To Remember...

Lucas loves asking me simple addition problems. "What's 100 plus 8?" or "what's 1000 plus 8?". He knows most of the answers from 1 to 10 himself.

He thinks those Franks Red Hot commercials are funny, and every once in awhile I'll hear him say: "I put that on everything!" He doesn't understand the bleep of the missing swear word yet! He does this for a couple of songs we hear on the radio as well.

He's started up on a knock-knock joke phase...again. And he's makes up his very own. His knock-knock jokes don't actually make any sense, but they are still funny!

More often than not, he still climbs into bed with us first thing in the morning before heading downstairs. Sometimes he'll ask me a simple math questions (like this morning), but usually he asks how I slept, and what was my favourite thing from yesterday. That's something I use to ask him a lot before he went to bed, his favourite thing that happened that day.

This morning he was excited about his spelling test today, but wanted to practice the words again as we were headed out the door. This week it's: me, my, I as, on, with bonus words of November, pencil & Thursday. He was very excited about getting 100% again!

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This is the month to Remember. Yesterday, Lucas asked me why they get a PD Day on November 11th. I tried my best to explain that it was to give people time to remember and be thankful for those who came before us. We take the day off to be respectful of the sacrifices that were made, and the times now lost to history. My Grandma once told me that when she was little, Remembrance Day was not only about celebrating military heroes and veterans, and remembering great wars. It was for visiting family, both dead and alive. For celebrating our relatives that had passed on, visiting their gravesides, and maintaining their plots. Kind of like a North American "Day of the Dead", but probably without the sweet costumes and parades! I like this grandma-historical view of things! I'm not sure if she was referring just to her small corner of the world, but it's still a good idea. I think Lucas is still too young to appreciate a lot of what Remembrance Day signifies, but I also think that he appreciates what it means to have a wonderful family, and maybe I'll just have to push the Grandma-Historical view of things until he's older!

In honour of Remembrance Day, and because I was going back through my Blog Archives yesterday, I want to share some old memories and layouts with you this month.

Starting with 2006.

From the top:
Everyday. April 26, 2006, Lucas is 8 months. I still remember this day. Lucas wasn't yet crawling, but he was very mobile. He would roll around the living room floor until he got close enough to the X-Box and stereo, so he could push the buttons and make the tape deck (wow!) open. Then he would roll around to the couch, or over to his toys, and then back to the stereo. This layout makes me happy because of the multiple-word title, the writing on the photos, and the circle cluster on the left side there. I took so many photos that day, and was happy to get a lot of the best on this layout.

Lucky. April 2006. I still think he is super lucky to have great-grandparents in his life! Grannie still loves to play with him, and read with him. She used to "babysit" him when I worked or when I needed a "day off", or just when she wanted to see him and I didn't have anything planned! An early example of me using a "found object" on my layout: the cardboard bracket.

Grannie's Piano. April 2006. The piano now lives at Grandma Arlene's house, and Jacob is the one banging on it! I love this layout! So colourful, and I still consider that title to be a work of genius!

Is There Something on my Face? April 2006. Lucas is still a messy eater, but not this messy! He loved to get right into the food dish and try to help me feed him. I had to "disguise" the carrots with chicken, and while it looks like he was feeding himself, none of the food on his hands made it into his mouth! Layout-wise: Heidi Swapp ghost frame, and that amazing Scenic Route paper. Oh, and a lid from a jar of baby food! Nuff said.

Pizza Pizza. Fall 2006? Lucas is at least 1 year. Fast forward from the layout above, Lucas is walking and talking and feeding himself. This includes sneaking the pineapple off the leftover pizza in the fridge! Sneaky!!

B is for Bath. Flashback again to April 2006. Lucas loved bath time so much when he was a baby. He did this funny frogger-thing to push himself backwards and forwards in the tub. I remember he always talked and laughed a lot in the tub, and "swam" so much he would splash most of the small amount of water right out the sides!

One Plus One. I love these pictures of Lucas. He seemed so small against the large playground equipment. This was back when he loved balls of any size. He would throw the ball up a slide and watch it roll back down. He also really loved the feel of the sand on his hands, and would push them into a pile and then slowly let the sand fall off his fingers.

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That's all for now, peeps. These layouts may be dated now, but I still remember the feeling of accomplishment and excitement when I finished each one of them. They capture those moments so perfectly, and so clearly that I can still remember when those photos were taken and why.

Isn't it fun to take a stroll down memory lane, and wander through our old albums?