The next best thing

For a while now, some of my old roommates and I have talked about getting together for a reunion.  Every time we want to make it happen though, a few are about to have a baby or move or things just come up.  So one day Tiffany came up with the idea to do a google chat so we could all be there and see each other.  Brilliant!  Why none of us had thought of that before, I don't know.  But we scheduled some time on a Sunday evening when our husbands could watch kids, and we all "hung out" and took turns updating each other and introducing our kids that we hadn't met yet, etc.  It was the first time any of us had used this, so there were a few small tech glitches we had to work out, but next time will be even smoother.  It was so fun to catch up with all of these ladies that I love.  Definitely the next best thing to actually being together in person!!

One year!

It's hard to believe this, but we have a one-year-old around here!  I can't help but feel a tad bit emotional when I think about this fact.  It's not that I don't want Lucy to keep growing as many parents often say-because I love that it just keeps getting better each month- but I just think about where we've come in the last twelve months and just how much our lives have changed... for the better.  I'm not going to lie though that quite a bit of this year was a very tough adjustment for me, and at the time I was a little bitter about it (not about being a parent, but just the issues we were facing that caused for such a rough time).  But miraculously I can now really feel gratitude for that time in my life. It's not that we don't have sleepless nights anymore or that Lucy's reflux is gone (because it's for dang sure that beast is still here) or anything like that,  but thanks to lots of prayers, I can finally see the bigger picture and recognize the blessings amongst the trials and I know it makes me appreciate everything a lot more now than I would have.  Ryan and I are so thankful for our sweet little girl and the blessing she is to us! She makes us laugh all the time and there's nothing better than seeing her beam with pride when she learns or discovers something new in this world!  With that said, here's what she's been up to this month:

• She finally decided she wants to hold her bottle... now that our bottle days are almost gone. ha! 
• Lucy recognizes so many words and songs these days.  When I start singing "the itsy bitsy spider" she automatically raises her hands up and starts making the spider crawl up with me.  Also, if I ask Lucy if she wants to sing "if you're happy and you know it" then she starts clapping her hands and smiling before we even start singing.  
• She has started to imitate things that we do, sounds that we make, and things we say (not that she's talking yet- but just making the general sounds of certain words like hi, bye, yeah, etc.)
• Signing is still definitely not her thing, other than the word "food," which she's got down. Even then, she's still prefers to just shout about being hungry. :)
• Her bedtime routine after dinner is usually just bath, bottle, pray, bed.  But the last few weeks she has decided to add in "cuddle with dad" after her bottle.  It's funny because right when she decides she is done with her bottle, she throws it off to the side and excitedly crawls right over to Ryan, sits in his lap, and puts her head on his chest to snuggle.  I'm just trying to ignore the fact that she will only do this with Ryan and not me. :)
• She is so close to walking.  Every day we bundle up and go outside for a walk with her little walker and she loves this!  She has started to just use one hand on the walker and she can even walk quite a distance just holding on to one of my fingers with one of her hands.  
• Lucy finally and consistently eats a solid three meals each day.  It's pretty funny though when she only wants to eat what is on my plate or in my hand- even if it is the same thing that I put in front of her to eat.  
• Speaking of food, this girl goes crazy for peas.  I used to cook them and she would get so frustrated waiting while they cooked and then cooled a bit, so I started giving them to her frozen and she like them just the same which is totally cool with me!  No work involved.  She also loves string cheese, cheerios, and bananas a lot.
• Another tooth broke through with another one or two looking like they are not far behind.  This makes a total of 7 teeth- 4 on top, 3 on bottom.
• Her separation anxiety has really started to mellow.  She will let someone else take her from me and hold her for about 10-30 seconds before crying!  (That probably sounds like I'm being a little sarcastic, but I'm not at all.  This is a huge improvement seeing as she would totally lose it if someone even looked at or touched her).
• Still having major flare-ups of reflux.  It always happens with teething but it's definitely no fun.  For this reason she's been extra clingy and fussy and not really sleeping great lately.
• Speaking of sleep, still doing 11.5-12 hours a night (on a good, non-reflux night) and 2 naps a day (one at 9am and one at 2:30pm).  Lucy did really well with the time change.  We kept her up later the night before and she's adjusted pretty well since then, thankfully.
• Lucy likes to "give bonks" which basically just means she headbuts as a sign of affection. 
• She loves baths still and is getting used to having water over her face.  The other day she was so proud of herself for putting her face in the water several times. 
• She also loves playing hide and go seek at both dinner time (after we eat, Ryan will get down and hide and sneak around her high chair and she thinks it's hilarious) and after naps (when she sees one of us come in, she will often start laughing and crawling from one end of her crib to the other super fast, which is a sign she's expecting us to play hide and seek).

We are celebrating her birthday tomorrow instead of today, but I still wanted her to have a good day so we did a few fun things she likes, such as swinging at the park and watching dogs.  Lucy thinks it's so funny to put her little sunglasses on but usually pulls them right off.  Today though, she put them on at home and left them on all the way to the park and even while we were there!  It was funny because it was hardly even sunny at that time either.  Also, the highlight of the day for her was seeing a dog escape from its owners and sprint like mad through the park and right up to her!  Here's some pics from the last month.

Getting caught digging through things other than her toys. :)

Lucy spilled food over her high chair one  day and then when we got her out she sat right down in it and crawled all around.  Gave us a good laugh.

One of her current favorite things to do is go on walks with her walker all around our street.  We do this every day.

 Snuggles with dad before bed.  A nightly ritual.

