"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.

Peaches and blueberries

We had an exciting and fruit-filled week. Two of my cousins came to watch Lucy for a few days while our babysitter was away. They slept over on Thursday night and joined us for the Peach Social at the local historical society where my grandmother volunteers. They serve desserts made with local peaches and the building is open for tours. This was Lucy's 3rd social, and she was quite excited about it. All day she told everyone we talked to about the peach social we were going to. An extra perk was the exhibit of dollhouses and miniatures.

Here's a video from the social- at the beginning Lucy is finishing up the extra verse of ring around a rosy that goes "the cows are in the meadow, eating buttercups. Thunder, lightening, they all jump up!

Lucy checking out the dollhouses. She chose this dress out of all of her sundresses. I tried guiding her to a less formal one, but she said, "no, this my best one!"



Grandma and Lucy.

We finished off the week with a second blueberry picking trip with my grandmother and other cousins. It's the end of the season and these blueberries were smaller (about 1/3 the size of last time), but they were SO delicious (even I sampled a few). Lucy kept saying to me "These are so good!" as she ate berry after berry.

On the way to pick the berries.

Fun news...

We're expecting!!!

The due date is January 1st, and I'm about 21 weeks along. All's going well so far (aside from the first few seasick months). We found out last week that we're having a girl- hooray for sisters!

Here's a picture of me and the little bump (I haven't compared pictures yet, but I'm sure I'm showing a lot more than last time at this point).


Our nickname in utero for the baby is "kernel". We like the idea of this baby "popping" when she comes out into the world, coming into the fullness of who she is. Here are Lucy and I getting ready to pop too.

So far we've kept things pretty abstract for Lucy, telling her that there's a baby growing in Mama's tummy, but not going into detail about what a new baby will mean for her. We've been counseled that this is a good way to avoid anxiety- just answering her questions when they come, but not forcing information on her. So far she seems to be mostly taking it in stride, though we have noticed some separation anxiety with me, primarily around naptimes and bedtimes.

When we first told Lucy there was a baby in my tummy she said, "Lucy?" because we had just talked recently about how she used to grow in my tummy. I said no, it was another baby, and she asked, "What her name is?" (this was way before we knew it was a girl). I said we'd have to choose one, and that we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. She responded, "Maybe Papa can help choose a name and Mama can help choose a name".

Blueberry picking

We were excited to join my Grandma and some cousins again for blueberry picking recently (an annual tradition). The blueberries were on the tangy side, but still delicious (especially in pancakes!).

Just like Sal in "Blueberries for Sal", some of the berries made it into the pail...


But most ended up in Lucy's mouth!

Grandma with one of my cousins.

And the whole crew!

We also went for a hike that weekend on some local trails. Lucy loved hopping down from the rocks- here she is at our snack time.