Happy Halloween!

We went out for a short while on Saturday with our little ladybug to the Halloween festivities at the UAF Wood Center.

The hood with the antennae didn't remain on for very long but I was able to sneak a couple shots in before Lucy was done with having her head covered up.

Lucy received a glow-in-the-dark bracelet from a nice lady that she kept saying "whoa" at. She loved it!

Cute behind shot. This little ladybug moved so fast I almost couldn't keep up with her...

It's Jack O' Lantern time

We couldn't wait to carve our pumpkin with Lucy because we knew she'd be completely into it. The expected happened: she wanted to draw on the pumpkin and she wanted to hold the knife over and over again. We kept our design simple and got through it without any blood or tears. It was super fun to see her amazement when we lit the candle and shut off the lights! Sorry, no photo to document that.

It's Lucy's Half Birthday!

Lucy is now 18 months old and she's loving it! Little miss independence has bloomed. Lucy now walks down the stairs while holding onto the railing all by herself. I am pretty impressed. She eats her oatmeal and soup with a spoon too and refuses any assistance. She's just learned the method of using the spoon over the bowl to catch dribbles since she always looses half the soup on the spoon while bringing it to her mouth.

Little table tantrums have begun and we hope they are short lived. They are definitely based on being frustrated but we have a hard time knowing exactly what she means or needs sometimes. It must be hard to be such a little person with so much to say but you don't know how to say it yet!

New words since the last post: water, rain, eggs, breakfast, uh oh, woof, vino (dada taught her this one!), and shoes. I am sure there are more but it is hard to remember because she'll pretty much give any word a go if you ask her to say it. Sometimes she'll shake her head though and thinks other words are too hard. Lucy weighs 19.6 pounds, her height is 30.5 inches and that little noggin's circumference is 18".

Our little snow fairy loves the fresh snow today.

She was chasing Canute on the road and giggling with delight!

Lucy was amazed by the snow on the pumpkins and kept pointing to it. Our walk was short lived today as Lucy suddenly decided it was time for a nap. Canute was so disappointed because he couldn't wait to run around in the snow. I think winter is here to stay though, this snow looks like it will stick.

A Sunny October Walk

I like to think that Lucy is looking at me and how happy I am to be out on a walk with her, however, I am pretty sure she is staring at the buttons on the side of my hat!

Lucy actually posed for me at the start of our walk. I asked her to smile and voila!

She was cruising down the trail at high speed and kept slipping and falling. Eventually she asked to be carried.

Lucy still finds rocks to be the most interesting!

A little "mimi" mid-walk is inevitable.

We paused for awhile here and then turned around to head home.

Mama has a birthday

We celebrated my birthday last week by having good friends over with their little ones. There was so much action and so much speed I was only able to capture this one in-focus photo (of the wee ones) below of Lucy with her friend Cord. The bag of raisins was being passed around from tiny hands to other tiny hands. The adults enjoyed cake!

Well, Lucy also enjoyed chips and spicy salsa (surprising everyone but us) and you can see in the photo I had to wash off her sweater due to salsa dribbles. She called it quits when she accidentally made the switch from medium salsa to hot salsa!

Maya and Keet being silly at our party.

Lucy has a mouthful of delicious pancakes that I made for us on my birthday.

Lucy actually ended up having her worst sickness yet this week. A few days after my birthday poor Lucy started suffering from an awful case of gastritis. It came to a grand finale ending over the last two days when her fever spiked and peaked at 103.5. Poor thing. Luckily she stayed hydrated and healthy otherwise. You can here that she was feeling much better this morning as she glowed while eating scrambled eggs and toast fingers off of her new plate.

New words and actions that I can remember at the moment: apple, pizza (pronounced pda-pda in case you didn't know!), mimi (you'll have to guess what this one is for), nodding very slowly and purposefully for yes, saying mama/dada/mama/dada in an excited fashion to both of us repeatedly.

Fall colors

Yesterday we went for a beautiful simple hike up a hill near our house that we've been admiring for a long time. Matt had spotted a trail and it of course took us right to the top to a scenic outcropping where we enjoyed the sunshine and the fall leaves.

Lucy said a new word while on our hike. She pointed to the moon and said "moon!" She did this a humber of times the entire walk just in case we didn't hear her. She was pretty pleased.

Lucy and dada near the start of the trail.

Lucy was working hard, gathering sticks, and running around. She also decided to pick and graze on the plentiful cranberries which have just recently ripened. We're pretty happy that our little 17-month-old knows that she can eat these berries and without any guidance from us. She learned from past experiences berry picking with us.

A snack of cranberries is of course followed by some mama's milk. Lucy and I sat at a lovely spot and relaxed together while I fed her.

We headed back down the trail shortly afterward. What a great discovery - we'll be revisiting this spot again.

Seventeen Months Old in September!

Our little girl lights up our lives each and every day more than we ever could have imagined with her beautiful personality and ridiculously cute ways. Lucy is about 20 pounds and is 29.5 inches tall. She's almost half mama's height already! There is so much love that comes from Lucy in the form of kisses and hugs constantly all day long, starting with the minute she wakes up in the morning. Both kisses and hugs have their own unique vocal "mmm"s and "mnnn"s that come with them. Too sweet.

Lucy is very much into eating now. The other day she grabbed a freshly picked brandywine tomato and wanted to take bites out of it...so we let her indulge of course. She also enjoys eating peas fresh off the vine while in the garden. Lucy loves Thai coconut curries, Italian pestos, Indian-spiced salmon and pretty much everything we can get her to try!

There are not many new words to report...still practicing the ones we previously listed. Lucy's level of understanding is remarkable to us. We are positive she knows much more than we think she does. We've seen some frustrations in her stemming from being unable to voice exactly what she needs or wants and we imagine learning to say more words is right around the corner. Reading long and more complicated books have been a fun pastime for mama and Lucy during the day and at bedtime. Her level of concentration is quite high, more than we expected at this age.

Grandma Lyn and Grandbob's Visit

Grandma Lyn and Grandbob stayed with us for about 10 days and Lucy was once again thrilled with all the attention she received from visitors. There were walks at Creamer's Field, lots of reading and special projects with Grandma Lyn, and as always, helping dada with his projects each day.

Grandma Lyn and Lucy work on a masterpiece drawing (above) and a lay out a new native plant garden in our yard (below).

Lucy is never afraid to get her hands dirty and work with heavy equipment.

We feasted on great food - all our own! Sockeye salmon that Matt caught and tomato/cucumber salad, fresh roasted beets and broccoli from the garden. Delicious and best enjoyed with special company.

The trip to the visitor's center was a treat for Lucy! She loved the plane suspended from the ceiling and all the taxidermy animals throughout the displays.

Lucy made lots of "hoo hoo" and "grrrr" sounds for the animals she saw.

Grandbob and Lucy enjoy the film at the visitor's center together.

There is always time to stop and smell the flowers for Lucy.

Grandma Lyn and Lucy sit by the new pond together. Their beautiful new garden is in the foreground.

The visits always go by too fast but we look forward to the New Year when we will be celebrating with Grandma Lyn and Grandbob in VT. We're pretty sure Lucy will be giving out lots of kisses that night and sharing many interesting thoughts with all of us by then.