Five and six years old!

I have been so terrible about updating Lucy's blog!  I apologize to anyone out there that has followed along via the blog and then wondered how she was doing.  As I write this, she is actually 6 years old, so I'll go back and just post a picture of her at five years old and at six years old.  I'll give a brief update about her as well.


Here she is at five years old!  We've had a lot of change in the past year and a half.  My husband got a new job in our small hometown, so we moved back in May of 2015, right after Lucy turned five.  She started kindergarten and really enjoyed it, although she had the typical "first-year-of-school" bumps and transitions.

Here she is at six years old!  It's obvious she is quite a beautiful girl and we love her so much.  She loves doing ballet camp in the summertime, and she's started taking gymnastics since she started first grade this year.  She loves Barbies, jewelry, and playing with her siblings and cousins.

I will try to keep this updated more often!  Next stop, seven years old!  She had an appointment with her plastic surgeon, Dr. Mackay, this summer (2016) and he said she looked great and she didn't need to be seen again until she was 10 years old.  All great news.  Lucy also got glasses recently.  Her eye doctor believes that her strabismus caused by her cranial problems was causing her to only be using one eye for vision.  It is our hope that her glasses and more therapy might enable her to use both of her eyes properly.  We want her to be able to do her best in school and to enjoy watching TV and reading at home without having things so close to her face.  

Four years old!

I know this is a little late (her birthday was in March, after all, and it's July now) but I realized I never wrote a birthday post for her fourth birthday.  Not much to report on!  She finished her first year of 3 year old preschool, turning 4 right at the end of it.  She loved it!  She's had another visit with Dr. Mackay, her plastic surgeon, and he said she looks fantastic, and of course I agree. :)  Here's some pictures to prove it.

Here she is, enjoying the Mother's Day party at school.

What a difference 10 months can make (from the beginning of school August 2013 until the end of school in May 2014.)

Playing at the playground and showing off her sense of style.

Our favorite -- the airport park!

Easter egg hunting her with her brother at Gigi and Papa's house.

Being four can be so tiring.





Hope you enjoyed the post.  Let's see if I can actually post on her birthday next year!

3 Years Old!

I didn't get a chance to write about Lucy on her actual birthday yesterday.  We had a busy morning and then I had to go to my last day of orientation at work.

She had her three year old check up today and she weighed 29 lbs. and was 37" tall.  She tried the vision and hearing test and didn't really do well, but I know it was because she didn't have the attention span or the understanding to follow the rules, and not because she can't see or hear.  :)

We had her birthday party for all our family and friends at Monkey Joe's on Sunday, the 24th.  I think everyone had a great time playing on the inflatables and it was fun to watch her be at the center of attention and blow out her candles (even if she did cover her ears while we were singing Happy Birthday).

We celebrated her actual birthday here yesterday by singing Happy Birthday to her over breakfast and letting her blow out a candle.  We went out to lunch at Chick-Fil-A, and since Wesley was home all day in between his old and new job, he got to come with us.

She got her first haircut on Friday, March 22.  I took her to a children's salon here in town, and they were great and she did great, but I really wanted them to cut more hair off in the back, so when I came home I just grabbed the scissors and cut more off myself.  LOL.  So if it looks a little choppy, that's why.  But I think she looks super cute with her new shorter hair.

She is such fun to be around.  Even when she exasperates me (which happens!) I wouldn't change anything about her or her personality.  I can see all the things about her that seem frustrating now will be the same things that I am proud of her for if they are cultivated with God's love and direction.

She has been very picky about food lately.  She will eat a ton of one thing this week, and so you serve it to her again the next week thinking she loves it, and she will say she doesn't like it and doesn't want to eat it.  One night, all she wants to eat is veggies, and the next night she doesn't want to eat her veggies.  I'm just rolling with the punches.

Boy, can this girl talk!  We talk all day long.  She has such a grasp on language and even though it's possible that I am the only one that can understand the volume of what she's saying, I think she is pretty well developed in that area.

