Lucy's New Word is...

Hot Tub!

This is Molly's first time hot tubbing! She was into it for a little bit, then she was kind of like "um okay, so we are done taking a bath now right?" Meanwhile, Lucy was trying to lick the water. She has this thing with her tongue lately, I think she just figured out that she can make it do funny things. She keeps sticking it out and licking things. Yeah, she is weird. :)

We are having a great time with Molly, Uncle Jim and Aunt Julie. I will try to get some pictures up soon.

Brilliance!

I have to brag about Lucy this morning. She is talking a ton and she is full of it this morning. First, she was playing with the remote and pretending it was a phone, which she often does. She was putting up to her ear and saying "hello", which she also does often, but then she said "hello, Barb?" !!!! So funny! It gets better though. Next she was sitting on our bed when she tooted rather loudly and hen looked at me and said "poop poop"!!!!! I was so proud!!!!!! :)

She did two other smart things this morning. In the bathroom while we were brushing our teeth she pointed at the safety latch on the bathroom cupboard door, which Dave had left undone, and said "broken". I have never heard her say broken before so I was very impressed. The last impressive feat for this morning was while I was changing her diaper. Last night Dave had told her that Molly was coming to visit soon, well she remembered that because while I changed her diaper she practiced saying Molly. This was without any mention of Molly today, she must have remembered!

Of course she isn't all fun and games. Last night she was up around 2 crying and again at 4:30. She has been waking up around 4 or 4:30 almost everyday lately. I am very tired! :(

Happy Memorial Day!

We have had a very nice holiday weekend! Friday night was our date, Saturday I got my plants in the ground, Sunday we partied hard at the Burgess', and today we went to the parade and then for a little hike at Mendon Ponds. I think Lucy really enjoyed the parade, she watched the marching band very closely and took an interest in the horses. The best part of the weekend was all of the time we got to spend with friends and family. Lucy had so much fun with her Oma, Grandpa, Aunties and Big D that she didn't want to come back to me! I am last choice to her lately but I am (mostly) over it.

The worst part of the weekend was that I sun burned the heck out of my shoulders while I finished planting my garden Saturday. :( My garden is going to look really nice though I think. :) Here are a couple of pictures to follow up on the plastic covered hill of a past post:

Next I have to weed the shady side of the hill and then do the bed next to the house, but my butterfly garden is pretty well done! I actually finished something I started! :)

This next picture I caught on Saturday. Lucy and Haley were loving each other! They kept hugging and kissing, it was very cute!


Last but not least, Dave took a video of Lucy playing on the deck this afternoon. She took my (empty) coffee mug and started carrying it around and pretending she was drinking out of it. Her shirt and shorts were soaked because she had been playing in a dishpan of water. Dave had taken her inside and took off her shirt but then she ran back outside and started playing with my mug. She is so funny sometimes!

What we have been up to

I haven't posted much lately because we have been busy! We planted the new garden, went on a trip, bought more plants for the garden, went on another trip, cleaned the house a little, did some laundry, and practiced practiced practiced our walking skills. I am exhausted. :) Oh, and I think Lucy is cutting some more teeth. She is up to 10 and I think there is at least one more coming in.

Lucy is walking about half of the time now. She is such a kid, not my little baby anymore. Watching her play and walk around brings me to tears sometimes because of that realization. She is so much fun to play with and to watch but sometimes I miss my baby who just wanted me to hold her. Lucy still likes to cuddle and she gives lots of hugs and kisses thank goodness or I don't think I could get through the day! She is also talking a lot now. I don't always now what she is talking about but there is a good portion of what she says that is understandable. (Mostly she just says, and signs, that she wants to eat. She must be getting ready for a big growth spurt because all she wants lately is to eat!)

