"I can do it myself!"

Hi, I'm Lucy.

I am one now so I am a big girl.

I know how to use a spoon and I can feed myself the yogurt, thank you very much!

I don't even make a mess!

I like when you break up my honey bunnies, though, so I can take little pieces and put them on the yogurt on the spoon...getting yogurt all over my hand while I push the honey bunny piece way down into the yogurt is intentional!  It makes everything taste better!

You're lucky I still hand you the spoon inbetween bites and let you put more yogurt on it for me...soon I will be handling that part myself, too.

Baby time

Dr. Lea said I was due March 24.
I had it in my head that the baby would be at least a week late, though as March 24 neared, Dave was convinced the baby was coming any minute.
March 24, 2011 was a Thursday.  I woke up feeling the same as I had been feeling pretty much every other day and Dave woke up announcing we'd be having our baby that day...I laughed.
At work as the day progressed, I started to feel a bit weird.  I felt a bit of pressure and thought maybe I had to visit the ladies room...this happened several times throughout the early afternoon and I emailed my cousin Christina to ask her some questions about when she had her first son, Tyler, because I had recalled her saying she felt "weird" at work the day she had him and I wanted her to elaborate...because I, too, was feeling "weird."
At this point, I still thought baby day was at least a week off but I reached out to my friend Christa asking her if she thought I could take something for constipation (sorry, folks...but seriously!  THAT is what early labor feels like!  How come NO ONE ever mentions that?  I would have taken things a bit more seriously and maybe even clued Dave in, ha, had I ever heard that before!) and she told me to call the doctor.  Seems she'd become convinced baby time was nearing, too, but I didn't listen.  She even called back a bit later to see what the doctor said but I'd never called (she yelled at me).
By the time I left work at 4:30, though, the lower pressure was continuing and becoming more frequent.  Still, I told no one at work what was going on, I did not talk to Dave about it, but I had a feeling - I made sure all my loose ends were tied up at work, cleaned my desk, and brought my laptop home with me, which is something I rarely do.
Dave called on my way home to ask what I wanted for dinner and to tell me he was stopping at Kroger.  For some reason, I still didn't tell him anything but my back was starting to hurt and I thought to myself, I'm not eating dinner tonight; I'm having a baby, so it doesn't matter what you buy...but hurry home!
By the time he got home, I was on the phone with my mom and grimacing through some back pains.  Dave looked concerned as he listened in and grabbed his stop watch and notepad.
I could not get comfortable and I called the doctor's office - my favorite doctor was on call (Dr. Lea!) and suddenly I knew for sure we'd be having our baby that night - it was meant to be!  Dr. Lea wanted my contractions (back pains) to be a bit closer together before calling him back but that didn't take long and soon enough, we were headed to the hospital.
I text my boss that I wouldn't be in and we called our parents...soon we would be parents!
With everyone gathered around, things started slowing down but finally, it was time to get serious - and get the baby out!  I made best friends with my nurse, Shannon, and even better best friends with the anesthesiologist, Kevin (I made the nurse in triage laugh by asking, as soon as we arrived, "How much longer until I get my epidural?")
Despite driving our friends and family crazy, it was so exciting to wait and learn the gender on birth day...with a tear in his eye, at Dr. Lea's prompting, daddy announced:
"It's a girl!"

I love being a mama...I love being her mama!

We've been "loving life with Lucy" for a whole year now, as hard as that is to believe!  And we can't wait to celebrate our girl with those who love her (party post is next)!

Sleepy baby

Baby today, one tomorrow...

Luck O' The Lucy

St. Patrick's Day was beautiful!  We had nowhere to be but got dressed up in our finest green anyway!  Lucy had her shamrock pants from GranJan on with her "My First St. Patrick's Day" bib which was gifted to us by a confused friend before she was ever born and she had a very happy lunch!

