Playing with pals

This is our friend, the lovely Lauren Burns!

And her twin brother, the mischievous Elijah Burns!

And this is silly little Claire Bear! Isn't she pretty?

Lucy and EJ love each other! They sat together on Lauren's couch long enough for me to take the photo...amazing!

Lucy and Claire enjoyed the change of scenery - and the stock of interesting new toys to play with! They loved this little walking toy...they took turns walking down the hallway with it. When Claire was playing with it, Lucy needed something to hold onto while she walked around...so she just held onto her friend CB!

Claire shows Lucy how to change it to Spanish...

(When mommy picked Lucy up from Tracey's house on Monday, they announced they had a new toy to show me - Eric and Tracey had purchased this same walking toy for Lucy! Now she doesn't have to devise a plan to steal it from the twins!)

EJ is appreciative that Lucy brought a toy for him to munch on..(her piggy bank with tasty coins).

She shows him what you're really supposed to do with the coins...

Lucy was a bit of a whiny butt after a fun filled evening celebrating the recent graduates, her Uncles Jeff & Jason, the night before...but mostly the kids played really well together and gave the mommies time to hang with friends!

10 month old Lucy!

Here are some favorites from our 10 month photo shoot with Auntie

"I love my giraffe suit!"

Action shot of our brand new crawler!

Laughing hysterically at mommy!

Pretty and she knows it...

She crawled! (A ten month stats post)

When I picked Lucy up last night, her babysitter told me she had crawled two separate times during the day!! At first I was super sad that Lucy decided to show someone else (besides her mommy and daddy!) her new trick first and almost wished Tammy hadn't told me (so that we could think it was "new" and that we were the firsts to see it)...but then I got excited - how cool that she learned how to crawl on her 10 month birthday!!?
We weren't home long before Lucy decided to finally show us just what Tammy was talking about! She crawled a couple of "steps" and daddy even caught some on video! She crawled a short distance to her diaper bag and to retrieve her giraffe cup filled with water...she wanted to play her favorite game with it - sprinkler!

She continues to show us how brave, strong and adventurous she is...

And now she takes her baths in the big tub! She likes to have lots of toys in there with her and takes the time to catch up on her reading...

She has some rubber duckies she plays with in the tub and we've been pretty sure the last few nights that she has said "duck" (sounding more like "duh")!

So the ten month stats are:

Height - 26.5

Weight - 19lbs 15.5oz

Accomplishments:

She primarily eats "people food" (for lack of a better term). She hasn't come across much that she doesn't like but she really enjoys peas and peaches, her two current favs.

She likes spaghetti, strawberries if she's in the mood, pears, green beans, bread, turkey, cheese...pretty much anything...she loves her puffs and has recently figured out how to remove the lid herself...once she accomplishes this, she sticks her tiny arm down into the tube to pull out the snacks - funny stuff!

She can crawl!!

She can stand without holding onto anything for up to a minute or so! It's like the most amazing thing I've ever seen each and every time she does it!

She can say "duck!"

I think she can say dada and mean it...she's been making the sound forever but I'm starting to think she actually means Dave when she makes the sound sometimes (which sucks for me, ha! She made the mama sound - many variations such as mum, mumumum, maaaam, mum-uh - early on but has yet to mean me when she says it).

She now goes to bed around 9pm...it was closer to 10 but we've been inching up the bedtime routine and it's going well...she takes two naps during the day and has given up on her evening nap but the 9pm bedtime gives mommy and daddy time to watch things like American Idol!

Jumperoo-ing!

Adventures in toy town!

Lucy is so smart! She has this tractor above and she knows which animals go in it...and she knows how to turn it on to make the truck drive!

She knows how to put the shape "cookies" in the cookie jar! GranJan bought her this cookie jar for Christmas and it's a good thing...GranJan also bought one for Alex and he got his a few days earlier - but Lucy almost tried to steal it!

She loves this little camera from Uncle Jim and Aunt Peggy...daddy's being funny taking a picture of mommy taking a picture of Lucy...

Since she is such a big girl now, daddy went ahead and turned her exersaucer into the table and she's been enjoying walking around it...but maybe now we can bring the jumperoo back upstairs? We moved it to the basement to make room for the Christmas tree...she's jumped in it a few times since then downstairs while mom folds laundry but it might be nice to jump upstairs...

She always squats like this! It cracks us up...she's gotta have some seriously strong legs! She just can't give up on standing!

Climbing off the train after a trip to diaper down..

Eating adventures

This picture was taken this afternoon...enjoying strawberries and peas for lunch...she loves peas! Today she actually preferred them over the strawberries! When meal time is over, we fish out all the leftovers - usually on her left side, between the side of the chair and her leg. She's a left handed eater, after all! Sometimes, if there are still a few unwanted pieces of food on her tray, she "helps" us clean up by adding even more food to that special spot between her leg and chair...we may have to do some searching for a full body bib as she often requires a change of pants after meal time!

She's gotten very good at drinking water from her sippy cup with a straw! Being a "big girl" and getting to do it herself makes Lucy very happy!

She still eats oatmeal (or yogurt) in the mornings but eats very few pureéd foods anymore...but here she is after polishing off a bowl of pureéd sweet potatoes - she likes to help with the spoon, which results in a slightly messier face! This pic may have been taken on January 4th - Dave thinks it's funny for her to wear her "Baby's First 4th" bib (from the 4th of July) on the fourth of every month!

