Lucy’s Blog

Some fun pictures:

We tried Happy Baby Organic Puffs. They are like Cheerios but dissolve faster and are organic and all that good stuff. Lucy loved that they were on her tray and started trying to pick them up and was quite perplexed when they stuck to her. Once she got them in her mouth she didn’t know what to think:

She kinda came around:

Life, as always, is crazy!

Last week I went to Mommy’s group and Lucy’s friend AJ had all sorts of fun toys.  Lucy really liked his activity table.  Sorry for the blurriness-I took them with my iPhone.

Isn’t she a BIG GIRL?

She IS one champion stander!

It was so crazy to see all these kids together.  When Lucy and I started going to “play dates” the babies would sleep or just lay there and the Moms would talk about how tired they were.  Now the babies are EVERYWHERE.  Two of them are crawling, many of them can roll to where they want to be and they are all playing with toys and vocalizing.  It was a madhouse!  But still really fun!  It’s great to see the babies interacting with one another.

Mommy (that’s me!) got pretty sick last week and I was amazed that Lucy didn’t catch it.  Well I was amazed too soon.  Our little munchkin got really sick this weekend.  She had a temperature, a cough, wheezing, and mucus galore (ewww!).  Both Shaun and I got the experience (multiple times) of being puked on.  It was a hard 4 days.  Lucy also was quite listless and slept A LOT.  Here she is sleeping like she used to on Daddy:

On Sunday she slept from 1PM-7PM, only waking up to eat every few hours.  7:30 is normally her bedtime but Munchkin was wide awake and showing more alertness than she had all day.  We let her stay up with us and she got to see what happens after she goes to bed-Daddy plays XBOX!

Daddy, how does this work?

I want one!!!

I got one!!!

Shaun saved an old broken controller, knowing that one day she’d want one just like Daddy.  He thought that day would come in a few years, but nope!  Lucy got her very own controller at 7 months.  I told Lucy to kick Daddy’s booty and Daddy informed me that they were on the same team and were killing the bad guys together.

Lucy was really sick until Tuesday afternoon when she started to feel a little better.  She was much better Tuesday morning but not nearly healthy enough.  I actually tried to drop her off at daycare on Tuesday and when I saw her next to healthy kids I figured out that she was better but being better from horrible doesn’t make you healthy.  It took me forever to leave daycare and when I did I burst into tears as soon as I got in the car.  I called Shaun and we figured out a way for me to work from home  for a second day. He was able to come home for an extended lunch so I could be on a call Lucy-less.  I got off the freeway and went back to pick my sick girl up. They were shocked to see my at daycare but I know that I did the right thing.

Here’s our smiley girl this morning:

You can almost, but not quite, see her teeth in this picture.  I’ve been trying to get them but they’re hard to catch!

She’s started to get around on her back. She arches her back and bounces up and down to get places.  She can cover a good foot in about 30 seconds.  We know that crawling is just around the corner!

I know we made you wait but it’s worth it!  Our friend Jen Kung took AMAZING pictures of our camping trip.  Wow!  We went to Butano and it was COLD but Lucy did great and we had fun.

The Titii Forever Tent-We’ll have this FOREVER!

The caterpillar who loved the blue lantern cover:

Amazing Redwood Trees:

Shaun clowning around in the bottom of a Redwood:

Ann and Lucy:

Lucy Looking all gangsta!

FIRE!

Daddy and Lucy:

Lucy hated the gloves.  She’s addicted to her thumb.  Ahhh…her fix:

Awww!

Lucy and Daddy in the tent:

The infamous Lingo Potatoes cooking over the fire.  Parish had to take over while I fed Lucy:

Lucy loves her prunes:

Going for a 4 hour hike-Lucy did great!

One of our first Banana Slugs-We saw 120 or more-we counted!

Hiking in the trees:

Turkey Tails:

A Newt-How Cute!

Lucy liked it!

The view from Lucy’s changing pad:

Flying with Daddy:

Yay!

The view:

The 116th Banana Slug-GO BANANA SLUG!

We were there on Easter-Happy Easter:

Lucy dressed appropriately:

Amazing Tree:

Happy Easter!

I love this picture of us!

Josh cooking our last breakfast:

Parish and Josh cooking our last breakfast-Waffles, French Toast and Berries-Oh MY!

Smoke in the Trees:

The last day, we had to get a picture of our tent-it really is amazing-it’s like 7 feet tall!

