Fun with Food

This is one of those posts that isn't really very interesting...just things that I want to remember about Lucas when he is all grown up...

Lucas's eating/drinking habits have been changing massively in the last few weeks.  No longer do I have the boy who will eat anything and everything that we put in front of him. For one thing, he hardly has any appetite at most meals. The kid who would eat an entire grilled cheese sandwich, plus a whole can of pears, and some green beans in one sitting has been replaced by one who ate 5 raspberries for breakfast this morning. And then nothing for lunch. Occasionally, he gets really hungry (wonder why?) and eats a huge meal, but not often.

Lucas is still an adventurous eater who wants to eat everything off of Phil's and my plates. He will eat spicy, sweet, sour....anything. But....he generally only likes it once. And likes it much better off our plates than off of his own. He will LOVE a dish I make on Tuesday night, but refuse to touch it when I reheat some the next day.  Sigh...a discerning palate?  Haha. His current favorite foods - if there are any - are probably yogurt and fruits like grapes and strawberries.




"Here...you can have this food, mom. I'm not really hungry."


We have had one big victory lately...MILK! For the first month or so after he turned one, Lucas refused to drink any milk out of his cups. He liked milk in the bottle, and he liked water in the cup. Well, I refused to give him the bottle anymore, so I was starting to get worried about his milk intake. We would only offer milk all day until after dinner. At that point, we always gave water so he wouldn't get dehydrated. He would just wait until dinner and then drink about 3 cups of water!  Then, about 10 days ago, he woke up, asked for milk, and drank an entire cup. Just like that! Now, he can't get enough, and is generally drinking 3-4 cups per day. Yay Lucas!




(This was the "please don't make me drink this milk" face)



Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, the entire world has been counting down to my birthday, and it is finally here! I'm sure our celebrations will be at LEAST as fancy as Will and Kate's, right? Or at least, we will go out to dinner and I won't do any house cleaning today. One of those...

Dirty Boy

My little man is a TOTAL boy.  He loves nothing more than playing outside in the dirt. Last weekend, we gave him a bucket and shovel and he headed outside to "help" Daddy pull weeds in the flower beds. He was entertained for at least an hour...which is a lifetime when you are one! Here's some cute pics of my dirty boy!

The First of Many...

Lucas got his first bloody, busted up lip last week. No visit to the doctor necessary, but I am sure it is the first of many this mom of a rough and tumble, no fear, 100% boy will have to deal with!

I'm A Big Kid Now!

Now that Lucas has pretty much mastered walking and is on to running (like this)...

...he has decided that he is a pretty big kid. He wants to sit at the table instead of in his high chair, sit up on the sofa, etc, etc. Since he isn't ACTUALLY big enough to do any of that without major bumps and bruises just yet, we got some Lucas-sized furniture for him to use in the meantime. First we got him his own chair for the den:

He loves to sit in it with his "Scout" and drink his milk. The first thing he did when he got home was crawl up in it with his remote and try to turn on the TV...so cute. Lately, he has decided it is also useful for pushing up against the fireplace to use as a step stool. Sigh...too clever for his (or mom's) own good!

We also got him a little table set from Ikea. (Love that place!)

Here he is playing with all of his food on the first night we set it up. Since then, we have turned it into his coloring table. He had been showing LOTS of interest in trying to "write" with my pens and pencils, so I headed over the dollar store for some crayons and a coloring book. Right now, he mostly makes dots by smashing the crayons into the paper over and over, but he loves it! I hope he likes to draw and color when he gets older because I STILL love to sit and color in a coloring book...very soothing :)

I am sure there will be more little furniture in the future, but for now that is all the redecorating we have done to make our little man feel like a BIG KID!!!

Trip to Houston

Two weekends ago, we packed up the car and headed to Houston to visit family and celebrate all the March/April-ish birthdays in the Hlavaty family. Lucas did GREAT in the car (praise the Lord!), and he had a ton of fun playing with his cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents!  We can't wait to see them all again in Destin later this summer!  Here are a few highlights of the weekend...

On Friday night we went out for Mexican with Phil's two brothers and their families. I forgot my camera, which was a shame because Lucas was FASCINATED by the mariachis, and loved "dancing" to all their music and looking at their guitars.

