2 years and 5 months old!

Hard to believe!  I often tell her she's still my baby...sometimes she agrees and sometimes she tells me, "I'm yours little girl."  Still other times she argues that she's a big girl now!

We weighed and measured her on Sunday and here are the results:
Weight - 33 pounds and 14 ounces
Height - 3 feet and 1 inch

A 2 year and 5 months old (female) child
who is 34 pounds
and is 3 feet and 1 inches tall has
a body mass index of 17.5,
which is at the 83th percentile, and would indicate that your child is at a healthy weight.

She's a great little helper and she reminds us of this fact frequently, "I good helper!"
She's getting better about using "I" instead of "me" (though she still uses "me" often) and has even been known to stop mid-sentence and correct herself!

Look at our cute little dishwasher!

Recently we made cupcakes...just for the heck of it.  She's such a good baker!



I said, "Be careful with the star sprinkles because they come out fast...just shake a little." 
She said okay and proceeded to turn the shaker upside down, emptying the entire thing...



Lately she really likes to be a "naked baby" so that's what we've got going on here...
And in making do with the lack of kitchen space, we plopped down on the floor. 
I was sitting on the rug in front of the sink and told her she could get a blanket or a pillow to sit on -
she needed both...


We went for a walk a few weekend's ago and met some ducks to feed and strolled through a little nature trail and took pics:




She likes wearing flip flops...though she pronounces it more like "tip tops"

We were hot when we got back so she decided to go for a swim:

The next day we went to the zoo...

I got her ice cream in a bowl so she could eat it more easily...I also had it loaded with sprinkles...
and at first, she was very happy...

But then she saw - and proceeded to steal - my ice cream cone... 




Lucy has ridden the train before with friends - Cooper and Dominic -
but neither Dave nor I had ever ridden it before.
So we had our first family train ride at the zoo on Sunday, August 11

 
On Lucy's first day of school, I called there to see how things were going and Miss Megan said, "She's really smart!"  I told Dave she probably tells all of the parents that but I totally ate it up!  And a week or so later, when I picked her up, Megan said, "She told me your birthday is in May, hers is in March and her daddy's is in July."  When I confirmed that all of those were correct, she was shocked!  She said she has a 3-year-old who doesn't know when his own birthday is, let alone his parents'!
But she is very obsessed with her birthday and tells us it's "twenty-fifty of March" (March 25 in toddler speak).  And when we're out, she often picks out things she wants for her birthday...

Other funny things she says:
She likes to ring the "ding bell."  I nearly peed my pants the first time she said it and made her repeat it several times...I haven't felt the need to correct her.
She calls Aladdin's lady-friend Jam-sin (instead of Jasmine)
The day after today?  Tuh-mah-no

She still loves it when candy turns her tongue colors:

Thanks for the ring pop, Charlie!

She LOVES drinking from the water fountain...
or, as I call it, saturating the front of her shirt...
But look at her on her tippy-toes!



I showed this picture to my brother, Jeff, who said I must be growing up
since I shared my rocket pops with my girl!

 

My artist did some more creating recently:



I had the idea to paint her foot but then she had the idea to paint my foot...



Before and after she noticed the camera...(never lost her focus on the television...)

Happy Birthday, Gran Jan! 



Cake Monster!

 She still loves tv and movies but more and more, she is choosing to read books instead.  We've been borrowing a lot more books from the library. 
Her favorite movies lately are the Madagascar movies.

I usually take her up to bed in the evenings and our routine of late is to read two books - usually "Five Little Ducks" plus a Llama book - and then I put her in bed and turn on her "bedtime music."  I found a bedtime story book with a lullaby CD at TJMaxx on clearance a week or two ago and picked it up and it was a very well-spent $2!  The first two nights, I turned it on and left the room and Lucy went right to sleep!  Now I usually stay in her room (sitting in the rocking chair for a bit) until she falls asleep but it's typically very smooth and quick.  I think Buddy Man can retire after nearly two and a half years of great service!