The whole crew (Jen (amazing photog skills!), Ann, Josh, Parish, Shaun, Lucy, Me

Our first blue skies-When we left!

Hanging out at the beach before heading home:

Flying with Daddy:

OMG!

View of the coast:

Amazing Sky!

What a trip!  I can’t wait to go again in June!

This weekend we went to Monterey to the Sea Otter Classic. One of the biggest Mountain Bike Races on the West Coast.  It was awesome.  Shaun got to demo a $6000 Cannondale Rize 1-He was in heaven!  You can’t tell but he’s doing a track stand in this picture-he’s not moving-check out his mad skillz!

The weather was so amazing that we stayed another night.  Lucy fell asleep in our bed for a nap and Shaun thought she looked like a little person (well SHE IS!)

And finally, with all this hot weather (it was over 90 today) Lucy got to wear a cute outfit that Mimi got her today.  Look how cute!

She’s sitting up by herself easily now!  She can do it for 15-20 minute stretches. She also got weighed today and she’s gained over a pound in less than 1 month-She’s 14 pounds 3 ounces now.  Go Lucy Go!

See?  The wait was worth it!

This was supposed to be a post about our first successful camping trip however 2 very big milestones just happened that I had to blog about. Don’t worry the camping trip will be blogged about-we are just waiting for the pictures from our friends.

Lucy has been teething this past week and we had some really bad nights but while camping Lucy did great. I wasn’t able to check her mouth all weekend because when you’re camping, your hands are never clean. After my shower today (ahhh…what a nice shower) I checked Lucy gums and there was nothing. I thought to myself, “I wonder if I’ll know when a tooth actually comes?”

This afternoon Shaun suggested taking a walk down to get some yogurt. While walking she was chewing furiously on Shaun’s finger. I looked again, and nothing.

We got home and had Lucy on her tummy. She was very happy, inching along on her tummy (yes she’s sort of moving while on her tummy-veeeery slowly). Suddenly Lucy started screaming. I thought she was just frustrated being on her tummy. She can flip over but wasn’t and kept getting more and more upset. I flipped her over and her crying just got worse. I picked her up (which is a sure fire way to get her to stop crying), the crying got even worse. I looked in her mouth and saw a blood spot and a sliver of white. I felt and there it was-her first tooth! She cut her first tooth on the right front! I was sure it was going to be on the left-that’s where she’s been chewing, but NO-right front.

I was amazed that I could pinpoint when the tooth actually came in-around 6:20 PM on April 12th! Very cool.

About 20 minutes later, we had a happy Lucy again. I started feeding her avocado and oatmeal. She was eating it voraciously when a pain wave hit again. I got her out of her seat and soothed her. After she calmed down she pointed at her sippy cup. I gave it to her and got a big smile. For those of you who don’t have kids or don’t remember-this is HUGE. Lucy can show us what she wants now. Shaun saw it and said “Did she just point at her sippy cup?” We thought maybe it was a fluke, but then she did it again in the bathtub. She wanted her ducky and she let me know by pointing at it. WOW.

The munchkin cut a tooth and started pointing at what she wants all within an hour!

This past weekend my Mom, Lucy’s MiMi came to visit. We had a really great time. Here’s some pictures:

Lucy shows MiMi how she can sit up:

How she’s a champ at tummy time:

And how she can use a sippy cup:

MiMi got Lucy some bunny ears and Lucy really loved them:

No Really:

Lucy thought MiMi was pretty fun!:

We celebrated Easter a week early:

And then we had a photo shoot!

And 2 pictures from 2 weekends ago just because they’re cute!

I went to Virginia on a business trip last week and I feel like life has been crazy ever since. I was gone for 1 full night but Lucy and Daddy did bedtime 2 nights in a row with no Mommy. It was difficult! Our crazy life continues with us going camping-yes camping-this weekend. We’re hoping for good weather!!!

Today was Lucy’s 6 month well baby check-up. She really is a little munchkin! Here are the stats:

Weight: 13 pounds 3 ounces – 10th Percentile
Height: 25 and 3/4 inches – 75th Percentile
Head Circumference: 17 inches – 75th Percentile

She was in the 75th Percentile at 4 months for both her height and her head but was in the 25th Percentile for weight. The doctor isn’t worried though and neither are we. She’s a happy, healthy little girl with big cheeks and little baby rolls on her arms and legs. The doctor said we would only worry if she continues to go down in percentiles and/or isn’t gaining any weight, which isn’t the case.

