Happy 6 months Lucy Jane!

These monthly post seem to be coming faster and faster (although some of that might have to do with the fact that it takes me until halfway through the month to get them written).  Either way, September 7th marked half a year for my sweet girl!  I'm not ready to wrap my head around the fact that we're halfway to her first birthday; although I have already starting planning her party :)  Lucy is certainly changing before our eyes--in honor of her 6 month birthday she decided to start sitting up independently on her own.  This is my favorite milestone--once you can just set your baby down anywhere, life changes dramatically in my opinion.  Need to pull something out of the oven but you have a baby on your hip?  You don't have to search all over for some baby holding contraption to set her in...just plop her in the middle of the kitchen floor for a second.  Need to run into Kroger for 2 things and don't want to strap on the Bjorn and carry a wildly thrashing baby on your person?  Plop her into the cart, cause she can sit now!! I will enjoy my happy sitting baby for now, because this girl is so motivated to move I have no doubt she'll be crawling by next month-time to start babyproofing and mopping the floors more regularly :(

Lucy has also become quite the chatterbox, she loves to "yell" and squeal as loudly as she can.  Just this week she started in with nonstop "dadadadadada".  Johnny likes to think this is her first word---sorry buddy not quite.  She has become a huge fan of pattycake and peek-a-boo-a sure way to get huge giggles.  Her favorite person in the world? Big brother Hank.  She gives him bigger smiles and laughs than anyone.  If she's ever upset I will ask Hank to make Lucy happy and he just gets in her face and makes a big funny face at her and she'll be in hysterics immediately . No one else has this effect on her, but I can see his love for his sister waning as she has started showing interest in chewing on his trains.  I'll hear him yelling at her "no baby Lucy, you NEVER chew on Percy or his frieght!"  I'll ask him to share with her and he'll hand her some tiny piece of track to hold on to, and as soon as it goes in her mouth? he's done with sharing!

Eating solids has been slow go with Lucy.  We had some problems tolerating solids for a while, some food allergy concerns, but things have finally picked up and started progressing!  She ate half a jar of sweet potatoes last night!  Sleeping through the night?? not by my definition, but probably by the "experts" definition.  She typically sleeps from 8-4:30 or 5 and then wakes up to eat and will fall back asleep until about 6-630.  I have a hard time falling back asleep, but generally doze off just before I hear her cooing in her bed or Hank bounding in ready to start his day.  I long for the day that I can get a full 10 hours of sleep!  She's a great napper though--a morning nap for 1-1 1/2 hours and an afternoon nap for about 2 hours (typically this still overlaps with Hank's afternoon nap, and he still sleeps 2-3 hours every day!).  The other most awesome feature that she has that I didn't know existed--she puts herself to sleep!  I feed her, give her the paci and put her in bed wide awake.  I'll hear her chatter for a second and next thing I know she's out!  No rocking, no swinging, no sleep training, no cry it out, no nursing to sleep...its WONDERFUL!

She had her 6 month check up this week and had to get 4 shots!  (call me mean, but I tacked on the flu shot to her other 3-what can I say? I'm pro-vax!)  She took it like a champ like she always does, and once we got home you would have never known.  She's still maintaining her petite frame, and is growing perfectly!

Long and lean just like her dad.

Height: 26.25 59th

Weight: 13 lbs 9 oz 11th

Head: 17 inches 78th

She loves her jumper now-just like her brother did!

Waiting for the train to head to the Dragon Con Parade--I love this picture because it is so typical.  Lucy is staring right at Hank, and Hank is staring at the train tracks.  Me? I just look exhausted :)

 The "baby basket" since she's not 100% stable with sitting she loves to sit in her laundry basket with all her toys.  Perfect!

"Hank go watch your sister" This is pretty typically playtime--she thinks nothing of being a firetruck launch pad.

 

Until next month sweet girl.....

Family vacation take 2-The Poconos

Still working on catching up from our summer happenings!  10 days after we returned from the OBX with one side of the family, we packed up the car and rooftop carrier again and took off on a 15 hour road trip to the Poconos for a family wedding with the other side of the family!  Despite the miles logged across the country and back...and back again...I am so glad we made the trip!  The absolute best part was that we got to meet our niece Eliza for the first time (she's already 10 months old!).  Hank and Lucy loved meeting their cousin and of course we loved spending time with Aunt Susie and Uncle Kevin.  The wedding was held in a gorgeous lake resort where we all stayed in quaint little cabins along the lake.  The whole place was rather "retro summer camp-dirty dancing-esque" if that makes any sense to anyone :)  I loved it-rowboats, lake swimming, tetherball, old fashioned see-saws, horseshoes, and huge adirondack chairs along the lake.  I'll let the pictures show the rest....

First Ever Day of School

How can I have a preschooler already?  I mean the signs are all there--he's potty trained, counting, identifying letters and shapes, asking "why" every other question, wanting to play with his friends every day, and learning to manipulate his parents! 

When I put "first day of school" of the calendar for the first time in our house this year it brought such nostalgia reminding me of all the "first days" I had and how excited I always was to return to school.  The trips to the over-crowded school supply aisles at Wal Mart with my dad, the anticipation of going up to the school to see who my teacher was and who my classmates would be, and shopping for a new school wardrobe with my mom at Uptons and Marshalls :)  On one hand I am so excited for Hank to head out into the world on his own and start creating a place in the world outside of our home, on the other hand I miss him terribly on the two mornings a week he is gone and I feel like a part of myself is missing.  The house is so quiet, and even Lucy seems distressed when she can't locate her brother running amuck.  

