Nursery

Today was Lucy's first week in nursery.  Of course I'm excited to go to the last two hours of church in the actual rooms where they reside, versus the hall with a crying child, but given that she's never gone to a babysitter without crying the entire time, I didn't get my hopes up.

I prepped Lucy all morning by asking "Are you going to go to nursery today?" and "Are you going to play toys and eat snacks with your friends during church?" all to which she responded affirmatively.  I took her into primary and she immediately started crying and grabbing me, which was surprising since she didn't even know what was going to happen.  Anyway, I stayed with her for about 20 minutes and got her to at least sit on her own instead of sitting in my lap and focus on a toy.  I warned the leaders that she was going to cry no matter what and that might just be what we need to do for a little bit until she just settles down.  So, sneak out I did.... but calm down Lucy did not.  A short while later the sunday school door opened and all anyone could hear was a screaming child.  MY screaming child.  The funny part was that the leader brought her in through the front of the room and we were sitting in the back, so I snuck out the back to go get her but in the meantime, Lucy locked eyes with Ryan and when the nursery leader tried to take her out to meet me in the hall, she grabbed the door and wouldn't let him shut it again and just kept screaming for Ryan.  Everyone in sunday school was laughing at her efforts. :)

So Ryan took her back in and stayed in there with her the whole two hours.  While she was pretty clingy and sad for a while, he bribed her with a starburst and things started looking a little better.  She ended up playing with toys, helping clean up, eating snacks, singing songs (they sang "twinkle twinkle" and she came home showing off her impressive "twinkle fingers"), coloring, and playing with bubbles.

I won't lie though that I was so happy when Lucy excitedly handed me the picture she colored because she has never colored this much in her life.  She usually takes one crayon, makes a line, moves onto another one, and then is done.  Ryan said this was all totally her doing.  Scribble on, Lulu.  And better luck in nursery next week.

Dishes

Lucy stops whatever she's doing and comes running as soon as she hears the dishwasher opening.  The girl loves a clean dish. ;)  She just loves having something to climb on and push in and out.  Ryan decided to take that dishwasher passion of hers and put it to good use tonight and had her load the silverware (minus the knives).  I'll let her facial expressions tell you how she felt about that.

Despite what the picture looks like Ryan is being gentle and leading Lucy to the dishwasher and I told her to look excited for the camera.  Also despite what the last few posts have shown, we really do put clothes on Lucy (we just had a messy dinner though).

 She got a little sidetracked by the tongs. :)

And a round of applause for Lucy, by Lucy for a silverware job well done!  Let's hope this excitement continues into her teens. :)

Meds and suckers

Lucy has been on some kind of medication her whole life and has gotten very used to taking a lot of medicine through a syringe.  She is to the point where she will take anything willingly all the time, so when we had to change her to a different antibiotic on Monday (the other one wasn't getting rid of the infection), I didn't believe the doctor that Lucy would have a hard time taking this medicine.  Well, our doctor was definitely right on this one... it's chalky and super nasty smelling and looking.  She knows what it is and will do everything she can to not take it.  I went back to the tricks of our old days and made her lay down while I squeezed her cheeks and squirted it to the back side of her mouth.  Tonight though, she somehow managed to spit half of it out of her mouth, so I was frantically scooping it back in with all of my fingers and making her take it.  I consider this medicine my ticket to sleep, so I wanted to make sure she took it all!  She wasn't too upset at me about it though, thankfully, and I promised her a treat.  The sucker sure made up for it!

When I told her to lay down on the floor for her medicine, this is what she did.  Haha!  See the white nastiness around her mouth?  Yuck.

Mother's Day

This Mother's Day was so great!  I love thinking about my wonderful mom and mother-in-law and all they have done for us and helped make us what we are today.  I especially love being a mother and having their wisdom and examples to help guide me in my parenting.  I am also so grateful for all of the other "mothers" in my life: grandmas, aunts, sister, sisters-in-law, and close friends who are also such great examples and so helpful in my life.  I'm pretty lucky.

