On Monday we went out to dinner.

Afterward Lu wanted to walk home.  She walked the entire way.  It was .382 miles!!!  That’s really far for her little legs!!!

~~~

On Tuesday, I had to fly to Redmond to visit the Mothership.

The business trip part of the day was fine-the meeting went really well and it was nice to be on campus with the 40,000 other people that work up there.

At the end of the day I got to the airport and discover that I LOST MY PHONE. ARGH.  Come to fine out, I’m a little addicted to my iPhone.  What bums me out is that there are pictures on that phone that I don’t think I have saved anywhere.  I do have Lucy’s VERY first picture EVER saved (thankfully):

Awww, look at this one:

Or her first time in a carseat,right before we went home:

Okay, sorry, I got distracted.  Anyway, it’s been awhile since I last backed up my phone so there are a few pictures that are lost The good news? I’m back on Verizon with my new DROID!

Lucy was so excited to see me Wednesday morning and that was fun.  I guess Tuesday night she went looking around the house calling out “Mama?” “Mama?” “MAMA?”  Awwwww.  I hate not seeing her    I have many more LONGER business trips coming up and I am NOT excited.

~~~

I got a call on Thursday that Lu had a 102* temp.  100.4 and above is considered a temperature for wee ones and that’s when daycare has you come get them.  I went to pick her up and she did have a temperature but she was acting FINE.  I couldn’t figure it out. UNTIL…I noticed the swollen gum and bit of white poking through her gum.  She’s getting her left upper eye tooth!  Poor thing. 

It doesn’t seem to be bothering her:

She’s trying to chew the necklace!

She finally got it!

I also took 9 minutes of video on Thursday of Lu eating.  I edited it down to 4 for your viewing pleasure.  It’s actually quite entertaining.  She’s an eater, that one!

 

~~~

On Friday, I worked from home and played with a very NOT SICK Lu.

 

This sequence of pictures CRACK ME UP.  She’s funny.

She’s putting my lens on my camera.  Isn’t she smart?

~~~

We met up with Lucy’s friend Avi this week.  Lu and Avi have been hanging out since Lu was 6 weeks old.  Here they are in December 2008-she’s in the middle, he’s the one on the end with one eye closed:

Here they are Friday:

Wow    They were so active, it was hard to get a good picture. But you can tell-they’ve GROWN!

~~~

On Friday night, I made artichokes.  Lu asked for some and I almost said “You won’t like this.” BUT! I stopped myself and gave her a leaf.

She LOVED it and knew just how to eat it! She ate 5!!! She’s such a foodie!

~~~

Shaun got me a juicer for Christmas.  Saturday, I made carrot, beet, apple, lemon and ginger juice.

Lu decided she loved it:

You can see the juice all the way up on her forehead:

A circle of juice:

~~~

Saturday, we walked to the Coyote Point Museum-it’s an Environmental Museum that Shaun took Lu to last weekend.  They liked it so much that they wanted to take me.  We got a membership so we’ll be going back!

Out front is a Inka Biospheric System.

It uses solar power, plants, and water to run this fish tank.

The plants naturally clean the water!

Lu LOVED the magnet gears.

 

They also had a water bottle wall that she thought was pretty cool.

She’s pretty shy around other little kids/unfamiliar situations and only wanted to play on the toys that were pretty unpopular.

We saw owls:

A badger:

Some fighting otters:

A tame hawk-when she saw the hawk she made the sign-language sign for “bird”.  She knows it because of Azul-our bird.  We were impressed that she made the connection that they were the same thing.

And a little sleeping fox:

We also saw frogs, snakes, a coyote, a ferret, eagles, and other interesting animals that I didn’t get a picture of.

It was COOL.  It’s about a 3.5 mile walk roundtrip and was a great way to spend our morning.

Lu was so tuckered she fell asleep in the stroller on the way home.

~~~

Sunday!

Lucy’s love affair with Bear continues.  At the start of breakfast:

BED HEAD!

Halfway through breakfast she decided that Bear needed to eat too.

~~~

Today, Lucy decided that Mommy’s underwear was SO MUCH FUN.  She danced around with it on her head for a good 30 minutes today while we were folding.

Don’t worry-it’s clean!!!

~~~

I know I sound so cliché, but really, it all needs to SLOW DOWN.  Lucy is a LITTLE KID now.  The only time I feel like she’s a baby is when I’m rocking her to sleep-and she’s even getting too big to fit in my lap comfortably.

She’s really starting to try and verbalize.  The words we heard a lot this week? “Daycare” (yes really), “Banana”, “Ball”, “Teeth”, “Shoes”, “Feet”, “Mama”, “Dada”, “Daddy”, “Cheese”, “Up”, “Down”, and “Nigh-Nigh”.  She’s trying to say much more but those are the ones that we can understand.

