Blueberries, Books and Beaches...

...these are a few of Lucy's favorite things. The rain finally stopped in mid-July, and since then we've gone on some great outings.

First, my favorite recent picture of Lucy- isn't she lovely?



You'll notice a theme to this next set of pictures. Lucy is taking after her parents...

She really does love reading books. When she's left to herself it's often the first thing she plays with.

Lucy has been getting in touch with her inner mountain climber. The first time she did this I didn't realize it until she was up to the 3rd or 4th step!

We've been going to Walden Pond at least once or twice a week, now that the weather is better. Lucy loves the "bee!" as she calls it (beach), and can't get enough of digging in the sand and splashing in the water.

We had a wonderful family trip to Portsmouth a few weeks ago. I hadn't been there in a few years, and it was so nice to be back. We had a delightful picnic lunch, and Lucy had a great time watching the boats come and go, saying "bye!" as they headed away.

We found a little chair that I had when I was little and have set it up with a piano bench. Lucy loves reading books or doing puzzles at her little table.

Lucy and I went blueberry picking with my grandmother, aunt and some cousins recently. The weather was a bit cool, but we got a nice crop of blueberries. Lucy perfectly re-enacted the book Blueberries for Sal: the first few berries she picked made it into her pail, but after that they all went straight into her mouth. Grandma joked that we should have weighed Lucy before and after our trip, just like we did for our pails.

My cousins were great with Lucy, showing her how to pick only the blue ones.

Here's the whole crew.And our berries!

And a final family picture- this is from the birthday party for one of our friends' son, which included a hayride.

Potpourri Post

Here are a few random photos from the last few weeks.

Lucy helped me make muffins recently- she did a great job dumping the ingredients in and then helping me stir. And it even mostly stayed in the bowl!

Lucy's been really into our cell phones so we got her an Elmo one. She knew just what to do with it, putting it up to her ear and saying "Ai!" She's also very quickly caught on to multi-tasking while on the phone.

Another happy cottage cheese eating picture.

And having a blast with a balloon and Papa.

The Littleton Whirlwind

Here's a belated post about our visit with Caitlin and John and Sam and baby #2. Sam and Lucy had both changed a lot in 2 months, and got along a lot better. Lucy actually enjoyed Sam's hugs and kisses instead of pushing him away, and they exhibited some healthy "parallel play", as shown in the picture below.

Playing with a book (it later made it onto Lucy's head).

Sam showing where Lucy's belly button is (which Lucy calls, "Beh-buh").

My parents treated the 4 of us to a fantastic dinner at a local gourmet restaurant. Every dish was amazing, and it was so nice to spend some relaxing time together. Here we are outside the restaurant.

And then savoring our after-dinner drinks and creme brulee (Cait left a few minutes early to put Sam to bed).

Another night we stayed up late playing Puerto Rico, one of our favorite board games.

There was a big family gathering at the beginning of the week- the rain let up so that the cousins could all enjoy playing outside.

Sammer.
Lucy lamb.

Sam about to strike.

Lucy trying out the "I'll offer you the ball and then take it away at the last minute" game.

I always love hanging out with my sister. We can't wait to meet the new little guy soon!

Grandma Judy's Visit

We had an absolutely wonderful time with Grandma Judy (aka, Matt's mom). Lucy loved hanging out with her Grandma, and they had a bunch of quality time in the mornings while Matt and I got to sleep in (such a treat!).

We had some great dinners, including a Mexican night with tacos and margaritas- delicious!Grandma Judy gave a pair of sunglasses to Lucy, which she loved wearing.

A big highlight of her visit was Matt's graduation from Divinity School (yay Matt!). Here are some pictures from the big day.

Grandma Judy, Lucy and I watched the big ceremony on tv in a building on campus so we wouldn't have to fight the crowds. There were a few other kids there, and Lucy had a great time playing with them. This is where the smaller ceremony for the Divinity School was held.

Matt walking across the stage to get his diploma.

Lucy trying on the cap for size.

We had a great party with some friends that evening, which was a nice way to end the long day.

Matt's birthday was on the last day of Grandma's visit. My aunt Lee came down to join us for a yummy brunch at a local diner, and then a delightful afternoon walking at the arboretum and playing scrabble.

What Lucy's into these days

Literally, she's been getting into...

Her block basket...

Great-grandma's wheelbarrow...The colander...Our shoes...

And metaphorically, she's into...

Trying on hats...

Gardening with Great-grandma...

Pushing around her doll stroller while wearing her new rain boots...


Eating, especially cottage cheese...

Feeding her baby (and us)...

and as always, filling our lives with joy!

Celebrations and life with Lucy

Hello everyone! Yes, we're still here, though my "blogging while busy" skills are clearly lacking. I'm going to do a wordy post, and then will get the pictures up soon. We've had a great month, starting with a visit from Grandma Judy (Matt's mom), who helped us celebrate Matt's graduation from Divinity School (hooray!) and his birthday. Then a week later Caitlin, John and Sam joined us for a brief visit before they headed to Thailand (they'll be there for the next few years working with Children on the Edge).

Lucy is keeping us on her toes, and herself too- she's in an experimental walking stage, trying out new things like walking on tip-toes, or with her eyes closed (not great results on that one) or looking up at the ceiling. She's quite the active toddler, running around, spinning until she falls, climbing on everything, etc. This is such a fun age- I guess every age has its perks, but it's especially fun as she's so much more aware of her environment and becoming her own person. She's been learning a new word or two every day, it seems, which is lots of fun. Recent words include spoo- spoon, powdah- powder, knee, at- hat, cah- car, moo- moon, bottah- bottle. Although she has lots of words, her favorite way to communicate is by saying "eh". Amazing how much meaning she can put into it, using it to say "I want that", or "stop" or "help" or "let me do that". I'm sure someday we'll look back on this stage fondly, but it can be a bit trying after the 15th "eh" in a minute.

Lucy is quite particular about doing one thing at a time, and can be very determined. Recently at breakfast I offered her a sip of my juice, but first she wanted me to take the cereal bowl off her plate. The same thing happens when she sees a new toy or object- she'll deliberately hand me the other one, holding it outstretched until I take it from her, instead of just dropping it, even when I encourage her to do so. She also finds little bits of dirt or fuzz on the ground and picks them up and gives them to me. I'm not sure what this says about her personality- will be interesting to see when she gets older.

A rambling account of recent fun developments with Lucy: Lucy loves pretend feeding her dolls and us, most every time she eats. She'll take turns eating herself and then giving it to me and then to Matt, and has a very satisfied smile when we've had some. Sometimes she'll start laughing on purpose to get us to laugh, and then we all giggle together. Whenever Matt or I are gone, Lucy constantly asks about us- "Mama?" "Papa?". She'll ask 3 or 4 times within 10 minutes about Matt sometimes. She's also started asking after "Mimi" which is what we call my mom, though I think that Auntie Caitlin and Mimi have merged a bit in her head (when Caitlin was visiting she called her Mimi), as a very wonderful and special person. :) Lucy gives us kisses now- she'll hold up her head with her lips open, and will kiss us right on the mouth- so cute. When we talk about going outside, she'll say "shoes!" and motions for us to put hers on. She loves unloading the dishwasher with me, handing me each spoon and fork separately. Today she also unloaded the groceries with me, handing me each item. It makes doing these chores a lot more fun. Also today, she came in from the other room with her bunny hat on- she had picked it out of the bin and put it on herself. She loves shoes, especially wearing ours. When we meet new people, she often notices their shoes and points to each person's pair and then to her own.

That's all for tonight- I'll post some pictures soon, I promise!