Loving Life with Lucy

YOUR BABY IS 81 WEEKS OLD

Your toddler is probably playing with toys more than she used to. That’s partly because she’s starting to have more of an understanding of spatial relationships (how things fit together). One way she develops this understanding is by pushing things around, which children this age love to do. She can also probably make a reasonably accurate copy of a vertical line on a piece of paper.

Lucy does love to play...she really likes all of her Little People and tries to find specific ones. She has one original Little People girl with blond hair and has decided she's a "baby" and often searches for her and puts her in a chair and then places her in the kitchen of the house so she can eat!
She has a Little People convertible and gets agitated when she can't find the girl who came with it to put her in the driver's seat.
Her new thing is to eat at her "table." I set up one of the ottomans next to her favorite chair and put a burp cloth on top like a tablecloth one night while she ate a snack...guess what she expects every evening now??

She likes to play in her room and especially in her bed...she tells me the baby needs to go to sleep and then tells me she's going to sleep, too. Last week she got in bed with her baby to "sleep." She knew she was cute, too! She couldn't stop smiling at me! I told her to stay there while I ran to fetch my camera and she did:

We have all of our Halloween decorations out and she really likes them...I let her eat off of the skeleton plate one night and she just kept pointing to the skeleton and looking at me - asking me what it was. I kept telling her "skeleton!" and she'd smile...and ask me again a moment later...

Donna gave her some Halloween treats and she pulled this book out and climbed up onto the couch...Dave and I watched her from the hallway...she was pointing and jabbering her way through as she turned pages - she was reading!

We bowled on Saturday night so Lucy hung out with her Grandma but I couldn't resist a sneak-peek when we got home:

Her memory continues to amaze us. Lucy and I went to a consignment shop in Alexandria on August 29. The cashier gave Lucy a ring pop which turned her mouth blue/green.

An entire month later, Lucy and I were back at the consignment shop, this time with her daddy. She walked around the store for a bit but when she saw the counter, which is in the back of the store, she said "Candy?" She remembered she'd gotten candy there! Sadly, blue/green ring pops make Lucy super crazy and we had to deny her smart request...

She has a new word.

"No"

She likes to say it a lot, too...sometimes she just seems to like the sound of it (like last night at Skyline - she just randomly started yelling "No!" and laughing...) but other times she answers us with her cool new word..."Lucy, it's time to take your bath"..."No!" (followed by her running away).

She's been throwing tantrums a bit more often lately, too...if we try to help her with something and it turns out she didn't want help? Not good. She's been taking her shoes off a lot lately (which is a little unusual for her because she's always preferred to wear shoes) - she took them off at the zoo on Saturday when we ate lunch...and got a little pissed when I tried to put them back on her after we ate...And yesterday when I got to the sitter's house to pick her up, she was ready to run out the door to leave, but when I reminded her she didn't have her shoes on and tried to help her get them on, she melted down...by the time we were in the car, though, she was back in a great mood, making me laugh...

Lucy and I are doing this on Saturday:

http://giving.cincinnatichildrens.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=546&srcid=546

Date - Sunday, October 7

Destination - "A pumpkin patch off Mount Zion Road that I got a really good Groupon deal on" - Jan

Actual Location - A pumpkin patch 10+ miles away from the Mount Zion Road exit...in Dry Ridge

Weather - freakin' freezing!

So the patch turned out to be a bit further than we'd first thought...and there were no tank tops and Capri pants like at the patch last year...but we had so much fun at this pumpkin patch!

It was just the three of us and we got some cute photos:

Pumpkin booty!

This pumpkin patch - Country Pumpkins - seemed specifically geared toward kids Lucy's age so it was a perfect find!

They had "corn boxes" - a room (that was warm, thank goodness!) where they had three sandboxes set up and filled with corn instead of sand:

To get up there, you climbed a narrow ladder...and to get back down, you had the option of that same ladder...or a slide! Lucy chose the slide...again and again...

My girl knows just how to pose and just where to pose:

How cute?! She picked out her own outfit -
I let her choose between her Halloween pants, her Halloween shirts
and her Halloween hairbows and she put this together and looked adorable!

She's saying "cheese!" more to the camera in her hand than in mine...but still a cute pic!

This was a little train ride for kids...she wanted nothing to do with the ride,
but when no one was around it, she wanted to climb aboard!

