Lucy's Second Halloween

Here is Lucy on her second Halloween, this year dressed up as a black cat! In the below picture she is riding the elevator at her Great Grandma Hines' nursing home on Friday.Below is Lucy with her Great Grandma Hines.Here Lucy is with her Grandma Timmerman and Great Grandma Juszczyk this morning. Lucy on the car ride home from seeing her Grandmas (and Grandpas) this morning...

And Lucy on the car ride home from seeing her Grandparents last year on Halloween. See how big she's grown?!? Still the same pouty face that I love to kiss though!Here is Lucy caught in the candy bowl when we were trying to get ready for trick or treating tonight. As usual, we knew something was up when it got quiet...

In case you were wondering where her pants were, at the time of this picture they were being washed/dried because they got pee on them (sorry Aunt Jenna and Uncle Mike)! It's tough being a toddler, and having to keep the same outfit clean for an entire day. We almost made it, but thank goodness for washers and dryers.

Here Lucy is caught again, this time instead of eating the wrapper of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, she swiped a pack of Whoppers and actually got the package open.
Caught with Whopper's the size of her big brown eyes!

This is the expression she gave Will when he asked what she was eating. Her response? "Can-Dee!!"Yes, we bribed her with candy to get her to stay still for this picture next to the pumpkin Will carved. Next time I will be sure to add another piece of candy to ensure a smile. Looks like Will needed a bribe as well!Here we are walking down our street trick or treating. We went to five houses which is all of the neighbors that we know, and just enough walking for Lucy to have her fill.Happy Halloween!

18 Months = An Offical Grown-Up Toddler

I can hardly believe that our little Lucy is 18 months old now! I remember clearly the day that Luke would have turned 18 months old, and I remember wondering how that was possible too. Milestones are so bittersweet with both of my children, but the bitter and the sweet is wrapped differently with each. With Luke, I wistfully imagine what he would be doing at particular calendar milestones. With Lucy, I watch with pride as she accomplishes each milestone, but then realize how fast she is growing up. It was only a year and a half ago that we brought our long awaited baby home from the hospital but even now, the memories are a sleep deprived blur. I wish I could remember more clearly every moment and wonder how my memories will be in ten, twenty, and heck - fifty years. I keep telling myself that with Baby T Three, I am going to try and focus more on the moment and not let the sleeplessness interfere with my ability to remember the preciousness of babyhood. Now that we are planning for a new baby, and we are bonding with Baby T Three, I really feel like Lucy is no longer a baby and officially a toddler.

She still has those squishy cheeks that I love to press my face against when I hold her, but she squirms away so fast now that it's hard to get my cuddle quota met. As if to prove my point that she is now an official grown-up toddler, in the below picture I caught her (the house got too quiet, and I went searching) at my computer trying her hand at some emails.

To prove my point even further that she is now officially a grown-up toddler, she not only is earning her keep at freelance writing, but can also literally fill in Will's shoes and take the garbage out while saying "heavy!"Speaking of shoes, she can also put her own shoes on now, and most of the time even gets them on the correct feet! The other day I told her to go find her shoes. A couple of months ago she would have done this promptly and proudly, but now that she has her own mind she is quite over following any sort of direction from her mom. So the house got quiet again, and in an exhausted tone I said loudly (I never yell of course! ha ha) "LUCY, I said get your shoes!" Then out popped a head from behind the couch ottoman and a proud little face that smiled and said "SHOES! YEAH!" She had put both of her shoes on the proper feet all by herself for the very first time! I can't tell you the joy that washed over me - you would have thought that I had just opened an envelope with a surprise tax refund. This is huge for us, especially with my expanding belly. Oh, the sweet freedom to not have to get down on the floor, pin down a resisting and squirmy toddler and try and get a pair of shoes on feet that refuse to take the shape of a shoe! Here she is below, showing how she puts on her shoes. If you notice the criss-cross of the velcro tabs on her shoes - that was all her, and apparently that is how all the cool kids are wearing their velcro these days.

