the lucy project—month 11

month 11 was a big one for lucy. in the last four weeks, she has:

• gotten three more top teeth, which followed the first one on the left one after the other toward the right. they all seemed to be coming in almost at the same time, which didn't seem to bother her much during the day, but made sleeping a bit difficult for a few nights. we actually fed her tylenol once when she was particularly miserable, but beyond that, it wasn't so bad. so now she's got a total of six working chompers (all the better to eat birthday cake with, right?) unfortunately, she still thinks that she ought to be putting anything and everything into her mouth (gross!) she particularly enjoys finding my hairs (or pulling them out of my head) and putting them in her mouth (double gross). i can't figure out why anyone would want to put hairs in their mouth, i'm constantly trying to keep from getting them in mine.
• started crawling—for real. she can get around really well now, which means we're living in a baby-gate environment again. she hasn't attempted going up the stairs yet, so that's a plus. the biggest issue is sam moving the gates and not telling anyone that they're not secured anymore. so far we haven't had any incidents. i'm hoping our luck holds out. in the meantime, she enjoys traveling around the house on her own, and following us around as we do things here and there.
• started pulling up to stand on her own. it took her a while to feel confident enough to give this a shot, but now she does it really well. convincing sam that she doesn't need helping all the time is still a bit of an issue (such a helpful older brother!), but she handles all the assistance with grace (screeching at the top of her lungs).
• become obsessed with the remotes. i think i need to locate sam's remote (the one with no batteries that doesn't work a single thing).
• started pointing out the lights and saying "aye". yesterday we were shopping for groceries and she randomly started pointing and saying "aye!" i think she feels very clever for having figured this out.
• i'm pretty sure she was trying to say baby the other day (just like sam with the yo-baby yogurt). she kept saying, "beee beee beee." it was pretty cute (of course).
• started to make this grin when she thinks something is funny where she opens her mouth and crinkles her nose. i tried to get a photo of it, but she's so wiggly that getting a clear shot is practically impossible.

we're now counting down the days until she turns into a "years kid" (as sam puts it). i'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that she's almost a year old. it seems like just a few weeks ago that i brought her little, tiny self home. a few weeks and a million diapers ago, that is.

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).

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.)

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.

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.

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.)

the boy and the girl

sammy | lucy

they're definitely related.

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.

oh joy!

we found out today at our ultrasound that it's a 99% certainty that we're having a girl.

i have to admit that i'm a little disappointed that we're not going to get extra mileage out of some of sam's newborn clothes (though, i can probably get away with blue onsies with little footballs on them in the privacy of our own house, right? right? i mean, they're so cute.) but i'm also thinking that little dresses can be just as much fun as truck shirts, tea parties can be as much fun as rocketships, and that it's okay to mix pink legos in with fire engine legos (all kids like legos—at least, they should). i also hear tell that potty training a girl is a lot easier (which i'm hoping is true), and that they're not as rowdy as boys (though having seen my nieces, i'm not sure i believe this one). in any case, even another boy would be a different story than sam, and it will be a whole new adventure finding out what "not sam" is like.

(let's not think about the teenage years yet though. i know what my teenage years were like, and i am not looking forward to it.)

oh yeah...

i almost forgot to mention that we will be making at least one more hospital trip at some point to take care of this little condition:

yes, sam is going to be an older brother. we are excited and/or frightened (depending on the time of day and behavior of the soon-to-be older brother), and are hoping the little bean will arrive just in time to mess up our scheduled trip to oglebay (arrgh!).

by way of an announcement, we gave sam a special t-shirt for his birthday (which he has since worn to daycare and resulted in a rather humorous email from our daycare provider).

sam went to the first ultrasound with me and was convinced that he also had a baby in his belly (he also mentioned one in his head). he has since decided that this is a little brother (we don't actually know yet) and is named missy (sorry aunt missy, but probably not).

golden boy

i couldn't resist a photo of sam in his yellow outfit. this little hat (brought by grandma henderson) is probably the only one that has stayed on his head more than 60 seconds, thanks to the chin strap. i'm wondering if i need to rig up something similar for his other hats.

out and about

we all went out today to do our weekly shopping. sam got suited up for the occasion and i was able to get a few photos. it seemed like the weather was a little cold for his liking, but we made at least four stops before coming home, and he was sleeping peacefully for all of them.

i felt bad for mike, who got harrassed by the lady in the checkout line. she seemed to think that 11 days old was too soon for the three of us to be out and about, when in fact he had volunteered to do the shopping solo. of course, i was really looking forward to getting out of the house with sam and couldn't be persuaded to stay home. it's a good thing mike is such a good sport.

worried eyebrows

mom requested a photo of sam for the church newsletter, so i parked him in his bouncy chair in front of the window and snapped a few. sam seems to spend a lot of time wearing his worried eyebrows. i think maybe he's just weirded out by his wacky mom.

in other news, sam weighed in at a hefty 7lb 6oz at his doctor visit today. he's doing so well that he doesn't go back for another three weeks. yay sammy! and i was able to put on my old non-maternity jeans. yay mommy!

1 week

it's hard to believe sam's been here a whole week. he's already settling in and starting to take in his new surroundings. right now he's sitting looking at our big bay window with big blue eyes and not fussing. there haven't been a whole lot of awake times yet where he wasn't fussing, so this is a very good thing.
we're still wondering what he dreams about when he's sleeping. it looks like something very deep...

sam i am.

this is sam (samuel robert), born february 10, 2009. already the coolest thing i've ever made. *with mike's help, of course.*

perhaps the last

today may be the last day with my big ol' baby belly, and the last day for mike and i to be a two-some. i go to be induced tomorrow and am really hoping for a safe journey for ninja into our family. it's not exactly the situation i was hoping for, as i really wanted him to show up on his own, but i'm considering this my first parenting lesson in flexibility. safe travels, kiddo! we can't wait to see you on the other side.

40 weeks - or 40+

i guess it depends on whose calendar you're following, but this will likely be the last of the belly photos. i'm ready to say goodbye to the belly and greet my feet!

been a while...

sorry about being among the missing this past week. i've had a bad case of ninja-brain. mostly hoping that he would be showing up sometime soon.

alas, it has not been so. he is perfectly content (as far as i can tell) to stay put. i've still got hopes that we won't have to resort to evicting him come monday, but the plans are being set, just in case.