They had a mini hay maze that was perfect for her...I sent her in and Jan said she was nervous - because it was a little maze and she was afraid she was going to have to go in after the Lucygirl...but she figured it out (and was very proud of herself):

This girl walked around the place like she owned it:

They had a petting zoo and she really liked talking to the animals...she was especially attracted to the bunny!

She thought the baby cow's giant bottle was very funny!

She didn't love the hayride - she had to sit on my lap but she really wanted to get down and walk around the wagon...plus it was mighty cold that day and moving along in a wagon attached to a tractor made for quite a chilly breeze...but she still enjoyed pointed out cows and pumpkins along the way.

And speaking of pumpkins, she knows exactly what it means to "pick a pumpkin:"

I feel like this is a professional quality photo...ha...must just be my "model!"

They had a swing, too, and she likes to show what a big girl she is on the swings now:

She's also good at getting GranJan to buy her more pumpkins...she neeeeeded this little guy:

"GranJan will buy me this one!"

Riding around with the rest of the wagon loot:

Part of her Groupon included free corn stalks which we had the pleasure of shoving into our car...Lucy kept reminding us that GranJan put "sticks" in our car!

Later, at GranJan ad Grandpa's - more swinging! This time with her baby.

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Date - Sunday, October 14

Destination - A pumpkin patch that I'd gotten a Sweet Jack deal from - Shaw Farms in Milford, OH

Weather - high chance of rain, lots of wind, but fairly warm

It was another girl's day at the patch but we added some friends this time - Donna, Ashley and Cleo.

This patch, too, took us a long time to get to due to traffic...and it drizzled off and on as we made the drive but we kept on moving...and it turned out to be a pretty great day!

Lots to do at this patch as well, including climbing around on some awesome displays:

She just kept saying "Neigh! Neigh!"

She loved climbing in these little houses but did not love sharing...she wigged out a bit
if another kid climbed in the same one as her but there were no major incidents...

Can you spot all 3 of the little pigs?

A pumpkin as a head? Interesting!

I wanted a cute pic of me and my girl on the hay ride and asked Jan for her help...here's what I got:

Mid-blink for the Lala...not so great...

Then I asked her to get a pic of us on the train...

Lucy isn't even looking!

Meanwhile, I got this awesome pic of the two of them!

I should crop Jan's head out...

She had tons of fun - finding pumpkins, rolling around with a big one, and eating lunch with friends in a barn:

It was kind of a repeat of the St. Joe's festival - Lucy was walking around with her friend, Cleo, and spotted the rides. In this case, it was the little train like she saw at the other patch. She acted like she wanted to ride - to the point where we bought tickets. Cleo gets in and Lucy is placed on her lap...and it is only at that point when she indicates that she does NOT want to ride...

So we all walked away (at the festival, Cleo rode alone). But later, again Lucy said she wanted to ride...so I decided I'd ride with her (I'd seen another mom do it earlier). We had to wait a bit because one of the cars had a broken wheel (which made me quite nervous!)...by the time we were all settled (Cleo and A also rode - individually, in cars behind us) and the driver had saddled up to his tractor, the slight drizzling we'd been feeling had increased...basically to a pouring...

Despite the drenching (our hair was matted to our head), Lucy seemed to really like it. The driver cut the ride short because we were all getting very wet and by the time we got off and found the dry GranJan and Donna hiding in a barn, it had pretty much stopped!

There was at least a 50% chance (maybe more...?) of rain the entire time we were there but the only time it actually rained was when we were on that dang train!

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But before we met everyone at Donna's house, we stopped at the park in her neighborhood since we were a bit early...it was windy but not too cold and she was loving life...she is so good at climbing!

By the way, she picked out her own outfit (from choices) again, jacket included...
it might be a bit busy but it's a lot cute!

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After the pumpkin patch, it was time to go back to Donna's house to have dinner, play with Uncle Jason and Bob and Grandpa, and carve our newest pumpkin!

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We also made another visit to Hallzooween this weekend - this time with our Kennedy friends. Lucy was excited the night before and I caught the moment on video:

Costumes are encouraged at Hallzooween and she didn't dress up the previous week because it was pretty cold but this Saturday was a beautiful day and my little pirate got all decked out:

She kept the hat on the entire day! Of course the previous weekend at the pumpkin patch, when it was coooooold, I couldn't get her to wear a hat for an entire second let alone and entire morning/afternoon...