Lucy also says "sorry" at the appropriate times, and even uses it in her imaginary play with her stuffed animals and dolls. After we sneeze she now tells us "BLESS YOU!" extremely loud and proud which makes us want to sneeze again just to hear it. When asking for something from Will or I she will make her request and then add, "okay?" at the end of it which definitely softens the multiple demands she makes on us throughout the day. And when we ask her a question, she will seriously reply, "um, thinking..." And thinking she has been. She can now count to 10 without missing a number, and can name basic colors. She will also tell you that her favorite color is orange. She even will go so far as to say that when she is older, she would like an orange bra! This totally caught me off guard and speechless. Even better is that she keeps bringing it up. Where she got this idea, I really don't know. Not thinking, I told her that when she is as old as her Aunt Jane, she can have an orange bra. Please don't hate me Aunt Jane, but now when she repeatedly refers to the orange bra, she also refers to Aunt Jane! In retrospect, I should have left Aunt Jane completely out of it. She has also become very animated in her speech and uses a lot of hand gestures, finger pointing and pushes her lips out while she talks loudly in very excited tones. She loves telling me about how her and Will went to the car wash the other day. "Car wash, mama. LOUD! Dada paid money. People push button on. LOUD!! Loud, mama. Curtains washed car, mama. Car dry and clean, mama! LOUD!" Lucy has been impatiently awaiting spring, along with the rest of us. I have been reading her books about the seasons and have explained to her that Emma will be born in the spring, and that Lucy's birthday is also in the spring. Lucy spotted the porch swing in the garage throughout the winter, and when she asked if we could swing on it, we would reply "in the spring." Well, the first day of Spring arrived and we asked if she wanted to go the playground to celebrate Spring. She answered, "No, mama. Emma coming today. Dada hang porch swing." Needless to say, Emma has still not arrived yet and our balmy spring temperatures have been replaced with more ice and snow. When Lucy saw the snow that fell after the first day of spring, she looked out the window, shook her finger and yelled, "NO SNOW! Spring, where are you?" Will did hang the porch swing though! 
Lucy experienced the great seasonal winter flu this past month. It was horrid. She had a fever of 104, and was lethargic and sick for days. I caught it too, but fortunately not the high fever. Lucy has only had a fever once before in her life and never that high, so this was new to both of us and quite scary. We did a lot of cuddling, story reading and Elmo watching to pass the time. Here she is below, snuggling on me. When I would ask Lucy, "What can mama do for you?" She would weakly respond in two different ways, either "Love." or "Snuggles." Talk about a silver lining of my child having a high fever! She never cuddles like that and I ate it up. She of course wanted to snuggle both me AND Emma, so I apologize that the picture below is revealing some of my huge belly.
When emotionally upset, Lucy will now tell me, "My eyes are crying, mama." And when she is doing something she knows she shouldn't be, she will shout and shake her finger "Don't move a muscle!" The best is when she is shouting and pointing at me.
Maybe all of her new found words she learned from reading the cereal box. Yup, she doesn't let me put it away until after she is done eating, as she wants to read the box!
Lucy is very proud of her new car seat we purchased this past month and is super excited to have company in the backseat of our car once Emma arrives. Here she is testing out her new ride. She told me today while driving in the car that "Emma ride in old car seat. Emma's turn to cry." Oh, so that's why there were all those crying fits in the car the past two years? It was the car seat? Good to know.
Another exciting happening for Lucy this month was the replacement of her changing table with a new bookshelf for her toys and books that Will had promised to make her when she no longer wore diapers. Although we are not 100% accident free yet, she hasn't had a diaper on her bottom in almost two months so we thought it would be safe to say she won't from here on out. She is super proud of her new bookshelf, and loves to tell anyone visiting that she got it because she wears "No more DI-PEEEES!" Here she is below, in mid-spin.
Yup, this little girl continues to keep us on our toes with her personality. One thing can be said for sure - she is a girl who knows what she wants and doesn't want. Sometimes this is great and sometimes this is a huge challenge. We are learning to just go with it though, and try our best to not interfere with the unique personality that continues to unfold before our eyes.
I told Will the other night that I can still hardly believe that we get to have another one of these unique beings running around our house. I can't wait to find out what kind of personality Lucy's baby sister has and how she will fit into our family. I will leave you with this picture, which pretty much sums up the unexpected smiles that happen here lately with an almost two year old running around.
