The Fruits of our Labor

June has flown by for us.  We have been busy trying to finish our outdoor to do list so that we can relax and enjoy the fruits of our labor.  Compared to the previous two years, it seems this season is operating about two weeks ahead of time and berries that were usually ready to pick in July, were ready by the end of June.  We spent the past several weeks up to our elbows in berries - berries on top of brownies, berries made into sauce on top of our ice cream, berries in our pancakes, muffins and cobblers and berries on our cereal and oatmeal in the morning.  We canned a new type of jam this year that used a mixture of the four berries around our house (supplemented by the Meijer produce department) - blueberries, raspberries, black raspberries and strawberries.  I am pleased to say that it is the best we've made yet.  Here's Lucy below picking the wild black raspberries by our house.

And here we are on a walk in the woods by our house gathering more of the wild black raspberries.  The crop was actually quite small this year compared to years past, so that is why we actually turned our usual black raspberry jam into four berry jam.

This past spring, the woods across the street from us were designated official "Green Space" by our town which we are really excited about.  Pretty much it guarantees that the view out of our front windows will forever be natural and undeveloped.  There are great trails there too, which we no longer feel like we are trespassing on, since it has been labeled green space.  Here is one of the trails below with beautiful orange wild flowers painting the hill.

We feel so blessed to have this nature conservation steps from our front door while still having a great downtown with unique restaurants and interesting boutique shops, grocery stores, drugstores, our bank, library, schools, parks and hardware store all in walking distance as well.

Besides picking the wild berries, our garden has produced a four berry array this past month, along with lettuce and peas.

 Lucy loves picking the berries and some even make it into the bowl for the rest of us to enjoy.

She also got kick out of shelling peas.  I have to admit, Will and I have never shelled peas in our life either, so in fact, we all got a kick out of shelling those cute little peas!

We were practically fighting over the pea pods, and kept excitedly showing each other how amazing those peas looked all lined up, snug as a couple of bugs in a rug, tucked into those pods.

Next year we definitely need to plant more peas.  They were delicious raw and cooked.

Lucy is deep in thought in the above picture while she watches our chickens.  We still haven't gotten any eggs yet, but our hens are starting to show symptoms of egg laying.  They are beginning to make divots in the dirt and seem content just sitting in their newly made nests.  One of our hens however prefers the fresh mulch Will put down this past month in our garden to the dirt of her chicken run, causing Will to get creative to keep her out of our garden.  He keeps constructing higher string lines on top of the fence, poles and gadgets but so far she keeps getting into our garden.  Fortunately she hasn't done any damage yet, but just keeps creating nests in the wood chips.  I have decided to call her Mother Superior, as she seems to be at the head of the pecking order in our little flock.  I've named another hen The Bearded Lady because her feathers look like a beard around her face the way they puff out and I'm still thinking of good nun names for the other girls.  It seems Lucy has given up on naming the hens, as the ones she named have all gone to that great nest in the sky.

We are still eating outside as much as possible which is keeping my house clean and the kids happy.  We've even shared a meal or two with our neighbor who happened to be out while we were eating dinner.  It is just so nice to eat outside, and I am enjoying the fact that my kids like it too.  I remember as a teenager sulking over dinner at our family's picnic table on the back deck thinking that eating outside was annoying and inconvenient - swatting bugs and feeling hot while completely missing the view and the breeze (and the fact that I didn't have to purchase or lift a finger to make the food in front of me).  Sorry mom and dad!  But because of this, I am fully expecting karma to bite me in the behind with my own kids, so until then I will count my blessings as we eat as a happy family in the great outdoors.

Lucy has been great this past month.  She seems taller to me these days and a little more grown up too.  So far, I am really liking her at age 3.  It seems like we are finally seeing the fruits of our labor as she is becoming more and more self-sufficient.  She is a great listener in the store, especially now that Emma is too heavy to put in my front carrier and has taken Lucy's seat in the shopping cart.  Lucy helps me around the house now getting wipes when I run out during a diaper change for Emma, setting the table and being another set of eyes to keep Emma out of harms way.  Her naps are hit or miss, but she does a good job staying quiet in her room while Emma sleeps.  I found her the other day absorbed in her books when I came in her room to tell her that Quiet Time was over.