Mommy left for a bit to go to a Pampered Chef party so Lucy and daddy played (we skipped swim lessons because she was still getting over a virus and wanted to sleep in)...
More fun at the park when mom got home, though...how wonderful it is to have a park directly across the street!
Lucy has gone down the slide with me a couple of times and also sat with A on the slide once but I thought I'd let her try it "alone" (I stood on the ground but held her the whole way down) and she thought she was hot stuff (last night we went to the park before bath time and took a few turns down the slide and she actually cried when it was time to leave!), loving life:

We tried for a new family portrait with daddy-long-arms as the photographer...look how blue her eyes look!

Dad had the idea to bring her giraffe outside to play.  We've named him Yoshi due to the uncanny resemblance to a certain Mario pal:

Daddy's girl!

We've been getting the wagon out frequently (though we do change it up...sometimes the big stroller, sometimes the umbrella stroller) and we both love it!  Recently my friend Denese bought her these sandals.  Lucy's absolutely fascinated with shoes and often brings them to me to put them on her.  She loved these sandals and spent much of the walk un-Velcroing them...

Thelma and Louise, part two

How could I forget one of my favorite parts of Lucy's day with her GranJan???

On Thursday afternoon, my cell phone rang while I was sitting at my desk...the screen read "GranJan."

I answered, "Hello?" expecting a quick question or a status update.
Instead I hear background noise...they're obviously still at the park...but I still think maybe they've called me intentionally and I am on speaker for Lucy to hear my voice...so I keep saying, "Hello?  Hi, Lucy!"

Next I hear a horn honking and GranJan and Lucy are laughing and talking about the honking.  Were they honking for me?  I think...maybe I just can't hear them very well, and stepped outside (even though it was fairly quiet at work).

I hear GranJan, "Are you hungry, Lucy?" and a moment later, "Hello??  Did you call us?'

"NO!  YOU called ME...three minutes ago!"
Uncontrollable laughter.

"I guess Lucy wanted to talk to you"

Thelma and Louise

Lucy spent the day with her GranJan yesterday because her friends Tammy and Dominic wanted to see his grandpa in Florida once more before he becomes a big brother (little did they know, they'd be missing out on some Florida-like weather back home!).  She also gets to spend some extra time at Tracey's this week and will be paying a visit to her Grandma Kathy tomorrow.
Dave sent me a message asking "What are Thelma and Louise up to today?"  Good question!
We keep a journal for the babysitters to fill out so mommy and daddy can read about Lucy's day each night and the last time GranJan had Lucy, the journal entry said something along the lines of: "I woke up and ate breakfast and we don't think you need to know anything else."  This time GranJan didn't leave a cryptic message...or any message at all...but I did get pictures!  And I just love getting pics of my girl throughout the day!

She's got my keys (we traded cars since the carseat base was already in my car) and she's ready to go on some crazy adventures!

Looks like they had some super fun at the park!  I noticed the hat from the first pic and mentioned, "that isn't the hat that I packed..."  The response I got?  "Hmm, peculiar."  I haven't heard that word in some time but it was a pretty perfect term.

Lucy's been a bit under the weather this week and hadn't had a big appetite at the beginning of the week...but I happened to call around lunch time and learned of all Lucy had eaten - some turkey, cheese, peaches, blueberries...and GranJan asked if she ever says she's finished, because all she was seeing so far was the sign for "more" - moremoremoremoremore!  But by the end of the call, "What does it mean when she's waving both of her hands in the air?"  Ah, Lucy showed GranJan a new sign - finally "all done!"

While we spoke, I learned that they'd done a little shopping where Lucy grabbed a bunch of ducks "duck!  duck!" and put them in the cart...but mean old GranJan said she couldn't buy all of them!  She did get the new hat, though, and a new cup (which she later "dropped" to the ground and broke...) along with who-knows-what-else.

When I got to GranJan's house to fetch my car and my child, she was hanging out in the stroller, walking with Grandpa...she was a bit sleepy, but in a great mood!

Playing ball with Grandpa and GranJan while they got dinner ready!

I knew it was likely that she'd fall asleep on the way home and the later the nap, the trickier nighttime routine becomes...but she was having fun with Uncle Jason and wanted to stay for dinner.  She showed him some of her sign language...and also how she likes to throw food on the floor at mealtimes...

