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!

17 Months Old - a stats post

Last Wednesday, we went for a drive in the backyard...

GranJan and I got this car super cheap at a yard sale! 
Great condition and she totally loves it!

And then went to the library to return some books and DVDs...

And to ride a horse:

She loves this horse and always runs over to it and yells, "Neigh"
but this was her first time ever actually getting on it!

On Thursday, us girls got ready for Daddy's softball game (Lucy wore her peace sign shirt just for Cleo but Cleo wasn't there...and didn't even tell us in advance that she wasn't coming!!):

Lucy had fun at the game but decided to give lots of friends a good show on how she feels about sharing (aka, she melted down when Lucia took a turn in her car...Lucy wasn't using it at the time - she was nowhere near it! - but when she spotted Lucia in there, she suddenly needed a turn in there...)

But she was happy when we got home and gave Duke a big hug:

That game was a long one and it was a close one!  We had to leave before it was over so we didn't see Daddy's game-winning hit, but we were very proud of him!

On Saturday, Lucy and her baby were on a mission to find Daddy some new school shoes...4 stores later, and Dave was finally armed with a new pair of shoes!

All dressed up for Aunt Jessi's birthday dinner!

She helped blow out the candles...and eat the cake!!

 I didn't get a picture of the cake, but Lucy and I made it - I let her decorate it with sprinkles!

 

On Tuesday night, Lucy and I went to the new kids consignment shop in Alexandria while Dave went to his fantasy football draft at school.  We were looking for Halloween costumes and struck out but Lucy was offered a lollipop...I agreed that she could have one but then the employee handed her an extreme ringpop!  Lucy totally loved it!  She definitely thought it was the coolest bubby ever!  By the time we got to the car, she her face was covered in ringpop drool and her tongue was blueish-green...she cracked up when I told her to look in the mirror and she couldn't stop sticking her tongue out at her reflection!  (That night she was very restless and slept terribly so L may be off the ringpops for awhile...)

After the consignment shop and some serious candy cleanup, we stopped at the city building to play...she loved every moment of it!

The slide makes her hair very static-y!

Racing back to the steps...to go down the slide...AGAIN!

She saw another kid ringing this bell and couldn't wait to give it a try herself!

There were a couple of other kids at the park and Lucy was very good about waiting her turn and not freaking out if faster kids climbed around her on the park...this is an improvement!

Last night we talked Daddy into going back with us!



She LOVES ringing that bell!



 "Sliding" down the rock wall that is designed for climbing...



Big smiles because she knows she's doing it wrong...



Back at home, she was still full of energy...my little monkey, jumping on the couch!

 

 

She's 17 months old!

Weight - 25lbs, 12.5oz

Height - 31 inches

I got this in my email; let's see how she compares:

YOUR BABY IS 74 WEEKS OLD

At the end of this month your toddler will turn 1 and a half. It's a milestone! Other milestones this month: If they haven't already, most children will learn to take off their socks - and some will take off their diapers. They can hold a cup and drink out of it, brush their teeth, and "read" a board book. And - milestone of milestones - at 18 months, some babies are ready to think about using the potty. Signs of readiness include a toddler's recognition that he is about to pee or poop - you'll know it when you see it.

Lucy does enjoy removing her own sock but often needs a head start...she can't get a good grip on them when she's been wearing shoes all day and the socks is sweaty and sticking to her foot...but if I roll it a bit, she can get it off that way...though she's also been known to grip it at her toes and yank it off herself.

We haven't really tried to let her drink out of a cup without a lid on her own but I wouldn't put it past her...

She can and does brush her own teeth.  Each night, Mommy brushes her teeth (top teeth, bottom teeth, then the tongue which makes her laugh every time!) and then Lucy gets a turn.  Any time she sees Dave or I brushing our teeth, she wants to brush, too, so she gets some extra practice in then.

She'll pick up books to look at but prefers to bring them to one of us to read with her.  She tends to request the same book over and over and over again.  She especially likes books where she can find things (we have a couple that have a doggy hidden on each page and she loves finding him) and interact (we have a couple of books with lots of flaps to open up and look behind) and where she's learning (like her colors book where she points out different colored items).  Every night when she gets in the tub, she requests (by sign and by saying "booh...booh!") her bathtub books.

Thanks to Alex and Leah, she knows the sign for "potty" and knows what it is and what it means.  She seems interested in it when she barges in behind us and every night before bath, I ask her if she has to go potty and she smiles and points to the toilet.  So each night, I remove her diaper and sit her on the toilet...so far, nothing has ever happened (during her 15 seconds of sitting there before she's "all done") but we're putting the idea in that little head.  I think it may be time to buy a little seat for her...but which kind?  A free-standing chair of her own or one that sits on the toilet to make it small enough for her little booty?

We have a busy weekend coming up...and Lucy has an announcement:

She's getting a new baby cousin, probably sometime tomorrow!  Paisley Reese is being urged out tomorrow morning (aka, Aunt Jessi is being induced tomorrow)...Lucy can't wait to meet her and say her favorite word, "baby," over and over!