I mentioned in the May post that Lucy has become very conscious of her appearance.  Lately she has been wanting to have her nails painted.  We haven't painted them in the past because Lucy bites her fingernails (and toenails!) and I don't want her to ingest the paint.  She has been more persistent as of late to have her nails painted so I decided this could be a good incentive to get her to stop biting her nails.  We are still working on her fingers, but her toes were ready last week!  To say that Lucy was excited was an understatement and I couldn't help but feel like I was in the middle of creating a memory that will stay with me for the rest of my life while I painted those little piggies.  I think I was almost as excited as Lucy and I am so proud of her for letting her toe nails grow out.

I will end this post with a couple of things Lucy said this past month that brought a smile to my face:

Lucy: "Mom, can you take the gate down?  I need to go upstairs."
Me: "What do you need up there?"
Lucy: "To have some time in my room to get the grumpies out of my head."

While we were over at my brother John's house for dinner, Lucy took Emma by the hand and whispered, "Emma, let's go get into trouble."


Happy Summer!

Emma at 14 Months

Emma is growing by leaps and bounds!  Just the other night when I was rocking her before bed I couldn't help but notice that her little bare feet seemed longer as I cradled them in my hands.  She is a girl on a mission most days and unless she is tired, hungry or teething is very content to do her own thing.  No one can make her laugh quite like her big sister Lucy, and lately she has taken to giving Lucy hugs throughout the day for no reason at all except that she adores her "Ooo-See".  Maybe the adoration has been helped along by Lucy sharing her juice box with Emma, as Mama and Daddy don't let her have any yet.

Or maybe it is because they make beautiful music together.

Or even just the fact that Lucy helps Emma get down from the various ledges she gets stuck on.  This is very useful for me because Emma gets stuck hanging on the window ledge in the below picture multiple times a day.

Or maybe Lucy is just a sweet big sister, and any little sister would be lucky to have her to play with and look out for.  We took Emma out in the bike trailer for the first time this past month and if it wasn't for Lucy cuddling her the entire time I'm guessing we wouldn't have made it out of the drive way.  Emma definitely was nervous sitting back there, but she did it because Lucy held her hand.  Will got slightly annoyed with me because I kept having him stop so that I could take a picture of their sweetness - the way the helmet strap pushed into Emma's chubby cheeks and the way Lucy kept patting Emma's knee and holding her hand just melted my heart and filled me with such mom-joy.  It's moments like this that make all of the many challenges of motherhood worth it.

With all that aside though, Lucy sure does have fun toys that she usually wants to keep all to herself.  I found Emma in the closet the other day secretly feeding Lucy's doll Simone.  Emma knows that Simone is off limits and when the camera flashed, Emma jumped in surprise and skee-daddled out of that closet faster than you can say "Caught ya!"

Emma learned how to feed herself with a spoon all by herself this past month.  It is a messy endeavor but I keep reminding myself that the freedom of only putting a spoon in my own mouth is worth it.

It does help that we continue to eat outside as much as possible.  After the first week or two of chasing Emma around while trying to eat, we went out and bought a highchair that clips on to our picnic table.  Best $30 ever!  Now our al fresco dining is much more relaxing.

Speaking of relaxing...

When Emma isn't relaxing outside in a lawn chair or eating a Popsicle, she can be found working hard leveling all of the ant hills on our driveway.  I think she may benefit from a sand box.

Emma also loves to go down the slide.  This past month she learned how to do it all by herself too. 

 I still prefer to stand next to the slide just in case, but she can climb the ladder, swing her feet in front of her and off she goes.

Emma is starting to enjoy coloring.  She has moved past eating the crayons and only uses them to color paper and every once in a while to apply a coat of color to her lips.

 Emma has also been busy growing more teeth, bringing her total molars to three now.  Only one more to go and hopefully we get a break before those canines come in.  She has been growing her hair too, and I can finally put a pony tail in it.