Her favorite things to do include playing outside, playing Little People and playing with her "barbie castle," and playing with baby dolls!  She still loves her baby dolls so much!!  She also likes playing school and pretending it's nap time.  "I gettin' tired," she'll say and she'll make herself a bed and "go to sleep."  Silly girl!
She also loves to take showers!  She'd probably stand in there for an hour if I'd let her but we usually haul her out after about 5 minutes.  She's pretty good about washing but she's primarily interested in drinking the water as it showers directly into her mouth...

More about my school girl

Lucy managed to make it through 2 week's of "school" without catching anything...but 3 weeks is where her streak ended...she currently has a bit of a cold which revealed itself on Friday.  Luckily, it has not affected her sleep or her attitude much.  In fact, these are from this morning before school:

Pretty happy!  Dave took her to school today (I've been taking her most mornings) because I refuse to take her on Mondays mornings after Monday, August 12's fiasco...

That Monday she was really sleepy and really didn't want to be awoken.  She was not in the mood for anything and when we got to school, Miss Megan wasn't there (some days she comes in at 7am and some days she comes in at 8am and we get there around 7:30).  Lucy cried and cried and didn't want me to leave.  The teacher in her room that morning was one we'd never met which wasn't helping matters.  I finally settled her into a chair (and off of me) and made my escape but I stayed in the hall to watch her for a bit.  Heartbreaking.  She just sat in the chair crying and crying.  The teacher wasn't paying her much attention and wasn't able to console her when she briefly tried so I went back in.  I picked up my poor, sweet baby (who managed to stop crying as I was picking her up) and took her outside to talk (after grabbing a tissue to tend to the waterfall of snot).  I kept talking to her about how I had to go to work and how she had to stay at school and she kept suggesting that she come to work with me...or that I stay at school with her.  She was on the verge of another breakdown...so I asked her if she thought we should drive home to get her B.
 
Yes, I know this was a huge no-no.  Dropping her off and "leaving" for a few minutes and then going back in to "rescue" her?  And actually taking her out of the classroom - then out of the building and off the premises?  Bad Dani.  But it was horrible.  Awful.  I debated taking a vacation day so you should be proud this is all I did!  We drove home and retrieved the B and went back to school and even then, she wasn't happy.  But I sat her down in the reading area, read a book with her, and told her to put her B away when she was feeling better.  Thankfully, as I was (finally) leaving, Miss Megan walked in.  So yeah...Miss Megan started work at 8am that day...the same time I was supposed to start work that day...

I know she was tired and I know if she couldn't have me, she wanted Miss Megan but I called later just to be sure and Megan said she was fine - no more tears and she only used the B for 5 minutes and she'd been having a great day ever since.

I've since learned that Megan's late mornings are Mondays and Fridays which just so happen to be the days I nominate Dave for dropoff!

Actually, I manned up and took her on Friday and it ultimately went fine, though she gave me a scare when we arrived.  As we were walking in, she asked me, "Think Miss Megan be in there?"  She had never asked me this before - I'd taken her Tues-Thurs that week and she never asked.  SHE KNEW!  I know she knew.  I don't know how she knew, but she knew, and I knew I was screwed...
I told her, "She might not be here yet but if not, she will be here soon," and she said, "I think she be in there now."
Yikes!
My stars were aligned, though, because even though Megan wasn't there yet, Lucy did fine.  Whew!

So obviously the girl loves her teacher!  We love her, too, but seeing how much Lucy loves her makes us love her all the more.
Lucy is starting to talk about her classmates more, too, which is wonderful.  At first, Megan said she didn't really play with others and when we asked Lucy who her school friends were, she'd say, "I not know theirs names yet."  But we're told she's playing with them more and she now knows several names!
This weekend:

Playing with her Little People schoolhouse:
"You be Miss Megan and I be Lucy and Ella and Everett"


After her first week of school, when we were told she never uses her B at school (and neither do any other kids in her class), we thought we'd try to eliminate the B at nap time.  I made a big deal about it one day and said it would be just like nap time at school - so she wanted to make a bed on the floor...

With her B...


