19 months old - a stats post

As much as we try to stop time...or at least slow it down...Lucy just keeps on a'growin' and keeps getting older...
She now weighs 28 pounds and 9.5 ounces!
She is 31 and three quarter inches tall!
She's closer to 2 than she is to 1...

Her new things:
*Saying "no."  I caught this little video of her in the tub this week yelling "no" to me for no particular reason...we weren't talking (or arguing) about anything so she was just saying no for the heck of it...

*Saying "me" or "mine."  The other day she was playing with her little people and had a sheep in her hand...she was making him walk around saying "BaaBaa!"  There was another sheep sitting on the floor - identical to the one she was playing with.  I picked it up to play with her and made him walk near her, saying "BaaBaa!"  She looked at me, reached for the sheep I had and said "Mine!"

*Wearing costumes!  She loves putting on her costumes!  She has a few and has had several opportunities to wear them - she's worn her pirate costume to the zoo and to the Halloween party at the city building and she has tried her Minnie Mouse costume on to play around the house (and I failed to take a picture but I should have because she was intending to wear it on Halloween but now we're thinking it will be far too cold and she may have to wear this one, which she wore to Uncle Jeff & Auntie Em's party):

Eating M&Ms

She's been talking more than ever lately and has been catching us off guard with some new things...on the way to Jeff & Ema's party, I asked, "Who wants to go to a party?" and Lucy yelled from the backseat "Me!"

The other day I was on the phone in the car and Lucy calls out "Hi!" so I had to pass the message on to Christa, who I was talking to.

At the end of this video, you'll hear her version of "see ya:"

Lucy's cousins came over on Thursday for another adventure...the big girls spent more time at the park and in the backyard and had a very stereotypical "kid dinner" of chicken nuggets and french fries (which they both loved, by the way!) but then we went back outside to enjoy what may have been the last warm day of the year to paint some pumpkins (and in Lucy's case, to also paint some pants and shirts and shoes...):

Every night we brush her teeth...and she usually sits on the kitchen counter next to the sink.  Every night she knocks these letters (or whatever letters/magnets she can reach) onto the floor.  She's a bully!

Lucy had another first this weekend...her first sleepover!
Dave has been away for a night once or twice with his track team and I have been away for two separate nights (once for work and once for Stacy's bachelorette party) and we all stayed in a hotel together in Indiana this summer...but Lucy has always spent the night with one of both of her parents - either at the hospital the first couple of nights of her life, at the hotel in IN, or at home...
But on Saturday night she had a sleepover with her grandma!  She costumed up and tagged along with us for the beginning of Jeff & Ema's party but then her chauffeur arrived and she was a goner...and we didn't see her again until 2pm the next day!
She did absolutely awesome and I don't think I did too bad...she was sad to leave the party so there were tears as she got strapped in to Grandma's car (and they were almost contagious!) but I got her calm and dry-eyed before she left which helped me stay at the party rather than leave with her!

As I mentioned, she went to the party with us:


We all live on the same street...Sesame Street!

 

 After Elmo left, Big Bird and SuperGrover stuck around and had more fun with, among others, a Sun Dropper and a German chick:

We fetched our sweet girl the next day after a nice and quiet night's sleep (and after sleeping in lots longer than usual!) and got a great report!  She was a very fun and well-behaved guest and she's even invited to come back anytime!
We were super excited to see her and at first, she felt the same way...but soon enough, my girl completely lost her shit!
We had plans to go to the Halloween party at the city building in Highland Heights so I brought her costumes for her to decide which one she wanted to wear...she chose the pirate but her holy meltdown began seconds into wardrobe change...she screamed, she cried, she kicked, she arched her back...it was tricky business but I managed to get her into her costume...I don't know if she was afraid we were going to leave her again (or worse, stay at a party and send her away!) or if she was punishing us for leaving her or if she just didn't want to leave Grandma and Troy, but she really let me have it...soon it was party time, though, and she cheered up.



A crazy pirate, a friendly mouse and a sleepy zebra!