Emma's vocabulary continues to grow.  Here are the highlights:

-she yells "STOP" when Lucy is in trouble (hmmm, wonder where she gets that from)

-she says "Thank You" in a really cute, little and soft voice at the appropriate times

-when she is thirsty she says, "dink"

-while she is eating she says, "yum mmmmmm"

-when I flush the contents from her diaper down the toilet she says,"Bye bye" while waving

-this may not be a new word, but Emma sniffs her nose when we say "Kleenex" or "flowers"

-she now pronounces Dora with two syllables instead of one - "Da-Ra" and is excited whenever she sees Dora, especially while shopping in a store.  It reminds me of when Lucy was this age and would spot Elmo.  Emma is very loud in the shopping cart though and when she isn't busy spotting Dora and yelling her name loudly, she talks in a loud, excited and almost angry tone as we push the cart down the aisles.  We just aren't sure what she is saying.

-Emma can now say her own name.  At first I thought she was saying "Mama", but she is definitely saying "Emma".

-Emma's favorite word of the month is HOT.  She says it in all of the appropriate places and repeats it if she hears someone say it during conversation.  The other day we were at Home Depot and when we passed the grill section, she started pointing and yelling "HOT!"  It took us a second to make the connection, but then we laughed when we realized that all of our warnings in the backyard while grilling had made an impact!

All of this activity (and teething wrapping up) has led to some great sleep from Emma.  She is sleeping the best she has ever slept and besides getting up super early, she takes two great naps a day and sleeps about 10 hours at night.

Finally I understand the saying, "sleeping like a baby."  Until now, that description always alluded me and my children!  Or in the above picture, sleeping like a star fish.  Either way, I can never take enough pictures of it!

May in an Eggshell

This past month we have been living outside as much as possible for several reasons.  First, the weather has been gorgeous.  Second, it is a lot easier to clean up yard toys than it is to clean up house toys.  Third, it is super simple to NOT clean up crumbs from our meals.  Fourth, I tend to yell at the kids less because they get along better outside and because I care about what the neighbors think.  Either way it works.  And finally, we have a lot of stuff on our to-do list, and it all needs to happen outside!

Will and I spent the winter months drawing up plans for our yard come spring.  When we weren't busy plotting out the garden and designing our chicken coop we had fun researching swing sets.  It was our intent to build one ourselves but after pricing out the pieces we decided to keep our second car and find a "like new" already built swing set on Craigslist instead.  We found a simple A-frame wood swing set for cheap and have decided that it is the best money we have ever spent on the girls.  Lucy spends most of her time outside on her swing, and absolutely loves it.

 After we checked the swing set off of our to-do list, it was time to plant our seedlings in our new square foot gardens.  Will had planted all of our seedlings from seed and nursed them to life under some grow lights he had set up in our basement back in February.  We do not have a dry basement, but the silver lining is that the seedlings were all watered from the water we collected in our dehumidifier.  So in a sense, it was like they had gotten only rain water all of their life.

So far we are a big fan of this new type of gardening.  There is something about the neatness of each square, and knowing exactly how many of each type of plant fits in them that simplified a task that used to be quite daunting.  Plus, we no longer have to worry about losing plants from the pitter patter of little feet running through the garden.

We have found that we need to water the plants daily though, as the raised garden beds definitely dry out faster than a traditional garden bed.  Here Will is below filling up a watering can from the rain barrels he made.  We have two fifty gallon barrels that collect water from our garage roof.  One good rain is enough to fill them completely and so far we have made it through all of May without having to use any other water source.  Only time will tell if we can get through the hot summer months without tapping into city water.

You may have noticed in the above picture that there is more going on than just filling up a watering can from a rain barrel.  Lucy has entered a stage in her life where she thinks body parts and their functions are hilarious.  With all of Will's outside work, Lucy has discovered what she calls a "bum-bee crack" on Daddy's lower back.  The other day I caught Lucy tickling Will's bum-bee crack with a chicken feather while saying, "Goo-chee goo-chee gooo!"  I almost died laughing when I saw that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and she was sporting her own little bum-bee crack!

