Sneaky kid

Lu did really well giving up his bottle so now it's on to the pacifier.
The new rule was only pacifiers (aka nuks) in the crib meaning that Lu could only use it when he was sleeping, not in the car, not in the living room, not anywhere but the crib. Well, the "not in the car" lasted all of a week. We have a 35-minute commute each way and I couldn't take the screaming anymore. But when we're inside, it's nuks in the crib. Lu has quickly learned how to push his crib (it's on wheels) into the middle of his room so he can reach in and pull out his nuk and taggie. The only way he can't reach it is if it's smack dab in the middle.
So here's Lu getting his nuk and taggie when my back was turned.

His crib is usually up against the wall to the right.





We can't really keep the pool outside (against the rules) and I'm too lazy to inflate and deflate it every time we use it so...it sits in our living room and serves as a multi-purpose chair, toy, wrestling pad etc...

(I just viewed the close-up of this pic and realized how much crap we have under the couch.)

Brushing his teeth.


Look! He does have hair!

Random pics with the new camera

Note the perpetual skinned knees. Oh, what a boy.


Lucius absolutely loves playing with the recycling. That's pretty much all he plays with when we're outside. Unfortunately, recycling only collects every other week so we always have lots of it.

Working hard?

Or hardly working?



Eating is quite an event at our house. This is typically what he looks like, hence why he gets a bath every night.

Oh Dad, you're too funny.


Hey ladies.


Lu's new fave activity is putting the top of his toy chest on the floor and tap dancing on it. Hmmm....maybe he does have some of my genes after all.


Did you notice how he's smiling in most of the pictures? That's because of the new camera! Our old camera took sooo long to take a picture that we could never get the smile shot.

Happy Anniversary to Me!!!!

In honor of our third wedding anniversary (which is today), I we bought a Nikon D40 . You know the one. The commercial says they gave it free to 200 townspeople of Georgetown, South Carolina. Anyway, wouldn't you know it actually arrived today and UPS was kind enough to leave it outside of our door.
Here's the very first picture I took. Just turned on the camera and this is what I got.


Oh,Ichabod.


Tacit hiding in the closet, per usual.


This was taken without the flash. I can't begin to tell you how much better this is compared to our other camera. We could only take a pic without the flash if we were outside in bright daylight.


I'll obviously take more of Lu tomorrow, but I took this tonight when he was sleeping. Keep in mind that his room was completely dark and I didn't use the flash, hence why it's so blurry. Amazing!

Quahogs on the 1/2 shell

Tom just got back with 2 dozen quahogs and 1 steamer. Man, were they salty.



I need a haircut.

Is Lu part Irish?

Ready to explore...Lu insists on bringing something with him for his walks. Usually it's something from the recycling bin but here we have a shovel and his potty sit. Hmmm....oddly reminiscent of another first-born that I know. Oh, Happy Birthday Jeff!



Lu likes to pretend that he's in jail. Let's hope it's just for pretend. Sometimes I wonder...


Tom was out clamming today so I took Lu to the Irish festival. He could have some Irish in him. Who knows?

I had to buy some strawberry scones so I could get some quarters for the petting zoo.
So, here's Lu having a snack.


With all of his practice feeding Ichabod treats at home Lu did pretty well feeding the goats and sheep. He was having a ball so I had to reign him in a little. He's at the age where he gets super excited about everything. He was shaking the fence and yelling. I over heard some other parents comment about how excited he was. Oy vey.
Sometimes I wish I could just sit back and let him do his thing...but we're in public and I don't want him to scare all of the other kids (and parents) away. I don't want to be that Mom that has the out-o-control kid. Hey, I can't help it that Lu has absolutely no stranger or separation anxiety. He likes to be in the middle of things. He was literally in the middle of a group of kids trying to get goat food and I had to pull him out.


I overheard one of the other moms repeatedly telling her kids not to touch the animals or the fence. Of course I look over to see Lu with practically his whole hand in a goat's mouth. Oh well. At least I remembered to wipe his hands afterward and wash them when we got home. That's pretty good for me actually. I'm not great about remembering to wash his hands. He'll be playing outside at daycare and come home covered with dirt. Then halfway through dinner I'll remember to wash his hands. By that point he's already licked off all of the dirt so why bother.


Lu had his first pony ride! Actually, it was pretty lame. Since I had to hold him on the pony I couldn't get any good pictures. Why would you run a pony ride if you don't like kids and have no interest in being there? When they were done one mom kept saying "Is that it? Is that it?". Yup, that's it.