She loves to watch Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and now Sid the Science Kid on PBS.  No more Elmo.  Which is unfortunate because we bought a lot of Elmo's World DVD's for Christmas.  haha.  This is the one area where I am always having to set limits.  I think she would watch Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood on her iPod for hours if I let her, which I don't.  I think it's been hard because we haven't been able to get outside as much when it's been so cold and windy here.  I'll be glad when the weather is better and we can get back to playing outside, which solves lots of problems! :)

I am really enjoying this stage of her life, and I look forward to a fun year with her watching her grow and learn even more.  We pray every night before she goes to bed, and I always pray that Jesus will sing over her with His love, and I continue to pray that one day she will answer the call to come to Jesus in His timing.

Lucy, I love you, and I am blessed to be your mom!

Small update

Hi!  Nothing huge going on in Lucy's life ... just noticed that I had not updated in a while and I thought I would!

Here she is being her silly (cute) self and then drawing, one of her favorite activities.

She is about to be THREE YEARS OLD (I had to type it in caps because I can barely believe it).  Not sure about what her birthday party will be or when, but I'm in the process of figuring that out.

She went with us today to Ian's 15 month appt. and she wanted to be weighed, so they weighed her and she was 32 pounds.  I wanted to be sure I wrote that down for future remembering. :)

Her favorites:
 - Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.  No more Elmo's World for this gal.  It's all Daniel Tiger, all the time.  Not literally all the time, but if I let her, I bet she would.
 - Books with flaps that you can lift.
 - Singing.

She doesn't really seem to nap anymore, so I've just been making her stay in her room and be quiet (she always stays in her room but she is rarely quiet).  Then it's an early bedtime.

I'm sure there's a ton more I could write but for now I'll say goodbye!

Lucy funnies

I have been meaning to write a post here for a while that has all the funny and sweet things about Lucy right now.  I don't want to forget them!

• She says "chippy" for chips.  So if she wants a chip, she says, "Chippy, please!" which I think is constantly hilarious.
• Her new favorite exchange with us is "Thank you, Mommy!" and "Thank you, Daddy!" and she says it so sweetly that it just melts your heart. 
• She loves to have conversations now (I can converse with her because I know exactly what she's saying ... other people, maybe not so much.)  I wish I could just write down all the conversations we have during the day, but I will try to recreate some of them here.

Scene:  Lucy going potty.

Me:  "Lucy, hold on to the potty, okay?"

Lucy:  "Lucy fall in.  Mommy sad.  Lucy wet."  (She refers to herself in the third person.  I blame Elmo.)  Translation:  I've told her before that if she doesn't hold on, she will fall in the potty and get wet and Mommy will be sad.

Scene:  Going to bed on a Monday night. (I have a Bible study on Tuesday mornings and my mom comes over and spends time with Lucy and Ian while I'm there, then we usually grab lunch together.)

Me:  "Tomorrow, Nana is coming over to play with you!"

Lucy:   "Mommy church."

Me:  "Yes, Mommy is going to church."

Lucy:  "Nana play.  Nana noodles."

Me:  "Yes, Nana is going to play with you and then we'll go eat noodles (pad thai with chopsticks, her favorite.)

She just always connects ideas that I haven't really talked about with her, or she'll remember things I only told her once (yikes!) and it is constantly amazing to me.

• She has a friend named Liam that she calls "Lee-mee."
• She loves to help with things.  When I'm cooking dinner, she wants to be right there.  When I sweep, she wants to sweep.  When I load the dishwasher, she wants to put the soap in and then press the button to start it.  I can usually give her an age-appropriate task to help me with whatever I'm doing, and it's so fun to see her help so joyfully.
• She enjoys telling me what Ian is going to do.  If we go to the park, and she wants to swing, she is sure Ian wants to swing, too.  When she eats breakfast, before she climbs up in her chair, she pulls out Ian's high chair and insists "Ian baby food" (meaning, Ian needs to eat baby food).  If Ian starts to cry or gets grumpy, she says, "Ian night-night."  Ian sure is lucky to have such an attentive big sister.  :)
• She loves for us to wrap her up in a blanket like a swaddled baby and then hold her, or walk around with her like that.  "Lee-lee (which is what she calls herself) baby!  Lee-lee baby!"
• She rarely wears clothes.  I make her wear clothes out in public, obviously, but it's a pretty sure bet that if she's at home, she is only wearing her undies!  I don't know what it is, but she hates wearing clothes.
• She has two things that she says a lot these days.  One is "Momma like" or "Daddy like" in regards to anything.  For example, if she puts on her rainbow socks and then shows us, we say, "Lucy, what pretty socks!" and she says, "Momma like!" as in, "Mommy likes that!"  She applies this saying to almost everything.  She also says, "Momma buy" if I talk about anything being gone or used up.  It can be very funny what she thinks Mommy can go buy, apparently.

