Thanksgiving 2012

Since we are four days from Christmas (HOOOOOOOWWWW!?!?) I have decided to force myself to document that Thanksgiving did actually exist for us this year; although it did not look like it usually does...  Contrary to what I may have once believed, spending Thanksgiving stuffing your face with turkey and sweet potatoes while poolside in sunny, 85 degree weather does not suck.  In fact, we rather enjoyed ourselves.  We spent Thanksgiving in Phoenix this year and had a great time! 

 

Just landed in Phoenix! On the bus to get the rental car. She's happy to have a good reason to wear her shades.

 

Lucy and Papa poolside.

  



 

Uncles. Doing what uncles do best. Playing dangerous games that are likely to break someone's arm, while also making the niece one of the happiest kids alive. I wish I had captured all of this on video, but the blurry photos actually tell the story pretty well.



 



Again, more of that uncle behavior I was talking about!



 

 

 

 

 

The zoo!

 

All my people in one spot.  Staring at an enormous, muddy, smelly pachyderm.  It's amazing the difference one little girl can make!

 



She's already calling me out

This morning Lucy and I were getting her dressed (yes, this is a cooperative effort) and she started coughing.  The real kind.  The kind where I think, "hmmmmm, what do I have going on today at work should I get THE CALL?"  She's had a yucky nose for a few days but I have mostly been chalking it up to her two-year molars coming in combined with temperatures in the teens at night and well into the 50s+ during the day.  To be honest, all three of us have had some variation of crud in the last week or so, but 'tis the season to push on, so push on we have.  And then there was this conversation:

Lucy: COUGH.  COUGH.  HACKING UP HER LUNGS.

Me: Lucy, that doesn't sound good.  You have a cough!

Lucy: Yah, Mama.

Me:  Do you feel ok?  Let me feel your forehead.

Lucy: Noooooooooooo. Pulling away from me, she would just like to be left alone.

Me (In my best indignant voice, wondering which terrible, irresponsible daycare parents I can blame): Is this going around in your classroom?  Who started this?  Lucy, does someone at school have a cough?   

Lucy: Yah, Mama.

Me: Well, who is the one with the cough?

Lucy: Me.

Just another day...

I always think (or maybe hope) I will forever remember the funny little comments Lucy makes in our daily lives.  She makes Paul and I crack up on a regular basis and I want to remember that always.  But, life gets in the way and then what do you know?  It will have been a whole hour since that really funny thing she said and I’ll be damned if I can't recollect what we were laughing about just 60 short minutes ago.  So, I'm going to try and do a better job recording these little gems.  Here are four conversations that took place in the last 24 hours.  Enjoy!

SCENE 1: 6:30 AM – Lucy wakes up (from her big girl bed!) and Paul and I are not quite ready to greet the day so we go against all sound parenting advice and put her in bed with us for 15 minutes of snuggling before we all get up.  Did I mention that I love this part of the day?

Me: AHHHHCHOOOO!

Lucy: Mama, you sneeze?

Me: I did, Lucy.

Lucy: Besh (bless) you.

Me: Thanks, Lucy.

Lucy: DAAADAAAAA! 

Paul: Yes, Lucy? 

Lucy: Mama sneezed.

Paul: Yep, she sure did.

Lucy: Dada, say besh you.

Paul: Bless you, Mama.

Lucy: Dada, les (let's) go have breakfast!

SCENE 2: At the dinner table, we are having chicken tortilla soup, so Lucy basically has what we are eating minus 90% of the liquid.  She is wearing a shirt that has three buttons at the top that have undone themselves so she’s sitting there looking like a teenager from the 80s. 

Lucy: Uh-oh!  Back (black) bean in dere (there).  Her head disappears down her shirt while she looks for the runaway black bean.

Anne: Lucy, I think it went through your shirt and is now on the floor.  I point to one of about six black beans on the floor.

Lucy: Looking around frantically for the bean...  Oh!  I found it!

Anne: Where?

Lucy: It’s in my mouf (mouth). 

SCENE 3: Before bath/bedtime Paul always asks who she would like to have give her a bath and who she would like to have read books and put her to bed.  We share these responsibilities so we each get to (or have to, depending on Lucy’s mood) spend some one on one time with her in the evening. 

Paul: Lucy, do you want dada to do the bath and mama to read the books?  Or mama do the bath and dada read the books?

Lucy: Continuing to color, ignoring Paul.

Paul: Luuuuucyyyyyy.  Who do you want to do the bath?

Lucy: Without missing a beat or even looking up from her drawing: Um, Lucy do da (the) bath.

SCENE 4: This was at about 7:15 this morning.  Lucy had woken up in the middle of the night so I had gone into her room to check on her, I laid down to try and get her back to sleep and the next thing I know, it’s 7:15 AM and we're both waking up in her bed. 

Lucy: Her little head pops up from her pillow, messy hair in her face and she smiles at me and then thrusts herself onto my chest, arms extended. 

Anne: Lucy, what are you doing?

Lucy: She pauses, looks at me and with a NO DUH voices says, “Doing push-ups, Mama.”

Days Go By: November

November 1

November 2

November 3

November 4

November 5

November 6

November 7

November 8

November 9

November 10

November 11

November 12

November 13

November 14

November 15

November 16

November 17

November 18

November 19

November 20

November 21

November 22

November 23

November 24

November 25

November 26

November 27

November 28

November 29

 

November 30

 

TWO, according to Mama

Lucy,

Happy Birthday!  It’s strange, but for some reason this second birthday of yours feels so right.  Last year I think I was overwhelmed with the fact that my teeny tiny baby was turning one, and this year it seems totally appropriate that you are TWO whole years old.  You walk and talk like a two year old (…going on 16 some days), throw fits like a two year old and it definitely feels like you have been a part of our lives for at least 24 months now.  I’m a horrible cliché, but I honestly can’t remember what life was like before you were here.  Cleaner and quieter I’m sure, but nowhere near this fun.    

