Update, and LOTS of pictures!

Lucy,

Little one, you are just getting more and more fun every day.  At ten months old, you are now beginning to express yourself in lots of new and fun ways.  You make really funny faces at us, like wrinkling your nose, raising your eyebrows, or pouting when you don’t get something you want!  You are also starting to screech when you are happy (it’s cute, I swear!), and you are continuing to babble more and more.  You love to wave “hi” to people (when you are in the mood!), you continue to clap when you see or hear something you like (I especially love that you clap when I sing to you sometimes!).  This week you have started to initiate “peek a boo.”  You cover your eyes (mostly- although sometimes you like to leave an eye uncovered to peek out!), we pretend we can’t find you, and then you uncover your eyes and shriek with delight when we express how happy we are to see you again.  You have also started sharing- when I hold out my hand and ask if I can see something you are playing with, you happily hand it over with a grin, proudly displaying your new “trick.”  I imagine it won’t be long before you won’t be so excited to hand your toys over to me! 

One trick we didn’t teach you that you recently learned, is dropping items over the side of wherever you are- your carseat, your highchair, your bathtub– everything goes over the side.  You drop your sippy cup, food, bath toys, etc., and then look at us expectantly waiting for us to retrieve them.  Your dad and I generally think this is hilarious.

So far, you have stubbornly refused to crawl.  You have started, however, to absolutely love walking while holding our hands, so I think you are going to be one of those kids who goes straight to walking from sitting.  Walking while holding our hands has opened up a whole new world for you, though- you are finally able to reach things in our apartment that have been tantalizing you for months!  I am quickly realizing, however, just how poorly our apartment is suited for a baby, and are already thinking of creative ways to rearrange things to make things safer for you.

You are slowly getting better and better with eating solid foods.  This week we found out that you like cauliflower, of all things.  You also love turkey, noodles (playing with and eating spaghetti can keep you occupied for a LONG time!), and especially CHEESE.  You are a Wisconsin girl at heart, my little love! 

We have also discovered that one of your absolute favorite things to do is to simply observe other people.  When we go to the park, we put you in the swing and after placating us with a few cute giggles, you quickly become entranced by the kids in the swings next to you, along with the adults pushing those kids.  The other day we sat on a park bench, with you standing on my lap watching the older kids run around, and you were as happy as could be.  I think you could have stood there for hours, simply observing.  It’s fun to watch your little mind at work processing the world!

Lately people have asked me what your personality is like, as sort of a window into the person you might become.  I tell them that you are neither a really difficult child, nor are you the easiest- you definitely know what you like (this leads me to sometimes call you my little diva), and you aren’t afraid to express your opinions.  You will try out new things, but you are careful, and your actions considerate when you do so.  You love being home, and having familiar things around you- but you tolerate change, and are pretty good with going with the flow.  You will smile at strangers, but they have to work a little before you’re willing to let them see your silly grin. 

I’ll stop with the update for now, and post a bunch of pictures.  The first batch are from a family get together we had with my side of the family in June.  We went to a campground and had a wonderful time playing with all of the kids.

Emma entertaining Lucy

At some point water guns were brought out- here is Andrew running from Timothy or Henry…

Uncle Scott helping his nephew Leo fight the good fight

If your water gun breaks, just dump the water on your enemy’s head…  (this is our nephew Timothy)

Henry getting in on the action

Scott retaliating

Leo

Henry and his daddy

Emma and her mom

Emmet and his mom

 

Lucy and her Aunt Kim

Little Emmet is going to be a heart breaker!

Lucy has a few pounds on her cousin…

Henry and Timothy working on carefully applying a band-aid…

Lucy and her Uncle Dave

One of my favorite pictures from the weekend

Emma and her family’s new puppy- Tasha

Tasha gets her own picture… she’s pretty darn cute!!!

Henry entertaining his baby brother Emmet- Emmet just laughed, and laughed.  SO cute.

Timothy, Grandpa and Leo

Somehow my mom and my brother Joe avoided getting their pictures taken ext time, you two!!! 

One last one from the weekend- another of Lucy and her Aunt Kim!

 

And now to catch up on all of the other pictures from the last month!

Back at home- Lucy helping her daddy read his Father’s Day card… a few days late!

Lucy’s Great Aunt Shari came to visit- and introduced Lucy to Guitar Hero!

Lucy with her Great Grandma Marilyn, Aunt Tanya and Uncle Steve

Chillin’ with Uncle Steve (note the green spatula…)

Aunt Tanya and Lucy

 

And you thought I missed her “official” 9 month pictures, didn’t you?  Have no fear!  I did actually take these when she was 9 months old. 

I’ll admit it- she kills me with her cuteness.

The sign didn’t last long.

She still has her rolls!

For a couple weeks, she was loving eating her feet again.  The phase has passed- but it was in full swing when I took these pictures.

 

Okay, this post is getting ridiculously long, so I’ll wrap it up.  I actually have more pictures to post- a trip to De Pere to see Karla, Sammy and Dave and Laura, a trip to a Brewers game, and more pics with Daddy, but I’ll save those for next time.  I’ll try to post them soon, though!!!

One last note– a few people have mentioned how much they love seeing the videos of Lucy, and yes, we do have more… unfortunately, our computer is almost totally out of memory, and it makes it virtually impossible to edit videos and post them.  The pictures you see above are all on our external hard drive, as our internal hard drive is out of room.  A new computer is in the budget for the fall, so hopefully I’ll be able to post videos again in a few months.