She loves Elmo, playing with all of my kitchen tools, taking bubble baths, eating fruit snacks, going to the park, going to the library, basically going anywhere but home (LOL), playing with Ian, stacking her blocks, reading books, coloring, pretending to "go" somewhere anytime she find anything with a handle (as in, here's my suitcase, I'm going on a trip), buckling the top part of her car seat, only using the potty at our house or in our potty chair that we take in the car (grrrrrrr), putting on her "pretty" shoes and walking around the house, and singing.  Her least favorite things are taking a nap, sleeping in, stringy foods, loud noises, letting me help when she wants to do something by herself, and sharing some toys with Ian.

She is funny, loud, thoughtful, caring, independent yet needy, smart, observant, and just plain fun.  Our lives are much richer because she is our daughter.

Potty training, day 143

We haven't been doing potty training for 143 days.  It only feels like it.

Today marks two weeks, I guess.  And I will venture to say we're like 99% there.  She still sleeps in a diaper at night.  I tried to let her take a nap without a diaper today but she kept using the excuse that she had to potty to stall taking a nap, so I put a diaper on her for her nap today.

Today was also the first day that I took her out in public without a diaper.  I just stuffed the diaper bag with a few extra sets of clothes and panties and put the little potty in the back of the van, and we went to the park twice and to a library story time with no accidents!  I was very impressed.  Of course, a lot of times it was me saying, "Let's go pee pee now" and not her prompting me.   That's okay, though.  And she had an accident when we got home for who knows what reason.  But I have been very impressed with her.  I'm hoping she'll just get better and better at it and that eventually we can go to no diapers at all.  I have a feeling that nights without diapers may be the hardest hurdle.

I'm sure you were wondering, so there it is.  :-)

Potty training, day 4

Today was sort of an off-and-on day.  We had a doctor's appointment this morning, so we took a break and put on a diaper.  Then we came home, and put her back in panties, and then it was out to lunch, so back in a diaper.  I'm not brave enough to do the public stuff yet.  Then when we came home it was time for her to nap so she was in a diaper for that.  After her nap, I put her back in her panties and I just stopped setting the timer.  Every so often I would ask her if she needed to go, and if she said no, I believed her.  Then eventually even if she said no I would make her go, and she would usually pee in the potty.  We only had one accident today and it was really silly.  I was about to put her in a diaper for bedtime so I said, "Let's go pee-pee before we put your diaper on for bed."  So she walked in the bathroom, and stood in front of the potty and just peed all in her panties and shorts. UGH!  So silly.  So I had to clean her up and the floor, too.

I think tomorrow I will take her pee-pee maybe every 30 minutes and see if she can tell me if she has to pee.  That's the only way I think I will be able to tell if she's really getting the hang of knowing when she has to pee and holding it long enough to make it to the potty on time.  Just may mean more accidents to clean up.... oh well....

Potty training, day 3

I promise these potty training updates won't last forever!

Today Lucy poo-pooed in the potty for the first time ever!  I was so excited.  She just said, "Poo-poo!" and we ran to the potty and she went and she was so excited.  The things you get excited about as a parent... sheesh.  haha.

I guess I will start tomorrow trying to stretch the times out even more.  I suppose eventually you have to  stop taking them to the potty every 10 minutes and just see if they can tell you when they have to go.  That's the goal, anyway.

