Playtime

I think I mentioned that my aunt and uncle and cousins gave us a bunch of "new to us" toys a few weeks ago. This week we brought out the cash register, which has been a real hit.


Lucy loves taking out the play money and putting it away.

A random fun shot of Lucy's owl backpack, which my mom and dad got her from Thailand.

Lucy received a very special present from my grandparents recently- a red tricyle! You should have seen her face when she first saw it- her mouth was open so wide. :)

Here's Lucy putting money in the cash register drawer. I think it's funny how methodical she is. My dad said when he took her to the local children's museum, she spent the longest time sorting and playing with the play money in the train room. As a forewarning, it's a bit of a long video.

On the farm

We had a blast at a local farm last week with some friends. Lucy was really excited, and her recitation of the animals we were going to see was something like: "chickens and goats and sheep and pigs and goats and sheep and horses!" We also got to see a cow being milked, which was pretty cool. It was a gorgeous day, and we enjoyed hanging out with the other moms and kids.

Here she is on the hayride.


At the picnic area there was a big log about 4 feet tall- Lucy had a great time walking on top of it while holding my hand.


Watching the sheep and goats.

And here are the requisite pictures of the lambs and kids (goat kids, that is). :)

This one is curled up in the feeding bin. So cute!

And on the other channel...

You may have noticed a new link on our sidebar here to Leaf by Elizabeth. It's a blog I've started recently as a venue for my artistic/creative explorations. I'd love for you to check it out, and feel free to pass it along to friends! (www.leafbyelizabeth.blogspot.com). I've had a great time working on it thus far, and hope it will be an encouragement to others.

And now back to our regularly scheduled entertainment...

Papa Jack is back!

I don't think I mentioned it before, but a few weeks ago my dad stayed with us for 2 days, before launching a tour of the US (midwest, south, west coast) to visit friends and churches. Sounds like it was an encouraging, though busy, trip (he had lots of early mornings, including 4 days in a row of 6 am flights!).

Now he's back with us, for a few weeks this time (hooray!). Lucy is excited to be having an ongoing sleepover with him staying in her room. We pulled out the aforementioned jogging shoes this afternoon for a run at our local park. Lucy loves it because there's also a playground and beach there.

Fun on the swings.

Lucy and Papa Jack enjoyed sifting the sand to find little pebbles, and then pouring them in her bucket. Another highlight was seeing a fish in a bucket that someone had caught.

Matt is eager to introduce Lucy to the joys of soccer, and got her a soccer ball this weekend. Here he is, showing off his moves.

And stylish Lucy (a Beckham in training?) after a good kick.

Here's a video of Papa Jack and Lucy on the swings. He's great at finding ways to make Lucy laugh!

Happy hippy

The other day Lucy and I were talking about how we had gone jogging (well, Lucy was in the jogging stroller). Lucy has really gotten into the jogging concept, and likes pointing out my "jogging shoes" and my "jogging clothes". So after that discussion, Lucy and I talked a bit about how Papa Jack would be coming soon (on Saturday!) and how Mimi wouldn't be coming (she always asks about when I tell her Papa Jack is coming) and she said, "Maybe Papa Jack go jogging too?" I said yes, he could, and that he likes jogging. And then she said, "Papa Jack have jogging shoes?" and after I affirmed that yes, he has them- "where Papa Jack jogging shoes?". It's so funny to me how she thinks things like this through.

As an aside, Lucy loves the word "maybe". She uses it all the time, like "Maybe Mama go to playground with Lucy sometime too?". "Know what?" has become another favorite phrase (I realize I use it with her a lot). So she'll say, "Know what? Mama and Papa love Lucy".

Dinner party

A friend of the family recently gave Lucy a wonderful set of play dishes, and we've been having a great time with them! Below we set the table for a party with mousie and piggie. Lucy is adding salt and pepper to the food.

And I overheard Lucy playing with the dishes on her own- she's really getting into pretend, these days.

"Creative" grammar

Here are a few more pictures from our afternoon at the Arboretum 2 weekends ago. This past weekend it rained almost the whole time (except when it hailed on us during our walk at a local park!), so not as conducive for outdoor adventures. Lucy and I did have fun going to the mall again- she remembered about the play space and sharing a donut, so we did both things. Funnily enough, I offered her a donut with jelly in it or one with sugar on the outside (I know, how the mighty have fallen), but she kept saying- "no, donut!". So we ended up with the old-fashioned kind which she was quite happy with.

