1st Day of Preschool

We headed to Madeline's preschool last Thursday for an open house.  We got to meet her teachers, Mrs. Hain and Mrs. McGonigle.  

She didn't make it too far in the door.  She stopped right at the writing desk and drew a picture, or 3.  I don't think she even really looked at the rest of her classroom.

Today was her first day.  She chose her "rose" dress last night.    

Here she is last year, with Oliver, on her first day of Mother's Day Out.  

Here they are, one year later.  

We woke Lucy up from an early nap to join the pictures as well.  Oliver held that sign like his life depended on it.  He wasn't letting go.  

We finally made it to school.

She sat right down and started working with the play dough.  And so did Oliver.  He wanted to stay so bad.  Fortunately, he gets to start MDO next week.  Madeline will be in preschool Tues-Friday.  That's a lot!  We are going to miss her around here in the afternoons.  But, I think she is going to have tons of fun.

1 Year Old

Our sweet Lucy is 1 year old now.  Crazy!  She is really enjoying her ride on toys right now.  We have brought a few inside and she uses them to walk all over the house.  She isn't walking yet.  But, she takes several steps between things more and more.  If she realizes that someone is watching, she will usually just slink back down to the floor.  

This is how she usually gets around.  She walks everywhere on her knees.  It doesn't matter if it is the deck, concrete, wood floors, grass or carpet.  It makes my knees a little sore just seeing it.  

She is starting to talk a lot.  She babbles a lot.  Especially when I call mom on Skype, she starts to really chatter in her own little language.  But, she has a few words that we understand, most of them start with the letter "b".  

ba-ba - paci

ba - blanky

baw - ball

buh - butterfly

moo - cow

ooh ahh - monkey

She is using a lot of signs and will imitate almost any sign that we show her.  

Butterfly, more, please, baby, all done, orange are a few that she actually uses.  

She is still nursing 3 or 4 times a day.  She will sometimes sip on a cup of milk.  But, isn't a huge fan yet.  Not like Oliver who can down a gallon of milk in 2 days.    

She loves almost any real table food though and usually out eats the other 2 kids.  Usually for breakfast she will eat an egg and some smoothie.  I can't seem to get her to eat pancakes or waffles for breakfast though.  She loves broccoli, black beans, fruit and popcorn.  She can eat all this food with her 10 teeth she has now.  She may have more, but I'm a little scared to stick my finger in there anymore.   

She loves toys with buttons right now.  She will try to steal cell phones and cameras as well.  If someone tries to take a toy away from her, then she will scream bloody murder.  She also loves balls.  If she sees one, even one super far away, she will say, "baw, baw, baw, baw..." until you get it for her.  Then she just wants to hold it.    

I wish I had a picture of it, but she loves to eat the tips off of markers.  She then chews on the tips while  she drools whatever color the marker was.  She looks like a little vampire.  But, you see why I can't get a picture.  It is a complete mess.  

She is definitely a lap baby.  She loves to be held.  When we went to the beach this summer, she mostly sat in her chair beside Paw paw.  She didn't care to get down in the sand.  If we are home, then she wants to be held.  It is super sweet.  But, it also makes it difficult to get things done.  

She is down to one nap now.  She sleeps for about 3-4 hours in the afternoons and heads to bed around 8 at night.  Her mornings start around 8am.  She usually wakes up super happy.  And she is even happier when Oliver and Madeline come in to greet her.  

 This is her first piggy.  Her hair is at a very awkward length right now.  It is in her eyes, but I want it to keep growing and she pulls out her bows.  So, the piggy seems to be working for us right now.

She loves Madeline and Oliver.  And they love her.  Madeline is super sweet to her and tries to teach her things and lets her play with her toys.  She takes really good care of her.  Oliver is sweet to her too but still has a hard time sharing sometimes.  He loves it when she comes in his bed and snuggles with him.  He reads his books to her.  They all start the same way, "Once upon a time...", even if it is a board book about colors.   

Lucy is especially attached to her paci and blanky now.  If she is sleepy in the car, usually you just have to give her both and she will cover her head with her blanky and go off to sleep.   She gives great snuggles when she is sleepy too.  She is such a sweet baby.

We sure do love our little Lu Lu.  She is such a joy in our lives.  She is happy, smiley and giggly.  She is lovey, snuggly and fun.  I can't believe she is a 1 year old though.  But, it has been a great year.  Happy Birthday, Lucy!

10 Months Old

I missed posting these when Lucy was 9 months.  So, this is a 9 and 10 (almost 11) month update.  Lucy is such a happy little baby.  I often get comments about her easy going nature.  She is happy to just go along with whatever we are doing.  She rides in her stroller happily as long as we are moving.      

She can stand up in the middle of the floor all by herself.  But, she is not taking any steps by herself.  She is getting more and more interested in walking while we hold her hands.  But, she would much rather just crawl wherever she wants.  She also cruises around all the furniture and likes to get into whatever the big kids are getting into.  She has also started walking on her knees.  It makes me laugh to see her shuffling across the floor on her knees.
(Sorry about the fussiness, I think she was a sleepy little girl who went to bed shortly after.)

She can climb up the stairs in about 2 seconds.  I try to keep a gate up at the bottom of the stairs.  But, if I haven't and all of a sudden things seem pretty quiet downstairs, then I will check the top of the stairs.  And sure enough, she is sitting right at the top with a big grin on her face.  She doesn't ever try to come down on her own.  She only likes to be carried down the stairs.  So, I don't worry too much about her falling down.     

