In just this past week, Lucy has started saying several new words. She tries so hard to imitate us. It amazes me how close she gets on so many words. She can now say mama, dada, papa, hi dada, bye bye, hot, ouch, uh oh (this is hilarious by the way and in kind of a country accent - you will see it in the second video), eyes, and some others that are only recognizable by us. I just love watching her learn and grow. It is so cool.
She is getting her 1 year molars and they are driving her nuts. She had a rough night last night and has been SO clingy and whiny today. I will say it again, teething sucks. I am hoping for a smoother night tonight. We could use the sleep.
This is our little talking burrito. She kind of does some of her animal imitations, but not very well. She can do them much better.
This video will show you just how much she loves to kiss anything BUT mom or dad. She will kiss us, but it is much more likely that a toy will get kissed instead of us. Watch to the end to hear her say her funny little uh oh.
Today is the anniversary of our referral of Miss Lucy!!! I can't believe that it has been a year. I really can remember getting the call so clearly. The time has just flown by and Lucy is just the most wonderful child. We are so blessed to have her in our family. In celebration of this wonderful day, we took Lucy to Gattieland. She was in awe of all of the games and little rides. She really only wanted to ride this mini carousel. Here are a few pictures from today and then I put together a video of some of my favorite pictures and videos since our referral. I hope you enjoy. I copied the idea from Annslee's Mom of taking her picture today holding her referral picture. I just loved that idea. Sherri, you were so close when you asked if yesterday was her referral day!!
She seems so thrilled that today is such a special day!! In the fire truck. Not a big fan of this since it was right next to the carousel that she loved so much. Riding the horse!!! So CUTE!! Who is that pretty baby?!?
Thank you for all of the kind thoughts and prayers. Once again, they really really helped. My dad got to come home this afternoon. The test done in radiology on Friday showed nothing - he had to be actively bleeding for it to show anything. Then this morning he had to drink barium and they x-rayed it, and again, nothing showed up. They decided that he is no longer actively bleeding and allowed him to go home. He has diverticulitis and it apparently flaired up in a major way, causing extensive bleeding, and it is now healing and the bleeding has stopped. The problem is, they were never able to identify the exact spot where the bleeding was happening. So, he goes in for a really cool test some time this next week. He swallows a pill that is a camera and wears this wireless thing and the camera travels through his digestive system and sends pictures wirelessly to the thing and then the doctor can see all of his insides. Is that not amazing? It is to me. Anyway, he is going to have to make some dietary changes so that we can prevent this from happening again.
My dad was reading this blog in the hospital and he said, "Your blog has turned into a soap opera. Between Bruiser getting lost and me being in the hospital, there has been a lot of drama in here." He was right. At least thus far it has all been drama with a happy ending. He really appreciated all of the kind comments!
Lucy spent quite a bit of time at the hospital. She was scared at first of all of the tubes, machines, nurses, doctors, etc. Once I got her initially distracted with some snacks, she lightened up and had a blast. I thought we would never be able to keep her contained, but she once again amazed us all and stayed right in our little area. She was so good at the hospital. I know that it made my dad feel better when she was there. She just lights up any room and that makes everyone feel better.
Now, for a little lighter topic, who else is about to pee their pants because they are so excited about premier week on TV this week?!?!? I am!! What are you most looking forward to? I can't wait for Grey's and Private Practice the very most. I am also ready for Project Runway, but I am not sure when it is starting. Any new shows other than Private Practice that I should watch? TIVO is going to be on fire for the next couple of months. YEAH!!!!!
Lucy and I came to visit my parents this week. We got here on Wednesday and my dad was not feeling quite right. He ended up having to go to the hospital that night because he was so weak and light headed and vomitting. He is still there. He has some intestinal problems to begin with, and they seem to be REALLY flaired up right now. He is bleeding internally - and he is really losing a lot of blood. He has already been given 4 units of blood, but because he is still losing so much blood, they have to keep giving him more. They have run several tests and have not been able to locate where the blood is coming from yet. He has had an upper GI scope and a colonoscopy so far and neither showed the bleeding. Right now he is having another test done in radiology that will hopefully reveal the source of the blood. I would really appreciate anyone taking a moment to say a little prayer for him or sending some positive vibes this way. I feel certain he will be fine, it is just scary not knowing what is going on and why. Thanks ahead of time for all of the support.