Potty training, day 2

Day two went so much better!

She only had one accident, and she did so well.

I am still taking her to the potty every 8-10 minutes, though, so I want to try to stretch that out longer if I can...

Potty training, day 1

I thought I would just jot down how things went yesterday (the first day we tried potty training) so I can come back and read this for posterity.  I'm sure no one else is very interested.  haha.

Our system is very simple:  I bought some panties for her, and some M&M's and jellybeans.  We've had a little potty for her for a while.  I originally set a timer on my iPod for every 15 minutes, and I let her pick the ringtone she liked the most.  She did really great at first.  No accidents for the first few hours, and she even ran to the potty before the timer went off and took off her own panties and went pee-pee.  Then I don't know what happened ... I even set the timer to go off every 7-8 minutes because she started having accidents.  I don't know if she was too focused on playing but it seemed like every time she never made it until the timer went off.  Then I had to put Ian down for a nap, which means I go nurse him in his room and lay him down.  It usually takes me about 15-20 minutes, so honestly I expected to come back and she have had an accident.  But she had peed in three different places and had pooped in her panties during that time.  So after that I just put her in a diaper because it was naptime and I needed her to have a good, uninterrupted nap time for both my sanity and hers.

I also had a very complicated dinner I was making last night so after she got up from her nap I let her wear a diaper the rest of the day.  Call me lazy, but I needed the break.

So that is how our first day went.  Not the greatest, but I know she understands what to do, and I also realize it's the first day EVER in her life that she's been asked to pee-pee or poo-poo anywhere else but her diaper, so that's a big thing to get used to in just one day.

Six month follow up visit with Dr. Lambert

We went in today for Lucy's six month eye visit.  As usual, it takes a lot of work to get there and keep both kids happy while we're there, for what seems to be not a lot of information, but I'm used to it by now.

They had, and always have had, a hard time getting Lucy to look at things they want her to look at so they can test her eyes.  First, the assisting doctor tried to put a piece of tape over Lucy's eye (instead of one of those black eye cover things they use at the grown up eye doctor...) and Lucy was NOT having it.  Imagine this scenario:  you put a bunch of sticky tape over a two-year-old's eye, then ask her to look at a small TV monitor all the way across the room with a small picture on it and then seem disappointed when she neither knows what the picture is or even cares where the TV is -- all she wants to do it get that tape off her eye!  haha.  So we moved on to the black eye cover thing, but that didn't work any better.  All this time, Ian is sitting on a blanket on the floor of the room, crawling away every minute and trying to grab the paper off the printer, etc.  LOL.  They ended up trying to turn on a movie for her to look at (she could care less) and then they brought in another nurse to try to do silly dances for Lucy to look at.  I guess they got what they wanted (finally!) and Dr. Lambert took a look at her and said everything looked great.  Then they had to dilate her eyes, and we had to go out and wait in the waiting room until the drops worked.  Then they had to try to get her to look into this machine so they could measure her eyes (that tactic barely worked!)  Dr. Lambert looked at her once again, then we were on our way home, only 2 hours after we arrived.  Poor Ian.  He was so tired because it was during his nap time.  He got passed from doctors and nurses to try to make him happy while I helped them try to make Lucy do what they wanted her to do.  I just realized today that getting a two year old to do anything they don't want to do at the doctor's office is nearly impossible, especially when it involves looking at something.  I can hold her down or hold her head all I want, but I cannot physically make her look at something.

It's over, and we don't have to do it again for a year, so hopefully she will be much more compliant and Ian will definitely stay home next year, even though he will be in a very different state next year, I'm sure.

I will say that it was very nice of all the doctors and nurses to sense my inability to deal with both Lucy and Ian at the same time and offer to hold him instead of just leaving me in a lurch!

Stopping time

Dear Lucy,

Today you are 24 months and 24 days old.  I went to an open house for a Parent's Morning Out/preschool type thing to see if we were interested in enrolling you in the fall.  I know it was just for a one day a week type thing, but it made me feel like you were very grown up already and I was looking at schools, etc.  Sometimes I feel like time is rushing past me and that you will be five and ten and twenty-one before I know it.  Other days it feels like you can't grow up fast enough because I have so many exciting things I want to do with you when you are old enough.  But just for today, just for now, here are some random tidbits about you that I love so much and that make me want to stop time.

