Picture outtakes

Ryan had an appointment today so he got to come home from work early.  That and the fact that it was in the upper 70's and sunny, we decided to hurry and go take a few impromptu casual family pictures (thanks to my friend Marci for snapping the pics).  We got some that I really like, but these are the funny ones that I wanted to share first.

This first "set" shows that Lucy, even after an entire summer of it, is still hesitant about sitting in the grass.  :)  These were just snapped super fast without worrying about lighting or anything just because it was funny!  I must admit though that she never fell over- she must have pretty good balance.

Lucy was kind of a grumpy goose today, so we had to do some things to make her happy.  In between shots, Ryan "flew" her, which obviously worked, and some swinging in the air.

Attack of the bugs!

Taking waving very seriously.

More leg raising....

Trying to sit sideways and backwards in her car seat in an attempt to not be strapped in.  Haha! Smart girl, but it didn't work!

Favorite blurry/way too sunny pics:

Favorite intense "attack!" pictures:

And our favorite good ones are up next.

Circleville Pumpkin Show

Every year on the third weekend in October, a little town in Ohio named Circleville has a big "pumpkin show."  The quaint little main streets are shut down and filled with everything pumpkin, as well as carnival games and rides, craft and trade booths, and food stands of every kind.  By "everything pumpkin" I mean huge areas filled with every kind of pumpkin you could ever imagine, tons of pumpkin food, as well as contests for the largest pumpkins, and the world's largest pumpkin pie (which, sadly I didn't get a picture of, but is about the size of a small car!).

While there is typical fair food, everything has pumpkin mixed in: pumpkin burgers, pumpkin pizza, pumpkin soda pop, corn dogs with pumpkin batter, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin rolls, pumpkin pie, pumpkin fudge, pumpkin waffles and pancakes, and some more that I'm sure I'm missing.  The awesome part was that a lot of the pumpkin things were smaller pieces that were sold for cheap, which made it so that we were able to try a lot of different things without wasting tons of money.  We tried the pumpkin donuts, pumpkin roll, pumpkin pie, pumpkin pizza, pumpkin waffle, and pumpkin soda pop.  I want so badly to be a fan of pumpkin since it's such a fall staple, and fall is my favorite season, but this adventure confirmed that I really don't like it.  The pizza and pop pushed me over the edge.  I only like pumpkin if it's baked into something and smothered with cream cheese frosting, although I will admit that the pumpkin donuts were the best thing there and SO good.  Ryan, however, likes pumpkin a bit more than I do.  Also, Lucy seemed to be a fan too, as proven in these pictures. :)

All Saturday afternoon there was a combination of really bright sun and dark puffy clouds, and a temperature that definitely called for boots, sweaters, and coats.  Since Circleville is an older town, all of the trees are really big and the leaves were at their peak colors, which were a perfect complement to the older structure of the buildings.  I felt like I was walking around in a fall setting of a movie (minus the trashy fair stuff).  Also, the town goes a little nuts with the fall and pumpkin decorations.

And a zonked out child on the way home is what I call a successful outing. :)

This was a perfect fall activity for a perfect fall day.  We even made it home just in time to watch the BYU vs. Notre Dame game, which made Ryan a happy camper (too bad they lost). 

11 months

Eleven months!  I can't believe it.  This month has been so great!  This is such a fun age because she's still a cute baby, but I can see toddlerhood around the corner.  We can actually play games with her and she gets that it's a game, we can all communicate better (not necessarily via words, but by tones and actions), and, probably most importantly in my book, we've SLEPT!  Seriously, three straight weeks of really good sleeping (minus a night or two because of reflux/congestion) and we're all our best selves. haha.  So here's a little about the Gooster at 11 months:

