Lamby the Lovey

I am not sure if I've mentioned Lamby. Many babies, I have been told, develop special affection for a "lovey" - a word I take issue with, for reasons I can't figure out. Whether its a blanket, a doll, a teddy bear, whatever. Alex and I both had a "wool" - who knows where this name came from because Alex's was a definitely-made-of-cotton quilt like blanket that was about 4 foot square, with a blue border and white and red checks, that he slept with over his head for years. My "wool" was (and is, thank you very much) a red blanket, about 4x5 feet, with one side that's bright red and one that's a strange white fabric with teeny creepy teddy bears on it. Also I had an imitation cabbage patch doll. And other stuff. But I digress. When Lucy was little(r), like 4, 5, 6 months, I didn't think she was going to develop this affinity, cause she just didn't seem to care about any of her blankets or stuffed animals. But then we fell in love with Lamby.

Lamby was a gift from Debby and Udo - Frank's sister and brother-in-law. Just one of those "every baby gets presents" things, only when Lucy was about 6-7 months old, I stuck Lamby in the corner of her crib and now she is precious gold to us. So much so that I have a serious fear that she will get lost or forgotten somewhere, and unless we're going somewhere for the night, Lamby doesn't leave Lucy's bedroom.

Sometimes when we are playing in Lucy's room, she'll walk over to her crib, look over the bumper, and say "nmaynmay?" Which is "Lamby?" in the Language of Lucy, and I pull her out and Lucy hauls her around the room to play (a new video up top has this in motion). At this point Lamby is disgusting. She smells, she's dirty, her "fur" is matted. I tried to spot clean her once with Lucy in the room and Lucy freaked - had to clutch to Lamby for the rest of the day.

"Put her in the washing machine" - I hear you cry. But, you see, Lamby has a mechanical music box inside her - when you pull her tail it plays a strangely abbreviated Brahms Lullaby. So were Lamby to be plunged into the deep, part of her would die. So for now she will just have to smell and be gray - and very loved.

Lucy's bologna has a first name, it's B-A-B-A-R

So really, I would have filled this post with images of Lucy making out with her Babar and Father Christmas book, but I have no images. I have videos. So get thee over to the right and watch what I believe is now the third video down. She loves that damn book. She walks with it, she kisses it, she wants to read it. Only she doesn't really want to READ it, there are too many words on the pages, so mostly she just wants to look at "Babah" over and over and over. She learned about Babar from the poster on her wall of Le Voyage de Babar - a gift from friends (Matt et Christiane, merci).

When Lucy wakes up from a nap, or in the morning, after her head pops up and she says once (and only once) "Mama? Dada?" she then looks at the poster and says "Babar? Babar? Babar?" like he is going to come from his balloon and get her up from bed. There is a Babar stuffed animal downstairs (there is also Celeste but if you think Lucy can say that, you clearly have not read my post about what a Duck says), and the relief on her face when she sees it is ridiculous. Babar is life. He is our love. And she can't even read yet.

Anyway, you'll have to just go over and watch "Lucy hearts Babar" to see what I mean, and that really doesn't do it justice. Also you should watch "Lucy plays dress up" and "Lucy steals a phone, part 7,000,000". They are pretty high-larious.

Some recent photos:

Lucy and Grandpa on their way to feed some ducks:

A beach trip with Benjamin (who isn't in this photo but who is in the video over on the right (if its too far down the list go to the youtube link further down the sidebar) - walking with Grandma and Grandpa:

In the sandbox with Dada - a mohawk. Sweet.

I will try to take more photos but the videos are more fun, sorry they can't be more central to the posts. As I have mentioned, and as you'll see in the sidebar link I just referenced, if you go to www.youtube.com and type "beckyschaeffer" into the search field, just click on my username on any of the videos that come up and you will get my "channel" - which is all the videos in order of the most recently uploaded. A good bookmark, if you ask me. But I'm biased.

Beaches and Books and Uncles

I know, I know. Falling down on the job. Again. Already. Some recent shots, then:

This afternoon Lucy and I went to the beach - the weather has been ridiculous, not too hot, just on the edge of chilly. Perfect in the afternoon for her to just crawl around on the beach - and walk sometimes. Last time we went, we had to leave fairly quickly because I was an idiot and let her bring her crackers, which meant she tried to feed them to the "ducks" (seagulls), which meant the "ducks" surrounded us on the beach almost immediately, especially the huge obnoxious ones (who I'm pretty sure would carry off a little girl if she let them get close enough), and the other beach-goers were not psyched about our causing the swarm. And Lucy was not psyched about me taking the crackers away so the birds would leave. So we were the ones that left. But today - no crackers, no birds. Just delicious, delicious sand.

