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...