Lucas with mom and uncle Mike

Playing with sand on the beach

Running on the beach

Lucas on the beach

chasing waves

playing with sand

Lucas in tv

Family takes a walk on the beach before bedtime

There should be ocean in the background but it is too dark for our camera

Lucas crawling trough tires ...

... with faithful fan's support

Lucas on a swing by himself

Lucas on a swing by himself

Lucas on tire-swing with his girlfriend

Lucas on tire-swing by himself

Lucas on a swing with daddy

New Hat for Lucas

Lucas found his favourite sleeping arrangement

Undercover, pretending to be another pillow

Lucas playing with the slide all by himself

Finally we arrived at the beach

Atlantic ocean in the background

First day in Florida and Lucas already found girlfriend

In Mexican restaurant with our friends

Finally in Florida in our room ...

Lucas rests after long night driving

Even in Florida they have little Christmas Trees

Our little corner for the next couple of days

Lucas and his new dog friend

Our little hotel at the beach

View Larger Map

Watching movie on Kindle in the car ... already in Florida

 

Playing with graphics program

 

Photo Card

Rejoice Religious

Heartfelt: Christmas photo cards and holiday cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

A Visit With Santa

Lucas visited Santa at the mall recently.  At first he was very excited to jump the rope separating Santa from the people standing in line.  Once it was Lucas's turn to actually visit with Santa Lucas became a bit more reserved.  Lucas did very well overall and I think his enjoyment of Santa-related experiences will only grow as he gets older.

Playing with trains in Barns & Noble

...

Lucas walking around our neighborhood

...

Lucas in Kohl's in the cart ... with the basket on his head

...

...

...

Napping in a cart during shopping

Lucas in camouflage ...

Lucas was trying to hide from Santa so he found the perfect location to dissapear.

Mommy and Lucas in the mall #1

Mommy and Lucas in the mall #2

Our little swimmer

Lucas enjoyed the wave pool tremendously.  Great Wolf Lodge is a great place to let him run around with minimal parental intervention.  We tried to let Lucas explore and interact with other children as much as possible.  In this video Lucas is exploring the shallow end of the wave pool.

Teach your family the responsible way...RECYCLE!

Several years ago I was awake in the wee hours of the morning and doing some channel surfing when I came upon the local public access channel.  Some elementary-aged children sang a jubilant song about recycling.  The lyrics went something like, "Recycle every day.  Teach your family the responsible way.  RECYCLE!"  It was very cute and catchy and I eventually told Andrew all about it and sang it to him.  It is now an inside joke in our little family and I was reminded of this song when I reviewed some of the videos of Lucas playing with the recycle bin at Great Wolf Lodge.  The little boy is trying his best to go green.

FYI-All of the cool kids, both male and female, wear pink slippers.

I think he likes the couch.

Lucas should be employed by Great Wolf Lodge as an official furniture tester.  He is at a very cute stage.  He gesticulates and points at things with one finger while whispering nonsensical baby talk.  Mom and dad could listen to it all day.

Lucas and the shopping cart

The Wal-Mart near Great Wolf Lodge has an AMAZING toy selection.  This worked out very well for Lucas.  We realized that we did not bring many toys for Lucas and decided on buying a little shopping cart for him.  He loved it.

Lucas on adult water slide

Daddy first tests the slide

... and then mommie and Lucas

...

Lucas to mama: here, try cheese stick ...

... I got plenty of those.

Nothing better than good rest after day of fun

Done with shopping cart ...

... let's better figure out the code for the security box

Lucas examines balcony view

Lucas planning family entertainment ...

... by going through hotel brochure

View from the balcony

Grodner's stuff ...

Lucas and daddy #2

Lucas and mama #7

Lucas and mama #6

Lucas explains pros and cons of different pools to daddy

Lucas and daddy #1

Lucas and mama #5

Lucas and mama #4

Lucas and mama #3

Lucas and mama #2

Lucas and mama

Family in the water

In lazy river

Thanksgiving dinner before ...

... and there was little left after but everybody was so cool about Lucas.

Back to Great Wolf Lodge!

Breakfast with Princesses and Superheroes

Today I took Lucas to a fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House of eastern North Carolina.  He had such an amazing time!  There were many princesses and superheroes for him to meet.  Lucas also had his face painted and ate breakfast.  We were handed a paper with pictures of each character at the event when we entered.  He got a sticker for each character he met.  The object was to visit a bunch of characters and get as many stickers as possible and get Bingo.  Lucas got Bingo for meeting the top row of characters on the page and won a Mickey Mouse microphone. 

Thanks so much to my friend, Elizabeth, for inviting us!

Lucas loves Princess Jasmine!

Lucas loved tearing the paper tablecloth.

The volunteer who painted Lucas's face did such a great job!

Wide open space + Lucas = above.

Lucas went as Puss in Boots.

The day was warm and Lucas enjoyed taking off his costume and eating pancakes.

Lucas looked like a pile of costume when he fell over.

Lucas couldn't wait to get to the Ronald McDonald House and meet the characters, but milk is still high on the totem pole.

Lucas tried to feed himself like a big boy.

The giant Ronald McDonald was fascinating.

Here is Papa Smurf.  Did you know that he has long, brown hair in real life?

Lucas meets Woody, Curious George, and Buzz.

Handsome boy!

The only reason Lucas sat still and tolerated this is that the face-painting table was manned by sorority volunteers.

Who needs toys when you have earrings?

Lucas puts on his most serious, masculine face for the sorority girls.

The man in the Hamburglar costume was particularly enthusiastic.

Here is Lucas smearing his Mickey Mouse face paint being held by mom.