Yesterday, Lucy and I went for a long walk over the bridge into town after her first nap and she ate a slice of pizza in the park for lunch while watching the boats and the dogs. And while barking at the dogs, spraying lovely bits of pizza-ness all over mama.

We have been trying to go for our morning walk, but Lucy has been sleeping a bit later (like 5:45-6, don't get excited) and since its been chilly and she tends to fall asleep in the stroller I find myself talking to her and singing patty cake (her favorite song) the whole time just to keep her awake. So. Sometimes I just don't have the juice for it.

Alex was up from DC last week and he came up to spend a day with us - decided to see how he'd fit if he were to move into Lucy's playhouse.

Just a nice moment with dada.

Remember to check for new videos, I'm not sure if I've uploaded any in the past few days but I will get some new ones up right now! Until next time...

Birthdays!

So. Down to the business of the birthday. Lucy had SO much fun at her birthday parties, it was an exhausting weekend for all of us.

Saturday we went down to Beverly, to my parents house. We had some old family friends over as well, and Uncle Francis came. I think I am going to have to stick the video in as a link, rather than alert you to it in the queue on the right, because for some reason it isn't showing up there, and people are having issues with it - maybe because of its length. It is over 7 minutes - so its a commitment. But it is worth it, I promise. Lots of cupcake eating and present opening. I'm going to try directly pasting in the link and we'll see if that works - it doesn't look as pretty as uploading the video file right into the post, but sadly my computer is far to antiquarian for that. At least I can use words like antiquarian, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJUzw1iOd18

Then on Sunday, we had a smaller birthday gathering with just Frank and Genie - a few more presents to unwrap.

All in all, a really excellent first birthday.

Today, Lucy had her 12 month doctor's checkup, which did not go quite so well, so she was teary and very exhausted. But she's doing well - growing mostly upward - 30 inches and only 19 pounds, but I'm trying to get her to eat as much cheese and cake as I can :)

I am off to try to watch the Red Sox stave off their slow and painful death...(so far - fail.)

Hold your horses

Okay so today was (is) Lucy's first birthday (yay!). Anyway - the Big Birthday Post with new videos of her unwrapping her presents (so cute) and eating her first chocolate cupcake (oh my god) are not here yet. Sorry to disappoint. That will come hopefully tomorrow - although the videos are longer and more difficult to upload than the short phone videos, mostly because I have to do it on a different computer. Enough of the boring. Lucy's birthday was FABULOUS, in large part because her LaLa and Grumpy (my parents) put on a great party - cookout food, presents, playtime, everything. Lucy was so happy and had such a great day. She came home from her party in Beverly to play in her brand new sandbox, made by her Grandpa (John's dad). Video of that coming as well.

Tomorrow we'll have a few more presents, from Frank and Genie, so I'll try to get THAT TOO. Jeez. In the meantime, there are two new videos atop the list - Lucy Builds a Fort and Lucy Throws Clothes. Guaranteed to entertain.

Also here is a cute picture. Until later...

I heart a/c

First of all, a note about videos. There are a lot of new ones even since the last post - at least the top three of the videos on the right (not left, as I said a few posts ago, stupid becky) are new since Friday's post. So. Go watch them, my kid is cute. I have proof.

More proof is below, in the form of photos from today. First, I decided it would be an interesting trick to try to take a mom/baby photo while we were sitting in Lucy's glider. The trick was to get her to smile - so I had to tickle her while I was taking the photo, which as you can see made it so either I looked psychotic, or the photo was too dark. Whatever.

Then, tonight at dinner, Lucy had her first popsicle. I attempted to capture the hilarity that was this endeavor, but I feel these pictures are seriously inadequate.

She seemed to think I must be really confused - kept sort of pointing at the popsicle and then making her "uuuh?" question noise at me. Like - "maybe, mother, you don't know this is cold? And therefore pretty difficult for me to eat. and I WANT it, because it is strawberry deliciousness. but its COLD. You don't see. Does anyone understand this?

See, I try to eat it - I put it in my mouth like this -

And then - it just isn't working. Its broken. I can't eat this."

So. Thus ended the popsicle - she didn't really eat it. Just lay it down and gave it up, demanding warmer fruit.

I am going to eat more of my pizza and drink more of my beer - and turn on my air conditioner, thank god for whoever thought of that lovely idea. Go watch some videos.

Duck

Happy Friday, friends.

I would like to draw your attention to the second video down in the list (provided you're checking this promptly - as I add new videos, it will move down the list). It is called "Lucy does tricks". It is the closest thing I have to a visual list of all of the things I can make Lucy do. Bark like a dog, snort like a pig, etc. However, were there outtakes to this video, I have to tell you, they would go something like this:

Mama: Lucy, what's that a picture of?

Lucy: DUCK (pronounced Dut!)

Mama: Lucy, what does a duck say?

Lucy: DUCK!

Mama: Lucy, what does a doggie say?

