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!"

All Grown Up

I can hardly walk in these heels, I don't know how she manages!

Oceanside Pier

My Dad and Sierra had their first "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" show on Saturday. Sierra is the Narrator (and sings most of the show) and my Dad is Jacob (he couldn't look more the part). They were incredible! I can't wait to see it again! Come check it out and you won't be disappointed! They have shows on Friday, April 24 @ 7:30 p.m., Saturday, April 25, @ 2:00 p.m., and Saturday, May 2 @ 7:30 p.m. located at the Star Theater in Oceanside!

To celebrate the opening of the show my family and our good friend Frank, walked out to Ruby's Restaurant at the end of Oceanside Pier. It was the perfect warm day for it! Lucy got to experience Milkshakes and Cherry's for the first time, and now we can't feed her anything else! Anyway, we had a blast, but I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

Owies

Yesterday, while we were out and about, Lucy started pointing and exclaiming "owie." I didn't catch her drift at first, but then realized she was talking about the cars. "Oh Wonderful!" I thought! I was very excited Lucy was starting to put two and two together and remember what we had told her about cars being "owie." I had high hopes this would help her be more careful about going in the street. Lucy then proceeded to go and kiss about 3 different cars.

Okay, so I gave Lucy a little too much credit for understanding that the cars were "owie"... but nonetheless, it was very sweet of her to the give the cars kisses because they had "owies." What a caring and good natured little girl. Sometimes I wish I could freeze her at this stage forever, but I guess that isn't what this life is about. I'll just have to keep working on enjoying the moment!

Baby Meow Meow

Our Cat had kittens 1 week ago, Monday... and Lucy found them...

When the Cat had kittens one week ago Monday, I really wanted to show them to Lucy. She points out the Mommas and the babies when we read books about animals, so I knew she would be excited. We decided it would be better not to tell her about them until they were older. Well, Monday morning Lucy disappeared for a few minutes and my Dad went looking for her. He found her standing in the closet with the kittens, just watching. I'm guessing she must have followed the Mom. When she saw my Dad she told him as if she had just discovered gold "Baby, Meow Meow, Baby."

It has been nothing, but kittens since then. All she wants to do is see them all day. She has been dragging her stuffed kitty around and wants her kitty book read to her. If I take my eyes off of her for one second she is on her way to the baby kittens. We go visit about every hour and she points out the "Mommy" and "Babies." Then she counts them "two two two!" (there are really four, but Lucy can't do four yet, however on that note her counting has really improved, she now counts all by herself in this order "two, three, five, eight, nine, ten" and can say "one" if you beg) When they "Meow" she "Meows." When they roll, she rolls. When they sleep, she sleeps (only about 10 seconds, yeah I sure wish that really put her to sleep)When they have a drink, Lucy wants one too! I am amazed at how gentle she is with them. She seems to know that she can't be as rough as she is with their Mom. She treats them like they are little angels that were sent here just for her. When I let her hold them she is thrilled. When I try to hold one, she burst out into tears and reaches her arms toward me. She really thinks they are all hers. Usually she is pretty good about taking turns if I remind her that we have to take turns, but not when it comes to kittens. She has also included them in her goodnight routine. After we say goodnight to everyone in the family, she also has to go give the "babies" a goodnight kiss as well. Anyway, just a cute little experience with Lucy I wanted to share. Such precious moments!

I LOVE CHURCH!

Church today was pretty funny:

1) Lucy yelled the f-word really loudly during the closing prayer of Sacrament meeting. Oh Happy Day! The good thing: my worst nightmare was finally fulfilled, so now I can stop worrying so much! It's weird, but when the worst thing you can think of actually happens it is kind of relieving.

2) When Dave dropped Lucy off at nursery he found and caught a real lizard and showed it to all the kids. I never imagined that happening at church! Guess the window had been open.

A side note: Lucy loves Nursery! She has been going for about a month now and couldn't be happier about the whole experience. She runs in there without so much as a thought about Mom and Dad. Usually she freaks whenever I leave, so I can't quite figure it out, but I'm definitely not complaining!