 

Candy makes everything better!

Back at home, Lucygirl was sleepy but fun.

After the baby's ride, Lucy wanted to get in!

At one point, she and I were playing upstairs and she signed "sleep" and pointed to her bed.  She does this regularly but usually it just means she wants to play in there...jump up and down, cover up her babies, play with the mobile...fun stuff like that.  This time, though, she may have fallen asleep if I'd have let her!  I walked out of the room for a minute and when I came back, she had her B in her mouth (that's what she calls it now!) and was laying on the pillow.  Her eyes were still open but I knew I had to get her out of there before they weren't.  It was around 5pm - way too late for a nap, but way to early to call it a night!
And I did something that I never do...I let her have her B for the rest of the evening, even though she wasn't sleeping (which is the rule of the B - only at bedtime).
She even wanted her B in the tub...she still played in there but not as crazy-like as usual...and earlier she snuggled up with Daddy for a bit.

Sometime before bath, though, she helped us carve pumpkins!

Goop scoopin'

Dave carved these ghosts from a pattern...he let me choose the pattern he did the handy-work.

Mine is the bat...simple but cool...I drew it myself on the pumpkin then cut it out...I suggested he do a Mickey pumpkin and that's what he had to show for my suggestion - I think it's awesome!



That dark figure in the middle is the Lucygirl!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Big girl!

YOUR BABY IS 82 WEEKS OLD Toddlers are becoming more and more independent: For the most part they can use a spoon without spilling much. They also love getting undressed by themselves and unzipping, and are thrilled to “brush” their teeth (which, at this age, usually means chewing on the toothbrush; your toddler needs help with the actual cleaning). Most 19-month-olds are starting to respond with words (rather than actions) when people speak to them.

She's definitely becoming independent!
Lucy loves to use her own spoon and/or fork (and likes to choose which color utensil and which color plate or bowl she will be using at meal time!) and doesn't accept help much, but she does do a pretty good job!  I'm definitely not about to retire the bibs (or SprayNWash!) anytime soon but she gets more food into her mouth than not!

Luckily she does still let me help her get dressed (and undressed) but it's true that she loves zipping and unzipping!  And she's into helping me choose her clothes (and mine!  On Saturday, I said, "Mommy needs to find a shirt..." and she said, "Purple!"  I picked out a shirt that was not purple and asked her if it was okay and she just kept repeating "Purple!" until I chose a purple shirt to wear...) and gets very opinionated.  I shared this on Facebook but it's worth reposting:

On Thursday she was a bit under the weather...she hadn't slept much on Tuesday night or Wednesday night and overnight Wednesday, she had a fever.  Early Thursday morning it was still hanging around so we decided she's spare Cooper and stay home...Daddy stayed home from work in the morning and then Mommy came home so Daddy could go to work.
She had been sniffly and sneezy and congested so I knew she had a cold and wasn't planning to take her to the doctor but then we learned her friend Claire Bear had hand/foot/mouth so we figured we'd better get Lala checked out since she had plans for her cousins to come over that night.  When I got home from work, it was time to get Lucy dressed and head to Pediatric Associates...she picked out a one-piece fleece outfit but as soon as I got it on her, she was pulling at it, wanting it off.  I took it off and she headed over to the bins of clothes that are out of season and/or too small and pulled out these Capri pants...I explained to her that it was too cold...I explained to her that they were too small...my girl was not taking no for an answer!  She let me pick the shirt so I did my best to match but she picked the shoes and socks - she looked ridiculous...ridiculously cute!

We brush her teeth every night and she knows Mommy goes first, but then it's her turn...so she lets me brush her top teeth and her bottom teeth but then she's in charge of brushing her tongue, which makes her smile!

She's still stubborn about people she will talk to but she's also gotten more vocal.  Her new word is "no" and while we're sure it will get old and frustrating, for now it's pretty funny...like last night at bath time:
Me - Lucy, it's bath time...are you ready?
Lucy - No!
Dave - (laughing from the living room)

For now she continues to only say one word at a time and has yet to really string 2 or more words together (except when she's singing!), though it has happened a time or two.