The first day of school has been a highly anticipated day in our ouse since we had to register him way back in January.  I got teary eyed just thinking about it over the past few months, and pushed the idea out of my mind.  Although, I knew my hard headed little man needed some preparation to adjust to the idea so we went out and bought a backpack and a lunchbox, we drove by his school  frequently to "get excited".  

The first day arrived, and he was so excited!  I was actually a little shocked as he is generally very resistant to change and I assumed we would have some difficulty with the big life change.  Well, that excitement wore off and we had a rough 3 weeks with lots of crying/anxiety surrounding school days despite the fact that his teachers told me that he did great and he came home everyday chatting up a storm about his new friends and the day's activities.  Hank has been home with a nanny since he was born, so this was a huge change for him to be dropped off somewhere.    Like his father, Hank is always thinking, I can see the wheels turning all the time, but he internalizes everything like his dad.  So, ole mom never really knows what's going on in those heads, but I can be sure there is a lot being processed all the time-I could see his little head in overdrive trying to wrap his head around school, but he said very little to me about it. 

 After 3 weeks of screaming at drop off, constantly telling me "i don't like school", and generally a lot of anxiety for me, he just woke up one morning and said "I like to go to school, but I just miss you, and dad, and Baby Lucy".  That's my little man!  After we talked about it, he just flipped a switch and since then-school is great!  and mom is soooo relieved as I didn't think I could survive a whole year of whining/crying on Tues/Thurs mornings.  

So school is great-I'm still not used to the idea, but on the outside I'm very happy for Hank.  The first week a good friend of mine who also has a little one starting school for the first time this year sent me an email and said to me  "Here's to our children growing up and learning to fly with their own wings. It won't ever be easy, but we can do it because we love them enough to let them" ...ain't that the truth?

5 months old

I still feel like I was just pregnant with Lucy last week, now I turn around and she's 5 months old!  Still sweet as ever, I'd actually venture to say that she just keeps getting sweeter all the time.  She is full of giggles and smiles everyday and rarely do we hear this little one cry. She is such a joy to have in our family-she absolutely adores her big brother.  No one can make her laugh like he can, and the mornings that he goes to school she seems to really miss him and all of his nonstop activity.  The last month has been full of excitement for our little lady-first and second vacations/road trips, first solid foods, first cold :(, first trip to the beach, and first time meeting all of her extended family. 

Some 5 month stats: No official weigh in this month, but according to our scale she's up in the 13.5-14 pound range!!  Finally some weight going on this little girl!

Likes:

• rolling all over the floor
• pushing up on all 4s trying to crawl
• peek a boo
• chewing on everything
• sitting up in the high chair like a big girl
• pool time
• playing in the exersaucer
• squealing at her brother
• faces
• looking in the mirror
• sucking on her toes

Dislikes:

• not being able to actually crawl-she tries and tries until she gets so frustrated!
• being in the carseat too long-I think she gets angry that she has to face backwards!

Sweet summertime

Who has time to sit around and blog when it is summertime??!!??  Well, now that our vacations are over, swim lessons are done, and school has started it seems it is time for a blog update on our recent happenings.  Our roost has been in a crazy state of change, so I have many posts coming to catch everyone up!  

First up...our family vacation to the Outer Banks!  This has been a long awaited family vacation for my entire family as it was planned well over a year ago.  The OBX was the agreed upon "middle ground" between Chicago and the southeast; although I think all parties would argue after their respective road trips.  Who knew that it would take 12 hours to drive from Atlanta to the OBX?  Either way, it was basically the ultimate beach vacation--Hank and Lucy were in heaven with all the swimming, sand, and cousin love.  We all stayed in an enormous beach house complete with private pool, elevator, theater room, and across the street beach access.  We've been home over 3 weeks and I'm still missing the beach!  I guess we need to get planning for next year :)

 

4 months old

Sweet, Sweet, and Sweet.  The best word to describe our little Lucy.  I'm a huge fan of this age--full of smiles and giggles and fun things like toe grabbing and blowing raspberries.  Lucy is such a dream-always happy, super chatty, mellow, and extra snuggly.  If I am ever feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or tired a few minutes of hanging with Lucy is guaranteed to turn my day around.  She is still our petite little one; although she is becoming rather long and lean like her dad-isn't that what all women want anyways? Her hair just keeps getting longer and longer and now she can wear fun barrettes and almost has enough for little pigtails! Who does she look like?  Well she has my hair for sure, but some days we will have 3 people say she looks like the spitting image of her dad and the next day 3 people will say she's the spitting image of me.  When I look at baby pictures of myself, sometimes it is like looking at a picture of Lucy; however sometimes I look at her and see a striking resemblance to her dad-either way I am starting to see a lot of her brother in her.  She still has deep blue eyes that I'm thinking will change to brown-Hank still has beautiful blue eyes but Johnny and I both have dark brown eyes, one of our kids has to have eyes like us, right?

Favorites at 4 months:

• grabbing my toes!
• rolling over from back to front 
• cooing and babbling-starting to hear consonant sounds already!
• playing on my playmat
• watching my bird mobile in the crib
• sucking on my fingers
• squealing and laughing at my brother Hank when he "gets my piggies"
• any water fun-bathtime, pooltime, splash fountains
• blowing raspberries
• swinging on the porch with dad
• swinging at the playground with Hank
• standing up
• looking in mirrors

Not so Favorites: (there is really only one)

• my carseat--this should make our 12 hour car trip to the Outer Banks a lot of fun :)

How Lucy measures up: Long, Lean, and a big head

Height: 25 inches 69th %

Weight: 12 lbs 9th %

Head: 16.6 inches 90th%

First playdate with Ellie and Gigi

Bathtime is fun!

I found my toes! 

First Braves Game

The camera loves her

Looking just like her brother in this one