On a final note about feet, Lucy loves dancing to the song "Happy Tappin' with Elmo." If you are going to be around us any time soon, make sure you request that Lucy dance to it because it is absolutely hilarious. It reminds me of the way the Peanuts characters dance on Charlie Brown. She gets a really serious look on her face, and then her feet start going wild while her upper body stays stationary. I'm thinking of enrolling her in either Irish Step dancing or tap dancing.

Will's birthday was this past month which brought no end of anticipation and excitement for Lucy. Her favorite song is "Happy Birthday", which she refers to as "Happy", and she loves birthday cakes and blowing out candles. She can now color pictures without eating the crayons this month, which worked out well for Will's birthday card that she is coloring below.She even is beginning to learn about her colors, and has green and orange down pretty well. When in doubt though, green is her trusted standby when asked to name a color. Here she is below helping her Dada blow out his birthday candles.Besides loving birthday cake, her favorite new food words this past month are "donuts" and "orange juice". She loves these new words so much, she actually says them over and over as she is falling asleep. In fact, we have to designate a specific time in the future when we will get her donuts or orange juice for her to relax enough to fall asleep. For example, on a Thursday night when Lucy won't go to sleep because she keeps saying "donuts, donuts, donuts" we will break down and promise her: "Sunday after church we will go get donuts." The next morning she wakes up and tells us first thing: "Church. Donuts. Dada. Mama." She has a killer memory.

With her expanding vocabulary she is able to convey more and more how accurate her memory really is. She fills in the words now when we read her books or tell her nursery rhymes. She is so proud of this skill that she will shout the word slightly in advance of us saying it.

When reading 'Go, Dog. Go.'

Us: "Go by skates, go by bike, go by foot, run, skip-"

Lucy: "HIKE!!!"

Us: "Stop, dogs, stop, the light-"

Lucy: "RED!!!"

Us: "Go dogs, go it's-"

Lucy: "GREEN!!!"

And then there is the book 'Good Night Moon' which Lucy's favorite part to say follows us reading: "Goodnight to the little old lady whispering-" Lucy: "hush" which she whispers and says oh so sweetly.

Lucy is now stringing together her first attempt at sentences, which are only lacking the connective words. A couple of weeks ago Will took Lucy to the duck park by our house and met up with her friend Aeden and his dad. Aeden is a couple of years older than Lucy and took a spill while riding his bike. Apparently this made quite an impression on Lucy, as she has been talking about it ever since, saying: "Aeden. Boo-boo. Bike. Duck. Dada." It's like playing Mad Libs for Will and I except for the fact that we have the nouns, and have to fill in the rest of the story. We went to friends of ours baptism for their baby son two weeks ago, and ever since this is what Lucy tells us about that: "Beebee James. Bat. Wa-wa. Cry. Mama. Dada. Home. Swing. Rock. Nap." To which we translate: "We saw baby James get baptised in the water and he cried. Then his mom and dad hugged him and he stopped crying. Then they took him home and put him in his swing where he rocked to sleep for a nap." Pretty good that she can convey all that in only eleven words, and it took me around forty! My other favorite 'sentence' that she repeats multiple times every day that Will is at work: "Dada. Home. Lunch. Nap." To which I translate: "Daddy is at work, and will be home after lunch and after our nap."

I guess most of this post is going to revolve around the things Lucy has said this past month, and I apologize if this is getting a bit boring. It's just that next month she will be on another level completely with her vocabulary, and I don't want to forget all the cute things she said. Besides from updating family and friends on our life, my purpose with this blog is to create my own version of a scrapbook of my children's lives. I hope that one day they can look back on it and know how loved they are, and I can look back on it and remember their childhoods.

