Lots of Fun

Happy Fathers Day Daddy!



Lucas is getting more and more able to do things on his own and likes to stay awake longer and is actually happy for the most part. I am working on trying to get him to play by himself. It is so hard not to be with him the entire time he is awake but as he stays awake longer and longer I find I have to start teaching him to do things on his own or he is going to be a big Mamma's boy, not that that is a bad thing but still. So he has worked his way up to about 10 mins on his own as long as he has some music on he is ok I think that is pretty good.





We bought a back pack and took him out for a walk, he really liked it. Loved being able to look at everything - of course that meant he did not fall asleep at all so we were resigned to walking him in the buggy again when we got home, oh well it was a good walk and Lucas seemed to like it. Hopefully we can make it out to the Waitaks now that we have the gear - lets see how he does in the car, that is the real question here.





Started having lunch this week, I was just going to use it as a time to try new foods so only one ice cube worth. Lucas has other plans, one ice cube is not enough for him he wants more so I am actually going to up it to more of a meal. 3 (food) meals a day - we are really turning into a real little person now. Scary thought.





Lucas was 6 months old on Monday and I was reading about all the things that a child 'should' be doing or will be doing soon. Scary stuff I am going to be chasing him around soon. I am not sure if I am looking forward to that or not, undecided.





His hair is growing and now is at that awkward stage where it sticks straight up in the air, looks even more cute now (hard for that to be possible I know but it is true - even cuter).





Still loves chewing on everything but no real signs of teething again, hopefully one day they will just show up - Surprise!





We have been using washable diapers for the last few months and they are fantastic. When I see how much garbage we create with Lucas it makes me feel just a little bit better to use the washables. Lucas still wears a disposable at night which is probably good he must pee ALL night for the amount of pee that is in his diaper when he wakes up it is ridiculous, I swear he is a couple pounds heavier before he gets changed.

Talking to Grandma on the phone

Swimming is So Much Fun!!

Fun in the sun, suntanning in our longsleeves on the deck in the shade - some how I dont think we are going to get a tan

Olly the Octopus is fun to sit with


"Do you think I look like my Dad?"

Brave boy going under the water, good thing he can hold his breath



Lucas loved it, so much talking the whole time. He even made motor boat sounds, he is a natural. We were in the pool for aobut 15 minutes which is pretty good I thought for his first time. We left the pool and brought him home and he went to bed and passed out, I think he was a little tired

Nice to be outside

It has been nice the last few days, the sun has been shining enough to finally dry out the grass which makes Lucas happy because we could get our toes into the grass and feel how tickilly it is, I even got to hand the laundry out - the whole time Lucas sat and played with his toys, he is so good at sitting now he doesnt even need a pillow behind him anymore, although I am sure we will have a few head knocks but I figure he has to learn some how. It doesnt seem to bother him anymore when he falls on his nose - he is still too stuborn to roll himself over though he just lays there and waits sometimes very patiently until mom gets tired of the moaning and rolls him over.



Thought I would let him play with his spoon after dinner last night - funny he knows exactly what to do with it - after the picture he did try to stick it in his ear though so I guess we have a way to go before he can actually feed himself


There was something interesting on the table that he kept leaning over to play with, I think he could see the shadow of his hands in the table and wanted to get them, means we had pumpkin all over the bumbo as well as Lucas and his clothes last night - so many stains will have to figure out how to get them out of his clothes one of these days - we wear a bib but we dont seem to keep the mess just on the bib anymore, I guess it has something to do with the fact that he likes to eat his hands as well as his dinner now

"Really Mom I didn't do it, honest"


"I got it Dad, I told you I could help you trim the trees."

Sometimes he looks so much like his uncle Kyle it makes Peter laugh. Peter figures it is because he has cubby cheeks just like Kyle did when he was little.

Big weekend this weekend. Sunday is Father's day and Lucas has lots of plans for his Dad. Saturday Lucas is going to take Peter swimming. It will be Lucas' first time at the pool, I think Peter is more excited than Lucas. On Sunday if the weather is nice we are going to break in our new backpack carrier for Lucas and go for a hike. When we tried it on in the store Lucas thought it was great, we will see how he feels once he has to stay in it for longer than 5 minutes. We are looking forward to getting outside though so hopefully the weather cooperates for us.

All My Friends

Oops Lucas can pee a little further now - look out Dad!



"I'm not wearing any pants"



All Lucas' friends from Coffee group at around 3 months old. See if you can spot our little guy



Looking proud of himself sitting up on his change table



Lucas - looking forward to Aunt Elissa's wedding in December

Changing Again

Things have been going pretty good the last couple of days, Lucas has decided it is ok to sleep ALL night. That being said he can't seem to sleep later than 5:30am but I can't really complain he is sleeping 11 or 12 hours a night which makes for a nice break for me. The last two days we have been having a hard time getting him to go to sleep in his bed during the day and have had to put him in the buggy and walk him, again. We seem to have figured out the problem, he used to get upset and cry when he was ready to go back to bed well he doesnt do that anymore, now he just sort of stares off and ignores everything else. If I dont get him to bed as soon as that happens he gets overtired and then screams his head off and I can't get him to go to sleep unless I take him walking. So I have got to start watching him a little closer.

He loves sitting up still and actually doesnt like to lie down anymore, tummy or back. Means he isnt developing the muscles in his upper body to help him to crawl, blah blah blah - I say he is happy that way so too bad if he ends up being a bum shuffler instead of a crawler than so be it. He definetly wants to go places though, he can't handle lots of toys around him right now because he cant choose what to play with and tries hard to lunge at things that are out of his reach.

