My favorite

Lucy had a really great Valentine's Day...the party seemed to live up to her expectations and when we got home, she and I gave Daddy a little Valentine's gift and she asked, "Do I get a Valentine's present, too?"
Of course!

She was pretty pumped about "Frozen music" (the soundtrack) and an Anna doll!
She also got another valentine in the mail...from Grandma and Troy!

And I finally got to see the beautiful box she made at school for all of her valentines from her friends:

Complete with three feathers, just like she told me!

The next day, Lucy and I went with Sam and Katie to see Mickey's Music Festival!  Katie spotted a good deal on Cincysavers.com and I was pretty excited about it (though my friend Christa had to one-up us and win tickets - for better seats! - on the radio!  But we were happy our friends Claire Bear and Karli could see the show, too).
Lucy and Sam loved it!!

And Lucy got a feel for what it will be like to have a partner in the backseat of the car.  At first they took turns being super noisy in the car and Sam had the first shift...he chattered noisily the whole way to the show.  Afterward, we went to Skyline for dinner and it was Lucy's turn to make all of the noise.  They ganged up on us on the [thankfully short] ride from Skyline back to my house and were so noisy that Katie and I couldn't even talk to one another in the front seat!

Sam's a pretty easy-going, likeable guy but I was still pretty proud of my girl...she had a great time with him, even when we got back home - the two of them went up to her room to play for a few minutes - unsupervised! - and continued to have fun!

Last Saturday had to be one of her favorite days ever...in the morning, she got to deplete my sticker stash by making Grandma a birthday card, then we had our fun Mickey adventure, and that night we met Grandma and Troy and Aunt Amy for Grandma's birthday celebration and she was allowed to order a bowl of ice cream (since she'd already eaten dinner earlier).  We may be in trouble the next time we're in a restaurant!

This week we made an impromptu trip to the library.  Since we (I) didn't plan it, we didn't bring back any of the books we have out but as soon as we walked in, Lucy looked at me and asked, "Do we have any books to borrow back?"  Don't you just love kid-speak?!
She walked in and there was a little boy playing in the kid's area.  She walked right over to him and he said, "I'm playing with dinosaurs, see?" and she smiled and kind of giggled, "I see that!"  The little boy followed Lucy around and they talked about puzzles and other toys and at one point, she brought me a book and asked me to read it to her - and she was totally fine with it when her new friend sat with her to listen.  Then the two of them went off to the side to read:

She's getting better at befriending other kids and it's so cool to watch! 


Look how cute (and how big and grown up!) she looked before school that day in a dress she got from GranJan and Grandpa for Christmas:



Super silly!

 Guess who got to play outside for a bit this week!!  These two are a bit mischievous...

Since baby #2 isn't out yet, can I still call #1 my favorite??
I had a doctor appointment yesterday and things are looking great with #2.  Dr. Lea said, based on the old wives tale and the baby's heart rate, he'd guess boy (he doesn't know, either!)...not much longer before we find out!  Lucy currently thinks if it's a boy, he shall be Leo and if it's a girl, she shall be Leah...

Lucy lately

Lucy was slightly under the weather for about a month...she had a cough that she just couldn't shake so we took her to the doctor - who basically said we had to wait it out. 
That wasn't working out so well  and one day we got a call from her school that she had a fever and needed to be picked up. 
When we got home, Lucy wanted to put her pjs on and rest on the couch but that lasted only a few minutes...soon enough, she was running around the place and requesting lunch.  I took her temperature and she didn't seem to have a fever at that point but I'd called the doctor anyway and he finally called her in something for the lingering cough (and it finally knocked it out...hooray!).  Lucy has never been one to act pitiful - or cute and cuddly - when sick...in fact, Dave said, "If she's going to be home, she's going to work!" and put her on dishes duty!

Soon enough, she was feeling lots better!

This silly girl finds entertainment in the most unique of ways...she spent at least a half an hour playing with a container of "coinies" one night...she put them on this little tray and pushed/pulled them around the house - then added her baby and said she was going sled riding, she made up a game where we had to toss the coins, and best of all - she helped clean them up when she was done.

One night last week, before bath, she took her clothes off and ran around the house yelling, "Naked kid!"  It was hilarious (and weird) but made me said because she would previously say, "naked baby."  My babe is turning into a kid!

Lucy had a lot of fun making tiny cupcakes for Uncle Jeff's birthday / the Super Bowl party at Gran Jan and Grandpa's house.  She also made a card for him and had tons of fun doing so...she's getting very good at making birthday cards!

She's especially good at taste-testing...

There was one day - Saturday, February 1 - where it wasn't super freezing cold, windy and snowy...and Super Luce took advantage!  She put on her new cape she got at Reese's party, grabbed a baby and stroller and headed out!  We walked up to EJay's Plaza and got to visit her "gas station" (aka the drive up ATM).  We've been suffering from cabin fever along with everyone else so it was nice to have a brief outdoor adventure.

One night she was looking at my foot and declared that she, too, needed a flower "painted" on her foot.  She settled for a washable marker version and it was way too cute...luckily, Dave thought so, too - I was afraid he'd be mad that I was tattooing our not-even-3-year-old...

She's obsessed with picking out her pajamas each night - and she can be very particular.  Heaven forbid the pair she has in mind happen to be in the laundry...last week, she chose to be a silly skeleton:

Being a sweetie...

 

Smiles for dad (who was standing behind me as I took this pic)




Lucy Being silly with mom on the way to dance class...



We've had some dance class issues lately...

One night I had a baby doctor appointment so Daddy took her...and watched her stand there the entire time and not do a single dance...

The next week I took her and expected her to go back to "normal" (the week prior to Dave taking her, she did every dance and seemed to really enjoy the entire class).  Wrong-o. 
We were still in the midst of fighting that pesky cough and she was in a MOOD.  Probably, we should have just sat that week out, and we did end up leaving early.  It was ugly.  She was being a jerk, I was being a jerk and it was just bad, bad news.  The next week, class was cancelled due to weather.

This week, she was feeling healthy and was in a great mood and was looking cute...but I was still nervous...I decided that if she didn't seem to enjoy class this week, we were done.  Why force the issue if she isn't into it?  But...after a slow start (another little gal stood on the purple spot she had her eye on so she had to do at least 5 minutes of pouting over that, which meant she missed the first two songs), she really got into it and had a good time and looked adorable.  I still have very low expectations of her participating in the recital but we'll keep trying!

By the way, her recital will be on Saturday, May 31 at 4pm at Mt. St. Joe.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Lucy got her first valentine in the mail yesterday from GranJan and Grandpa and it made her pretty happy...the card had baby princesses!

For the week of love, Lucygirl wore hearts every day:

At the library on Monday

Having a "picnic" on Tuesday



Ready for dance class on Wednesday

Before school on Thursday



Before school with her giant mama on Friday



She's having a party at school today and she is SOOOO excited about it!  She told me they all made boxes for their valentines - out of tissue boxes!  She said she put THREE feathers on hers...can't wait to see it!

This morning we stopped at Busken to get some treats for her teachers and as we were walking out, she looked around and said, "This is a cool store!"

She got a big heart cookie for Ms. Megan and one for Ms. Florence (who's often in her room in the mornings).  She presented each one of them with their cookie, a "Happy Valentine's Day!" and a hug...it was so cute and I was so proud of her.

She also got herself a cookie and one for me...she's a sweetie!  In the car, she said, "I'm your valentines!  And I'm daddy's valentines, too!"

Lucy's teacher has been sending us daily letters about the day and we got this one last week:

Dear Parents,

                       Today our class had a great time!  We continued talking about animals hibernating and also starting talking about Valentines Day.  We read 'Cliffords Valentines' and 'My Friend Bear.'  We introduced the sign language for Water and Lucy introduced us to sign for Friends.  We played a new game with introducing the letter A with posters around the room.  It also helps with reviewing colors. :)          

                       Our friends used markers and stickers decorating our valentines for our loved ones.  Ella wanted hearts all over her card for her daddy, while Skylar wanted hers for her sissy.  Everett and Jack played with firetrucks and Owen played with a dump truck pretending to save people from fires and monsters.  Hannah, Ella, Natalie, Skylar, and Lucy played with their blankets and pretended to save people also.  They were Super Girls though. :) We had an exciting fun day! Have a Great Night!

And another good one yesterday:

Dear Parents,

                Today our class had a great time!  We started the day off with thinking about what we are most thankful for.  Everett started off with saying he was thankful for his mommy.  Lucy said the same but added her daddy.  Jack said mommy and daddy also but added his dogs. The rest of the class agreed with Lucy and said mommy and daddies. :) We added another word to the list of sign language.  Jack asked how to say cheese and before Ms. Megan could answer, Lucy was showing us!  We read three books about Spot the Dog, and counted to twenty.  

                 The class finished up decorating our Valentines Day boxes and made pretty pictures!  Skylar drew some robots and the sun.  Ella drew her family and Natalie drew some circles and hearts.  We pretended we were birds and flew around the room.  We also sang A is for Apple while hopping on one foot. :) Have a great night!

It seems she really remembers a lot of her signs and I am so proud of her!

Have a great weekend!

33 months old!

As of this past Saturday, there are only 2 months until our girl is THREE YEARS OLD!  Where does the time go?
She is now 3 feet 2 inches tall - 2 inches taller than she was in September at 2.5!
She weighs 33.5 pounds - a half pound less than at 30 months...I knew she was stretching out!

Look at my poor babe...she was soooo sick, can't you tell??
Seriously, though, despite her waiting room energy and her appearance, we took her to the doctor last Friday (01/17) because she'd had a cough all week that she just couldn't shake.  It was pretty intense and she'd have lengthy coughing fits in the night (though, miraculously, they rarely woke her up).  A couple of kids in her class had pneumonia the week before and with so much going around, we decided to take her in.  She basically got a clean bill of health - lungs clear, ears looked great, etc. but we were told the cough could linger for another week - which is has...and continues to do...so at least a call - if not another visit - to the doctor is probably in order.

Recently, Dave and I had a parent-teacher conference at Lucy's school (how cute is that?!) and Lucy had her own first while we attended...she saw her first "big movie" with GranJan and Uncle Jason!  They took her to see Frozen (and she's been talking about it ever since!  She keeps handing me the remote and asking me to find her "big movie" on our tv...)  They said she did great and only got antsy in the last 15 minutes or so...so without the 20 minutes of previews at the beginning, it would have been perfect!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Miss Megan???  We got sooo lucky having her as Lucy's first teacher...Lucy loves her, we love her, she's learning so much from her and Miss Megan loves her, too!  That's all I really want in a caretaker for my girl...someone who will take great care of her but also love her (but realize they are not her parent).  We talked about Lucy's faults but Miss Megan stressed that Lucy's good qualities far outweigh her bad and that she's perfectly normal...and she basically said Lucy's one of her favorites.  Dave tries to persuade her to switch to the 3 year old teacher once Lucy's ready to move on up but sadly, Megan didn't seem interested...
One of the reasons we started sending Lucy to school was to help with her socialization with other kids...she's never been great at playing with kids, though she's awesome at playing with adults and playing independently.  It seems this really hasn't changed (which we pretty much already knew).  Lucy has her favorite classmates and will play a bit with them but continues to prefer to play independently.  Sometimes she shares well but other times...not so much.  Like they have a bin of Little People (something Lucy has an abundance of at home) and Lucy will not let others play with them!  She could be playing with ONE of them and if another kid tries to take a different one, Lucy lets them have it...we have some work to do...
Speaking of letting them have it...she yelled at Sam pretty good (bad?) on New Year's Day so I brought that up - does she ever yell at her classmates?  Megan admitted that she has done that, but not regularly, and she isn't the only one...but it's another thing we need to work on...
But she has her good qualities, too!  She's very sweet, she loves to be teacher's helper and she is super smart.  Yay Lucy!

Opening her coat to show off her cute shirt 

She has gotten a little bit better about trying new foods - especially at school.  However, on Friday, she must not have been in the mood.  That morning, she said she wanted something to eat and Dave told her she'd be eating breakfast as soon as she got to school.  She whined, "I just want a little piece of bread!" so I ended up breaking off a half piece of bread and offering it to her...she refused it.  That's my girl. 
I put both halves in a baggie and brought it to school with us and put it in her snack bin.  At lunchtime, she refused her ravioli...she's previously eaten the ravioli there before so Megan tried hard to make it happen again but was only able to get the crazy girl to eat one bite.  Since she wouldn't eat it, Megan offered her the bread from her bin:

She seriously wouldn't eat the bread because it was ripped in half...insisted she only eats "big bread."  I swear, if this was someone else's kid, I would be cracking up at this story and pretending to feel sorry for the parents...but are you kidding me, Lucy?!?!  NOT funny...



But look how cute I am!

This stubborn girl of ours is making some serious potty strides, though!  In fact, I really feel like we're almost there!  I would act all proud of Dave and myself but I know it has nothing to do with us and anything we've done and everything to do with Lucy making a decision.  She has decided to be a big girl who goes on the potty...hooray!

Last Wednesday, she only had one wet diaper!  Every other time, she told her teacher when she had to go and she went on the potty!  We've been switching to undies when we get home from school and she has not had an accident in a pair of undies yet!  We've had several outings where she's told me she has to go and she actually does (though she faked daddy out in church yesterday...).  Over the weekend, she actually got upset with me when I put a diaper back on her (like for nap time and when we went somewhere in the car).  We were on our way to Reese's 4th birthday party and she announced she had to go potty but we were still 10 minutes away.  I said, "I can take you to the bathroom when we get there if you can hold it but you have a diaper on in case you can't hold it and that's okay."
As we were getting out of the car, I asked her if she peed in her diaper or if she still had to go and she said, "I'm trying not to pee in my diaper!"  And she didn't...so proud!!

Watching the birthday girl open gifts at Reese's birthday party

Us girls played in the snow for a little bit on Saturday morning...the snow was so deep in some areas!  Lucy said, "Good thing I'm wearing a snow suit!"  She just cracks me up sometimes...later, once we were inside getting undressed, she couldn't quite remember the word and asked me to help her take her suitcase off!  I let her wear her undies instead of a diaper when we were out there and she did awesome!



She wanted to swing and I couldn't come up with a good enough reason to say no...
but the boots barely fit into the leg holes! 
In fact, when I was trying to get her out of there, both boots popped off. 
Lucygirl thought this was hilarious...





When we came in, I enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate while this silly girl snacked on a bowl of snow!



Lucy had a visitor on Sunday - Aunt Amy!  She was excited to show off her new purple room again!  She's so funny...she always likes to go up ahead of whomever is there to see the room and turn the lamp on - because she thinks she's cool for knowing how to turn it on.  Once she's got it on, she yells down that the visitor can come up the steps.

 

Playing on Lucy's "iPad"