Legos and language

This video shows Lucy doing one of her favorite things- sticking her little finger (or hand) into objects and waving them around. It's funny the things that fit her finger just right- the underside of the legos, her fisherprice construction man, or her hand- toilet paper rolls, a toothpaste box. She also likes fitting her whole body into small places- between a chair and table, for example. It's funny.

I realized when I was watching this video that Lucy is actually saying the word "shoes" when she walks around the couch and points. At the time, I sort of guessed that this was what she was looking at, but I wasn't quite sure what she was saying. It was only today that I realized Lucy knew the word, as she said it a few times while pointing to her shoes. I guess baby-speak takes a little time to learn, even for moms!

Lucy exploring

Lucy has added some new words to her vocabulary- "duze" for "shoes" and "da-da" for "Papa" and "bay-bee" for "baby". She is so much fun these days. Now that the weather is nicer, we've been enjoying walking to the mailbox together- she can walk the whole way there and back holding my hand. And Lucy got to play with dirt for the first time this weekend, now that the snow is melting. She was very interested, and kept trying to eat it- I guess it looks tasty.

Here is a video from a few days ago of Lucy walking around the house. She's usually pretty cheerful like this, exploring and talking. Enjoy!

Joy in the journey

Lucy is quite the little walker now. She can walk on her own at least 5-7 feet, but still prefers to hold onto one of our hands for extra balance. She's quite cute as she imperiously holds out her hand and waits for one of us to hold it before setting forth. It's also a funny combination with her strong will- if I want to go a different direction than she does, she'll arch her whole body in her direction, still holding onto my hand. Usually an "eeee!" and tears will follow, if I don't change course.

Here's a picture from the birthday celebration at my grandparents' house for Lucy. She was really interested in the flame on the candle.


We also had an open-house bday party for Lucy and I- it was great to see lots of good friends and kiddos throughout the day.

It's been cold and snowy- we got another foot on March 2nd! The snow is gorgeous, and hopefully we'll get to fit in another cross-country skiing adventure before it melts, but I have to confess, I'm longing for spring.

Our little bunny, all bundled up.

Birthday celebrations and birthday shirt

Lucy has taken her first few steps on her own! She took the first steps on Sunday when we were celebrating her birthday with my grandparents and uncle and cousins. Since then she's taking 4 or 5 steps at a time. She thinks it's really funny, and usually collapses laughing in my arms when she gets to me.

We've had a fun week celebrating Lucy's birthday. My grandmother came over to babysit Lucy on Thursday while I worked; it was nice for her to be with us on Lucy's special day.


Lucy enjoyed opening her presents, especially the little cards and tissue paper.

Here she is in her new birthday dress.

Grandma Judy and Uncle Todd gave Lucy the cutest little chair. She likes sitting in it and reading books, though after a little while she always wants to get moving again!


We're continuing the "birthday shirt" tradition which my parents did with Caitlin and I (my dad got the idea from Mad Magazine, funnily enough). You get an adult-sized shirt for your baby (ideally from the locale where she is born) and take a picture of her in it every year until she turns 18. Caitlin is also carrying on the tradition with Sam.

We got so many fun pictures of Lucy in her shirt, I'm not sure which we'll choose as the official 1-year old shot. I think maybe this first one...
And a couple more we liked:

A few more Christmas pictures

I've been sorting through all the pictures we took at Christmas, and have found a few more fun ones.

We opened a few presents before we left for Morocco- Lucy had a blast playing with the tissue paper.


There's a gorgeous beach just 20 minutes from my parents' house. We went there one afternoon, and Lucy had a great time crawling around and playing with the sand.

Lucy has very dramatic expressions sometimes- she really gets excited about what she's doing. Here she's pushing the tricyle around.

Two grinning ladies.

Sam and Lucy checking each other out.

Celebrating one year of our little light!

At 6:43am on February 5, 2008, Lucia Elizabeth entered the world.

And here she is, one year later!

What a year this has been. Lucy has brought us so much joy this year, and continues to do so every day. Parenting is really hard work, for sure, but also a great delight. It's hard to believe that just a year ago Lucy was just learning to nurse and mostly laid there and flailed, and now she's a little person with likes (shoelaces, climbing stairs, listening to music/dancing, exploring, cruising on furniture, banging things to make noise, bread, cheese), and dislikes (being buckled into her carseat, naptime, being told "no", most vegetables) who can do so much! Most recently she's started waving bye-bye to people, waving her hands around when she hears music, and making the "all done" sign when she's finished with her meal. She also is very good at batting my hand away when I try to give her food that she doesn't want. :)

Here's a little poem to celebrate today:

Lucia, our precious little light,

You bring us such great delight.

What did we do before you were here?

We can't remember, but one thing is clear,

We have so much fun with our little one

And our adventure together has just begun.

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.