Another little talk

Once again, we had to sit down with Lucy and discuss her report card.

Merry Christmas!

This has been our best Christmas in a long time, being that Patrick is now old enough to begin to understand the concept of Santa. We went to mass at St. Francis last night and then headed over to to Brian's parents for the Bretz family Christmas. After snacking, the gift opening followed upstairs, Patrick scurrying up the steps saying "dash away, dash away, dash away!" The kids were bushed after the evening and Brian and I got to work to the background tune of "A Christmas Story". This morning started early and Patrick was absolutely estatic to see his train table and new pieces (especially Cranky the Crane) under the window after realizing Santa's cookies were gobbled up....and it just went on from there. Lucy enjoyed unwrapping and got to work immediately on her laptop at the breakfast table. After breakfast, we realized that Santa left a gift out in the carport, apparently it couldn't fit in the house, and his new trike was the last gift given this Christmas. We are so blessed, so fortunate, to have these kids and this life. Check out the additions to the slideshow -- sorry, I know it is over 100 images! Merry Christmas!!!!

Santa cookies

Today was a great day to be at home, so glad we are done shopping and fighting the crowds and ice this week. We decorated sugar cookies for Santa and watched the Polar Express. The kitchen was a disaster zone at the end of it all, but it was well worth it. We are all ready now!

Breakfast with Santa

We headed up to Indy this weekend to celebrate Christmas with the McNulty's. We went to Breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning at the Indiana State Museum. That was a lot of fun! Clifford the Big Red Dog was there as well as Raggedy Ann and some other characters, which Lucy loved and Patrick did not. I think they kind of freaked him out, he kept saying "I don't like that big red dog". It was a trip down memory lane for Mommy, they had the old LS Ayres storefront on display and the holiday train that we rode as kids when we visited Santa Claus. Patrick thought the train was the best part. Then we visited Santa Claus, and Patrick only got close enough to inform him he wanted "choo-choo's" (see above), but Lucy surprisingly sat on his lap for a few moments. That night we had Christmas dinner and opened gifts. What a great weekend! Check out the newest slideshow and stay tuned for additions throughout the week!

12 month check up

Lucy had her 12 mo check up today and she sure has grown! She is 22 lbs 3 oz (25th percentile) and 31 inches tall (75th percentile). So long and lean. She is right on schedule for everything, not yet walking but has taken a step unsupported a few times. Dr. Goldman was surprised at all the words she is saying, I guess 15-20 words is unusual for a 12 month old. Although we did think it was kinda freaky last week when she said "thank you, Daddy" after Patrick did when Brian gave them both dishes of ice cream after dinner. I attribute that to the fact that she is a girl and the constant chatter that surrounds her. Lucy was pretty much in a panic when she saw the familiar nurse and especially when she was laid down on the paper covered table, which is so interesting because Patrick never seemed to remember one visit to the next. 3 vacinnations for her, 1 for him (such a trooper) and we were outta there til March!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Happy Birthday, Sweetness. We can hardly believe this day is here. Lucy has grown so much over the past year, and she is a true blessing to our family. We celebrated this evening -- a lasagna dinner and a butterfly cake. The presents were overflowing, including a stroller, an American Girl baby doll, a tea set, and lots of books, hair accessories, and stuffed toys. Quite a bit of family travelled down from Indy including Grammie, Aunt Maribeth, Uncle Jason and Henry to join the party, in addition to all the family that is here in town. Patrick was eager to help her open gifts, and then of course play with her gifts. He had his orange-iced cupcake picked out since early this morning, and he even helped mix up the icing for her cakes. Lucy was a tad hesitant on diving into her cake, which honestly was surprising, but her brother was right there to assist!

Christmas jammies

The kids were having a fun time tonight playing around in their winter jammies, or "jammies with shoes" as Patrick calls them. Grammie sent them a special package of Christmas jammies, Lucy is wearing hers in this picture. Patrick and Lucy were thrilled to see that St. Nick found our home Saturday morning -- shoes filled with small toys and candy. A nice precursor to Christmas -- we can't wait! Big birthday this weekend -- I had to include a similar picture from last year to show how big BOTH our babies have gotten in the last year!

Oh Christmas Tree

This was probably the first year that Patrick was excited and engaged in decorating the tree, his 3rd Christmas. By the time we realized we pitched the lights from last year and the boys got back from Rural King, Lucy was done, so she didn't help hang the ornaments. Patrick thinks the big tree is alright, but his tree in his own room is really neat. And he decorated it all by himself, if you can't tell.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent the holiday up in Indy and had a great time! Thanksgiving Day was at Grammie and Papa's, the day after was spent shopping with the girls (boys babysat :), and Saturday we headed to, where else, the Children's Museum. Grammie offered to stay home with Lucy, so we had the luxury of a special morning with Patrick. How did we ever think we were busy with one child? We weren't. The trip was fun and we look forward to returning in 3 weeks for our Christmas weekend -- including Breakfast with Santa at the State Museum! Yea! The pictures I included are of Lucy enjoying her dinner, Grandpa carving the turkey with a close observer, and Patrick holding Baby Shea (who he insisted was his baby and absolutely loved holding her -- we informed him he missed the boat on his baby).

