Trip to the Zoo

Because Daddy's class was cancelled, he came over and took us to the zoo!  I didn't get many pictures because I was busy chasing the boy I nanny around (he walks everywhere now!) so these are the few pictures I did get. 

 In the reptile house...Lucy was looking at the fish.  Unless things were moving, she was not that interested.

 She loves that she gets to sit forward now in her stroller.  She does not like to recline, though. Lucy was soooo tired, and at one point she banged her head on the front of the stroller from falling asleep because she refused to recline. 

She did soo good!  Her favorite things were the birds in the bird house.  We sat and watched a colorful bird fly from branch to branch for about 10 minutes while Lucy looked at it with amazement.  I'm sure there will be many more zoo trips in the future so hopefully more pictures!

Our blue eyed Beauty!

I couldn't help but share this photo--isn't she just the most beautiful little girl in the world?? :) 

CAMPING!!!

So this family decided we wanted to enjoy some of the great weather we have been getting and go camping with the family!  Yes, some would say we were insane to take a 7 month old camping...in a tent...but it actually went better than we thought! 

So happy to be outside!

Lunch time!  She loves her food

                                            The family ready to go on a walk!

                                                   I love this family :)

                                                  Carving Pumpkins! 

             Lucy loves her Uncle Andrew!

 Lucy did pretty well at night. She was much warmer than Mommy and Daddy and probably slept much better too!!


While hanging out during the day, we thought Lucy seemed tired.  We put her in the tent to take a nap, but as we were all hanging out by the tent we heard noises.  Lucy though the tent was one giant play pen!  This is what Aunt Kelly, Granny, and Mommy saw as we looked over at the tent

 

It was so nice to be with family and enjoy God's beauty. 

Jumpin Machine!

Our little girl has discovered that she can jump in the exersaucer.  Sometimes she jumps so hard I feel like the whole thing is just going to fall over. 

This video doesn't do justice because she was distracted...but you get the idea

We have a talkin' Girl!!!!!!!

 I don't have any videos yet, and I keep trying to...but it is official. Lucy is a talker!!!!  After all that stress about Lucy not babbling yet...she apparently wanted to show us up.  I stopped stressing about it and then in the car Daniel and I heard, "Da-da-da-da".  We were so excited!!! Isn't it amazing how once you stop stressing about things, they happen!  I promise I will try to have videos soon, but we can't tell you how exciting it is to hear our little girl talk.  Woo hoo!!!!!!!!

Our Big Girl!

 Big girl riding in the grocery cart for the first time! She was so excited to be able to see what was going on.

 It's coooolllldddd now...but doesn't Lucy and Daddy look so cute with their hoodies up.  I love these two!

Our little fishin' Girl

The last couple weekends we have taken advantage of the AMAZING weather and spend time outside.  One weekend, Mommy was busy modeling clothes for Addi's, so Lucy got to spend time with the guys.  The guys decided to take her on her first fishing trip.  She got to play under the willow tree and apparently she had a blast!  Last weekend, we decided to go fishing again! 

 I must say, I caught the biggest fish but had NO interest in touching it AT ALL!  I know, I'm a pansy, but I was still excited!

 Lucy got to hang out with Aunt Kelly while the rest of us fished.  Both of them had a lot of fun playing on the blanket

 She is so excited to be outside!

Snuggle Time with Mommy

Many of you keep requesting that I get pictures of Mommy snuggling with Lucy-but it is so hard considering I don't want to get up and get the camera to disturb her.  One day after waking up from nap, Lucy just wanted to have her face on mine, so I grabbed the camera.  Here are pictures that are as close to snuggling as I could get. 

MMM...this is good!

We started giving Lucy more foods and last week we started using the mesh bag (for those of you who don't know what the mesh bag is--you can put food in a bag and they can suck on it and eat it--but you don't have to worry about big pieces getting into their mouths and choking!)  .  Lucy LOVES it!  She has tried bananas, apples, and peaches and eats them like they are candy. 

Mommy Confessions

I LOVE being a Mom.  It is so hard to think of life without Lucy.  Lately, though, I have been having some rough days.  Days in which I am sure every mom have, but I have been really struggling with it. 

So...warning.  If you don't want to hear me just go off, then you can stop reading now before you get too bored.  I am thinking that maybe if I put this out here, it will help me. 

The first thing thing that has been hard for me to realize is that Lucy is  only 6 months old and she will do things when she wants to.  I especially have been struggling with this idea mostly because I have a degree in child development and most of our training was focused around treating every child as an individual.  Lately,  I have been comparing Lucy to other children. I know that all human beings compare-- mostly females (and if you don't think you do--then you are lying to yourself), but why can't I relax about Lucy and stop worrying about her development?  The last week I have been thinking, "Why can't Lucy babble yet?" and "Why does she scoot and roll everywhere, but refuse to work on crawling" and "Why does she still not like to sleep as well as other babies?"  All of these horrible thoughts go through my mind and then it all leads to the conclusion that I must be a horrible Mom. 

The second thing that I have been struggling with lately is the need to be in control. I find myself getting way too stressed out about silly things and then refuse help from Daniel and others.  Because I have been taking everything on myself, I find my stress level to be way high.  Why can't I just relax about things and realize that Lucy WILL be okay if I leave her.

I am really hoping that other moms out there struggle with these too! I have to remind myself that I really do have an amazing little girl.  Stop focusing on the negative things and focus on the positive things. Lucy will crawl when she wants to.  She will start talking when she wants to.  She may not be the smartest or the most active girl in the world, but she does steal our heart every day by those eyes and that smile.  Lucy is an individual and I love everything about her.  She WILL be okay if I leave her for a few hours and even though Daniel only has one great arm right now, he does AWESOME with her.  We have so much family around too that I need to take advantage of them more because they really do enjoy being with her. 

Whoo!! To all of you that are reading this...please help me to remember these things and to relax.  Remember, I'm not perfect and I will have bad days but with the strength of God, we will raise Lucy the best we can. 

Finally!!! Snuggle time with Granny!

 After getting her night time bottle, Lucy just snuggled right in with Granny.  I was soo excited because Granny has been wanting that snuggle time in for a LONG time.  Nothing better than a snuggle baby

Tunnel Fun

This past week, I got out the tunnel at the M's house to try and coax her into crawling through it. She still rolls and scoots everywhere for transportation--which is fine except for the VERY bald spot on the back of head that she is now rubbing the skin. She wants to move forward so bad, so this was my way of trying to encourage her.

 Playing peek-a-boo with Lucy. 

 Lucy kept looking at the tunnel and rocking forward as if she was just going to lurch her way through it.  It was so frustrating just to watch it because she was getting frustrated. 
.....Then as I looked away for a couple minutes I heard squealing in the background. I looked and couldn't see Lucy. 

 Lucy figured out how to scoot through on her back and was so proud of herself! Cheater, Lucy. 

 She made it all the way through!

"Haha, Mom.  I'll show you." 

I found it to be pretty entertaining, and thought you would too :)

Lucy and her Great, Great, Grandpa

We feel incredibly blessed that we still have Grandparents around to meet Lucy.  What still amazes me, though, is that she has a Great, Great, Grandpa that she got to meet a couple weekends ago.  We meant to get out there earlier-but with so many things going on this year, we feel horrible it wasn't until she was 6 months old.  I am so happy we did make it anyway!

 A 100 year old man holding a 6 month old girl...pretty amazing!

                                        5 Generations

It was so fun to be able to see these two together.  Lucy had a great time with Grandpa's walker too!