Lucy not only has become obsessed with bodily functions but also with fashion.  She is becoming very conscious about what she wears.  The other day she told me, "Mom, I don't feel pretty.  I'm going to go get a hair clip to put in my hair."  She loves wearing hair clips, head bands, dresses and girly shoes.  Anyone who knows me, knows that she did not inherit this trait from me!  The four of us were shopping the other day and while I was off browsing I overheard Lucy ask a sales associate if she knew what aisle the make up was in.  Will about flipped over and I think may have even thrown up in his mouth a little bit.  The sales associate just laughed and told Will that she believes, quite frankly, that he is doomed.  Here she is below trying to give the camera a kiss.  Notice the artfully placed hair clip.

Lucy shares not only her high bum-bee crack with Will, but now his love of garage sales as well.  The church on our street held a yard sale a couple of weekends ago and Lucy asked if she could bring some of her own money to buy something.  The math teacher in Will snatched up the opportunity to teach her real world money management skills and off they went.  The kind women running the sale took a shine to Lucy and told her that she could buy anything she wanted for a penny each.  After filling a plastic grocery bag full of odds and ends that she told Will she just had to have, she went up to the women who had just sat down to a lunch break of freshly delivered pizza and asked how much the pizza was.  Needless to say, I don't know who was more proud when they came home with a plate of hot pizza and a bag of goodies - "All for only a quarter!"

Here Will and Lucy are below enjoying an evening rainstorm in their pajamas.

Lucy went to the dentist for the very first time this past month.  We have been building up to this moment since last summer, when I took Lucy with me to a dentist appointment so she would be familiar with the environment.  Thankfully, the same sweet hygienist who cleans my teeth also cleaned Lucy's.  I beamed with pride and a little sadness at my baby getting her teeth cleaned like such a grown up.  She did a great job.

Lucy's communication continues to amaze us and even phase us.  Lately, she will refer to something she feels strongly about but leave out key details and get super frustrated with us when we have no idea what she is talking about.  "Mom, why was the elephant's mom sad?"  "What elephant Lucy?"  "The elephant!"  "Um, in a book?"  "No, mom, the baby elephant's mom!"  "Where did you see this elephant?"  "On TV!"  Think, Liz, think!  "You mean Dumbo's mom?"  Crisis averted.  Keep in mind I've never seen Dumbo with her, but I am guessing she saw it at a friend's house.  Most situations, I never do find out what it is she is talking about and she gets quite angry at us when this happens.  I am learning that short, one word answers to her allusive questions are the safest way until I figure out exactly what she is referring to.  It's like playing 20 Questions, except with a very emotional and short on patience opponent!

Memorial Day weekend was a bit of an emotional roller coaster with our chickens.  About a week prior it had become clear to us that four out of the eight chickens were roosters.  Our yard had become a violent, dangerous place and all of us were beginning to live in fear of those roosters.  Two of them were beyond aggressive and would peck and attack the other chickens, drawing blood and yanking feathers.  One of our hens refused to leave the coop she was so terrified and we had begun tossing their food over the fence, for fear of going into their pen.  Plus, their cock-a-doodle-doing was becoming obnoxious.  They didn't just crow when the sun came up - they crowed non-stop, all day long.  We were starting to stress that the neighbors were going to call the city on us.  So, we decided that the roosters had to go.  On Friday of the holiday weekend Will took them in to be processed.  Despite all of the trouble they were causing, it was still difficult for us to say goodbye and end the lives of birds that we had raised from day old chicks.  It was our first experience of being directly involved in the food chain.  I mean, every time we eat meat we play a role in the circle of life, but to actually be the one that said, "today is the day" was a very different experience.  Our yard returned to it's pre-rooster calm on Friday though and we knew we had made the right decision.  The chicken drama was not over yet though.  On Sunday morning Will went out to open up the coop and saw our favorite hen had passed away during the night.  We have no idea why, but this particular hen, an Isa Brown, had seemed sickly for as long as we had her and was always at the butt of any rooster aggression too.  We had hoped that once the roosters were gone she would perk up, but sadly that didn't happen.  In a matter of two days we had gone from eight chickens to three.  I was beginning to wonder if our remaining chickens would need counseling for PTS syndrome.  On Sunday night we decided that we still wanted the eight birds we had originally planned for and found a farm on Craigslist that was selling chickens about the same age as ours.  We picked up five new chickens the very next day and have enjoyed watching them establish a new pecking order.

