Swami's

Dave and I were apart for a few weeks, so I haven't had the computer or pictures, thus my absent blogging presence, but I am never gone for good. Here is a little catch up of the last month.

We visited the Swami Self Realization Garden, which was gorgeous. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
I finally got a great smile out of her, and I just looked ridiculous! Oh well, so life goes!

Ballet at its finest

From her bun to her perfect ballet position, these pictures just make me smile. Partly because we got this awesome ballet outfit, along with 4 other dress up outfits for free at a garage sale the other day (it pays to bring a cute girl, who goes crazy at the first sight of a dress)! I mean this is 4th position complete with a ballet bar:

Passe:

Arabesque:

All that learned in only one night's ballet lesson, thanks to her wonderful live in instructor, (that would be me. Yeah, maybe one lucky day I will be able to convince Dave that ballet lessons would benefit Lucy's athletic coordination, but for now she will have to make do with my ballerina dropout skills)!

Dolphins

Wow...that's really all I can say!

Yesterday we had a really close encounter with 3 Dolphins, closer than I can ever remember in all my days at the beach. All three of them leapt out of the water at one point (wish I could have caught that on camera). What a majestic experience. I included the next picture, just to give you some perspective of how close they actually were to the beach. You can see the fin right there in the breaking water.

After the dolphins swam by, I got in an artsy mood and shot these pics of Lucy's footprints. Looking back at them, I was actually kind of impressed, although you can't tell how cute and little they are. What do you think? I have always (okay, only for a few years now) wanted to be a photographer. Do you think I would have a shot (get it, shot?,lol, okay I'll stop being lame now, you can stop reading and give them a quick look)?

Bubbles

As I was refilling the soap dispenser, I poured way too much in the bottle and let the excess run into the sink...and I will just let the pictures do the rest of the talking!
I should mention that when Lucy says "bubble" it is one of my favorite words. She has perfect pronunciation and also calls her burps "bubbles" as well. I taught her that just because I wanted to hear her say the word more, silly, I know.
Don't even try to claim that you have never made faces in the mirror before...we've all done it! Just FYI, this next group of pictures was entirely unsolicited by me. I was just standing back and capturing the moment...enjoy!

Practice your kissing, why not??...

Lucy Pendergrass, you are much too young to be practicing your make out skills!!!

And I was left with one very soaked, yet very happy kid!

Animals

At the Wild Animal park (a few weeks ago, yes I'm behind and just realized how far behind when I loaded up 400 pictures, yikes!) we saw this baby elephant. He was only one month old! Spring is such a fun time to visit this place...there were so many mom's and babies.

Seriously, though...how sweet is that! You can just feel how much the Mommy elephant loves her baby. I was too lazy to post on Mother's Day, but now I wish I would have put this picture up. Oh well, I guess you can honor mothers on any day!

Although we saw lots of good stuff, most of out time was spent at the petting zoo! Nothing like touching a bunch a dear, huh? Well, Lucy thinks so, and I remember feeling the same way not too long ago. Now I just enjoy taking pictures and have no desire to give them a cuddle. I guess that's just cuz I have my own little girl to love and hold and cuddle (when she isn't running around, which totals about 3 minutes a day)!

We were teaching Lucy about horns, as demonstrated... Good Times!

Support Creativity Month

Okay, I don't really know if it is Creativity Month, but there seems to be a month for everything these days, so I am dubbing May that month. (Please feel free to correct me if there really is a creativity month some other month, but beware if you are the first five to comment you are going to have to comply!Hehehe!)

The first five people to respond to this post will receive something made by me. HOMEMADE! The item will be my choice made just for you! This is an offer you can't refuse!

Restrictions and Limitations:
1. I have complete creative freedom (meaning you don't have to like it!)
2. What I create will be just for you
3. It will be done within the next year
4. You have no clue what it will be. It may be personalized note cards. I might bake something. I might write you poetry. I might not think of anything until 1 year from now...who knows? Not you that is for sure!

The catch?You must re-post this on your own blog and offer the same giveaway to 5 people who comment. The first 5 people to leave a comment telling me they are in, will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift from me! Be sure to post a picture of what you get!

Here's to creativity!

Little Lucy Moments

A few little moments to share from the last week



1. Last week Lucy fell down the stairs. After doing a complete backwards sommersault she miraculously landed on her feet! Can you believe that? She still cried and a had a little bit of a bloody nose, but really it was a miracle and I couldn't be more grateful. She is either going to be an olympic gymnast someday, or there were angels who brought her down safely. The stairs are carpeted, but the floor is hardwood at the bottom, so it would have been bad. She is actually really good at going down the stairs, but she was running away from me trying to wipe her bum after using the potty. She gets really overexcited when anyone chases her and runs super fast... I guess she couldn't handle the stairs at that pace yet.



2. Lucy has been doing great using the potty. She still doesn't always tell me when she has to go, but I would say we make it to the toilet 50% of the time with "number 1." I haven't pushed her at all, so I am very impressed with her. Yesterday she did her first "number 2" in the toilet, so I just had to share how excited I am! We were at the Church teaching Webelos, when she told me she had to go. Usually she tells me too late, but this time we made it. I thought it was kind of funny that it finally happened at the church and not at home. I thought toddlers did better with regular routines and such, but there seems to be nothing routine about my little girl. (Or maybe she just has a crazy mom who couldn't keep a normal routine if her life depended on it!) Either way, yay! Only Mom's of potty trained or traing individuals will probably think that is cool, and the rest probably just think that is gross, but this is kind of my brag page, and right now I am proud of toilet training, soooooo...sorry, you had the choice whether to read my blog or not!



3. Today Lucy pointed at a parked red convertible Mustang and said "Mine." What can I say? She is a girl who knows what she wants!



4. The other day I fell and scraped my knee, while holding Lucy. Lucy was fine, but my knee was bleeding and gross. It totally freaked her out and she cried the whole way home. I think this was the first time she had seen blood, and it really upset her. She kept pointing and saying "owie," then she would whack herself and say "owie" and keep crying. Then she kept wanting to kiss my owie, (I let her kiss a different part of my leg), all while crying histerically. I think she was just really tired and upset or maybe it just shook her up realizing that Mommy could get hurt too. Hopefully she is not one of those seriously whimpy people who has to be excused from biology whenever they disect something, but I guess that wouldn't be the worst problem your child could have.

Anyway, I love watching Lucy's personality emerge. She is hilarious, sweet, bratty, athletic, musical and an overly loved child! I say it all the time, and I am sure Lucy will continue to prove me wrong as she grows more wonderful every day, but I will say it again "I couldn't love her more!"