Sunday, November 21, 2010

Word Videos

Lucia is talking up a storm these days. It is funny now because she knows what she is saying but we often can't understand her tiny baby voice. She gets all frustrated with us because she is being "clear" and we just don't get it. She will say just about anything that you ask her to and has quite a few two word combinations that she uses regularly. A few are:

"coco bed"- coco bread
"bye bye side"- bye bye slide
"apple jew"- apple juice
"a side dow"- upside down
"air cip"- hair clip

Two of my favorites right now are "tada" and "okie dokie". Here are two video's where I tried to capture some of the new word combos. Don't mind her crashing off of Pat's legs at the end of the second video. That is usually a fun and safe trick. :)



Saturday, November 20, 2010

Halloween Fairy Girl

The little miss was a fairy girl this year for Halloween. We told her that her outfit was her "costume" and she has been talking about her "costume" ever since. She is the cutest fairy to ever grace halloween! We started out the festivities on Friday by going to visit Pat at his office. She passed out candy to Pat's co-workers. We were two proud parents just following our girl around handing out "cocos".
Working hard...

On Halloween, Pat took her outside to get a few pictures and they turned out so well! Here are a few of my favorites!





Then we took her down to U-Village to walk around the shops and see other kids in their costumes, but apparently we were off by a few hours. We were too early for the festivities so instead we just let her play around on the slide in her costume. She loved it. :)

Lindsay and Jackson came over later that night and we let them run around the house together in their costumes. They are so cute...the two of them! There was a pretty hilarious attempt at a picture of Lindsay, me, Lucia, and Jackson. I am just staring at the camera smiling and hoping something will work out while each pictures gets progressively more hilarious. Oh, and Lindsay is much more festive than I am. :) Please also notice that both kids have fists full of snack sized candy bars.


And finally....we are all looking at the camera this time with decent expressions!
The cute little buddies!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Countless Reasons to Love Fall in the NW

I know that fall is on its way out up here given the weather report for snow this weekend, but I still have relish the fall moments. Fall is a blessed relief, ironically, from the business of summer. Of course, the down side is that it welcomes in winter which is more often wet than snowy around here. Nonetheless, I still love fall for all of the colors, sights, and smells. And now Pat and I have a new little person to share the fun with. Life is full of blessings!

This was a great fall. It was quite busy but Pat and I made it to the pumpkin patch a few times as did my friend Lindsay and I. It is such a great place for the kids to run around, slap some pumpkins, and check out the farm animals. For the adults, we get roasted corn and spiced cider.

Pat and I took Lu to the pumpkin patch on a beautiful sunny day! It was so wonderfully muddy out in the pumpkin patch. Lucia was just off and running...and covered in mud. I told her this was a "baby pumpkin". She was thrilled to see any kind of a baby and carried it with her the entire time that Pat and I were there.



Lindsay and I took Lucia and Jackson the next day and, of course, our cameras both died before we got too many pictures in, but here is one good one from the day. It was foggy to begin with but totally cleared off.

Okay, this one is just random. I told Lucy to "smile" and this is what I got. :)


Dad's partially carved pumpkin. The man carves a mean pumpkin people! Lucy is feeding the pumpkin with the measuring cup. Of course!
The fall colors are amazing around here. This is a picture of our "birthday" tree. Pat got it for me a few years back and it is my favorite fall time tree.
There were a few beautiful sunny fall days this year and we enjoyed every moment of those crisp fall days outside. Lucy loves to run around in the backyard from spot to spot, smelling plants, "hiding" under the Japanese Maple, and climbing around on the rocks in our patio.


Tickle Attack

Lucy loves to get tickled by Pat. She is hilarious. It is like she is waiting around for it all day and knows that it will happen right after dinner or at bed time. Last night she was sitting at the dinner table and started to say "tickle, tickle" and then would laugh and laugh and start to fall over in her high chair. Then she started lifting up her shirt, tickling her belly, and saying "tickle, tickle". It was awesome. Clearly she doesn't mind the tickle attacks.

