Lucy's Last Month Being 2!

You could say that Will and I have our *stuff* together again this month, and have finally recovered from the rough month of February.  I realized that we were no longer treading water and actually thriving again when I went to get the pictures for Lucy's blog post and saw that we did a lot of activities this past month.  

One of the biggest things we started this month was a rewards system for positive behavior exhibited by daughter numero uno (parent code for Lucy).  We have been struggling with a sassy mouth, waking up pleasant, and naps.  We decided to tackle each issue individually and see where it took us.  My mom gave me a wooden apple tree that she used with my younger siblings when we were growing up.  Each time Lucy does something positive - like wake up and pleasantly come find us instead of yelling our name over and over again from her bed, or say "Okay mom" when I ask her to do something, or even better, take a nap, she gets an apple to put on her tree.  Once the tree is filled up she gets a small prize of her choosing.  In the picture below she is proudly showing off her new Dora stickers next to her full apple tree.  We have conquered the waking up pleasant, compromised on the naps, and now we are on to the sassiness.  Let's just say we are really struggling with it, but at least she is starting to understand - I think.  I hope.  Oh, I don't know.  But it's what we are working on now.

Some of you may have noticed my recent love affair with a little site called Pinterest.  It has great project ideas and recipes on there and I haven't  found a bad one yet.  Even Will has to admit, although grudgingly, that my dinners, desserts, and baked goods have significantly improved.  Lucy also is a fan of the site, and when we have a free half hour here or there, we pull up the site and Lucy picks a project for us to work on together.  Here she is below playing a rainbow water xylophone.  So simple, yet so creative, and I would have otherwise probably have just read her a story or fought her begging me to watch a movie.

For St. Patrick's Day, we had some friends over and had an Irish meal with soda bread compliments of Pinterest and some cute cupcakes, compliments of my sister in law Jenna.  Lucy had a blast baking and decorating with me.

Lucy loves baking with me, and I have to say that I enjoy it too.  It takes longer, but to see her excitement makes the whole process fun.  I hope that I can establish a life-long love of cooking and baking with her, and I hope that it will always be something special that we can do together.  I am also looking forward to the day that she is self-sufficient and able to create yummy concoctions all on her own.  Let's not rush it though!

This past month we overheard Lucy tell someone that her Uncle Mike and Aunt Jenna moved and "they live in the sky now."  After Will and I exchanged a rather serious glance, we made haste to the local learning store and bought a giant map of the United States.  Geography 101 has commenced, and Lucy now can point to where each of her aunts and uncles live.  Sadly for us, since February, we have learned of four moves - some have moved already, and some will be moving soon.  Here Lucy is pointing where Uncle Mike, Aunt Jenna and cousin Ellen live.

And here's where Uncle Tim now lives...

Uncle Joe...

Aunt Jane come fall...

And friends of ours will soon be in Japan too.

I'd like to say that Lucy's sad face in the below picture was because of everyone we love moving far away, but unfortunately it is because she missed the last step going down the basement stairs and fell flat on her face.  The good news is she is no worse for the wear!  The bad news is Will and I each lost a year off of our lives when we heard the sickening thud followed by the screams.

Due to the craziness last month I was unable to write down the cute things Lucy said.  This month I had better luck which is another sure sign that life has returned to normal.

-Lucy has invented her own version of a swear word.  When she is frustrated or angry she will yell, "BINGO BANGO!!!!"
-Lucy sings all day long and makes up songs to the melody of well-known songs.  For instance, she loves singing a song called "Booger Face" to the tune of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face."
-Lucy likes to sing stories to the melody of well-known songs as well.  For instance, today while driving in the car she told an elaborate story involving her, Simone, Huggums and Emma to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."
-The other day I overheard Lucy in her room singing the ABC song, but every once in a while she would sing louder and more forceful and then tone it back down again.  It went something like, "a, b, c, d, e, f, g, HIJKLMNOP, q, r, s, t, u, v W, X, y and z..."  When I peeked in her room to figure out what was going on, I saw that she was making her bed and when she got to a more difficult part of the task, her singing reflected it!

