Pumpkin adventures

This past weekend was gorgeous (after a week of pouring rain), and we were all excited to be outdoors. We headed to a local pumpkin patch with my extended family to pick pumpkins, and then celebrated my grandfather's birthday.

Lucy and I on the hayride.


A family picture with our pumpkins- you can see how my little pumpkin is really popping out!

Lucy and Grandma in the patch.

Lucy picked out her pumpkin- quite a cute one. It was funny watching her try to pick up some of the larger ones!

Lucy did a great job helping Grandpa blow out his candles.

And a bonus picture- we picked up a costume for Lucy since she'll be having a Halloween/dress up day at preschool later this month. She LOVES it. She calls it her butterfly costume, and is so excited that it has wings. Here she's doing an "attitude" (ballet position she learned from our summer nanny).

Dancing the night away

A few weeks ago my uncle organized a fun concert/benefit, with awesome music (he played the ukelele in one of the bands!). Lucy completely surprised me by dancing for almost an hour straight, even though a lot of the time she was the only one out on the floor. She'd dance for awhile and then run over to the table like a marathoner, grabbing a grape and a sip of water before racing back out. There are 2 videos below of her dancing moves.

Lucy's been asking more questions about the baby recently. "Can I help put on the baby's diaper?" "Will the baby roll over?" "Will the baby wear shoes?" She will ask if the baby is asleep or kicking, and the other day said, "I want to see her eyes." One time I suggested that she say night-night to baby (after she'd been doing her question asking), and she proceeded to sing all of the lullaby "Tender shepherd" to the baby while stroking my tummy. So precious.

Lots of smiles and jumps!

My mom is a great photographer- I wish she was around to photo-document our lives more often! Here are a few fun shots from their visit. I love the light in some of these.

Such a beautiful girl.


Being bounced by Papa Jack.

3 generations...

I love this one.

"Then you just flip, flip, flip..."

Lucy spent some time up in the air recently, thanks to Papa and Papa Jack. She really likes explaining how to do things, as she does to me half-way through the video. When dad was teaching her ping pong, just minutes after he showed her how to hold and move the paddle, she started explaining it to me. :)

Goodbye Summer & Mimi and Papa Jack

It's always sad to say goodbye to summer. Lucy and I went to the lake to swim one last time, the day before her preschool started.

We also said goodbye to Mimi and Papa Jack last week. It was so fun having them here. We had a wonderful time up with them a few weekends ago at a friend's cottage on Lake Winnipesaukee, including a gorgeous hike and a canoe trip on the lake. I'll post some of those pictures once I go through my mom's pix.

Dad got matching shirts for Lucy and him from Nigeria.

My dad is so great at coming up with games to play with Lucy. On one of our walks they played a sort of croquet game with sticks and acorns, and then finger-shadow tag.

Mimi and Lucy had fun hanging out too. Here they're having a little down-time together.

In other news, Lucy is still loving preschool. At random times during the day she'll come out with little tidbits about what they did, like learning about leaves changing colors, or singing a certain song, or a new rule they learned.

Lucy caught a cold over the weekend- she got over it in a day, but Matt and I are both feeling pretty bad now. I'll try to get back into posting more regularly after we're on the mend!

First day of preschool!

Lucy had her first day of preschool yesterday. I was pretty nervous about it, but she did great. She was very excited to be packing her lunch bag (sandwich, apple rings, grapes, pretzels) and backpack (baby and blankey). She wanted to play with the trains right away (she remembered them from the orientation evening) and happily gave us goodbye hugs and kisses. According to the teachers she did fine the whole time, and she was happy to see us when we picked her up.

I can tell it will be an adjustment for her to be part of a group. One of her teachers said that when they were outside, after awhile Lucy told her, "I want to go inside." The teacher explained they would go in after 5 more minutes, and Lucy said, "But I want to go now." The teacher asked her why and she said, "Because I do." However, she waited patiently for the 5 minutes. The teacher observed that Lucy sure seems to have her own ideas/plans, which I can testify to!


Here's the back view so you can see her cute backpack too (thank you Grandma Judy!)

Here we are outside- Matt and I dropped her off and picked her up together. I appreciated the moral support, as I was a bit weepy afterwards.

There are 2 gerbils in the front lobby of the preschool, and then a lizard right by her classroom. Lucy is fascinated by them and loves checking them out. Here she is by the lizard.

Summer amusements

We've been having fun with Mimi and Papa Jack. Weekend highlights included a canoe trip, dancing at a benefit concert my uncle put together, and lots of yummy food! Plus they watched Lucy in the early mornings (especially helpful since she's started waking up at 6/6:30). We'll also be seeing them over the next week or so as well in between their vacation-times up north!

Here are a few random pictures from the last few weeks. I really like this one of Lucy.




Sand-play at the beach near us.

Lucy loves legos- they're one of her favorite toys. She especially likes making tall towers with them. This was one of our tallest yet- almost up to the ceiling!

Boxes are great fun- this one became a boat for a few days.