3) I teach CTR 5 and during the closing prayer the little girl prayed "Thank You Jesus for protecting us from the Holy Ghost." It took everything I had not to bust up laughing! What a funny little girl.

What can I say... I love church!

Party Party!!!!

April 7th (I'm slow, but at least it is still April!) we took my now happily married friend, BreeAnn Gwilliam out for her last single night out on the town before she tied the knot! It turned out to be an absolute blast Girl's night out, so here are the pics and night in review!



We started at my house, popped in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and gave BreeAnn hand and foot massages with Satin Hands! Thank You Mary Kay!

Then we played dress up with my family's sweet assortment of costumes, and voted on what BreeAnn had to wear out that night. We chose the 80's pink prom dress, complete with a Bachelorette Sash, crown, and huge light up ring. We completed the outfit with gorgeous hot pink eye makeup! Woo woo!

We went out to Fidel's Norte in Carlsbad for some great Mexican food. We all told our favorite memories of BreeAnn and then we wrote fortunes for BreeAnn predicting her future life, which she read aloud to the group. We played the "If, then Game" with a twist. You had to make up a statement "If BreeAnn..., then Andy..." and then trade so that everyone got mix matched statements. They were very hilarious of course. Then the restaurant brought BreeAnn Dessert and sang "Happy Wedding to You" complete with a guitar serenade. It was fabulous!

Then we headed to "Pump it Up" for some fun games and quite the exercise for a night on the town. Who would have ever imagined a bunch of grown girls at a little kid party place having such a blast! We had the whole place to ourselves and at an extremely good rate! (Thank You to the Bartons!)

We concluded the night with a little ice cream at Mickey D's and then some hot tubbing at my house. What an awesome night! I hadn't had a GNO since before Lucy was born, so this was seriously needed! Anyway, I guess I will conclude by saying congratulations to BreeAnn! I couldn't be happier for you! And last but not least, plan a Girl's Night Out...it is totally worth it!

Happy Easter!

As you can see, Lucy loves the Easter Bunny...

She loves him sooooo much that half of his face is missing now. I am still in the process of gluing him back together. (I said "him," but that sounded weird. Is the Easter bunny a guy or girl? Santa is a guy, so the Easter Bunny should be a girl!)

Jackpot...

Sheer Joy!

Mom, I can't believe you are making me pose like this... Some sweet artistic Easter shots...

Mom...somebody stole my eggs...

ooooo Spill ....and why not eat jellybeans out of the dirt? Mom's too busy taking pictures to stop me from eating them, that will teach her!

"I really hate to ask it, but do you have a basket?"

Name that musical and I will send you a free picture of Lucy!

Today I decided I wanted to write the cool sayings in Hallmark Cards, so listen to my poem about Easter:

I love Baskets

I love Bunnies

I love yummies in my tummy.

I love Sunshine

I love Spring

Isn't Easter a wonderful thing?

I know... can you believe I made that all up on my own?Okay...I guess I won't quit my day job...but I will wish you all a very Happy Easter!

Yay for some words, not for others

Lucy's speech is really coming along. She tries to say almost every word and usually is somewhere close to how it actually sounds. She has started to put two words together, like "all gone" or "I go" or the other night she came out with Dave's shoes on and said "shoes...Daddy" So adorable! Even her politeness is increasing. She usually says "please" (which sounds like "mease") with a big smile, "thank you" (dank do) when you give her anything, and even "Sorry" (pronounced perfectly) after she hits people. The fact that she hits people just to say "Sorry,"... um yeah, we are working on that. It's almost impossible for me to resist giving her what she wants when she says "please" and "thank you" so sweetly, but I am trying really hard to hold strong and make sure she isn't too spoiled!