The way you slip your little hand into mine while we pray at bedtime.

How you get SO excited to rush into Ian's room the very second you hear him wake up.

I'm amazed at how you connect things we've talked about and some things we've never really discussed ... like how the fire trucks on Ian's onesie are the same ones you see occasionally and you knew they made the same siren sound, which you are great at demonstrating.

I love how you persist in saying "hold you" when you want to be held, even though we always tell you it's "hold me".

How you trust me and you like to walk with me and hold my hand.  Even when Mommy can't find the right building and I make you walk all over creation, you sweetly just held my hand and walked beside me like such a big girl with no complaints.

You have such a caring heart, my baby girl.  You get very concerned when other babies or kids cry, especially Ian.  Likewise you love to see other babies and kids smile, and you really just love babies.

You are funny and you love to share. You are observant and exuberant.  You love to read and you love to count things (except you only know "1, 2..." so you just say "1, 2, 1, 2" over and over).  I'm so happy you're mine, Lucy Frances, and I know your Daddy would say the same thing.

I love you,
Mommy

Lucy's second birthday!

Sorry this post has been so long in coming. I rarely have the time to sit down and write a lot or post pictures. In fact, I may be interrupted writing this by Ian waking up from his nap any time now. We'll see.

Lucy had her two year old well visit and I'm pretty sure she was 24 lbs., 8 oz. The paperwork that had the exact numbers written down is in Ian's room. LOL. So we'll go from memory. She's doing great.

Here's what a typical day in the life of two year old Lucy is like:

7:30am. Wake up from her big girl bed. Knock/bang on door until I come get her, usually asking her to be quiet since Ian is still asleep. She usually immediately asks for "ahm-ee" (oatmeal), which we go to the kitchen to start.

7:45am. She likes to help me stir the oatmeal and then she sits at the big table in her booster seat and watches Elmo's World while eating her oatmeal.

8:15am - 12:30pm. We play, we run errands, we almost always go to the park, etc. At the park she can basically do everything by herself, including climbing up and down stairs and going down the slide on her tummy. She's still a little nervous to go down on her bottom due to a previous tumble she took down a slide.

12:30/1:00pm. We eat lunch usually around this time. She loves to eat almost anything I feed her. This is either leftovers from dinner the night before, pasta, sandwiches, fruit, hot dogs, or whatever strikes our fancy.

3:00pm. These days she's been going down for her nap around 3 or so and sleeping for about an hour and a half.

5:30pm. Daddy comes home and we eat dinner and play until...

7:30pm. Bathtime! Daddy usually takes care of this since Mommy is feeding Ian.

8:00/8:30pm. Bedtime! Mommy likes to do this part unless Ian is being especially fussy. We read several books, then she lays down and I rub her back and her hair and pray for her and sing songs. Her favorite songs are "God is So Good", "Jesus Loves Me", "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider", and "Patty-Cake, Patty-Cake."

Lucy has a huge vocabulary, but a lot of it is probably only intelligible to Wesley and I and even then sometimes just in context (like her words for water, raisin, and videos sound very similar so we have to look for other clues...haha). But these days I am noticing huge leaps in her abilities, like recognizing letters and words and colors and concepts without prompting from me. You can see those little neurons firing and making connections left and right! We're so proud of her.

Here are some pictures from her birthday party, taken by her Gigi since she is a good photographer and I am a lazy picture-taker. haha.

These are a little out of order, sorry!

Lucy with her princess tent from PopPop and Nana!

Lucy and her birthday balloon!

This girl loves cupcakes, especially the icing!

Sitting at her table which was a present from her Gigi and Papa, using the new drawing toy we bought her.

The party guests (some of them!)

Peeking at Gigi from the playground equipment.

Our beautiful daughter.

Enjoying her second (or third? we're not sure) cupcake with her Gigi.

