Big Bear

A few weeks ago, we took a trip to Costco.  We went just to get diapers and wipes, and left with a 54 inch teddy bear as well.  Talk about an impulse buy!  We were walking by it, and as soon as Lucy saw it, she started kicking her legs and squealing and waving at it.  So we stopped and took her over to see it.  As soon as we picked it up and put it by her, she grabbed it and did not want to let it go.  It was way too cute to see, especially since Lucy has never really had a reaction like that to anything yet... so in the cart it went.

I assumed it would be fun for a day and wear off pretty quickly since that is how Lucy is with most of her toys and things, but let me tell you... I was completely wrong!  Words cannot describe this girl's love for Big Bear (that's his name).  As soon as she wakes up, we bring her downstairs and on our way down she is already kicking and squealing and laughing for Big Bear and then as we round the corner she is turning like crazy to reach him.  She will often wave at him as we get closer and closer.  Once he's in sight, she takes a big dive out of our arms straight for him.  She will just sit and cuddle with him, give him big hugs and kisses, but the cutest thing is that she has long, loud conversations with him frequently.  She will pull herself up against Big Bear, grab his face, and just babble for like 5 minutes straight.  Ha!  I wonder what she's telling him.

A fun thing we discovered is that Lucy is really catching on to things now.  One day I asked her, "Where's Big Bear?"  and she immediately turned around and headed for him, laughing.  Now whenever we ask her that, she looks around until she can find him and will often wave at him.

Long story short, it was the best $30 ever spent.  We just kind of wish it was appropriate to bring him to church with us as it might be the only thing that helps us make it through those 3 hours! :)

The ride home was pretty funny.  In this pic, Big Bear is partly out of the car, so once the door was shut, he took up every extra inch of the back seat.  Other cars we passed probably had a laugh.  This picture shows the love at first sight:

 I love this picture below because I feel like it shows how big Lucy is getting!

 Sometimes she pulls too hard on Big Bear and he topples over on her, which she thinks is pretty hilarious.

 He's the best listener.

Balloons and Tunes

Every year Grove City has an activity called "Balloons and Tunes" where a bunch of hot air balloons all blow up in Beulah Park.  They offer little rides up and back down for only $5 but unfortunately those rides sold out right before us in line! Darn.  It's a whole fair/carnival type of atmosphere with booths, games, bounce houses for kids, bands playing and cornhole (which I know is everywhere but it is definitely a major Ohio thing.  They even have it outside stores at the mall to make people go into those stores.  They're obsessed.  It's pretty fun though).  We rode over with our friends, the Madsen's, and met up with/ran into some ward friends (Gardner's, Elder's, & Beck's) and some of our neighbors.  Everyone sets up blankets and at the end of the night when it's dark all of the hot air balloons light up at the same time.  It was a beautiful night with perfect weather and it was free!

New favorite video, teeth, and stairs... oh my!

I love the part of this video when Lucy is in the middle of making her funny noise and realizes I'm taping her.  It's such a cute, happy part of Lucy that I love to see.  This was the night that my mom and aunt were visiting and she was hamming it up for them for a while before bed.

This is just her being cute and looking all big and stuff.  It's not the best shot to see this, but you can kind of tell that her front teeth are coming in as well as her bottom ones.

One day Lucy started chewing on my shoes (yuck!) so I threw them up on our bottom step so she couldn't get to them.  But this girl, with her determination, quickly pushed herself up that step.  Then, I took my shoes and threw them all the way up, and before I knew it she crawled up every step all by herself!  She does something new everyday it seems like!

My 3rd 26th birthday

Two things about my birthday:

1. I turned 26 for the third time!  Last year on my birthday, Ryan made a "26" with the candles on my cake and when I corrected him, he said "wait, aren't you turning 26?" Nope, it was 27.  haha.  So this year, as a joke, he made a 26 with the candles again and just said I will always be 26. ;)

2. I am SO terrible at remembering people's birthdays and feel like I am constantly giving belated birthday wishes.  For that reason, I secretly hope every year that people will forget to wish me a happy birthday until a few days after my birthday so that I won't feel bad if (I mean, when) I do it to them, too. :)  Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case this year. haha.