In case you were wondering, I've found photographing chickens is similar to photographing toddlers!  They refuse to stay still and could care less about posing for a camera!

Our weekend wasn't all chicken drama though.  A Memorial Day parade goes down our street every year which we look forward to.  Lucy remembered the parade from last year when the girl scouts threw candy at her and was very excited for it to return.  We set up our chairs under our maple tree's shade in the front yard and chatted with neighbors while the girls played with bubbles until the parade came.  Here they are below watching a police woman set up a street barricade near us.

My birthday was the day after Memorial Day and as I've mentioned to several people, it started out quite rocky.  Emma cut a molar during the night and was literally up all night.  Lucy developed a head cold out of nowhere and couldn't sleep either.  I found out we had no Tylenol in the house during the first hour of my birthday.  Needless to say, the three of us were not happy campers come morning time.  There were several points of time the morning of my birthday where I asked out loud, "It's my birthday, don't you care?"  The girls responded by pausing whatever cranky behavior they were in the middle of, looking at me with blank stares, and then resumed their cranky behavior.  Will called at lunch time all happy-go-lucky and wished me a happy birthday.  It didn't take him long to pick up on the fact that the Birthday Monsters were in full force at home.  Fortunately, the three of us took some really good naps that afternoon and we all woke up feeling much better.  Will came home from work and my birthday continued to improve.  We decided to ditch our dinner plans at home and headed out on a walk to downtown where we picked up take-out from one of my favorite restaurants and ate it in a nearby park.  Afterwards, we walked to Main Street and had ice cream cones.  See how happy that made us?

When we got home, Will surprised me with a cake with my name on it from a bakery downtown.  I couldn't remember the last time I had a cake with my name on it, so this made me happy too.  Later on that night, he admitted that the cake was a last minute decision he made when he hung up the phone from our lunch conversation.  Either way, well done Will and I have to say that my birthday recovered quite nicely and I went to bed with a smile on my face (partly due to the fact that I knew I had at least 6 good hours of sleep until the Tylenol wore off of my children).

So there's our May in an eggshell!

Why I Continue to Blog

When I first started this blog, it was intended as a place to keep our family and friends updated on the health issues and procedures regarding Luke.  Will and I were so emotionally drained by each piece of news we received about Luke, that we found it difficult to repeat the same sad news over and over again to our caring and concerned loved ones.  Hence, babytimmerman.blogspot.com was created.  The generic title was a result of us waiting to be surprised at birth by our unborn baby's gender.  Little did we know that this blog would outlive our precious baby and go on to serve far more than our original plans.  Three baby Timmermans have been introduced to the world on these pages and the generic name we chose to represent our first child has been fitting for the ongoing journey of this blog.

I cherish the history I now have documented on these pages.  The sorrow, the joy, and our journey through grief and parenthood.  I have been thinking a lot lately about where I would like the blog to go from here, and I have decided that for now I will continue with individual monthly updates on Emma's progress until she is three years old, and then at that point I will roll her milestones in with the rest of the family's updates on a monthly basis.  I will also continue to document important family holidays and anything else that I find significant in our lives.

I think of this blog as a virtual scrapbook and photo album of our little family and it is my hope that some day when my children are grown, I can kick back, sip a cup of tea that is actually still warm, and smile at all of the memories I have captured here.  I don't want to forget the joys of this special time in my life, nor do I want to forget the challenges either.  It is a fine balance to write with truth, but to also take care of my children's privacy.  With each post I write it is my hope that my children will have a vivid glimpse back into their childhood, see how much we love them, who they are, and where they came from.

