Pointless Post

Don't say I didn't warn you because as I start this post I don't really know where I'm going with it. Tonight is Kyle's last night of working his normal schedule before the break. While he is on Christmas break he gets to work more hours and also work normal hours so he will be home at dinner time every night instead of leaving for work after dinner every night. Very much looking forward to that. We finally get to watch our regular Christmas movies that we haven't been able to get in. Christmas is a little over a week away. For the first time in our marriage we are staying in Provo for holidays. Kind of a bum in some ways but not really in others. Obviously it's no fun not getting to spend it with our families but I'm pretty excited to enjoy my own family of 3. It won't be a family of 3 much longer. I'm excited to start our own traditions and just lay low and focus on each other. Not that I don't want to go home and see family but it will be nice not having to rush rush all the time because I only have so much energy at this point. I thought once the time got here I would start to get really homesick but it hasn't happened yet. Either way we are moving home in 4 months and will be with family all the time. It's just starting to hit us that we are in fact moving back to Portland in 4 months. Wowee. Our shift button isn't working for some reason and it's getting rather annoying. I never realized how much I use it until now. Lucy took some crazy pills tonight before bed. When we were doing our family story and song time she kept cracking up and then all of a sudden go completely stone faced. She kept doing it over and over just to entertain Kyle and I. We were both in tears laughing. Love that girl. She only has a few weeks left of being an only child and I'm very glad Kyle will be on break to give her lots of attention with me. Not that with my mom visiting and Kyle's mom visiting after the baby is born won't make her spoiled rotten but it's just not the same as some one on one with mom and dad. She has stopped saying dad recently and it's pretty funny because she calls Kyle mom. Even if you tell her to say dad she will say mom. Kyle doesn't get such a kick out of it but I think it's hilarious. I don't really have anything exciting on the pregnancy front. I'm 34 weeks right now. This kid has 3 more weeks and his lease is up. Oh boy this is really pointless. Sorry for putting my 2 readers through this. I will be updating our Christmas festivities after it is over and hopefully a birth story shortly after that. May your days be merry and bright!

Why I love having a girl.

Lucy's beautiful curly brown hair is getting so long and it's been so fun being able to play around with it. Here are some of the things I've come up with so far.

French braids. These actually last a lot longer in her hair then I thought they would.

Probably my favorite. This one is great too for getting all her hair back when it needs to be washed but it's not bath time yet.

Love this too. She looks like such a precious little girl with these in!

But of course there's always the straight out of the bath look. (PS Look at those gorgeous brown eyes!)

So much fun. Not that I won't love having a little boy but he definitely won't be as fun to dress up! I can't wait until her hair grows more and she has long ringlets down her back like I did when I was little. Kyle asked me when I think I'll cut her hair for the first time and I said probably not until shes like 4. I love my sweet girl!

Long Day

One day last week I decided to pick Kyle some subway for lunch because it was his long day that he's gone from 730 to 630 then work from 8-midnight. After dropping it off to him Lucy and I were on our way home to put her down for a nap when this happened...

I was on the road right outside my apartment when I pulled up behind a BYU maintenance truck. As we were driving along the truck came to a stop which I didn't really think anything of because the grounds people are always stopping to pick up branches and stuff. So I stopped too so I could go around them. Little did I know that this truck had other plans and all of a sudden started going in reverse. My first instinct was to back up to because I thought they were only going back a couple of feet. I realized quickly that they had no idea that I was there and just kept on reversing. I was honking my horn like crazy but they couldn't hear me either. It wasn't too long before they hit me, luckily just side swiping because when I was frantically backing up I somehow swerved my car all the way to the curb. I have feeling that if they would have hit me head on things would have been a lot worse for me and my car. Someone was definitely looking out for me, my little girl in the back seat, and my little bun in the oven. From the sound of the impact they finally realized I was there and stopped. I'm happy to say that Lucy and I are completely fine. I went to the doctor later that day and the little man is fine as well. I did have some painful cramping the rest of the day but it's all ok now. The police came and took our accident reports and what not. The car still drove minus the flat tire but the maintenance crew was nice enough to put a spare on for me so I could make it home (about a block). The driver door didn't open though so until I dropped it off at the body shop a couple days later I was crawling over the passenger side to get in and out. The next couple days were spent on the phone with various insurance companies, doctors and car shops. So glad that part is over. Now my little neon is getting all pampered and we are rolling around in a rental for the time being. Words can't describe how grateful I am that this wasn't as serious as it could have been. Thinking about having my kids in the car during a serious accident is so terrifying. I hope that's something I never have to experience. As for now all is well!

