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!

Make-your-own spring

This is what we did when spring refused to show up.  We brought spring inside and grew our own grass friend.  Actually my visiting teacher gave me this little kit for Easter, so we just planted it a couple weeks ago.  You're supposed to put it somewhere where it would get plenty of sun, which we didn't, but it still managed to grow!  Lucy has loved searching for our grass friend each day (I moved it around) and playing with its grass hair (when she isn't trying to totally destroy it and dig the dirt out).

"Side?! Side?!"

Lucy BEGS to go outside everyday.  She'll grab her shoes and a coat or a sweater and stand by the door asking "side?! side?!" for outside.  It's cute.  A few mornings ago, bright and early, it was raining but she was begging to go out.  As soon as the rain stopped we went outside.  I'm not going to lie, I hate dirt and getting dirty, and Lucy used to as well, but she's warming up to it pretty darn fast.  Even though she had just gotten dressed and ready for the day, I let her go at whatever she wanted while I cringed inside as she picked up handfuls of dirt and walked through mud puddles.  We survived. :)  And I'll take that problem any day over being stuck inside while it's freezing temps.  I'm SO happy that spring is finally here!!  We've definitely been spending most of it "side?!"

 This is Lucy bending over to smell the flowers. :)

 Then she decided she should just sit down on the wet ground.  Much easier than squatting down.

 Ryan and I planted tulips our first year in our house.  After that year, we decided we'd do them differently and thought we pulled all of the bulbs out of the ground.  We were definitely surprised when  a bunch of them still bloomed this year! I guess there were a lot more than we thought.  That being said, we're also not sad to see them quickly disappearing, thanks to Lucy (and one of our neighbor's kids).

Roseola

Lucy was sick.  Again.  This has been a rough winter for her health-wise.  Better luck next year, I guess.  Anyway, she woke up with a super high fever in the middle of the night last week.  At one point it read 106 degrees, but I think that was a fluke and it stayed in the 104's for a day or two.  After four days of a fever, it finally stopped and that lovely rash spread all over her entire body (including her face).  That only lasted a couple of days and then she was better.  My neighbor was talking to us and mentioned that even though sick kids aren't fun, at least they just lay around sleeping all day and night.  Ha!  If only that's how Lucy worked.  But that's okay because it only lasts a few nights.

She tried to eat breakfast but ended up just asked for her blankie.

 Trying to take a Sunday rest after church with dad.

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

I knew Ryan had a conference in Hilton Head and I originally declined going since I was afraid I would still be super sick from being pregnant.  But then he sent me a picture of the resort and I quickly changed my mind!

I'm so glad that Lucy and I went.  It has been a long winter and I was ready for some sun, warm, sand, beach, etc.  It was the most perfect weather the entire time, totally sunny and between 72 and 77 degrees, which is warm enough to swim and be outside all day but not die of heat.  Perfect.  We got to the resort Monday and left Thursday morning.  Ryan's meetings were all day Tuesday and then until 3pm on Wednesday.  Ryan had 15 minute breaks here and there throughout the day and always came out to the beach to hang out with us for a few minutes, which was fun to randomly see him throughout the day.  Lucy and I really spent the entire day on Tuesday out at the beach, with the exception of lunch and nap time.  Despite putting on SPF 50 sunscreen every hour, the harsh sun still got to our skin and Lucy and I both got a little burnt on our backs, which is why she is wearing her little towel dress thing in most of the pictures.  Nicole and her kids drove from Beaufort to join us at the beach that afternoon, which was fun to see them again!  Wednesday, Lucy and I headed back out to the beach until Ryan was done.  When he joined us, we hit up all of the different pools and hot tub in the resort and even splurged on one of the fancy smoothies that I was craving!  We then went to the beach one last time with Ryan before heading in to shower.  The amount of sand on all of us was incredible and it did not want to come off!  We ended the evening with dinner at Outback Steakhouse.  We had eyed some local Hilton Head Island restaurants but eventually my pregnant mouth could only think about Outback (which was odd since I've only been there once in my life when I was younger, but it really hit the spot!).  Since we were in no rush to head out on Thursday morning, we slept in until Lucy woke up and then packed up and left.  It turned out to be SUCH a fun trip and I was so glad we tagged along because at least Lucy and I got to enjoy the full resort/beach experience the whole time.  I wish I was still there now that it's back to cold and rainy Columbus. :)

This was how we spent our mornings: eating cereal and yogurt on the bed.  Lucy felt pretty special.

Ryan took this picture on his ipad looking out over the resort and to the ocean.  It was such a pretty view.

I'm so glad Ryan showed up on his breaks and was able to take a couple of pictures.  I didn't dare take our camera out to the beach with the way we (read: Lucy) got sand everywhere!  The funny thing was that every time we went to the beach, Lucy would be apprehensive about the sand at first and be upset when it stuck to her hands and legs and stuff.  She only wanted to sit on the towel and not touch it.  After a short while though she warmed up to it and eventually ended up literally rolling around in it and running around saying hi to everyone.  She even bent down on her hands and knees at one point and stuck out her tongue to lick the sand.  Yuck! haha.  This girl keeps me laughing!

She loved her beach toys... especially raking the sand.  I had to laugh at one point though because I was trying to show her how to fill her bucket with sand and she ended up just picking it up and putting her arm through the tiny handle and carried it like a purse. That and the fact that she demanded a bow be in her hair even at the beach made me laugh.

 Ryan was standing at the hotel's beach entrance with some coworkers when we were coming in for naps.  Right then, Lucy decided to have a nice little meltdown in the sand and stuck her face right into the sand.  She then took a whole huge handful and plopped it right on top of her head.  Needless to say, she required a good bath right before nap.

But don't worry, she was happy again a few minutes later when we let her climb up the stairs.  This girl is quite the drama queen sometimes!

This was when Ryan finally got to join us for good on Wednesday afternoon.

I hadn't seen Lucy this relaxed the whole trip. :)

 Ryan was nice enough to get in the pool with Lucy for a long time.  She was in heaven.

Lucy did not sleep more than 50 minutes on our whole drive down and we didn't know why because we gave her a blanket and made her all comfy.  Then we figured out that it was because she didn't have her blanket that she sleeps with as it was packed away.  Once we gave that to her, she snuggled up and slept for 4 hours!  She's got her preferences, for sure. :)

And we made it home safe and sound.  Lucy has been begging to go outside all day and now I'm dreaming of being back on a warm, sunny beach. :)