And she did fall asleep on the way home, despite my best efforts (I talked and sang loudly and put the windows up and down) but I woke her up when we got home and she was happy to play some more...this girl just loves to be outside!  I suppose all babies do but it's so fun to see how excited she is to be out there tasting mulch and stomping up and down the front steps in her new kicks.

One last surprise from a day with GranJan came last night...Dave and I were ready to watch American Idol while I nursed Lucy to sleep...

Just to verify, I text GranJan asking if this is what the television looked like when she left my house but she didn't write back...hmm, peculiar.

50 Weeks Old...dang

I get weekly emails telling me how old my child is (in case I don't know, ha) and what she should be up to...this week's is pretty accurate...

YOUR BABY IS 50 WEEKS OLD

• Your baby's coordination and attention span have developed. She can most likely hold a toy in each hand or pick up a toy and wave.  Check and check...she actually just started waving recently but doesn't have a problem doing so while holding a toy (or something she thinks is a toy but shouldn't really have, like daddy's camera - which she fished out of mommy's purse...)  And she likes having her hands full - of things she fishes out of the diaper bag (she's mommy's little "helper" - she helps me by emptying the diaper bag nightly).
• Babies this age don't understand danger yet.  Affirmative.  Guess what Lucy did last week!  She climbed the stairs!  Yikes!  And she frequently gets a hold of her fingernail clippers and puts them in her mouth (you would think her mother would find a better, higher, place to keep them...), she stands in the tub - and gives daddy a heart attack every time he happens to see it (which, luckily, is only about 1% of the time that she actually does this "trick"), and tries to climb off of her changing table...
• Now they can remember where a toy had been before, even if they can no longer see it.  This is my favorite...if we make the sound of a toy she has, she looks to the spot where we keep said toy...she's amazing.

I couldn't leave you without a picture...here's 50 week old Lucy doing a little computing...

Lovin' life, weekend style

We still have a couple of free kids meal Valentines from GranJan, and Lucy begged for Frisch's spaghetti on Friday night so off we went...
We ordered the invitations for her birthday party at the begining of March but they took their sweet time printing and shipping (and making mommy sweat) but they finally arrived on Friday night so we stuck them in the envelopes and dropped them off at the post office on the way to dinner. 
(Can't believe my baby is almost one!!!!)
We went to the new Frisch's by our house but it looked like there was a long wait so we headed down to the one in Cold Spring...turns out the wait looked just as long but it wasn't bad - we waited a couple of minutes, max, and Lucy had enough to look at during the wait that it wasn't an issue for her!
Luckily she packed some snacks and her water cup because Lucy knows exactly what it means to be in a high chair: "FEED ME!" and she doesn't fully understand cooking time!

We saw Uncle Bob-o come in as we were leaving but didn't realize the rest of the crew was inside somewhere and missed out on a little visit with them...sorry, A!
As soon as Lucy scarfed down her spaghetti, it was time to go!

Saturday started with a splash:

Swim lessons are so much fun!  Lucy really loves swimming with her daddy:

She really liked holding onto the noodle this week (her they are swimming with their friends Jill and Reese!)






















At one point, they passed out balls but ran out and pulled out a few ducks for those who didn't get a ball - Lucy was in heaven!  She'll take a duck over a ball any day!

After swimming, we went home to play then nap and eat lunch before us girls headed out to do some shoe shopping!  I got my shoes for Katie's wedding (Lucy helped me decide between two pair!) and we had Lucy's foot sized at Stride Rite.
Here she is as we walked in:

Yes, she is wearing brown pants...but her shirt has a big heart on it...that is made up of many small hearts!  Very girly...yet the sales lady repeatedly referred to Lucy as "he" and "him" and I couldn't believe it.  We let the lady measure her foot and then we were out of there...they were having a sale but the shoes still would have been $30 a pair and we found some cutie little New Balance gym shoes down the road at Shoe Carnival for fifteen bucks...and let me tell you!  This girl LOVES her new shoes!  She loves taking them out of the box, bringing them to you, pointing to her foot (or just setting the shoe on top of her foot) to indicate that she wants it on, then clumsily walks about with them on before taking them off to repeat the process.

