Loving Life with Lucy: Loving Life

As always, Lucy has been enjoying her outdoor time. I recently bought her a fairly big blow-up pool at a yard sale and we're looking forward to inflating it this weekend. She knows just where to go when we get in the backyard!

"Let's swing!"

She actually said, "Wheeee!"

In case you didn't believe me, above are some examples of Lucy being a daredevil - she was intending to head down the slide head first! I decided this might not be such a good idea and turned her around...she does enjoy going down on her belly - feet first!

She's really getting to the point where she knows what I am asking for when I get out the camera and say, "Smile!" and sometimes she even obliges...

This track season actually went by really quickly...Lucy didn't make it to too many meets because plenty of them were on weekdays and would be wrapping up by the time we left work and Tracey's house and got there...many times the weather was too wet...many times they were too far away...sometimes we had other plans...and on top of that, the state meet was earlier than usual so the season actually was shorter than usual. But Lucy really wanted to get to one more meet (she did make it to a few) and came up with the idea to surprise daddy at the state meet! She asked Aunt Amy to meet us there and asked Grandma Terry to come with us and we were all able to keep it a secret until we found daddy at Cardinal Park in Louisville last Thursday!

They were happy to see one another!

Just sitting at a picnic table...

Hanging with Aunt Amy

Wheeee!

There was a pretty cool park that Lucy got to play at for a bit...she had fun exploring and climbing and going down slides and finding fun places to sit...

Climbing...

Relaxing...

Pretty tuckered out by the end of the day, but she had sooo much fun!

I must say that attending a track meet with a one-year-old is far different than attending alone - luckily Lucy invited pals so I was able to sneak away and catch a couple of races. We're so proud of daddy and his team - runners up!!!!!
Tracey did a great job of keeping a sleepy Lucy awake all morning instead of giving her a morning nap so that when I got to her at 1pm, she was exhausted. Next we were off to fetch Grandma and Lucy was in a deep sleep by the time I'd made the 3 minute trip from Tracey's to Grandma's - she slept the entire way down, which was perfect.
We got there and met up with Aunt Amy and then it was time to surprise Dad!
What a wonderful day she had exploring, showing off and playing outside!

Just like her mama! She spotted the neighbor's recently-opened pool the other day and kept walking to the fence and pointing! I am so anxious to do some actual swimming with her this weekend! Like I said, I bought a decent-sized pool for the backyard which we will fill on Saturday, but we also plan to spend some time with GranJan and Grandpa at Brookwood this weekend!

Here is "her" stool...I moved it into the dining room the other night after she'd finished eating but Dave and I were still dining. She loves sitting on that thing so we knew we'd be able to keep an eye on her if we brought it into the dining room where we were.

Tracey has had some success with putting an awake Lucy down at nap times so we've decided to give it a try (up until now, we get Lucy all of the way to sleep and then carefully and quietly put her down and sneak away). I tried it first over the weekend - she could see the various bubbies in her room and indicated that she needed to hold all of them before she'd be willing to go to sleep. My mom says I was the same way (crazy). I got her to sleep fairly quickly and easily and Dave was impressed by my skills...It appears, however, that it was a fluke. Never since then have I been able to get her to sleep so quickly and easily but we've kept at it. We're averaging 45 minutes to get her to bed at night and most nights, we split up (Dave will go up for the first 20 minutes and then I'll tag in). We're getting there...

Uncle Jason got her this awesome water table for her birthday and I decided to put it together so we could play with it this weekend while dad was out...she looooves it! Dad got home just after we'd finished assembling it and was ready with his video camera to record some major splashing!

Dad gets a little stressed by how drenched she gets herself (she likes to fill buckets and then walk around shaking the water out all over herself) but she really has a great time splashing around and playing with the toys.

We've been searching for a new chair for Lucy that she can get in and out of by herself. I didn't want to pay too much and had been looking at yard sales. GranJan recently presented us with the rocking chair...Lucy loves it and enjoys "rocky rocky rocking" her babies but still needs a bit of help getting herself into it...but I was looking for one of these foamy seats and GranJan finally found one for us. Here she is sitting with one of her babies (and stealing the baby's bubby):

Throughout the day, she takes her milk in sippy cups. At night, though, we still give her final serving of milk to her in a bottle...it marks the beginning of the bedtime routine (bottle at 8pm, followed by bath, hair drying, pj time, then bed). Recently, she'll sit on one of our laps for about half of the bottle, then squirm down...more often than not, she'll end up in this chair finishing it off. Five bucks very well spent!

One of Lucy's favorite toys has long been a camera that Uncle Jim and Aunt Peggy got her for Christmas. It makes several sounds but sometimes when you push the top button, the camera tells her, "Say cheese!" and when it tells her to do so, she does! It also tells her to smile and I credit this toy for helping me get a cute pic of her smiling for me now and again:

She was sitting in her seat and I took a few pictures of her, then I said, "Lucy, smile!" and she looked right at me and gave me this beautiful smile!

Too much yard sale-ing is baaaaaad news when you have family like Lucy does...

Exhibit A from Auntie and A...she seems to like him...

Exhibit B from cousins Amy and Jennifer...

Dave and I had a super-fun night out on Sunday while Grandma Terry kept Lucy out past her curfew...we went to the Brad Paisley concert with Jill and Ryan and they had the sweet seats...big fun! And I decided it was my birthday party so happy 32nd to me!

And speaking of my birthday, look at my sweet little friend Sam!!

Last night, Dave had to go to the Baccalaureate Mass but I found some friends to celebrate with me...my parents and brothers and sister-in-law met me and Lucy at Texas Roadhouse for dinner...it was a dine-to-donate for March for Babies so while we celebrated, we helped our friends team, Preemie Patch, raise money!

Before we left I got a good pic of my girl having an appetizer...a comb...

But when I told her it was time to go, she grabbed her purse and was all set!

She loves carrying things on her arm and has become a bit obsessed with this purse (even though she has her own toy purse complete with accessories). Doesn't she look beautiful in this photo????

Don't get me wrong, Lucy enjoyed dinner...she thought she was hot stuff with the cup she was given and she tried a few things, mainly from GranJan's plate, but the real fun was after dinner in the parking lot...