In case you don't know what these trucks look like this is the closet I could find online.

Lucy's got the moves.

Lucy has a favorite show on Nickelodeon called "Bubble Guppies". It's just a goofy kid show but she absolutely loves the theme song. Every morning when it comes on she lights up and shakes her groove thing. Even if she's in the other room she runs to the tv and starts dancing. In fact just watching this video on the computer she is dancing away. It's a pretty hilarious way to start the day.

Lounging and watching her favorite show.

Proof the previous post is true.

 

 Talking to my Mom while she was in New York.

Some animal sounds.

 

 Most of her signs.

Learning to feed herself.

Very proud of herself.

We had an incident with my makeup.

Mommy's favorite little helper.

Trying out her new stroller with her baby.

Baby boy about 2 months ago.

Baby boy about a month ago.

Update

It has been quite some time and a lot has been going on.

I'm sure anyone reading this already knows that Lucy is getting a little brother in January. As far as the date goes that is so far unknown. For some reason they are having a hard time telling me from the ultrasounds. I can tell you it's sometime between Jan. 3rd-24th. Yes I realize that's a difference of 3 weeks. Whenever anyone asks my due date I just say January because I don't even know if it's the beginning, middle or end. Kind of obnoxious. I do have another ultrasound scheduled a week from Tuesday on the 4th and they are hoping to finally give me a date. This pregnancy has been a little different from Lucy. I've had a lot more back pain and just general stiffness all over. Depending on my due date I feel like I have a lot more movement than I did with Lucy at this point. Well that's only if I'm due at the end of the month. If I'm due at the beginning then I would say the movement is about the same. This whole pregnancy just kind of seems unreal because I don't even know how far along I am. Hopefully the mystery will be solved next week. We also got a 2nd crib for this little man and double stroller. I'm excited to use them both. He's going to be in our room because I don't want him to disrupt Lucy at night. Hopefully when we move in April he'll sleep decent and they can be in the same room then.

Lucy is just chugging along and putting up with me all day every day. We usually keep pretty busy. My pregnancy has been keeping me pretty stiff like I said before so we have been going on about hour long walks every morning to keep me moving and this little boy happy. Lucy enjoys it pretty well too because we have scouted out where all the neighborhood animals are so we will go find them. The weather has been so great lately too. Finally not too hot so we have been spending several hours outside everyday just hanging out on the playground outside and making friends with the other kids. She's usually the youngest out there that can walk but she keeps up pretty well. She just last week figured out how to go down the slide on her bum all by herself so that has been pretty fun for her. She is growing so fast and learning so much all the time. She's not really talking yet so we started doing signs with her and it is amazing how fast she picks them up. I think she's just so excited to be able to communicate better. So far the words she knows are please, thank you, eat, more, milk, all done and if you say "we're going to say a pray" she will fold her arms. Sometimes you don't even have to say it she just knows when we are going to pray and will fold her arms. Like when you put her in her high chair or when Kyle and I take her into her room at bed time as soon as we sit down she folds her arms for the family prayer. Goodness I love that girl. She has a hard time with saying please though. She great at saying it without even being prompted like when she wants a bite of something or when she hands me a book and will automatically sign please. The trouble comes because she doesn't quite get that saying please won't get you anything you want. Like when I'm on the phone and she wants to talk so she says please over and over but still doesn't get the phone. At least she says it I guess.  Her favorite thing right now is giving kisses. She's finally done with the "baby kisses" and actually smacks her lips instead of the wonderful open mouth usually with tongue kisses. Sometimes I'll be sitting on the couch or doing something and she just walks over to me with her lips puckered to get me a kiss without me asking for one. Or at night time I will lay her in bed and sing her a song then when I go to leave I'll say I love you and she will lift her head up and blow me a kiss then drift off to bed. Those two moments are probably the best moments a Mom has. She also loves giving her baby doll kisses and the pictures of animals in her books. Speaking of animals she's also working on her animal sounds. Right now she can do a dog, elephant and monkey. The elephant is my favorite because she basically just blows a high pitched raspberry and lifts her arm in the air. Such a clever little bug. She has her 15 month appt coming up on the 10th so I'm excited like always to see her stats. I know that she weighs 19 lbs but I want to see what percentile she's in. Hopefully she's finally broken the 5th percentile barrier! Well I doubt she has but I'm still curious.

