We've recently discovered the most sure-fire way to get Lucy to laugh. Namely, throw her animals up in the air and then bat at them to keep them up (like you would for a hackey sack). It never fails to utterly delight her. I think she finds it very funny to see her animals flying, and also to see us lunging around. In the video below, Lamby got to go aerial.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Making Lucy Laugh: 101
Friday, January 8, 2010
Lucy up and down and all around
Where's Lucy?
There she is!
Double-fisting it.
Lounging in her chair.
Going aerial with Papa.
An ideal place for a phone call.
There she is!
Double-fisting it.
Lounging in her chair.
Going aerial with Papa.
An ideal place for a phone call.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Ringing in the new year
We enjoyed spending time with family and friends as the old year drew to a close and the new one began.
Baby Emma (my youngest cousin) came to visit with her mom and dad (Kelly and Clark) and her sister Whitney and a friend. Lucy played the role of big cousin quite well, and even got to hold Emma on her lap. Here she's helping Emma unwrap a present.
And to cap off a wonderful first day of the year, we visited with our other dear friends, Laura and Michael, playing Puerto Rico after the girls went to bed.
As we reflect on this past year and look forward to the new one, we're so thankful for all the friends and family God has blessed us with, whether close or far away!
Baby Emma (my youngest cousin) came to visit with her mom and dad (Kelly and Clark) and her sister Whitney and a friend. Lucy played the role of big cousin quite well, and even got to hold Emma on her lap. Here she's helping Emma unwrap a present.
We went out to the local diner/train station with Meredith, Phil and Skyler (our Walden Pond playmates) on the 31st. Lucy and Skyler love giving each other hugs, though he was distracted this time.
We spent New Years' Eve with our dear friends Rebecca and Gregg. It was our 3rd one together, this time joined by Andrew (a most charming and easy-going little guy), who was still on west coast time, and by their little pea pod (still inside Rebecca). We had a delicious meal of raclette and then not 1, but 2 desserts- peppermint chocolate brownies with ice cream and strawberry shortcake with whipped cream.
Grandma and I got off on the right foot (or ski) this year, going cross-country skiing on New Years' day.
And to cap off a wonderful first day of the year, we visited with our other dear friends, Laura and Michael, playing Puerto Rico after the girls went to bed.
As we reflect on this past year and look forward to the new one, we're so thankful for all the friends and family God has blessed us with, whether close or far away!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Haiku get-away
As a belated celebration of our 5th wedding anniversary, Matt and I went away last weekend to a bed and breakfast for a night. We were so grateful to our babysitter, Jamie, and to my grandparents who shared childcare duties while we were away. By all accounts Lucy did great, though she missed us.
It was a short trip (just over 24 hrs), but completely delightful. We found a little book of haikus in a used bookstore up there (located in an old barn, pictured below), and it inspired us to think of our trip as a Haiku get-away (hopefully longer poem trips and maybe even epics will be possible in the future!).
We've also composed a few haikus of our own since then (the pattern is 5 syllables, then 7, then 5).
Matt's (from the perspective of Elizabeth):
I love poetry
My husband's time is fleeting
So we read haikus
Elizabeth's:
Five years together
Hiking up and down mountains
We're still holding hands
The B&B was very homey and overlooked a river, as did our room.
We went for a fun walk along the river on the first afternoon and then had dinner at a restaurant nearby that also overlooked the river. It was beautiful in all the snow.
Lest a post go by without pictures of her, here is Lucy playing in the snow after our recent snowstorm. The beach bucket and shovel are coming in handy even in this season!
And here is our little princess getting a ride around the house.
It was a short trip (just over 24 hrs), but completely delightful. We found a little book of haikus in a used bookstore up there (located in an old barn, pictured below), and it inspired us to think of our trip as a Haiku get-away (hopefully longer poem trips and maybe even epics will be possible in the future!).
We've also composed a few haikus of our own since then (the pattern is 5 syllables, then 7, then 5).
Matt's (from the perspective of Elizabeth):
I love poetry
My husband's time is fleeting
So we read haikus
Elizabeth's:
Five years together
Hiking up and down mountains
We're still holding hands
The B&B was very homey and overlooked a river, as did our room.
