Lucia Lately (almost 14 months) and Britta's Bachelorette Party

 

Here's a picture of our sweet little Lucia these days.

I decided not to update each month anymore. I figure the lower I keep standards for myself, the less I gyp our future children. You know, lower the bar so you don't have to rise to it, right? Anyway, Lucia is getting close to 14 months now and she's changed so much I figure it's time for an update.

Some of our favorite new things about Lucia...she's been more snugly and likes to sit in our laps, especially when reading books, more 'mamas' and 'dadas' (plus calling me 'Elsa' sometimes), enough hair to make pigtails, loud laughs, waving 'hi' and 'bye', her new appreciation for watching and interacting with other kids, being able to really play at the park, placing her milk on the table instead of throwing it on the ground after each and every sip, babbling to herself when waking up (aka, a slower progression to screaming/crying after waking up), sleeping until 8 many mornings, more creative play, brushing her hair, starting to pay attention to us when we say 'no' and many, many more things. She even maker her own little 'jokes' by doing something over and over that she gets a laugh from us. She loves dogs, pictures of babies, her baby dolls, her cousins, looking out of our apartment windows, walking and reading with us or to herself.

Some of our not so favorite developments...tantrums when she doesn't get her way (you know, like wanting to walk around with a sharpened pencil aimed at her eye), trying to bite something/someone/herself when she doesn't get her way (thank goodness that she hasn't been very successful at biting people, mostly inanimate objects...and mommy), telling us 'no' (although this is still kind of cute) and the nearly impossible diaper changes due to thrashing/standing up/trying to walk away. But then again, all these things are normal to toddlers.

Each new phase I think, "Now this is my favorite phase!". A growing child is always displaying the positive and negative aspects of their new skills, but I find that the positives just always seem to out-way the negatives. Lucia toddles around everywhere, getting into everything and we find ourselves amazed and exhausted with lots of laughing. It is so fun to watch her little brain put the pieces together and I like to test it sometimes, just for fun. Example: "Lucia, put the baby doll in the drawer", and she does it, ha! I've always been amazed at that stage when babies can understand you but not quite talk yet so it's fun to see her begin to get there. She seems to most prefer me, Matt and my sister, Linnea, these days. This makes sense since she spends her time with Linnea when I am at work. At our house, she is the only child but over at Linnea and Cam's, she is just one of the bunch. I figure it must be good for her as she's learning how to hold her own with her older cousins.

She has 6 teeth now and continues to be a great eater, although picky at times. She is a great sleeper at night and is straddling the line between 1 and 2 naps during the day. She is getting better at the words she already knows and is always trying out new ones. Once she gets going, her babbling is so loud and intent that her incoherent sentences are pretty convincing, whatever they are. The funniest is when I say "Lucia?" and she yells back "YEAH?". We can't quite tell if it's on purpose, still funny though. 'Yeah' seems to be her go-to word these days when we ask her something in a questioning way. So funny when you get her on a roll. So many great moments with this girl! We are having so much fun with her amidst the chaos that toddler-hood brings.

Here are some random pics from the last month or so...

Easter morning. She has some eggs with Cheerios inside.

Easter lunch with the fam.

Naomi and Lucia playing with their dolls.

Hanging with baby Zeke.

A fun birthday party a few weeks ago. Look how cute the birthday girl is! I loved how they were holding hands.

Lucia gets a lot of 'look at that belly' comments. You can see why from the above picture.

Goofy girl

Lucia paying me a visit at work.

I had some fun with my cousin celebrating her upcoming wedding at her bachelorette party. It was a great time and we're looking forward to the wedding next weekend!

Some of the wedding party.

It was fun to decorate the hotel room.

Lucia is one!

 

It is so exciting and surreal to celebrate Lucia's first birthday! I feel like I spent her whole pregnancy not really believing that I would actually have a real-life, actual baby when it was all said and done. Then you spend the whole first year amazed at that little one, hanging on their every twinge and move, just soaking it all in and getting used to the crazy schedule that you now call 'life'. Then a year goes by and you go to Texas with a baby and come back with a little girl...what happened?!? (We celebrated her birthday in Texas.)

And what a year it has been! Matt and I just love being Lucia's parents. Lucia is such a sweet little girl (says her parents). She is starting to show a funny little personality...she loves to laugh when others do, 'read' to herself and drag around her little baby dolls while saying 'baby' over and over. She says a few more words like 'mama', 'dada', 'dah-ee' for doggie, 'ih-ee!' for kitty, 'uh-uh' for uh-oh but 'baby' is by far her favorite and most clear word. I just love how she is starting to imitate us by brushing her hair or picking up objects that look like phones and bringing them to her ear saying "ay-ya" for 'hello'. She tells us she's hungry by saying "mmm, mmm" and she is working on many more words. She spends her days babbling and chattering and others seem to comment often on how 'loud' she is. It is true, one of her favorite activities is to look out of our window and yell at people/dogs/cars/etc. passing by.

