Clapping

Lucy seems to be going gangbusters with some of these milestone developments lately. Just as I was wondering when she might start clapping, she did! I was so glad to capture this at the park one day after school.

8 Months Old

As you can tell by the collage of pictures below, we might not be able to keep taking these size-comparison photos every month. Lucy just won't sit still! I was afraid she was going to leap off the chair. :-)

Let's Celebrate!

At the end of May we headed down to San Antonio to celebrate a couple of different events. First, Rick's cousin, Jill, was graduating from Medical School. We're so proud of this major accomplishment and we were excited to share in her celebration. Also, Buff and Joan celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary, so we teamed up with Brad and Nicole to throw them a luncheon party in their honor. It was great to see everyone. For most if was the first time to meet Lucy, so that was special too. Buff and Joan treated us to some really nice accommodations at the Hyatt Hill Country and the cousins had a BLAST playing in the pool and multiple hotel rooms. Enjoy the slideshow below!

On the Move

Lucy, in an effort to keep up with big brother, I'm certain, is now on the move. She has created her own special sort of creep/crawl that looks a lot like the centipede or worm from 80s dance moves. She uses her toes to push her forward. She gets on her hands and knees, but so far hasn't done too much crawling that way. In honor of this major milestone, a video montage:

Tubes

So, Lucy has inherited the bad ear anatomy from my side of the family, just like Ethan. After her first ear infection took 3 antibiotics and a month to get rid of and her second one still wasn't gone after shots of a high-powered antibiotic, it was time to see the ENT. Since Lucy slept so great early on and hadn't seen a full night's sleep since her first ear infection, I was pretty much ready to get the surgery scheduled ASAP!!!

The ENT agreed that she needed the tubes, so away we went. I accompanied Lucy to the hospital on my own since we had to be there so early and they frown on siblings tagging along. Lucy did great. She came out of the anesthesia quickly and was ready to go home. Her ears drained for several days (she had a new infection by the time of the surgery) and she had a hard time getting used to not having that pressure when she laid down, but has not adjusted.

Here's a picture of her in her hospital gown in the playroom at the Children's Hospital, waiting for her turn.

7 Months Old

I'm a little late posting, but sure enough, Lucy is 7 months old (and will be 8 in a blink of an eye since mom is so tardy).

She's approximately 15 and a half pounds or so. And about 25 inches long I think. Totally unofficial stats since we don't have a checkup this month. Of course, that's not for lack of doctor's visits. We've been there A LOT. Lucy had another round of ear infections, this time not resolving until she had 2 shots of antibiotics. Poor thing was completely miserable and so were we all. So, we've been to the ENT doctor and Lucy's scheduled for tubes on May 13th. I'm praying that she doesn't get another infection before then (still has some fluid in there this week the dr. said), because I'm not likely to live through it.

She just started to wave today (at Daddy), and is still busy rolling around and scooting her little butt here and there trying to crawl. I've seen her very nearly on her hands and knees, so you know it's coming. Know what else is coming? TEETH. Or at least we think so. Lots of waking up with her fist in her mouth and all that jazz. So yay, more reasons to be up at night. WooHoo.

In fact, all this exhaustion probably contributed to the week plus that Rick and I just spent miserably sick. And I mean SICK. 6 days with fever is crazy for grownups. Apparently it was allergies turned into upper respiratory infections, but we had red, goupy eyes, coughs, aches, chills. It was LOUSY. But we made it through and are feeling better, finally.

Ethan's favorite phrase is "No, No, No. Not for babies." Which he says he learned from me even though I can't think of when I've ever said it. He's still a great big brother and guaranteed to brighten Lucy's mood no matter what. I've started making Lucy's baby food at home and am really having fun with it. I had to take a bunch more milk to the Mothers' Milk Bank of North Texas to make room in the freezer, so I'm hoping to put a bunch more in there this weekend. So far we've done avocado and banana (a big hit), butternut squash, carrots, and blueberry quinoa (a strike out--couldn't get it smooth enough for her). She had some organic baby food last week and I'm going to recreate their recipes, because she completely loved it. So, coming soon: sweet potato and white bean with cinnamon, and roasted pears. I tasted those and would've eaten them myself. They were outstanding.