We’ve had some pretty big developments lately. I swear she’s just exploded in terms of what she can do. My friend Audrey posted a six month list on her blog and I’m going to steal it because it worked really well:

Gathered from various websites, these are the 6 month milestones that describe Ev Lucy ;):

– Begins to speak single (hard) consonants, like “dada” (sorry mom!) She’s making many more vowel sounds (and lots of them) but I’ve heard “P” sounds and “G” sounds

– Begins to “tripod” (sits with one hand on the ground for support) and soon will begin to sit without support. She sat up with no support for about 30 seconds last night and then put her hand down and in the “tripod” method for about another 15 before toppling over.

– Is able to recognize each parent and may even begin to show some stranger anxiety. Lucy isn’t as quick to smile at people anymore but after a few minutes of very concentrated staring she’ll start to smile.

-Signs of separation anxiety. She’s started to cry when I’m not in her line of sight and she has to be in someone’s arms at daycare when I leave or she cries.

– Makes attempts to feed himself or herself. This is about the funniest thing I’ve seen! It just started a few days ago. She holds the spoon really tightly in her fist and tries to shove it in her mouth and chokes herself. Silly girl.

– Smiles, laughs, squeals and begins to imitate sounds. This is so fun. Yesterday on the way to daycare she was sitting in her car seat just cracking up. I have no clue what at but she thought it was hilarious.

– Can be content in a playpen crib/co-sleeper/floor/upright seats for a while playing with one or two toys. She’s always been this way but now it’s for longer and longer periods of time.

– Can bear weight on his or her legs when held in a standing position (no, it will not make him or her bowlegged). She’s been able to do this since December!

– Will bounce when held in a standing position. She did do something exciting/scary at the doctor’s office today though-she took a step! Like I said she’s been standing with support since December but has never tried to move her legs. I had her on the table standing up and looking into the mirror and she totally tried to walk towards the mirror! I’m not ready for that yet!!!

– Shows more intentionality during play. You should see her with books now. She wants to hold them and she wants to feel the pages and try to turn them.

– Makes wet razzing sounds. She just started this today.

-Knows her name.

This isn’t mentioned anywhere but we’ve been signing with her-using American Sign Language and she’s started to sign for milk and she totally understands the sign for bathtime. We can’t do it unless she’s getting in the bath in the next few minutes. She’s gets so excited when we sign for bath!

ETA: She’s started waving!!! I can’t believe I forgot that one. If Mommy or Daddy or a daycare teacher waves, she waves back….well she kond of flails her arm up and down but that’s definitely what she’s doing. She’s also given both me and Shaun high fives!

She has also gotten over her disgust with green beans. She’s eats them like a champ now! Today we tried avocado and she liked it so we’ll be mixing avocado into things now. I think the next up is sweet potatoes.

Here’s some silly pictures of our sweet girl:

And a fan favorite:

Lucy turns 6 months tomorrow-can you believe it? I can’t. To mark her 6 months birthday we started vegetables.

She was doing pretty good on rice cereal until last week when we realized that she hadn’t pooped for 3 days. Well that day she POOPED and pooped alot. In fact, she pooped in the bathtub and once we got her out, she pooped in the towel for 10 Minutes!!!! It was quite the poop experience. I called her doctor the next day to see what we could give her to help unblock the situation. The nurse suggested either pears or pear juice mixed in her cereal. We tried that, here was the result:

She didn’t like pears very much. She made that face before we even got the pears in her mouth. Just the smell made her gag.

So we tried oatmeal. She didn’t love oatmeal but she could tolerate it and by the fourth day of oatmeal she was eating an entire serving.

Well, now that she’s six months it was time to start vegetables and fruit. Ms. Azar, at daycare, suggested we start with green beans. I went looking online and figured out how to make green beans for a baby. For anyone who’s interested www.wholesomebabyfood.com is a great resource for making your own baby food. It’s easy and cheap-I got 1 pound of organic green beans for $1.99 at Whole Foods. I made up a batch of the green beans last night and decided to compare it with the Gerber Organic Green Beans that some friends had given us:

As you can see, the homemade stuff is much more vibrant and fresh looking-not surprising. I tasted both and the homemade was edible and kind of yummy. The Gerber? Tasted like overcooked green beans and the texture was awful. No wonder kids don’t like vegetables!