First flurries!!

Let's just say I was much more excited than the kids when I glanced out the window late last week to see the first flurries of the season. I was almost giddy bundling them up, rushing us out the door before it stopped as quickly as it started. So, there we were, standing in the middle of the yard -- not loving it. I think Patrick's exact words were "it's cold, it's wet, hurting my eyes, want to go inside now".

Sick days...

We literally spent two full days in jammies last week, everyone in the house was sick. Around the end of the bug, Patrick was feeling chipper enough to construct a castle with his blocks -- and quite proud of himself, he was!

11 months old

Lucy's first birthday is 4 weeks away today exactly. We can hardly believe how quickly the year has flown by. She is crawling all over the house, having mastered the only two steps we have very quickly -- the up part, that is. She loves to turn around at the top and "jump" off. I think that is from watching her brother. In fact, she wants to be doing everything that he is doing. She is totally done with her bottles and formula in general, not really by our doing, but her's. Just decided one day she was done with them :) Every now and then we can get her to drink a little bit of soy milk out of her 'big girl cup'. Lucy is becoming much more mischevious as well -- when she is done eating or simply doesn't like the options in front of her, she starts dropping things onto the floor. To the tune and encouragement of her brother laughing. And she is very sensitive as well, her face just crumples when you tell her 'no'. She is becoming very jealous of Patrick and protective of me -- when the three of us are playing on the floor and he tries to sit on my lap, she stands up and and tries to pull him off my lap or -- better yet -- hit him in the face. We have caught her a few times standing very briefly unsupported when she is closely focused on a toy in her hand, but I would be very very surprised if she is walking by her birthday like her brother was. The words are just tumbling out -- adding 'tractor', 'truck', and 'cracker' lately -- giving her around a dozen words or so. We are so excited for her birthday! Oh, almost forgot. This picture is her "praying". She knows that food follows the prayer, so she is always anxious to get on with it!

Patrick

I feel like we focus too much on what Lucy is doing because her developments are so noticeable, but Patrick is growing every day as well. He is almost 2 1/2, will be in a couple of weeks exactly. He is getting so big -- gaining 5 lbs and 3 inches since the spring. We are working on cutting with scissors, using markers and crayons, and holding silverware the right way. He is running full board, so we are practicing hopping and jumping, skipping and galloping. He is a little helper -- right up there to add ingredients, mix batter, and fix a sandwich. And of course, picking up sticks in the yard or loading up the trailer with Daddy. We are practicing dressing for the day and helping with chores like gathering laundry, setting the table, and making his bed. He does everything full throttle and tries to be very independent, whether or not he can actually do a particular task. He recognizes the primary colors and we are moving on to shapes and counting. He is trying to understand the concept of money and buying things. His vocabulary is increasing every day, including funny phrases like "we've got plenty" or "sometimes" or "might be". I got some great pictures of him this morning, capturing his personality in such a perfect way. Check out the slideshow.

Fall colors

I snapped a couple of pictures of the kids underneath our neighbors beautiful red bush. The colors are just amazing this season! We have been enjoying these final few unseasonably warm days-- spending most of our time outside between the park, zoo, long walks, playing in the yard, and picnic lunches.

Happy Halloween!

What a great time! Patrick was a John Deere farmer and Lucy was a pumpkin. Actually, if you ask Patrick, he will tell you he was dressed as "Bill' because that is the name of one of the old farmers on his John Deere DVD. We trick or treated to a couple of our neighbors and then headed over to Oakfield subdivision to meet up with Rudolphs and Hills. Lucas was a pirate, and a very cute one at that! Patrick quickly caught on to the concept of the occasion and was excitedly running up to each stoop, ringing the bell, and raking in the loot. He actually did better than we expected, being okay with not immediately unwrapping everything that landed in his pumpkin bucket. Lucy thought it was less fun, but did enjoy a fruit roll up and some teddy grahams. Off to Grandma's was a brief, final visit and then on home. Check out the slide show for more great pictures. Oh, and I included a picture of Patrick from last year. Pumpkin look familiar?

There she goes!

Lucy finally decided she had had enough of waiting on everyone else to tote her around and retrieve items --she finally took off crawling at 10.5 months. Thank goodness! And I mean took off - what was just a foot or two yesterday was the length of the living room tonight. I shouldn't say she hasn't been moving, but it's been this army-crawling for the last 6 weeks. Today was her first significant length on all a 4's, true creeping. It's the PT in me, can't help it. She has discovered a whole new world and is delighting in destroying Patrick's train set and removing all the books from the lower shelves of the bookcase. Chloe the cat is realizing she has another small tornado to reckon with. I had to post this picture because it captures how proud she is -- it just so happened to be after a container of pudding for dessert and before bathtime!