I'll be back soon with 8 month pictures in just a couple of weeks!

Lucy Moving

So, I'm going to try and post this video of Lucy moving around that I took with my phone. For whatever reason it is too big to email, won't compress in .zip files and is generally being a big pain--especially for such a SUPER CUTE video. Also, it is sideways. I was holding the phone vertically like you would think you should, but this is how it came out and I can't figure out how to change it, and I've tried a bunch of different things. So, hopefully the darn thing will upload and play! Because really, it is just so much fun. :-)

6 Months Old!

Well, our little girl is 6 months old! If you can't believe it, imagine how we feel! How is it possible her first year is half over? Okay, enough of that talk, it's making me sad.

First, the stats:

Height: 24 3/4 inches
Weight: 14 lbs. 4 oz.
Head 41 cm.

That's all in about the 25th percentile. So, if you're thinking, um. . . did she shrink since last month? Of course not, but apparently someone (or maybe 2 someones) wasn't real good with the measuring tape. The doctor seemed to think the 4 month measurement may have been the outlier, but this seems a little short to me too. I'm guessing the right answer is somewhere in between. Maybe we'll try at home and see what we come up with.

Lucy is rolling all around, all directions. She has also recently started to "revolve." While lying on her tummy (which except for while sleeping is pretty much her standard position these days--remember how mad it made her just a little while ago?), she lifts her feet off the ground, pushes up with her arms and spins herself around to whatever she needs. She can also do a little scooting in this position by digging her toes in and pushing herself forward. The rear end is starting to get up in the air too, so I'm sure it won't be long that she will be completely on the move.

We've started a few foods: rice cereal, oatmeal, and wheat cereal. We've also tried green beans, squash, sweet potatoes and bananas. Of course, bananas were the only one of those (besides the cereals) that she even seemed to like at all. She seems to like to eat, especially if we're all at the table, and reports from daycare are that she thinks she's "hot stuff" sitting at the table with the "big" kids. She is moving in the right direction with sitting up too, and can do it for a very short time on her own if she's got her legs in the right position.

As for the sleeping. . . we've taken quite a few steps backward in that area. Since her ear infection, which took nearly a month to get over, and the bad cold that came right after that, we just can't get back to good sleep. She wakes up 3-4 (sometimes more) times a night. Sometimes nursing, other times just screaming and carrying on with no way to comfort her really at all. Many nights she wakes up between 1 and 3 am only to stay awake for 2 hours. We don't play, we keep trying to let her cry a few minutes before going to her, etc. but it isn't working. Every night we just hope it is better than the night before and that at some point we can get back to the great sleeper she was from 3-4.5 months! (Naps are a mess too--we can't get in a schedule to save our lives.)

Even though the sleeping is a big frustration, Lucy is as sweet as can be. Big brother Ethan continues to amuse her to no end, and he is as sweet as a big brother could be. I love watching them together. Here are a few other pictures of the last month.

Lucy's Baptism

Last Sunday we celebrated Lucy's Baptism. It turned out to be a beautiful day. Rick flew my mom in to surprise me (she got here Wednesday), and his folks joined us Friday afternoon. We celebrated after the service with lunch at our house for 16 (counting Lucy, who slept through the meal), and everyone had a great time. It was a very special day. Here's the slideshow of the pictures we've collected from various sources (lucky for us a professional photographer/friend was taking pictures of the service that day for other purposes, so we got some great shots from him).

Some of my favorite things to watch for:

Lucy's hand on Ethan's shoulder in the picture of the 4 of us.
Ethan trying to peer into the font to see the water during the baptism.
Ethan clapping at the conclusion of the baptism.

Ethan and the Finger Counting Song

Ethan's finger counting song. Hadn't heard this one ever before until tonight. In case you can't hear/understand him: "1 finger points; 2 fingers walk; 3 fingers stand up, talk, talk, talk; 4 fingers count, 1, 2, 3, 4; oh look! I've got one more. 5 fingers up, 5 fingers down, 5 fingers, all around; 5 fingers here, 5 fingers there; 10 fingers to wash my hair."