It is amazing how much more entertaining life is with a child. We do so many fun things that we just didn't do before - like go to the awesome aquarium. And even more fun, is watching Lucy experience these things for the first time. So today, Justin, Lucy, Mandy, Anna, and I went to the aquarium. It was really amazing. Obviously tons of fish, but also monkeys, birds, a jaguar, and penguins. We had a blast. Here are some fun pictures.
Lucy and Anna waiting patiently for the Giant Otters to be fed. There goes an otter. Chowing on his fish Very typical - Lucy camped out on Mandy's lap and Anna being sweet and allowing it. Look at that huge turtle! Come on guys! Really, could they be any cuter? Anna has her arm around Lucy! SO SWEET! Here are the penguins. I got grossed out by them though because they all peed on the rocks - thick yellow urine and it smelled so disgusting. I was so excited about the penguins and they were cute, but so stinky. Lucy really trying to swim with the penguins. The shark tunnel. Lucy's very favorite thing at the whole aquarium was the flamingos!! Can you believe it?!?! She doesn't even know how lucky she is that I was thinking ahead with that costume! She kept her face shoved between two sticks and stood totally still and just watched them. They were really loud. LOVE this picture!
We have our second go round with Little Gym tomorrow. I know Lucy will be excited about that. I just wish it didn't smell like feet inside of Little Gym!
Despite the extremely upsetting loss today of my beloved Arkansas Razorbacks, Lucy still was the cutest thing in town in her game day gear. We watched with our neighbors. I have been talking up her game day outfit all week, so they could not wait for the unveiling. After her nap, I got her all dolled up and ready to cheer on the Hogs. My wonderful friend, Kate, actually made this tutu for her and gave it to her along with the bloomers for Lucy's birthday. She was the hit of the neighborhood. Seriously, everyone thought this was one of her top outfits of all times and you all know she has some good ones. She had on a lot of flair, but I think it really worked for her! So, here she is in all her Razorback glory. (the t-shirt was just an added bonus - I just wanted something plain and white, but found this hidden jewel in her drawer and couldn't resist)
Yes, that is a Razorback tattoo on her arm. This is Lucy's friend, Jadie. Lucy thought it was her job to push Jadie around on her car. Lucy also found herself getting jealous of anyone giving Jadie attention. She especially didn't want my neighbor, Christy (who is Jadie's aunt) to hold or play with Jadie, only her. Lucy was devastated by the last second loss. BOOOOO!!!
In other news, here is a picture of Lucy at her Friday play date. Can you believe that we got all of these adorable kids to sit and look at the camera at once? I really can't. Mostly, I can't believe that Lucy sat there for even one second. I have gotten to meet some more moms and kids through my friend, Mandy. It is so nice having other moms to talk to, get advice from, gossip about celebrities with :), and just have normal adult conversation with. I feel so blessed to have Mandy and her family in our lives. For one, Mandy is a wonderful mom and I feel like I am always learning from her. She also has this huge heart and is so giving and it makes me want to be a better person. Lucy has a very special connection with Mandy. She always runs over and gives her hugs and wants to sit in her lap. This is very unusual behavior for Lucy, so it always makes me so happy to see her so comfortable with other people. Even more importantly, Anna and Lucy will have such a special bond as they grow older and their friendship blossoms. Anna is so sweet that I just want to hug on her the whole time we are with them. Really, she is such an amazing child and she has the most precious expressions. By the way Mandy, Lucy was so tired from all of the fun at the Arboretum that she was dead asleep in the car before we were out of the parking lot. We had a blast!
