Lucy's First Art Installations

Lucy has been creating window art lately. First, she created some drawings using a cheese stick on our sliding doors out to our deck. I never knew one could obtain such fine lines using cheese! She titled two of them "Big Rock" and "Little Rock".

Next, she has taken to using these Wikki Stix things that we had bought for our trip on the airplane in February. They stick to one another so you can make objects out of them. Lucy found another use for them...and you can hear her working really hard at it too.

Is it surprising that both of these window art projects occurred within one week of Matt doing a major window-cleaning for the first time in a long while? Ha ha.

A Birthday Brunch Party for Bug

Salted-caramel chocolate layer cake.

We had an extraordinarily fun day celebrating Lucy's birthday with friends yesterday. Lucy had four friends over (and their parents) and we ate, hung out in the warm sunshine, and chatted for hours and hours. It was perfect. This kids had a great time and there wasn't even one tantrum!

Serving Lucy her plate first.

Our spread minus the home fries.

The birthday girl.

I do believe Lucy liked this cake!

Blowing the first candle out.

Trying to blow out that second candle.

Lucy singed her eyelashes on one of her eyes as she was getting close to blow the candles out.  Here I am checking to make sure she's OK.  It didn't even faze her!

Tired Lucy noshing on some cake.

She's rapidly becoming more awake with every bite.

I just love this view. Happy girl sitting on her tree stump seat carved out by dada.

Our friends :)

Fabulous nursing mamas. Maya has a 3 year old, Keet, and Carrie has a 4 month old, Ana.

Hanging out. Lucy claimed this chair as her own.

A gloriously warm and sunny day on our deck with friends in honor of Lucy.

Lucy also had her 2-year check-up at the doctor's on Friday and she now weighs 22.4 pounds and is 32" tall. I can't believe my two year old is already more than half my own height! 

The birthday girl!

Lucy turns two today! 

What a perfect age to be. 

It has been more fun than we ever could have imagined...our time with Lucy so far has been incredible and our days are forever brightened by her perfect little presence. Our little crinkly-nosed daughter is as happy as can be and we couldn't feel more fulfilled.

More milk please.

Well, it's no wonder Lucy loves breastfeeding so much!
Apparently my milk tastes like maple syrup.

Happy Springtime Play

Bright and sunny! 

Lucy's friend Kaelin came over yesterday to play and decorate eggs with us.  It was a beautiful and sunny day so we spent some time enjoying it on the deck. As you can see, Lucy was very excited by the perfect weather.

Looking at the blue sky.

Warm and happy.

 I am lucky to have captured her laughing on camera. I love these shots.

Lucy made a "nest" for herself and Kaelin on our deck. She insisted on not wearing any clothes. It was 45 degrees outside.

 While our eggs soaked in the homemade vegetable dyes for awhile, we ate some lunch and headed back outside to the deck. The sun had gone but the girls still soaked up the above freezing temperatures.

Such sweet girls.

We dyed eggs with Kaelin too.

 We used red cabbage, onion skins, turmeric, and beets to dye our eggs. It was so much fun!

Lucy likes the blue eggs best. 

She was counting her eggs.

Magical colors!

Lucy's and Kaelin's eggs.

Tumbling

A smile for dada.

 I took Lucy to Gym Inc. for the first time this week. It took her a few minutes to warm up but before long she was running around, hopping up and down on the mats and mini trampoline, and meeting other kids. We even met another Lucy! My photos all came out blurry - definitely a sign of how fast Lucy was moving around. I found a few that are OK.

I love this photo because Lucy was just hanging out watching all the kids flop around around her  who she didn't know.

A bit tuckered out right before we packed up to leave. In case you are wondering,  Lucy did NOT nap well this day - amazing. The girl never stops!

The Almost Two-Year-Old

Today marks 23 months old for little Lucy! I asked her to smile for me so I could get a photo of her and these two shots are what I got...mouthful of apple and all. What a ham!

There are so many things to report about how fabulous this little person is. 

First things first: she weighs about 21.5 pounds and is 31.5" tall. I realized the other day she is still wearing some clothes from one year ago - I suppose she'll be vertically challenged like her mama.

Lucy's been humming to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for the last month. I love it. So cute. She just started saying some of the words to me yesterday as I sing it. She also just started saying the words to Pat-a-Cake Pat-a-cake as we sing and clap. On that note, she has memorized some pages of her favorite books too and reads along. Pretty neat.

My favorite new thing that Lucy does is say "bless you" whenever one of us sneezes, herself included. She'll also say "bye bye" to us when she wants us to leave the room so she can be alone...I suppose this is only the start of it...sigh...our little baby is a little girl now.

Lucy loves to write letters and draw circles and spirals. Whenever she is writing letters she says the same ones each time "a, b, o"...tee hee. She takes a stick to the snow outside and "writes" her name on it. Dada taught her that. She also counts to 10 really well. I am impressed.

Lucy's sense of imagination has suddenly appeared quite strongly in the last few days - it is very cool to watch. It's not that she didn't have it before, but rather she can tell us what she is doing and share the experience with us. She cooked Matt and I chocolate cake, a fried egg, apple pie, and mac and cheese over the weekend with her play cookware. The other day she filled her cup with water from the handle on our bar cabinet...mighty creative. 

We don't have enough paper in the house for Lucy to draw on. I would say 50 percent of her playtime is spent drawing, if we are not painting or doing something else creative. We have lots of Lucy decorations on our walls that she's snuck in from time to time...oops. 

I am sure I am forgetting many Lucy-things but these stick with me this evening as I write. Oh, one more sweet thing that is my absolute favorite is that Lucy rubs noses with us, then gives us a huge hug (making an "oooh" sound) and pats us on the back. It can't get better than that feeling!

What's her favorite snack? Roasted nori seaweed!!! Seriously, she is obsessed with it. Lately, Lucy also eats steamed broccoli, raw cucumber, raw red and yellow bell pepper, celery, oatmeal, cheddar cheese, cashews and mostly everything I cook with great enthusiasm! She's still a huge fan of fruit, rice cakes and eggs. I think we have the makings of a good eater here.

Lucy loves crawling though this tube and also sitting in it.

We've been busy playing and not blogging much. Lucy usually shuts the laptop on me anyway - a good excuse for me to get off the computer! On Thursday mornings we head to the Ken Kunkel Community center right near us in Goldstream Valley for the morning play group. Lucy has made several good play buddies. We always have lots of fun! I usually forget my camera but this past week I actually brought it along.

A cool mirror to play with.

There are always lots of toys at the play group.

 A few weeks ago we went to the start of the Yukon Quest with Lucy and she had a blast. The entire car ride to town she was saying "huskies, mush!" There were many giggles and squeals as she checked out the dogs with her dada.

So happy after seeing hundreds of huskies!

Creative playtime

This week Lucy and I made both edible finger paint and play-doh together! It was so much fun. She definitely "got" the painting more than the play-doh and enjoyed it so much she ended up painting herself - a bath was needed afterward.

I think the most enjoyable part of play-doh for Lucy was mixing all the ingredients together and stirring them in the big bowl. I had to keep reminding her not to eat it. She did take a bite at one point but quickly spit it out as it just didn't taste very good!

Mama's quick rendering of "dada"

Lucy dismantling "dada". She was sad afterward as she didn't mean for his head and facial features to fall off. We then made the play-doh into Canute to remedy her worries.