Here we are enjoying some spaghetti...Lucy eats a lot of the same things as mom and dad now, including spaghetti. I just cut it up and fed it to her but next time I may let her try it herself...she's had ravioli with us and she loves blueberry muffins! Last night she had mac & cheese and she eats almost all of the vegetables we eat (she hasn't tried corn yet).

Sometimes she'll let me feed her things and other times, she reaches for the spoon instead of opening her mouth - "I can do it myself!"

All done!

A few favorite photos

Here's little Lucy looking lovely in a top from her sugar momma, as I call her - mommy's friend Gina from work...she loves Lucy and showers her with cute new gifts! Lucy's about to be a dare-devil and hop down from this ottoman...

Silly little Lucy making cute faces for the camera...

Pretty baby...I'm sure you can see why these photos are favorites!

Sneaky, sneaky

I just love this picture...it looks like she's about to sneak up on someone!

Look at Lucy!

Since Lucy's such a big girl now and all she wants to do is walk around, daddy converted her exersuacer to this table! It's sort of sad for us to see her growing up so quickly...and to sacrifice even more living room space...but she seems to like it!

She likes walking around this table and the little ottomans in the middle of the room. She can pull herself up onto anything and is getting braver about holding on / letting go...

At least once a day, she gets herself from sitting to laying on her belly in such a way that has us convinced she's about to crawl - she doesn't seem to know just how close she is! But Dave thinks she'll be crawling before long.

Another haircut

Last weekend Lucy and I went to GranJan's for haircuts...I needed a major trim and she needed the hair around her ears cleaned up...she was in front of the tv and had some lunch while she got the cut so she basically didn't even know she was getting her hair cut...

Lookin' good, Lucy girl!

Lucy proudly presents...

...the newest members of her giraffe family!

Thanks to Santa and some of his helper elves, we have 6 new giraffes...and we love them all!
The most amazing thing is - none of them are repeats of giraffes we already had!

What can Lucy do now?

Lucy can sit on her little giraffe from cousin Amy and go on rides while mom or dad push...she loves it when we say "wheeeee!" as we roll from the living room ("toy town") to the dining room ("diaper town" since that's where the changing table is). She also loves riding her alphabet train from Grandma and Grandpa Meyers between towns.
The train has an attached caboose and she can stick alphabet blocks in the train and shoot them over to the caboose - she's become a pro at this and Dave and I are convinced she's the smartest baby in the universe!
She's got a musical stage from Grandma Terry and we swear she starts to dance when the music comes on! She'll be standing up at it and presses a button to get the music going and her little knees will bend over and over!
Occasionally if we say "yay Lucy!!" she'll clap her hands!!
She definitely knows her name but is also incredibly gifted at ignoring you when you call it. I always say, "She changed her name and she won't look at us until we correctly guess what the new name is..."
She got her first two teeth (bottom front) right around Halloween and no more have popped up yet but she's been expanding her menu lately. She's had lunch meat (turkey and ham) and pieces of cheese, peas and carrots and peaches and bananas - all in their true form rather than puréed. She loves sucking salt off of pretzel rods...and lately she's really in to feeding herself...if I try to spoon feed her applesauce, she turns her head from me and grabs the spoon away to do it herself! Such a big girl!
She can pull herself from sitting to standing onto just about anything she wants to...if she wants to stand, she can make it happen...she cruises the length of the couch, all over her bedroom and the takes mom and dad on walks (and probably the babysitters, too!) all day long! She holds our hands and has lately been letting go of one hand and trying to walk without as much help. My granny got her a push-walk toy and she walks with that sometimes...she's very proud of herself when she does this!
She can easily get from sitting to being on her belly and each time she does this, we're convinced she's about to start crawling - it really looks like it! She has no interest in crawling and is oblivious to how close she is to doing so...maybe she can't be bothered with crawling and only wants to walk?

And Christmas 2011 comes to a close...

We had our final Christmas celebration at GranJan's on Thursday...we were so happy everyone could be there that it was worth the wait (for Uncle Jeff to be in town and Auntie Em to be off work)!

Uncle Jason prepared a delicious feast which we all enjoyed...but soon it was present time!

Lucy got a wagon, which she loved so much she opened most of her gifts from inside it!

She especially loved the telephone from Uncle Jeff & Auntie Em! She spent a lot of time making calls before opening any more gifts...


Opening gifts is very tiring! Lucy is still a nap time snob...preferring to do most of her napping in her swing...we tried a snooze earlier in the day in the pack-n-play upstairs but she slept for less than a half hour...but later, while playing in her wagon, she really started to lean - couldn't keep that little head up much longer! We made a little bed out of it for her and she was a goner...she slept in that thing for a couple of hours!

Who ever heard of a Lucy-in-a-box?!

Just when she was getting good at gift wrapping...Christmas is over?!?

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!
We all stayed home for New Year's Eve...Lucy stayed on schedule and went to bed at her regular time and Dave and I played games (my new game - Logos) and watched New Year's Rockin' Eve...we missed everyone at bowling this year (which is what we've done for the past several years) but it was a really nice time at home, too! We went up to Lucy's room at midnight (just to look at her, whisper to her that we loved her and I touched her hand...we did NOT wake her up!) and it was perfect!

Dave and I were both off for about a week and a half and we all got really used to it! It was quite painful waking up to an alarm this morning (an actual alarm, not just the Lucy sounds coming from the monitor) and getting ready for work...we let Lucy sleep until the last minute and basically transferred her from bed to the carseat...but she still passed out dirty looks! She's not a fan of waking (or being awakened) before the sun!

The shirt says it all...