Mandy and I with our girls.
That is about it around here. Lucy still only has three teeth on top and the fourth is just refusing to come through. I can see and feel it, it has just not cut through. She is sleeping well though, so I have no complaints. I can't remember if I wrote this or not, but she has transitioned 100% to whole milk and is doing perfectly fine with it. She is a bit gassy, but nothing that a little Mylicon can't handle. She seems to really like the regular milk so much more than her soy formula. She is mimicking several other animals now, which is very funny. She does the bunny hop, thumps her chest like a gorilla, and raises her arm like an elephant's trunk. We are working on flying like a bird. I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the weekend. Let's hope the Cowboys win so it is not a total loss!
Here she is in all her glory as a cutie pie pink flamingo! The head piece is a bit big, but it is still adorable. She thought she was hilarious in this. I know what you are all going to ask. It is made by Tom Arma and you can find the most adorable costumes at www.tomarma.com. They are all animals, but I am in love with a bunch of them - especially the skunk!! What do you think?
Here are just some cute pictures from today. As much as I love Lucy in dresses, there is not much cuter than a baby in jeans. In case you are wondering what her shirt says, it says "Stroller today, Range Rover tomorrow." Her dad bought it for her, so he can deal with that some day in the far future.
All of the praying and hoping and positive thinking worked!!!!! Bruiser is home and cuddled up in bed with me and Bianca right this moment. You will never believe the story. We got up this morning and went around to all of the signs and wrote the word REWARD on the signs. I should have put that on the sign originally, but just wasn't thinking clearly at the time. We were hoping that if he had been stolen, the people would give him back for money. We continue to hear nothing. Then a rain storm comes through. Now all of the signs are wet and soggy and barely hanging on. I am so devastated by this point because I thought that we would have heard something by late afternoon if someone honest had picked him up and now all of the signs were in pitiful condition.
At 4:45 the phone rings - it is a strange but local number. I answer and a sweet young girl is on the phone and she excitedly yells out, "I have Bruiser!! We found him yesterday." I start freaking out and she gets her mom. She said that they were stopped at a stop sign right by our house and he ran right in front of her car. The mom had her daughter (who was about 10 or so) get out and see if he will let her catch him because he was on the sidewalk of a busy street. Bruiser let the girl pick him up and they took him back to their house because he had no tags on. I know - terrible pet owner and I have learned my lesson. He is just so small and I swear the collars weigh his neck down, but he will have to deal with it from now on. They told me that he was so sweet and they just loved him to pieces. This comes as a HUGE surprise. Bruiser is not a nice dog. He attacks anyone who comes to our house and he hates most everyone. The good news is, he weighs 2.5 lbs and can do no real harm. They had a bed set up for him, food, water, and everything. They really took amazing care of him. He was so lucky to be picked up by such animal lovers. They had a cat, dog, parrot, and mouse. The cat and dog were rescues. They loved Bruiser so much that they gave me their phone number and said that if we ever couldn't care for him anymore, that they wanted him!
Here is the crazy part, their dog was named Bianca - just like our other dog. And, the girl that saved him was adopted from China. I know, different than Vietnam, but still neat to me. Just weird coincedences. I have never been so happy to see my little bat dog in all of my life. My eyes are still super swollen from all of the crying that I did. I was pretty much hysterical all day. Good thing my in-laws were here to help out. Justin got back in town this morning, so that was a relief as well. I am exhausted from the complete lack of sleep last night. Once he was back at home, it was like I instantly relaxed and realized exactly how tired I was.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of you who thought about us yesterday and prayed for Bruiser's safe return. You have no idea how thankful I am. I absolutely believe in the power of prayer and positive thinking and this is just a perfect example of why.