Anyway, this was definitely my best Mother's Day so far.  Ryan really put a lot of effort into making me feel special.  He started the day by giving me a few things from him and Lucy.  Lucy made me a handmade card and, with Ryan's help, a little photo album of all of the pictures with just me and her.  It was very thoughtful and totally up my ally.  I have looked at those pictures a million times today.  Then Ryan gave me a cookbook from a local restaurant that everyone raves about and a new blender!  We had a blender and used it ALL the time.  Unfortunately it was a super cheap one ($10) and burnt out after so long and I have seriously missed having one.  After opening these gifts, Ryan made me and Lucy french toast for breakfast and used my new blender to make us pineapple banana smoothies to go with it!  (Side note: since we had stake conference last Sunday, our ward made this Sunday our fast sunday, which I think is bad planning because it's the one morning that many mom's have to get spoiled with breakfast in bed and such!  Luckily I'm pregnant so I was exempt and got my yummy breakfast. :) I actually ended up not going to church though because Lucy has been so sick and doesn't seem to be getting better, so we hung out at home while Ryan went to go teach his EQ lesson.  Post-church we got to skype with all of our parents and wish our moms a happy mother's day.  Ryan then made me a super amazing meal of homemade chicken cordon bleu, homemade lion house rolls, and a yummy salad.  Honestly, he could have made me mac and cheese from a box and I would've been happy just to not cook, but this was obviously way better and now I have plenty of leftovers.  I seriously needed a break from holding the sick girlie at this point (as much as I love her, it got draining and exhausting) so I begged Ryan to let me do the dished while he watched Lucy, so he read some books and looked at pictures with her.  We ended the day with a walk outside but oh my goodness it was freezing!  We had to wear winter coats in the middle of May!  So that was short-lived and Lucy was not happy to come back inside but it was still nice to get some fresh air.  And now, Lucy has been sleeping for 2.5 hours straight, which considering the longest she has slept in the last week has been 20 minutes (not even exaggerating), this is truly a Mother's Day miracle!!  Let's hope it lasts a little longer because we're off to her 3rd doctor's appointment of the week tomorrow morning, so the more sleep for all of us the better.

If I look rough, which I do, it's because I haven't slept a wink for a week straight, thus the mismatched pjs and bags under my eyes.  I didn't even get a good picture with Lucy this day, so maybe next week?  And Lucy wouldn't stop eating at all for a picture.  Every one we took has her chomping into french toast or taking a big drink of milk. ha.  Priorities.

 This is Lucy checking out the book of pictures of us.  Also she got new sandals yesterday for summer and refused to take them off all day.  Even when I had to put socks on her cold feet, she made me put the sandals back on.  Also, she stayed in the PJ's all day long.

 At some point during the day this girl just climbed right on up into the fridge to check out the goods.  She left with a carrot. :)

Right before this picture, Lucy grabbed my knife and hit me super hard right in the eye with it.  I'm surprised I don't totally look like I had just been bawling.  

Thanks to Ryan and my family and friends for making this such a great day!

More Lucy stories

Lucy is sick, yet again.  The girl can't catch a break.  This time around she has a double ear infection.  She's been sleeping terribly for about a week now, with only very minor cold symptoms, which I had as well, so I wondered what her deal was.  But a couple of nights ago she woke up with a high fever again and was up literally all night long screaming and kicking and thrashing around in our arms.  So, I made our millionth trip to the doctor's office this season and he found that she had her first ear infection.  I'm seriously hoping the meds kick in soon because we're all way too sleep deprived around here.  Usually I try and be the one to get up with Lucy during the night since Ryan has to go in early to work and be attentive and awake, but this time around when he volunteered to go get her during the night, I willingly took him on it.  Also, I don't eat too differently when I'm stressed, but when I am sleep deprived, all I want is junk food.  I'm currently eating spoonfuls of leftover chocolate frosting right now.  So yeah, this needs to stop. :)  Anyway, here's a few tidbits from the few days we've had between Lucy's illnesses.

Last Saturday while I was running errands, Ryan and Lucy were at home playing together.  Lucy got a runny nose and so Ryan asked if she would go get a tissue for him to wipe her nose with.  She said yes but kind of toddled around for a bit so he thought she forgot about it or didn't understand.  A few minutes later though, Lucy came running out of the bathroom to Ryan with the end of the toilet paper in her hand!  It was still connected to the roll in the bathroom, but she grabbed it and ran to Ryan with it.  haha.  

