Christmas, part three - Santa came!

By the time Christmas morning rolled around, Lucy was pretty beat - several days of partying had caught up with her and she hadn't slept well...too much excitement!  We almost changed our plans around (the order of events) but Dave and I finally decided to awaken Sleeping Beauty and she was in a good mood and ready to go check out what this Santa visiting thing was all about:

 

Looks like Lucy was a very good girl...Santa brought her a new bookshelf / toy storage with her name on it and he even went ahead and stuck some of her old books in there (because he didn't think to bring her at least one new book...)

She got a Disney Princess castle that really talks and plays music!

She got some new shoes and some new clothes and a new giraffe chair to add to her chair collection!  She even got a new giraffe backpack...someone must have told Santa and the elves that Lucygirl likes giraffes!

 

Daddy got her a new baby and stroller and Lucy had fun pushing her around the house before posing with all of her new things:

 

 

Not long after discovering Santa's offerings, though, it was time to head to GranJan and Grandpa's house for Christmas with her grandparents, aunt, and uncles.

Lucy made out like a bandit and had so much fun opening gifts and watching everyone else open some, too.

We had all been there the night before for Christmas Eve so Lucy was happy to see that she was the only kid there on Christmas and she had full control of all of her toys there again!  She even got to sit at her little table to eat breakfast (not that she sat still for long...or ate much...too much excitement!)

We stayed until it was time to get the girl home for her nap and then get ready for Christmas at Grandma and Troy's house.

 

After nap, she got dressed in her final Christmas outfit - we found this adorable Gap jumper at a consignment shop back in September and knew it would be perfect for Christmas and we were right!

 

Lucy got her very own table and chairs set from Grandma for Christmas!  Aunt Amy even got her some Dora dishes to go with it!
She had fun with that and with her other gifts and really liked seeing her friends Eric, Tracy, Sarah and Jackson again...but this party girl was cooked!  She melted down a little easier than normal.  I didn't put her into her pajamas because we left around 7:30ish and I figured we could still do the bedtime routine (including bath, which we hadn't done at night for a few days) but I was wrong...girlfriend fell asleep long before we made it home...so getting the jumper and turtleneck off of her was a bit of a challenge (and I failed...I woke her up in the process...but she went back to sleep).

Lucy (and her parents!) had a wonderful Christmas and she hopes you did too!!

Christmas, part two

On Christmas Eve, the celebrations continued...

Dave and I started a Bob Evans tradition several years ago and now Lucy joins us there for breakfast on Christmas Eve.  She ordered French toast and fruit but only tried one or two bites of the French toast (even though it involved dip-dipping, which is a favorite mealtime activity).  She also tried some of Daddy's biscuits and gravy, some of mom's toast (she's not so sure about jelly) and her sausage link.

She loves fruit but is particular about which fruits she'll eat...she could eat a whole bunch of bananas, she loves grapes and strawberries and blueberries and will eat fruit cups of mandarin oranges, peaches and pears. 
Which fruits won't she eat?  Mainly melons - watermelon, cantaloupe, etc.  She is also weird about apples.  But at breakfast, she was eating the grapes from her bowl of fruit and she stuck a piece of cantaloupe in her mouth...I though "Jackpot!  She's going to realize she does like it!" But about five seconds after it went it, it came back out...and into my hand.  Whenever she tries something she doens't like, she insists upon sticking the gooey, chewed up, sucked on item into my hand...

Later that afternoon, we met my parents and baby brother at St. Pius for Christmas mass. 

Ready to go!  Adorable outfit from Old Navy

Lucy was a pretty good girl, though Uncle Jason let her escape at one point.  He was sitting on the end and Lucy and I were more in the middle...she went past me to my mom, who let her past her to my dad, who let her past him to my brother...who let her exit the pew!  She was captured pretty quickly, though.  She had a pouch and maybe another snack and played with a couple of small toys but I also let her have her B during church.
She wasn't my biggest fan when I made her give it back afterward, but we were at the party soon enough...she was a little overwhelmed because she's not used to sharing space - let alone her toys! - at GranJan's house but she had fun.
She got some new pjs and some Little People from her friend Lucia for Christmas!  And, of course, she got to hang with her pal Cleo.

After some fun - and gifts and dinner - at GranJan and Grandpa's house, it was time to go to Great-Granny and Great-Grandpa's house.  Great-Grandpa made her (and Lucia and Jared) a new chair!

 

She had another fun

Christmas, part one

Our Christmas celebrations started on Sunday, December 23 this year.

We got ready - Lucy in her pink and brown giraffe print Gymboree outfit - and went to the Stallkamp Christmas at my Uncle Mike and Aunt Judi's house.

My aunt and uncle have two granddaughters and a toy room to show for it...Lucy was in heaves playing with new babies and new baby accessories!  She was not as nervous there as she usually is when she first gets to unfamiliar places and weaved through the crowd of people she rarely sees to get to and from that room of babies!

 

 

 

After that, it was time to go to Grandma and Grandpa Meyers' house.

Lucy was very adventurous at dinner and tried new things and ate very well...maybe she was just excited to be wearing her Santa bib!  She ate several bites of prime rib (though she may have dunked them in ketchup...) and ate a bit of angel hair pasta (among other things).

But soon it was time to play with cousin Alli and Aunt Nikki and Daddy and Uncle Craig...

 

Lucy had a lot of fun jumping on Alli's old trampoline!  She kept coming back to it for more jumps, despite the plethora of new toys scattered throughout the basement.

 She also had a lot of fun with Aunt Nikki and Steven's dog, Scout.  At this point, Lucy was a bit slap happy - it was getting late but she was all wound up and still in a great mood.  She and this little dog chased each other around the pillar for quite awhile and I just love this picture of them:

Before we left, she had another little snack but luckily, she'd changed into her pjs before we left...though we only live about 1 minute from Grandma and Grandpa, my little party girl was fast asleep before we made it home.

Cookie night 2012

Lucy came along again this year for our annual cookie night with ABC:


Good thing Daddy has long arms!



 

Auntie got Lucy her own apron!

 

Getting caught eating the sprinkles...

 

 

 

 

 

"Cheeeeeeeeese!"

 

 



Lucy had a lot of fun making cookies - rolling the dough and using the cookie cutters, then sprinkling the iced cookies - but she came and went...she left us several times to tend to her babies.

After the cookies were made and decorated, all of the kiddies got their pjs on and cuddled up on the couch to watch Elf.

Ponytail!

Guess who has enough hair for a real ponytail...and knows how cute it is!

 

(These pics were taken the first week of December so this news is almost a month old...)

21 months old...on Christmas!

It's hard to believe but my sweet baby girl is nearly 2 years old!
She now weighs 29 pounds and 7.5 ounces
She is 33.5 inches tall

As your child's communication skills improve, some - but unfortunately not all - of her temper tantrums will fade away. Encourage her new expressiveness by helping her use words to let you know what she needs. Just don't hold out for complete sentences quite yet.

YOUR BABY IS 92 WEEKS OLD

At this point, your toddler probably loves to hum or sing songs. She may also be trying to carry a tune, which is to say the notes she sings may vary in pitch. She might have a sense of timing when she sings. Try clapping or tapping along and encourage her to do the same when she's listening to music. And introduce her to simple rhyming songs - it's a great way to get her experimenting with sounds and words.                                                              
I got both of those blurbs in my email this week...
At times it seems clear that Lucy is approaching her terrible twos!  Other times, it almost seems like we may be able to avoid them, or at least get lucky with the severity.  Only time will tell but she continues to be a good communicator, both with spoken words and signed words.  She knows the sign for "help" and can also say it clearly so Dave and I have been encouraging her to ask for help.  Often, she'll be playing nicely by herself but suddenly burst out in a fit - crying and stomping and flailing arms...We just gently ask her, "Lucy, what do you need?" and 9 times out of 10, she'll stop the fit and say/sign help.  She gets frustrated easily, which may be something she picked up from her mama...

She's definitely becoming quite a little songstress...just today, she was signing Happy Birthday in the car!  And remember that "La la, la la la Lucy" song I made up?  She totally signs that one!  She breaks out in the "Lucy song" on her own but will also sing it upon request (if she's in the mood).

Lucy is also starting to put multiple words together.  Yesterday she and I were in her room playing and she came across her blocks.  She and her daddy play with blocks together a lot.  Dave was downstairs and she yelled down, "Daddy!  Blocks!  Baby!  Bed!"
He's pretty handy with the blocks and usually builds something for her baby out of them and she was yelling down asking him to come build her baby a bed out of blocks!
He was enjoying some quiet time downstairs but how could he say no to that??

Christmas is a'comin'!

We went to lunch with Santa at the city building last weekend and this was as close as my girl would get to Santa:

Not bad!  I had her on my opposite hip, closer to Santa, and she wiggled around to get herself a little further away from the big guy but I was still proud of her!

She had fun making some crafts, eating some pizza, and running around with Alli.

 

Last night we went to the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo with GranJan and Grandpa.  Lucy was in a MOOD at first so we were all a little unsure of how the night would go but it turned out to be a nice night!

 

They had a little workshop set up where kids could write a letter to Santa (or, in Lucy's case, scribble all over a letter template) so Daddy helped her with hers.

GranJan and Grandpa showed her where to "mail" her letter (though she opted to keep hers instead).