Kyle is plugging along as well. He's been back in school for a month now and it seems to be going pretty well. Working hard like always. He's assigned to the Men's Volleyball team this semester and enjoys it ok. It's pretty laid back because the sport isn't in season so he doesn't have to worry about too many injuries because they aren't really practicing to hard or have any games that he has to get ready for and go to. He's still working in the Library as a janitor every night from 8pm to midnight. He is usually home by about 6 and then has to leave for work a couple hours later. At least we get to have dinner with him everyday. Poor guy is never home but he is making it possible for me to be home with Lucy and I sure do love him for it. At least there's an end in sight. He graduates in April and we will be moving to Portland and it couldn't come soon enough.

We don't have any plans made as of yet for going home and seeing family before the baby is born but hopefully that will happen. The goal is Thanksgiving since Christmas is not an option being so close to my due date. After he comes it is pretty unlikely that we will make it before we move back. I just have to meet my sweet little niece Kaeley before she is 7 months old!

The end.

Far too much.

So much has gone on since I've written on here and the thought of posting it all is kind of overwhelming. I guess I'll do my best! We are in Portland now and have been so for over a month. It has been an eventful month indeed. We have had a lot of fun spending time with family and everything. It's also been such a blessing to have such willing babysitters on demand. We have definitely been taking advantage of it too! Lucy is officially weaned too which is wonderful because she has gotten to have 2 sleepovers at my mom's house. One of those nights we got to go camping which would have been a disaster with her since she is refusing to walk. She can definitely walk she just chooses not to. I wouldn't really care other than the fact that I know how much she would love to be running around everywhere with her cousins. She will randomly stand up completely on her own and walk across the room like it's no big deal but won't use it as her main form of transportation. She's been able to take steps on her own for about 6 weeks now. Oh well she'll figure it out soon enough.

Anyways the biggest event of the last month was probably Lucy's birthday! I can't believe this year has gone by already. We celebrated by taking a family trip to the beach. The weather was absolutely amazing! I've never had that great of weather on the Oregon Coast. It's a very rare treat! I dressed Lucy warm because it was supposed to be cold and overcast so when we got there I just had to strip her to her diaper. We had a lot of fun together as a family. After the beach we went back to my mom's for some pizza and presents from her. The next day was Saturday and we had a birthday party for my side of the family. The party went really well minus Lucy's very large freak out when we tried to do the cake. I don't know what's wrong with my child but she does not like cake whatsoever. She loves ice cream though. The whole thing was a disaster but it all calmed. The next day we had the party for Kyle's side. She still refused to eat the cake but it was not accompanied with ridiculous amounts of screaming and tantrums. All in all her Birthday weekend was a huge success. She got away with a crazy amount of loot from the ones who love her most. Thank you to everyone who helped out and came to celebrate with us!

That's all I got for now and I'm too lazy to upload pictures so a picture post will shortly follow sometime when I feel like it.

