Acting out "Ollie"

Another of our favorite books these days is "Ollie". It's about a little gosling who is still in his egg and doesn't want to come out. Matt got the idea of acting it out, and it's become a nightly ritual to act out the story, each of us taking turns with different parts. The first two videos below are with Lucy reading, Matt as Ollie, and me as Gossie and Gertie. If you have the patience to sit through the story again, we change up the parts in the third video (Lucy explains who is doing what).

Reading "Titch"

"Titch" is one of Lucy's favorite stories, and she's pretty much memorized it. Here she is reading it...

More pumpkins

We finally carved our pumpkins last weekend, since we were sick over Halloween weekend. We were going to just wait until next year, but Lucy kept asking if we could make faces on our pumpkins. She had lots of fun helping Matt choose the shapes to cut out, and even scooped out some of the seeds with her hands.


They kept us company on the back porch during dinner the first night.

Here are some random shots from the week. Hiding behind some stickers...


I framed some book covers to decorate our toy corner. I'm hoping to do some more for Lucy's room.


One of Lucy's favorite activities these days is playing with water and various implements (sponges, plastic animals, kitchen tongs, measuring cups, etc). It's a great way to keep her occupied while I make dinner.

B is for butterfly (and for bugs and birds and babies!)

We've had quite a few weeks- Lucy brought home a cold from preschool. Of course she got over it in a few days, whereas for Matt and I it's been 1-2 weeks! Lucy is quite animated in telling other people how she "shared my cold with Mama and Papa". At least she's excited about sharing, right?

Lucy had fun getting dressed up for Halloween costume day at preschool. She was a butterfly (it was sold as a fairy costume but she decided it was a butterfly one), and loved wearing all pink and flying around.

The other day we got some supplies for a home project, which Lucy also enjoyed trying on.


A fun picture of Lucy laughing at something Matt said/did.


And this is one of my favorite paintings she's brought home from preschool. It reminds me of water gushing into a dry, barren place.



Lucy's been asking interesting questions lately (which I often don't know the answers to!), and it's fun to see her mind at work. The other day she asked if bugs could talk, so we looked it up online and found how different types of bugs communicate (through smells, lights, and buzzing sounds). Then a few days ago she asked if birds have ears. I said yes, and she asked, "then why don't I see them?". I had no idea what bird ears looked like, so we looked that up too (hooray for the internet), and found that bird ears are basically large holes, covered by feathers (which help to keep out the background noise from the wind). It's really fun learning about the world with her.

We also got a little taste of having an infant around recently. Some good friends visited who have an adorable 6-week old daughter. I held her for awhile (it was a good refresher for me!) and Lucy at different times said, "Well, you can hold two..."; "I want all of you to hold me", and "Can you give the baby back now?". :) She does enjoy playing with her baby dolls (feeding, diaper changing, singing lullabies), so hopefully that will transfer to her interactions with little sis.

Apple picking!

We've been enjoying the fall activities/weather, even though I know that bare trees and cold weather are in store. The weather has been beautiful, and the leaves are truly amazing. I love looking out our kitchen window at the bright yellow tree, and seeing gorgeous red and orange trees on the way to preschool and various errands.

Last week Lucy and I went apple picking with some friends. Fresh-picked apples are so delicious- night and day different from even good store-bought kinds. We made delicious apple muffins the next day, and I'm looking forward to making more apple creations.

Here's Lucy sampling one of the apples. There were lots of low ones that were easy to pick.




A beautiful tree in the late afternoon light.


This orchard has some animals, including a llama!

The bountiful harvest.

We had fun picking up pretty leaves and leaf-crunching on a recent walk.

A friend recently loaned us a bassinette for kernel. Lucy wanted to see "how it worked" so I showed her how her dolls could sleep in it. She then started singing one of our usual lullabies (Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah- the tune is welsh, and my grandmother often hums it as a lullaby) while patting the doll's tummy. She even put a shirt over the doll's eyes, which is how Matt and I sleep (Lucy often requests a shirt to put over her eyes too). I caught the end of her song in the video below.

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.