the lucy project—month 4

lucy went in for her 4 month check up last week and she weighed in at 11.75lbs (6.6th percentile) and 25 inches tall (73.6th percentile). though she started out about three inches shorter than sam, she seems to be catching up quite nicely.
not much else has changed about her (she's still rocking the spit up and cute fuzzy thing). she's also been working on chewing stuff (mostly sleeves and burpcloths), which has us suspecting that she's going to sprout a tooth any time now (sam's first tooth was just around the 5 month mark, so it wouldn't be too surprising), and grabbing things (her aim is pretty good, but her fingers don't always cooperate as well as she would like). we've been working on a bedtime routine, and she's even spent a good few hours in her crib each night (typically until between midnight and 2 am (when she wakes up hungry). she's also starting to giggle and be ticklish, which is a lot of fun (particularly for daddy, who is fond of tickling his children).

december update

what we did in december: festive babylegs for december 1st • put up the first ornament on the advent calendar • sam practiced his signature • nice weather meant decorating outdoors (with lightsabers, of course) • the last leaf pile of the year (better jump in quick!) • fresh air makes sleepy babies • sam making a picture for santa • early morning (before kids wake up it's quiet around here) • plaid and stripes for a little bean • sam at the playground • stockings get hung • christmas card gets designed • tree fetching means warm hats and rubber boots • boy does that tree look nice (and so does the little helper) • pretty lights, sleepy little girl • treat maker (and taste tester) • time to knock over some towers

end of november update

after we crossed off all the items on our bucket list, we were off to columbus for a visit. we spent a couple of days hanging out at grandma + grandpa's house (daddy went to the osu/michigan game), and then back home again. we made paper snowflakes, tried making buttermilk biscuits (not too bad), built some babylegs (grey heart ones courtesy of aunt missy), and had a great time baking some holiday cupcakes (from scratch!)

visiting tower city

we also took cousins on our traditional trip to tower city to see the decorations. i'm not sure they found it all that impressive, but we had fun eating out at the winking lizard and making wishes in the fountain.

hiking with cousins

one of the things that we did during the cousin visit in november was go to the park and feed the birds at the overlook. in reality there wasn't much bird feeding because three enthusiastic little people and birds don't exactly mix. we did have a good time (despite the fact that i lost my sunglasses), and afterward we spent some quality time on the swings (always a winning activity for sam). we also paid a visit to menchie's (another winning activity), and followed up with some chipotle for dinner (awesome).

filling in the blanks

from november: a picnic at dusk (photo of the lake), hanging out with daddy, lucy all bundled up for walkies, lucy's silver heart onesie, sam at the playground, days at home are a blur

breaking news—rollin' along

this morning i put lucy down on her blanket for some tummy time, and i left her with the boys to go grab the laundry. when i came back into the room, she was on her back. i asked the boys if either of them had helped her roll over (i know she doesn't like tummy time that much, so i thought maybe one of them had flipped her over in response to some fussing). nope. neither one had touched her.
so i put her back on her tummy to see if she would roll over again, and sure enough. the next time i looked at her (i was distracted by a loud and excited sam), she was on her back again! i tried for a third time, but since i was watching closely this time she decided she'd had enough of this business and gave a good fuss about the fact that she had turned herself onto her back twice now and for some reason i totally wasn't getting the hint that "this stinks and i don't want to do it anymore, mom!"
anywho, apparently lucy can flip herself now. which also means we need to be a little more careful where we leave the little bugger. *sigh* immobility is much easier to deal with.

the lucy project—month 3

lucy at three months old:

• smiles a lot and likes to make gurgle-y "g" noises. she almost sounds like she's trying to say "girl" (as in "i'm the sweet girl!")
• is most fascinated by her hands, her feet, the "crinkle" frog, the taggie book, and her brother (the ultimate toy). she has also recently become very good at grabbing things she's interested in.
• can hop in the jumpster. it's not her favorite exactly, she'd much rather be held, but she'll tolerate it. particularly if sam is willing to bring her play food to snack on.
• is starting to humor me with the tummy-time business. she's still not keen on it (she'd much rather sit propped up in the boppy or in my lap), but she doesn't fuss nearly as quickly as she used to.
• is still a master of spit bubbles. sam was never this drooly. it's kind of cute and kind of gross.
• likes to stand up and show off her "tall baby" skills. she's getting so big!
• still has the squarshiest, kiss magnet cheeks ever, and softest fuzzies for noses.

when she's not crying or trying to cover me in spit-up (or worse), i feel like i'm the luckiest mom ever. (other times i'm just the second luckiest.)

