to her return in February.

A new circus has arrived in town, so we are off tonight to give it a whirl. We'll see how long Lucas lasts! Tomorrow Scott is arriving to spend a couple of weeks with us. He thinks he's coming to lay on the beach... but Lucas may have other plans for his uncle, I see the cars are all lined up for some sort of a derby?!