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.