I can almost guarantee that if Luke had been healthy I would have never started this blog.  God knew what I would need to come to terms with losing Luke and to find the joy in living again.  I would trade this blog in a heart beat to have Luke here with me, but since I don't get to call the shots, I will graciously take the gift of this blog and be forever grateful to my first baby Timmerman for being the catalyst to something I will forever treasure.

Emma at 13 Months

The other night while Emma was running around upstairs in her birthday suit, Will and I looked at each other and decided that one is a really fun age.  It brought back memories of Lucy at this age and we feel very blessed to experience it all again.  What a bonus!  The utter joy on Emma's face as she ran around diaper-free made us laugh so hard it hurt.  I could watch her all day long, running around naked.  Or at least until I had to clean up the carpet.

The following is the clothed version of what our little one year old has been up to this month.

Emma is very active and is constantly on the move.  She loves spinning around and around to music and she loves throwing and chasing after a ball.  She loves chasing and being chased with Lucy.  In case you are wondering, Emma is holding a fake knife from the play kitchen in the below picture.  She was chasing Lucy while brandishing the knife over her head, but by the time I found the camera, the tables had turned and Emma had turned into the chase-e, even though she was still holding the weapon.  Yup, when subsequent children run with fake knives, we take pictures.

Emma loves climbing.  She can climb to the top of the slide in our backyard, can climb up the heating register to look out the window while she clings pull up style to the window sill and she also loves climbing on top of the Little Tikes picnic table as well.  Here she is below, after she climbed into Lucy's new doll wagon.  Seconds later she started jumping in it, the wagon started to move, and she fell out.  She tends to curl into a little ball when she falls though, and usually falls, rolls and then springs back up.  That is of course if no one saw her - otherwise she will sob uncontrollably while hiding her face out of embarrassment.

Emma loves reading simple board books on our lap.  She has a handful of favorites that she always brings us to read and it is fascinating to me that she picks out the same couple of books every time from a very large selection.  She also is really enjoying the new bookshelf Will built her for her birthday as it is just her height.

Emma's food pickiness has decreased ever so slightly.  She has tried several new foods this month that she has previously refused including chicken and shell-shaped pasta.  She ate one or two bites of the pasta before she discovered it was more fun to put them on her toes.

Note to self - try spaghetti next time.

Emma has also developed quite a sweet tooth and knows the difference between a vegetable and a dessert. The difference is she refuses to try the vegetable, where the dessert she will shove in her mouth faster than you can say childhood obesity.  She swiped a juice box for Lucy out of my hand the other day and drank it so fast she started choking.  Even when the juice box was gone, she refused to give it to me and even fell asleep holding it.

She also swiped a sucker Lucy had left on the picnic table outside.  By the time I realized it, she had already fallen in love and sticky drool was everywhere.  Lucy has been telling Emma, "Swiper, no swiping!" which some of you might recognize from Dora the Explorer.

Speaking of Lucy and Emma.  Besides Emma's constant swiping, they have been playing together better this month.  Emma adores Lucy, and wants to do whatever she is doing.  Here they are below checking out some worms in our flower bed.

Monkey see, monkey do.  As many of you know Lucy adores running around with bags of all shapes and sizes filled with toddler treasures.  It seems Emma has developed this habit as well this past month.  Here she is below toting a purse.  She kept running over to me whenever it fell off of her tiny little shoulder and would then indicate that she wanted it put back on.

To me, the biggest development this past month besides her fourth bottom tooth and an upper molar popping through is her level of comprehension with the world.  We can almost see the wheels turning in her head, and the connections being made.  The other day Will found a frog in the yard and put it on the driveway so the girls could see it better.  Emma ran off while we were looking at the frog and came back with a plastic toy frog.  She proceeded to set it down next to the real frog and then went on her way.  It was like she was saying, "yup, I know what a frog is!"