buckeye bucket list

in less than two weeks the henderson-jones clan will be arriving for a one week visit, and this time we'll be lucky enough to be hosting! there are so many things we'd like to do with these special relatives that we don't get to see nearly as often as we'd like, so inspired by missy, i thought sam and i should make a "buckeye bucket list" of things to do in our corner of ohio. this is what we've come up with thus far:

• lightsaber battles (i think sam intended this for oscar and himself, though others might be welcome to join in)
• go for a hike to the overlook and feed the birds (i'll have to go get some sunflower seeds for this)
• ride the train to tower city and see the christmas decorations (i hope they'll be up in time, as they usually are)
• make buckeyes (or find a place to buy them) to take back to mississippi
• go to the playground
• go to the indoor pool
• take lucy for a walk (at shaker lakes)
• play legos
• read something (preferably about star wars)
• share halloween candy (for dessert)
• have thanksgiving dinner
• have a fire in the fireplace, roast marshmallows, have s'mores

i'm sure we'll come up with more and there will be lots of things we won't end up having time for, but it's fun to think about enjoyable things to do (much more fun than the list of all that needs to get done before the visit. bathroom scrubbing anyone?)

image via pinterest

more stencils!

i'm attending a baby shower tomorrow at work, so i whipped up a few freezer paper stenciled onesies for the mama-to-be. it definitely makes a great go-to project because it's not as time consuming as sewing up bibs or the like, but it's still "personalized". so this is what i was doing instead of crafting fun halloween projects with the kids (my poor kids!) though sam and i did manage to make a couple of ghosties for the front door.

one of sam's ghosts (who, according to sam, has been eating blue cotton candy—on its lips and in its left hand—and is holding a toy—black thing in its right hand). he drew the faces on both ghosts all by himself and i think he did a great job.

halloween recap

our pumpkin (art directed by sam)

because our trick-or-treat got suspended until sunday, i never did get pictures of the kids dressed up on halloween (though sam was able to dress up and get treats at daycare that day!) i was actually glad that things were postponed until sunday because i basically would've missed the entire thing had it been held on wednesday (i don't arrive home until 7:15 or so on workdays and trick-or-treat only runs until 7:30 here). it would've also meant that mike would've been stuck at the door handing out candy and sam wouldn't have been able to really go out much at all. 
with trick-or-treat on sunday lucy and i were able to hand out candy and sam and mike were able to go door-to-door. apparently sam was all into it this year (i think this is the first year he really understood the whole "getting dressed up and getting candy" thing), and he had a great time. mike texted me as they went along and i was surprised at how far they'd gone in the cold. sam's costume was big enough that he could fit his sweatshirt underneath (though i guess with his hood up he looked a little more "ninja" and not so much jedi until mike had him get his lightsaber out).

sam, red-cheeked and happy, showing off his loot.

lucy wasn't exactly happy about her "snuggle time" being interrupted by all the kids coming to the door, but she was greeted with many smiles and compliments. several of the younger kids were so distracted by her cuteness that they seemed to forget what they were knocking on our door for. by the time sam and mike got back, the trick-or-treaters had disappeared and she was happily sleeping in my (then unoccupied) arms.

lucy tired out after all the excitement.

all-in-all i think this was the most excitement we've had over halloween thus far. i had originally hoped to do more as far as crafty things and decorations and such, but managing all that with an almost three month old (who always seemed to be ravenously hungry, wet, poopy, or generally grumpy when i had a list of things i wanted to get done) isn't as easy as i thought it would be. i suppose there's always next year.

halloween preview—sammy luke skywalker

the corrpro company halloween party was yesterday, so we took the opportunity to photograph sam in his finished costume for the event. this costume was by far the most involved i've done so far (i broke out the sewing machine for this, which is a big deal in our house). i don't think mine is quite as fantastic as what missy is constructing for oscar, but it was about as fancy as i could manage. missy posted reference material here, and i downloaded photos for my trip to the fabric store. i bought a pattern for the top (a karate uniform), but the pants were way too big for sam, so i had to make my own pattern for that. the belt is brown webbing with a prachute buckle (something sam could put on and take off himself), and has small pleather "tool pouches" for sam to put things in that he might need while fixing a droid, or some other task. the boot covers didn't exactly happen the way i thought they would partly because i couldn't figure out exactly how to construct them so that sam would be able to put them on by himself and partly because he decided at the last minute he wanted to wear his "work boots". of course, sam was completely satisfied with the outcome. to tell the truth, i think if he had just gotten the lightsaber, his imagination would have filled in the blanks without all the sewing and such. the highlight of the party for sam was the boy dressed up as a clone trooper. he thought that it was ultra cool to have another star wars character there and is already plotting for me to make him a red clone trooper costume next year.
sam has definitely been enjoying his very own lightsaber and takes it just about everywhere he goes including bed (and i believe he's had at least one reminder that it's not a bath toy). lucy has gotten a few clonks on the head (and assorted body parts), but i suppose that's to be expected when bad guys are peeking around every corner (you can't have a war without casualties). she's handling it all very well though.
lucy also wore her costume yesterday, but i didn't get a chance to photograph her before she got upset and needed a diaper change and a nap. i'm hoping to get a few photos on wednesday, so stay tuned for that reveal.