Here's the pony.


These were the best I could get.



The other night I was cradling Lu like a baby (before I swung him by his ankles) and realized that I haven't held him like that in a couple of months. Where did my baby go? He won't let us hold him anymore when he's drinking his milk. He has to be either sitting on the floor or on the chair BY HIMSELF. If you try to sit next to him he'll move. He also gets his own water bottle with the sport top when he's playing outside at daycare. Just like all of the other kids.

I've had the time of my life

Just came across this youtube video and had to share. A couple reenacted the last dance scene from Dirty Dancing for their first dance at their wedding reception. It's pretty cute. I told Tom we should've done that...ha.

A chip off the ol' block

Lucius chipped his front tooth on Saturday (under Tom's watch...just had to make that clear). He only cried for 5 seconds then went on playing. On the other hand, Tom put the chip in a container of milk in the fridge with the hopes that I'd find a pediatric dentist to glue it back on. Yeah, right. Does he know who Lu's mom is? I thought about calling the doc for about 2 seconds and then realized there's really not much they can do. So, we just call him Chip now. My friend Blake said it gives him character. I thought the big ol' gap was plenty of character. Now he has a big ol' chip on top of that. I keep thinking how he'll probably have that dang chip for the next 10 years. Unless he completely knocks his front teeth out of course.


What else to report? He just got into watching TV and I think he said duck today. He's also become very agreeable lately. He responds to every question or statement by shaking his head up and down and saying "Yeah, yup, yeah". It's nice. Although I realize it won't last for long.

This our new routine when we get home from work/daycare. We both sit on the lazyboy, eat a ramekin of gold fish, and watch us some Tyra. So what!

No more bottles

Well, I put the bottles away this weekend. It's full-time sippy cups. Lu's practicing with a regular cup but he just drowns himself.

Lu went to the doc's on Friday and his ears got the all clear. We'll see how long this lasts.
He's not talking...not even Mama or Dada! And he still won't do any signs. The doc said to keep an eye on it since he could still have fluid in his ears and his hearing could be impaired. But at this point I'm not too worried about it. He seems to follow simple commands...and I swear I caught him signing "banana" but as soon as I acknowledged it he stopped.

We were putting the groceries away and I looked over to see that Lu had found the tomatoes and had taken a bite out of two of them. We let him finish.



Lucius also loves lemons! That's how I keep him entertained at the restaurant.



I made some steamers Saturday night. As a special treat I've decided that Tom and I are going to eat dinner after Lu's in bed on Saturdays. We can actually enjoy the food (and wine).


Lu also learned how to stick his finger up his nose. Maybe he'll pick it now instead of me having to do it.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Here's the UPS man/boyscout taking out our recycling. We're training him young.



I'm happy to report that I have an appointment with an allergist! Of course it's two months from now but I'll take what I can get. Right now I'm on four different meds for my allergies and asthma and they're not doing jack. Well...maybe that's an exaggeration but I definitely haven't felt 100% since pre-spring.
FYI, I found out a couple of weeks ago from a friend who does pharma marketing that Advair has a black box warning label...meaning that if you suddenly stop taking it there's a risk of asthma-related death. Funny because my doctor would only give me a sample and no prescription, so when I ran out (not knowing that you shouldn't just stop taking it) I had to use my emergency albuterol inhaler 3 times in one night. That's what I get for going to a free clinic. Luckily I only have mild asthma! Now I'm scared to stop taking it until I see the allergist. Maybe I should just slowly taper down...and perhaps read the warning labels and side effects next time.

Toddlerhood

Lu's officially a toddler...based on the mere fact that he's on the "toddler's schedule" at daycare. That means he eats snacks and lunch at the table in the kitchen, he gets a diaper change at specified times** AND he's down to one nap at 12:30p on a cot.*** So basically he does what the toddlers do. It's funny that in a month he's going to be the big kid in his infant/toddler program. It seems like just yesterday he was the youngest.
Along with being a toddler comes the toddler behavior of hitting, biting, and throwing tantrums. I find it really hard to want to play with Lu on his level when he just wants to repeatedly hit me in the head with the drum stick/harmonica/cat brush/book/hand/random object he happens to be holding at the time. I'm getting better at anticipating the blows though. I never realized how dangerous motherhood could be.

**Unless his diaper mysteriously falls off while he's walking. Then they'll put a fresh one on. How he can walk out of a diaper while wearing a onesie is beyond me.
***About the cot...he slept on it for 2.5 hours today! Wow.

Wielding his coffee pot.


Perpetual motion.