Countdown

I'm sitting here watching So You Think You Can Dance thinking about how much more I should be doing so I might as well be blogging too right? Today marks a very special day, Kyle is finished with school and in about 3 hours he will finish his last work shift of the summer. Now the countdown begins until Monday night when we head home to Portland for the summer. Actually about his time on Monday Lucy and I will be taking off in an airplane and Kyle and Joe will be on their way driving. Words cannot describe how excited we are to finally get home. It may not be a permanent move but I'll take 2 months for now and the permanent move next April. I have so much to do it's a little stressful but boy is it worth it. I'm so excited to be around our families but I think I'm the most excited probably for Lucy to get to spend the next 2 months with all her cousins. The poor girl is stuck with me all day everyday and boy does she deserve to be around some kids for a while. My to-do list is beyond insane. It's a 2 pages front and back. The first page I have each room written down and the list of tasks that need to be accomplished in said room. You have no idea how much cleaning needs to be done for a 2 month vacation in a house that is already pretty clean all the time. And about 80% of it is stuff that I have to wait to do until after I put Lucy to bed because it's about impossible otherwise. The back is just all the random stuff like clean the car out, get the oil changed, blah blah blah. Plus another page full of stuff that I cannot forget to bring. I've been working on that one for a while because random stuff just pops into my head all the time. Tomorrow we get to drive up to Kyle's uncles house in Layton to hang out and pick up his cousin Joe. He's going to be driving back with Kyle so Lucy and I can fly. I'm so grateful for that because taking a 1 year old on a 12 hour car ride does not sound like my cup of tea. I'm kind of sad though because Kyle and I have taken that drive together so many times it's become a special thing for us. So many memories of talking for hours, rocking out to music, eating ridiculous junk food and all the inside jokes of places we've stopped along the way. Him and Joe will have a lot of fun though. Joe's leaving on his mission soon so it will be good for him and Kyle to have some one on one time since they're so close and never get to see each other. In other news my little Lucy is walking. I can't believe it. She'll be 1 here in 3 short weeks. I'm sure she will have a post devoted to her 1 year accomplishments and what not soon enough so I won't go into too much detail. She's just growing up way too fast. Anyways my show is almost over so it's time to end this rambling and get to work. See you all in Portland!

The last month

Last month the Caudle clan got to go to Portland for Easter. Lucy and I went home before Kyle started his finals so he could have some quiet around the house to study and stuff. We both very much agree that it's impossible for either of us to get anything done when the other one is home. It's just so much more fun to hang out with each other or play with Lucy than it is to do grown up stuff. Anyways I was home for about 5 days before Kyle joined us. My Kyle-less time was mostly spent with my family. Lucy got to spend some quality time with Grandma Lori and Uncle Nicky which she so much adored. We also discovered that her stranger anxiety has pretty much developed into facial hair anxiety. Weird I know. My dad has grown a goatee since the last time we were home and she was terrified of it. Anytime she was around him she would not take her eyes off of it. It was kind of funny actually. But since the whole reason we decided to go home was because Kyle's brother Don is getting deployed and that would be the last time we see him until next spring when Kyle got there it was all his family all the time. It was during Easter weekend so we had fun with an Easter egg hunt, family dinners, church and lots of games (and of course Blazer games.) Also thanks to my wonderful sister in law Vivienne we started a hopefully annual family Easter program. Being home makes us both so excited for next month to be able to be in Portland for the whole summer. I miss both of our families like crazy all the time and I wish so much that Lucy could be around her cousins more. Only a year left I guess then we'll be back. At least Lucy won't even be 2 yet. It's all for the best though! I just have to keep telling myself that this is where we need to be right now and we'll see where life takes us later on. For now I'll be counting down the days until we go home again in June!