*As a sidenote, Bruiser is microchipped and these people did have it read - these are great people I tell ya. The only thing was - it was apparently never registered correctly and we never knew. We know now and have already gone online and fixed it, so that is taken care of. The family gave me the website and his chip id so that it would be easy for us. How awesome is that?! I also forgot to mention that they did not accept any reward money, even though I offered and tried to insist. **As a double sidenote, since I am happy and not a blubbering idiot anymore, I will say that the Halloween costume should be here tomorrow and the reveal pictures will be released tomorrow. So those of you who are holding your breath waiting to know what Lucy will be for Halloween (that would be you Nicki), you will know tomorrow!!! I will be stalking the front door for the fed ex man tomorrow. Really, it is going to surprise most of you just how awesome it is. Let's hope Lucy loves it as much as I do. I can't wait.
My dog and my original baby, Bruiser, has gone missing. He escaped out of our gate today and it was my fault. The guilt that I feel is unbelievable. He has been gone for many hours now and I am terrified for him. He is a chihuahua who weighs 2.5 lbs and cannot take care of himself at all. We think that he was picked up by someone because a neighbor that we don't know well said she saw a car picking up a dog that she thinks was Bruiser once she saw the signs that we hung up tonight with his picture on them. Please pray that these are good people. People who come back to see our signs that are everywhere. With the help of my wonderful neighbors, we hung 160 signs with his picture. My biggest fear is that they think that he is now their pet. There is a big problem in Dallas of pets being stolen. I will give them a reward, whatever they want, but I so desperately want my Bruiser back. Our bed feels so empty right now and Bianca is seriously devastated. She knows that something bad has happened and she wants her brother back right away. She just looks sad. I am crying right now as I type this, but I am hoping with enough prayer and positive thinking we can get him back home. He is a dog that does not love people, he loves me. He needs me. He must be so scared and worried right now. I feel sick. Please bring my Bruiser back. What a sad and horrific day. This is one of my worst nightmares. He is like a child to me. I feel even worse now for the decrease in attention that he has received since Lucy has been home. I promise I will be better if you just come home, Bruiser.
A few days back, Lucy turned 13 months old. She went to the doctor today for her check up. She is about a month behind on her vaccine schedule, which is why she did not have a 1 year check up. Here are the stats for my little 13 month old toddler: 19 lbs 7 oz (10th percentile) and 30.5" long (80th percentile). So, she is tall and skinny. Ever since she has started walking/running, I have noticed that most of her baby chub (which was minimal to begin with) has disappeared. She can still wear almost everything she wore in Vietnam. The good thing about slow growth is that you really get some wear out of her clothes. She has stayed in 6-12 month clothes all spring and summer. Good thing since we literally have a closet busting at the seams with this size of summer dresses. She still wears a 3-6 month short, skirt, or pant with room to grow. Her little waist is just so tiny. In 5 months, she has gained right at 2 lbs and grown 2.5 inches. The doctor was fine with her growth and said it was consistent, so I am happy. She is at the age where she knows we are at the doctor and she let the whole office know that she did not like them or to be in their office. Any time a nurse or the doctor would come in our room, she would start wailing and waving bye bye to them. She literally was telling them to get out of our room!! They all thought that was pretty funny, so they looked past the screaming. She got three shots and a finger prick. She screamed the whole drive home, downed a bottle, and napped for three hours. She woke up happy as a lark and ready to play. She normally runs a fever with her shots, so we'll see how that goes this time. I have been giving her Motrin to help.
Yesterday, we got to see Lucy's cousin, Austen, and his mom and dad for a little while as they were driving back home. It was great to see them and get the babies together for a bit. Austen turns one on the 11th, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTEN!! Here they are busy playing.
Here is Lucy in "her" purple chair for the kitchen.
Here is the big girl riding the horse. I asked Justin if Santa had room in his sleigh for a pony and he said probably not. Sorry baby girl. I tried!