Okay, so back to Lucy talking. She has picked up on phrases that Will and I say often, and in fact has pegged each of us with one word. The funny thing is that neither Will or I realized we had a signature word, until Lucy started repeating it when imitating us. While Will is at work and she does something cute or good I will say to her: "When daddy gets home we'll tell him how you colored like a big girl today. What do you think he will say?" Lucy: "Woooow!" Me: "You got dressed so nicely this morning. What do you think daddy will say when we tell him?" Lucy: "Woooow!" And then there's me. Will: "What do you think Mama will say when she finds out you ate a good lunch?" Lucy: "Umhumm." In the below picture, Lucy is pretending to be me on her play phone. How do I know? She just keeps repeating the word "Umhumm!"

Her play phone was given to her by her Aunt Denise and Uncle Bob. When Aunt Denise saw the pictures on the blog of Lucy talking on my cell phone, she decided Lucy needed a phone of her own. After Lucy opened the present from "Bob and Neese" as she now refers to them, Aunt Neese pretended to talk on the phone to someone named Bernie. Aunt Neese and Uncle Bob have since gone home, and Will and I have been trapped into talking to this Bernie person, who Lucy has not forgotten, multiple times a day. Aunt Denise, that Bernie is a talker! Thanks a lot for putting her number on speed dial for Lucy!

Last month Lucy loved saying "No!" to every question we asked her, even if we knew she really meant yes. This month we have reached a break through as she now will say "Yeah" when she means yes. I find it funny that she is talking in the same Midwest American form of English that Will and I do. Oops!

Finally, Lucy loves to play Patty Cake this month, and so cutely will sing "Peetey cake, peetey cake, woll, woll, pat!" She then points to herself and says "Beebee". When asked what her name is, she says "Beebee" and we're not sure if she really thinks her name is Baby, or if she can't say the 'L' part of Lucy and so has found another way of referring to herself. Either way, I have caught myself referring to her as baby way more than I thought I did, and have tried making an effort to call her Lucy!

Okay, enough about what I think are Lucy's cute phrases and sayings. Below is a little less talk and a lot more pictures! Remember this picture from exactly a year ago on Lucy's six month birthday?

Here she is a year later with a different pumpkin and slightly smaller cheeks!My, oh my, how much she has grown in a year! My little grown-up toddler!

18 Month Sneak Peek

Today Lucy is 18 months old and we decided to celebrate by taking her for a photo shoot. The last time we took her for photos, she was just barely walking at one years old. This time was a little more tricky to get her to stay put long enough for the camera to catch her! I have a new respect for photographers, as I would have given up long before these pictures were taken.

I promise to have a full 18 month update posted in the next couple of days. Hopefully these pictures will tide you over until then!

From Summer to Fall at 17 Months

Lucy has been a mover and a shaker this month, and is definitely exerting her independence more and more. If it's time to get dressed, she will run in the opposite direction. If it's time to get her shoes on to go somewhere, again, she will run in the opposite direction as fast as she can. Really, this past month has just been constant running with Will or I chasing after her and ending it in a tackle. It is quite exhausting, and my mega-tiredness from the first trimester of pregnancy isn't helping. Some days I just sit and hold her shoes while she runs around full speed and then eventually gets bored because no one is chasing her. Then she'll slowly wander over to me, and as soon as she is close enough, I snag her and put her in a vice like hold until I have her shoes on, or whatever other article of clothing I am trying to have her wear. She of course puts up a champion-worthy struggle and lets me know her frustration at being confined. And as if to prove her independence, Lucy's favorite phrase this month is "Bye Mom!" In the picture below she is yelling it while Will gives her wheelbarrow rides around the yard. She also is yelling "Bye Mom!" in the picture below. She likes to swing objects that I am assuming represent purses over her shoulder while waving goodbye to me. I usually reply "Bye Lucy, I'll miss you!" which Lucy thinks is hilarious.
Other favorite words this month included "more", "hot", "Elmo" and "no". The "no" is used most of the time when she means "yes" so we are never sure if and when she actually means "no". Screaming usually clues us in though. Lucy also knows her opposites - in, out, up, down, on and off and uses them at the appropriate times. She has really improved on her talking and will repeat whatever we say when prompted. If we don't understand a word she is saying she will keep repeating it louder and louder until we repeat back what we think she said. She knows when we aren't comprehending what she said, and it is tough to not know what she means. Lately it takes a couple of days, and then it dawns on Will or I what the word means and we repeat it back to her and she claps her hands like we are the ones learning the language.