She understands simple directions now like "Go get your socks" or "Put your spoon on the table."  She can give high fives when asked, and even blow a kiss.  I swear she said "Banana" and "Jane" (for Aunt Jane of course!) but hasn't repeated it so I can't say it is official yet.  She hasn't yet learned that she can defy our simple directions, and I think that is one reason why I love this age so much.  When I say, "Emma, lay down it's night-night time" she immediately drops to the mattress.  That of course doesn't stop her from popping up 10 seconds later but I attribute that to a short attention span, and not defiance.

Ah, the sweetness of a freshly turned one year old!  Look at my little cuddle bug snuggling with me.  Oh, I love my baby!

Lucy is Three!

Usually it takes a while for my mind to catch up with the reality of time and my babies growing up.  For some reason though, it feels like Lucy has been three for a while now and the calendar has finally caught up!  Maybe Lucy claiming during her first week of officially being three that "I can do anything, now that I'm almost four" has helped me come to terms with three.  Either way, three she is and as my friend's pediatrician told her,"Three is just like two, only with a bigger vocabulary."  True that!  I like the term "threenager" a relative of mine coined for her three year old daughter.  The sass that is coming out of our little threenager's mouth is shocking at times.

-Me: "Lucy, please sit down."  Lucy: "No, YOU sit down!"

-Me: "If you don't stop that right now we will not be going to the park."  Lucy: "No, if YOU don't stop that right now, YOU won't be going to the park and I won't be your friend anymore!"

-Me: "Lucy, it's time to go now."  Lucy: "I will spit in your face and be naughty if I can't stay and I'm not going to like you anymore!"

-Me: "Lucy, what are you doing?" Lucy: "I'm not being a good listener, and I'm not sharing!"

That's probably enough to give you the general idea of our girl's budding vocabulary.  Most times I am at a loss as to how to respond to such sass, but we have had many a conversation about "sweet words" versus "rude words" and are really trying to use positive reinforcement techniques on the "sweet words".

Fortunately, Lucy isn't all sass and still says some pretty cute things as well.  The other day she found our swim bag that we take to the beach and emerged from the bathroom wearing a pair of goggles and asked me if I liked her "Googles".  Some of you might remember that for the longest time she called Will by his first name instead of Dad which really bothered Will.  Well, now she refers to him as "Big Guy" so I'm not sure if that is an improvement or not.  In other news, she now calls me Liz if I don't respond to Mom in a quick enough fashion.  Her favorite exclamation is "oh boy!" and when we get into the car to go anywhere she says "On the road again folks!" as we pull out of our driveway.  She has also begun to determine the difference between boys and girls and has even taken this new knowledge and applied it to what Will and I can and cannot do.  For instance, only ladies can read "lady books" (where the main character is female) and only daddies can read "man books".  If I am singing a song by or about a man she will remind me that the song is a "man song" and not to be sung by me.  I was informed that "Do you know the muffin man" has to be sung "Do you know the cupcake lady" if I am going to sing it.

Lucy has gotten a little bit more adventurous with new foods - we're talking ground beef and mangoes - not sushi and tabbouleh.  But any attempt on her part to try foods she had previously banned is exciting for Will and I.  One evening however, Lucy was picking away at her plate and when I asked her if she wasn't hungry, she told me, "I want the chickens to have it Mom."  The chickens do love Lucy's table scraps that is for sure.

Lucy's had her hands pecked a couple of times, so now when she plays with the chickens, she keeps her hands in her pockets.  The other day she was in their pen bossing talking to them while I was watering the garden nearby.  All of a sudden I heard the most horrific screams.  I dropped the hose and ran for the pen expecting to find the chickens pecking her to death.  Instead, I found the chickens going crazy on a bracelet Lucy had dropped, and Lucy freaking out screaming, "My BRACELET!!!  My BRACELET!"  Imagine my relief!  I recovered the bracelet and removed Lucy from chicken territory, only to find Lucy minutes later chewing on the exact same bracelet!  Double ew.  She does love the chickens though, as long as they stay away from her jewelry and has named several of them so far.  The names are kind of new agey: Friendly, Stone, Daisy and Dandelion.  She is still thinking up names for the rest of them.