Lucy loves talking on the phone!  She's always holding one of her play phones up to her ear saying "Hello?" and now when we ask who she's talking to, she totally gets it and answers us.  Sometimes when Dave isn't home, she tells me she's talking to Daddy but her most frequent caller seems to be my dad...almost every time we ask her who she's talking to, she tells us "pawpaw!"  She knows about the real phone, too, and knows voices...last night I was talking to my mom on speaker phone when she came through the room and smiled and said "NanNan!"

So after we fought over what she was going to wear, Lucy and I went to see Dr. Reidy.  It was our first time meeting him.  He was alright but he was no Dr. deBuys...

She did a little reading and a little snacking (she's signing "more" in the fourth picture) while we waited for the doc...but once he came in, she was ready to go!  She is still not a fan of a doc looking in her ears, nose or mouth and she let him know it...but he said she had a cold but looked just fine otherwise.  Whew!

We had a book to return to the library so I let her go - until she melted down when another kid sat down too close to her...time to go!  I couldn't be mad at her because I knew she was sleepy and not feeling her best but the kid's poor mom was pretty confused, "What happened?  What did he do?"  I assured her he'd done nothing wrong and got my grump the heck out of there!

When we got home, though, her frown had turned upside down and she was ready to play so we took advantage of the sunny afternoon for 20 minutes or so:

Soon, though, it was time for lunch and a nap.  And after we woke up, it was almost time for cousins Alli and baby P to come visit!  Aunt Jessi and Uncle Craig both had to work so we had friends for a few hours:

The girls had a lot of fun together - playing outside in the backyard on the swingset and at the water table and at the park across the street.  They also bonded over a love for spaghetti at dinner (though I think Lucy may have eaten more than Alli!) but there was also a little bit of friction - turns out these cousins have very similar tastes in toys and each always felt the need to play with what the other one had!  All in all, though, it was a fun time and we're looking forward to doing it again this Thursday!


On Saturday Lucy and I met up with Auntie Ema and my cousin (in law) Amy, and Lucia, to do the Cincinnati Walks for Kids...we ran into Uncle John who took our pic for us:



The little girlies!

 GranJan had warned us that it was a pretty cold day and told us to bundle up so we sent her this pic to prove we did:

Lucy loved wearing her pirate hat but typically won't wear hats...she agreed to wear this hood all day, though, which made me happy but also really surprised me!

She would not have minded sleeping in a bit more that morning but we had to get moving so once we were at the walk and ready to go, she was feeling pretty sleepy and her lights went out...she still earned her ribbon, though!

Once the walk was over, we got lunch and played a little but quickly decided to get out of there because the sun never came out and it never did warm up:

Lala loves collecting rocks...

That evening, Lucy and I spent the night apart, for only the second time since she's been born.  The first was back in June when I had to go up to Chicago for work...I went to work on a Monday and came home from work normal time on Tuesday...so it was as if I'd met a friend for dinner on Monday and got home after Lucy's bedtime, which is something that occasionally happens...but it was the first time me and my baby hadn't slept in the same house (or hospital room!) and this Saturday night was the second time.  I went to Louisville to celebrate my friend Stacy's bachelorette status, which is soon expiring...Lucy stayed home with her dad and they had a date night - they went to Homecoming!  He said they got their picture taken and I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE IT!  She was a hit in her leopard-print dress, stomping around int her dress shoes and running around through the streamers and hogging all of the big kids' attention.

When I finally saw my girl on Sunday evening, I was so happy!  And so was she!  We missed each other!  But we both had fun while we were apart.
She was in a very silly mood last night which was lots of fun.
And though we argued about it for a moment, it was soon bath time.  Almost every night before bath, I undress her and she takes her diaper off and I ask her if she has to go potty.  I sit her on the potty and she stays there for a few seconds before we start bath time.  Last night I let Dave do that part while I started filling the tub but he called for me to tell me...
She was actually peeing on her potty!!!!!