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.