sam's previous costumes can be found here, here, and here.

fall 2012

we've been pretty busy this fall, though if you asked me exactly what we've been up to it's hard to remember where the time has gone. i think a lot of it got swallowed up with costume making, but we've been to the farmers' market, down to columbus, to the swimming pool, and all around town (particularly to the playgrounds). i'm really wishing i'd have taken the time to photograph the trees while we've been out and about as they've been more bright and colorful than i remember in recent years, but these days just getting out the door is all my brain can handle. i'd say the peak of color was last weekend, and in the last couple of days the trees surrounding our yard have basically emptied themselves out. we have been out clearing the yard of leaves at least three times since last saturday. the pile of leaves on thursday was particularly epic (for a plot the size of ours, anyway), and sam had a blast jumping in, slogging through, and having me bury him underneath in that crunchy, colorful heap. lucy watched the proceedings with a mostly solemn expression, but it was a lovely 78 degree day with a light breeze, and we all enjoyed being out in the sun (we probably should have enjoyed it more considering that the weather mavens are predicting chilly and rainy for the next week or so—blarrgh).
i keep thinking about missy's bucket list and all the fun things she's been doing and wishing we were having that many adventures. oh well. i guess we've got a little fall left, so maybe we can cram a little more fun in before it's over. in any case, having missy and family up at the end of november will definitely be the highlight of the season (and maybe with them here we'll come up with some fun to cross off, right?)

instagram update

we're long overdue for an update, so these aren't necessarily in chronological order:

new haircut (late setember) • lucy in the wee hours • lucy • lucy and sam • sky on the way home from the train • sunset over the hardware store • sleepy girl • purple sky • vintage sewing machine (costume making begins!) • out comes the jumpster • sam's costume (halfway done) • sleepy girl • fall knit layers (one of my favorite color palettes) • lucy in the jumpster with a snack from sam's restaurant • sam conversing with lucy

tunes for tuesday

lucy@ 2 months

things i love about lucy at 2 months old:

her bright smiles. they don't happen with great frequency yet, but when they do, the could light up a room. they sure light me up.

the sweet fuzzies on the top of her head. like sam, i love to touch her soft baby hairs (or stick my nose in them). they're darker than i remember sam's being, so it will be interesting to see what they look like after they've had a chance to grow in a bit more. and she's also got more of them than sam did at her age too.

her little coos. she doesn't talk all that much yet (mostly in the last week or so), but she always seems keen on telling me about stuff. she has the potential to be as much of a talker as her brother (and that's sayin' something, lemme tell ya).

even though she's 9lbs 8oz and 21 inches tall (according to her check-up this morning), she's still a tiny little bean. i love holding her and bouncing her (though more so at bedtime, and less when i need to get dinner made).

having a chance to dress a little girl. i wasn't sure i'd be keen on all that pink (still think it's a bit much), but i'm surely enjoying being able to grab a little dress to put on her. so cute! and mike lets me use the "pink flower" lotion on her (he highly objected to ANY lotion on sam. pink flowers or not, lotion was not to be put on the little man.)

in general i think lucy's got a pretty even temper. she'll yell if she's hungry or messy (sam couldn't have cared less, so this took us by surprise), she enjoys being held (yay for the sling and ergo!), but she definitely has plenty of times these days when she's fine to just hang out and relax (but not when i need to make dinner, of course). she cried less than a minute after her shots this morning and didn't even need to nurse to calm down. AND she's been known to just fall asleep on her own (sam rarely did this at this age), i'm loving it.

and just about everything else about lucy. naturally.

tunes for tuesday

little lu

just because i haven't posted any video of lucy yet. (unbelievable, i know.)

tunes for tuesday

sweet things via instagram

lucy • lucy • lucy • candy corn (it's fall y'all)

bubble fun

we mixed up a batch of bubble soap the other night using this recipe. they actually work really well (though not as stellar as mr. bubble bubbles. how i miss mr. bubble!) maybe it's because i didn't use dawn. i'll have to make a note on my grocery list.