Just when I was starting to think I had the most genius, most advanced in speech, most cute, most polite, most perfect child on the face of the planet, Lucy graced us with a four letter word, starting with an "f" last Wednesday. Yup, it doesn't get much worse than that folks! While riding in the car, Lucy just started saying the f-bomb like a broken record all the way home. At first I tried to figure out what she was trying to say "Did you want a fork honey?" "Oh did you want your sock off?" "Are you having lots of fun?" "Oh yeah that is a big truck." She just kept on saying the f-word, really slowly and exaggerated, with perfect pronunciation. I decided I would just ignore it and surely she would never say it again, but she has said it at least 10 times every day since then. I usually have to hide my face in my shirt so she doesn't see me laughing. This morning I was helping her say a prayer on her food and she could say "father""thank you" and "food" pretty close to perfect, but then when we got to "bless" it just came out as the f-word. What am I ever going to do with my little angel? I am totally afraid to take her out in public! What do people do to a mother with a 19 month old daughter who cusses? No one will ever want to be our friends! We can just kiss playdates goodbye! Before I had my own child, if I heard a little kid using language like that I would have assumed that the parents had terrible mouths, but now that it has happened to me and I know me and Dave both have clean language, I guess I can chalk this one up as one more lesson in not being judgemental of others. You would think I would have learned that one already! It seems like every time you think something bad about someone else's kid, that exact same thing happens to you. Oh well, we'll get through this! Any advice on this issue is certainly very welcome!

Beach Babe

Lucy has turned into quite the Beach Babe lately. I'm really happy to have a little buddy who is always ready to go with me! It doesn't matter if the water is cold, and her teeth are chattering, there is no getting this gal out of the water.

Heidi is cool... and Lucy wants to be just like her when she grows up

A little sunbathing...

Lucy and Grandma...2 very hot chicks!

Lucy can never resist being chased

We took Lucy in the Kayak for the first time the other day. She loved it...sadly I didn't bring my camera with me that day, but we will get some shots of the sheer joy later.

Lucy's beach code:

If Lucy says "suit" that means "I want to go to the beach, so please put my suit on me"

If Lucy says "shhhhh, two..." that means "I want to chase the birds"

If Lucy says "waw waw" that means "I want to go in the water"

If Lucy says "up" that means "you better get up and come with me" ... you can tell who is in charge at our house!

Monkey

Lucy has turned into quite the Monkey in the last couple of weeks. She swings on everything she can get her hands on...monkey bars, the dinner table, her high chair, the church pue. If you can hold on to it, Lucy can swing on it. She has also learned how to climb up the slide, despite my great attempts to always have her go up the stairs. She just watches the big kids do stuff and there is no telling her that she can't do what they do.

She climbed up this thing by herself...the real question is: Where was her Mother?

And the slide has been conquered...Hey, why not give this thing a climb!

And, last but not least, the sheer joy of swinging!Well, that is Lucy Monkey for you!

Never a Dull Moment!

Try to guess what these pictures were all about?

Family Home Evening at the Poppleton's...there is nothing else quite like it!

Everyone dressed up and then we had to listen for promptings of where to go and what to do. I gave a lesson while we drove about listening to spirit.

Here is where we were prompted to go:

We caroled Happy Easter songs to one of Sierra's friends, Aubrey Dustin, and sang "All I want for Easter is my braces off" since she got her braces off that day.

Then we stopped by the Porterfield's and sang Happy Mission Call to Cody. Dave rang the doorbell and did a little song and dance first, which was hilarious because they don't know Dave. I was soooooo impressed by him. Dave can be stubborn sometimes, but get him in the right mood and you can get an awesome performance out of him! Plus he was wearing my jeans, so it doesn't get any hotter than that!

Our final stop was our Dad's office. It's well into tax season, so we miss our CPA/Father/Grandpa these days. Why not bring the FHE to the office? We sang, of course, "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home." I don't think I will ever get too old to sing that one.

Anyway, if you are in need of a fun FHE, why not dress up as crazy as you can and carol with Easter songs to nice people who you know will still be your friends afterwards?

Personally, I'd make up any excuse to dress up, but maybe that is just me!

Goodbye Diapers...Hello Freedom!

Okay, I lied, we're not saying goodbye to diapers yet... but I am really excited because Lucy went to the bathroom in the toilet for the first time today! I haven't even really been trying to potty train her at all, but I have been talking to her about the toilet and what is supposed to happen. I have let her sit on the toilet a few times (we're talking only about once a week) in the past month, but no serious efforts. We just happened to be in the bathroom changing her into her bathing suit before heading for the Jacuzzi and I asked her if she needed to go to the bathroom. She answered "ya," so not expecting anthing, I put her up there and I was happily surprised! She even did a little bit more in the toilet after our Jacuzzi Dip, before her bath. Go Lucy! Maybe she will just Potty train herself...hey you can always dream...

