A little bit of Lucy

We got the finger paint out again to paint the little pumpkin that had been hanging out on our porch from early October to long past Halloween...but the paint was very liquidy - does finger paint expire??  She made the most of it and had a lot of messy fun (and then we threw the rest of that paint-juice away!).

Remember when it snowed??  How strange that we got our first significant snowfall so early in the season but then no snow since...Luckily Lucy (and her daddy) made the most of it!

 

Snowball fight!


Not sure why this pic uploaded sideways but you get the idea...she cracked herself up one day by coming down from playing in her room wearing her swimsuit - over top of her clothes!  She was giggling up a storm and asked if we could get the pool out.  Um...it's winter, kid...
I suggested she "swim" in the tub and she was pleased with that idea - and even took the clothes off under her suit.  I got out the innertube and a couple of pool toys which she thought was mighty funny.  She said she was at the beach!

This little goofball has made up a term - "tootiepop!"  Usually it seems to be a silly word but sometimes I almost think she means it as an insult.  She cracks herself up when she yells, "You're a tootiepop!"

Now that's a tootiepop!


 Lucy's dance class had a little Christmas performance at Carmel Manor for the residents there - so cute!

One day we saw a lot of birds flying and she yelled,
"Look, at all of those birds!" 
I asked her where she thought they were going and she said,
"I don't know - maybe to a big nest?"

Lucy has a best friend at school.  Her name is Ava and Lucy talks about her constantly.  Her teacher has even mentioned how well these two get along and play together.  Recently Lucy received an invitation - her first invitation to a "friend" party! - to Ava's 4th birthday party.  And to make it even more exciting, the party was at "the place where we take our shoes off to play" (KidZoo).  Lucy was sooooo excited!
The party was on a Saturday and Max came down with his stomach virus the Wednesday before.  We figured it was inevitable that Lucy would catch it, too, and I was praying she wouldn't be sick and have to miss the party.  Luckily she made it to the party (but just barely - she woke up throwing up early Sunday morning...) and had the time of her life! 
It turns out Lucy was the only friend at the party - the rest of the guests were Ava's family members - and everyone there knew all about Lucy and had been excited to meet her.  Sounds like Ava talks about Lucy just as much as Lucy talks about her!

Watching these two together was so cool

Max - 7 months

Look at this growing boy!  Such a big fat baby!

He's actually been sick a couple of times lately so I don't think he's quite as big and fat as he was on track to be...at 7 months, he weighs 19 pounds, 9.5 ounces.

A few weeks ago he seemed to have a cold that was giving him (and us!) some trouble sleeping and one night he was having trouble catching his breath so Daddy took him to the doctor in the morning - he had croup!  He seemed to recover quickly from that only to catch a stomach virus that had him throwing up for about three days!  He was sweet enough to share that one with his big sister but luckily Dave and I were spared.  And though his hung around for a few days, Lucy's was (literally) out of her system within a few hours.

Despite his ailments, he's a pretty happy dude.  He is pretty friendly, too, and smiles easily.

He's still giving us a hard time at night - he continues to wake frequently - sometimes to eat, sometimes not...it's so frustrating but then he's so good and so happy during the day so it's hard to stay mad at him...we'd just love to know what we're doing wrong so we could fix it and get some sleep of our own!

We start him out in his own room in his own bed but most nights he ends up in this little lamb infant seat.  Maybe because it puts him at an incline or maybe because it snuggles him, he seems to sleep a little better in it.  Then again, maybe it's just because by that time, he's pretty exhausted, too...

No matter the reason, he's got to get over it because he's quickly outgrowing this seat!

Note to Max: this is where you should be sleeping - all nigh long!!

He's gotten really good at sitting up and loves doing so...he sits and plays so well - he loves sitting with toys and can keep himself amused pretty well for pretty long.  He still likes tummy time and has been moving around quite a bit - he can rotate on his belly in a circle and seems to be scooting around a bit - particularly backward.  He's super close to crawling - he just hasn't quite figured out how to lift that belly up!  Lucy never was much of a crawler - she figured out how to pull herself up and cruised around the furniture and then learned how to stand then walk on her own and never was too interested in crawling.  I have a feeling Maxyboy will be doing a lot of crawling, though...

He definitely loves being in his high chair, probably because he knows he's going to get fed!  He loves his cereal (especially when mixed with fruit - we rarely give it to him "plain" anymore) and has loved all of the fruits and veggies he's tried so far.  He got some puffs from Aunt Terri for Halloween and recently tried those - BIG fan!  He can't get enough of those little snacks - he had it mastered pretty quickly, reaching down and picking them up and sending them straight to his mouth.  He still usually has at least one or two trapped in his fist at the end of mealtime, though!

Super Baby Guy!

 

He hasn't done it much yet, but he's learned to clap!



This guy is a rolling fool!

He has one new, not-so-cool trick - he's recently decided not to drink milk from a bottle. 
Suddenly he won't even let the bottle make contact with his mouth!  He turns his head back and forth and starts crying...at first, I thought maybe it was just because he was sick, or maybe because of the breast milk / formula combination...but he got well and I tried breast milk only and he still wouldn't drink from the bottle.  I already use a wider bottle / nipple to make the bottle experience more like nursing...plus, he's been just fine with bottle feeding for 6 months!  He's one tricky baby!  He's refused the bottle from several people - Dad, multiple grandparents and both sitters, so it's nothing against any one person...and since we're in the middle of me being off for two weeks, I think it will probably be even harder for the sitters to get him to take a bottle once he's finally away from me all day again...we started offering him a sippy cup so maybe he's just ready to make that transition with a little more practice...

But all in all, we love this little guy and can't imagine our little family without him!

Begining to look a lot like Christmas!

We get started with our Christmas decorating the day after Thanksgiving.  I brought all of the bins of stuff up to the living room and Lucy and I dug in.  Daddy was home this time (unlike at Halloween) so he got to experience our mess.  Yes, he did crack a Bud Light before noon but no, he didn't have a panic attack!

Baby guy enjoyed the sights of crazytown!

Lucy got to put the angel on the tree again this year with Daddy's help:

We all love the tree but this little man really enjoys it!  And he's started rolling back to belly and can move around pretty well...not crawling just yet, but definitely making his move.  He loves  touching the tree.

 

Didn't Dave do a great job with the outdoor decor?!

St. Nick visited us a couple of weeks ago!

Lucy was very excited to get marshmallows and a few candy treats, a couple of pouches, some Silly Putty and a Maximus (the horse from Rapunzel) toy.  Max was thrilled with the wrappings of those items but also found some jars of baby food, some Christmas rubber duckies and a teething ring in his stocking.

She's so sweet with him...I love it!

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The library has had some fun events lately - including a Frozen party! 

It was pretty cool - we started in the party room and did a sing-along of "Let it Go." After that, Anna and Elsa showed up!  Lucy was so excited...until it was her turn to walk up and meet them...then she was shy and nervous, but we still managed a little photo op (I just had to join in)!



She was all about getting up close and personal with cardboard Olaf!



After the meet-and-greet, the kids got to make an Olaf out of marshmallows,
pretzels, an orange Tic Tac and mini chocolate chips.
Lucy's wasn't even fully assembled before she started chomping him up!



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The following week, there was a Grinch movie night!  We met at the library after hours and got to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas on  big projector screen.  After the movie, we did some Grinch-themed crafts in the meeting room.  We love our library!

 

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We went to the Festival of Lights with Uncle Jeff, Auntie Ema & Luke and GranJan and Grandpa.  Unlike last year (when we sat in traffic for about an hour and then gave up), we actually made it!  We saw this big snowman right when we got there, and Lucy actually approached him and gave him a high five!

 Lucy wrote her letter to Santa and stuck it in the big mailbox!  She dictated to me what it should say and she asked for a couple of random things (a blue horse?) in the letter but also a "special doll" - something she's asked for repeatedly whenever Christmas gifts are discussed.

She was pretty wound up all night and had a great time!

Max was there, too!  He was snuggled up in his carseat and slept a lot of the time...but yes, he was there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!  Our was wonderful and filled with many opportunities for feasting!  We ate dinner at my granny's on Thanksgiving day, with the Stallkamps at my parents' house the Sunday before and at Dave's mom's the Sunday after.

Lucy and I continued our turkey cookie tradition:

 

Lucy thought it would be special if some of the turkeys had three eyes...

 In true Stallkamp, form, we ordered pizza for dinner at my parents' house - pizza is what we're most thankful for!

Lucy got to sit at a kids table at my granny's house and she and Lucia thought they were hot stuff:

Look what our sweetie's truly thankful for!  Each kid in her class had a feather with what they were thankful for to make up all of the feathers of a turkey they hung on their classroom door:

She's thankful for her stuffed animals and baby dolls
but also for hugging her mommy and daddy!



 

Lucy did very well this year - last year, all she ate was bread...
This year she had turkey (dipped in ketchup, of course), green beans and bread!



In Lucy's old turkey butt pjs!



Lucy on the left, Maxy on the right