Spring Update

We've been enjoying the sunny days, but it has been raining quite a bit lately. Poor Lucy wanted to splash in some puddles today, since it was raining all morning, but by the time she woke from her nap and got ready to go outside (rain boots and all) the puddles had all dried up.

Nonetheless, Lucy and I have been getting outside more, which is so very nice. I'm so excited for the summer when the weather will be a bit more reliable. We've managed to walk about forty miles in the past two weeks and luckily, we've only got stuck in a rain storm once. Lucy's favorite walking destination is the grizzly bears. We've been visiting them a lot lately.

Lucy has been doing Easter themed activities this month. Last week we made Easter banners for the first floor windows and I made a bunny themed matching tray for her.

We had a simple Easter Sunday, just like last year. Lucy enjoyed her little Easter surprises from family and the little basket we put together for her. This year she got a dress with a bunny on it, a counting puzzle, and a little plastic egg filled with raisins (her favorite).

We also hid three BIG eggs around the living room for her to find. We didn't go to any of the community egg hunts because we wouldn't have let Lucy eat the candy and we didn't want it for ourselves. :)

Lucy and I spent a good portion of yesterday playing outside the VA hospital in Spokane. Michael had an appointment which included getting some blood drawn and he doesn't do well with needles, so I didn't want him to be alone. Lucy was amazing all day. We really are blessed to have such a low maintenance toddler. We just colored, ate snacks, read books, and explored. (TMI: She even used the travel potty! Potty training win!) Several of veterans and their family stopped and talked to us. Lucy was shy and didn't seem to like it much, but they all wanted to tell her how cute she was or how patient she was being.

In celebration of Earth Day today, we did some paper-free letter work outside. Check it out:

The Twenty-First Month

It is already time for a Lucy update, although I'm in complete denial that three months have already come and gone leaving my sweet baby only three months away from her SECOND birthday.

What is new with this girl? Well, her four eye teeth nestled in nicely between her front teeth and her molars.

She likes the big toilet better than her little potty, which is a little inconvenient... we spend most of our time downstairs and our only bathroom is upstairs. If Michael was a stay-at-home dad she would probably be potty trained by now. That man has the patience of a saint.

She is so cute when she tries to count. She only occasionally makes it to ten without leaving out one or two digits. She count up to five while pointing to objects. Yesterday she said "7, 8, 9, 10, 11"
 -- she said eleven!

She knows a good portion of the alphabet. At least half of it, but I'm pretty sure she thinks Y&Z is one word. Perhaps even the word onesie.

She talks so much. I love it when she strings words into tiny sentences. It is truly amazing how quickly babies learn.

This is her fake smile. :)

She occasionally likes to get her hands dirty, but most of the time she immediately asks us to wipe her up. She prefers to eat with a fork. Sometimes we have to wipe her face with a napkin after each bite. Momma's girl.

She eats a lot. I don't understand how she is so skinny. She often cleans her plate and we've never even encouraged her to do that. Heck, I put PLAIN LETTUCE in one of her tray compartments for lunch the other day (we needed to grocery shop and I was running short on veggies). She ate it all.

We do encourage her to try new foods and if she doesn't like how it tastes, we respect that and praise her for trying something new. She just recently started showing an aversion to spicy foods, which is something that hasn't bothered her in the past.

Some of her favorite foods at the moment include: oatmeal, celery with peanut butter, pasta, tofu, scrabbled eggs with spinach (or leaves as she calls them), any fruit, chicken, sweet potato hash browns, and guacamole (which she calls soup as she dips her Ak-Mak crackers in it). She is crazy about butter and sour cream. Which is good, she needs the fat. :)

She is very good at distinguishing shades of purple, red, orange, blue, yellow, green, and pink. I just started working with her on black, white, and brown.

What does eighteen month old Lucille enjoy?

All music and singing/dancing along with it!

Reading books. She would sit on my lap all day and let me read to her.

Coloring with crayons and chalk

Helping me cook. Stirring, sifting, measuring...

 Playing with her animal alphabet cards
Simple puzzles
Hats, headbands, shoes, purses.... she loves to accessorize!
Rocking her baby dolls
Announcing that things are funny then laughing
Checking the mail
Anything Snoopy, Hello Kitty, or Minnie Mouse
Kitchen sink baths just for fun

To celebrate her 21st month we "planted" tulip bulbs in water. The bulbs have been chilling for three months now and we're hoping to force bloom them. The rocks are for my vase and the green marbles for hers. I'll update on their progress... if they have any. :)

 

Oh, Lovely Day!

I love Valentines day. I always have. Perhaps it has something to do with the anticipation of my birthday. :)

Lucy "helped" me make heart shaped cookies the night before.  I let her participate in the kitchen as much as I can, but sometimes it gets a little out of control. Like... I turn around for a second and BAM... all she has is a big toe touching the step stool and the rest of her body is hunched over the sink with a spatula in her mouth that is was covered is cookie dough batter. Raw eggs and all.  All she could say was "Eat it!" and be all adorable. Bless her heart.

We had fun.



She even got an after breakfast cookie to kick off the day. Don't worry they're organic, whole grain, and sweetened with maple syrup. I made enough for Michael to take to school, but occasionally he isn't one to share. This was one of those occasions.

I let her open all her valentines before nap.

She LOVED all of them so much. Grandma and papa sent her an Elmo card; she had never seen Elmo before and she thought he was a crab. :)

Seriously though, she was in heaven. Little boxes of raisins, a card that dances AND sings, stickers, and a Charlie Brown movie.

While she was napping, Michael stopped by the house real fast and dropped off roses for me and a balloon for Lucy. He also checked the mail and there was one more valentine for Lucy in it -- a Hello Kitty card and more stickers from her great-grandparents.

She was very anxious to get downstairs after her nap when I told her what was waiting downstairs.

She loves balloons and Hello Kitty. I'm pretty sure she is inheriting her mama's love for Valentine's day too!

A Little Workspace

Getting a little chair and table set up for Lucy has been on my to do list for a few months now. We finally made it happen. Lucy loves it.

At first I had it pushed it to side of the room, but later I moved it to more of a coffee table location in the middle of the room. So, you know, it can be her little workspace during playtime and then somewhere for me to set my tea down during nap time. :)

So, this morning while I was getting breakfast ready she just sat and played. Then eventually she ran to the kitchen to ask "Mommy tower look!"

And this was what she was so proud to show me:

She likes to use pieces from this toy and this toy to make "towers".

Beautiful!

A Little Winter Beach Vacation

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying this new year! We had a lovely time with family and thoroughly enjoyed watching our sweet Lucille experience her second Christmas. Most of the decorations are down now, but it still feels like Christmastime to me.... it'll fizzle once we get back into a normal schedule I'm sure.

We really felt the need to spend some quality time with our little family unit this break. Just the three of us. Michael is so busy at school that we don't get to see him nearly as much as we want and then when breaks come around we rarely get anytime with just us three. So, we went on a little winter beach vacation and it was exactly what we needed.

The stairs down to the beach. Seabrook is situated on a cliff.

We stayed in a little rental in the Seabrook community, which is something I've been wanting to do for so long. In fact, it was one of the locations I was looking at when Michael and I were planning our honeymoon. I'm glad we didn't go for our honeymoon, but it was the PERFECT place to go for a relaxing family getaway.

Lucy being careful not to fall on the uneven sand.

Lucy loved the beach as much as she did this past summer. She was all smiles. We walked down to the beach first thing in the morning each day and then again after lunch.

Lucy waiting for her French toast breakfast.

 

There was only one TINY grocery store and a little restaurant, but luckily we planned on preparing all our meal at the cottage and brought a big cooler of food. I even packed things like flour, sugar, and spices. 

 

This morning was literally the  most chatty she has ever been. Just talking away! She was standing on a chair and looking into the kitchen to watch me work.

Lucy was so happy the whole time we were there. She was just beaming. We didn't need to set up any gates and just gave her freedom.

Playing in her room.

 

She immediately claimed the second bedroom as her own and would gather her toys then climb up on the beds and play.

 



It was chilly, as we expected, but it didn't rain the whole time we were there. It was sunny and beautiful!

Michael had fun building fires each night after Lucy went to bed and I definitely enjoyed the luxury of a dishwasher. :)



We can't wait to go back!

The Eighteenth Month

The eighteenth month arrived so quickly,  I've hardly had a chance to sit and collect my thoughts to turn them into something to post.

Lucy had a doctor appointment a week ago with Dr. K and it went great. She continues to follow the same growth curves for her head, height, and weight, which is good. She scored very well on the development test. I think she remembered the doctor a little better this time because she wasn't too shy for her and even opened her mouth to show off her new teeth that are coming in. She has nine teeth all the way in and soon will have 13. She only cried for a minute when getting her shots and let Chinda hold her for a little after she administered them. We actually had a bit of trouble getting her to leave when it was all over because they had so many cool books there. Here are her 18 month stats:

Weight: 18lbs 2oz

 

Height: 30.5 inches

She is a tiny little thing! She is wearing 12 month tops, 18 month pants, and size 4 shoes.

We've experienced the language explosion over the past few months. So we have a chatty baby now and she is starting to put little sentences together. The doctor was impressed with her vocabulary. :)

Lucy loves to eat and make a big mess with her food. :) We try our best to keep her eating real organic foods and she does well even though Grandma and papa are constantly trying to derail our efforts with animal crackers.  Her favorite foods right now are yogurt, any fruit, cheese, spinach frittatas, spaghetti, salmon, whole wheat pasta, and peas. Her least favorite is the same... potatoes.

We sing lots of songs throughout the day here. Lucy knows most of them by heart and if you stop at certain words she sings it. Her favorite songs are: The Kids in the Pool, Five Little Monkeys, Row Row Row Your Boat, and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes. She asks for them by name. She does all the hand movements for Five Little Monkeys and I die of cuteness overload when she shakes her finger for "No more monkeys jumping on the bed".

She loves animals. Dogs are still a favorite, but she is kind of on a owl and turtle kick right now.

She has developed car sickness over the past couple months, which hasn't been an issue until we drove home for Thanksgiving. Poor thing. We just hate to see her feel ill. I'm thankful that she can handle our usual short car rides to the grocery store or park.

We are constantly in awe of how clever Lucille has become and how much she has changed. She is a great problem solver and picks up new things so quickly. Children just learn so fast and it is such a blessing to be able to watch first hand. This is such a fun age to teach her new things because all you have to do is play with them or set up an activity and watch them play. I'm so intrigued by Maria Montessori's methods and I'm always excited to implement what I can in our home.

I'm excited that winter is going to be in full swing soon, but our outdoor adventures are going to be a bit more of a task once we're buried in the snow!

What does eighteen month old Lucille enjoy?

Singing songs

Listening to music and dancing

Reading books

Making towers by stacking things (Legos, books, nesting cups, shoes)

Feeding Annabelle and Jedd

Looking at photos with Papa

Playing in the ball pit with Grandma

Going down the slide on her tummy

Blowing bubbles in the water during bath time

Imitating me killing spider (I must be entertaining!)

Brushing her teeth and hair

A Plethora of Pumpkins

We finally carved our pumpkins tonight. It was really really messy, but fun for all three of us.

I had originally put down a tablecloth to (hopefully) contain the mess, but decided to just mop afterwards instead. I'm still not sure if that was a good idea.

 

We ended up with more pumpkins than we planned on having this year, but that's okay. We only paid for two of them. One of the big pumpkins we got for free because we entered the community pumpkin carving contest. It is the pumpkin Lucy is sitting on in the above picture. It is a quirky pumpkin and has to lay on its side. We loved it.

 

She is dressed well for pumpkin carving. Jack-o-lantern shirt, coverless snappied prefold diaper, and purple socks.



Lucy got to play with this little pumpkin that the organic farm gave us for free. She loves it, but it is so ugly. It isn't even dirty in the picture. It just has a lovely rough, gray-brown quality to it that won't rinse off.

She didn't like touching the guts with her hands. I had to keep on helping her get it off because it was sticky and freaked her out a bit.

I used the Dremel to carve the contest pumpkin and wrote happy Halloween on it. I was covered with sticky pumpkin dust when I was done, but it was worth it. :)

The final product! We had to stick an LED light in it so it was bright enough to show through the pumpkin flesh.

Here are all the pumpkins on our steps! Our neighbors are from Iran and have only been in the US for a couple months now... I wonder what they'll think of them when they see them in the morning.

In the tall pumpkin and Lucy's little pumpkin we just drilled holes in them. Then we stuck clear green marbles in some of the holes. They look cooler in person than they do in the picture. :)

I just typed pumpkin about a hundred times. Sorry about that. Hope you are all enjoying the season!

Discovery Baskets

One of the ways I keep Lucy entertained during the day is presenting her with a discovery basket. These are something you can start with a much younger infant, but Lucy still loves them. I've read that you should make a new basket every few days or so, but since Lucy is a bit older I try to switch the theme every one to two days.

