Summer is about over, and Will is back to work. What a summer it has been. We've been up north to visit longtime friends of ours at their family cottage, to Toledo to visit Will's brother, to the zoo several times, countless walks, park trips and library time. We have played and eaten outside, swam and gone for bike rides. We've picked gallons of strawberries, raspberries and black caps. We've welcomed Lucy and Emma's first cousin Ellen into the family, been to birthday and graduation parties, a family reunion and sadly, my grandma's funeral. We have spent wonderful time with family and friends and created memories that will last a lifetime. But mostly, we have learned how to be an earthly family of four. I feel like we are finally adjusted to life with two living children, and I can even say that Lucy has also adjusted to her shifted universe.
Don't get me wrong, there are still moments and even full days where I wonder what God was thinking when he only gave mothers two arms and the inability to be in multiple places at once. Or why, oh why, do the girls seem to always work against each other when it comes to sleep? One is always waking the other one up. BUT... things have definitely gotten easier. Please don't think for one second that things are EASY at our house by any means, however they are easier than at the start of the summer. A big part of this is that Lucy is finally getting some good sleep. This past month Will and I decided that something had to be done to help Lucy sleep. First we took her to the pediatrician's office and had a head to toe check up to make sure there weren't any physical issues keeping her from getting a good night's sleep. It was here that our wonderful Nurse Practitioner told us that she believed Lucy was suffering from night terrors. Relieved that nothing else was wrong, we did a ton of research on the causes and cures of night terrors and from there decided to try a three tier approach: A sticker chart to encourage and positively enforce good sleep habits, a homeopathic remedy to relieve night terrors, and several visits to a cranial sacral clinic by our house. I'm not sure which of the three actually did the trick, but it really doesn't matter to us. What matters is that Lucy's night terrors have gone from 6 a night to 3 a week. Lucy's mood has greatly improved and our happy go lucky girl is for the most part back (I say most part because she is still two after all!). Below is Lucy next to her first completed sticker chart. She will proudly tell you that her reward was an Elmo dining set.
Here is Lucy giving Emma some love and attention.
Now on to the famous things Lucy said and did this past month. A lot of you have already heard the story of how Lucy decided to see if the CD player in Will's car worked like a Jukebox. Unfortunately, putting coins into it only made Will have to take it to the dealership and have the entire dashboard of the car removed in order to get the CD player out to shake it upside down. Forty-one cents fell out. I have to give Lucy credit for putting one of each denomination into the slot - one quarter, dime, nickel and penny. I'm guessing when the quarter didn't work, she methodically tested each other coin. With that type of strategy, I'm thinking she will make a good scientist! Will took Lucy to the dealership with him, so that she could see the consequence of her actions. She was mortified, since Will's Uncle Fred is the parts manager there and got to hear the entire story. A couple of days later after Lucy took her first good nap in months I was so excited when she woke up that I asked her who we should call to celebrate the good news with. She immediately responded "Uncle Fred" which at the time I thought was quite odd. I was thinking she would want to call one of her grandmas or a friend of hers. Then it dawned on me that she wanted to redeem herself in his eyes after the CD player incident, so we called him up!
Lucy definitely has a fascination of seeing how 'slots' work. Hence why the CD-Rom in my desktop isn't currently working (not sure what is jammed in there, but it is definitely jammed) and why I couldn't find my credit card for several days. Every time I asked Lucy where my credit card was, she would respond with "It's hiding." It made it very inconvenient for online shopping, but I did end up finding it when I saw Lucy put a Rewards Card into a slot in our elliptical machine. Aha! A screwdriver, a couple of screws removed, and some choice words with a little sweat, there was my credit card along with a CVS and a Panera rewards card. Will still claims he did not set her up to this. As you can see in the below picture, we have forgiven each exploratory experiment Lucy has done this month.
Yup, she is definitely exploring and experiment as to how things work. In the below picture, she told me she wanted to be a Boppy when I asked what on earth she was doing.
Interestingly enough, it seems most of her 'projects' require little to no clothing. A couple of weeks ago we visited Will's brother in Toledo. His dog Captain Steve was shedding a lot, so Uncle Tim kept using a lint roller on his shirt. Apparently this made an impression on Lucy, as I found her the other day with a lint roller and when I asked her what she was doing she responded, "Just like Uncle Tim, mama, I doing it just like Uncle Tim!"
Lucy has also developed a fascination and love for sandwich bags, or as she affectionately refers to them as "bagies." She stores a wide array of things in them as you can see below.
Here are some sayings from Lucy this past month:
-The most common phrase out of her mouth is "I need sum-thin." This tends to drive Will and I slowly crazy as she rarely goes on to tell us what the 'sum-thin' is. She just keeps repeating it over and over again in a whiny voice.
-The other day when I asked why she kept taking her shirt off, she replied with "Moanie spit up on it mom."
-If Will or I do something Lucy likes, she tells us "Good Job!"
-We have several rules in the car. Two of them are no spitting, and keep your shoes on. If I'm sitting in the passenger seat, Lucy can see me from her carseat. Without thinking about it, sometimes my sandals slip off. Lucy catches this immediately, and reprimands me by saying "Mom! Shoes stay on in the car! Put your shoes on or you won't be able to walk when we get there!" Even better, one time after Will sneezed she yelled "DAD! No spittin' in the car! You spit in the sink when you brush your teeth. That's it!"
-When Will and I are trying to make a choice between options, Lucy will butt in with "I say we get ice cream."
-And my favorite thing Lucy now says is, "I smell sum-thin stinky, mama! I think it's a stunk!" a.k.a. skunk.
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