Halloween

My mom came for Halloween! It was wonderful to spend time with her. Sadly, Lucy got a horrible cough the second day she was here. She was pretty miserable, which limited our options for the rest of the weekend. But, we of course, still managed to have a good time. The day before Lucy got sick, we made a trip to IKEA. My mom, the HGTV queen, had never been. So we righted that great wrong. Lucy enjoyed the slide in the children's section, as well as all the Lucy-sized tables and chairs.

Lucy has been playing with this balloon for the past three weeks. We keep thinking she's going to pop it and traumatize herself, but so far, so good. Which reminds me of a funny Lucy story. Lucy is terrified of the vacuum. I almost always have to hold her while I vacuum, otherwise she will cry in fright. One day I was preparing to vacuum and talking to her about how it's not scary, it can't hurt us, etc etc. Lucy stood a couple feet away from the vacuum nervously as I went to plug it in. Sadly, the vacuum has somehow been turned on, so as soon as I plugged it in, it whirred to life and scared Lucy to death. I'm pretty sure I'll be pay for that therapy session! So much for the non-scary vacuum!

Have I mentioned how talented my mom is? Lucy loves cats, and is very good at meowing, so I decided a kitty would be a great Halloween costume for her this year. So, my mom came prepared with a plain grey sweat suit, felt for a tail, paint, and a little stocking cap. And then she went to town and made a little grey tabby cat costume, which Lucy was very excited about.

A quick peak in the mirror convinced her to keep her hat on and we were off to trick-or-treat.

II'd say Lucy's first trick-or-treating adventure was a big success. Although she cannot yet say "Trick or treat" she did tell every single person that gave her candy "bye" in a very cheerful and sweet voice. I think she had a great time watching all of the other kids, and the novelty of taking a walk in the dark.

Her favorite part was dumping out the loot at the end. The thing she was most excited about was a Clifford juice box. Fine with me! Grandma, Mommy and Daddy snacked on the rest. I love being a mom...

Lucy was also very interested in some playdough that someone gave out. So far, she does not yet know that it comes out of the little tub. I'd like to keep it that was for just a little bit longer!

In other news, Lucy has learned to say "thank you" and loves to say it. When we go to the grocery store, she tells the cashier "Hi! Hi! Hello!" until they acknowledge her. Then she says "Thank you" to both the cashier and the bagger until we start walking away, when she repeats "Bye! BYE!" until we are out the door. She is quite the social one sometimes.

One last Lucy story that I have to write down to make sure I remember it. When we pray before meals, she bows her head and puts her hands over her eyes (but peaks out at us between her fingers). She then attempts the Sign of the Cross, which is very similar to the sign language for please (a rubbing motion across the chest). And finally, she claps for herself and sometimes says "Amen!" It's all very sweet and makes us laugh every time.

Autumn

It's been a busy Autumn here, but that just seems to be our pace of life these days! Lucy and Jack (our little babysitting buddy) have passed about four illnesses back and forth. James has been sick twice himself. Thus far, I have luckily only gotten a few sniffles, nothing major. James has also completed his first midterm and done very well on it. It's a little unnerving when you just go through an entire semester of classes with no feedback until your final grade! That is how it is in most of his classes. But, this midterm at least was some nice positive feedback. Now, on to the pictures:

There is a fun little Chinese restaurant near us that has some great and very cheap lunch options. When we need a little pick-me-up after a hard week, we usually have a Saturday lunch here. Lucy always enjoys it too-- especially the chop sticks and the fortune cookies.

Near the end of October, we were invited to a Pumpkin Patch/Soup Party. Sounds wonderful, huh? It was a lovely day, even though it was oddly very warm. Slightly warm for soup, but it was still very fun. Lucy was very excited to see all the "puck-ahs" (pumpkins).

Lucy thought the bumpy albino pumpkins were funny, and started gravitating towards all of those.

Then she tried to push the wheel barrow, and actually succeeded in moving it a few inches...

b.... before deciding that riding in it was so much more fun.

It's always a fun day when Daddy takes a break from studying : )

Hopefully, I'll be back soon to post pictures from Halloween!

Lots of news!

So, I started this post over a month ago, and was interrupted several times, and then I accidentally deleted all of the text that went along with it. So now you get the abridged version, which is what you probably wanted anyway!

Since I last blogged, we had another power outage lasting a couple of days and also included about 10-15 minutes of gushing water coming underneath our front door. Thankfully nothing was damaged (except perhaps my sanity).

James started school at the beginning of September, and so far he's really enjoying it. September has been phenomenally busy because one of his classes is happening completely in September. So, basically one semester's worth of classes/reading is crammed into one month (along with all of the other regular classes, plus his work). We're a little exhausted and very happy to see October on the horizon. Besides an enormous amount of reading, he's really enjoyed classes. He even got to go to a conference that his school held, which was also really good.

And grand finale, I got a job! I watch a little boy named Jack, who is almost a year old. He is very sweet, and his parents are also very friendly and laid-back. Lucy and Jack have become good friends, and I think Lucy really enjoys the interaction. We pretty much spend all day ever day playing at the park, listening to music/dancing, reading books, and terrorizing Jack's cat (who semi-enjoys the attention). It's a very wonderful fit for me, and I feel so lucky to have found it!