1 month old

one thing is for sure, lucy has had one busy first month. between all that being born business, oglebay, doctor visits, and being out and about with her older brother, she's had plenty of goings on. luckily, she seems to roll with things pretty well (another thing she has in common with her older brother). at her one month check-up yesterday she was declared "fabulous" and weighed in at a hefty 7lbs 14oz, and 20 inches tall!
and speaking of older brother, sam is handling this big brother thing about as well as a little boy could. he's constantly asking to hold her, wanting to give her kisses and hugs (mostly when i'm trying to feed or get her to sleep, unfortunately). we have to keep reminding him to be gentle with all this love, but i think he genuinely is enjoying having her around. we'll see how it goes once she's more interactive.

sam (and his lightsaber) giving some love to his little sister

ps—you can check out sam's one month photo and stats here. (they still look a lot alike. i keep thinking that someone might just accuse me of re-posting old photos of sam.)

crafty endeavors

finally got two kids busy/quiet at the same time long enough to do something fun.
hurrah for freezer paper stencils. now i just need to come up with a design for lucy.

model child (har har)

you can get a pdf of the stencil here.

tunes for tuesday

i thought i'd share a couple of sam's favorite (for lack of a better term) lullabies. they're all star wars themed, of course. the first one is my favorite. the last one isn't exactly a song, but sam finds it to be particularly hilarious, so i thought i'd share it anyway.

two week weigh-in

lucy is up to 6lbs, 10oz!

the boy and the girl

sammy | lucy

they're definitely related.

unpacking

we're home from oglebay with lots of unpacking to do. there are two very full laundry bags sitting downstairs waiting for my attention, and a sleepy girl is cooperating just enough to let me get this quick post up before i head down to take care of it.
lucy during a few of her (many) sleeping/feeding/burping episodes • sam goes mini-golfing with daddy and cousins • the good zoo train ride is a MUST • lucy and me on our final night in our cabin (fun fact: lucy has spent more nights in the cabin at oglebay than she has at home!)

to do list, the second time around

we are getting ready to leave for Oglebay. We're a few days late because of our unexpected arrival, but also thrilled that we can all go as a family instead of someone (me) being either left alone waiting for the baby or here with a newborn on my own (and bored out of my mind). i'm particularly glad that i won't be sending sam off on his own. not because i don't think he can handle it (i heard about what happened with gramma and grampa while we were at the hospital—he saw gramma when he came down in the morning and said, "where's grampa?" not "where's mommy?" or "where's daddy?" but "where's grampa?" apparently he waited until after breakfast to wonder where his parents were. way to knock mom down a few pegs kiddo) but because i'm not sure i can. it was hard enough to be in the hospital without my favorite sidekick.

anywho, so i've got lists and lists going on—what to pack (we're packing for two kids now!), what needs to be done before we leave (the trash needs to be OUT, we learned that the hard way one year. oh, the fruit flies!). but a lot of my thinking has had to do with what i want to remember about this tiny, new sibling we've got in the house. how there are things i didn't do when sam was born, and now i'm wishing i had.

first on the list—take pictures of the WHOLE baby. with sam i was totally focused on that adorable little face and barely took any photos of his whole body. no tiny feet were saved for posterity in those first few days, and i still regret it. so yesterday i set up a spot on the couch and took lots of photos of little lucy. she's even tinier than i could've imagined, and though my photography skills are utterly limited, i think i got enough good ones that i will be satiated later on.

second—write down her "birth story". i didn't do this with sam, but this time around everything went about as well as i could've hoped for and i want to remember that, if only to feel better about how unhappy i was the first time. i sat down earlier and typed out what i can remember of those few hours pre-lucy. i already feel like it was time well spent.

third—enjoy that baby! though i'm already missing being pregnant (it was nice to have a reason to move slowly, to eat an extra helping of melon knowing i was growing a baby, to have people wanting to help me with this and that, plus i didn't have to worry about sucking in my gut—there's no sucking in a bump that big!) i know now that everyone is right when they say "they grow up so fast!" sam now seems huge in comparison (though still my adorable baby boy, i gotta say). so i'm doing my best to enjoy this tiny little person who's little bottom is barely holding up her premie pants (goodness help us if she was any earlier!)

now off to finish that packing. we've got a car to load up and a doctor's visit scheduled for right after lunch. we need to be on our way to get to oglebay by dinner, and we're looking forward to it!

i love lucy

me at 39 weeks

and introducing our precious little miss, lucille (lucy) rose

born—8/8/12 at 7:08am • weight—5lbs 15oz • height—18 inches

we're so glad that she made her way here safely and are enjoying every bit of her teeny, tininess.