18 Months

Lucy turned 18 months March 4. I can't believe what a wonderful little girl she has become. Let me share a little of her personality with you. (All the pictures are from a little lunch Date, Dave took us on to the Beach yesterday)




Lucy's Talents and Skills:

Somersaults. Lucy recently started doing somersaults all by herself. Many of them are crooked, but I would say about half of them are straight. She is slowly learning to check her surroundings before attempting.

Jumping. Lucy can jump off one foot or both feet and get quite a lot of air. I know you are all really surprised with Dave as her Dad.

Dancing. Lucy is always adding to her repertoire of dance moves. She looks really serious when she is dancing. She concentrates really hard on doing really exotic movements with her arms, plus lots of kicks, leaps, jumps, gallops, spins, and even some rolls. She is not lacking creativity, and is always inspiring me with new dance moves. Not only does Lucy dance, but when she dances she wants everyone to dance. Nobody catches a break in this house. Anyone in the room when music starts gets a personal invitation to dance from Lucy. She will come take your hand, pull on it and say "up"!

Acting. Lucy will do lots of moods on command. If you ask her to "go cry" she will find the nearest pillow, sink her face in and start crying. If you ask her to be "Happy" she jumps up and down smiling and saying "happy." She also always laughs whenever you say "1,2,3 no laughing!" atever she does, it's dramatic!

Singing. She loves to sing anything, but especially "I'm Shy" really loudly. It's from the musical "Once Upon a Mattress." I think it might be a while before Lucy understands what that word means, because it is so funny that there is no way I am correcting her.

I guess you could say Lucy is a triple threat as far as toddlers go.

Lucy's Frustrations:

Sometimes Lucy wishes she was smaller. It really bothers her that she can't share dresses with her barbies. I usually end up just putting them on her wrist to make her happy. She also tries really hard to get inside this toy car that we have and gets upset every time that she still doesn't fit. Maybe I should have named her Alice and then she could eat special little snacks that make her the size that she needs that moment. Oh to have her imagination...

Sometimes Lucy wishes she was bigger. She really wants to play basketball with her Daddy and wants to go on the big girl swing instead of the baby swing. I usually let her try the big girl swing, but she gets upset because I won't push her high like the other kids. Speaking of swings, Lucy gets frustrated when no other kids are swinging with her. She will point at every kid on the playground and say "swing?" as if asking " will they come swing with me?"

Lucy is also very frustrated by the piano. She always sits up on the piano bench while playing and singing, but then stops and starts asking everyone in the house if they will "seat?" in other words "will you come sit with me?" When you do sit by her, she will put your hands on the keys and show you whether she wants you to play high or low. I think she wants people to play because she knows that they sound better than her, but she really wants to sound good, thus the frustration.

Lucy's Counting:

Sounds like this.... two, two, five, eight, nine, nine, nine, nine....(What is that next number again?) if you are lucky you sometimes even get a "four." It's adorable and I ask her to count everything. Sometimes I want to help her get smarter, but sometimes I never want her to stop counting like this.


Lucy's Favorite Activities:

Playing. She loves to play "Ring Around the Rosie's" and is working on learning how to play "Duck Duck Goose." She pretty much plays it right, except she gets up and runs every time anyone says goose. When it is her turn to duck people she says "quack" instead of "duck" when she touches people's head. She'll have it down soon.

Singing "If you are Happy and you know it." She loves to sing the word "happy" and can do all the moves, even when we do all three.

Kissing. I just turned around and saw Lucy kissing her stuffed puppy dog, which reminded me how much she wants to kiss and hug everything. She tries to hug and kiss our pet cat, and is often frustrated when the cat runs away right before her kiss. She also kisses strange things that she loves, for instance the toilet flusher. Yes, she kissed that the other day. I guess she loves it because it is so cool that it makes the toilet flush. After working really hard with that one, she usually just blows it a kiss now. She also loves getting owies because we kiss them. Although sometimes she picks funny things to kiss, for example kissing the floor the other day (I think it was because she fell and I told her that the floor gave her an owie), she is definitely full of love.