-Lucy likes to point out Emma's cute "chubby cheekers."  Not sure where she got this phrase from, but I find it funny.

-Lucy has been going with me to all of my foot doctor appointments.  I think this is because she is afraid that I will go back to the hospital.  She is a little angel at my appointments and rubs my arm to help me stay brave.  Once the doctor asked her how she thought my toes looked and she replied in a completely serious voice: "Awful."

-Lucy's vocabulary is amazing to Will and I which I'm sure every parent feels when their kids start to talk.  Lately when Will comes home from work Lucy will ask him, "How was your day?  How's McKiernen?  How's Dr. Wagner?  How's Polehanki?"  I find this hilarious because Will refers to his coworkers by their last names and Lucy has picked up on it!

-Auntie Cate related this little conversation she had with Lucy while pushing her on the swing at my parents house: "I see a bird nest in that tree!  We don't have bird nesteses in my country.  But we have squirrel nesteses!"  Looks like the geography lessons are paying off.  Now on to grammar!

While at the shoe store Lucy became enamored with a pair of t-strap sandals covered in rainbow colored jewels.  I told her we weren't buying sandals that day - after all, it IS still March here in Michigan even though it feels like June - and that we would come back next month for sandals.  As I was paying for the shoes we did buy, Lucy went and got the display sandal, placed it on the counter and told the sales associate, "Can you please put this behind the counter?  My mom said we can come back in one month to buy it and I don't want any of the other kids to get it before me."

Lucy and Emma continue to enjoy each other's company as well as enjoy taking things from each other.  Here we are below enjoying the June weather on our front porch swing in the month of March.  They are feeling the love because it is easy to share a porch swing.

My girls riding in the car with their dolls.

Lucy got this lollipop at my cousin's baby shower last weekend.  She had been telling me the week prior how she wanted a lollipop with a rainbow twirl like in one of her books we read.  You should have seen her eyes when only a couple of days later this was presented to her!

What an amazing year we have had with Lucy.  I love watching the world unfold before Lucy's eyes and feeling her excitement for each new thing learned.  Lucy has grown so much in just one short year.  My baby is a little girl now.  She is my sunshine, my clouds and even some thunderstorms here and there but I wouldn't trade my almost three year old in for anything!  I love you Lucy and I am so happy to have you as my daughter!

Emma and the Traveling Pants

 

I can hardly believe my little bean is eleven months old already!  I am in denial about this.  It helps that she is so small for her age.  However, my illusions of her staying my itty bitty baby forever are often shattered by her constant love of movement.  Lately she can't stop moving.  My heart stops when I catch her at the top of the basement stairs in the kitchen and I realize I forgot to close the baby gate just as she is about to take the plunge, or when I hear Lucy yell from halfway up the stairs that her and Emma will be right back - and I run to the stairs and Emma is 75% of the way up already with Lucy yelling for her to hurry it up.  

Emma's favorite form of mischief and movement however involves snatching and hiding Lucy's clothing.  It's like the two of them have formed a plot against me.  Here's how it works: as soon as Lucy gets in the house, she strips off her shoes, socks, pants and any sweater or jacket she may have on.  Then Emma swoops in and covertly carries off each article of clothing and hides it in a strategic location.  Flash forward to me frantically getting them ready to be on time somewhere that requires Lucy to arrive in clothing.  We can't find her clothes and Emma conveniently isn't talking.  I rummage around the house until I realize we are late, abort the mission and grab a new set of clothes for Lucy.  When we arrive back home, the scenario repeats itself.  Here Emma is below looking innocent.

 

And when I tell her to drop the pants, she just laughs at me and I realize that what I said came out wrong.

 

I caught her in the picture below, hiding one of Lucy's socks in the dining room corner behind the rocking chair.

 

Since we are having unseasonably warm weather this past month we have spent a lot of time outside.  There's nothing more cringe inducing than your eleven month old crawling across the concrete, or up a set of concrete porch steps.  Or even worse, toddling around using toys with wheels on them to get from one place to the next.  She just seems way too young to experience road rash yet.  

 

Her little soft-soled shoes needed to be replaced this month with some hard-soled ones to keep her feet dry playing outside so I found Lucy's first pair of walking shoes and put them on Emma.  After a week of pinning my little Cinderella down to put the shoes back on her after she walked out of them for the 100th time I decided that I would have to buy Emma her very own pair.  Her foot measured at a size 1 1/2.  Walking shoes start at size 4 if that gives you any idea how small Emma's feet are.  We had to get special (translated - expensive) shoes for Lucy's first pair because her feet measured at a size 3 double wide.  Well, Emma's are even smaller it turns out!  Forty bucks and a really cute pair of shoes later, Emma is walking on her own!  She has taken up to five steps unassisted and is getting more confident on her feet every day.

 

This past month was brought to us by the letter "H" for Emma's three new words: "Hi!", "Hot", and "Hug."  Whenever she sees a phone she says, "hi" and she also waves and says "hi" to people we pass in public.  She learned the word hot by touching the door of our oven while I was baking something.  It isn't super hot, but it does get warm and she definitely didn't like it.  Now every time she comes near the oven, she sits down on the floor and says hot while waving at it.  My favorite word though this month is "hug" as she passes out hugs to not only her loved ones but her baby doll Huggums as well.  It is so cute to watch!

 

Emma also likes to repeat the phrases, "What's that?", "Who's that?" and "What's this?" while pointing at things.  I think this is from us always pointing at objects and asking her those questions.  She is still quite good at shaking her head yes or no when we ask her questions.  For instance, "Emma, did you poop?" is usually met with a happy head shake indicating that yes, what I smell is in fact poop.

Emma has had a rough month with sleep.  We think her system is off from the stomach flu she had that lasted over two weeks, as well as the antibiotics I have been on this past month for my toes.  After talking with her gastrologist, we have put Emma on some baby probiotics that have worked wonders.  We started off the month with no naps a day unless we were holding her or driving in the car, to two naps a day again - mostly only lasting a half hour each, but this is better than none at all.  Her night time sleep at the beginning of this month was horrible too - up every half hour.  She is going into some longer stretches again though now, and we are hoping she will continue to improve as she feels better.  Another culprit for her poor sleep is teething.  She has been actively cutting five teeth and two officially popped through this past month.  I would not be surprised if the other three weren't here by her first birthday.  Lucy got her teeth one at a time, so this is a new experience for us to have five teeth cutting at once.  I think after they are through though, this method is better because it gets the pain (and sleeplessness!) over with faster.  Here is a picture of Emma dealing with a tummy ache coupled with complete exhaustion - she fell asleep sitting up and I watched it happen.  After making sure she was still alive, I took a picture.  That is some hardcore flexibility, especially considering she is wearing a bulky cloth diaper!

Emma is eating more foods this month and her favorites are pancakes made with coconut milk, cheerios and floor grout.  Oh wait, floor grout isn't technically a food but she does love picking it out between the wood slats in our dining room floor and eating it.  This is a downside of living in an old house, but if you would have told me that when we bought the place, I would have said you were crazy.  Who would eat floor grout, especially after the first time when you realized how gritty it was?  She loves crunching on it for some reason, and we even have a little routine we do that goes something like this:

Me: "Emma, what's in your mouth?"
Emma, with a grin on her face: "Aaaaaaaaaaah"

Emma's love of carbs is definitely packing on some chub finally and I find that I can't stop squishing her chubby little cheeks and legs.  She has become quite demanding at the table though, making mealtime rather stressful for me, especially if I am alone with both girls.  She wants to feed herself, but I can't put her entire plate in front of her because she will just stuff her face until she chokes.  So she has to rely on me to place three pieces at a time in front of her and by her opinion, I am just not fast enough!