Lucy has begun climbing on everything this past month. One of her more useful climbing tricks has allowed her to see out the windows by standing on the heating register and pulling herself up by the window sill. Here she is at the kitchen window watching for Will to come home from work.
She also can now climb into her doll stroller at which point she demands to be buckled (safety first!) and then pushed around the living room.

She is super proud of herself for being able to climb into her rocking chair from her Aunt Michele.

She can't quite climb up on the toilet yet, but that hasn't stopped her from making good use of it. She has gone potty on several random occasions in the toilet, and Will and I are starting to wonder when we should officially start potty training since she also says "poop" and "pee" when she is doing the respective action in her diaper.

And with all the climbing, she is sleeping just a tad better. I think her sleep has improved because she has finally finished cutting her last molar! It has taken the majority of the summer, but Lucy now sports four molars and only needs to cut in her four canines before she (and Will and I!) gets a nice long break before her two year molars are supposed to come in. In the picture below, Lucy is sleeping with her favorite items in the world - Hopps, Brenda, and Huggums who is snuggled under her arm.A couple of weeks ago Lucy found a little frog in our garden. Since then, every chance she gets she finds a stick and pokes around the garden looking for him. I feel bad that she hasn't seen him since. Grandma T donated a fake frog from her garden though, and that seems to pacify her disappointment somewhat.

Lucy went to the beach over Labor Day weekend for sadly the first and last time of the summer. We rented a cabin on Lake Huron with my brother Mike and my new sister in law Jenna. We had a blast even though the weather was cold and rainy most of the weekend. Lucy didn't like the feel of the sand on her bare feet, but tolerated it with her sandals on. She loved trying to skip rocks and spending time with her Uncle and Aunt.

Here she is cuddling with her Uncle Mike. Ever since our weekend with Mike and Jenna, she will not stop talking about "Mike". It has gotten to the point where she will just repeat his name over and over again until I break down and call him on the phone and she gets to talk to him. I ask Lucy where Uncle Mike is and she says "home wit Jenna" in a very sad voice.

The first night we arrived at the beach, Lucy refused to walk on the sand. She definitely enjoyed the alternative.

It was absolutely beautiful at the lake, and a perfect way to end our summer.

To kick off our fall, we went on our annual apple picking trip with the Timmerman family last weekend. Lucy has come a long way from last year's apple picking trip where she slept most of the time in her backpack carrier. She loved picking the apples off the tree this year.
She however found a much easier way to gather apples, and was very proud of her discovery.

No apple bag is too heavy for Miss Lucy!

Happy Fall!

Did you hear the news?

This little chatter box has something to say. Yup, this month Lucy finally swiped my blackberry, an object that she has been reaching for since infancy. She tried calling all of my contacts...

and it looks like she even figured out how to email them as well.
Lucy tried explaining what she knew...

but really just cracked herself up in the process.
Fortunately for me, most people couldn't decipher what she's been trying to say for the past month...

until now, when I am ready to shout the news to all who will listen. Or should I say post some pictures for all who will read!

And just to clear up any misconceptions that Lucy may have made while on the phone or emailing many of you - Lucy does NOT in fact have a "beebee" in her stomach, nor does her dada have a "beebee" in his stomach. And in case you were worried, you most likely do not have a "beebee" in your stomach either although Lucy firmly believes everyone does. BUT, it is true what Lucy says about her mama having a "beebee" in her stomach!

Baby T Three is due April 13th, and today I am 12 weeks. We are super excited, and cannot wait to meet our newest member of the family!