I also celebrated my 22nd birthday on the 28th. It was pretty low key which is fine with me. Kyle let me sleep in and got up with Lucy and made me breakfast. Then for Lunch we went out to eat to a steak place and it was delicious. Kyle unfortunately had to work from 3-1030 so it was just me and my Lu for the rest of the day. I'm not complaining though she's pretty good company. It sure beat my last 2 birthdays though. Two years ago Kyle had just gotten home from his mission so we hadn't been together for my birthday in a long time. I took the day off of work and we planned a fun day to just spend together and he ended up with food poisoning all day long. It was a blast. Then last year I was so pregnant and emotional. I had just developed my awful pregnancy rash and I was miserably itching from head to toe. I had a doctor appt that day and I was looking forward to it all week because I thought that they were going to help me. So I go in and almost break down crying telling the midwife about how misserable I am and she totally didn't believe me. She just said I don't think it's what you think (which it totally was) and she just said lets see you in a week or so and see how you're doing. That alone ruined my day because I knew I was going to be miserable for the next week before she believed me. I sat on the couch crying and watching tv the rest of the day. By the way when I went in the next week she still didn't believe me and set me up with a dermatologist who ended up doing a biopsy and we confirmed I was right the whole time. Anyways! To make a long story longer this year was much better. I keep thinking to myself that I got engaged at 19, married at 20, first baby at 21 what's in store for 22???

Lucy is now 10 months old and learning something new everyday. Her favorite thing to do right now is dancing. Anytime she hears anything with any sort of a beat she's dancing to it. Even hymns at church. We found these toy maracas yesterday and now she loves to shake those while she's dancing. She's also getting really close to walking. She's cruising all around the furniture, pushes things by walking and can walk holding only one of my hands. We'll see when she decides to do it on her own. We also rearranged our living room today for the probably 6th time in the last 3 months trying to keep up with her every growing urge to get into anything possible.

Kyle has started spring term and it's so relaxed and wonderful. He only has 2 classes. He is working a lot more too which is also wonderful. The weather has been so nice lately that Lucy and I have been taking jogs down to campus twice a day to bring him lunch and dinner. So we get to see him and I get my exercise in! His work is also so relaxed that we end up just hanging out with him for like an hour and Lu just gets to crawl around in the classrooms he cleans. He's also on inter-mural softball and ultimate frisbee teams and we have gotten to go to some of his day time games which has been fun.

Well that's pretty much our life right now!

9 Months

Yes you read it right, Lucy is already 9 months! I can't believe it. She has been out of the belly for as long as she was in it. I'm happy to say that I have lost all the baby weight (which was a lot more then it should have been) plus some. That's a huge relief. Hopefully I will keep it going! But it has been an amazing 9 months for sure. I just love that little girl so much. There's never a dull moment because she definitely has her dad's energy and is very busy. And always happy which she gets from Kyle too. Here are her 9 month stats:

Weight: 15.08 lbs-2.59 %
Height: 25.5 in- 3%

She is about as small as they come. The doctor said it's fine though which is good to hear. She's still growing but she is just a lot smaller. He did say that she's old enough to have a little whole milk which will hopefully help her put on some poundage. We will see. I already feed more then I think she wants. She eats about 7+ oz of baby food per meal, plus lots of snacks like cheerios and graham crackers and I nurse her 4 times a day. She doesn't usually have an off switch when she's eating so she'll eat as much as I feed her. She has several times eaten so much that she throws some up afterwards (TMI I know). Not sure how to make her chunk up if she's already eating that much! I guess we'll see what happens. I think part of the reason she's so small is not only because it's in her genes but she is so busy like a said before. The only time she sits still is to eat and even then she's about as busy as her high chair will allow. Hopefully she keeps this same metabolism her whole life and she will be one happy girl!

Here are some of her developmental things she has going on since my last update at 6 months.
She can now:

Crawl (started 7.5 months)
Stand and walk using furniture (started 8 months)
Stand on her own, well she has a couple times for about 2 seconds before falling over.
She has 1 tooth
Clap
Wave
Blow kisses
Say: Da-da, Ma-ma and bye bye
Eat finger foods
Turn off the light switch
Play peek-a-boo
Sleep through the night!
Use a sippy cup
Develop stranger anxiety

There's a million other little things but it's hard to think of all at once.