Alright, so here I am all excited to get Lucy started on green beans. They suggest that you do it in the morning so that you can watch for allergic reactions. Shaun went for a mountain bike ride this morning and I fed Lucy green beans. Here she is before:

There’s my happy girl. After the pear incident I didn’t have high hopes but as I approached her mouth the smell didn’t gag her-this is good! But still, she isn’t sure:

Then she decides that green beans aren’t really that cool:

This was about the time we stopped:

Oh well, we’ll try again tomorrow. We can only introduce new things every 4 days or so, so she’ll get something new next weekend. Maybe some avocado?

On Saturday Lucy had her first swim lesson. The lesson was at 11:15 a.m. and we had to run some errands beforehand so Lucy didn’t have a very good nap before the lessons. We thought it was going to be a difficult time, but she ended up doing really well despite being a bit tired.

Lucy Tests the Water

Kickboard Action

Lucy Floats

Lucy Goes Under

Warming Up Afterwards

Overall this was an excellent experience and we look forward to 7 more Saturdays of swim classes. However, the volume of children in the pool area can be quite overwhelming – actually if you’re looking for a new form of birth control you could just go sit at the pool once a week.

Hi there! We’ve been getting calls asking if we’re okay since we haven’t posted in 2 weeks. We’re fine, just busy. Working puts a kink in my free time 😉

Shaun and I were talking about how scheduled our life is now. A typical day:

5 AM-Lucy wakes for a feeding and sometimes for the day. When we’re lucky she goes back down for an hour or so
6:30 AM-Wake up. Feed Lucy.
6:45 AM-Showers-I take one and then Shaun and Lucy hangs out in her bouncy seat in the bathroom to get a steam to help clear her sinuses (we’ve been battling colds since January)
7:15 AM-Dress Lucy
7:30 AM-Get everything ready for daycare, Shaun leaves for work at this point
7:45 AM-Leave for Daycare
8 AM-Drop Lucy off at Daycare
8:30 AM-Get on the Train
9-5:30 PM-Work where I have to pump 3 times. I’ve had some issues with supply and had to rent a hospital grade pump. Check this puppy out!

I’m happy to report that the supply issues have been solved by that fine piece of machinery, fenugreek supplements, oatmeal, and lots and lots of water!

Back to the schedule:

5:30 PM-Shaun picks up Lucy from Daycare
6 PM-Feed and then play with Lucy for an hour
6:30 PM-Feed Lucy her cereal
6:45 PM-start the heater in the bathroom and set up for bathtime
7 PM-Bathtime
7:15 PM-Storytime
7:25 PM-Feed Lucy
7:30-7:35 PM-Lucy is OUT.

After she’s out I have to make dinner, Shaun cleans up, then I make her bottles for the next day, and then we veg in front of the tv, and repeat 🙂

As you can see bathtime is an integral part of our schedule. It signals to Lucy that it’s time to go to bed soon and it washes the daycare germs off of her. Lucy has just discovered that bathtime is FUN. Before she just sort of hung out in the bath. I’d get smiles but it wasn’t anything special. Then she discovered splashing! Here’s the first night she started splashing:

She’s gotten even more enthusiastic about it now and gets mad when we take her out of the tub. Here she is tonight having fun:

That girl likes her bath! I can’t wait to get her started with swim lessons. She can start when she’s 6 months old-which is coming up on March 22nd!!! We went to Santa Cruz this weekend and happened to find a Lucy sized swim suit:

We also hung out at the beach:

It was a really nice day! It actually started off with Shaun letting me sleep in (what a guy!) and getting up with Lucy at 6:30. While they were hanging out she discovered Chunky Monkey in her crib. Chunky Monkey was a Christmas gift from Santa. It has sat in Lucy’s crib (the only thing since it’s a “safe” crib toy) since Christmas and she’s never noticed it. Now Lucy LOVES Chunky Monkey:

We finished off the weekend basking in the sun (kitty and all):

Lucy is 5 months old today.  Time flies, eh?

Last night we fed her rice cereal. We’ll be attempting to feed her rice cereal this month to try and get her used to a spoon.  The real fun starts at 6 months when she starts to get vegetables and fruit.

I got the rice cereal, spoon, high chair, and bib all ready-I was expecting a mess.  She actually did surprisingly well.  She opened her mouth for Mommy and seemed to really like her first taste of “real food”.

Here’s a (pretty boring) video of the experience:

Daddy fed her today-it was messier!

She’s also been working on tummy time. She’s started to “swim” while on her tummy. She moves her arms and her legs like she’s crawling but she’s not strong enough to go anywhere. It’s pretty darn cute:

And now I give you Serious Lucy: