So big!

Apparently the month you get a brand new little brother is also the month your mom totally forgets to blog for you... Oops... :/

At 14 months, Lucy is leaps and bounds ahead developmentally. I mean, I suppose she's ahead but I don't have much experience with kids her age. At least, not much experience with development at this age. So this sleepy, proud momma is going to go with it. Some impressive things to note...

Lucy loves her baby dolls. She play with them and mimics the things she sees us doing with Colt. Recently, she started picking up a bib and trying to put the bib on her baby boy. Lucy gives all her babies and favorite stuffed animals "pat pats". She hugs and pats the backs of the dolls an toys. It is adorably sweet. And it's helping her learn some gentle touches that she can use when she holds her real baby, Colt.

In addition to "hello" and "dog dog", Lucy is now regularly saying mama, dada, nana, apple, and the phrase "how are ya". My favorite is definitely "mamamamam". I get that even more with Colt here.

Speaking of this big sister gig, Lucy is really adjusting so well. As amazingly as could be expected. She has been jealous a couple of times. She broke my heart one night when I had to put her down so I could take Colt from Jason to nurse him. Lucy looked at me, so confused, and sobbed. I joined her.

Lucy plays the game "so big" all the time now. When asked "how big is Lucy?"- she responds by lifting both arms as high as possible in the air. She also does this anytime she hears someone use the word "big". She's a hoot!

Lucy definitely has walking down pat and has started running, even in shoes. I love hearing her squeals and pitter-patters through the house.

We have played a lot outside lately. Lucy loves her swing, slide, bubbles, and her riding cars. She has met a lot of the neighbors during her walks with Daddy. And we started visiting the little park near our house. Lucy loves seeing the other kids play and also politely tells them "hello" ;)

Lucy had her first sleep over- she stayed at Grandma's without mom or dad during our last night in the hospital with Colt. Lucy thoroughly enjoys spending time with Grandma.

We tried our best to see the Easter Bunny, but we had limited time due to Colt's arrival and our discharge 2 days before Easter. Lucy did get to color eggs and was able to go to GG and Great Grampy's church on Easter morning. We had a very good first church experience as a family of four. After church, we came home and found that the Easter Bunny left some awesome gifts for the kids. By far one of the family favorites has been mickey mouse tattoos. Lucy and I have sported our tats since then.

In big physical development news, Lucy already has all 4 first molars. And she got them all within 6 days. 3 popped through her gum in 1 day. Now she can (and will) eat pretty much anything. She is just such a great eater. This week, Lucy learned to love sweet potato fries. Fruit and veggies are still her favorites. Just tonight I had to tell her to eat some garlic bread before she could have any more broccoli. These are good problems to have!

Also, Lucy continues to grow upward. However, since she's now running laps around the neighborhood, she is actually losing a little bit of weight. She's probably a pound lighter than she was at 12 months and maybe an inch/ inch and a half taller. And seriously, I had no idea that she is so big until Colt was born. It seems oimpossible that my little girl was 2 pounds smaller than this itty bitty boy. I'm proud of all her growing over the past 14 months. She has really come so far in such a short period of time.

Finally, let's talk cognitive development. I think this is the area where Lucy impresses me most. At 14 months, she is successfully completing 24 month old tasks (at least it appears this way from my reading). Lucy can sort snacks. She likes the Gerber puffs and she knows they are different than Cheerios. She puts them in piles and sometimes picks out the ones he wants to eat first. Today, Lucy also pointed to a lot of animals and toys in books as we read. It impresses me that we talked about the teddy bear two days ago and she remembered the page and placement of that bear in the book today. Maybe it's normal for her age- it just seems like a huge cognitive jump from those baby days. Finally, Lucy is also able to match shapes. She knows where each shape goes in her shape sorter.

Oh, my girl. I don't have good enough words for it this month. I just love you so big, so strong, so intensely. You bring so much excitement to my life and add warmth with your sweet hugs and smooches. For the first time, I'm thinking our family might be completed (though we don't have any idea what the future will bring). As I consider the reality that I might not be pregnant again, I might not have another daughter, I might never deliver another baby, I am honestly so fulfilled just by being your momma. I'm glad you are my daughter and I'm thankful I am your momma. What a joy it is to be in your world!

12 month photos & a 13 month update

It's been a very fun month, watching Lucy go from being a baby to growing into a toddler. Maybe you can tell from the photos below, but her face is slowly losing that baby look and replacing it with a little girl...

And she has really just learned so much this month. She can point and indicate her nose, lips, piggies (toes) and bebo (belly button). She can also find those things on others. And we're working on eyes, ears and fingers. She doesn't seem to want to admit she knows that those are just yet- that bebo is just too much fun!

Lucy is now tall enough (30 inches at 12 months) to climb onto our couch and out of the bathtub. She can climb up all the stairs and does so quickly and enthusiastically.

She is eating pretty much any and everything, as long as she's feeling good. Some new favorites are grapes, beef stew, and frozen yogurt. And the transition to whole milk is slowly buy surely going well. Lucy likes dairy of all sorts, so we didn't expect any problems.

This has been our sickest month! After the big birthday party (blog on that to come next), Lucy came down with a nasty upper respiratory infection. We had to use a breathing treatment at the doctor's office and purchase an inhaler for use at home. It took almost a full week to get her breathing well with stable oxygen levels. After that ordeal, she caught a stomach bug! And then shared it with momma and daddy- so we're all in the process of getting back to 100%.

Lucy continues to talk up a storm. She is saying pretty much the same thins, but they're much clearer and intentional. And while I have tried to teach her some sign language, she has definitely just invented her own signs and has little to no problem indicating her wants. From pointing to grabbing a hand and leading the way, she knows what she wants and is doing a great job telling us. If I had to estimate, I'd say she understands between 50-100 words or phrases. Or has a really good way of pretending she understands.

At 12 months and 4 days, it was like a light switch flipped in our sleep world. Lucy has never been a bad sleeper, just not consistent at nights. With brief catnaps during the day, she continue to wake at least once a night until her first birthday. She has slept for a straight 8 hours most of her life, but spends 11-12 hours in bed each night. Since her birthday (well right after it), she has often slept through our whole night. Bedtime is at 8:30pm and, even with sickness, she has stayed asleep until 7am. And she takes two naps a day- which I'll continue to let her do until she weans herself to just one or gives me more evidence that she's ready to go to just one.

Our biggest news is walking. At 12 months, Lucy was able to walk but not always very willing. The week after her birthday was the first time she seemed to prefer walking over crawling. Since then, Lucy has learned to perfect her walk and can now "run". All in all, this toddler stuff is an awful lot of fun! Even with a big pregnant belly and little to no energy, I'm able to try so many fun new things with Lucy during our days together. I'm certainly looking forward to doing even more projects together while her little brother naps! This mom gig is by far the best!

Enjoy the photos!