As you get older, I am finding it harder and harder to sum you up in words; you learn and grow and change every day.  A description of you doesn’t fit into a nice little box the way I would have described you as a baby – cute, good eater, masterful pooper, EXCELLENT sleeper, etc.   People ask me what you are up to and find myself blabbering on and on with the latest; one story just doesn’t do the trick.  You are fascinating to watch.  I constantly see the wheels turning in your head as you ponder the world around you, and you are a never ending (yes, already) questioner of everything.  You want to know more about everything.  “What you doing, Dada?”  “What you doing, Mama?”  “Where’s Sam?”  “What’s dis?” “Where Buckley go?”  And if I start in on a line of questioning you don’t ever want it to end.  For example, on our way home from school I always ask you a million questions, “What did you have for lunch today?” “Did you get to go outside?” “What color is the light?”  You love this game and say: “REEEEDDD!”  I reply with, “And what does that mean?”  You emphatically say: “Red means STOP!”  And then immediately it’s, “MORE, MORE.”  I ask you what color the grass is, what color the car next to us is, we talk about where Dada and Buckley are and what our plans are for the night.  You listen and participate intently; you’re a sponge. 

Some of my favorite lines of yours right now (they are changing much more quickly than they used to):

“Mama, (or Dada) do like dis.”  And then you show us exactly what it is you want us to do: make a funny face, walk in a crouched over position with your hands curled up in front of you, or stretch your arms to the sky.  We, of course, oblige (suckers, already) and then you join us in the activity and laugh.    

“How ‘bout…umm…how ‘bout…umm”  This is what you say when you are pondering something such as which book to read, what you want for breakfast, what to wear that day, etc.  It’s also a good reminder that your dear old Mom needs to lay off the “ummmmmm.”

“Dat’s so cuuuuuuuute!”  You say this about the funniest things…  Sometimes you are actually addressing things that are cute – a puppy walking by, your new boots, a picture I’m showing you, what I’m wearing in the morning (not always cute, but at least she comprehends when the term should be used) and sometimes it’s used a little differently.  Like when we’re in Grace’s grandparents basement and you see the fish tank of piranhas that are eating each other (picture missing flesh, and no I’m not kidding) and you run up and say, “Dats so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!” 

If it were up to you we would spend our entire lives playing outside, you want to be outdoors all the time and you are very upset when it’s time to go inside.  You eat everything; no seriously, I’ve never given you anything that you wouldn’t at least try, but your favorite snacks are goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, mish mashes (mashed up applesauce-like fruit in handy packaging) and drinking chocolate milk.  We constantly chase you (“Dada chase you, chase you!”) around the house while you push your shopping cart at inappropriate speeds (you should see our walls…).  You love to draw with crayons – we lie on the floor and color on big blank sheets of paper; you like for us to draw things and for you to guess what they are; you also love to use stickers.  You love to play with play-doh.  Your favorite color right now is purple.  You have definitely developed an opinion when it comes to getting dressed in the morning, so this has become an interesting challenge for me – both when it comes to laundry and trying to buy you new clothes.      

You enjoy snuggling a whole lot, especially when you are sleepy in the early morning or at night around bedtime.  And I’m holding on to these moments like you wouldn’t believe.  I can’t help but wonder how much longer you will let me do this and how much longer you will want me to do this.  But I try to sweep away those thoughts and indulge in the moment because at this point in our lives, I’m convinced those moments are what it’s really all about; they just might very well be the meaning of this whole thing.  To have people in your life you love so intensely and so wholly, and to be able to wrap them in your arms, tickle their backs, read books to them and know that right there, if even for just a moment, the world is…perfect.  It’s something I never felt before you showed up.    

Thank you for all that you are, for all you make me want to be, and for those countless moments when I feel like I have everything I’ve ever wanted, wrapped tightly in my arms.  I’m so proud and honored to be your mama.

Cheers to two!

Love, Mama

24 month stats and a birthday party!

Here's a look at how fast this girl is growing.  And I mean that very seriously, check out those percentiles!  And yes, that's 4 1/2" she has grown in six months; the nurse measured twice to ensure the measurements were correct.  Incredible. 

      Height: 36.5 inches - 94th percentile
      Weight: 31 pounds, 8 ounces - 93th percentile
      Head Circ: 19.25 inches - 84th percentile

We celebrated Lucy turning two with some of our favorite people in the whole wide world.  I know it will be years from now until she can truly appreciate how lucky she is but within a 30 mile radius she has six great-grandparents.  I'll say it again.  SIX.  GREAT-GRANDPARENTS.  30 MILE RADIUS.  I wonder how many kids the world over can say that, especially in the United States.  It's so cool it makes me get choked up when I stop and think about it.  Not to mention that ALL of her grandparents live right near us too.  So, when it comes to celebrating this girl's birthday, there's a whole lotta love in one room.

The Great-Grandmothers. 

 

This one made me almost spit coffee when I saw it.  Look, Lucy has already moved on to other toys and Paul is in the background starring in his own Charlie Chaplan puppet show!

 

My dad moved right as I took this picture, but I just had to include it.  I told Lucy if she would smile and look at me we could be done...do you think she was ready to be done?  I'm pretty sure this is sarcasm in the making. :)

 

My mother has officially - ya hear that Mom??? - been fired as our personal photographer.  This was the VERY BEST of about ten photos.  But Lucy was blowing kisses (you can see from her parents faces that we were encouraging this) so I had to include it.