Tanana Valley Fair Fun

Lucy waits to go on her first ride ever all by herself! We thought she'd be nervous but she was  all for it. Meanwhile Matt and I stood watching her and waving happily during the ride and she didn't even look at us she was so excited to be moving. Our little girl is becoming more independent!

Smiling from ear to ear in the front seat!

Next ride was a construction truck.

It was equipped with a steering wheel that Lucy turned back and forth the entire ride. More smiles.

Lucy went on the big slide with both of us. "More again!" It could have gone on all night.

Today Lucy said her most favorite thing at the fair was the goats.

That's my girl! She pet many of them and touched noses with a couple too.

After seeing face painting at the fair last night...Lucy decided to give it a shot this morning on her own face while I was cleaning up after breakfast. 

Grandma Nancy's Extended Stay

We had such a lovely visit with Grandma Nancy who stayed for two weeks longer after Grandpa Jim left for Connecticut. Our time was filled with a lot of berry picking, vegetable harvesting, cooking, and playing.

Lucy had had constant attention from Grandma Nancy and games were played all day long.

Grandma arrived with fun new books so there was also special grandma-Lucy reading time.

It was also a treat to have another photographer around while mama was doing chores and Lucy assisted.

It rained quite a bit while Grandma Nancy was here but we lucked out with a sunny afternoon at the Tanana Valley Fair.

Lucy was more than delighted to see all the animals but she especially took to the sheep and goats. She ran back and forth giggling as she checked all the pens out.

She went on kiddie rides with Grandma Nancy even if Grandma wasn't supposed to.

Many afternoons Lucy and Grandma went for snuggling walks together during which Lucy snoozed peacefully. We are so happy that she was able to spend such special quality time with Grandma.

We miss having Grandma Nancy here and we look forward to seeing her and Grandpa Jim in December. We think Lucy will have a lot to say to them when she sees them again!

Summer Fun

Matt set up the swing for Lucy yesterday so we plan on starting our outdoor playtime each day with swinging. Lucy giggles the entire time!

Lucy has been feeding the chickens with either myself or Matt since she was born. We save a bowl or a bag of veggie, fruit, and grain scraps each day in the kitchen and Lucy says "bauk bauk bauk" as we grab the bowl and head outside to greet the birds. She loves it. Since summer warmth, rain and sunshine brings us weeds such as chickweed, fireweed, and pigweed we have lots to pull and feed to the birds. Lucy wants to help and it was so cute to watch her start to do this on her own today (after we'd fed them together) and walk toward the coop with her handfuls of weeds saying "bauk bauk bauk". Really, just super cute.

However, I have to be really careful so she does not get shocked by the electric fence. She finds it frustrating that I wont let her just walk up to the coop on her own and feed the birds. I have to hold her and she thinks that is nonsense! You can see how serious she is about getting the greens to the chickens though. She knows it is important for them to get their salad every day.

Lucy had her first fried food tonight and I am proud to say it was a garden fresh squash blossom and zucchini fritter just like I ate growing up...this is also the first time I have ever seen her sniff her food. She sniffed at each bite the whole meal with a grin on her face. She only ate about a piece about the diameter of a quarter but she savored every bite.

I have a few other random things to mention. On Saturday Lucy walked nearly 1/2 mile down our road. I was impressed! Did she want to hold my hand at all? Of course not! She also loves to spin in circles, get dizzy and fall down, and put her hands up when someone asks where something is or asks a question she doesn't know the answer too.

Lucy has been telling me for a couple of weeks when she has pooed by pointing at her diaper! I know, I know, too much information...but exciting nonetheless for the mama of a 14-month old. It is helpful information to be communicating. If I do not change her diaper within a few minutes and she has access to the velcro on her diaper cover...off it comes with her own hands! I have to move fast. One last lovely piece of info is her new word: "buh" for book, when she wants to be read too.

The Teaser

This girl is always on the move! Lucy seems to create her own agility tests and obstacle courses throughout the day.

She started at the end of the ladder and stepped out of one opening and into the next, and so on, going about halfway down before stopping to play with the rope.

Then there is the standing that she experiments with about 5 times an hour. She's definitely proud of herself and she can pretty much stand until she's not ready to anymore. We're just waiting for that first step! It must be near.

Lucy has recently been signing for "more" and eating VERY well. This has been quite noticeable just in the last two days. She now eats 3 tiny meals a day! She saw me take an orange out of the fridge for myself earlier and got so excited because she wanted some too! This was while she was eating bits of scrambled egg.

This game went on for about 30 minutes, back and forth "sharing" of the bone. She cracks me up! Poor Canute.

Hangin' with my Dog

This video was taken on the day Lucy turned 6 months old last week. I have more to upload this week of her most recent "mobility", stay tuned.

Playtime

This past week Lucy's soft cork floor play area arrived. As you can see, the animals think we bought it for them...not surprising. Anyway, we hope it keeps her from knocking her little head on the concrete floor (as much) while she learns to get around.

We'll see if she actually stays on it because she has been "creeping" around everywhere and surprising us! There is no crawling yet but she slithers across the floor on her belly with ease now in addition to showing us the classic "rocking" which we hear is the precursor to crawling. Uh oh! I will try to get a video of this action soon.

So yesterday we went to town together to buy some little treats for Lucy. We wanted to get her a new toy and we went to our favorite toy store here that has nice wooden toys, Enchanted Forest Toys, to let her actually pick something out. It was really fun! She tested about 10 toys and kept going back to the the one "grabbing toy" that we came home with.

Second, we went to Gulliver's Bookstore to get her some used children's books since we seem to have endless used book credit there from all the books we trade in. We came home with a pile of good ones, including some classics such as "The Snowy Day" and Beatrix Potter's Nursery Rhymes. It was a fun day that ended with a bonfire party at a neighbor's house down the street.

Other exciting things that I want to take note of:

Lucy has been signing A LOT for milk. Suddenly she just does it all the time! She also ate some winter squash this week with better results, however, her favorite food remains avocado. She's had a little teeny bite of applesauce and banana as well. Yummy.

The color of autumn

I finally fit into the beautiful orange wool suit that my friend Keet gave me because he grew out of it. Yay! Just in time to celebrate Fall playing in the leaves with my friend Canute.

I helped mom rake the yard and then I played in the pile for quite some time. Dad worked on the chicken coop project: pulling down old fencing, siding the coop, and re-fencing the new area for the laying hens. It is a BIG project so we kept him company for awhile outside. Then I went inside with mom so I could nap while she baked an apple pie with Prairie Sun apples grown in Fairbanks!

Blurry Husky Love

Petting Oliver the Cat

Last night after returning from Manley Hot Springs we settled onto the sofa to rest. Oliver decided to join us and sat right on one of Lucy's legs. Well she decided this was the perfect opportunity to pet Oliver! It was amazing really. She did this for a few minutes until Oliver decided it was time to leave. He really tolerated it well and Matt and I watched in astonishment. Luckily we ended up catching the last moments of it on video. What a sweet little baby she is!