A Mother's Observation

I was not present during the taking of this photograph. Drew and Joseph were playing over at Uncle Ben's house and I was running an errand. Uncle Ben's house is the place where Drew watches football while Joseph wreaks havoc on the girls' baby doll accessories and Godzillas (a verb) Chesley. My first thought upon seeing this picture did not pertain to the maniacal look on Drew's face. Nor was it about the fact that Chesley looks like she's about to face plant out of that chair. I thought about how beyond cute Chesley looks in her dress/tights/shoes, but it wasn't my first though. My first thought had nothing to do with the giant blow up Santa or Joseph's sweatpants. What was it? The one who guesses wins!

Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving Day we drove to Plymouth (not the rock) to eat. Joseph suprised us with how well he took the long driving time. I didn't get a lot of pictures like I wanted because we were too busy trying to keep him from climbing steps. Here are a couple of cute ones snapped in between bouts of stair climbing.


On Friday we put up our Christmas tree. Joseph helped by taking a nap when it was time to put on all the ornaments. I've been trying to get all the Christmas stuff up for three weeks now and I'm still not there yet. The way things are going it's likely there will still be Christmas crap strewn all about my dining room floor come Christmas. My goal this week is to get it all up. Nothing says Christmas like glitter. Practically all of my Christmas decor contains copious amounts of glitter. It's all over the house, in Joseph's ears, in Joseph's diaper, in the bed. I've even seen a slight dusting of red glitter on the floor in Joseph's class at school where he's left a trail. Maybe it comforts him and reminds him his mom the psycho glitter Christmas craft woman. I'll try to curb it by the time he's old enough to encounter playground remarks along the lines of, "Hey, Lucas...what is that? Is that...Is that GLITTER?" But for now he's my Little Joseph Glitter Pants.

One Year Old Professional Pictures

A photographer named Kimberlee Edwards from Cary came to our house and took these pictures. We LOVE them! I hope everyone had a good long Thanksgiving weekend. I'll post pictures from our Thanksgiving adventures over the next couple of days.

Piano Man

The past two weeks have just been an explosion in our house of learning and saying new things. Most notably, Joseph has taken up piano. He goes and stands by the piano bench until you put him up on it and then he'll sit there and play for long stretches of time. I'm trying to teach him to use one finger and make music rather than banging. He's starting to get it. He certainly appears to have an interest in music so we'll definitely try to encourage that. (Or maybe he just likes loud things). His other new interest is climbing (and climbing, and climbing). He was playing piano the other day while I was working on the Lucas Family Christmas-Palooza that I am creating in my living room. I heard the "music" stop and looked up where I saw Joseph Lucas standing (yes, standing!) on the top of the piano grinning. He moves things so he can climb on other things and we're constantly prying him off of climb worthy objects. We've got a pretty substantial word bank these days, including "Kitty", "Hey Kitty", "Bark bark", "Bandit", "Bottle", "Mama", "Dada", "Door", "Go", "Bye bye", "More", "Eat", "Milk", "Diaper", "Sock", and the all-time favorite, "Ball". And a whole lot of teradactyl screams.

Joseph's Picture

Be prepared to read the sweetest thing ever. Are you ready? Okay. Joseph has certain "treasures" he carries around the house. Generally it's a Sharpie pen (cap on), his socks, someone else's socks, chap stick, my makeup, a sand sifter from his beach toys, or the remote control (which he holds like a phone and talks to another 13 month old somewhere out there). Lately he's been going into the living room - hesitantly since the lights in there are always off, and emerging with a picture in a red frame that sits on a low shelf. The picture is of me and Drew in more svelte years. Joseph toddles into the den carrying the picture and saying "Dah-dah", "Bah-mwah" (Mama). Then he, get this, kisses the picture repeatedly with wide open mouth slobbery kisses and goes "MMMWAAH". Don't you just want to come through the internet and kiss that face?