Dress up. I don't know if she would ever get tired of putting on and taking off dresses. Good thing she is a spoiled little girl with a good supply of dresses.

Going. At random intervals throughout the day Lucy goes and gets her shoes and stands by the door and begs "to go to go"

Nursery. She is going on two weeks and doesn't even look back when we drop her off. I am surprised because other than this she seems really really clingy (we're talking she won't even go to Daddy sometimes), but any time we are at the church she runs to find the nursery and could care less if we are with her. Yay for going to church! I am counting my blessings!

Watching "Beauty and the Beast" the play of my Dad and Sister. She asks to watch it about 10 times every day. I used to never let Lucy watch T.V. but now some days if I am really busy I succumb and let her watch this play. I figure since it's tax season right now and we never get to see my Dad, this just counts as Grandpa time, not T.V. time. I can get stuff done during some of the scenes, but when the beast comes, Lucy still needs me to come cuddle her and I love how sweet it is, so I always do.

Beach. Dancing in the sand. Dipping our feet in the waves and stepping on the bubbles. Scaring the birds. Finding shells and rocks. Watching Volleyball.


Lucy's Words

"Shyaa" for yes. I think i used to actually say that in Junior High.

"Dank do" for Thank You. Sometimes she says it, sometimes she still just does her Korean Bow.

"Biiiiiiiiig" she says this very very dramatically(thus the many "i"s). Dave has taught her to answer this when he asks "What are Daddy's muscles?" Somehow on her own she started pointing at my chest and saying "Big" once again as loud and dramatic as possible. I think it is absolutely hilarious, but not in public. Don't know how she came up with that one...guess there's just no hiding that fact.

Lucy tries to say everything she hears these days, but my favorite words that I ask her to say over and over again are: Apple, Bubble, Lemon, Happy, and oh no

Determined to Learn:

To walk the stairs like a big Girl. She never crawls up or down. She walks the whole way while using the railing, which is much slower, but she wants to do it right. If there is a little space in between each step she doesn't even need to use the railing anymore. She is the picture of determination.

To put her shoes on. She tries everyday. Today for the first time, she got one of her shoes on, velcrowed and everything all by herself. Too bad it was on the wrong foot, but she is getting very close!

Snapping. Lucy really really wants to snap. She tries soooooo hard anytime anyone is snapping. It is adorable, and I hope she never gives up until she finally gets it.





Well that is a little glimpse of Lucy right now. We love her to pieces!

Sweet Moment

The other night at dinner Lucy started squawking when it was time to pray. I was startled by her unusual behavior. Usually prayer time is one of her favorite things. After observing the situation for a moment, I realized that she really wanted her puppy who was nearby on the floor.

"Okay, whatever" I thought "I guess it's not really a big deal if she holds her puppy while we pray." I handed her the puppy.

I then watched a very sweet and tender moment as Lucy folded the puppy's arms and then bowed her own head in preparation for the prayer. After the prayer she opened the puppy's arms up wide the way she always does when we say Amen.

What a very sweet and tender moment. This moment led me to a little pondering:

Little children have the spirit with them so strongly. Can you imagine how wonderful it would be if we were all able to share our testimony of the gospel with others as easily as Lucy showed her puppy how to pray. It is so easy, yet so hard. We worry so much about what others will think. Maybe this is part of what it means to "be like a little child." Don't make easy things harder than they are, don't worry about what everybody thinks, just do it!

I am very thankful for my little missionary, even if right now all she can do is teach pretend puppies. I am so thankful I had the patience at this particular moment to give her the puppy instead of making her wait until after the prayer like I was tempted to do. I would have missed a sweet scene and she would have been frustrated that the puppy didn't get to pray.

It is hard to know what upsets a toddler sometimes, but let us always remember they are filled with the light of Christ. They want to do good, but they are learning and thinking about so many things at one time, sometimes they just can't keep it all together. The more I get to spend time with Lucy in my life the more certain I become that if we watch and listen closely to the little children in our lives, they will remind us of the things that really matter while we are here on this Earth.