Several times per week, there is a note about the class' day or week and here are the few we've seen so far:

And Megan and the class made some artwork last week:

We already knew she was a great artist, though...award-winning, in fact:
This little leprechaun helped Lucy to win an iPod from Beef O'Bradys!

We always choose school clothes the night before and my girl is getting pretty tricky.  Apparently, she comes up with dream ensembles inside her head and expects me to make it happen...like when she wanted a "sparkly dress," though she doesn't own one...One day last week, she requested her butterfly shirt. 
Uh...I don't know how to tell you this (even though I am pretty sure you already know and are screwing with me), but you don't have a butterfly shirt!  (But Dave remembered that she has a butterfly pajama shirt so the new rule is, if you buy Lucy pj's, you also have to buy her a similar-looking outfit - she has also, more than once, suggested wearing "Ariel dress" which is, indeed, a nightgown).
I pulled out everything I could find with a butterfly and this dress has a small one up top and a big one down low and seemed to do the trick for my tricky girl.

She also usually likes to decide how to wear her hair, which is pretty cute.

GranJan enjoyed the butterfly shirt story (evil) but is forgiven for her laughter since she bought Lucy a new butterfly shirt!  The picture on the left is what I got when I asked her if I could take a pic of the butterfly shirt...in the picture on the right, she finally turns around but is still cracking herself up.  That day she wanted a "little ponytail."

Look how long her hair is!!!!!!

I can hardly stand how cute this kid is...she loves to wear "pretty dresses."  Good thing we don't have any ugly dresses!

Miss Megan said she has a soft spot for Lucy and her smiles...which, again, makes me love Miss Megan!!  And she senses how much Lucy loves her, too...she said if another teacher walks in (just to stop by, to deliver something, to ask a question, etc.) Lucy starts to lose it, thinking Miss Megan is going on her break!

I am sure there are many more stories to come of Lucy's school adventures!

School girl

After over 2 years of private in-home care, we decided it was time for Lucy to start "school."  We've loved all of her sitters (and so has she!) and we love the care, attention, and love she has received at each place!  She's been around dogs and various adults and other kids in a range of ages...and she's had many fun adventures!  But now that she's older and more independent, we thought school would be a great idea to get her into a routine/schedule and to start interacting with other kids her age a bit better.

Initially we considered doing a facility 3 days per week and a sitter the other two days but ultimately decided the 5 day school schedule would be best.

We looked at the Little Red Schoolhouse in Alexandria but we didn't love it. 
Next, we visited Kids and Cribs in Ft. Thomas.  We were obviously looking for an extended-care facility but wanted one with a "preschool" portion of the day. 
We really liked Kids and Cribs but wanted to check out at least one more place so we stopped in at Abby's Child Enrichment Center in Highland Heights and really liked that one, too.  Lucy went with us on all of our visits and got used to talking about and seeing schools.  We talked a lot about how she was going to start school and she seemed to be on board with the "Lucy goes to school while Mama and Daddy go to work" idea.
We really liked Abby's, too, and Dave said for him it was a tie.  Abby's had the slightest edge for me and since it's basically at the top of our street (and in our backyard!) we chose them.

Her first day of school was on Monday, August 5 and I took her before heading off to work.  She and I had walked up there the night before to check it out again and Lucy got to play with the toys in what would be her classroom and even got to play on the playground with some of her future classmates!  She seemed excited - even when we had to wake her up earlier than she'd have preferred on Monday morning.

We let her hang onto her B all morning since something crazy/new was happening but it really wasn't necessary (though she told me she needed to bring that blanky - even though there was another one in her bag for nap time - because "me love this blanky").  She handed it over when we pulled into her school and she bounded into the building, then her classroom, turning to say, "Follow me, mama!"  She went straight to the table with her breakfast and started eating and after I took her picture, she said, "Bye, mama!"  I was dismissed!

Dave picked her up after lunch and her teacher, Miss Megan, said she'd done very well (I had not yet met her teacher - she was on vaca the previous week and didn't come in that morning until 8am and I left at about 7:35)!

Being silly before school (day 2)...

