The Kriz Family

Playing in the Snow

jim — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 01:53:58 +0000

We were playing in the snow with Lukas today. Cincinnati got a couple inches, so we thought it would be a good time to get Lukas back out in the snow (he didn’t like it so much last time…) We also thought we could get a good photo for our Christmas card (this was a major ordeal last year, but this year it was easy and fun! Here are a few highlights…

He’s a cute kid, eh?

This one is for Granny - he’s belting out the hymns already

Oh, we also went and got our tree today. We went to Dirr Nurseries to cut one down. This has become a little tradition since the first year we were married. Lukas was just wandering around, and I was doing my best impression of a tree with legs (like a Scooby Doo episode, you know, when Shag and Scoob would hide from the “bad guys”). Zoinks!

It’s a Hard Knock Life

jim — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:57:01 +0000

It had to happen sooner or later. Today Lukas had his first “major” injury. He was at the sitter’s house, and being curious as usual. He was trying to boost himself into one of those bouncy seats. Yes, he is way past the age for those, but I guess it caught his eye - literally… As he was climbing in, he lost his grip and slipped almost impaled himself on some doodad or widget or something that was attached to it. He got a pretty good scrape right next to his eye, but luckily it didn’t do any real damage. It looks like he’ll be sporting a nice black eye for a week or so though. Makes him look tough!

Advent Calendar

jim — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:44:01 +0000

We got Lukas a nice wooden Advent Calendar this year. We both remembered this from when we were little, and thought it would be a nice tradition for us to have with Lukas too. We’ll have him open a door on the calendar each night until Christmas. This year, we are just going to put little cookies behind each door, but when he gets a little older, we can use this to help remind him that this season isn’t just about toys and lights and presents - remember, Jesus is the reason for the season!

Here’s our little man opening his first door on the calendar

Thanksgiving

jim — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 01:28:12 +0000

I feel like we have a lot to be thankful for this year. Lukas has really changed our lives - mostly for the better, but sometimes he makes us wonder about that… :) In all seriousness though, we are so thankful to have this happy, healthy boy in our lives, and we are thankful to have our family and friends with us through all these times.

To celebrate the holiday this year, we shared Thanksgiving day with Heidi’s parents (Granny and Opa, to Lukas). We all stuffed ourselves with too much food, as usual, played the piano, tossed a football, moved some furniture - you know, all the typical holiday activities. Lukas was running around while “the boys” were tossing the ol’ pigskin. He was cracking up as the ball would fly over his head. He liked playing in the driveway with gravel and sticks too (tried eating some rocks and sticks, but I think realized they weren’t all that good…)

The on Friday we went up to visit Grandma and Grandpa Kriz. The car trip was a little exhausting, but otherwise, it was a really nice visit. We had yet another big meal Friday night, then on Saturday we all went to Parmatown Mall to ride the Christmas Train. That was really fun, and Lukas sure loved it (he put up such a fuss after the firsr ride was over that we went again). Grandma and Grandpa loved it too, because this was the same train “Jimmy” rode on when he was a little guy.

And later in the day on Saturday, we thought we’d let Lukas play outside in the snow. He was not too fond of it just yet - he fell down once, and after that, he wouldn’t even walk in the snow anymore. I’m sure he’ll come around.

I like this one - it’s like he’s posing for a Gap ad or something…

Ahhhh, Fall

jim — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:17:53 +0000

We raked leaves for the first time this Fall, and Lukas was a great help. Ok, maybe not so much, but he seemed to like playing in the leaves.

Here’s our little helper working the leaf blower. Notice he is taking safety very seriously and wearing his earmuffs. He refused to wear safety goggles though.

He also had fun shuffling around in the piles of leaves

We tried to get Lukas and Boone together for a moment, but this is the best we could do.

There’s my feet!

Just some cute ones. I can’t wait til snow. As much as I hate winter, I think Lukas will love playing in the snow this year!

Happy Halloween!

jim — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 04:28:24 +0000

Halloween is here again, and this year we had our little man dress up and trick-or-treat at a few of the neighbor’s houses. He was a little Yoda, and he seemed to really enjoy walking around and watching all the kids come by. All the other trick-or-treaters were commenting on the little baby Yoda. There were a couple “enemies” that came by (Darth Maul and Darth Vader), but Yoda didn’t seem to mind too much. He has a lot to learn about the Dark Side, but I think the Force is strong in this one, so I’m sure he will use his powers for good. Wow, that’s really corny. Heh, heh, heh.

Lukas liked his card from Grandma and Grandpa Kriz

If I cannot pull it out of the ground…

…use the Force to levitate it I will.

It was hard to keep him away from the pumpkins (and open flames…)

One last walk before bed

And just for comparison - here’s our little man as a dog last year - how much he’s grown!

Check out our supercool pumpkins…

Lukas’ First Haircut

jim — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:20:18 +0000

This was a momentous day. For a long time, we had been noticing that our boy’s hair was growing and growing, but only on the top and back of his head. There wasn’t much on the sides, so people often asked if he was like one of those Hollywood babies with a mohawk. Anyway, we also noticed that his curls (yes, curls - not sure where those came from) were looking more and more like a bird’s nest, and we weren’t so sure we could cut them and make it look better. So we decided, after much debate, to take him for his first haircut. We went to the Great Clips down in Madeira, and as expected, Lukas was none too happy about it. The stylist made very quick work of his haircut, since he was pretty upset by it all. She even grabbed some of his locks for us to put in our baby book. Awwwww.

Ok, first we had to remove the cape - Lukas didn’t care for that at all… We’ll just brush the hair clippings off I guess.

Working quickly to clean up his hair while he was in between crying fits!

Another little breakdown

Whew, that makes me tense just looking at those pictures again. Hopefully we can go another year and a half before the next haircut!

Preppy Boy

jim — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:17:14 +0000

We recently got Lukas a bunch of clothes for the Fall and Winter, and since he is older and bigger, there seems to be a better selection of cute (that’s Heidi’s word) clothes for him. One day, he was in a plaid button-down shirt with some khaki pants, a fleece vest, and a Harvard ball cap (thanks Maria - he really likes his hat!). He looked like he belonged on the college campus. Check him out!

Learning to Eat With a Fork

jim — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:50:58 +0000

Lukas is developing his fine motor skills, and we’ve noticed him being able to do more things with nice smooth motions, rather than the hurky-jerky flailing from months past. One thing he’s getting the hang of is eating with a fork. He still can’t manage to get food onto the fork himself, but if you hand him a bite, he’ll get it into his mouth. It’s really fun to watch, and I think he likes to be “independent” too. Here is his first go at it, eating some spinach quiche (one of his favorites).

Pumpkins!

jim — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:35:22 +0000

We took our annual trip to Shaw Farms this weekend to pick out our pumpkins for Halloween. We think Lukas enjoyed the trip a lot more this year. They have all sorts of little displays, houses and other stuff set up for the kids, and this year our boy was a lot more interested in everything going on around us. They have hayrides too, maybe next year we’ll try that out.

He liked walking through their little fire house.

We tried to get him to stand by the scarecrow to get measured - as you can see, he wasn’t having much to do with that…

He was helping put pumpkins in our wagon too.

Most of all, he liked being pulled around in the wagon full of pumpkins!