Something else she has also developed is aggressiveness. She doesn't have a bad temper or anything she just plays too rough. I think it has a lot to do with never really being around other kids and mostly just adults. When she's around other kids she tries to stand on them, grab their faces, pull their hair and take their toys or food. Hopefully it will get better this summer when she's around her cousins and bigger kids that will fight back.

She's very independent. As long as I'm in the same room as her and she can see me she will play with her toys by herself most of the day and be happy. That makes it so nice when I need to get stuff done around the house. I do still play with her though just because I love it. It's more for me then her I guess.

She's testing her boundaries constantly. She knows what "no" means but she likes to pretend she doesn't. She knows exactly what she can't get into and where she can't go. If she does try to do those things she'll slowly crawl over to it and keep looking back at me to see if I'm watching. Such a little stinker. Or if I'm doing something and she wants me to pick her up she'll cry at my feet for a little until she realizes that I can't pick her up then she'll immediately go get into something she knows that she shouldn't. Like I said before, never a dull moment.

Well that's all I can think of for now. I'm so excited to go home next week! I will leave you with a few pictures to reward you for making it through this whole post.

Trying to get the horses

Happy girl in the diaper box

Her first tooth, and cut on her nose from trying to stand on the movie shelf and falling

Fell asleep holding onto the crib

Proud wife

Pretty much every post on here is about Lucy so I just wanted to take a minute and brag about my wonderful husband. He is getting so burnt out of school and is soooooo ready for summer. With school, clinical and work he is pretty much gone from 8:30am- 12am everyday with about an hour break. He just keeps chugging along though. He works so hard so that I can stay at home with Lucy instead of working. I love him so much for that. I know that it really upsets him that he's away from Lucy so much but come the weekend he is all over that little girl. They are two peas in a pod. I love to just sit on the couch and watch them play. She adores him and he's pretty fond of her as well. I couldn't ask for a better husband and father. A couple things that recently happened that inspired me to write this were some accomplishments that he has had lately. If you know Kyle you know that he's not shy about talking himself up about pretty much anything. But what you may not know is that when he is actually really good at something he is about as humble as it gets. I have to constantly tell him over and over that he should be proud of himself for certain things but he doesn't usually believe me. I'm sure it comes from being raised in a super competitive home with 5 boys. Anyways he has been participating on the ward basketball team over the last couple months. A couple weeks ago our ward won the stake tournament. I could not have been prouder watching his games and seeing him do so well. Of course after every game I would tell him how good he did but he would just shake it off and say that he could have done better. Well after the last game we had at least 4 or 5 different people tell him that he was the tournament MVP and that he did amazing. At one point in a game the whole team was chanting "Kyle Caudle" because he was knocking down 3's left and right. I can't wait to watch him again next year! Then a few days later we found out what his new clinical assignment was for the fall semester. He really wanted to work with the basketball team but he got assigned to men's volleyball. He was kind of bummed but he later found out that the head athletic trainer for volleyball personally requested Kyle to work with them because he really liked Kyle. Again I was so proud and he didn't really think anything of it. He said that he hasn't really talked to the guy all that much but he must have made some sort of good impression. This is out of 80+ students and he requested my superstar of a husband! So that's what Kyle is up to lately. Sorry if you didn't really care but I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm his #1 fan :)

The 44th ward championship basketball team!

Sunny days

We have been lucky enough to have some nice days here and there lately (with snow storms in between of course). The sun is very welcome. Lucy is definitely an outdoor baby. Until about November her and I would take at least a walk a day. Since then we have only really been out for errands and stuff. Anyways we have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather. We've been going on walks again which is nice for both of us to get out and move. Also I discovered Lucy's love of the park. Actually I always knew she would love it long before I took her because she is such a people watcher and she loves being outside. Several days over the last couple weeks we packed a lunch and ate it in the park. It's been so nice to get out! It makes mommy happy and it makes baby happy which of course makes me even happier! She is going to love getting to play with all of her cousins all summer long. We were even lucky enough for Kyle to have some rare time off last week on a nice day and he got to come with us!