Now for some pictures. First off, Lucy's grandma Stanley made her a very cute outfit for her birthday, and it just recently began to fit her. She loves wearing it as it has Elmo on it. Here she is modeling it on a Lucy-paced walk. I try to let her lead our walks: stopping to pick up rocks, feel some grass, or call out to a squirrel. She thoroughly enjoys it and it helps me work on my patience : )

Lucy always, always has to go over this speed bump at least twice, and she always walks on the line.

For some reason, Lucy gets a really bad rash on her face every time she eats spaghetti (one of her favorite foods, besides beans, cheese and grapes). Thus, spaghetti night is usually bath night too, because I just feel so bad for her puffy little red face!

Lucy has been playing with a lot of not-toys lately. She was recently occupied with a potato for hours, throwing it and calling it a ball. She will bring socks to me (any socks, hers, mine or James'), and whisper "Suk, suk" until I put them on her hands so she can run around with them. We call it "Sock Hand" and treat it as a Superhero/Archvillian, depending on her mood. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that, but I do have a picture of the following: Lucy with a cardboard that was around some new tupperware on her head.

We recently purchased a potty chair, but so far this is the only action it has seen.

Lucy's language has really been taking off lately. Her favorite sound seems to be "k", as here are some of her favorite words: park, walk, cracker, cookie (as in Cookie Monster, and cookie), milk, "sick" which is music, book, back (as in "Daddy will be back" and "my coat protects my back"), kitty which is pronounced "kitt-eh," sock, blanket (sometimes "banke" and sometimes "book-aye"), and that's about all I can think of though I know there is more. Another one of her favorite works is "bot," as in "Can I have a bite of that?" It's amazing to think that about six months ago she could only say mama, dada and hi. Sign language has also been so helpful to us. We don't do it terribly often, but it is so helpful with things that she needs to express but doesn't have the language for. The one we used most is "all done." It helped us avoid a lot of screaming. I recently taught her the sign for "please" and she picked that one up very quickly and uses it appropriately. It's great!

That's all the news here. I hope to take more pictures soon once September ends. Hope your autumn is off to a good start!

the Beach!

As I mentioned in the last post, the day after Lucy's godfather James visited us, we drove to Virginia Beach to visit our good friends Amanda and Steve. When we were first talking about moving to DC, one powerful selling note for me was that Amanda was moving to VA and we would therefore be relatively close. Annnnd, now they're moving to Minnesota. I am bummed, but at least we got to visit them once. Anyway, they took us to the beach, which was very exciting. I've been wanting to go to the beach all summer, and James and Lucy have never been to the ocean. All of the pictures are courtesy of Amanda.

Lucy was not at all sure she felt about the ocean.

The waves were a bit large and overwhelming, especially if you've never seen them before!

Amanda and Steve very sweetly offered to sit with Lucy while James and I played in the waves for a bit.

It was very fun, but very exhausting. I pretty much got pounded into the sand repeatedly.

Here is Lucy playing in the sand, which I think she could have done all day long.




So, the verdict is yes to sand, no to waves.

Despite the immense amount of driving that we did in this day, it was ridiculously fun. I always forget how wonderful it is to catch up with old friends. Lucy also really enjoyed their dog Reggie. She even gave him hugs. Clearly, she has joined my campaign for a dog (not now, but someday).

On a side note, poor Lucy is having a rough time lately. She's had some very fever-y, very cranky days and nights this week. No other symptoms though, so I'm pretty sure she's not sick. Maybe her molars are coming in? What a mystery...

Godfather comes to visit

Lucy's godfather James came to visit us this past weekend. We have not seen him since Christmastime, so it was very good to catch up and spend some time with him. He is a FOCUS missionary and had been stationed in New Jersey this past year, and will be in Vermont this coming year. He brought Lucy a bear, and James some Spotted Cow. I'm not sure who is more enamored with their gift.

We figured we'd take him downtown. We have not explored DC that much since we've been here, so we were kind of the blind leading the blind. We figured we'd ride the metro downtown and just find something fun to do. Lucy is not a particular fan of the metro, but is mostly good.

After getting some really confusing advice from locals, a nice woman finally walked up to us and said, "You should go to the Old Post Office. It's only a couple blocks away, and it's the best observation point in DC." We're finding that people in DC are mostly nice and willing to help out, they are just sometimes confusing or don't know what you're talking about. Chances are if you ask repetitively, someone will know what they're talking about.

The Old Post Office was a great suggestion. Free and a beautiful view.

Lucy played the harp on the metal strings.

And she enjoyed the view too.

A mysterious picture of Lucy's godfather, James.

This trip began to remind us all of a trip that we happened to take together in college. I think James and I had just started dating, and the other James asked us if we wanted to take a day trip to Chicago with him so he could go to the Chinese Embassy. It was a very fun and random trip that entailed us driving into Chicago, not really having a plan for what we were going to do, so we just walked around and goofed off all day. Also, both trips ended in us eating in Chinatown.

Both trips also involved a lot of walking. More and more, Lucy is wanting to walk herself (and will even say "walk! walk!"). I am always surprised at how happy it makes her, and how those tiny little legs do pretty well at keeping up with adult legs.

There was a wonderful godfather moment when Lucy was tired and cranky, and starting to scream. James took off his hat and plopped it on Lucy's head, who was extremely pleased.