Snowy January

It was quite a month of snow for us. There are now gigantic mounds of snow in front of our house- they even brought a bulldozer to lift the snow out of the parking lot. Thankfully there have been nice sunny days since then, when we can enjoy the snow. Lucy and I have even been cross-country skiing together once so far, with her in a backpack.


Here's our back deck after the multiple snowstorms- the snow is almost half-way up the railings!

Lucy is showing/developing more of her personality every day. She loves laughing and sometimes will start laughing on purpose so that we'll join in.


Here she is pointing during breakfast at the window to the back deck. She now also points at her toothbrush and at food that she wants. Lucy also is fascinated by a wood nativity set from the Congo that's on loan from my sister. She points eagerly at it whenever we walk by, and we let her hold baby Jesus and the sheep.

Lucy has discovered how to put her hand inside things- here it's in a toothpaste box- my Grandma is holding her. She thought it was so funny to wave the box around.

Lucy loves cruising along the walls. She often emits shrieks of joy as she moves along.

And her other favorite occupation, walking with us holding her hands. The basic theme here is movement.

And continuing with that theme. She has a great time pushing the kitchen stool around, and has even discovered how to go in reverse.

She's a little mellow in this video, probably right before a nap. I love how she peers to see where the ducky has gone.

Moroccan Christmas

We've been back for a few weeks now, but I'm just getting back in the swing of things. It took us a few weeks to adjust from jet lag (we had quite a few early mornings with Lucy that first week) and for me to get over a cold I got when we returned. We've had a bunch of snow and there's still a foot or two out there- it's been fun to see Lucy gazing out the windows at all the white. Unfortunately, we've also had sub-freezing temperatures this past week (and it's supposed to continue through next week) so we haven't been playing in the snow too much.

Lucy has started pointing at things that she likes and making little exclamations, like "dtou!". She especially notices lights and the windows, and sometimes even points with both hands when she's really interested. She "babbles" quite a lot and makes a variety of word-like sounds, sometimes when she's looking through her books. Lucy loves walking around with us holding her hands, or pushing the kitchen stool or the stroller while walking. Her balance has improved quite a lot, and it seems that walking on her own is not too far away.

I wanted to post a few pictures from our time in Morocco. These are just a few of them, and hopefully I'll have more soon after I go through them all. You can see more fun pictures at my sister's blog (link is on the side).

Here's the whole gang- we managed to get everyone dressed up and relatively happy for a family picture.



And our little clan.

Here's a picture of the cardboard fort that John built. It was so cool, with multiple entrances, a little nooky part, skylights and windows, and a tunnel.


My folks took care of Sam and Lucy most mornings. We super appreciated the extra rest, and they seemed to have fun too- here Lucy is checking out Papa Jack.

The weather was gorgeous when we were there- in the 60s and even 70s some days. On Christmas day we went for a walk in the Eucalyptus forest- here's mom with her two "christmas presents".

Sam is 22 months now, and is such a cute and fun little guy. I really enjoyed playing with him.


He was very sweet with Lucy, giving her lots of hugs and kisses. She liked the hugs, but after the first couple would start to get antsy. He would also imitate her noises and her crying, which was so funny.

Enjoying Morocco

We're having a great time with my family in Morocco. Lucy was such a trooper on the flight over, despite only getting 6 hours of sleep combined that night (the usual is 13 1/2). She's a big fan of her cousin Sam, always crawling over to where he is. They especially enjoy playing in a gigantic fort John made out of cardboard boxes. Lucy's other favorite is a tricycle- she holds onto the handlebars and walks with it in circles, as long as we make sure it doesn't go too fast.

I haven't uploaded any pix from the trip yet, so in the meantime here are some from the past few weeks before we left.

Lucy usually is standing up in her crib when I come into get her after naps.

She also likes crawling into small places.

Here is Lucy with Juanita, our wonderful babysitter. I've been trying to get a good picture of them together, but this is the best we have so far. She's very playful and keeps Lucy amused while I work.

Our thoughtful sweetheart.

It's good to be alive, isn't it?

My uncle Clark and his girlfriend, Kelly, were over recently. She was quite fascinated by his adult beverage, but don't worry- she didn't get a sip in. :)

Our (still in process) home

I've been promising to put up some pictures of our new home. With our delightful 10-month old, setting up has taken a little longer than we'd hope, but the rooms are getting there.

Below is our front hallway.



Here is our dining room and back deck, with place cards from Thanksgiving.

Here is a picture of the living room- this is the front half. It's much more in process than the other rooms.

That's all for now- upstairs to follow at a later date!

Things that make me happy

So I've been saving up pictures of a few things that make me happy (aside from my wonderful family and friends, of course). Who knows, maybe this will be an ongoing blog series!

I've started painting a bit again. This is quite different from what most of you probably think of painting- I use kid paint, big brushes, and large pieces of paper (the one below is abt 3 feet tall by 5 feet wide). I just love mixing the different colors.


I've been taking the commuter rail into work 1 day a week. Each time I ride, the conducter punches a hole in the 12-ride pass. Apparently each conducter has a different hole punch, and I love seeing what the newest one is.

And finally, my Whole Foods recyclable bags. I used to feel awful about how many plastic bags we used shopping, and then they'd overflow in our closet. So I finally went out and bought a whole bunch of recyclable bags. They're so pretty and environmentally friendly, and I feel so happy to not be wasting plastic bags.

Feast

Happy Thanksgiving, faithful blog readers!


Now that we've all enjoyed the traditional culinary banquet, here is a feast of Lucy pix and videos, starting with a few pictures from our trip to Philly earlier in November.

Our little mountain goat. She climbed up onto the suitcase but couldn't get back down.

Like father, like daughter.

Having fun at the hotel. As I recall, we were rocking out singing ABBA's "Super Trooper" at this point.Another picture of our smiley one.
And just so you see that she does have other expressions...

She's quite an eager crawler these days, and can really pick up speed.

We noticed that whenever we brushed our teeth Lucy would climb over and pull up on us, trying to get the toothbrush. So I got her a little toothbrush, which she loves. As soon as we give it to her she puts it right in her mouth and chomps away.

I love this sweater my mom got for Lucy.

And now here are a few videos. Sometimes Lucy has fun making different noises- one of her favorites is the raspberry, which she'll do for a long time, as you can see in this one.

Lucy also plays her version of soccer, pushing something ahead of her and then chasing after it (in this case, a tupperware).

Just this past week Lucy has started climbing stairs (with our close supervision, of course). She also has become even more talkative- lots of "ba, ba, ba's" and "da, da, da's".

Keeping up with Lucy

At least, that's what we've been trying to do, now that she's crawling (or should I say, speeding) around. She can move at quite a good clip, and is keeping us on her toes. She is also now loves pulling herself up onto her knees and feet using any available furniture or surface. I captured one of her first attempts a few weeks ago.

She's much more adept now, and is quite good at balancing and even leaning over to try and touch the floor. She hasn't quite mastered the sitting back down part, though.

Many more pictures to come, once I get them off my camera, including some fun shots from our hotel room in Philly (we were there the week before last for my work conference).