20 months and counting!

Time always seems to go too quickly; sorry for not keeping you up to date as much as I would like to. We've been busy since we got back from Wisconsin this summer, doing lots of stuff around the house and growing! Lucy is getting bigger and older every day! She is walking EVERYWHERE, starting to run....she loves exploring around our house; the woods, the beach she loves going to the park. Recently Ian went away for 5 days, she missed him a lot. We spent a little time each day watching videos of Daddy on his website. She LOVED it and she knows what tennis is now......which is good because she LOVES tennis balls! Her speech has exploded (and thats an understatement) this last month. She went from saying 3 barely recognizeable words before September to saying everything now....although Ian and I will probably have to translate for you if you hear her in person ;) Just yesterday she started saying No (uh oh, I know) Daddy, Lucy (woocy) and Mommy (wady) She hasn't mastered the 'M' sound so when she says 'milk' it sounds like 'wook'. Its cute watching her learn new things everyday. Ian and I both agree that we like a 2 year old much better than a baby, or as Ian says, "Babies are overrated". We love having another little person around here to make us giggle. Just in the past couple weeks she is starting to pretend play....she takes her teddy bear shopping, puts him in the stroller, plays blocks with him.....it is SO cute. Seriously, this age is so much fun. We were just saying the other day how much fun she will have at Christmas this year.....can't wait! Speaking of Christmas, we are going to be home!! Better yet, we get to stay for more than a week, and we are all coming together! We'll be in WI Dec. 15-Jan. 3rd and are really looking forward to it, as always. Lucy and I are actually going to be in WI next week, Nov. 2-15. Hope to see you all soon!

Summer cookout

We had a summer cookout and had lots of family and friends come visit Lucy. She had a ball being the center of attention, especially showing off her new skill of walking! She had fun playing 'tennis' with Uncle Terry and squashing bugs with the fly swatter! She was really funny, she must have really wanted to go on a bike ride, she grabbed her helmet and kept putting it on her head! I took her for a ride the next day and she fell asleep, go figure!

More summer fun!

We headed over to Janesville last weekend to hangout with Lucy's cousins.....well, third cousins once removed or something like that....She had a BLAST with these older two, Owen and Sydney. She loved watching them play and play with big kid toys! It was another hot day so they spent a lot of time outside in the water, it was great!

Betty Brinn

 She found this toy right away and was hooked. However so were all the other toddlers. Why do they always go for the same toys?

 Look at this big girl who goes up and down the stairs all by herself!

 Lucy and daddy having fun with golf balls

 Lucy planting things in the toddler garden

 Finally got up the courage to go in the tunnel after watching the other kids.

 Checking out the big slide

 She loves animals!

 Newscaster Lucy and Daddy

 In front of the giant Harley at Betty Brinn

We took Lucy to the Children's Museum in Milwaukee this morning with Ian's mom. Lucy (and the adults) had such a great time! I think we went at the perfect time....she's just starting to switch over to mostly walking instead of crawling, so it was good practice for her and TONS of kids around. They have a toddler section which she loved! I can't wait to take her back in subsequent years and see how things change.

First Zoo Trip

We bought a zoo pass for the summer and Lucy LOVES it! Her favorite animals so far seem to be the birds in the aviary and the flamingoes. We've gone several times so far and had fun each time....the zoo train is always a hit!

Cottage time!

Best way to enjoy a boat ride!

Lucy spent a lot of time on the swing

....and the hammock

in fact she loves all rocking/moving things!

Driving with Uncle Brandon!

Dad's lucky fishing hat!

The best part of summer!

Florida

 Thanks Uncle Brandon for the ride! At Naples Beach

 Lucy loved snacks on the beach

 Celebrating my parents' anniversary....31 years!

 A scary scary place, it made us go a little crazy.....

 Sleepin with daddy on a boat ride!

 Lucy is a big fan of boat rides.....needless to say they are great for inducing sleep!

Mrs. Cole helping Lucy walk! Their house was where she first became interested in walking....and she was doing it a week later!

We spent a week in Ft. Myers at my parents condo with my brother, Jen and parents and had so much fun! It was a vacation.....swimming, going to the beach, eating good food and great weather! Lucy had a lot of fun being around family too....we spent a couple days after they left with the Cole's, good friends of Ian's from college that we hadn't seen for several years. They loved Lucy and she loved them! She loved swimming in their pool and looking for dolphins in the water.

17 months

I know this is a week early, but Lucy has been doing so many new cool things I just had to write them all down! I'll work backwards towards the beginning of the summer, we've been on the run and all over the place, so lots to update you on! Lucy started walking at 16 months and one week, exactly 3 months to the day that she started crawling! She is still pretty timid with walking and would much prefer to crawl to get places, but she is becoming a pro with walking/push toys. She loves to push her own stroller too which is cute. About a month ago she FINALLY started using signs which makes for a much less frustrated baby and mom and dad....Here is what she all signs:

• More
• Please
• All done
• Help 
• Drink
• Thank you
• Earmuffs (thanks uncle Brandon and no, that is not ASL!)
• Light
• Fan
• Up
• Down
• Milk

We are working on the signs for

• Plane (a tricky one)
• No
• Bird

Lucy can also identify some body parts....none of the normal ones mind you:

• Hair
• tongue
• cheeks
• belly
• mouth

She is becoming quite the comedian, especially at dinner time. She loves to give cheesy grins, 'sing', imitate different sounds and noises, point out planes, birds, cicadas and anything else making a loud noise (when we eat dinner outside). She also likes to blow bubbles in her drink and say 'ahh' after she takes a couple big gulps of something (so cute).

She still isn't talking yet but is babbling a lot and gives names of 'da' to everything. She does say 'wa' when she walks and calls Ian 'da' too.

She is a pro at climbing up stairs and just learned how to climb down the other day....one of her favorite games is to throw balls down the stairs at whoever will catch them....she also loves to play with sticks and pinecones (which we discovered at the cottage). Her new favorite toy though is Grandma's fly swatter. Its on the deck and she usually will play with all her toys for about 5 minutes and then go over to the fly swatter and play with it for about 20. She also loves the broom and dustpan! It keeps her occupied for about 10 minutes while I clean up after meals, its great. We eat out on the deck a lot and she loves to be hosed down afterwords....no joke!

She is very good at making her needs known, they usually involve wanting you to play with her or something to eat or drink. She will want to eat anything that someone else has, but also likes to share with you.  She now demands to have not one but two pieces of food in her hands, so if you give her one banana chip there better be another one coming!

She is still breastfeeding throughout the day/night but she likes to be busy playing and sometimes forgets! She has topped out (hopefully) at 14 food allergies and we are still working very hard at healing her gut with the GAPS diet and getting plenty of probiotics into her. I can't wait for her to have dairy (and myself too!)

She take one nap almost exclusively now, usually anywhere from 1-3 hours. She sleeps about 12 hours at night and wakes up about 5 times (on good nights!).

So that's where we are at now....I think Ian and I both agree that we love this stage of almost constant change....she is doing at least 1-2 new things every day and its so cool to be up close and watching every second!

Hot hot hot!!

What do you do when its 100 outside? We play in only diapers!

Happy Summer!

Train ride

This was the highlight of our summer so far! (Ok, I know it just started) but still, we had SO much fun taking the kids on this train ride! We probably would have gone again if they weren't hungry :) We had a picnic in the park and played on the playground as a last hurrah together before we go our separate ways....but can't wait to pick up again in August!