Anyway, I had my 28th birthday this last Monday and it was great!  I love birthdays at this age because it's not about the presents and more just about having a fun day and hearing from people.  Ryan was able to take a half day off of work, which was SO nice, especially being a Monday.  As soon as he got home, we ran to Easton to see a movie and then spent a little time shopping afterwards.  Then, we came home and my good friend Marci came over with her two kids and watched Lucy while Ryan and I went out to dinner at Red Robin, where I got my free birthday meal!  When we came home, we put Lucy to bed and then ate double fudge brownie ice cream and it was great.

I also wanted to mention that my mom and aunt came and visited the week before my birthday.  They brought me a Boston Creme Pie chocolate cake and some flowers, and then took me shopping and to lunch the next day (but really I should say we took Lucy shopping because we only bought her clothes!  She needed it).  And it was also the only day I took birthday pictures, so here you go:

Nine Months

This last month has been good, bad, and interesting.  I feel like we reverted back to the first few months where she is fussy a majority of the time and not sleeping well, either.  There have been moments where I've felt like  I'm back in the "newborn-walking-zombie" phase, but thankfully I don't feel that way all the time.  I assumed it was teething, reflux, and a cold causing the problems, but it just seemed odd that it was causing her to be so upset for the amount of time she has been.  I mentioned it to her doctor at her 9-month well check and he told me that she is right on track with babies that were fussy/colicky the first few months and that right around month 9 many tend to get this way again for a while.  He also mentioned that it makes separation anxiety even worse and they will just fuss anytime mom is not holding them even when we are at home by ourselves, which, hoooooly moly, is that ever true.  Anyway, despite all of that, there have been some reached milestones and happy moments as well.  Here's her stats and info at nine months:

Length: 29 inches (91%)

Weight: 18 lbs. 5.5 oz. (went from 21% to 41%!  Woohoo!  She's a growing girl!)

Head: 17 in. (26%... yet somehow none of her headbands fit anymore?!  I'm sad about this fact)

• Besides the two bottom teeth that were in last month, Lucy now has one of her front top teeth in and five more all coming in at the same time on top.  Needless to say, we've had constant drooling and gnawing on everything over here! 
• Unfortunately, teething causes reflux to flare up way worse, so that's another major issue again... which also causes sleeping and eating problems.
• Speaking of eating, Lucy gave up solids.  She was doing so well for a while, but now she will only drink bottles again.  On a good day I can get her to eat a few bites of rice cereal before she spits it out and grabs the bowl and throws it all over.  Funny girl- she has her preferences, I guess.  Thankfully this is not a huge concern right now since she's gaining a lot of weight still.
• Sleeping is hit and miss these days.  Some nights she will do awesome and sleep 11+ hours, and then some nights she'll be up every hour.  Naps are the same way, too... either she'll take two 2-hour naps or she will take two 20-minute naps.  You never know what you're going to get until it happens.  But on a positive note, she broke her sleeping PR last night and slept for 12 hours and 45 minutes and only woke up once!  I was in SLEEPING HEAVEN when it was almost 8am and I was just getting out of bed for the day (and given the circumstances of the day, I expected her to be up all night, so, pleasant surprise!).  The last time that happened was probably 10 months ago... you know, before Lucy was born.  Woohoo!
• One day Lucy learned to sit up on her own from crawling/laying down, which was a welcomed shock to me since I didn't even know that was something to expect at that age, and then the very next day she was pulling herself up on everything!  The number of bumps and bruises she has received have now significantly increased, but we're still so excited that she is so mobile and can get around to things she wants!
• Separation anxiety is at.its.worst!!  She will smile, laugh, and put on a show for anyone around, as long as I am holding her.  If anyone so dares to even come close to her though, she'll cry her eyes out and then be scared of them the rest of the day. It's kind of funny, but a little exhausting at the same time since she has to be next to/on me anywhere we go.  I am trying not to accommodate this all the time so that she can grow out of it quicker, but at the same time, I can't just let her scream while I'm at every gathering or I won't be invited anymore. :)  But hey, at least I know she likes me! ha.
• On this same note though, she doesn't mind being around little kids very much.  Sometimes it's a little too much for her, but often she will let them touch her and play with her without crying too much.  We go to the pool a lot with my friend Marci, and Lucy loves her two kids, Mya and Ty.  She smiles and laughs when we see them and will reach out and try to touch them. The other day at the park, there is a big swing that looks like a seat, and she sat in both of their laps swinging for a long time.  That's progress, right?
• She loves to read books.  She's been able to pay attention to some here and there in the past, but now she will sit and let me read her 5 in a row without trying to just rip them or eat them!
• Her immune system rocks!  I have had a bad cold for a few days and was sure she'd get it, which she did a few days later.  For one day it was really bad, and the doctor told me it was a virus and that it had to run its course for a few weeks, but it only took about a day and a half!  This has happened another time or two as well.  We count it a blessing every time because I am sure that it would mean no sleep.
• She says "mama" and "dada"!  She said "mama" last month too, but I'm sure it was just a sound to her.  Now it's definitely directed at me and Ryan gets a definite "dada" now.  It's kind of the cutest thing ever.  Also, I love how when I hear the garage door open I will say to Lucy "guess who's home?" and immediately she will turn and face where Ryan comes in with a HUGE smile on her face just waiting for him.  As soon as she hears the door knob jiggling open, she's giggling and gasping with excitement and by the time she actually sees him, she's bouncing and reaching her arms up for him to pick her up. The first item on their daddy/daughter evening agenda is usually "flying," which she looooves.

Just doing some typical Saturday morning chores:

Boxes are way cooler than actual toys, apparently.  So are tv remotes, cell phones, and computers.

I love this picture below because it perfectly shows Lucy's "determined face" where her tongue is out, her eyes are fixed on their target, and she takes a big breath and dives forward for whatever it is she wants.

Some vids of the gooster

As I typed the title of this post, I realized just how much we use little nicknames for Lucy.  I hardly even notice anymore until my nephew started calling her "gooser" and my friend's little girl started calling her "Lucy goosie" and "Lucy Lu."

This video shows one of Lucy's first times crawling.  She loves to move over to where the carpet meets the kitchen or entryway floor and hit it with her hand since it makes a noise.
 

For some reason Lucy loves to explore her voice every time I feed her.  It's cute unless she starts to spit food all over me and her and the floor.  Okay, it's still cute even then.  Here she is chatting away:


This funny girl is apprehensive about touching grass- she doesn't get upset, she just doesn't know what to think about it.  Notice her foot in this video that always quickly moves if it comes in contact with grass.  At my friend's house tonight, I sat her on the grass in their yard and she lifted up one whole leg until it got tired and then she switched to the other leg.  When I picked her up she kept her legs straight out still so it would be far away from the grass.


Lucy has been figuring out how to make all sort of noises these days, and on this particular afternoon she figured this one out while Ryan was bouncing her.

Our typical summer Sunday evening

We love the direction our house faces because the backyard is shaded in afternoon/evenings.  We love to take out a blanket and some chairs on the grass and just hang out all evening.  It's awesome because Lucy loves being outside and will stay happy for SO much longer if we are outdoors.  And it often involved popsicles. :)  

This was Lucy's first taste of a popsicle, followed by her reaction.  Despite the scrunched face, she loved it:

 This particular Sunday we skyped with some family too (hence the ipad).  Also, Ryan had a painful kidney stone the day before (hence the large water bottle).

 Then comes bath time, which Ryan is always in charge of, and Lucy loves to snuggle up to him after she is all warm in her towel.  It's funny because she kicks like crazy when you take her out of the water until she is all wrapped up in her towel and as soon as you pick her up she just stays like that in your arms as content as can be.

 ...unless you're trying to take a picture of it, and then she busts out of it all and goes crazy. :)

A good night and Goodnight!