The next morning went about the same.  
When we got there, I got a chance to finally meet her teacher as Lucy got settled with her breakfast.  Megan had seen the B in her bag the day before and held it up and asked Lucy if she uses it and Lucy answered honestly, "Only when sleeping."  She hadn't stayed through nap on Monday but was going to the rest of the week and Megan asked if it was okay if she left the B in the bag and waited to see if Lucy would ask for it.  I laughed but told her that was fine and assured her that Lucy would definitely ask for it.  She told me no other kid in the class uses a pacifier (at least not at school!) but I was still confident Lucy would ask for hers...but I was WRONG!  She did not ask for it that day or Wednesday or Thursday!  Hooray for Lucy!  We may try to phase the B out at nap time all together...we'll see how that goes...
That day before I left, she asked, "You stay with me, mama?" but when I told her I had to go to work (then reminded her that we'd go to the library together that night) she was fine with it!

Wednesday was a little rougher...she woke up grouchy and wanted me to take her to school even though it was daddy's day to take her...and when he left her at school, she cried - but I called later and confirmed that it was very short-lived.


We have been picking clothes out the night before - thank goodness!  I could see it taking a loooooooong time in the morning...I usually ask her if she wants to wear shorts, a skirt or a dress and then pull out two or three options for her to choose from.  On Wednesday night, she picked "dress" and when I held up her choices, she kept shaking her head and saying, "No!  Sparkly one!"  What?!  One of the option had some sparkly spots (NOT good enough for her!) but she does not own a dress that is entirely sparkly!  We were nearing melt-down mode when I remembered this giraffe shirt.  It has been folded inside out in her drawer since after the first and only time she wore it (on our Columbus vaca).  You can't really tell from these pictures but those giraffes are made of sparkly, flaky glitter that got everywhere...I thought about throwing that sucker in the garbage can but luckily I kept it because it satisfied her sparkly need!

Drop off went smoothly - this girl just keeps making me increasingly proud!

I got to pick her up for the first time last night and she gave me a big smile and "Mama!" but then said, "I miss daddy..."  She was used to him picking her up, I suppose...

But luckily she said it was okay that I picked her up this time and she pulled me over to her bag to retrieve the artwork she'd made that day (and when we got home, she hung it on the fridge all by herself!).  I'd surprised her by bringing her pink car with me and we walked home which made her pretty happy!

We read her daily report for Thursday and saw that she'd napped for over 2 hours...from just before 1pm until after 3pm (which is kind of late for her) but hoped that running around outside at Daddy's softball game that night (which always results in a slightly later bedtime) would do the trick.  It did not.  We've been getting her in bed and asleep right around 9om all week...last night was more like 10:30...which means she was a super grouchy gal this morning...I dropped her off and it was not fun...that is all I have to say about that...

But overall, Lucy seems to really enjoy school and we are so proud of her!  We asked her if she has any friends there yet and she said, "Yeah...but I not know theirs names yet."

Pretty little dancer

Cleo and I went to the big Manyet recital in the Spring and on the back of the program, it mentioned dance sign-ups and the fact that young dancers could begin at age two.  Cleo encouraged me to sign Lucy up so I went to their website soon after.  I saw that they offered a summer session which was just a 30 minute class a week for 6 weeks.  I figured we'd give it a try.  I found this pretty little dance class leotard in a bag of dress ups handed down by...you guessed it - Cleo!

We already owned the leg warmers, which perfected the look, and I had one excited and adorable "dancing girl" on my hands!  As I was getting her dressed and fixing her hair, Dave watched and asked, "You've been thinking about this all day, haven't you?"  So what!?

She was sooooo excited to go to dance class!  We got there and she took it all in and stood where she was supposed...and then she continued to stand.  She smiled and looked around wide-eyed but she really didn't participate in any of the dances (except for one near the end of class which involved walking, marching, hopping, and dancing around the room - if she didn't follow the little gal in front of her, she'd have gotten trampled!) unless I moved her body for her (which she loved).  But even though she didn't really do the dances, I could tell she'd been loving life.

Afterward, I suggested going to get ice cream and the life-loving continued!