The weather keeps getting better, a little cold this weekend but sun both days. The neighbours tree is starting to blossom which makes me feel happy to know that spring must be just around the corner, I know that doesn't make those reading my BLOG in Canada feel good but it is an exciting time down here - before you know it we will have the little guy on the beach!!

Next Sunday is Fathers Day here in New Zealand and I tried really hard to keep what I had planned a surprise but I just can't do it - I am not very good with surprises and secrets. So I told Peter the other day that on Saturday for Fathers Day Lucas and Peter are going to have a date at the pool. Lucas will be 6 months old on Sunday (hard to believe, I look at him sometimes and see a little boy more than a baby - scary) and Peter has been dying to get him into the pool since he has been born, so we are graduating from the bathtub to the pool - can't wait it is going to be an adventure that is for sure, hope he doesn't scream his head off.

Things are coming together for our trip home in December. We are planning a trip with Pat and Lori on the way. We hope to stop in L.A and then drive from there to Las Vegas and see the sites around there. Should be good and I am excited for lucas to take his first vacation. We are booking our flights home today (I think) and looks like from Auckland to L.A we will be on the flight with Elissa and Sean so that will be good, two more sets of hands for Lucas to be cuddled with and maybe Peter and I will be able to get some sleep, we will see.

Elissa seems to have most things sorted for the wedding and sounds like everything is coming together well. Sounds like it is going to be a beautiful day.

For all of you back home, I know it is nice to have a holiday this weekend but I am thinking about all you teachers going back to work - hope all goes well and your kids treat you well in the next couple of days.

"Where is Lucas?"

"Here I am"

So Much Attention!!!

"Butternut Pumpkin is one of my favourites"


Play date with Sarah - The box kids



"Playing in my toy tub"


"Just reading my Dino book Mom"


The centre of attention

All The Old Tricks

Buggy


Front Pack


Singing


Crying it out


Carrying around


Car ride





You name it we tried it today - all equalled no sleep for Lucas. Oh that isnt true he had an hour nap this morning from 8 - 9 after I pushed him around the neighbourhood for about 1/2 and hour. This after he woke up this morning at 5:30. The he had a 20 min nap while I walked around the waterfront for an hour. He is finally down in his bed and it it 3:45 I have my fingers crossed that he sleeps until Peter gets home but I doubt that will be the case. He has been lots of fun today but so overtired that I can't let him play by himself. Oh well lets hope tomorrow goes better.





He absolutely loves sitting up, maybe that is why he wont sleep wants to be sitting and playing. He really wants to go places reaching out and lunging at almost everything, although he is not able to support his weight on his arms so ends up on his knees and his forehead instead, I am sure he will learn soon enough, either that or we are going to have the weirdest kid on the block who just pushes his head around the carpet.





We have tried Kumara (sweet potatoe) the last two days and he definetly doesnt like it, almost didnt eat any of it this morning. I am not sure if that is the sleeping problem or not. Anyway we are going to give it a pass for a little while, I will try it again later. So last night Peter and I got a butternut pumpkin/squash ready to go. We spent the better part of an hour cutting the thing up. Man they are hard. It cost $2 to buy the pumpkin and I think I have enough ice cubes to last until Lucas can go in the freezer and get it out himself. So much better value than buying the jarred baby food. Although I think I might buy some of the jars so that I can reuse them for when I need to start taking a lunch with me places. Just can't decide what kind of food to buy - maybe some meat would be best as I am not sure that pureeing meat is going to be one of my strong points. Speaking of lunch I havent added it to his daily meals yet, maybe next week. It is such a big deal because I am not always home so I will have to have it ready all the time and really I am not sure that I am ready for that. I know I said I was going to start it this week last week but maybe I will start it next week and then next week I can say the same thing again. I think he is doing ok on 2 meals a day.





In all the books I have read they say that starting solids wont help them sleep through the night. I think that is bull. Since we have moved his dinner time to 5:30 at night he has slept through everynight. He gets up somewhere between 8 and 11pm, has a little feed and then sleeps until 6am (usually - sometimes 7 if we are really lucky and this morning as I said 5:30 when we are not so lucky). Decided to stop reading as the books just make you feel like you are doing things wrong and since we learned early on that Lucas doesnt follow the rules any way what is the point so I am reading for fun again. Reading a really good book right now, "A thousand splendid suns" by the same author of the kite runner it is hard to put down. Actually since I have had such a tough day today I am going to go and read it even though I "should" be folding laundry and other stuff I figure that can wait till tomorrow it really isnt urgent.





If I were to ever write a book on babies it would say "don't make any plans for when they are sleeping because the days you make plans are the days that they don't sleep and then all the plans you had don't get done and you get frustrated. So just do what you can when you can. Go with the flow, as they say." It might also say "try not to look in the mirror too much on the busy days because you are not going to like what you see looking back at you. Instead imagine what you look like that day and try really hard not to remember that you hadn't brushed your teeth or combed your hair when you run into someone you weren't expecting to see." I think it best that I don't write a book, I'll just stick to venting on the BLOG.





Thanks for listening to me vent. I feel better!





One piece of non-lucas news. I am officially a Matter, at least in New Zealand. I have changed all my I.D. Just working now on my Canadian Passport. It has only taken 4 years but hey some of us work a little slower than others.

Having cuddles with his seahorse - he loves this thing!

"Want to play ball?"

"Where's Lucas?"
"Here I am!"