Here is a question for you all. Have you gotten your child's Halloween costume yet? If so, please share what they are going to be. If not, share what you are thinking of. I have gotten Lucy's. I will tell after you all do. It should be here in the mail any day. I might have to post a picture of her trying it on. I don't think I will be able to wait until Halloween because it is really the cutest thing I have ever seen. I will say that I originally wanted a goose because we call her Lucy Goose all of the time, but I was totally unsuccessful in finding it or even a swan and don't think I didn't scour the internet. What we chose will be so much better anyway!! I am so excited for holiday season to start. Remember last year when my whole house was decorated for Christmas by November 6th??? I won't be decorating that early this year since we will be home for Christmas this year, but don't think that I haven't started thinking about decorating already. I have already started talking about it to Justin, who is not amused. I just got a little giddy thinking about Lucy and her first Christmas with us!!!!
And finally, I have been tagged by a few other bloggers, so I guess I will do my part. Here are the rules:
Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged, you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged & to read your blog!
L - Loud. My husband always tells me I am talking really loudly and I have no idea. I think I completely made Lucy nuts at first while we were in Vietnam because I am so loud and she was used to her quiet nannies. Poor thing, but she came around and is pretty darn loud herself these days.
Y - Young. At least I feel young. I am 27 for another few weeks. I am 2.5 years younger than Justin, so I will always have that going for me!!
N - Neat. I really like things to be in their place and not cluttered. I was not always like this, I think Justin made me this way.
E - Energetic. I have to have lots of energy to chase Lucy around all day. At the end of most days, I am totally wiped.
T - Timely. I kind of stole this from Kristin but I too cannot stand to be late for anything and even with a baby am 99% of the time on time or early to an appointment or meeting.
T - Thinker. I tend to over think things all of the time. I think this is the biggest contributor to my not being able to sleep anymore. I can't turn off my brain at night.
E - Enthusiastic. I am really enthusiastic about the things that I care most about in life, such a being a good momma!
I am not tagging anyone else because I am pretty sure that I am the last person in VN blogland to do this thing.
I really really appreciate the great comments that I got on the last post. They were some of the most thoughtful and kind comments I have gotten since this blog started. It just always is reassuring to know that I am not alone and that others feel the same way. My good friend Liz commented that her daughter had several similar days after her first birthday. She described it by saying if her daughter could have unzipped her skin and crawled inside her, she would have. That is exactly how Lucy was. She couldn't get close enough.
So here is what happened the next day. That night, I took Lucy in her room with a bottle at 7:45. I was out of her room with her dead asleep at 7:52. As I said in the other post, I thought that this crazy mood had something to do with her being really tired. I did not hear a peep out of this child until 10:27 am the next day. Yes, you read that correctly, she slept for 14 and a half hours straight. I had woken up really early to deal with a dog issue and dozed back off after being up for a while. I rolled over to look at the clock, thinking it would be around 9 and almost rolled out of the bed when I saw it was 10:27. We weren't even done with breakfast until after 11!!! Just so you don't think I am sleep depriving this child, every single night this past week she slept for a minimum of 13 hours a night and took between a 2 and 3 hour nap every day. Can we say GROWTH SPURT!! I think she is growing so fast it requires massive amounts of sleep. Anyway, she woke up happy and back to her normal self. We have had a great past couple of days. Here is what a normal evening is like at my house (this is the night after her meltdown and be sure to watch until the end when she comes out of hiding, it is so cute):
Here are some fun pictures from the weekend. Lucy went to a birthday party this weekend where she got to ride a horse! She was so brave and did not want anyone to touch her while she was up there because apparently she was a big girl and could do it herself. I had to hold on to her while the horse was moving, much to her disappointment. She cried when her turn was over. Who knew she would love horses so much? And just so you guys know about the flowers, I got them at this store in Fayetteville, AR. I don't even know who makes them because they were just hanging on a ribbon without a tag or anything. I wish I had more info to share on how to find them because they are awesome.
Looking so pretty for church today. By the way, she is getting better with the nursery. She cried today when I dropped her off, but she was playing happily when I returned to pick her up. It made me so so so happy. She did literally run over another poor child who was crawling on the floor when she caught sight of me!