Visit with Dr. Mackay

We had a visit with Dr. Mackay today. I took both kids by myself, thinking Ian would be asleep the whole time. He wasn't! But that's ok.

The visit went well. He said she is looking great and everything is right on track. They took some pictures of her from the front and both sides (while I bribed her with fruit snacks). She just mostly wanted to look at herself on the screen. This child loves being photographed for sure. Just on her terms, that's the problem. We don't have to go back to see him for another 2 years! I love that! We made an appointment today for the year 2014. Wow.

Lucy's eye surgery: 12/15/11

We decided to have Lucy's eye surgery on December 15, 2011. I was due with baby Ian on November 10th, and we were thinking at least he'd be a month old before I would have to take care of a child that just had surgery. I was so nervous about it, thinking it was going to a huge repeat of her head surgery. I really shouldn't have been worried! It went so quickly and easily and then the recovery was just that she was kind of out of it and cranky for the rest of the day, but she didn't even really try to rub her eyes. We had to put ointment in her eyes for a week and they were really bloodshot and a little swollen the weekend after the surgery. The funniest part was that they gave her like a "happy drink" before taking her back to surgery that just made her really relaxed and calm and she started to giggle at everything and slur her words a little bit. We captured it on video and we like to watch it occasionally. Here's some pictures of the day.

Arriving at the hospital at 6:00am! She doesn't know the difference!

Our little family (minus Ian, who was asleep in his car seat) before the surgery.

Lucy and her daddy, before they came to take her to surgery.

A few weeks post-surgery. Don't her eyes look great?

Lucy turns 2!

Today is Lucy's second birthday!!! We had her birthday party this past Saturday, and my mom and mother in law got some great pictures of her. I'll put up another post later with all of those pictures. She also has a follow up yearly appt. with Dr. Mackay tomorrow and her 2 year well visit on Thursday, so I will post after those as well. I also just realized I never posted about her eye surgery which was December 15th, 2011. Guess I have a lot to catch up on! (having a second child really slows down this chronicling process)

Lucy, deciding to get pregnant with you and then discovering we were successful on the first try was the BEST thing ever. I always knew I would be a mom and we had to wait a little while after getting married before we decided to have kids. I'm so glad I had that time with your dad, but it was also hard to wait. I originally wanted to get pregnant at such a time that I would have a baby in May or June because I was still in grad school and was graduating in May, but we thought we might have trouble getting pregnant so we started trying a few months ahead of schedule. And lo and behold, you were there and you were due in March, not May or June! But I couldn't be happier. I had to quit working so I could do two internships for grad school, and I'm sure both of the colleges I interned at thought it was odd to have a pregnant lady waddling around campus in the student centers and in chapel and at SGA meetings. Then on a lazy Saturday morning, you let us know you were coming that day, and you did! You were born at 4:24pm on March 27, 2010. Even with all of the health problems you had and the hospital stays and the surgeries, I couldn't be happier with you or more proud of you or more in love with you. Sometimes I think my heart will burst, just knowing that you are MY daughter and I get to be your mom.

I love you immensely. Happy birthday, Lucy Frances!

Your mommy

18 months

Today Lucy had her 18 month old well check up. She's not exactly well as she seems to have a bit of a runny/congested nose today but it's no big deal.

Here are her stats:

Weight: 22 lbs., 4 oz. (10-25%)

Height: 31.5 inches (50-75%)

Head: 19" (90%)

So she's a little on the skinny and tall side, which we already knew! And Dr. Herrmann said it's hard to guess with her head because of the skewed numbers from before her surgery, but all the measurements since her surgery have been right on the growth chart line, so no problems there.

She only got one shot and we talked about possibly testing her for an allergy to eggs because every single time she eats eggs (in the form of scrambled eggs, etc... not like eggs baked into something) she throws them up promptly. It's not a huge rush -- we just avoid giving her eggs and I guess we can always test her later.