Pumpkin Patch

We took the kids over to Maize Farm on Saturday to pick out another pumpkin. It was pretty fun and the day was beautiful! We took a tractor pulled wagon ride out to the patch and found the perfect one for carving! Patrick even buzzed thru the hay bale maze to ring the cow bell in the middle. Monday night we carved our pumpkin--as the stench of the "guts" filled the kitchen, Patrick creeped farther and farther away until he was all the way back against the cabinets. Our little guy has a very sensitive belly, as we have found out time and time again. More pictures to follow later in the week!

Halloween cupcakes

We picked out some Halloween sprinkles at the store yesterday in addition to frosting and cake mix and, as promised, Patrick started decorating the cupcakes I baked off after his nap. He had his own bowl of frosting and sprinkles and four of the twelve cupcakes. He thought he was BIG TIME. You will notice how little actual icing made it to the cupcakes, I think he was alternating between his mouth and the cupcake. Of course, he selected one of his masterpieces for Brian to eat after dinner. Yummy. We had a great time!

Little tomboy

Lucy is enjoying Patrick's latest addition to the construction crew as much as he does. I guess time will tell if our little girl will lean towards baby dolls or trucks :)

Fall Break in Indy

The kids and I headed up to Indy for the week while Brian was at some training in Las Vegas. It was pretty perfect -- Grammie was on break from school for several weeks, so we got to spend lots and lots of time with her and Papa and everyone else. We went to the Children's Museum, the park, the library, and even visited a turtle farm. We also visited Great-Grandpa McNulty. Patrick thought he was especially cool because he gave him several pieces of candy, a cookie, and his "own" can of soda. And he got to unlock Grandpa's door by himself. The kids loved spending time with their cousins, and we met Baby Shea for the first time, who is 5 weeks old. We think she's a keeper. Patrick learned to pedal a tricycle (hmmm, Santa?) and Lucy is getting more and more mobile every day. She is pulling up to stand by herself finally, moving from belly to and from sit all the time, and army-crawling when she is really motivated. She is saying "cat" and "hi" (sometimes together) and learning how to hand over a toy when asked if you can play with it/have a taste of it. And the hair -- red and getting longer and curlier. What a fun, fun week!! Oh, and Daddy had a good time, too :)

Sweet Baby Girl

Lucy has now learned that she can use her legs to propel herself forward, so it won't be long now before she is in a full crawl. You can see her 2 bottom teeth pretty well in this picture, and we think her top two are cutting through. In addition to waving and clapping, she will give sloppy open mouth kisses and say "meow" sometimes when you ask her about the kitty cat. I am pretty sure she says "duck duck duck" in the bathtub when she is playing, too. She has long outgrown her infant carseat, loving the more upright view of Patrick hamming it up next to her. Pure entertainment. And we have moved over to the big girl high chair, storing the old monster away (thank the Lord, I hated that thing). This little girl will eat anything and everything, and a ton of it at that. Taco meat, spaghetti, pizza, PBandJ -- she'll belly up to the table with the best of ya! :) About 10 more weeks and our baby will be celebrating her first birthday!

Morning Run

Here we are, bright and early on Friday morning, getting ready to head out for our run. Juice and breakfast in hand, the kids are ready. It was actually chilly this morning, we had to break out the sweats and jackets. We made it about 2 miles running and finished up walking, which is about half as far as Daddy does with this load, but I was happy with it. The kids enjoy the exercise and are happy to go as far as we feel up to for the most part. Patrick is a huge motivator, making a lasso motion with his arm and a quick exhalation with his mouth -- which is your indicator to start running, warm up is over once we hit the first neighbor's driveway. He also points out every landmark along the way, including the spot where Mommy has to start walking :)

Cousins

Today Benjamin came over to play for a couple of hours while his Mom, Aunt Laura, got her haircut in peace. As you can see, Patrick is a little disgruntled about sharing his toys, Ben loves the 4-wheeler, and Lucy....well...she just ate a leaf that I dug out of her mouth a few seconds after this was shot. What a fun morning!

Waiting for Daddy

I couldn't resist snapping this photo, both kids patiently waiting at the front door for Daddy's black truck to pull in the drive at the end of the work day...

9 months old!

Lucy had her 9 month check up today -- and this was the expression throughout the examination as well as the labwork. In fact, Patrick was anxious as well to have a stranger poking and prodding at his sister, let alone making her cry -- he said he wanted to "go home". She is 20 lbs 11 oz, 30 inches tall. Again, 95th + percentile. A little late in crawling and pulling up to stand by herself, but nothing to be concerned about. She will do it in her own time -- she simply isn't motivated enough yet! Who would be? She has a brother who fetches anything not immediately within her reach. Just tonight though, she got down to her belly several times from sitting, some times more graceful than others, so it won't be long before we are chasing her around as well. In other areas, she is beyond average -- specifically her jabbering! Go figure. Gotta be loud in order to be heard in this household. Now that her 2nd tooth is poking through, it should make enjoying her meals a bit easier! Down to just 4 servings of milk daily around 3 actual meals of table food, the infant days seem to be slipping away from us faster than we imagined. We can hardly believe we will be celebrating her first birthday in a few months.