Lucy vs. Food

We finally got a high chair for Lucy which was necessary considering I had been feeding her in her swing in our living room until that point and she's gotten to a point where she thinks it's more fun to play with the food than eat it.  These pictures show our daily battle with food:

"Maybe the high chair will taste better?"

" Can I bite it off? Nope."

 "Maybe the spoon will make it taste better.  But only if I hold it."

 "Not the case.  At least it helps me put the carrots to good use by spreading it all over my face and neck though."

 "And now I'll laugh because I won the battle."

Another grammy visit

Rewind to about a month ago (yep, I'm a little behind) in June.  My mom came down to visit for a few days and we had so much fun enjoying the nice hot sunny weather.  My mom took Lucy on walks in the morning while I got ready, we went to the pool, we barbequed, you know.... the usual summer stuff.  It was fun having her here.

Seven months

Four days ago, Lucy turned 7 months.  This is, by far, my favorite month!  Each month has definitely gotten better, yet it's still been far from super enjoyable and stress free.  However, things have seriously taken a 180 and are so good.  This is what I've been waiting for, and if I'm being completely honest here, this is the first time I can really say I enjoy this mothering stuff a lot.  Before I had Lucy, most moms told me that by three months, things would be great again, so we're only 4 months behind but at least we made it. :) Here's a little bit about Lucy at 7 months: 

• Had her first real cold, and definitely hates the blue snot sucker thing.
• Sleeps for 10.5 hours straight, wakes up for a few minutes until I put her paci back in, and then sleeps for another hour.  Same deal every night. 
• Absolutely must be holding something soft on the side of her face to fall asleep.  We think this little quirk is so cute.  If she woke up and is a little fussy, you can just put her blanket up next to her cheek and she will grab it and fall asleep.  If she doesn't have anything, her little hands will be going a mile a minute searching for something until she gets it.
• One of Ryan's and my favorite things to do these days is to check on her right before we go to bed.  There's not much cuter than a calm, sleeping baby.
• I think I mentioned this before, but Lucy always crosses her little ankles, whether being held, sitting, or laying, they automatically cross a lot of times.
• She is SO squirmy and rolls like crazy.  It's fun to watch her do, except during diaper changes.
• Stranger anxiety is at its worst!  She will totally smile and laugh at anyone but as soon as they try and hold her, it's quite the opposite.  At least I know she loves me. :)
• She can sit all by herself for quite a while, however, I still feel like I have to be by her side because when she falls, even pillows don't help.  She had a nice big bruise on her cheek for a while as proof of that. 
• We tried taking her off of her reflux medicine but after just two days, she was already struggling to eat again. 
• For some reason she hates to eat anything but bottles. If you catch her right at the right time, she might take a few bites of some veggies, but only if you're lucky.  Pretty sure this needs to change soon for her own health.
• Lucy loves being outside.  If we ever need her to settle down, we can take her outside and it all stops.  She loves to go on little walks just along the sidewalk of our house.  There are a few trees and since they are new, they are still short, and she likes to grab the leaves and branches and examine them closely. 
• She also loves to go to the pool, thank goodness! Then again, I've only really taken her in the kiddie pool, which is a lot warmer than the big one.
• This girl babbles and baby-talks up a storm these days, but thinks that it's the most fun to practice conversation during all 3 hours of church.  Sometimes I wonder why we even go anymore. :)  Ryan and I just laugh when we look at the other babies her exact age around church and they are all sleeping in their parents arms or sitting contentedly in their car seats.  I've come to the conclusion that they are not real... they have to be dolls or something.

Columbus Zoo

This last week my friend Marci invited us to the zoo with them.  They have season passes and we used guest passes.  It was super fun!  The kids were so good and since the day before we went wasn't good weather, it was great to get out of the house for so long.  Lucy and I both needed it.

 

Holding hands already... I totally approve this since we love Ty-guy. :)

This picture is proof that it was a successful and fun outing.  All three kids zonked out before we even left the parking lot!

Thanks for a fun day!!

Ahoy, matey!

Arrrrr.  Don't mess with pirate Lucy, or else.....

...or else she might steal your chocolate chip cookie straight from your mouth!

Some {un}important updates

We have to constantly reevaluate how we're putting Lucy to sleep.  For example, one day she started rolling over like crazy during her sleep and couldn't quite figure out how to turn her head and sleep on her stomach, so we thought it would be a good idea to take the puff quilt out of her crib for a while while we let her figure out how to sleep on her stomach.  I know babies are supposed to have hard mattresses with nothing in their cribs, but let's be honest, Lucy doesn't sleep that way (and I wouldn't, either).  So we put Ryan's old (flat, yet soft) green quilt underneath her and it works wonders.  Also, we had to use our white noise machine on our Boston trip and she slept awesome, so we wondered if the white noise machine actually still helps and have continued to use it.  I'm happy to report that 5am wake-up time is no longer (whew!) and she's been sleeping anywhere from 10.5-11.5 hours straight.  Life changing, I tell ya.  This picture was from the other day when I already spent about 5 minutes trying to wake her up from a nap and she was still out cold (I normally don't wake her up, but it was already 6pm and I wanted her to go to sleep at a decent time).  Sleeping babies are so cute.

 Lucy likes a new face after seeing mostly just mine all week.  She had a blast playing with Ryan yesterday for a long time.  They did all sorts of fun things like rolling over, playing the piano (see toy), babbling, kicking legs up in the air, grabbing anything in sight and shoving it in the mouth. You know, the usual.

She got so tuckered out from all the playing that she sat down on my lap, grabbed my finger, leaned over and zonked out.  I would say that this never happens but then that would be the third time in a week that I said that and then it makes me seem like I'm lying.

Lucy inherited long toes and feet, which was kind of inevitable since those are traits that both Ryan and I have.  Lucky duck.

Also:

* I made chocolate chip cookies for our new neighbors so we could go introduce ourselves.  I should've known to pick a different treat since I seem to only be able to successfully make cookies about 40% of the time that I make them.  And my last few batches have been decent, so the odds were not in my favor this time.  I put a little too much flour in the batter, and while the cookies were not acceptable for giving to new neighbors, they were still totally edible.  Let me rephrase this: I have a whole batch of chocolate chip cookies that are edible but that I can't share with anyone else.  That's bad news for several obvious reasons.

* We're getting our 10th niece or nephew- congrats Lisa & Brandon!

*I mentioned in a previous post that I had an MRI because of constant head pressure and dizziness I've had for almost two years now.  It was only of my brain and not anything else, which is unfortunate because a new doctor (4th one I've been to now) thinks it might be a cervical spine issue, such as a pinched nerve in my neck.  I start physical therapy for that this next week, so let's hope that's the problem so this can be done for good.

Pool time

It has been so hot and humid lately and I have been so anxious to go to the pool, which finally happened this last week when we went with my friend Marci and her two kids, Mya and Ty.  I don't typically love public pools because they're usually overcrowded and dirty, but the one in our development is so nice... big, clean, not ever crowded, plenty of chairs and umbrellas, etc.

I was a little worried that Lucy wouldn't like it, considering the fact that I'm already planning on it being our favorite past time for the summer!  She was a little apprehensive the first few minutes, but we took it slow and she was great the rest of the time.  We borrowed a little float/tube thing from Marci and I just dragged Lucy around the pool in that while she played with some bath toys on the edge of it.  We spent most of our time in the kiddie pool, which is so shallow that the water was the temp of Lucy's bath water, so who knows if she would like the big, colder pool as much.  We'll find out sooner than later!

She liked it so much she zonked out in my arms at the end (never happens):