Not much else to report on! She has a huge "vocabulary" and I feel like she is growing up so well. I would list all the words she can say but it's a lot, so I won't. haha. She's very good at communicating what she wants and what she notices. Wesley and I constantly marvel at how she makes connections on things that we don't show her or teach her. God is good to us! We are eagerly awaiting her baby brother in 6 weeks or so, and I can't wait to see them interact!

Letters to my daughter

I know that a lot of parents write letters to their children starting when they are very young. We haven't really done that for Lucy, but I thought maybe I would use this blog to pen a note to her when the inspiration strikes me. They are intended for her to read when she grows up, but I hope they inspire you to do the same for your children (or for a friend, or another member of your family, etc.)

Dear Lucy,

I really should have started writing you letters a long time ago. You haven't been in our lives all that long, relatively speaking, but I feel that I've already missed out on the chance to write down all the things I would tell you if you could really understand. I know there's no time like the present, though, so I thought I would start tonight.

(full disclosure: I was inspired to do this by a Google Chrome commercial where a dad writes his daughter e-mails that she can read when she gets older. I can't take the credit for the motivation.)

I would play catch up, but you're just 2 days shy of being 18 months old, and 18 months is a long time to go without writing someone a letter. So let's just pretend that we've already caught up. I think you're a gift, a wonderful precocious treasure that God decided to give to us. Everyday, multiple times a day, you do something that makes me immeasurably glad that God picked me to be your mommy. When I'm putting you to bed at night, that's all I can ever remember. I know I have to get on to you a lot during the day, too, and you do things that frustrate me and stress me out, but I can't ever seem to remember those things when I'm cuddling you and singing "I Love You, Lord" or "Edelweiss" to you as your big blue eyes start to close for bedtime. (Don't ask me why those two songs are the ones I've continually sung to you ... they just stuck. One is a love song to God, the other is a love song for the country of Austria that's in the musical The Sound of Music. Go figure.)

Tonight, and for the past few nights, I've rocked you and cuddled you, but not for as long as I used to have to. You see, it used to take a really long time to get you to go to sleep at night. You had to be completely and limply asleep before I would gingerly place you in your crib while trying not to wake you. Then I would try to make it out of your room before you realized I had put you down. I used to wish for the day that I could just lay you in your bed and say goodnight and leave the room. They say be careful what you wish for. They're right.

Now I can cuddle you if I want to (I do), or sing to you if I want to (I usually do), and I always pray over you and rub your back, but when I put you in your crib, you are always completely awake. I rub your back in your bed for a few minutes, and I always say, "Sweet dreams, baby. Night night." And now ... now you are old enough that you say, "Night night" back to me in the sweetest baby voice. When you said it tonight, I started crying before I was even out of the room. I cried because you say it with a little hint of independence in your voice. You say it like, "Night night, mommy, you can leave now, I'm okay." It makes me extremely happy and extremely sad at the same time. I'm happy because it's so cute, and I love that we can communicate better and better every day. I'm sad because I know you're getting older and every night I say "Night night" to you and hear you say it back is one night closer to you being a grownup.

(It might be important to mention, in case you forget the timeline later in life, Lucy, that I'm 33.5 weeks pregnant with your brother Ian, so almost everything makes me cry these days.)

For now, though, I'll focus on the fact that you still need help with a great number of things on a daily basis, and I'll celebrate those things, and not look at them as hindrances. I'll celebrate your independence, too, and not see them as threats to my role in your life.

I love you, Lucybird.

Love,

Mommy

CT is done!

Yesterday turned out to be so much easier than I could imagine.

Lucy was scheduled for a CT yesterday morning. Originally we thought she could just go in, have it done, and it be over with. But then her eye doctor wanted to get a specific "slice" (or shot) and I guess with that addition they thought they needed to sedate her. Bummer! So we had to prepare her for that yesterday by not allowing her to eat or drink anything before heading to her appointment. Luckily, we had to leave the house right after she woke up (I actually had to wake her up to leave) so she didn't really get a chance to miss breakfast that much.

