Out and About

Here's Lucas and me on a bike ride at the beach near Rehoboth, DE. He loves riding in the "I-Bert" front-mounted bike seat. (Any other biking parents should take note that this particular model is available at amazon.com and is much easier to peddle with than a lot of other front seats.)



Lucas and Aaron played frisbee on our beach weekend. He's a natural....

"Park! Kids!"

That's what Lucas shouted when we pulled up to the park last week. It is so exciting to watch his vocabulary explode. (It also reminds us to watch our own mouths...) We started keeping a list of his words but it is becoming too numerous to keep up. So for the sake of posterity, I'll jot down as many as I can think of now: mommy, daddy, baby, duck, doggy, puppy, kitty, milk, night-night, poop, grandma, bop, grandpa, Ashley (his teacher), shoes, socks, bath, please, binky, bottle, book, ball, button, belly, park, kids, that, me, banana, toast, toes, nose, ear, teeth, bye-bye, hello, flower, and NOOOOO!!! He also says "Right back!" when anyone appears to be heading downstairs to take out the trash or water the plants. I know I'm missing some others, but you get the idea. It's been so much fun to know what's on his little mind!



Things have been great here, though very busy. We've been blessed with great visits from Grandma Karen, Bop & Grandpa Bop, and Tito Paolo too. I'll post more pictures shortly.



These pictures were taken at the Arboretum during Grandma Karen's visit. The cherry blossoms and magnolias were stunning and we spent a lovely afternoon outside enjoying them.

DC baby

This picture was taken awhile ago, but is so cool I just had to share.

Story Time with Lucas

Here's Lucas tackling Ani. Hugs for the kitty is one of his favorite games. She's actually amazingly patient with him-- which I'm sure is news to all of you who've had the misfortune of meeting the business end of her claws while visiting our house.

Lucas has also become very interested in books and loves to bring them to us to read. He has also started "reading" to himself, which is perhaps the cutest thing on earth, especially when he inserts funny parts into the story. ("Blah blah blah -- HA HA HA!--- blah blah blah") Check on this little video of Lucas reading the hungry catepillar. He also shows off many of his words at the end. (though pointedly refuses to say a few of the most intelligible, of course...)

Finally, here's Lucas being incredibly cute after his bath last night. Not that I'm biased or anything....

Walking, Running, Rabbits....

Yet again, my mother has reminded me that I have a blog to update. And yet again, she is right-- in the past month we've had some major developments and I can't believe I've been such a blog slacker. (actually, I can believe it-- insert lame excuses regarding work hours here) Lucas started walking on January 13-- this was not a gradual process-- he literally walked across the room the first time he *really* walked. He'd been cruising for months, content to walk when he could steady himself with as little as one finger touching something else like the wall, couch, etc. Then, on the afternoon of the 13th, we were all hanging out at home together and we started to play a familiar game: Aaron and I would sit on the floor facing each other and let Lucas "walk" between us. He would take a few steps and then fall into our arms. This time though, he appeared to be steadier than usual, so as he was coming toward me, I just moved back every time he got close. He ended up going all the way across the living room. We then set up the camcorder and recorded a good thirty minutes of him toddling around the living room playing Keep Away with us.


Since that was over a month ago, he is now running around with ease. Even though it's cold, we've had a few park trips and it's so much more fun for him now that he can chase squirrels, leaves, other kids, etc. He's also become quite skilled at climbing up the slide.

Valentines Day was very exciting in our house! That's Aaron dressed up like a giant rabbit dancing down our street where he suprised me with flowers, candy, and a gift certificate to the spa. It was fantastic. The only downside was that he had concocted an elaborate plan to parade around my work in this get-up, but Lucas had pink eye and I had to stay home with him. My coworkers were all in on it (and very disappointed when I couldn't come in!). He tried everything he could think of to get me to leave the house, but since I was stuck with pink-eye boy and it was 25 degrees out, there just wasn't much to work with. In the end, he opted to process down our street and wave at cars. (For those of you puzzled, there is some significance to the giant rabbit: 12 years ago Aaron showed up at my college dorm to pick me up for a date celebrating our three year anniversary, also dressed in a giant rabbit costume. He was working at a community center and had recently been the Easter Bunny. Needless to say, it was a big hit on campus and has since become the stuff of legend...)

Lucas was pretty freaked out a first, but quickly got into the act.



A good time was had by all. Exciting things on our horizon include upcoming visits from our families, finally getting sworn in as a legit lawyer (April 7!) and hopefully the onset of some spring weather in DC. We are all ready to be finished with this cold!

Christmas pictures

Here's a smattering of pictures from our trip!

Evans family Mega Birthday Party at Pump it Up. It was a ball!


Edmondson side cousins on Christmas morning at Grandma Karen's.


Lucas the Christmas Elf wedges himself into a corner.


Christmas Night Sing-a-long at Bop and Grandpa Bop's house.


Lucas pops out of a pile of presents to say hello to Bop.

Happy New Year!

We spent the holidays visiting family in the lovely Seattle area. At one point my mom commented, "I can tell how busy you've been at work by how often the blog gets updated." It took me a second, and then I realized in that moment that I'd actually FORGOTTEN that I even keep a blog. Needless to say, things have been incredibly busy at work. But so much has happened in Lucas' life since my last post that I wanted to at least add a few pictures and some brief commentary while I have a quick minute. Our trip to Seattle was memorable, to say the least. Lucas brought a stomach flu that wiped out our entire family. My parents insist that they are glad we came despite it, but that's only because they are better people than we are. I don't think I'd be happy to see anyone responsible for that kind of widespread destruction. We were calling it the Pox that Stole Christmas.


We have mostly recovered, though Lucas is still having some issues about which I will spare you the details. (trust me, you don't want to know) These pictures were taken last weekend when we all went to see the trains at the botanical garden, one of our favorite DC destinations. Lucas really enjoyed the elaborate train display, even though it was a very chilly day. (Especially chilly for Aaron and I who had decided to run there, hence my not so sexy running tights)



I'll post more Christmas pictures soon. But know that we are all doing well and despite the flu, we really did have a great trip home. And despite the crazy schedules, Aaron and I are truly enjoying our new jobs. And we really feel like parents-- whether it's taking turns staying home with vomit boy or rushing out of a meeting (or hearing) to get to daycare, we are having fun with the adventure of being a working family and I am so thankful that we can all share in it together.

Happy Fall

These are a bit out of sequence, but they are so cute I wanted to post them. Aaron took these pictures a few weeks ago when he accompanied Lucas' daycare on a field trip to Butler's Orchard. They had so much fun, I wish I could have been there!

Urban Baby

Last weekend we went to the zoo. We weren't sure if Lucas was old enough for it, and were interested to see if he would react to the animals. Oh yes. It turns out he loved it. He made all kinds of fantastic squealing noises every time he saw an animal-- the pandas were a big hit in particular. We took the metro to get there, and while Lucas has plenty of subway experience, these photos capture the first time he took the train without being confined to the stroller. He looked like such a little urban commuter, we had to share.