The Four Month Cat Napper

It's hard to believe, but Lucy is 4 months old today. Luke continues to be heavy in our hearts as he would have been 18 months old on the 19th of August. It was also a year ago on the 19th that we shared the news that we were pregnant again. A couple of nights ago, Lucy fell asleep in my arms and took our breath away with her resemblance to Luke.

It has been a busy last month for Lucy, and she is growing and learning by leaps and bounds. As usual, I will give the updates in pictures.

Here we are on the shore of Lake Huron where we rented a house with my family to celebrate my parents 30th wedding anniversary. We were supposed to be there an entire week, but to make a long story short, we ended up heading home after only two nights because the septic field backed up! Everyone kept their humor about them, and it was definitely a bonding experience. Looking back now, it was pretty funny, but while in the thick of it with sewage coming up out of the toilets and shower drains and flooding the bathrooms it was pretty stinky and messy. In the picture above we are sitting by a fire we built on the beach our last night there. Lucy loved the sound of the waves, and slept really well while we were there. To make up for our shortened vacation, we headed to Shipshewana, Indiana where we toured an Amish settlement, ate extremely rich and delicious food and baked goods and bought six dining room table chairs that are currently being built by an Amish guy named Casper. I'll have to remember to post a picture of them when they arrive, as they are absolutely beautiful.

Lucy is many things and especially cute, but she is definitely NOT a sleeper. Here she is in her swing, fighting a much needed nap. We find she sleeps great in the car, but other than that will only take 15 minute cat naps throughout the day. This makes it seem like we are trying to settle a fussy and sleepy baby for most of the day. She can't stand to miss a thing, and if there is anything new or remotely interesting going on she will refuse to sleep. She is getting better about sleeping at night, but of course last night proved us wrong when she decided that she preferred to be wide awake from 1:30 a.m. until somewhere around 4:00 a.m. We are assuming she finally did fall asleep - all we know is that the last time either of us looked at the clock it read 3:58 a.m. She woke me up somewhere after that about 6:30 a.m. It's amazing to me that she seems to require less sleep than her parents. We should have known she didn't need much sleep when she was wide awake the first few days of her life. We kept looking on with pride - "Look how alert she is!" As if to say, wow, we must have something special here. Every other newborn we've seen sleeps the day away! Little did we know how in for it we were! But seriously, we wouldn't have her any other way.
Lucy still loves her bath and insists that we run the water while she is in the tub. We've tried turning off the water in an effort to conserve it once her tub is filled up, but she starts crying as soon as the water turns off. Being the push overs we are for our Little Lucy, we let it run and brace ourselves for the next water bill. Lately, her favorite part of bathtime is getting dried off. She smiles and smiles in her little duck towel and even enjoys it when I swab out her ears with a q-tip. She is a creature of habit already - she knows when it is bath night (every other night) and if we forget - look out! She will cry and cry until we remember. And if we don't bathe her in the exact same pattern as every other time, she will also protest. Again, we think it is adorable - hopefully this isn't a precursor to OCD or something like that!

Here is Lucy with her dolly named Brenda that Grandma Timmerman gave her. She loves to chew on Brenda, and pretty much loves to chew on anything she gets into her hands. We think she is teething, which could also explain some of the sleepless nights we have been having. She is getting really good at grasping objects and putting them in her mouth - her hand eye coordination is definitely progressing.I think this above picture speaks volumes. Currently her favorite book to chew on - I mean read - is "The Belly Button Book."

Lucy has gained a couple of nicknames in her short 4 months of life, our favorites being LuLu and Mumma's Littlest Baby. In the above picture, LuLu pauses before answering her father's question on how to factor a simple polynomial function.

Will goes back to work on Monday, and his girls are going to miss him.