Sporting a new (to us) stroller from my aunt and uncle- it leans back and has a canopy with a little window in it. Lucy is quite happy with it.

Some recent Lucyisms- it's funny because most of the time when I correct her, she insists that her way to say it is the right one.

"no, that mees!" (for "no, that's mine!).

"knife-ess" (for knives)

"that we house" (for "that's our house")

We were playing with a slinky, each holding an end and bouncing it up and down. Then Lucy got Elmo and had him hold one end and then she said, "Good job, Elmo!"

Recently we were talking about our friends Meredith and Skyler, and Lucy remembered that we used to go swimming with them. Then she said, "When summertime come, go swimming and put on swimsuit and put on swim diapers." I love that she remembered the swim diapers.

Jesus loves me

I've started singing lullabies to Lucy before she goes to bed and she's quickly learned a bunch of them. One of the cutest things is when she joins in at full volume, singing "fast asleep! fast asleep!" when she clearly isn't! Thankfully she usually falls asleep quite easily after the exuberant singing.

Here's her rendition of "Jesus loves me". :)

The perfect afternoon

We went on a family outing last Sunday to the local arboretum. It was a gorgeous spring day, and we were there in the late afternoon, the time of warm air and golden sunlight. The flowers have just been coming out and everything was so green after all the rain we've had.

We did a little bit of picnicking (and climbing on Mama).

And Lucy and I went on a long walk (at least 1/2 hour) on some of the trails. She walked the whole way until the last few minutes- I was very impressed. It was so nice to be outside among trees and birds and flowers, after the long winter and innumerable rainy days.

On our walk, we played pooh sticks at a very tiny stream, and later on, we saw 2 turtles!!

More of the beauty we saw...

Easter fun

After a wonderful church service on Easter, we headed to my grandparents' for a gathering with my relatives. Here's a rare family picture of the 3 of us.


Matt and I had fun hiding Easter eggs outside (it was much warmer than last year when we had the hunt indoors!).

Most of them were a bit harder to find than this, but I just couldn't resist.

And Lucy and my cousins had fun looking for them. Lucy had a handy Easter egg holder from Grandma Judy.

Another big hit was the trampoline in the next door neighbors' yard. Lucy would have stayed on it all day if we let her, and is really getting the hang of bouncing.

Resting for a moment after all that jumping!

Easter egging

While it's not really related to the actual meaning of Easter (I know people try to make connections based on spring, new life, etc...but really!) I've always LOVED coloring easter eggs.

This was our first year doing it with Lucy, and neither Matt nor I fully anticipated what an adventure egg coloring with a 2 yr old is. Thankfully our kitchen floor is still the same color, though Lucy's and my hands were quite an earthy green-brown by the end, and I had visions of her in her easter dress with ogre-colored hands. Thankfully, lemon juice + baking soda + multiple hand washings got it all off.

Here are the raw (well, hard-boiled) materials. I love doing brown eggs as well, as you get beautiful pottery barn-like colors.


Lucy and Papa getting the colors ready. The light in the kitchen was beautiful.

The fizzing tablets were very interesting.


A cool by-product of our egg coloring.

And the eggs!

Conversations

Lucy has entered the phase of saying funny things (which I'm sure will continue for years to come!). Here are a few recent ones:

After Lucy and I had been pretending that our hands were spiders walking around on the table, she said: "Mama and Lucy funny! Papa funny too."

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We were talking about how Lucy had different food for lunch than I did, and how she should eat hers even though she wanted mine. Her response, "We can share."

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A comment on the cleanliness of our kitchen floor- when we were in the kitchen Lucy suggested doing sit-ups (one of the new exercises she's been learning) but then said, "Do it on rug. Floor dirty and food on it."

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And finally, our little director: "No Mama sit on couch. No Mama blanket on knees. Mama play blocks with you!"

Spring celebrations

Lucy got to participate in her first Seder this week. She stayed at the table a lot longer than I thought (grape juice and snacks helped), and she loved the hand-washing part.

Lucy still loves reading books. She recently discovered this Dr Suess alphabet book and spent a long time flipping through it. I think my parents have a very similar picture of me at this age.

Spring is coming! Great-grandma helped us cut forsythia branches to bring inside where they will bloom early, and pussywillows too.

Lucy had fun carrying them in her basket.

The other day I found this on the fridge- Lucy had decided to put all the letters upside-down. I love the way she likes to experiment and do things differently.