Baking Cupcakes aka Making a Mess

I was in the mood to bake something the other day, so I settled on red velvet cupcakes. I knew Lucas would want to help, so I waited until after nap time to start. I hooked Lucas up with his own bowl and mixture (flour and water) and let him go to town. He was snacking on some grapes while mixing, but after eating a few, he decided to dump the rest in the mixture. Of course, he then proceeded to pick grapes out of the mixture and eat them. I backed away when he tried to give me one, but he seemed to enjoy them, so that is all that matters. After I was done with my cupcakes, I gave him the leftover batter to mix. He thought the red batter was pretty cool and loved moving it from one bowl to another. This was another very messy project, but it was worth it to watch him have the greatest time "baking".

Decorating the Tree

I wasn't sure if we should wait until Lucas went to bed to decorate the tree or do it during nap time or what. He is not exactly the most gentle child and giving him ornaments to hold is asking for trouble. As it turns out, he wasn't that interested it in anyways. We decorated it after he work up one day and gave him some shatterproof ornaments to hang. Well, he would point and I would hang. He even started to carefully handle some of the breakable ornaments and was doing a fabulous job until he got to his name ornament. It slipped (I do not believe it was thrown, but it may have been dropped on purpose) out of his hands and shattered in a million pieces. Luckily, the ornament is easily replaceable!.

While he did help a little with the ornaments, Lucas' main focus of the morning was watching National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. I am not sure why he loved it so much, but he did. He usually could care less when we have a grown-up (i.e. not Elmo, Yo Gabba Gabba, etc.) show on tv. He will sometimes watch sports, but he will never pay attention to movies or our tv shows. But for whatever reason, he loved this movie. We had to drag him away so he would help us. LOL. At least he has good taste!

Picking out a Christmas Tree.

Last Saturday, we decided to head out and get a Christmas tree. Bryan and I thought maybe Lucas would be helpful in the selection process, so we made sure he had a good nap and was well fed. If you recall my post last year about picking a tree, you know that Bryan and I love to argue about picking a tree. We each say we don't care and tell the other one to pick. Then when the other one picks, we say no and basically tell them they are awful at picking trees. This goes on until we can't stand it anymore and someone just picks one and tells the other person to be quiet. We were hoping Lucas would just walk us to a tree and point, but no such luck. No, he was more interested in watching the construction equipment and hugging the trees on the lot. Oh, and watching the cars pass in the street. Thanks alot Lucas! Stay turned to see which one we picked!

Ornament Painting

In another one of my brilliant ideas, I thought it would be fun to let Lucas paint a Christmas ornament. I knew this would be a total mess, but I didn't really think he would smear the paint in his hair! Oh well, Lucas loved it and did a fabulous job on his ornament. Bryan and I each painted one too, but L's is the best by far.

Lucas had some trouble understanding he was supposed to paint the ornament and instead focused on painting the paper under his ornament. Once I showed him it was okay to paint the ornament, he went to town. He used his paint pens, regular paint brushes and glitter glue pens. I think that it really shows his strength as an artist that he is comfortable using so many different tools. And of course, once he was done with the ornament, he insisted on painting more and probably went thru 4 more pieces of construction paper. The girls at school always comment on how Lucas is super excited when they do an art project and is sad when it's over. How cute is that??

Thanksgiving 2009

As usual, we spent Thanksgiving at my aunt and uncle's house. My aunt is well known for her famous chocolate chip cookies, known as "Aunt Karen's cookies". They are the best! But, we also had turkey and all the traditional Thanksgiving foods. Lucas ate his first real Thanksgiving meal and enjoyed it all. He was too little for turkey last year, but I think he did try pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes.

I didn't take too many pictures. I figured people probably did not want to be photographed eating! But I did snap a few of Lucas playing. He had the best time "jumping" off the fireplace. I would guess it is maybe 3-4 inches from the ground? He didn't care and thought he was so cool. He was eating up the attention and loved putting on a show for everyone.

And I did not plan for Lucas and Bryan to dress alike. I planned Lucas' outfit and B knew what L was wearing, so I would say that Bryan decided he wanted to be twins with Lucas. I can't decide who looks more handsome in their argyle sweater??

Class Picture

Something about a toddler class picture just cracks me up. It's not as funny as an infant class picture, but it is still pretty funny. See that girl in the first row, all the way on the left? Well, that is Lucas' little girlfriend. I was told they were kissing on the playground one day. And no, I am not making this up. How cute is that????

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bryan, Lucas and I (and Baxter and Buddy) would like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! It's hard to believe that one year ago today we closed on our house. This Thanksgiving weekend should be much more relaxing and for that we are thankful. Just for fun, check out Lucas' pictures from last Thanksgiving. I cannot believe that he was not even crawling last year at this time. Oh how they grow. As for this picture, I imagine he is going to be pretty mad about it one day, but I love it!!!!