A clown, a pumpkin, and a pirate walk into a bar...

Oddly, Bernie Madoff was there, too.

Laughing Boy

THERE'S THAT PRETTY LADY!

Aaargh!

Our walking, talking one year-old.

It's been a while since our last post. Things have been busy at work and home. Since our last post we've celebrated Joseph's first birthday with an insane farm party. We did up our back porch like a farm and donned Joseph in his overalls and bandana. All of our family and friends came over to hug and kiss on the boy. I guess he takes after his mama's sweet tooth becuase he went after that cake with wild abandon. Over the next week, I'll blog more about Joseph's birthday. In the next couple of days you'll meet two really annoying people named Liam and LaRhonda.

Joseph is walking. The day after his birthday party (October 12) he just started taking off. He walks now without holding on to anything. This is by far the most fun stage yet. He's now starting to understand things we say and do. For example, for some reason he really likes socks and often carries his socks around with him. He holds his socks to his feet and looks at me to show me he knows where they go. The other day he took hold of my socks and put them by his feet and thought that was funny. Then he put his socks next to my feet. We've got a comedian, I tell ya. He's just learned the word "go". He'll beat on the door and yell, "Go! Bye bye! Go!" Yesterday Joseph saw Drew put his keys in his pocket and yelled, "Go bye bye!" Synapses are really firing up there.

Cake

Here's what I did this weekend. It's a grooms cake I made for Drew's cousin Rebekah's wedding. I hope they liked it because I'm never doing another one as I sit here with barely the energy to type this post.

First Haircut

I'm just sayin' . . .

Drew put his foot down on Joseph's hair. He was tired of his child resembling Nick Nolte's mugshot. Sunday we had it cut. More on that later.

First Football Game

Saturday we took Joseph to the UNC/ECU game. In the week leading up I didn't have that little voice in the back of my head saying "this is a bad idea." No, instead it was jumping up and down on my shoulder smacking me in the side of the head with a two by four yelling at me, "THIS IS A BAD IDEA. THIS IS A BAD IDEA. YOU STOOPID IDIOT. THIS IS GOING TO BE AWFUL." Joseph doesn't like to be held and will fight you to the end to get down on the ground to crawl around and find something dangerous. So I just knew we were in for a four hour wrestling match. Drew wanted to take Joseph to the game so bad and said that the very thought of it brought a tear to his eye. What was I supposed to to then? I certainly was not going to send him into battle without a tag team. I'll except my Best Wife Ever crown now. So off we go. Joseph did AWESOME. The first quarter he clapped and clapped and clapped some more. Then he smiled and clapped. Then he looked serious and clapped. Then he wet his diaper and clapped. Then he looked around at the crowd and clapped. Then he looked at the field and clapped. Then he clapped at the band. He high-fived the people behind us. He did want to get down so we (GASP!) let him sit on the ground between our feet and play with drink bottles. Halfway through the second quarter he started to get really sleepy and all but feel asleep in my lap. I decided why push it and Joseph and I left at half time and strolled around campus while he slept. It was overall a really fun time and I'm glad we decided to give it a go.

Friday Funnies

My husband is definitely smarter than the average bear and has an analytical mind that puts him a little higher on the evolutionary totem pole. He's also gifted in mincing words, a skill that I, admittedly, am not so polished in. While he can effectively speak, I can more effectively relay my thoughts on paper. I guess this is why most of my practice is in the appellate arena. Drew, you may disagree, but you know you can tell someone to go to you know where without saying anything impolite, unprofessional or otherwise offensive. It makes sense to me that the ability to speak effectively is a direct result of the ability to quickly analyze. If you want a fun life, marry an attorney with a good sense of humor. A naturally silly personality coupled with the gift of quick wit is the recipe for hilarity. My husband is particulary skilled at the art of creating analogies and making metaphors. For example, in our house while watching basketball, its not "Duke's defense sucks." That surely does not provide the listener with an effective image. It's "Duke's defense is like wet toilet paper." In a hotel shower it's not, "This water pressure is horrible. And the water is lukewarm." It's "I feel like an old man is drooling on me." These one-liners generally come out of nowhere and sometimes do not strike me until moments later when I'm like, "What did he just say?" I hope living in our house rubs some of this off on Joseph. I think it will. I think he's going to be a funny little guy. There's this little girl in his class at daycare that cries all day long. And its not a normal sounding cry. It's more like a deep growl. Every time she starts up Joseph looks at her and cracks up. Usually this is accompanied by clapping his hands like, "Do it again! Do it again!"