When we got to the hospital and got her registered, the nurse came out and said, "We're going to try it without sedation", which are the most welcome words I've heard! So we took her in the room and I had to lay her on the little table part of the machine. Her head fits into this foam holder and then they wrapped these blanket type things all around her body, like swaddling, and then put straps around her head. Of course she was crying, but she got to hold her baby doll and I think she managed to keep her pacifier in her mouth which we had brought along for the occasion. I had to step out when the test was being done because I'm pregnant, but my mom came with us and she stayed with Lucy and sang to her. She said Lucy stopped crying when the lights in the machine came on because she was so intrigued by them. All in all, the actual CT probably took a minute or two at the most. Then it was over! I can't believe they actually need to sedate kids for a 2 minute procedure. I'm sooooo happy they didn't have to do that with Lucy.

After that we headed over to see Dr. Wrubel. He said her CT scan looked great. She only has a few spots where her bone has not grown in yet, but that is normal for her and also for children her age. Most kid's sutures don't completely close until they are older than Lucy is now. He said the little plates that you can see along her temples will probably not be as easy to see in a year or so. She still has a little "dip" in her head where they did the surgery, and he said it would probably round itself out eventually and if it didn't, her hair would cover it. We have to see him again in a year and she'll have another CT done at that point, and then we'll see where to go from there!

We have an appointment with Lucy's eye doctor in October, I believe, so we don't know anything about the possibility of having the surgery done on her eyes until then. I think even if we find out she needs it, we probably won't do it until next year if we can. I just don't think I want to have another surgery, even if it's small, right before we are expecting our second child. Maybe it would be better to do it before? I don't know. I guess we can make that decision when we know more.

Until next time!

15 months old and some more medical news

Lucy turned 15 months old yesterday! I really can't believe she is 15 months old. Seems like any day now she will be 18 months old and then 2 years old! She is growing up so fast and learning new things seems like every day.

She had her 15 month doctor visit yesterday. Her stats:

20 lbs., 14 oz.

30" tall

Head was 18 3/4" around

She got two shots and the doctor was really proud of how well she's doing and her motor skills and the words she can say. She can say: "Nina", "papa", "hot", "dance", "more", "thank you", "please", "mmmmm" (when talking about or looking at food),"dada", and "no-no". She knows how to ask for music to play, how to ask for snacks or water, and she can let me know when she's done eating. She can make some animal sounds like an elephant and a bird. She loves to dance, swing, and climb stairs. She really likes those little Cozy Coupe cars and she likes being pushed around in a car or a tricycle at the park. She likes chasing birds and squirrels.

She's really just a joy to be around (most of the time!). She definitely knows how to throw a tantrum but luckily for now they are few and far between, and occur most times when we take long car trips or when she's tired. She sleeps through the night and has been for quite a while now. She's not nursing anymore ... we stopped that in April.

As for the medical side of things ... we knew she was scheduled to have a head CT done about 6 months after her surgery. However, as I mentioned before, her eye doctor needed to have a specific view done at the same time. So we scheduled her for July 18th. I was under the impression that they would not have to sedate her (actually, I was TOLD we would not have to sedate her) and I was really happy about that. But I got a call today from the radiology department at Scottish Rite and first they said that they couldn't do the head CT and the CT view that the eye doctor needed on the same day. I was kind of upset about the thought of having to take her in TWICE to do a CT. Then they called me back later and said that they could do them on the same day. Not quite sure yet if they mean they can do them at the same time ... hoping to find out soon. But they said in order to do what the eye doctor needs, they will have to sedate her and that means she can't eat anything and she can only drink clear liquids after 4:00am that morning, and nothing to eat or drink after 8:00am. We have to be there at 8:45am. That probably won't be the hardest part, but I hate having her sedated. There's always risks associated with it, and it means they will have to keep her and watch her until she comes around, which means we will be there longer than I expected. But if we ever want to know what can be done about her eyes, I suppose we have to have this done. Part of me just wants to forget the whole eye thing, but I'd hate to need to something about it later and have to go through this all over again. Just praying that it will all go very easily and they can get it done quickly. Wesley may not be able to go with me because of work, so I'm hoping maybe he can try to get off or I will be okay by myself.

That's our update for now!!! Will update again when we know anything about the CT.