We were probably gone a little longer than we should have been but Lucy fell asleep on the way home and I was hoping she'd get her regular nap.  I dropped her off at home with her daddy and went to Kroger but I'm told she woke up soon after drop off...this worried us since she was having company - Grandma Terry was coming to watch her while mommy and daddy bowled.
But she was nice to her grandma!  Yay!  And we had her start the bedtime routine about 25 minutes earlier than normal to try to get a leg up on the whole "spring forward" thing...time will have to tell us if that little trick worked...

On Sunday, Lucy wasn't feeling her best anyway so her nap schedule was pretty erratic.  She was supposed to come with me to meet CB and her mommy and a friend, Becky, from Sabléux, but she and daddy were fast asleep in the chair in her room so I went alone.  When I got home, I couldn't find my family anywhere...until I heard my name being called from the park across the street...

Lucy had talked her daddy into going out to play!  Wheeee!

Later, Lucy and I sat on the porch and shared a Popsicle but that wasn't enough for her...she wanted to spend even more time outside...

(even though it was pretty sunny!)

She was happy and ready to roll...we walked for about a half an hour before her eyelids started getting heavy, so I reclined her seat:

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

But by the time we got back home 40 minutes later, she was awake again, and loving life:

Hope your weekend was wonderful, too!

Lucy love

Lucy and I took a walk last week with our neighbor and her dog, Chloe.
We just walked to the top of the street and down the adjacent street and back.  I thought Lucy would want something to play with in her wagon so we brought Violet along.
Lucy loves her wagon - and I love it, too - but it's hard to keep an eye on her at all times and also pull the wagon...plus I was chatting with my neighbor, Shanna...
A car drove slowly by us on our walk...and then it slowly drove back by...dangling Violet out her window: "I think you dropped something..."



Lucy: "oops...I 'dropped' Violet again!"

I had also brought my camera and a bottled water along for the ride and when I went to get a drink...no more water...later, she was dangling my camera over the edge and looking at me mischeviously...this girl is bad news! 

Last night we got another walk in before dinner...we walked up to 27 but it was much windier up there so we went down some side streets and back down our street.  This time we did not take any friends but don't feel sorry for little Lucy girl - she still found something to toss overboard...her hat.  She wasn't in the mood for that hat but luckily agreed to wear her hood.

We sent a picture to GranJan who said she was looking like such a big girl...but actually, she's still just a baby!!  She's my little baby for 18 more days!
I have to post this next picture because it may be one of last pictures (if not the last picture) of her in this "baby" seat...isn't she sweet??

Lucy has become very generous with her kisses (when she's in the mood)...she showed Grandma some love on Sunday...

It's Official!

We have a walker!
Lucy has taken a few steps unassisted here and there - from the ottomans to the couch, from Dave to me, from Tracey to Sarah, etc. but over this past weekend, she really took off with the walking! 
Before it seemed that once she realized she was walking without holding onto anything, she'd freak out a bit - either plopping down or frantically reaching for something.  Now she knows she's hot stuff and she proudly marches along!  She's walked from our dining room to our living room!  She's this little person walking all around our house...so cool!
She visited her Grandma Terry on Sunday and showed off big time...I'm told she'd just walk on out of the room alone when she felt she had more exploring to do!  She's becoming so independent!

Time to put the sticker on the calendar!
Sometimes walking makes Lucy a bit sleepy...

Over the past couple of weeks it's become obvious that Lucy has been getting more teeth, too...she was crabbier at times, was constantly asking for water, she stepped the drooling up a notch, her appetite changed, and she was having trouble sleeping...and we can finally see the evidence!  Looks like the top two front teeth are coming in together, just like the bottom two front teeth back at the end of October!  When she got her first two, she also had a fever from a viral infection - but still, we suspected teething and then we saw teeth right away.  These top two really took their sweet time and gave our sweet girl a fit but her appetite seems back to normal and I think she made it through!

We've had some more nice days and last week, Lucy and I played outside in the front yard for a bit while we waited for daddy to get home...

She loves being outside!

Sneak peek

Guess what's coming up!