 We voted!  In Ohio! Sooo glad to not be bombarded with stupid election stuff, although I do wish many of the outcomes were different.

 She wanted the sticker more than I did.

Suuuuper tired and just trying to stay awake.  I forgot to mention that she is obsessed with Ryan's ipad.

Lucy's first halloween

Last night as the weather continued to get worse, Ryan and I decided it would probably be best to just stay at home and pass out candy.  We were a little bummed to not take Lucy trick-or-treating for her first time, but we figured we could dress her up and just hang out at home and pass out candy.  Well, a couple minutes past the start of trick-or-treating (yes, there are designated hours of 6-8pm here), Ryan and I decided to brave the rain and wind and take Lucy to just a couple of houses.  So we bundled Lucy up in about 4 layers, grabbed the big umbrella, and we were out.  We ended up taking her around our whole loop in the back section of our development mostly because everyone had their lights on and NO one was coming around, so we felt bad skipping some houses.  Also, Lucy seemed to be liking it.  She also like to ring everyone's doorbells. We let her take the candy and it was so cute to see her pick out one piece and throw it in her bucket.  There were also a few dogs that she got beyond excited about.  By the time we got back home, Lucy was still really warm... except for her fingers which probably needed gloves that we didn't have.

Once we got home, she got a nice warm bath to help her thaw out.  Even though her pajamas went on after bath time, we forgot that Ryan wanted to skype with his parents to show them Lucy's costume, so we put it back on over her pj's.  Let me tell you- the girl went to town on her candy!  We didn't open any of it, but she had such a blast chomping down on all of the wrappers.  The funny thing was that I later realized she made it right through some of the wrappers and got some actual bites of chocolate, suckers, smarties and tootsie rolls.  I got a short video of it, but the funniest part (which I didn't get) was that she would take any new piece of candy we put in front of her and chomp it to pieces, but as soon as we gave her the little container of playdough, she would immediately toss it over her shoulder behind her.  She did this several times.  Ryan and I were dying laughing.  She must have inherited my sweet tooth!

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures while we were out and about because the weather was too bad to take a camera out in.  But these will have to do!

These are just Lucy playing with Ryan's face and snuggling when he got home from work.  It's one of her most favorite times of the day.

 All bundled up and ready to go!  All the layers helped beef up her costume, since she didn't really fill it out too well. :)

Halloween faces

I tried very, very hard to get a cute picture of Lucy on her first Halloween.  I envisioned her sittting amongst our pumpkins while flashing me big happy smiles.  Cute, right?  Well, the following is all I got.  I can't stop laughing looking at these.  To Lucy's defense, it was as cold and windy as the middle of winter outside, and she still can't quite figure out how to catch her breath in such forceful wind!

Happy Halloween!  If the weather is anything like they are predicting, we may or may not be taking Lucy out to trick-or-treat tonight.  Staying bundled up in our heated home with some soup and hot chocolate sounds way better than pouring rain and freezing cold wind.  We'll see what tonight brings!

Halloween party

Our development's community center throws activities each month and this one was, of course, a halloween party for kids.  They had activities and games for little kids and a lot of treats and candy, too.   At the last minute, we had dinner with our friends, the Elders, and their cute little girls and then headed over and met up with our other friends who we know from church and playgroups over at the clubhouse.

For Mark's (Ryan's dad) 60th birthday, he was given a book with everyone's memories of him in it.  It was funny how a lot of them mentioned something about how he always has tootsie rolls and is always giving them to his grandkids.  So Ryan was pretty proud when Lucy wanted the tootsie roll... wrapper and all. :)  Mark, this picture is for you!

This was Lucy's first actual trick-or-treat, and of all the good candy in there, she picked a pixie stick.  We'll have to teach her what to grab and what not to grab. :)

Sucker

Lucy's cousin sent her some cute little halloween suckers in the mail.  Lucy was really upset at the moment for some reason, but as soon as I gave her a sucker, she went right to town on it and was super happy. :)

Lucy was fighting hard to get her hands on these, so it's pretty blurry, but you get the idea.  Cute, huh?

Pumpkin carving

For FHE on Monday, the Madsens came over to carve pumpkins.  It was a fun filled night with not only pumpkin carving, but all sorts of treats such as cinnamon rolls, pumpkin cookies, candy, and hot chocolate, and little football watching, kid chasing, and toy playing.  You can't really go wrong with all of that!  

See the little plate filled with chocolate below?  Funny story about that.  Ty was upset that he wasn't allowed to eat any more candy, so I told him he could take a piece, put it in his backpack, and eat it the next day at home, which made him happy.  So a few minutes later, Marci and I had been chatting for a while without any disruptions from the kids, which seemed odd.  Then out of nowhere, Mya came falling to her knees and slid along our floor to Ty's backpack.  Marci asked her if she was okay, to which Mya gave a quick response that she was.  A few minutes later, Adam told us how Mya had walked in front of him and Ryan sideways and facing away from them. Turns out, Mya and Ty had been sneaking pieces of candy the whole time from the plate and into the backpack.  It was filled with chocolates! haha.  Those sneaky kids!  It was hilarious once we put two-and-two together and the things we had seen them do the past few minutes to get that candy in there without any adults noticing!

Here are the kiddos with their pumpkins all ready to be carved (by the parents).  This was about 2 seconds before Lucy fell off her chair and banged her head.  Parent strike one of the night. Also, pics are super blurry- we only had an ipad camera for the night.

I'm pretty sure Mya and Ty's pumpkin (the one on the left in front of Mya) won.  I also forgot to get tea lights for in the pumpkins, so our big Yankee candles worked for the night!