She gets so excited to see Oliver and Madeline when she wakes up.  She loves playing near them.  And they love her too.  But, her favorite person right now is Andrew.  She will cry if he hands her back to me.  She hears when he gets home in the evenings and goes straight towards him and cries when he leaves in the mornings if she is awake.  

She has started using signs.  She does the sign for "baby" and "fish" very clearly.  The rest of her signs seem to look the same.  But, she is trying "butterfly" and "more".

She has 8 teeth and has had them for a long time.  I just felt one of her top molars popping through.  So, that will make 9 very soon.  She eats food like she has had all of her teeth for years.  She still loves to eat anything she can put in her mouth.  Crocs are a favorite.  As well as sticks, mulch and carpet fibers.  

She's got this great laugh right now.  It is kind of a evil belly laugh.  I need to try to get a video of it.  

She is such a big copy cat.  When ever the kids make noises, she copies them.  She clicks her tongue like them.  Laughs like them.  Claps with them.  Tonight while I was putting Oliver to bed, I would snuggle my head on his belly and then told Lucy to snuggle.  She would lay her head on Oliver's belly too.  It was sweet and made Oliver giggle hysterically.  

It is fun to have a conversation with her because she shakes her head, "yes" and "no" a lot.  So, she is kind of like a magic 8 ball.  You can ask her lots of questions and she will give you different answers by shaking her head.  "Lucy, did you go poopy in your pants?"  Shakes head "no".  "Lucy, is mommy so pretty?"  Shakes head "yes".   See, it could be great entertainment.   

She really enjoys books now.  She likes to eat them.  But, she also likes us to read them to her and flip through the pictures.  

She is sleeping and eating great.  For the most part, she sleeps through the night.  She still wakes up occasionally.  She is still nursing great.  But, she also eats solid food really well.    

Lulu, I can't believe you are almost a year old.  This year is flying by.  You are such a joy to our family.  You make us smile and laugh.  And everyone just adores you.  

Silly, Sad, Happy!

This is from back in June.  But, I never posted it.  We went for a walk with our good friends and neighbors, Jacob and Levi and their mommy, Kristin.    

Michigan

We just got back from vacation on Wednesday night.  Ok well, I guess that was a week ago now.  I am having some bad real-world reentry syndrome.  I'm not sure what is going on.  A certain 2 year old is pushing the limits on everything and I think it is pushing me over the edge.  It's a good thing he is so cute and funny.  I thought the kids were going to have a hard time coming home and not having so many friends/cousins to play with.  But, I think it is me that is having a hard time with not having so many friends for them to play with.  On top of that, it is July 4th and our fireworks were cancelled because of the giant storm we had last Friday.  Seriously...first world problems.  Well, I am just asking for forgiveness, praying lots and moving on.  I'll get the hang of this real world stuff again.  

Anyways, I guess it means it was a great vacation if we are having a hard time adjusting back to the real world.  We spent a week up in Michigan with these wonderful people above.  That's Andrew's awesome family.  His mom's sister, Donna, husband, Roger and their 2 kids and families.  It makes for a very fun and entertaining time.  

Lucy was eying the John Deere.      

Look how happy she is!  She's such a big girl.  10 months old now.  

Sophie offered to push Madeline around on it since the battery was pretty much dead.

2 days after we left, most of the family flew down to Guatemala for a missions trip.  They are doing a vacation Bible school for kids down there.  We helped, and I use that term pretty loosely, put together a color bead necklace craft for the kids to do.  It was the least we could do after kicking Aunt Donna and Roger out of their house for the week before they left the country.  

We had a great time eating popsicles, tubing, wakeboarding, boating, bon firing (pretty sure that isn't a word) and swimming.  

This hammock entertained the kids for hours.  

I love this girl.  She's getting so big too.  

I love Oliver too.  Just want to clarify that after saying he's been pushing the limits.  

See why I am having vacation withdrawal?  Look at all the entertainers.  It's hard to remember being 8 - 15 years old.  But, they never seem to get tired of playing on the trampoline, playing hide-and-seek for hours or pretending to be scared when Oliver says "boo" for the 4,339,383rd time.   

Oliver can even get all these big boys to play Ring Around the Rosie.  Cute stuff, people.   

Madeline loved swimming out to the dock all by herself.  She had a life jacket on.  But, she didn't need/want us to swim her out there.  She just paddled her little self out and back.  I think she will be swimming all by herself by the end of this summer.   She wants to really bad.  

Not only did we have a great time at Green Lake (where Andrew's aunt and uncle live), we headed out to Lake Michigan one day as well and had a blast.  We even got in the water.  It wasn't as cold as I remember.  

After dinner we went back down to the beach to take some pictures and hang out.  Ezra and Madeline had the best time making a bridge between these ottomans and jumping off them.  I asked Madeline to jump off so I could take her picture.  And she jumped off and did this flip.  She's crazy sometimes.   

Noah played his guitar and sang praise songs.  

And Andrew taught everyone the poke game.  

We actually managed a quick family picture.  

 And one of all the cousins together.  

We had a great time in Michigan.  We look forward to it every year.  Andrew's family are some of the most generous people I have ever met, his parents included.  And we are so grateful for their hospitality.  Now I'm off to find some 10 year olds that want to live with us.  Know anyone?