Lucia has officially made the switch from crawling to walking in the last few weeks. At first Matt suspected that she would only walk when she could use the leverage to swing her toys around more fiercely but now she walks all the time. I had a surreal moment this Sunday when I saw her following her cousins around after church. She was trying to keep up with their running and screaming, smiling every second and I just couldn't believe my eyes. She seemed so grown up. She loves to crawl under things and can now climb on a number of objects in our apartment which makes me think she will be early to figure out how to climb out of her crib.

Lucia weighs in at just over 22 pounds and 29 and 3/4 inches. She is in the 55th percentile for height and has bumped up to 75th for weight. I think her a-typical bump up in weight is due to the fact that she loves to eat so much. She has become pickier this month but is still a great eater all in all. If she can identify what it is on the plate that she doesn't like, she will pick it all out, throw it on the ground then go back to eating. She almost always shrieks and screams as we are wiping off her hands after eating or changing her diaper. I guess some things never change.

 Here are some pics from her big day. We were in Texas for the week with my family.

 Special treat of pancakes and yogurt for breakfast! Also she officially made the switch to cow's milk but she's still getting used to the new taste.

 Morning 'happy birthday' serenade from grandpa.

 The blurry blue thing is the birthday crown her cousin Gwen made for her.

 A yummy cupcake to celebrate.

 And she loved it!

 Just for fun to compare...here's a picture of Lucia after her first bath at home.

 And then one year later!

We had a little birthday celebration for Lucia at our place with my family last Sunday. It was fun to celebrate together especially since Matt wasn't able to be with her on her actual birthday.

I decided to make the cake that my mom used to make me on my birthday, angel food cake with 'no fail' icing. Her mom used to make it for her birthday as well. I put my own twist on on it by making the cake and frosting fun colors.

Birthday girl!

 

 The menu was made up of some of Lucia's faves: ham n cheese sandwiches, homemade mac n cheese and fruit skewers.

 

 Pink lemonade in sprinkle rimmed glasses.

 Lucia (and her cousins) loved opening gifts. One of the highlights during present opening was when our 22 month old niece, Naomi, locked herself in the bathroom.

 

 

 

 The cake wasn't perfect but it was yummy.

 

It was a great party, so fun to celebrate our year with Lucia. We are so blessed to be her parents and we can't wait to see what the future holds for her. We love you, Lucia.

Here are some more pics from this month...

 Lucia and Naomi

 Valentine's Day

 We went for a little visit to G G's and great-grandpa Ray

 Wrestling

 On the way to Texas, yes, we drove. I wasn't quite sure how Lucia would do but she slept 10 hours through the night then took her two naps pretty much on schedule, playing happily in between naps. It went better than I expected, for sure.

 On the way we stopped at the Oklahoma City building memorial (I'm pretty sure there was a more official name than that). It was a beautiful space and tribute to those who lost their lives in that tragedy. I didn't realize that so many children died due to the building's day care being one of the areas bombed, very sad.

 A chair for each victim.

 The museum across the pond marking where the street used to run.

 There are still fresh flowers and new memorials but also original ones still left up. Kind of random that we stopped there but it was interesting to see.

 It was nice to feel warm again and spend time outside. I realized Lucia has never really had the chance to experience much in the outdoors since the last time it was warm here, all she could do was lay on a blanket.

 We had the chance to visit our good friends, Ashley and Austin, in their house near Austin.

 Lucia got some good stair practice.

 Plus we got to go see Jaime and Ryan in Austin.

 They live on an awesome street, great for walking, people watching, grabbing some food, seeing the food trucks...so we went for a few walks in their hood.

 Puppy watching

 Jaime bought some yummy, mini-cupcakes for Lucia's birthday from the 'Hello Cupcake' truck.

 Too bad Lucia was so tired that she didn't eat them...just patted the frosting.

 We had fun swimming at the pool.

I know this picture seems random but its one of those funny things that just Lucia does and I wanted to remember it. She often tries to grab two things (like the rings above, remote controls, toys, whatever) and try put them together in her hands in this certain way that she seems to have decided in her head. Her ultimate joy comes when she can get them together in one hand and she just beams with delight and pride in her accomplishment. But if she can't get them how she wants them...

 Meltdown!

 Ending like this! It makes me wonder if this little thing is an indicator of something about her personality that will make more sense as she gets older. It is definitively a reminder that each person is an individual, loaded with their own unique thoughts.

Speaking of tantrums, they have definitely started! We have entered a whole new parenting world, oh what fun.

 We took a walk on a near-by dam.

 A little close to the fire...

 Oh wait, that's not right. Just kidding, to all those who are freaking out! The fire is fake but it looked so real we thought we would have some fun.

 Good thing it's fake, right!

 Lucia and her great-grandpa Bert.

 We had some amazing barbecue at Salt Lick.

 Lucia loved it too!

 Lucia did well in the car on the way home too. I think she effectively mastered the art of going into space-out mode in the car, a skill all Wallgren family members possess.

 First pig-tails!

 She could not sit still during her 12 month doctor's appointment. She walked around the whole time but did a good job.

 Hanging out with Zeke at the Wilson's.