She’s also running now!  And climbing!  She’s still very cautious but she did get a bloody nose at daycare this week :(  She tripped over a toy she was playing with and bonked her nose pretty hard.

Lu can also point out her nose, eyes, mouth, teeth, ears, head, tummy, knees and toes.  She can point them out on US too 😉

We’re also going through what I’ve dubbed the “Willful Ones”.  Many more fits are getting thrown :(  On Monday I want to pick her up from Daycare and she didn’t want to get in the car.  She SCREAMED and arched her back for 15 minutes-I’m not exaggerating.  I was that parent out in the daycare parking lot.  Once I got her in her seat, she cried halfway home and then was all giggles.  She’s also started fighting us in the morning and the evening with diaper changes.  Thankfully, she’s finally attached herself to something-a bear that cousin Luke gave her over a year ago.  She’s never really had any sort of “lovie” but on Friday night she was upset before bed and she pointed at the bear.  Shaun got the bear and Lu stopped screaming.  The bear hasn’t left her side since.  When you ask her “Where’s Bear?”  she’ll hold him up-it’s very cute.

Lu has always had an appetite but it’s grown all of the sudden! I feel like she’s constantly eating!  I joke that I’m on the Lu diet because she’ll eat her serving and then half of mine.

She’s still under 20 pounds though-at 19 pounds 4 ounces.

Alright, the fun stuff. Pictures!

Playing with the tunnel that Mimi and Papa got her:

 

 

Looking VERY serious:

 

Coloring with her notebook and crayon:

Playing with Mommy’s keys (very off limits-she was excited):

What Mom? (Bananas are her new favorite food.  She eats at least one a day.  I have to cut her off or else she’d eat many more)

 

With Bear:

 

 

Playing around:

 

 

Watching cartoons with Daddy.  She really doesn’t watch much tv but Daddy gets cuddles when he puts on a cartoon.  She watched for about 10 minutes today.  I think that’s her first 10 minutes of tv this year.

A blurry, but cute, picture:

 

 

A more in focus, but not as cute one (notice Bear):

Eating frozen yogurt:

 

Why yes, she is eating in almost ALL of these pictures.  That’s because she’s almost ALWAYS eating.  Plus it’s the only time she’s still enough for me to get a picture.

 

Don’t forget to leave a comment!  We read them to Lu!

Lucy’s daycare had their Winter Gala last night, where all the classes performed.  Lu’s class did Wheels on the Bus and Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.

They had all the parents sitting in one of the classrooms on teeny tiny chairs.

Here’s Lucy coming in for her big moment:

She was happy and smiley at first:

Then she realized that there was a big crowd of STRANGERS watching her, she cuddled up to her friend Carter and looked like a deer in the headlights:

(I know it’s blurry, but she seriously stood there for a good 45 seconds just.like.that).

And then she decided that it was all too much and cuddled Miss Tisha:

And she pretty much stayed that way the entire rest of the time :(  Poor thing.

If you REALLY want the full experience, I posted a video to You Tube.  It’s over 3 minutes long and is really low res and she basically just stands there.  It’s kinda sad but I captured her first performance!  It’s only up from here, right?

 

No worries-she recovered!

Shaun brought up that Lucy’s hair was getting pretty long and scraggly and that she should get a haircut.  At first I was resistant to the idea, but then I did have to admit that her hair was a bit uneven.

 

Look at those chops!

So we found a kids haircutting place in Burlingame and took her in.

She wasn’t really sure about it but overall, she was a good girl and came out looking a little less messy.

The “stylist” was concerned that she would look like a boy if we cut it any shorter.  I think it’s just right 🙂

In other, exciting Lucy news, my friend childhood friend, Natalie, is a photographer and she came and took pictures of us last month.  You’ve seen some of her images from our holiday card but I have a CD with over 300 photos that I FINALLY got downloaded onto my computer.  Natalie gives you the rights to all your images, so you pay for the session and the processing of the pictures and then she burns you a CD that is 100% yours.  She caught some AMAZING images of our family.

We had such a blast this year for Christmas.  Lucy LOVED unwrapping her presents and loved playing with them even more!

But first, I’ll get you up to speed on December!  Lucy has turned into a KID.  She’s walking, starting to talk, and there isn’t much baby left in her.  It’s sad but at the same time it is SO FUN.

She’s telling me what’s up

She’s growing too!  She no longer fits in any of her 9 month clothing and she’s upgraded to size 4 shoes.  Yes, she is a tiny little bean!  I promise you, she EATS!  I swear she eats more than me!

She’s also a BIG helper.  Here she is trying to take Mommy’s purse down to the car:

She also has quite the personality (still).  It’s definitely gotten bigger as she has gotten bigger!

And she does arts and crafts now!

Yep, that one made me cry!

She had her 15 month appointment on the 23rd.

