Coloring

In the full knowledge that soon I will be filling this blog with new-baby pictures and posts, I thought it would be fair to post an update on Lucy before our world becomes centered, for a time, on Michael. :) (I'm also hoping to get some Christmas Decorating and Michael-related posts done in the next few days - all depending on how much my son likes his current home)

Side Note: Words within quotation marks are words that Lucy has added to her vocabulary. :)

At 17.5 months old, Lucy loves to "color" and if she see's her coloring book she asks, "Color? Color? Color?" We are in the fun toddler stage of repeating one word over and over until Mom or Dad acknowledge and answer the inquiry.

In the words of my friend Autumn, Lucy often decides that "crayons make a better snack than artistic medium," what comfort to know that her little Mia has the same struggle to keep the crayons out of her mouth. :)

Lucy has moved to one nap a day (as of 16 months old) we have encouraged this process mostly because of scheduling and the fact that we need her to take a good long nap while I work. This new schedule has been working well so far and we hope it's consistency will help Lucy with the transition of welcoming a little brother into her life.

Because of Lucy's new sleeping patterns and my new work schedule, I haven't gotten as much "mommy time" during the day.  I am not the type of mom who needs alone time from my children to sit and put my feet up (at least at this point in mommy-hood, I'm not closing off the option for this in the future.. haha). Instead, I need time to clean a bathroom, put away laundry without having to worry about the little one getting into the cat litter, my purse or a kitchen drawer. So we have started room-time, about 30-45 minutes of Lucy-playing-in-her-room-alone. This new venture started as Lucy-standing-at-her-gate-calling-out-"mama!" and only lasted 5-10 minutes but we have worked ourselves into a great routine, and her room is often a MESS afterward - a mess mamma is all too happy to help clean up because it meant that fun was had! On difficult days, (we all have them - even 17 month olds!)Lucy gets to watch a "Ming Ming" in her room during room-time, but we try to encourage her to play with her "hats," "books," stuffed animals, musical instruments and little kitchen.

 Love the look of concentration. :)

In other parts of the day, play time for Lucy usually consists of "babies" - she will bring me a baby with a new outfit to change and is working the word "help" into her vocabulary.  I am all too happy to "help" when she asks! She loves to play with her "ball" and because of daddy's coaching sometimes throws the ball forward instead of backwards - we are hoping Michael is a bit more coordinated. :) Lately, going for a "walk" has been harder as the temperature keeps dropping, but Lucy loves it whenever we are able to go "side" (outside). If we drive by the park she usually gets really excited and says, "Slide" or "Swing!" When we do have time to stop - she is so adventurous (with a healthy mix of caution) and really enjoys climbing on the equipment.

"Ellie" is still her most favorite toy and has started to spend more time in bed - only leaving the house to go to church on work days because Lu naps there. We are hoping that this will help prolong Ellie's life, she is very loved. :) Lucy still loves to "read" and will often bring a "book" to me and sit down close by to look through it. She calls books with no pictures "bible" - we have no idea how this started!

I have been honored to participate in many tea parties hosted by Lucy - she is quite the little hostess. She loves doing "cheer" with the tea cups and will loudly slurp down her pretend tea. She shares "tree" (treats/candy) with me and presses the button on her tea pot to provide nice music for our party. She even provides entertainment as she dances to the music. (Very special memories for her mamma). There have been a few times we have gotten to witness Lucy throwing a tea party for her baby Caroline, "Ka," or "Ellie, she makes sure "Ka" has a few bottles and a bib to keep her clean.

Our sweet girl has been such a parrot the past few weeks, often repeating words after us - prompted or not! Some of these words are echos but she has retained quite a few new ones lately! If there is a word she is unsure of, Lucy will whisper it - it's pretty cute. :) Some of the vocabulary words we have mastered, "nos" (nose), "mou" (mouth), "eyes," "eer" (ear), "toes," "chee" (cheek), "tee" (teeth), "nee" (knee), "hands," "bed," "nigh nigh" (Night Night), "pees" (please), "hug," "kiss," "boo!" "snack," "milk," "cracker," "apple," "mannie" (banana), "kick" (kixs), "wet," "hot," "share" and "no no!" (yep - it's begun. oh joy.). This has been such a fun stage as Lucy has been able to communicate with us what she needs or wants. As anticipated though, it has also brought about some difficult moments. She is very opinionated (no surprise, since she has Brad and me as her dad and mom, I know) and there have been a few tears lately as she has to be told she needs to wait or is not allowed to do something.