Lucy: RFFF Rfffff!

Mama: Lucy, what does a kitten say?

Lucy: DUCK!

Mama: Lucy, what does a piggy say?

Lucy: DUCK DUCK DUCK!

And so on. SO relish the duck moment, dear viewers, for it is all I ever hear. The video is likely to be the only one of its successful kind.

New blogness

So. Here I am again. I do believe there are seriously like three of you (Smith? Jessie? Laura?) other than my mom that actually check this thing (if my mom even checks it - hi mom), but I figured what the hell. Maybe more people will check it if I make it more interesting or update it more often than once a month. I'm not making any promises, but whatever. I figure there are a lot of other people with busier (and more interesting?) lives that manage to make a blog post once every few days so I should be able to fit it in between old ER episodes. RIGHT?

Lately, Lucy and I have been taking a morning walk because LATELY, Lucy has been waking up at like 5-5:30. I actually decided that if she would just sleep through the damn night already then that wakeup time would be fine with me. She actually has slept through about three times (not in a row but still, small victories) and once I start to wean her next month she will have few alternatives. ANYway what with the wakeup I thought it might be nice for me to get some exercise (read: more than none) and her to get some fresh air, so we started taking like a 6:30am walk. This is all to introduce the picture.

But then of course Lucy decided she didn't like the stroller anymore, because she is almost walking (a few steps here and there, but no crossing of rooms yet). If she can stand up, why should she have to sit down? Sort of like that thing where when she learned how to crawl she decided she should be able to stand and would walk around in the downward dog on all fours for days. Whatever she wants, right? Anyway so she started trying to arch her back and get out of the stroller as soon as I put her in it - no matter how many crackers I kept handing her (I can't give her the whole cup of crackers or she takes off the lid and dumps them in her lap). SO we got a baby backpack. This way she's up high and she can hit me in the head and she can see more stuff - or so she thinks, which is all that matters.

So now if we want to go for a walk with the stroller - or I just don't want to carry her on my back any more, I give Lucy her blanket and her new baby doll (which she loves and tries to feed crackers too - seriously), and she lasts for a little while.

So that's where we are. I have more to say but if I keep going then I will exhaust all future blog post possibilities so I think I'll shut up while I think of it.

P.S. - the video links on the left should lead you to youtube. Since I've gotten the magic phone that takes video I've been able to take short videos and constantly upload them, so go look at the actual page (or just go to youtube and search my username - beckyschaeffer) and there should be a lot, way more than the 4 linked here.

Mother's Day and Park weather...

It has been almost two weeks since I posted, and a lot has been going on. 

Yesterday Lucy and I spent a while at the park enjoying the swings and the weather - and I learned that one of my greatest challenges as a parent is going to be not hurting other people's children. A 7ish year old boy came right up to Lucy as she was sitting on the grass and starting shoving her toys in her face, trying to force a rattle with a loop in it onto her wrist, and going through my bag. I firmly grabbed him by the arm and told him to be gentle, but really I wanted to smack him. Restraint will be something I have to learn. 

On Sunday we were at my parents' house in Beverly for a Mother's Day brunch, and managed to snag a 4-generation photo with Lala and Nana Charlotte. 

Lucy also got to spend some quality time with her Uncle Alex, who she's only met a few times, and seemed to take a liking to. 

Other than that we have just been enjoying the weather and trying to get outside - here's a couple of shots with daddy.

Recent stuff...

Here are some recent shots...

Since Lucy is crawling, she naturally assumes that instead she should be walking. This means that she extends her legs so she's in a downward-dog position and takes as many steps as she can before realizing she can't lift up her hands without falling. 

Her favorite thing in the world is still Cheerios... lately to the expense of her other food. She barely eats half of what I try to feed her before craning around to where she knows the Cheerios are kept and yelling for them. 

The latest success here is that Lucy has figured out how to get liquid from her sippy cup - a victory seeing as how she never took a bottle or a pacifier. It makes for a very good placater when she's getting antsy in the stroller.

Easter!

Here are some shots from our Easter - Lucy wore a dress that her grandma gave her when she was born (that finally fits her!) and a sweater that mommy knit her (which is already almost too small....oops). Lucy is having some difficulties being around strangers without crying so she and I spent some time off in the shade just playing with her toys. 

Lucy even got a little easter basket - full of two new stuffed animals for her - and chocolate for everyone else.

Vacation week

Lucy's dad took this week off and the three of us have been hanging out - something we haven't done for more than a weekend since she was born. Here are some shots from the past few days.

Yesterday we went to the park and Lucy crawled around on some grass for the first time - surprisingly didn't want to eat any of it...

Since Lucy can crawl, she also seems to be able to kneel and sit up - mostly in her crib. The first shot here is where she was when I got her after a nap yesterday - the second was when I walked in after her morning nap this morning.