• Currently 20.5 lbs., but not sure of her height since she doesn't have an appointment this month.
• One day, Lucy decided she was going to eat real food.  She really went from just having 5 bottles a day and that's it, to eating three meals a day with bottles in between.  Yay!  She has loved carrots, peas, corn, jam sandwiches, any kind of bread, peaches, bananas, kiwis, crackers, pasta, and her very most favorite of all- cheese.  She does not like scrambled eggs and broccoli.
• She has been sleeping 12-12.5 hours a night, usually 7:30pm- 7:30 or 8am (which of course is probably the biggest change this month brought!) and takes two 1.5 hour naps at about the same times each day (10am and 2:30pm).
• Lucy finally clapped for the first time, ironically at the Giant's game when they won. :) haha. She saw enough people around her clapping for a few hours, so I guess she figured it out and she's been practicing ever since.  
• She also waves like crazy with one hand, both hands, whenever and at whatever. 
• Lucy explores like crazy, getting both into and on everything.  She has started getting into cupboards, drawers, and baskets, as well as climbing up onto the back of the couch and onto our tables and even going from couch to couch via the couch's arms.  
• We go to baby storytime at the library each week and it's right up Lucy's ally.  There are a bunch of other kids her age there and they all sing and dance and play instruments and with puppets together.  She loves it. 
• I've tried teaching Lucy a few signs (really I've just tried to drill in "food" and "more" since those seem to be the two words she could really use right now), but she wants nothing to do with it.  She does, however, understand a lot of what we are just saying to her these days.  I just wish she could talk back somehow!  It's coming, I know.
• She stands here and there for about 5-10 seconds on her own until she realizes what she's doing and then cautiously wobbles back down to the ground.

I love the following pictures because they are all distinct "Lucy" faces that we frequently get these days.  She's full of expression!!

Loving eating carrots finally (she eats a ton more than what this shows, fyi... she must have already eaten most by this point).  Here's to hoping this helps her eyesight incase she inherited my terrible sight.

 This was the first time I actually got a bow to stay in her hair.  I was pretty excited since she won't let a headband stay on her head longer than .2 seconds.  Since this day it seems to be growing fast.

Lucy likes books.  This was Ryan reading with her after work one day.

"Doggie! Woof Woof!"

I've been trying to repeat one animal over and over to Lucy until she picks up on it and since there are a million dogs everywhere, we started with that one.  Whenever we'd see one, I would say "doggie!  woof woof!" and pretty soon she knew what I was talking about.  Our neighbors across the street happen to have two dogs and Lucy knows them very well now.  There have been many times where Lucy will stop everything she's doing, gasp, and look at me, and then if I focus I can hear the neighbor's dogs barking.  The girl must have excellent hearing!  I'll then say "doggie?"  and she'll crawl super fast over to the window or door and try to see the dogs.  It's pretty funny.  When I actually take her over to see the dogs, she can hardly handle her excitement and is kicking and squirming all over the place to see them and get to them as fast as possible.  Sometimes now she'll even mimic my "woof woof!" with some deep growls of her own. :)

Here's Lucy running over to the door to see the dogs.

She'll sit here from the inside of the door watching them for a long time.

If I bring her out on our steps, she'll start waving like crazy to them

 And when we're all done, she'll climb back inside and up all of the stairs to the front bedroom window where she can see them some more.  This girl is a funny one!

Running

One of the two of them did all the running, while the other one just sat and drank the water. ;)

Now that we're out of the heat and humidity of summer, Ryan and I have been itching to start running again.  It always sounds like a good plan until it actually comes time to go out and run.  We both definitely needed some motivation, so we signed up for a race on Thanksgiving Day.  It's a 5 mile Turkey Trot through downtown Columbus and it looks pretty fun.  While I consider 5 miles to be a little more than a trot, it's what I needed to give me that push to start again.  It only took about a week this time to get back into the swing of it, but Ryan and I are going strong with running most days and it feels so good.  One of the best purchases we recently made was a clear weather cover for our stroller so that Lucy can still enjoy the ride but not be affected by the weather.  She hates wind in her face and there have been a lot of cold, windy fall days, as well as some rain, and this thing keeps her super warm and dry the whole time.  So, here we go again!  Yay!