Lucy has become quite a little helper around the house.  She can put a new garbage bag into our kitchen garbage can very efficiently, and has also taken her job of watering some grass seed we planted very seriously.  She received a kit for planting wild flowers from her Aunt Jane for her birthday and has been taking care of them all on her own.  Here she is below planting the seeds.

Lucy and Emma are interacting more with each passing week.  Since Emma's birthday came first this past month, it was like Lucy had two birthdays - Emma doesn't yet understand the law of possession, and Lucy takes full advantage.  Here Lucy is below "sharing" Emma's new dollhouse by letting Emma play with her.

Emma also received her own "Simone" doll for her first birthday from Grandma T. just like Lucy received Simone for her first birthday.  Unfortunately, Lucy now believes she has "twins" as she told us and just today she named Emma's new doll Annabelle.  We have been trying to enforce the fact that it isn't Lucy's doll but have decided short of putting the doll away until Emma understands it is hers, we don't stand a chance.  The first night after Emma got the new doll we were tucking Lucy into bed and she kept trying to speed up the routine.  Will and I kept exchanging glances and raising our eyebrows at each other because it was like Lucy was trying to kick us out.  This has NEVER happened before and usually it is all we can do to get out of her room in under a half hour as she thinks up every trick in the book to make us stay.  We thought this was very strange until we caught her taking a peek under her pillow and saw Emma's new doll hiding under there.  We decided to ignore it and take advantage of our ticket out.  The next morning, and every day since, Lucy will secretly bring Emma's doll downstairs in the morning and then bring her upstairs at night and hide her in her bed.  Will and I have decided to pretend we don't notice, because it makes bedtime a breeze.

Sibling rivalry is alive and well between these two.  If one has a toy, the other one won't rest until they have it.  If my lap is occupied by one, chances are good that it is just a matter of time before the other one realizes and needs to sit in my lap as well.  If Will picks one girl up, he better be prepared to carry two.

 They really can be sweet together though, and I love that they have each other to learn conflict resolution with.

The other day when I was checking pockets as I put Lucy's dirty clothes into the washing machine I kept finding cheerios.  When I asked Lucy why she was putting cheerios in her pockets she told me, "So that I can feed them to Emma when I need her to do something."  This left me speechless.

All throughout winter we've talked about the things we can do when spring gets here.  One of them was to ride the new carousel at the Detroit Zoo that is put away during the winter.  Here Lucy is below on her first ride of the season.

 Another spring event we looked forward to was flying a kite for the first time.  In the picture below, Lucy and Will are flying a kite that is so high you can't see it.  We've had super windy weather this month which has been perfect for kite flying.

 And of course the number one spring time event that Lucy has been looking forward to was her third birthday!  She received the Golden Book "Nurse Nancy" that created the theme for her gifts.  The book was probably written in the 50's and is about a little girl who loves playing nurse with her dolls and uses a toy wagon as the ambulance.  Lucy loves playing nurse with her dolls, so we thought this would be perfect for her.  We got her a Fisher Price doctor kit and a Little Tikes doll wagon to go along with the book.  As I was tucking her in the night before her birthday I asked her what she wanted for her birthday.  That was a big mistake, because she then listed several items which we didn't have for her.  Will was promptly sent out for a late night shopping trip that included several different stores as he tried to find the "Dora stuff", gummy bears and suckers that Lucy requested.  We also got her a big girl swing that we are hoping to be able to hang from our tree.  Otherwise, Will is going to have to move up his swing set plans by a year or two.  Finally, we got Lucy a Lego Duplo Chicken Coop set.  I can't forget to mention that she kept dramatically yelling, "Don't look at me" out of pure excitement as she ripped open her presents.

Here Lucy is helping me decorate her Dora cupcakes that we served at her and Emma's joint family birthday party.

 And here Lucy is below with her Dora Cake on her actual birthday.

Happy Almost Fourth Birthday Lucy Anne!  We love you and are so happy you are a part of our family!