Her stats from the appointment:

Height: 28.75 inches (15th percentile-down from the 50th!)
Weight: 19.4 pounds (8th percentile-holding steady)

He said that she’s pretty advanced with her verbal skills and with her fine motor skills.  She has around 10-20 words right now and has started putting phrases together: “I read” while flipping through a book, “I do it” when she doesn’t want help (I hear this one a lot) and she also signs together “More” and then “Please” that usually only happens for cookies though    The fact that she’s feeding herself with a spoon and spearing things with her spork (she only gets food on her spork about 20% of the time right now) is really great as well.  He also commented that she was very calm 15 month old.  He said that his 15 month old appointments are usually full of protests and wriggling.  She just sat in Mommy’s lap-I think part of it had to do with her not feeling well but she is also a very calm little one.

On the growth he said that he’s not worried about her height percentile falling off so much.  He said that once they hit a year old they really find what growth pattern they’ll hold to and that she’ll probably be a shortie like her Mommy and Daddy.

She had been coughing for a few weeks before her appointment but not that often and only when she went to sleep.  ALL the kids at daycare had been coughing so we didn’t make much of it.  The night before her appointment though, she woke up at 2 am which is NOT normal.  She was coughing more and the honey water I gave her didn’t seem to help.  It turns out she was at the beginning of pneumonia 🙁 I never would have thought!

See why I didn’t think she was too terribly sick?:

But the chest x-rays confirmed it.  She got some antibiotics and by the next day she was feeling much better.

The doctor said that as long as she was getting better and not worse, our travel plans on Christmas were a go!

But first we had to have Christmas 🙂

We set out cookies for Santa and carrots and celery for his reindeer (thanks Mimi for the awesome plate!)

What a difference a year makes:

In the morning, Santa had definitely come!

When Lucy came out she pointed right at her big present-an activity table and chair!

She LOVES it!

She’s such a big girl now *sob*!

Christmas was AWESOME!  We finished the day in Idaho where Lucy got to play with her cousin Tessa-who is 5 months younger and very enthralled with her older cousin Lucy:

Lucy didn’t know what to think-but she did have fun!

Our first morning in Idaho started off with the two cousins having breakfast together.  Lucy is 5 months older than Tessa but they are about the same size.

They were only that close for the pictures because they started stealing each other’s food.

After breakfast, we drove 2 hours to a lake town called McCall.  The drive was beautiful!  I was driving so there’s no pictures    We met most of my family at the small airport in McCall-they had flown straight there.  My two brothers, my sister-in-law, my soon to be sister-in-law (Congrats Jake and Amy!), my 3 nephews, and my Dad were all there waiting for us. 

My brother, sister-in-law, and 3 nephews hadn’t seen Lucy in a year so that was fun to catch up!

The next day everybody except my sister and me went skiing and the two girls hung out.

We also went on a hike in the snow, where we had to really bundle the girls up.

(Yes they can barely move-it was 8 degrees out!)

The next day, it was more skiing for everybody while the girls hung out again.   All the cousins played again.  Here’s 8 year old Luke with Lucy’s magna-doodle.  He drew a picture of Lucy and Luke together.

Here are all the cousins (Lucy wasn’t so into the picture):

Our last full day in McCall we went to breakfast and then all took naps.  Later in the day we went on a hike in the snow and went sledding.  It was a blast!!!

Lissa and Tessa:

Shaun and Lu:

Aunt Kelly and Uncle Roger, who came to visit for 2 days, and their dogs, Bear and Bailey:

Lu in all her gear-thanks for the awesome jacket and gloves Gram and Pop!:

And then we went sledding!

Even I did it-it was SO FUN!

Even when I crashed…

Shaun dug it too:

Ben and Sheri went together:

OVER A JUMP!

And Lu got in on the action!

She was a trooper but a little cold by the end of it.

We left the next day 🙁

Flying into the Bay Area, we got some fantastic views:

Aunt Sheri and Lu took some time for a self portrait:

Since we’ve been back, she’s been enjoying her new toys! Playing legos with Daddy!

She even helps clean them up-this kid LOVES cleaning up-seriously.  I hope it sticks!

We sang the clean-up song while she put them in the box and then on her own volition she did this.

She needed a little help to get the container up on the shelf.

Aren’t her Jammie Jays super cute?  Aunt Kara and Uncle Jerel sent them!

Did I mention that she REALLY likes her table?

She loves the music set Santa got her too! (No pictures yet).

She is seriously SO.MUCH.FUN!

Now onto resolutions.  I know how many of you love this blog and check it frequently.  I am COMMITTING to posting once a week in 2010!  I set it up with Windows Live Writer which means that blogging is MUCH easier and faster.  If a Monday comes and you haven’t seen a post in over a week-EMAIL me and make me honest!

With that-Happy Holidays!