Last night Dave and I went on a long over due date. We have been out a couple of times in the last two months but it wasn't a date for just the two of us; we went to the Fireman's banquet and then to Laura's wedding. It was really nice to be alone and be able to talk to each other without interruptions. It was especially nice to eat dinner without Lucy! She is at the stage where she wants to eat right now(!) and then she only eats for 5 or 10 minutes so you have to let her down to play. While being with her is a joy it was nice to eat my whole meal while it was still warm and eat it with Dave. :) (We have given up on taking Lucy anywhere fancier than the Diner because she just can't sit anymore. We are waiting this period out and will start trying to teach her table manners as soon as possible!) Anyway, it was nice to have dinner together and a nice dinner it was! We went to a new BBQ place and it was awesome!!! As soon as we started eating Dave said that we might have to go back there next weekend and I asked him why, he said "because my brother will be here!" :)

After dinner we went to the Garden Factory and bought some more plants for my garden. Next year my garden will be beautiful! I have put in a lot of perennials that should start to fill out by next year. Actually, I think three years from now I ought to have a really nice garden, but for this year I bought a bunch of annuals to help fill it in and to add some color. I should be out there working on getting my newest plants in. Once I get everything in I will take some pictures. I better get to it while Lucy is still napping!

Visiting Oswego

Today Lucy and I went to Oswego to visit my parents. We had nothing going on and they are getting ready to go on another trip so I thought we would go. I love being able to take and do whatever Lucy and I have a whim to do!

My dad has been having some problems with his back but he is doing better and he just had a bunch of tests run yesterday. They hooked up electrodes to him and tested how is muscles reacted, I wish I could've been there to press the buttons for that one! ;) My mom got a fancy new sewing machine and is putting it to use making a new quilt for their bed in the RV. And congrats to Uncle Freddy, he graduated from SUNY Oswego this past Saturday! He and Gina have to be out of their apartment in Oswego by Monday and they don't have an apartment in Rochester yet. Good luck to them! Sometimes I may feel tired of my house but I am glad not to have apartment hunt!

Lucy had a ton of fun with the three of them today. They spoil her rotten of course, including ice cream after lunch, and she loves them for it!

Videos and Pictures

I updated My Pictures and My Videos. There are some from awhile ago and some from this weekend including this funny video we took at the Wild Center on Sunday.

Home again

We are home again thank goodness! Dave, Lucy, Kim and I went to Lake Placid for the weekend and had a, mostly, lovely time. My good friend from college, Laura, got married on Saturday. Kim came with as nanny because Lucy wasn't invited to the wedding and I am not ready to leave her overnight yet. Since Kim had only been to Lake Placid once before she volunteered to go with us. It was fun to be there with someone who hasn't really been there before. We drove up Whiteface and walked around Main Street checking out the shops. We had fun, the wedding was beautiful, the hotel was really nice, everything was great except that Kim wasn't feeling great and Lucy decided that sleeping wasn't fun. So once again, we spent our trip with a rotten little girl who didn't want to go to bed. Okay, that is a little mean, she was only rotten at bedtime. She would lay perfectly still for 10 or even 15 minutes and you would think she was asleep then she would sit up and look at you or get up and start crawling around again. On Friday night she screamed for about two hours, Saturday wasn't as bad but Dave and I agreed, we are not taking her on any more trips for a while.
Anyway, the next three pictures are from the top of Whiteface Mountain. It was beautiful up there but cold, I think they said it was 38 degrees at the top. Saturday was opening day of the highway up the mountain, there was still some snow in spots.




This next one is my friend Roy. I only get to see her once a year if I am lucky so it was tons of fun to hang out with her at the wedding.


Here is me with the bride. She looked so beautiful and happy! Congrats Laura and Pat!


Also, Lucy is walking a lot now! She is getting brave and walking about a third of the time, but if she wants to get somewhere fast or wants to go somewhere I don't want her to go she chooses to crawl. :)

Lucy Walking

Finally here is a video! Kim took it at the office just now.

So Smart!

After dinner tonight Dave said he would take us out for an ice cream cone, but just as we were about to leave he got called to fix a little thing at work. (It really was a little thing, don't worry Grandpa K.!) So Lucy and I were waiting in the car and she started to get bored so I started playing with the camera to entertain her and I got this super cute video!