And then finally we were able to walk into Emma's room without stubbing our toes, and assess it as a future nursery. It was at this point we determined that the room was better suited as a giant walk-in closet than a bedroom. To save on space and to avoid having to guide the door between the blades on the ceiling fan every time we wanted to open or close it (yes, the room is that small), we decided to install a pocket door. This was a great idea in theory, although while the wall was torn out we encountered more than a few surprises and a ton of dust. Perhaps the most stressful part of the whole thing was that half the upstairs was veiled in plastic only days before Christmas, while our Christmas decorations on the main floor were covered with a fine sprinkling of white plaster and drywall dust that I could only wish would melt away in the spring like snow. Here is the wall, pre-demolition.
The wall post-demolition:
And finally, the finished door pre-paint and pre-clean-up. Now that it is finished, it was a great idea, and I am so glad we (Will) did it. It makes the room seem so much bigger and is more space efficient. Not to mention we don't have to worry any more about leaving the ceiling fan on when we open or close the door because the truth of the matter is, if Will and I couldn't remember to turn the fan off before we exited or entered the room, how could we expect our toddler to remember or better yet, care!?!
I created and sewed a butterfly patterned French memory board for Emma's room while Will painted some really cute three dimensional butterflies we found at Target in various shades of purple.
We then hung the memory board and butterflies this past week, and they really have made Emma's room as unique as a girl named Emma with a butterfly-themed room could be.
Finally, I completed a much dreaded task for my sweet girl's arrival, and I don't mean labor and delivery! We used cloth diapers for Lucy and saved a ton of money as well as hopefully the environment. When we bought the set of diapers for Lucy, it was a big upfront cost, but we had determined that the savings for Lucy alone would make it worth it and then we could sit back and watch the savings multiply with each subsequent child that wore them. After 20 plus months of use though, the diapers were in sad shape. It became clear once Lucy was diaper-free that if we had any hope of getting another child through them they would need some serious sewing repairs. The company who manufactures the diapers sells a refresher kit for $1/diaper and I decided that for $32 and a little of my time it would be well worth it. It was just so tedious!!! But I am finally finished, and feeling very proud of myself. The diapers are again ready to hold poop and pee!
So you see, sweet Emma, I may not have had the time or energy to knit you cute little baby items, but I did grit my teeth and sew repairs on 32 cloth diapers for you. If that isn't love, I don't know what is. I know, I know, they are hand-me-down diapers, previously pooped and peed in by your sister, but with my repairs look almost as good as new and I can't wait to put them on your little bottom! Being the second living child in a family is quite different from the first, but I promise you Emma, you have been a much loved member of our family since the day we learned about you growing in my tummy, and we have truly enjoyed the last several months preparing a place for you in our home.
Lucy also loves to play baby. She does this by asking to be wrapped up "snug as a bug", and then will proceed to fake cry.
That's about all she does that's even remotely baby-like these days though. She is talking in complete sentences now when she feels like it, and cracks us up with her response to things. When asked something along the lines of "Lucy, are you going to let me put your socks on now, or what?" She will look us straight in the eye, and say as serious as ever: "What." This is preferable to another frequent response to our requests by yelling, "NO, NOT!" Will pointed out to her once that this was in fact a double negative, and did that mean she actually was saying 'yes'? She responded by yelling louder, "NO! NOT!!!". Okay then! 
As you can see below, the froggy potty also travels. Who would have thought I'd have a roll of toilet paper and a pink and green froggy potty riding in the back seat of my sport sedan?
Lucy has been having a growth spurt this past month. She is finally tall enough to open door knobs and climb up on most anything - including her car seat and booster seat, which has been a great help as Emma continues to strain my back with each passing week. Lucy also got her last tooth (until her two year molars) and has a full set of teeth flashing back at us when she grins. Thank God we get a little break now of teething pain. Probably when Emma starts cutting her first tooth, Lucy will start cutting the two year molars. But we will enjoy the peace while it lasts! And probably the most exciting physical achievement of her little growth spurt this past month is enough hair on her head for me to put pigtails in! Finally!
Lucy loves playing with her silly face magnet set given to us by my Aunt Bridget. She called me into the office the other day where she and Will were playing and showed me a portrait she did of Will and I. Can you guess which one is Will and which one is me? Don't laugh too much, or you'll be her next subject!
And do not fear, I have not forgotten my promise of an Emma post. Stay tuned!
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