Big 2-3

At the beginning of this month Kyle celebrated his 23rd birthday! We celebrated the day by going out to eat at Red Robin and having some cake and ice cream at home. We also skyped his family so they could help sing Happy Birthday with him.

Daddy and baby girl

Lucy helping me make the cake

Yummy dinner at our favorite restaurant!

Portland Trip

All the sister-in-laws with their beautiful daughters

Playing around with the younger cousins

Lucy and baby Kelsey

Fun at the zoo with Grandma Lori

A couple weeks ago Lucy and I got to go home for a few days. We had so much fun. We discovered that Lucy has developed a bad case of stranger anxiety which wasn't so much fun for mom but she got over it by the end. Well not so much stranger anxiety as man anxiety. Every guy who picked her up sent her into a panic until I grabbed her back. She is such a daddy's girl at home so it was weird to see her actually prefer coming to me over anyone else. Normally if dad is home she wants nothing to do with me unless she is hungry. Our last trip to Portland over Christmas she absolutely adored my brother and my dad but by the end of this trip she was over her anxiety and had lots of laughs with everyone. She couldn't get enough of my mom or Kyle's mom from the very beginning though. Some of the activities we got to enjoy were a trip to the zoo with cousins, some Sauer/Caudle family dinners, a trip to the DMV (how exciting!) and of course baby Kelsey's blessing which was the reason I picked that specific weekend to go. As always it was sad to leave but very good to get back to Provo and see Kyle. Only 4 months until we're home for the summer!

6 Months

Lucy had her 6 month check up today. This appt was probably the most she has cried at the doctor. Every other time she has gotten shots she'd cry right when she got them and then be fine. Today she cried all the way to the car and then passed out. What a trooper. Shes a petite little thing. Here are her stats:

Weight: 13.5 lbs (6th percentile)
Height: 24.75 in (17th percentile)
Head 15.5 in (23rd percentile)

Here are some things about Lucys life at 6 months.

Sleeping:
Her sleeping schedule has gotten more structured again after being on vacation. She usually takes a 30-45 minute nap in the morning around 10. Then goes down for a 2 hour hap around 1 or 2. Then a 20-30 minute afternoon nap around 5 or 6 and in bed for the night at 8. She's been consistently waking up once a night around 4 or 5 then back to bed til 7 or 8. We're going to try to start phasing her out of her nightly wake up in the next month.

Loves:

• Bath time. When shes having a rough day I'll just strip her naked and let her play in the bath. Works like a charm.
  
• Carrots. She ate almost a whole container of carrot baby food in one sitting the first time she ever ate it, in addition to her normal serving of rice cereal. She just kept screaming for more. She also loves when I give her a slice of a an apple or a stick of celery to chew on.
  
• Water bottles. I cant drink around her anymore because she just screams until I give her the bottle.
• Being outside or looking out windows. That's another trick for settling her down when shes fussing. Just step outside or since it's cold just hold her in front of the window. Shes also a people watcher so she loves going to the mall of target. She's never once thrown a fit in a store because she's too excited watching everything that's going on.
• Being tickled. She's ticklish pretty much everywhere and boy does she get going when you do it. Nothing better than a babies laugh.
  
• Dad. This girl loves loves loves her dad. As soon as he walks in the door she wants nothing to do with me. I'm totally fine with it though. I think it's adorable because she's got him wrapped around her finger already.
• Her bed time worm mentioned in a previous post.
• Bed time story from dad. Every night Kyle will read/make up a story for her at bed time. She just stares at him smiling the whole time.
  
• Family time. She rarely gets both Kyle and I home with her together and she loves when it happens. She plays with one of us for a little bit then will want to go to the other and play for a little bit and just keeps going back and forth. Mostly with dad though.
• She also loves to make this squealing noise. She does it constantly and you would think she was crying at first turns out she just loves to hear her own voice.
  