We went for a fun walk along the river on the first afternoon and then had dinner at a restaurant nearby that also overlooked the river. It was beautiful in all the snow.
Lest a post go by without pictures of her, here is Lucy playing in the snow after our recent snowstorm. The beach bucket and shovel are coming in handy even in this season!
And here is our little princess getting a ride around the house.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Christmas greetings
We had a wonderful Christmas, filled with good times with family. We went to my grandparents' for brunch with the Himmelberger clan (20 people!) and then returned in the evening for a smaller Christmas dinner with my grandparents, joined by our babysitter, Jamie. In between we spoke with Grandma Judy and "visited" (via webcam) Caitlin, John, Sam and Jeff in Malaysia (they were visiting John's family) and my parents in Morocco.
Lucy and her great-grandmother matched!
My cousin Julia is a natural with Lucy; here they are playing with the doll house.
Lucy really got excited about opening presents. After each one was open she said, "more presents!" In the picture below she's wearing new pjs- we plan to get her a new pair every Christmas eve, a fun tradition we picked up from a friend.
Lucy and her great-grandmother matched!
My cousin Julia is a natural with Lucy; here they are playing with the doll house.
Lucy really got excited about opening presents. After each one was open she said, "more presents!" In the picture below she's wearing new pjs- we plan to get her a new pair every Christmas eve, a fun tradition we picked up from a friend.
Our babysitter, Jamie, got Lucy a really fun present- a full train table and train set. Lucy loves playing with the "choo-choo"!
Praying, Talking, Reading
A narrative update, for a change, about our little Lucy. For awhile now we've prayed with Lucy before she goes to sleep, thanking God for things from the day and for our extended family and friends. Recently she started chiming in with her own suggestions for what she's thankful for. Mama, Papa, Jamie (our babysitter) and her baby doll and blankey get frequent mentions; also in there have been Mimi and Papa Jack, Grandma Judy, Auntie Caitlin and Sam. And then there are the more unique entries: books (she actually mentions these pretty often), chair, sound machine, moon. It's fun for me to remember that we can also be thankful for these small, inanimate things.
Lucy's language continues to develop and she's become quite talkative. She says "hold you" when she wants to be held, which is super cute. She's also saying 2-3 word sentences, like "Papa choo-choo go, big choo-choo", "shoes on, coat on, bye-bye", "mama do that", "Lucy hold that" and so on.
In October we got some refrigerator alphabet letters, and Lucy very quickly learned to identify M for Mama, P for Papa, and L for Lucy. J for Jamie soon followed, and since then she's learned to identify about 3/4 of the alphabet, as we've matched each letter with a word that it starts with. So she'll pick up a book now and will say "Papa, hair, ear, ear, toy, water, baby" (for the letters p, h, e, t, w, b). She loves "pretend" reading as well, where she'll pick up a book or magazine and "read" it aloud, with all the intonations and rhythms of speaking.
Lucy continues to be very cheerful, full of smiles and game-playing. She loves being chased around the house by us holding one of her stuffed animals, or playing hide and seek. She also enjoys coloring with markers or pens, reading books, and building towers with blocks or legos. When she colors, Lucy will often make long lines and say that she's making letters, like P or L or M. And if we give her something with writing on it, she'll carefully make marks on the letters- she seems very ready to write!
Finally, we're thrilled that Lucy is taking more interest in going potty. Over the last week she's gone potty pretty regularly before bath-time, and yesterday she went 3-4 times in the afternoon in the potty, hardly going in her diaper at all. In fact, the only way I could get her to stop sitting on the potty was to tell her we could try again in a half-hour. It'll probably be awhile still, but it's nice that she is genuinely excited about it.
Lucy's language continues to develop and she's become quite talkative. She says "hold you" when she wants to be held, which is super cute. She's also saying 2-3 word sentences, like "Papa choo-choo go, big choo-choo", "shoes on, coat on, bye-bye", "mama do that", "Lucy hold that" and so on.
In October we got some refrigerator alphabet letters, and Lucy very quickly learned to identify M for Mama, P for Papa, and L for Lucy. J for Jamie soon followed, and since then she's learned to identify about 3/4 of the alphabet, as we've matched each letter with a word that it starts with. So she'll pick up a book now and will say "Papa, hair, ear, ear, toy, water, baby" (for the letters p, h, e, t, w, b). She loves "pretend" reading as well, where she'll pick up a book or magazine and "read" it aloud, with all the intonations and rhythms of speaking.
