The musical Lucas

We were listening to some classical music today. And dancing around with playsilks. And musical instruments. Lucas sat down on the couch and pulled his playsilk over his head to quietly enjoy the music. And sat like that for a LONG time. Of course, when I came along with the camera, he pulled it off before I could snap a picture. :) Sneaky boy... (I'm happy to say that Gwendolyn LOVES classical music and dancing around with me in her sling - she was so content today)

Gwendolyn at play

Laying on her crib mattress, in the middle of the living floor, propped over Lucas's car pillow, batting at her jingley angel doll. Ah, what a happy baby.

Suspicious, at best

Whenever Lucas walks up to Gwendolyn, she always looks sooo concerned. Yet so happy at the same time. He does play with her, but also accidentally whacks her on the head a fair amount of the time, too. He likes to share things a little too energetically :) He sure is good at looking innocent...

My pretty girl

Oh yeah, I love taking pictures of that pretty girl! She's always so happy and smiley - how can I resist??

The sink

When I'm not watching Lucas closely enough, this is where I find him. Standing on his chair, in front of the sink, with his blue 'Cintas' cup, with my dishtowel shoved in it, watching the water pour over it. :) He does love water.

The headband and the apple

Lucas wearing my headband and carrying around an apple slice. What more could a boy want??

Loving the mess

Oh yes I am :) Lucas and Gwedolyn were both napping

and my first thought was to start cleaning up the house and all the little messes that Lucas makes all day. Instead, I took a picture and sat down to appreciate all of his toys scattered. One day when the kids are older, I'm sure I'll look back and miss the happy chaos that has taken over the house. It will be neat and orderly once more, and I'll wish for the toys happily scattered. So, even if just for a moment, I'm going to try to appreciate the mess. And take pictures of it.

Lack of a picture

I still don't have any pictures of the kids in the new stroller. Even tho we've used it everyday. Maybe one of these days I'll remember to bring the camera outside..

Random Kids 2

Random Kids

Lucas painting a picture frame.

Tim and Lucas playing in a fountain.
Everyone playing on the floor.
Tim setting up Lucas's new wooden train set.

A stroller - truly!

Woohoo!!! Tim just got me the best double jogging stroller EVER!! I am all sorts of excited to get it :) We get to go and pick it up on Saturday. We even get to ride the train to pick it up :) I'll definitely be posting some pics of the kids in their new stroller when we get it! Stay tuned...

Quality parenting

I only sat down for a minute... :)

Lucas at play

This is Lucas's current play. His box of art supplies pulled up to his art table (his current favorite is stickers..) His cars and trucks 'parked' in his 'garage' a.k.a. the wool rug I had intended for him to sit for quiet reading time. It makes a much better garage, though. :) And pretty rocks of all sorts lined up on the window sill with a little metal bird that pecks at all of them. I love watching him play...

A visit from the Grandparents

Grandma and Grandpa made a surprise visit this weekend to bring us all presents. Lucas got a birthday present (and he is still fixating on his new little red car). Tim and I got an anniversary present. And Gwendolyn got a present for being Gwendolyn :)

Gwendolyn spent most of the day enjoying Grandpa. She even napped on him! I've never seen her so happy and content away from me. She loves her Grandpa!!!

(sadly, I always forget to take pictures. so this is the only one I have to post of the day)

The present

Lucas got a birthday present in the mail from Great Grammy and Great Grandpa. He thoroughly enjoyed opening it (there was even ribbon!!) And Gwendolyn thoroughly enjoyed watching him open it :) He loves his new racecar!! He even named the driver Moofoo. Which is just awesome, because this is the first time he's named something.

What a nice boy

We were getting ready to go out, so I put Gwendolyn in her carseat and went to go

get the diaper bag. When I came back I saw that Lucas had covered her up with his playsilk. I always put a blanket on her when we leave, but didn't that time because it was 80 degrees outside.. so Lucas made sure that Gwendolyn was cared for and covered up so that she didn't get cold :) What a nice boy!

The eye

I just posted all of the birthday pictures, and it ocurred to me that I'm not in a single one. Not surprising, since I'm always the one taking pictures. And I remembered a quote from a book I read long, long ago (I have no idea what the author/title is) about the photographer not minding not being in any of the pictures. Because she was really in all of them. She was the eye. And that just makes me a little happy :) I guess I was the eye for this birthday!

Lucas turns two!!! Part 2

Lucas loves playing with Aunt Heidi - can you tell?? And not surprisingly Gwendolyn took to her right away, too :) We all enjoyed standing around talking and playing. It was definitely a great birthday for Lucas. And a great day for the rest of us, too.

Lucas turns two!!!

He's TWO!!! We took him to Jonamac Orchard today for his special birthday treat :) Aunt Heidi and Uncle Dan met us there. Fun was had by all :) Oh yes, it is Tim and Heidi riding children's tricycles around.

The missing 'N'

This is a random sidenote about my less than perfect typing. Lucas pulled a bunch of keys off of my keyboard(and I can't replace the keyboard because this is a laptop). As a result, the keyboard went a bit wonky and not all of the letters work quite right anymore. Especially the letter 'N.' I try to re-read my entries, but I don't always. So a lot of mistakes wander in, I'm sure. I have nothing against the letter 'N', really. It just doesn't work. That's why it's missing so often :)

A day with the grandparents

We went out bright and early for breakfast. Then we decided to go to storytime at the library. Then we played at the library for TWO HOURS after story time was done. Lucas was tired, to say the least. He fell asleep on the less than five minute drive home from the library :) He sure does have a knack for falling asleep in his carseat. So we headed off for Grandma and Grandpa's house. He was all sorts of happy to wake up in Riverside on his way there! So, what ended up being breakfast out, turned into an all day adventure. We sure did have some happy adventuring kids today!

(and the photography comes courtesy of Mom's Blackberry - that's why it's a bit more soft focus than usual)

Oh the love

It looks like he's going to jump on her - but he really just goes and lays next to her and snuggles up.

Lucas adores Gwendolyn. And she is so fascinated by him. I hope they always get along this well :) Many, many times a day he comes over and pets her on the head or kisses her. He plays sweet little games with her (petting/pulling gently on her hands/feet until she pulls away then laughing delightedly). She stares at him with rapt attention for as long as she can stay awake. And Lucas is the only one that can soothe Gwendolyn when she is really inconsolably upset. All he has to do is pet her on the head and say 'shh' and she will instantly quiet. Such sweet kids...

Our sweet boy

It always looks like he's just gotten away with something and is pretending to be innocent :)
Tim fell asleep on the couch and Lucas happily poured toys over his head.. See the wooden bowl? It's full of wooden blocks. I thought it was FAR too funny to stop Lucas from dumping things over Tim's head.
We went to Jonamac Orchard - Lucas is playing with water pumps, sending little plastic duckies down the 'slides' He played there for hours - he LOVED it!!
Tim taught Lucas to hunt flies - need I say more?

Lucas has been so fascinated by the camera lately. Every time he sees it, he wants his picture taken, then he wants to look at all the pictures that I've taken - and point at each one. And narrate a story about each. It's oh so cute :) I am happy to say I now have lots of pictures of his face! I no longer have to sneak up behind him to get his picture.