Saturday morning held a trip to the park for Lucas and his cousin Krysten. So much fun!  So much mulch!

Then for a little goofing around on Saturday afternoon...

Party time!  Aunt Lara ordered an AMAZING cake with copies of the animals from Lucas' month-by-month pictures. The rest of us got to blow out our candles on a homemade German chocolate cake.  Everyone got to open presents and then we just played for the rest of the (late) night.

Before we headed out on Sunday morning, Lucas got to play a little bit in Dave and Lara's pool. I think he is going to be a water bug!



Bluebonnets - It's a Texas Thing

One of the bonuses of having a little photography business is that Lucas gets to participate in all the sessions for free!  Last weekend, Two Chicks Pix held our first annual bluebonnet mini-sessions. Near the JCPenney headquarters in Plano, we found a gorgeous field of bluebonnets as well as the red flowers that turned out sooo nice in the photos. We took pictures for 6 families and had a great time. Children in the bluebonnets is a Texas tradition, and I am so glad to get some great ones of Lucas! (We tried last year, but he was too little to sit up, so the didn't come out so well...) This year, it was impossible to get him to stand still, but I love his running and walking ones because that is SOOO Lucas right now! I look forward to making this a tradition in our family (and for our business) for many years to come.

Just so you know...

Just so all of my lovely readers (all 5 of you) know, I'm not ignoring you!  Our new computer (bought to replace the computer that died over a year ago) is DEAD!  We are computer jinxers. Anyway...all my photos are now on that computer, so...no new posts until at least Thursday when our new hard drive is installed. SIGH.

Random Pictures Lately

Catching up some other random shots of late...



Mom was playing with her new camera using her favorite subject :)





Just one of his many funny faces he is making these days.




I was trying to get a shot of him walking with his new "mower." What I got instead was "Baby Calvin Klein Model".




Swinging...the best part of the park.



Playing with Daddy's Warrior Dash hat.

Belated Birthday at the Aquarium

Last weekend we headed downtown to the Dallas World Aquarium for our (much belated) celebration of Phil's birthday. Even though I have lived in Dallas for over 20 years, I have never been to the aquarium! I really thought that Lucas would love it after seeing how much fun he had at the zoo. It was a bit crowded to navigate with the stroller, but was definitely a fun time. The first part of the walk through the building is actually an aviary, and Lucas LOVED looking at the birds. I must have some attractive hair because two or three birds took swoops at me! Despite the attempts at dive-bombing, it was neat to get up close and personal with the birds.

Lucas's absolute favorite part of the day was looking at the penguins. I think he would have stayed out there all day if we had let him. He wanted to point to each and every one and walked back and forth between the two pools about a dozen times.




Pointing to the penguins.




Doesn't he look so grown up?!?



After the penguins, we headed down to the actual aquarium where we checked out the manatees (my favorite!!), the sharks (we opted out of feeding time), and lots and lots of fish!  Lucas was fascinated by all of the fish and the manatees, but he was a little scared of the sharks. That was strange to me since he isn't even old enough to know what a shark is!  His favorite part was standing on the ledge of the walk-through tunnel and checking out all the animals.



Pointing out the GIANT manatee to us.





Both boys are fascinated :)




This might be my favorite of the day...he almost fell over backwards looking at that fish.



We wrapped up our day on the town with lunch at Freebirds, so Daddy's birthday celebration could not have been better!

Thankful Thursday: The Wagon

This thankful Thursday is on behalf of Lucas (and his parents, who can always count on the little red guy to come through in a pinch!).

Lucas loves his WAGON! He runs over to it about 14 times a day and asks to take it outside. When we tell him it is time to take the dogs for a walk, he squeals and runs over to the wagon, jumping around until we put him in it. On our walks, he loves to look all around him and point to all of the cool things that he sees. 

So, thank you to the little red wagon, for making my son so happy. And for being the one thing I know will ALWAYS calm him down when nothing else can. And thanks to Ashlea and Ally for introducing Lucas to the wonderful world of riding to the park :)

Here's a picture of my sweet boy riding in his wagon: