The Bouncy Baby

Since the last dancing video was such a hit with everyone I thought I better add another...I purposefully put Dim Dim on, an electronic band that has lots of fun sounds in their songs, just for Lucy. No, I don't usually let her tap on the window with her glockenspiel stick but I did not want to interrupt the video! Her sounds of excitement are for Canute, she always gets excited when she sees him. At the beginning of the video you can hear Canute tapping on the window in the background to come inside.

February Storm

Lucy has taken to gnawing on stalks of broccoli.

Dada took Friday and Monday off from work and we've all enjoyed a cozy long weekend together. It stormed yesterday and today, blowing lots of snow around, so we went for a blustery walk together this afternoon. It was also our attempt to get Lucy to sleep for an hour and it worked! Mama turned around halfway so she could get home and enjoy a quiet house for that hour.

Lucy got bundled up by dada for the cold walk:

Lucy is the little brown bump sticking out of Matt's jacket - she's nice and warm.

Lucy stood for the first time today from sitting! We were playing with her blocks, building them up tall and then she would knock them down, over and over...and then suddenly she just stood up, sturdily, stayed there for 5 seconds and then sat back down! She completely surprised me and luckily Matt was there to see it too. Lucy has been standing for a few months now but always while holding onto something, letting go, and then sitting. This was done all without the aid of something to hold onto! She did it a couple more times then called it quits.

The "Grateful" Daughter

While I admit I am not the biggest Grateful Dead fan, Matt certainly is....and it appears he has passed that along to Lucy! Every Sunday afternoon KSUA radio plays Dead Sessions for three hours. The first video is from last Sunday and the second is from today. Like father, like daughter! Her latest dance move is shaking her head back and forth, it is hilarious. I shot a video of her doing it the other night but it is too dark. I will try again soon.

Yep, It's been 10 Months!

The most exciting thing to report regarding growth is that there are 4 teeth in Lucy's mouth now. Her bottom two teeth came in 2 weeks apart in December and her top two teeth slowly emerged one week apart in January. The top two are still growing. We think she weighs about 16.5 pounds now.

Lucy is quite vocal. Currently, her most common words are: ma-ma, la-la, ba-ba, ya-ya. We are working on da-da, I think she almost has it!

Lucy has some fun games she likes to play. She raises her arms up above her head, then we do it, then she does it, etc, etc. Typically this occurs at the dinner table and we go in waves, it is pretty funny. She is always pleased with our participation. Lucy always loves to share. Everything she puts in her mouth when I am holding her, she then offers to me. I take a nibble, she smiles, pulls it away and then quickly puts it back toward my mouth again. This goes on and on. She loves to share with dada and Canute in this manner as well. Lucy also growls on demand now, it's hilarious. We growl back and forth. She plays peek-a-boo, she initiates it! She also likes to play "follow each other around the coffee table while crawling" with dada. It goes on for quite awhile. She gets more and more wonderful every month!

We are so thankful to have such a healthy and happy baby. Lucy's only ever had one little supposed stomach bug that lasted a few hours when she was 7 months old and one fever that reached 102.8 degrees and lasted overnight about a month ago. I still suspect I ate something that disagreed with her that caused her to "be sick" with the stomach bug.

Adventures in Eating

Lucy has decided on her own that pureed foods are nonsense and she'd like to give "real" food a try. The only mashed food Lucy will eat is banana but that is practically mashed straight out of the peel anyway. Above is a photo of Lucy eating kale blended with banana.

So, since she always refused purees, we tried a different angle and handed her half a pear, a stalk of broccoli, chopped up some green beans, and minced some steamed carrots. She loves picking up the little pieces of food to eat and enjoys gnawing on the larger pieces to take off little bites. Her favorite thing at this point seems to be green beans. She lets out a "Mmmmm" when she eats them...similar to her love for blueberries, which she now eats whole and frozen so they mush in her mouth. She'll only eat about 2 or 3 at a time but wow they make a mess! At this point she still only eats about a teaspoon or two of solid food per day.

Sunday Ski with Dada

Even though she falls asleep pretty quickly when Matt starts skiing, we know Lucy loves it when he takes her out with Canute for the afternoon.

Our Trip to Makaha, Oahu

We all headed to Makaha, Hawaii for a week of sunshine, swimming, and relaxing together. It was a great trip and Lucy is at such a fun age to experience something new. She traveled very well and received compliments from everyone on our flights.

As suspected Lucy loved looking out the window on the airplane when she wasn't flirting with random passengers or sleeping.

The first day we were there it was overcast with showers so we headed out to the Waikiki aquarium. Lucy went back and forth between being amazed and being upset. We think she didn't like that she could not reach her hand in and touch the fish.

However we also went to the Bishop Museum which has many Hawaiian artifacts and Lucy very much enjoyed the exhibits of masks, figurines and statues...the ones with faces on them. Sometimes she even laughed and bounced when she looked into the cases.

The next day brought us sunshine, exploring near our condo, and time on the beach. Lucy loved being a beach bum but luckily decided she did not like the taste of sand.

We slowly introduced her to the ocean. She was hesitant for about a minute and then it was all laughing, waving the arms, shrieking, and bouncing.

The waves were pretty big at the beach where we stayed so Lucy just welcomed them while standing on the beach rather than swimming.

This vacation was a really nice time for dada to spend quality time with Lucy every day. It was really sweet to see her reaching for him this week over and over.

The sunsets at our condo were amazing! We could also see whales every day in the distance and sea turtles right in the surf off of our lanai. We felt lucky to have such a great view.

One place we enjoyed visiting was Kahumana Organic Farm and Cafe. It was a treasure hidden on the west side of the island where we stayed. We went for lunch and had farm fresh greens with grilled ahi tuna.

Lucy showed a lot of interest in my mango-rice milk smoothie so I decided it would be OK for her to try some. She took two sips like a pro from the straw and definitely liked the sweet taste of the mango.

Morning walks outside our condo in Makaha were beautiful. There were many curious items on the ground that Lucy discovered such as this fishing line that she did not want to let go of.

There were endless smiles from Lucy on the beach. She LOVED the ocean and crawling around in the sand.

She couldn't get enough of it. Her lips were shivering by the time she felt satisfied. It was really fun for us to watch her excitement!

The activities and fresh ocean air exhausted Lucy and every day she took a hearty nap with a delightful view on our big comfy bed.

One day we headed out to the Valley of the Temples to visit the Byodo-In Temple. It was very beautiful and peaceful. The temple was built in the 1960's to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first Japanese immigrant workers in Hawaii who came to work in the sugar plantation fields. It is a replica of the 950-year-old Byodoin Temple located in Uji, Japan.

Lucy willingly sat near Buddha at the entrance. A much larger Buddha sits just inside the main entrance to the temple.

We found great calm water at Kailua Beach and Yokohama Beach for Lucy so we spent some afternoons there splashing away.

Below are two videos of Lucy taking on the ocean. I started shooting videos after the initial squealing and giggling fit she had when we first put her in the water but you can still see how much she enjoys it.

The night before we left to head home I noticed Lucy's upper left tooth was starting to break through (yikes!). Luckily the flights home were calm even though she was heavily teething and drooling. When we left Oahu it was 80 degrees. When we arrived in Fairbanks it was -40 degrees, we were in a bit of shock! I put my big fluffy hat on Lucy to help keep her warm when we left the airport.

Lucy is already 9 Months Old!

Lucy continues to thrive and is a very healthy little baby who is extremely active. So active that she still doesn't weigh very much because she crawls along all day and burns off those milk calories! She is certainly taking after her mother in size - I was a tiny baby too. We had her almost 9 month appointment the other day and here are her stats:

Height: 27.25 inches (50th percentile)

Weight: 15 pounds 2 ounces (3rd percentile!)

Head: 16 inches

Lucy really enjoys playing with the animals, especially Canute. She is still always offering to share things with him and they play together on the floor with his dog toy. It is amazing to watch. She pulls it away from him and then gives it back, over and over, giggling and shrieking the whole time. She loves praise and enjoys watching us copy what she does and then she repeats it, such as clapping, patting her hand on the table, and waving her arms. "Mama" and "Lala" still are her only vocabulary besides babbling and she loves to let out long sighs and "ahs" as she is playing. Too cute. It's amazing, that first birthday sure is right around the corner!

Piggy-Back

Well, I decided to take advantage of the nice freshly fallen snow that coated everything last night creating a magical wintery wonderland and go for a walk with Lucy and Canute. It is my favorite kind of snow, the kind that sticks to every single branch and twig. I think it looks like Narnia.

So, I tried something different and attempted to put Lucy on my back in the Ergo carrier, by myself, for the first time. I did it, except that I forgot to put her hat on prior to clipping her in. I had to do it all over again to get that hat on and decided it takes practice but it can be done a little easier each time. The photo is taken with the webcam so it is rather grainy but we wanted to document our new trick!

Happy New Year!

Dada and Lucy celebrated by going on a ski together with Canute in the balmy 30 degree weather, giving mama a break to be in the quiet house all by herself! Everyone was pleased.

Lucy watches dada wax his skis

I need to play catch up on a few good random photos shot over the holidays...

Lucy and dada share an apple. Lucy only ever seems to want what we are eating not what we give her. Hmmm....surprising?

Lucy loves playing with her farm animal puzzle that oinks and moos. By the way, is there anything cuter than a ruffled baby bottom? Well, I suppose a nude baby bottom can top that but still, this skirt is pretty fab.

Uncle Chris' gifts arrived and both the bead maze and blocks were a hit with Lucy as you can see. She especially loved dropping all the blocks on the floor and then watching them all magically reappear.