My favorite part is when she shoves her finger way up her nose and says "no" (meaning nose). She likes to put her finger up other people's noses too. She also enjoys trying to poke your eye out while saying "eye". This morning she tried pulling on my eyelashes to see what would happen. :)
I still haven't been able to catch her walking on video. Maybe this weekend I will get it.

Gardening

Hey Aunt Julie, we gardened today!

After reading Julie's Yard Dirt column, I got inspired to get my butt out of the house and actually do some of the things I have been thinking about! My Mother's Day present is that we are finally going to fix up our yard. It is a pretty depressing place right now and since Lucy and I have started hanging out there so much I thought it would be nice to weed a bit (a.k.a. a lot) and plant some flowers. I got started on it today because it was so nice out.

As you can see from the above picture, we took take of the tulips today. The tulips were about to be swallowed up by dandelions so I weeded and then mulched them. I think I heard them sigh with relief when I was done. After dinner Dave helped me take care of the hill, which we have never gotten around to doing up the way we had planned. We have black plastic down now to kill off everything except the two ornamental grasses. Anybody know how long we should leave the plastic down for?


I thought I would post some other cute pictures that I have acquired over the last week.

A picture of Mommy and Lucy for a change. I tend to be the family photographer so we don't have a lot of pictures of me.


Lucy trying on the wooden shoes Granny brought her. She palyed with them for quite awhile that day.


On Saturday we discovered that Aunt Gina is the baby whisperer. Lucy climbed up on the couch with her and within five minutes Gina had her asleep! In case you don't realize how amazing that is, that is only the second time ever that Lucy has gone to sleep willing while other stuff was going on. (The other time was with Uncle Brian when she was about 4 or 5 months old.)


I think this picture is so cute! I can't remember what she was hollering about, she probably wanted the camera. This is Lucy's super cute cranky pants face. :)

Bragging

I titled this post "bragging" so that I can do so without feeling bad, you've been warned. ;) Lucy has spent the weekend waking little bits here and there. Just now she took about five steps from the couch to Daddy. My big brag for today is about this afternoon though.

Lucy and I were hanging out in the living room. She was playing by the gate and I was reading. I heard her talking to herself so I started paying attention to what she was doing. She was touching the edge of the fireplace screen and saying "no no no no..." She was touching it lightly and pulling her hand back so I said "good girl, you know you're not supposed to touch the fireplace." She thought about what I said for a minute and then she pointed at the fireplace and said "hot?" Isn't she the smartest baby ever!!!!!! She is really talking, in actual words, quite a bit. Of course, I am still the only one who can understand a lot of her words, but she is getting there.

Very soon Lucy will probably be running around everywhere and I will be fondly looking back on this past Friday, when she couldn't walk yet! :)

Walking!!!

It is about to start thundering and lighting so I only have a sec but I had to post. Lucy walked! She has taken a step or two between people before but today she took a few steps!!!! She walked between Dave and I, to Granny from me, and from her toys to Dave. Yeah Lucy!!! I'll try to get a video ASAP!

This has been a difficult week. Lucy is cutting a tooth and she has been very mooddy and she has hardly slept at all. I don't sleep that well anyway so being up with her at all hours all week is really starting to take it is toll on me. Fortunately tonight is pottery! My one night away each week is very important to me! :)

Tonight we are going to try some more sleep training. Lucy was sleeping until 4 or 5am and then we would go in and lay down with her. She would usually go back to sleep for a few hours but lately it hasn't been working. Saturday she woke up at 4:30 and although she laid pretty quietly for a little while she never went back to sleep. I don't think our laying down with her is helping her sleep anymore, I think it might actually be making it harder for her to sleep. So tonight I won't be going in to lay down with her. It will probably be a rough night, but if it goes anything like past sleep training trails, it should only take a couple of nights, each night being less bad than the night before. My fingers are crossed and I am not looking forward to it but after being awake pretty much since 2am this morning (I dozed on and off until 6) I am willing to try anything.