Lucy continues to be very cheerful, full of smiles and game-playing. She loves being chased around the house by us holding one of her stuffed animals, or playing hide and seek. She also enjoys coloring with markers or pens, reading books, and building towers with blocks or legos. When she colors, Lucy will often make long lines and say that she's making letters, like P or L or M. And if we give her something with writing on it, she'll carefully make marks on the letters- she seems very ready to write!
Finally, we're thrilled that Lucy is taking more interest in going potty. Over the last week she's gone potty pretty regularly before bath-time, and yesterday she went 3-4 times in the afternoon in the potty, hardly going in her diaper at all. In fact, the only way I could get her to stop sitting on the potty was to tell her we could try again in a half-hour. It'll probably be awhile still, but it's nice that she is genuinely excited about it.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Looking forward to baby Jesus
It's been a fun advent season with Lucy; I've enjoyed sharing her excitement and anticipation of celebrating baby Jesus coming. At dinner we light the candles in our advent wreath and sing a hymn or two (when I remember).
We've also been hanging an angel ornament every day (from a book my mom gave me) and opening a window on our advent calendar, as we look forward to baby Jesus coming. Lucy loves hanging the angels, and throughout the rest of the day she'll periodically ask, "more angels?". I can now ask her when she'll hang more and she says "morrow." She also loves the Playmobil nativity setmy mom got her. She mostly likes taking off all their robes and hats, but also likes giving the presents from the wise men to the baby Jesus, and bringing the angel to greet the angel ornaments we've hung on the bookshelf.
Another fun adventure was going to pick out the Christmas tree and decorating it. Lucy loved hanging up ornaments, as you can see in the second picture below.
Here is our beautiful tree with its motley crew of ornaments- I love all the history that they reflect (you can see a Dartmouth sweater ornament that one of my friends knit for me in the top middle, a bit down and to the right is our tagine pot favor from our wedding, and straight below the sweater farther down is a triangle-shaped painting of the church where we and my grandparents were married). Grandma Judy also bequeathed us a number of beautiful craft ornaments that she had made and collected over the years- lots of them are soft and are hung lower-down where Lucy can touch them.
And here we are outside, before making snow angels.
We just got more snow on Sunday, so it's quite beautiful outside. There's a large heap of snow accumulating at the edge of our condo parking lot, which should be perfect for sledding with Lucy, once she's back to her usual self.
We've also been hanging an angel ornament every day (from a book my mom gave me) and opening a window on our advent calendar, as we look forward to baby Jesus coming. Lucy loves hanging the angels, and throughout the rest of the day she'll periodically ask, "more angels?". I can now ask her when she'll hang more and she says "morrow." She also loves the Playmobil nativity setmy mom got her. She mostly likes taking off all their robes and hats, but also likes giving the presents from the wise men to the baby Jesus, and bringing the angel to greet the angel ornaments we've hung on the bookshelf.
Another fun adventure was going to pick out the Christmas tree and decorating it. Lucy loved hanging up ornaments, as you can see in the second picture below.
Here is our beautiful tree with its motley crew of ornaments- I love all the history that they reflect (you can see a Dartmouth sweater ornament that one of my friends knit for me in the top middle, a bit down and to the right is our tagine pot favor from our wedding, and straight below the sweater farther down is a triangle-shaped painting of the church where we and my grandparents were married). Grandma Judy also bequeathed us a number of beautiful craft ornaments that she had made and collected over the years- lots of them are soft and are hung lower-down where Lucy can touch them.
We all had another bout of 2-week colds in December, and Lucy came down with another one last weekend (her worst ever- she slept for 1-2 hours on my lap in front of the tv each day, which she has never done). But in the midst of that we've been able to enjoy some snow! Lucy and I made an indoor snowman after the first storm.
And here we are outside, before making snow angels.
We just got more snow on Sunday, so it's quite beautiful outside. There's a large heap of snow accumulating at the edge of our condo parking lot, which should be perfect for sledding with Lucy, once she's back to her usual self.
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