Fun with Lucas E.

Lucas and Lucas played with the water hose in their undies while Ellen showed us her pretty dress that she had picked out that day...

Mommy Magnets

I need to research if 18 months is a separation anxiety phase, because if it is then Ellen is right on track. She is worst in the mornings and evenings, which coincide with making breakfast and dinner. This morning Tyson was following suit. Luckily Lucas didn't see or he would have been hanging on me too. I'm sure I'll miss this one day.

Mr.Liv-E-A and Ms. Marie

Lucas is always up for a play date with his buddy, Olivier. This was in their backyard... we had a healthy, mostly vegetarian (or grass, as Olivier called it) for dinner and then roasted some marshmallows for dessert.

18 Month Well Visit

Ellen had her 18 month visit on Thursday. She was all smiles and very friendly until Nurse Janet asked her to get onto the scale, and then she lost it. She arched her back and we almost gave up, but she finally sat still for a few seconds while the scale registered. This really wasn't a surprise -she's in a mommy phase right now. Once we got into the room and she had the choice of sitting on my lap or roaming around, she was fine. We had a little snack while we waited on the doctor...

And pointed our our facial features...

But that got boring after a few minutes, and she was off to check things out...

For some reason she shot me her mad look here...

And then decided to dance...

Our little bird is still small, according to the scale they use. She weighs 20.2 lbs, which is less than 5%. She's on the same curve, so no worries... it's just who she is. She's in the 40th percentile for weight and she apparently has a bigger than average head (because she's so smart!)

It was a pretty uneventful appointment. Ellen cooperated well for Dr. Wiles and he complimented her by saying that she was more reasonable than the average 18 month old.

Lucas's First Race!

The boys, Jeff and Lucas, both had races on Saturday. Jeff ran in a 5k for Girls on the Run, a program that Lincoln's mom (Kelly) works for in Durham. After Jeff's race (he beat his goal time by 30 seconds) Lucas got to run in a 100 yd dash! He was very excited and curious about it. He kept asking me when and where it was going to be. You can see him in action in the pictures here. He was wearing a green and white striped shirt. For the ones where he is far away, I put his name in yellow right above his head. I don't know what his time was... forgot about timing it. It was cute how at about the 90yd mark he was kind of skipping and looking back to check on Lincoln. After the official race he and Lincoln ran the course at least 5 more times, just for fun.

"On your mark. Get set. Go!"

Kelly and the boys

The kids, Kelly and me

Ellen sporting her Nike skort (thanks Nora!)

We were proud of Jeff for beating his goal time!

Superhero Camp!

The theme for Lucas's 4th birthday party was Superhero Camp. Lucas and I worked hard on the decorations and props during Ellen's nap for the past few weeks, so we were both super excited for party day!

The party started with each guest being issued their very own superhero cape and then a few minutes were spent decorating their superhero wands. I'm not sure such a thing really exists, but Lucas loves having something that size in his hand to mimic as a sword, gun, etc. Lily even got so creative to make a heart out of the wire and stuff a flower into the top of hers. The mommies helped as needed, but the kids were having a fun time on their own with the stickers, markers and sparkly wires.

Ellen, on the other hand, had better things to do.

And she must have been talking to Karis about how this toy was supposed to work.

I guess that a few of the boys finished their wands early and decided to try their cape out. I would love to have know what Lucas and Ben were talking about here...