Hates:

• Green beans and peas. She still shivers on every bit. It's pretty funny though.
• Being left alone. No matter where she is the house she hates it if she doesn't know where I am or Kyle if he's home. I started putting her up on the counter next to me in the bumbo chair when I do the dishes because she won't play in her room or on her jumper if she can't see me.
• Getting strapped into her car seat. The funny thing is though that she loves going in the car and passes out almost every time. If only she didn't have to get strapped in.
• Pacifiers. She was glued to her binky's for the first 5 months then all of a sudden one day she wanted nothing to do with them. Oh well I guess its better her stopping on her own than trying to make her stop when she's older.
  

As you can see her "Loves" list is a lot longer than her "hates" list. She is a pretty happy girl and we are pretty spoiled with her. I don't know how I lived 21years without her!

Go Blazers!

For a Christmas present from my mom me, kyle, my brother, breanna, kyles brother and his son went to a blazer game. It was a blast! We played the Jazz. It was awesome seeing the blazers play the jazz on home turf instead of in Salt Lake. We won which was the 2nd time beating them that week. Those wins against them were a long time coming! It was fun to have a night out with the ones I love the most!

Big brother Nicky and Me

Me and Bre

Me and the Hubs baby free for a night!

A girl and her wormy

I cant believe Lucy is old enough to have a "security" thing but the time has come! It's not a blanket like most kids. When we were home my mom got Lucy this little worm doll that is meant as a night time toy to calm your baby down. Its face lights up and it plays songs like twinkle twinkle little star and mary had a little lamb. For the last week almost she has fussed when I laid her down for bed and I put that thing next to her and she calms down and falls asleep. Its pretty stinkin adorable. Last night she actually put her arm around it and fell asleep. I just love that little girl so much!

This was taken in the dark but the flash made it look like the middle of the day. I wish I could get a picture of it glowing next to her but it doesnt turn out. She loves that thing!

Eat your veggies!

Lucy had her first real baby food over the break. We chose green beans as the lucky winner for my precious little girl. Shes getting the hang of it but we got the first gags on camera. She still shivers on every bite but no more faces! Not sure what the next food is going to be but I'm sure she'll get the hang of it.

Kelsey Jane!

On December 30th I became an aunt for the 7th time! The first baby to actually be born since we've been married though. Kyles brother Trent and his wife Jenny welcomed their beautiful little girl unto the world and we were so lucky to be home when she came. It still amazes me how you can instantly fall in love with a baby by just laying eyes on them. Obviously its nothing like your own child but I still love that little girl to pieces! Her and Lucy are just under 6 months apart and I'm so excited to see them grow up together so close in age. It's not every day you get an instant best friend but I guess Lucy and Kelsey are just that lucky! They wont really be together until Lucy is 2 years old and Kelsey is 18 months but I'm sure they will make up for lost time. Congrats Trent and Jennifer!

Its that time of year

We were so blessed with the opportunity to go back to Portland over Christmas break. It was such an amazing trip filled with lots of laughs and good times with family and friends. Sure made us homesick to come home but school was calling! I was kind of afraid that Lucy would get overwhelmed with all the activity and people since pretty much her whole life its just been me, her and daddy. She did great though! Even though both of us came down with some pretty bad colds. I was so proud of my little trooper. She loved all the attention and was her very happy self despite all the commotion, serious lack of sleep and a structured schedule. She also took the chance to perfect her sitting up while she had a constant adoring audience. She's a pro now and should be crawling any time now. I couldn't have had a better trip. It was an awesome first Christmas as a family. Lucy had no idea what was going on of course but still loved it. She got some pretty fun toys from Grandma Lori. She was much more interested in unwrapping the presents than what was inside but once the toys were out of the packaging she was loving every minute of them. We've already had some fun moments together playing with them in her room. I'm so grateful for everyone that I got to spend this holiday season with and I cant wait for our next trip home! Whenever that may be...