 As I've mentioned before, Lucy loves bags and purses.  This particular day she was incredibly attached to these two bags and walked around ALL day (no exaggeration) with them like this.  I had to go to Wal-Mart, Target, and a doctor's appointment and she refused to leave the house and car without these in hand.  We even played outside later and she carried these all around the yard and block.  Silly (and very stubborn) little girl!  Also, I think it is impossible to get a non-blurry picture of a toddler... always on the move!

 Lucy's hair has been getting so long and while it's been growing fast, the top is still a little too short to pull back.  That being said, the back of her hair was crazy the other day, so I just gave her her first ponytail and used a bow to hold back some of the top hair. I think it makes her look so old! Cute, but old.

Amy visits!

Our sister-in-law, Amy (Ryan's brother, Kevin's wife) got to leave Arizona and come to Columbus for a couple of days this week to see her sister, Alyssa, graduate from Ohio State with her PhD tomorrow!  We know she was busy doing family things with her dad, sister, and grandparents, so we were excited to be able to spend a day with her!  On Friday afternoon I picked her up from her sister's house and we drove back to G.C.  We stopped and ate lunch at Panera and didn't realize how long we spent there because we were so busy talking and catching up!  Then, we came back to our house, gave her a tour, and just hung out and talked some more.  Ryan was able to get off work at 3 and join us.  Around dinner time, we all headed back to Alyssa's house and had pizza with all of her family and a few of Alyssa's friends.  We sat outside to eat it and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  Such a fun visit!  Thanks for making time for us, Amy!

Amy, Alyssa, me & Lucy

Lucy surprisingly warmed up to Amy really fast (I say surprisingly because you never know with that girl and she was teething pretty bad).  She even sat on Amy's lap and looked at a book with her while I left the room for a minute (truly amazing)!  Her pigtails were a little out of control this day because she slept on them.  Oh well.

Four Years

Ryan has a super impressive memory when it comes to sports.  He can remember what happened in a game against two teams ten years ago.  Consequently, he also remembers what he was doing that time of year and specific details about what he did the few days around those sporting events.  It's amazing the things this guy remembers because of important games.  I like that he does this though because it's always fun when he reminds me of something fun we did together at a certain time.

This last Thursday, on our fourth anniversary, I had a slight glimpse into the way his mind works because I kept thinking back to our wedding day and remembering all of the small details of what went down around that time.  I remembered the specific conversations I had with my hairdresser about how it was good luck to have rain on your wedding day and how she didn't think I ate enough for breakfast (granola bar and banana, which I thought was fine but she didn't).  I remembered the temple worker asking me for my full name before we exited the temple and when I said my maiden name instead of my new married last name he told me I was wrong and lectured me for a minute (duh! I knew it was Martin, I just thought he needed my maiden name since that was what it was listed on the records when we booked our sealing!).  I remembered the luncheon speeches surprisingly well... Tiffany's awesome ghostbuster rendition of "Who you gonna call?  My friend Britt!", JR's made-up story about Ryan streaking, my mom joking about how I always came home after just one or two dates and would swear off a guy so she was shocked I didn't with Ryan and knew he must be the one :), and Janae's telling everyone about Ryan giving each person in their family his name for their secret kindness week.  Later on at our reception, I remembered our family friend, Eric Lingard, cutting in the reception line to feed me a few bites of one of our cakes, which was greatly appreciated.  I think he also gave my dad a bite too... probably the most romantic part of the day ;).  I also remember throwing my bouquet twice, because the first time I had a little too much gusto and it went straight up and hit the ceiling- whoops.  I remembered walking down the hall as we left the building and my dad at the end of the line pulling me in to give me a hug.  I had to laugh when I remembered some of the clean-up chaos that we heard happened afterwards, like when the elevator got locked shut at the bottom of the building and Craig had to run up all 18 flights of stairs... and then it started working again.

We've had a lot of good memories and adventures since that day and even through the high's and low's I'm sure glad I've had Ryan there with me the whole way.  And as long as we keep going to sporting events, we'll remember those adventures. ;)

Happy four year anniversary, Ry!

This is obviously not one of our professional pictures, but it's still one I love because it's when we took a break from picture taking to let the rain pass by.  It was a nice relaxing moment off of our feet during a busy day!