Basically everything in the basket has something in common and while Lucy explores the items we talk about that similarity. I think it is a neat way to expose her to new vocabulary and is a helpful pre-sorting task.

Most importantly, she is always excited to get her hands on a new basket. They're pretty fun to put together as well.

Here are the discovery baskets Lucy had this week:



Green discovery basket



Red discovery basket and cloth discovery basket - we've been working on folding, so this was a fun one for her.

Shiny discovery basket - surprisingly not her favorite. She took everything out, said "All done!" and then put everything back in.



Yellow discovery basket - daddy put this one together for her. It was her favorite of the week.

We've recently started doing tot trays with Lucy, which are also a lot of fun. They're more task oriented than discovery baskets. I'll try to post about them soon. :)

 

 

Seventeen Things

I haven't posted in a while because we've been really busy around here, really busy with things that aren't quite blog worthy. You know, like doing dishes. Three times a day. By hand.



Lucy putting her ring stacker back together.

For all of Lucy's fans, I have a list. Enjoy.

17 Things About My (Almost) 17 Month Old:

1. She recognized the word SNACK at the grocery store the other day and said SNAKE. Okay, so it isn't perfect, but the words are really similar. One of her favorite pages in her animal facts books lately is the snake page, so she's been looking at it a lot. We were crazy impressed when she walked up to the Snack Pack puddings on the self and pointed to it saying snake.

2.  She just cut her first molar. She was drooling like crazy for the past couple weeks; I just knew she had to be teething! I didn't expect it to be a molar though. 

3. She frequently asks for "up and down" and "bubble" which are the new songs she learned in swim lessons. I'm kind of sick of listening to myself sing them, but anything for my baby girl, right? :)

Lucy and Bennett learning how to swim!

4. She LOVES to "help" me do the dishes. I just give her a bottle brush then she splashes around and hits dishes with it. I let her stand on my little step ladder so she can reach the sink. She's pretty good at wiping the water off the floor when she's done, too.

5. She saw an airplane flying above us yesterday and she talked about it for HOURS afterwards. "Up. Airplane. Up. Airplane. Up. Airplane." Yesterday is was about the hawk we saw at the park. "Up. Bird. Up. Bird. Up. Bird." I just talk about it to her and she nods her head yes and laughs. I love it.

Telling mommy about the bird up in the sky.

6. Watching the neighborhood kids zoom by outside on their bikes is one of her favorite things to do. I know she wants to take her little scooting bike outside with them, but they're all so much bigger than her.

7. She colored with chalk for the first time yesterday.

8. If you ask her, she can point to her head, hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, cheek, shoulders, elbows, hands, tummy, belly button, knees, feet, and toes.

Putting cars on top of her book tower.

9. She puts her finger puppets on her fingers all be herself. She makes the frog and the bunny hop. She says "Hop, Hop, Hop". She says meow for the kitty.

10."All done"  is still one of her most favorite things to say.

11. If I'm cooking, she usually sits right outside of the kitchen, in the living room and gathers all her books. She slowly flips through them and I can usually tell which one she is looking at by what she says.



She is trying to tell me to sit back down in the swing next to them!

12. If we sing to her she eats really well. We don't understand it, but we sing at the table often.

13. She loves cheese, chicken, celery, beef, rice, salmon, spinach, eggs, tortillas, edamame, raisins, Ak-mak crackers, and any fruit. She isn't really picky, but doesn't seem to care for the texture of russet potatoes. Weird, right? I gave her some new potatoes the other day and she enjoyed them. She acts like she has a mouth full of dirt when she has russets though. 

Mommy let her help clean up after making some whipped cream.

14. She loves hats and shoes. She could live without socks and coats.

15. She gets a kick out of talking on the phone. She is just so chatty. I think she talked to her Grandma for like half an hour the other day. And when she isn't actually talking on the phone, there is a good possibility that she is pretending to do so with one of her toy cars or the remote control.

16. She usually sleeps from 9 pm to 9 am, but Michael usually gets her early in the morning for me and the last few hours of that are spent in bed with me cuddling. I love it. 



Sleepy girl fell asleep on the couch.





17. When her diapers are clean and need to be hung on the drying rack, she can put all of her Flip covers nicely on the bottom two racks all by herself. This definitely saves me some time. :)