HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!!!

Our Dearest Lucy -

Happy Birthday Baby Girl! We hope you have the time of your life today and every other day of your precious little life. I cannot believe how quickly the time has flown by since we got you seven months ago. It passed in what feels like the blink of an eye. You have touched our lives so deeply. Everyday we thank God that you are ours. Life would not be the same without you. Your laugh and smile are contagious. Your little reserved personality is so fitting for you, but once you open up, watch out! People are natually drawn to you. You are funny, smart, beautiful, and loving. It is such a blessing to watch you as you develop into the little person that you are going to be. We love every second we get to spend with you. Thank you for all of the joy you have brought to our lives. We love you so much.

Love, Mom and Dad

I have so much that I want to say on this post. I am going to try and keep it at a manageable length, but it is going to be long. First I want to touch on what Lucy is up to these days. She is obviously walking all of the time. Once she figured out how to get from sitting to standing with nothing to pull up on (which was a little less than a week ago) she has been walking almost exclusively. She still walks with her hands straight up and it is really funny. She eats big girl food only, except for the rare occasion when baby food has to do. She will tolerate it, but not very well. She is a great sleeper. Still two naps a day. If she wakes up in the morning or from a nap crying, it means she is not done sleeping and she needs to go back down for a bit. This rarely happens. She generally always wakes up and talks for a while in her crib. It is really sweet to listen to. I did find out from this trip we are on that she does not totally freak out if a nap is missed. Instead, by the end of the day, she enters a hilarious state of delirium where she laughs at everything and stumbles around like an old drunk man. It really is so funny. She still needs two naps to function at her best though. Size wise she is about 19 lbs. Her waist and bottom are so small she still wears 3-6 month shorts and pants and if they are any bigger she walks right out of them. She signs eat, milk, all done, and more on a regular basis and knows what they mean. This has really only happened in the past week or so, but now she is signing a lot. She doesn't say many recognizable words other than mama, dada (all of the time), nana, and baba. The rest is just jibberish. She talks all of the time though. That is about it, I think.

As far as birthday festivities, I will start with yesterday - her birthday eve. We woke up still in Martha's Vineyard. Got out and about, ate lunch, and then it was time to catch the ferry in the afternoon. We found out last minute that we were going to get to catch a Red Sox game, so we were pretty excited. We got to Boston with enough time to get to our hotel, change clothes, and head to Fenway. It was an amazing experience. We got to go down on the field before the game and really see everything up close. Fenway is such a cool place with so much history and the fans are unbelievable. I am really glad we got to do this. Lucy only made it through about 1 inning because it was a night game and we had already been there for an hour or so before the game started. She was great though and everyone commented on what a well behaved girl she was. We didn't want to push her past her limit, so we left after the first inning. It was already her bedtime. I would say getting to go to a Red Sox game and go on the field was a pretty great start to her birthday!

At the dock waiting for the ferry to pick us up.


Hi everyone!!

Lucy and her dad outside of Fenway Park.

Family picture on the field



She loved the game food - pretzels and hot dog!!

View from our seats.


At midnight, we had to move from our hotel in Boston back to the bus to head to Dewey Beach, Delaware. I was able to move her without her ever waking up. Here she is at exactly midnight in the hotel room and then in the bus once we made the switch. I am aware that she was already 1 in Vietnam time, but we are just going with our time zone for now to keep things simple! She is so sweet and cute when she is snoozing.




Here she is first thing in the morning on her big day!


She ate her normal breakfast, but as a treat she got to watch cartoons!! Look at her all kicked back and enjoying the moment.


Then, she got to have Cheetos for a little breakfast dessert! This girl loves her some Cheetos.


After her morning nap, we packed up and headed to the Boardwalk so we could let her experience the beach and ocean for the first time. It was so much fun and she just loved the water. She was not too sure about the sand, but it didn't bother her. She just wasn't sure at first about it being stuck to her.

Grabbing a quick bite to eat before we hit the beach.


Checking out the water with dad.

Brrrr, it is a bit cold.


She would have marched right on out into the water. It made me a bit nervous because the current was really strong, even for me.




She got to eat some cherry flavored frozen stuff and she absolutely loved it.


After the big day at the beach, she was one tired girl. We went back to the hotel, cleaned up because we were all still covered in sand, and she took a big ole nap. Here she is after her bath in her birthday outfit.


Once she got up, we went out to dinner. She didn't get to dig into a cupcake yet, because we would have destroyed either the restaurant or our hotel room. She can do that when we are back at home. Here she is in her cupcake outfit looking beautiful!




One of my all time favorite pictures.


Ready for bed after a big day, which by the way, she was a bear to get to bed tonight. Who wants their birthday to end? Not this girl!


I am going to make her a little birthday book with the pictures from our trip and the cards that she gets. I am also going to include her birthday comments from the blog, so if you feel inclined, please leave her a little birthday message so that she someday knows all of mommy's blogging friends that are so great!!