Lucy at 20 Months

We've had a fun-filled month at our house with little Miss Lucy. It is amazing to me how much a human being can grow, learn and change and yet still be that same little bundle of joy we brought home from the hospital 20 months ago. I'd say the biggest change this past month is her budding imagination. She will go off and create her own little worlds all on her own. The more blankets and dollies involved in the imaginary play the better, and things get really interesting when she chooses otherwise ordinary household objects or locations for props and background. In the below picture I can only begin to guess at the game she is playing with her buddies Elmo and Polly.Lucy also discovered the paper goods drawer in our kitchen, and loves setting up the plates, napkins and plastic cups all over the floor to serve play cookies on.My friend Krista gave Lucy a cookie jar for Christmas, which timed perfectly with Lucy's new vocab word "COOK-eeee". Lucy is also learning shapes, and can point out circles, triangles, squares, and new this month - cookies, which you or I call a star. I am guessing this knowledge is based on the 8 dozen star shaped Christmas cut-out cookies Lucy helped me decorate and eat.Other favorite words this month include her shouting "FLAG!" and "LIGHTS" (as in Christmas lights) everytime we see them while driving, as well as "Thank You". She will now cutely sing to herself "Humpty-Dumpty" every time she is doing something dangerous, like trying to climb on the table or balance on a pedal of our elliptical machine. This is a great clue for me to come running if I ever hear her get to "had a great fall" - I know my time is limited. She also loves singing "Tinkle Tinkle" which is not bathroom talk, but rather a favorite bedtime song. But my favorite word of the month is "Wheel", which is actually Will's name in toddler-speak. She really only says Will's name when shouting it across the house, up the stairs, or when being pushed by me in a shopping cart as we are trying to find Will. What makes it even funnier to me is that Will thinks this behavior is not appropriate, causing me to laugh even more when she does it. I asked Will if he would rather I start referring to him as Dada the next time I am trying to find him in a shopping center. I am still awaiting his answer on that.



Lucy finally saw snow for the first time this season, and as soon as she saw the snow falling, she started excitedly yelling, "SANTA!" She no longer refers to snow as Santa, but when she says it, it sounds like she is saying "No" which always sends a shiver down my spine until I realize it is a description of the fluffy white stuff and not the begining of a tantrum. The first time she walked through the snow, she took extremely small steps as you can see in the picture below, all the while saying "crunch, crunch, crunch."
A dust pan is the perfect sized snow shovel for Lucy!

Because of the snow and cold temperatures, we have spent a lot more times indoors. Thankfully, Lucy is enjoying the activities I have been thinking up for her so far.

Lucy sometimes is content to color at the table for over an hour. As I type this, she is currently coloring.

Lucy loves to run laps through the house - here she is getting ready for me to yell "GO!"

She also enjoys trying her hand at brain teasers, like how to buckle her three point harness on her booster seat at the table. She is really good at buckling, and is now working on how to get it unbuckled. I have to confess that I usually try to distract her before she can figure that part out.

And when she is ready to relax, she loves her new pint-sized snuggi from my friend Krista.

Lucy continues to improve with her sleeping. We have slowly reintroduced dairy back into her diet, and it hasn't seemed to cause any problems. We have also added a certain type of probiotic to her daily diet along with fish oil tablets. For some reason, this is supposed to help digestion go more smoothly and it seems to be working like a charm. She now goes to sleep on her own, and if she does wake up in the middle of the night, will either put herself back to sleep or only requires a couple of pats on her back and some blanket rearranging. This is absolutely huge for Will and I. Lucy's sleep has been such a long road, and I can't tell you the number of nights I have slept on the floor next to her crib because she was uncomfortable and in pain. As with all parenting milestones, I am sure there will continue to be setbacks, but the phase we are in now is unmatchable. It makes Will and I feel like we have finally made it to Easy Street. What better time than now to bring home a newborn and shake things up again!

Speaking of newborns, we have had a lot of friends welcome newborns into their families this past fall. Lucy is infatiuated with all of them, and got to hold baby Chloe a couple of weeks ago. This was the first time she has held a baby, and up until now, has really been the baby in most social settings. This is a big step for Lucy, and she LOVED it. She keeps talking about baby Chloe, and how when Emma gets here, she will hold Emma like she held Chloe. Sitting next to Lucy in the below picture are Chloe's sister and brother, Katherine and Killian. With this picture I found out how difficult it is to get a picture of four kids, all under the age of four!

It has been a great month for Lucy, and to top it all off, she finally cut her top two canine teeth which she has been working on since the summer. She only has the two bottom canine teeth left and we'll hopefully get a break before her two year molars come in.

Here Lucy is below with her Uncle Johnny, who taught her how to 'pound it!'

Happy New Year!