Of beaches, red wagons, long hours and projectile vomiting.

It's been over two weeks since our last post, so I'll go ahead and fill you in on the joys and tribulations of parenthood in our blog's absence. Joseph is 11 months old. Just typing that makes my heart break in half. Surely not a baby anymore and I so miss my snuggly little hippie baby. We've gone from a time of being in awe of this precious little baby to being in awe of our smart, active, funny, sweet little boy. Everyday is something new and fun. We are having the time of our lives watching him do new things. The past month have really brought new "tricks." Some of which are compeletely hilarious. Oh, and guess what. He walks! Last week, on September 9, Joseph took his first steps in our living room. Since then he's been taking 4 to 5 steps at a time. He does patty cake, which is beyond cute and has a hard time "rolling it up". He blows kisses and goes "MWAH" offensively loud. My favorite is "Pee-Pie" where he covers and uncovers his eyes. (At that point you're supposed to say "PEE-PIE" really loud BTW). My other favorite is when he pulls a blanket over his head and waits for you to say "Where's Joseph" and then pulls it off. Now for the tribulation part. Joseph has had the stomach flu that caused projectile vomiting everyday since last Thursday. Thursday night we were at the Cary mall because I had to buy a new suit. He threw up all in his stroller, then later all over Drew. Here's the weird thing. I am so completely adverse to throw up. I mean I really can't take it. The mere sight/smell of it sends me into a near panic attack. But here we are in the Cary mall covered in vomit and I was so not phased. Joseph threw up all over me/him/Drew/stroller and not once did I feel that twisting sensation in the pit of my stomach. The harbinger to you know what. He was sick a few more times over the weekend. The problem is now that he's still not eating much. All we can get in him is pureed fruit and formula. He's lost weight but the doctor told us not to worry and to just take it slow. Doesn't make me feel better when I look at him and see a marked absence of chubbiness in his cheeks. Drew and I were also both visited by the puke fairy. That's all I'll say about that. I've missed two days of work this week thanks to said fairy, which is going to make the next couple of weeks ugly. Before Joseph got sick I was working my rear off trying to get a couple of appellate briefs filed so at this point I really feel the need to hide in a cave somewhere.

Ok, time for more fun stuff. The weekend before Labor day, we went to North Myrtle Beach with the Jenningses. We had so much fun! Here's some pictures of Joseph and the girls. Thanks Jenningses for the fun times. We miss you!

The following weekend, Joseph and I headed up to Greensboro to get some Grandmama/Grandaddy lovin' (the best best kind). Joseph got his birthday present, like a month early. They bought him a red wagon but we just couldn't hold off on letting him give it a spin. I have never seen this child take to anything like that red wagon. He's a bit nuts over anything with wheels, but the wagon thing was insane. We didn't bring it home so it can be "regifted" on his birthday and maybe he won't remember it and fall in love all over again. I foresee many hours of dragging a red wagon through the yard.