Lucy's knowledge of animal sounds keeps growing, she LOVES dogs (they may have jumped to #1 fav animal, replacing elephants) Arf arf is "augh augh" and a cat's "meow" are sounds we hear often around our house. She also knows, "Ohh ohh" (monkeys), "Ssssss" (Snake), "kack kack" (duck), "moo," "baaa," "raaar" (bear, lion AND tiger) and "too, too" (A bird's tweet). Although she identifies most animals by their sound, Lucy has learned some animal's proper names, "frog," "cow," "bugh fly" (butterfly), "moose,"  "mouse," "bee" and "bunny." She knows a few animals by hand motions: Turtles are acknowledged by Lucy making a fist (we sing a song about a turtle who peek-a-boos out of his shell - thumb coming out of a fist) and Alligators/Crocodiles are hands slapped against leg (chomp chomp!). She also will make a fishy face if she sees a fish or wants a goldfish snack! :)

Lucy continues to be a good eater, although lately she hasn't been feeling 100% so that has taken it's effect on her appetite. The other day she ate 95% of a soft taco from Taco Bell (super healthy we know) all by herself, she ate the insides first and then folded the tortilla in half and munched away - it was fun to watch.

Mamma says, "No no Lu, not in your mouth!" Notice she is looking RIGHT at me and smiling when doing that which she should not do. My mother-in-law tells me that this is the Brad in her, but my mom and dad would tell you that there is a good amount of Sarah in this rebellion too. 

We have had to brush her teeth after coloring on multiple occasions - blue isn't a good tooth color. I've started to have Lucy stand on a stool next to the sink as we brush her teeth, instead of sitting on the counter. When she stands there, one hand supporting herself on the counter while the other brushes, after momma has had a turn, I can't help but be sad that my little girl is getting older!

In preparation for Michael's arrival we have moved the rocking chair into the master bedroom, out of Lucy's room. This happened one evening after Lucy had gone to bed, my sweet husband wanted to move it to surprise me, so when she woke up the next day we had a confused little girl on our hands! I walked into her room and usually I'm greeted with "mamma" "Milk" "Ellie" or "daddy!" but instead I was greeted with "rock? rock?" She was so confused as to where her rocker was! I showed her where the "rock" now lives and explained as best I could that we moved it to prepare for Michael. We have made a fun reading corner in Lucy's room now to replace the fact she doesn't have a chair anymore and she seems to be enjoying it (after adjusting to her rug being moved, she's a creature of habit - like her mom!). She carries a book to her little rug and sits down, asking "read?" So a few changes, but she seems to adjust pretty quickly! 

Lu has also been really cuddly the past month and a half. I've had a few moms tell me that this happened with their kids too when the next one was close to his/her arrival. I'm not going to lie - it's been so nice! Lucy has never been a cuddle bug so we have been soaking in every hug, kiss and "chee" (cheek - she loves to lay her cheek on ours) opportunity! She has even started to lay back in our arms and say "baby" - so we cradle her like a "baby." She really didn't like being cradled when she was an infant so it is humorous to us that she is asking to be held that way now.

We joke around our house that the iPad now belongs to Lucy - she has named it "Ming Ming." We assume because her favorite show is the Wonder Pets and the duck's name is just that. :) She also enjoys watching a video app that rotates through different animals and says their names (it's called Sponge Words for anyone who is interested in a good toddler app and I have more suggestions, feel free to ask!).

Lucy will often ask to "pray," usually in the middle of a meal, complete with perfectly folded hands - it's pretty cute. One particular day I asked her if there was anything she wanted to ask Jesus for (if I'm remembering correctly - it was the third or fourth time she had asked to pray during that sitting and I figured I hadn't been praying the correct thing since the request kept being repeated) she said, "share" so we prayed that Jesus would help her be good at sharing. :) It melted my heart. We have been praying that the Lord would prepare Lucy to be a big sister and that she would be able to share mommy and daddy with Michael. I'm not sure the concepts are sticking but it is encouraging to see glimpses of principles working their way into my daughter's heart.

That's all I can think of right now, I'm sure there is more I'm missing - but it feels good to have this much recorded for our family's history books. :)