We went to Coco Berry by our house and had "brown ice cream" (cookies and cream flavor frozen yogurt) with "LOT sprinkles"!

The following week she was excited again as we got ready. 

She'd already become an old pro and led the way into class.  We had a different outfit to wear the second week...a skirt I'd purchased for her to wear to her 2nd birthday party (before I found one that was way better) and a shirt on loan from RC.  Week two she participated a little bit more, especially during her favorite dance - the butterfly song.  Each girl is given two scarves that they extend slowly during the slow parts of the song (butterfly) and move quickly while bouncing around on their tip-toes during the fast parts (bumblebee).

After class when I asked if she was ready to go home, she said, "NO!  Ice cream store!"

Week three she wore her birthday party skirt and got multiple compliments from the other mom's in the class! 

For this class, the Tiny Tunes class, the little dancer participates with an adult.  I went with Lucy each week and most week's the other girl's had their mamas with them, too, though one week several of them had their dad as a partner instead.  Lucy liked it when I moved her arms for her but also participated on her own to a few songs.  She definitely loves the butterfly song!  There were several different color scarves - orange, pink, green and yellow.  Some of the girls really wanted a particular color and I am soooo thankful Lucy didn't mind which color she got!  There were no complete meltdowns from her classmates when they didn't get the color of their dreams but there were some unhappy moments at times...

Auntie Ema was thinking about having her baby that night so we had to hurry home after class so I could go to the hospital but Lucy was excited to see Grandma so she didn't put up a fight about not going to the "ice cream store."

Week four: 

She chose to wear her 1st week outfit again.  This week Miss Megan broke out the parachute and Lucy loved it!  During most other dances, she turns to check to make sure I am still there and doing the dances with her at least once.  When the parachute comes out, though, I become invisible!  Everyone had to hold a handle and follow Miss Megan's instructions - lift it high, drop it low, shake really fast, etc.

Yes, we went to the ice cream store after class!

Week five and she had a brand new dance class outfit and leg warmers to wear, courtesy of GranJan and Donna!

 Hooray for parachute!

And hooray for ice cream store after class!

For the last week of class, all of the dancers were allowed to invite one friend to come watch them dance.  Lucy chose Cleo!  They walked in together and over to her "spot" (each girl has a spot to stand on during class - except for during the dances like the march around the room or the Hokey Pokey) but then Lucy just stood there (and probably confused Cleo) and kept turning to look for me.  Donna, A and I were in the lobby watching and at one point, Lucy came running out to me so Cleo and I switched places.  A, Cleo and Donna all came in to watch (so we broke the one visitor rule but no one seemed to mind and there were empty chairs available) and Lucy and I did our best to entertain. 

Lucy also loves when we get these sticks...there are a couple of songs we use them for and they make her pretty happy...she likes to tap-tap-tap their sticks together!  There is a variety of colors in the sticks, too, and luckily it does not matter to her what color she gets of these, either! 

Our friends were late for Cleo's soccer practice so they had to jet but don't worry...my dance partner and I still made it to our weekly ice cream date! 

While at the ice cream store after the last class, we ran into one of Lucy's classmates, Tenley, and her mom and grandma.  Tenley's mom and I talked about whether we were going to sign up again for the fall.  At times when Lucy was just standing instead of dancing per instruction, it felt like all of the other girls were actually participating but I guess that's not entirely the case.  Tenley's mom said her daughter seemed to like the class but there were portions where she wouldn't participate...she said there was one song in particular she'd been singing and dancing to at home but then when it was time for that song in class, she refused to move.  So I don't have the only goofy girl!  Because many times at home, out of the blue, Lucy has said to me, "I be Miss Megan, you be Lucy!" and she has taught me dance class!  But in the studio, she freezes...I could still tell she loved it and when she reenacted it in a positive way at home, that sealed the deal.

So yes, I signed her up to dance again in the fall and her first class with be on her Grandpa Stallkamp's birthday - September 11 (we did Monday nights in the summer but will move to Wednesdays in the fall).  I believe she may even be in the recital next Spring!