I think Emma is thinking in the above picture, "Feed me now mom, or I won't tell you where I hid Lucy's other sock!"

The Longest Month of the Year

February has always been the longest month of our year since we lost Luke.  This February was a month to top all others.  It started out good enough - on the first day of this month we had mild weather and so knowing that I had double foot surgery scheduled the following day, I decided to take advantage of the temperatures and get outside as much as possible.  Lucy, Emma and I spent the morning downtown, window shopping and buying little treats to nibble on.  It was a picture perfect outing, with Emma strapped on my front in a carrier and Lucy content to ride in the umbrella stroller.  Here she is below eating a dinosaur cookie from a cute little European bakery on our walk.

Later that day, after Will came home, we took another walk as a family.  I know that everyone thinks their own kids are cute, but I was amazed at the cuteness zipped up in that hoodie and had to take some pictures.

 The following day was my surgery.  Looking back now, it is shocking how sick I was and I am amazed that I lasted a week before I finally went to the ER.  Here I am below feeling completely wiped out on the couch with Lucy keeping me company.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Emma took my four day hospital stay in stride and seemed no worse for the wear.  Lucy on the other hand continues to verbalize how she missed me and how she didn't want me to go to the hospital in the first place.  She is also worried that I may go to the hospital again.  I am glad that she can talk about her worries, and at the same time, it breaks my heart each time she tells me in a tiny, tear-filled voice,"Mama, I missed you when you were at the hospital."  Or, "Mom, I didn't want you to go to the ER.  I wanted you to stay home with me."  Here she is below on one of her visits to see me.

 Unfortunately, my arrival back home did not signify the end of our trials.  Lucy got the stomach flu that was going around the hospital and was sick for over a week.  It is difficult for Lucy to wind down for sleep, so when she fell asleep in the middle of the kitchen floor we knew she was still under the weather.  The silver lining to my poor baby being so sick is that she is back to taking naps about 50% of the time now that she is healthy again.  This is better than none at all!  I also have discovered that if you make the nap worth her while - a.k.a. offer a bribe for a nap well done - she is more likely to take one.

Several days after Lucy came down with the flu, Will caught it and was sick for three days, and then Emma and I caught it at the same time.  And then I caught it again.  We were battling the flu on Luke's birthday and had to delay visiting the cemetery until the following day.  I think this picture below sums up the month of February for us.  Like my snazzy medical-grade shoes?

Lucy has done remarkably well, considering all of the stress our little family has been under this past month.  I don't know if it was her not eating for 10 days straight or me being gone for four days, but she looks like she has lost the baby chub in her face and seems so grown up to me now.

 She can reach more things than I can remember and her pants are starting to look a bit short on her too.  She even mastered the art of using scissors this past month as well!

 Playing make-believe with her dolls is still her favorite thing to do and it occurred to me the other day that with all the toys we have in the house, the objects she uses the most are her dolls, blankets, decorative pillows, dining room chairs, a set of stacking cups and bags of all shapes and sizes.  She can make the most ordinary household items into the most creative things and can turn the most well-organized household into a disaster zone in under a minute flat.

I waited for February to be completely over before I even dared to type up this post.  I didn't want to jinx anything, especially with this February having an extra day in it.  The last time our calendar had leap day on it was the month we had lost Luke.  I remember wondering what kind of cruel trick fate had in mind, to seemingly rub salt in our already open wounds by adding an extra day to the worst month of our lives.  Flash forward four years later, and I am having some of those same thoughts!  And although this month has been tough, it still wasn't as tough as the February we lost Luke so I will count my blessings and just breath a sigh of relief that we made it through this month.  I will also make sure that my freezer is stocked with ready-made meals, my house is clean and my bills are up to date come February 2016.

Now it is March and we are preparing for spring at Casa de Timmerman.  I am optimistic that as the days get longer and the temperatures get warmer that my health will continue to mend and we are through the worst of things for the year.  I promise a post soon with all of the details of our exciting spring plans!