This is a seriously good age right now!! My favorite so far. She is just so much fun. Here's a little about Lucy at this age:
- Something clicked at the beginning of January and she totally started sleeping 12+ straight hours through the night every single night. Actually, I know exactly what clicked. Her reflux took a chill pill. It's not totally gone, but it's barely there and as soon as this happened was when she suddenly started sleeping great and being a lot happier!
- Remember how I recently said 11am church was perfect for us? Well, I knew that wouldn't last long. The last couple of weeks she has transitioned into just one nap per day and it falls right during church. We're back to our struggle of making it through all 3 hours, but just a few more months until nursery!
- Lucy has 12 teeth (top front 4, bottom front 4, and all 4 molars) and is working on her last 4 until her next set of molars comes in. She does not handle teething well, so I hope they come in fast!
- Started really sounding out a lot of words lately. Her most clear words are mom, dad, yeah, ball, baba (the name she gave her pacifier), ipad (it's true... she says "ah-pah".... a sign of the times), Big Bear (says beh-bah) and Ty (her friend with the easiest name to say).
- She loves to twirl in circles, lay on the floor and kick her legs like crazy, and dance. She also learned how to actually jump the other day, but she doesn't always do it- it takes a lot of concentration!
- Instead of three meals and a few snacks, she just has about 4 meals a day. I found that when giving her snacks, she just wanted to casually eat stuff all day long and wouldn't eat a normal meal. But a meal at about 8, 11, 2 or 3, and then 5 or 6 is what works for us.
- Lucy was sick from December until February and so I freely gave her a pacifier anytime she wanted it or was fussy for everyone's sake. But then I noticed her really getting addicted to it in a bad way where she always wanted it 24/7 and was not happy without it, so we're slowly but surely taking it away again. Now she only gets it in her crib when she goes to sleep. It only took a couple of days for her to catch onto that, and she even takes her paci out of her mouth and throws it in her crib when I go to get her in the mornings.
- Still doesn't ever really wake up happy, but after about 20 minutes and some milk, she starts to warm up.
- Ryan has always been in charge of bath time (I'm not a fan- i just want it over with but Ryan will play with her and her bath toys) and when Lucy doesn't want to go upstairs some nights, Ryan just gives her a piggy back ride and then she'll go up with a smile. Now if I'm on the floor doing something during the day, Lucy often comes up behind me and tries to grab on like I'm giving her a piggy back ride.
- Speaking of bath time, Ryan just informed me that Lucy likes to pull the plug in the tub and watch the water all drain down and that it all has to be down the drain before she will get out. She likes to try and stick her fingers under the drain stopper when the water is draining and laughs a lot when all the water is rushing down.
- Still not into tv shows or coloring. Has definitely taken a lot more interest in her little people toy sets like the farm, dollhouse, and airplane. She'll make her stuffed animals play together and even pretends to give them her paci and sippy cups and stuff. It's cute to see the very beginning stages of her make-believe play.
- Still has a serious meltdown if I leave her. The few times I've had to have people watch her, I just feel bad for everyone because she cries the whole time. And while we're on this subject, the girl can throw a temper tantrum like no one's business. Thankfully she's pretty easily distracted and can snap out of it after not too long.
- Just recently, Lucy has really started to be entertained by other kids quite a bit. She used to just stay glued to me or else she would just do her own thing if other people were around. Now, she always wants to be where the other kids are playing. She doesn't necessarily play with them always, but she likes to be right by them playing with her own toy or watching them. It makes it fun when I go to people's houses with kids now because she will go off by the kids instead of just crying for me to pick her up the whole time. And just the other day, my friend Marci and her two kids, Mya and Ty, were over and we found all three of them hiding in the front closet from us. Then they played hide and seek and Lucy cracked up when she found one of them hiding behind Big Bear. It was just funny to see Lucy going along with whatever they wanted her to do!
- Lucy LOVES any machine. The dishwasher, the washer, the dryer, the refrigerator, etc. If it's running or beeping or anything, she stops what she's doing and runs to go see what machine it was. Today the washer beeped when a cycle was done, and she immediately stopped playing in our living room, turned around and looked and me and said, "ooooooooooh!" and ran around the corner to the laundry room. A few seconds later, she came running back around the corner and looked at me, pointed to the laundry room and repeated the same "oooooooh!" I then asked her if she wanted me to go look at the washing machine and she immediately nodded her head and said "yeah" and went running back there. She then insisted on helping move the items to the dryer. I'm not complaining about that!
- She also insists on vacuuming every morning. She will stand at our vacuum and hold onto it until I bring it out. Then this same routine ensues every morning: I plug it in, she runs over by big bear, I turn it on, she buries herself in big bear and gives him hugs like she's scared, and then she comes running over by me with the vacuum and points to the light and then tries to help me push it. Every morning, same deal. I told this to Ryan and sure enough on Saturday morning he witnessed those exact steps. Funny girl!
I love flipping through this sequence of pictures really fast on my computer because you can actually see her waving. She was pretty proud to be wearing her daddy's boots. :)