New (Sorta) Shoesies

Joseph, in a Huckleberry Finn-ish sort of way, has never worn shoes until about 3 weeks ago. He got his big toe smashed underneath a rocking chair at daycare and I decided that it would be a good time to get him some shoes. (That along with the fact that he appears to be way close to walking, but I've been saying that for a month). Okay, I'll cut the crap. I was tired of people looking at his black toe and either asking what happened to it or thinking what negligent parents we must be. I started to cut it off at the pass by immediately saying, "It happened at daycare" upon the mere suspicion that someone was inspecting the black toe. I had no idea how much baby shoes cost! More than I pay for most of my own shoes.

The Pitmaster and his sidekick, Lil' Biscuit

This is Ed Mitchell, famous for being the king of Eastern North Carolina Barbeque. (He recently stomped Bobby Flay in Ultimate Cook-off and I think he was on Today Show last week). Sunday we went to a graduation party for our friend Vance (who is apparently nuts and pursued another degree after the heck that was law school). Ed Mitchell came with half of a pig and tons of food. Needless to say, the food was awesome. Lil' Biscuit was pleased. I didn't notice the spoon in his hand until after I took the picture.

Scowl

This pictures makes me laugh out loud every time I look at it. He looks like a crotchety old man.

Biscuits: Joseph has discovered life is worth living.

What do you get when you cross a Lucas and a Straughan? Just as likely that an offspring from said gene pool would come out with four limbs is the likelihood that he or she would harbor a propesity to, to say this delicately, undertake culinary adventures with exceptional zeal. Joseph has always been very eager to consume fairly large quantities of baby food, but now we're on to grown up food. Joseph's daycare teachers would explain at least once a week that he was very interested in watching the older ones eat and would wait under the high chairs for a dropped morsel. Based on this behavior, which remains disturbingly dog-like, I was asked several times whether he could start having real food. I was hesitant due the fear of choking, but I finally relented last week. I would look at the menu each day and tell his teacher what he could have (i.e. very small pieces of cheese, bread, pasta, etc...) That lasted about three days before his fat little hands were raking in meatloaf and chicken nuggets. In just a little more than a week's time, we're almost over the baby food era. This past weekend Joseph had what could only be described as two country feasts. Saturday night he ate brocolli casserole, mashed potatoes with gravy and cheese at Grandma's. Sunday we met Grandmama, Grandaddy and Great-Grandmom for lunch at The Old Place for part two, where he showed some country style steak and mashed potatoes and a biscuit who was boss. He'll really eat anything you give him. We've yet to find something he won't eat at least a few bites of. His favorite so far appears to be biscuits. Fittingly, if you squeeze those ample thighs they feel just like a freshly opened can of Grands. This weekend was not our usual pace...we will NOT be having country feasts every day. The nice part about this phase is that it takes him forever to eat. He rakes it in all slow and savors the moment. That way I can plop him in his high chair with his food and get stuff done in the kitchen while he's well entertained. These pics were taken after church. Joseph is in the same outfit Drew wore when he was a baby and, as you can see, he's bustin all out. Later we'll talk more about the daycare's determination that Joseph is too "husky" for the baby class.

Happy Thursday Morning from the World's Sweetest Boy

Kisses: Not Just for Mom Anymore

A couple of weeks ago we taught Joseph how to give kisses. First it was just kisses for mommy. Then it was kisses for Daddy. Then Grandma got kisses. Then we would tell him to give Chesley kisses and he would open is mouth as far as he could and plant a went drooly one right on her little punkin head. Apparently he gives Chesley kisses all day at school. She was out last week and he wreaked havoc kissing on another little girl. I witnessed one of the episodes and she was all ugh get off me. Then Martha was informed how much Joseph missed Chesley last week. Now, as you can see, he has deemed many things, inanimate objects included, worthy of his sweet kisses. Tell me this doesn't make your day. Don't you just want to hold him tight and squeeze those fat thighs and get those kisses and make him stay 10 months old just a little longer?

Most Recent Professional Pictures

These were taken at the end of May with Joseph's cousins Brinkley and Chesley. I'm just now getting them downloaded :) He's almost 8 months old in these pictures. The hairdo is just starting to assert itself.