Here is proof from Halloween (thus the costume)

Friday, October 22, 2010

New Lucia-isms

Again, I wish that I could slow down time. Lucia does so many hilarious and wonderful things but they only last for so long before she has moved on to the next hilarious and wonderful thing. The sad part is that I know that my memory will not hold all of these small pieces of Lucy's baby personality...they will fade as time goes on. It is sad to think that so many of these things will be left behind. I want to remember what her little face looks like when she wakes up every morning and how it feels when she smashed that hot face into mine as some kind of good morning love. I want to remember her little bald head laughing right up next to mine when we are "bonking" heads. I want to remember all of the perfect moments that make this life so good but I suppose that is part of it...the great moments are replaced with other great moments. I must try to soak them in while they last. If only they lasted a bit longer...

Things I love about my baby:

- She has such a tiny little baby body. I love stripping her down before bath time and letting her run around in nudy glory. She shrieks with glee at the freedom and wags her head back and forth to feel her hair hit her face. She can barely keep upright while she is doing this.

- She is such a little girl and, with no prompting, seems to take to all of the sparkles and frill. I do try to balance it with tractors, trains, and dinosaurs. That said, she LOVES anything girly. She loves hats. She loves rings and necklaces and bracelets. Anytime, there is something different about her attire, she runs to the mirror screaming "baby, baby, baby" then stands in front of it, with her head tilted, admiring herself. Here are some of the more hilarious examples of her girliness.
  • She found a piece of packing tape that had been on her diaper box. She draped it across her head like hair and then wore it around the house for the better part of an hour. Here she is at the mirror checking out her "hair"

  • She calls my hair bands "bracets" and wears them everywhere we go.
  • She is SO pleased when Pat and I let her wear our wedding rings. It will keep her entertained for a long while.
  • She is very into hats and anything on her head. Mom started this one... She loves it when we are changing her and pull her shirt up over her head but leave it on her head. She wants to see herself in the mirror every time. Here we are trying a Halloween costume on her and she wanted it to remain on her head.


- She loves "gassees". We bought her a pair of Dora the Explorer glasses and she loves to wear those around. She calls them her "Dowa gassees".

- She has started putting two words together but she annunciates the two words the same way every time regardless of what the words are. The first word is punctuated and the second kind of falls out like an after thought. Her favorite is "coco bed" (translation: chocolate/pumpkin bread). Another is saying goodbye to just about anything. That is how I get her to leave something without fighting me on it. It works like a charm. I just tell her that it is time to say goodbye to the slide and then, for at least the next 10 minutes, she is saying "bye-bye side...bye-bye side" and waving her little baby hand. She will also say "ove oo dada" (translation: love you dada).

- She sings in the back seat of the car when we are driving around. I have a bad habit of never NEVER changing the CDs in my car, so we listen to the same things over and over again. She has got a few of the songs down. I can look back and her little baby mouth is wide open as she is singing along to the songs. One of the best sounds in the world! She chair dances to them as well. She also asks to "dancy" when we are at the house. I'll turn on the radio or, on the more rare occasion, we'll bust out the guitar.

- She has great animal sounds now. She does a horse and sheep sound with great accuracy. Pat and I have a few favorites though that aren't quite right but we don't want to correct her because they are too cute!
  • "cagadodoo" = cockadoodledo for the rooster
  • "wifit" = ribit for the frog
- We just gave her a "banky" to sleep with for the first time a few weeks ago. She LOVES that little blanket. We used to set her in her crib and she would stand up and wave goodnight to us as we left the room and would then lay herself down to go to sleep. No longer... Now she lays down so that we can put the blanket over her and she doesn't move. She just says "banky" and snuggles it and blows us kisses. The hilarious part is that she also doesn't stand up when she wakes up in the morning. She just talks to herself and stays with her "banky".

- She has a best friend Jackson and we get to hang out all the time. They say each other's names now "Jaxcy" and "Luc". They both ask for each other every day and Lindsay (Jaxcy's mom) told me that Jackson says "Luc" whenever he sees a blonde little girl. They are so cute together.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Visit with Gra-Gra

Wow, it has been awhile again! I became a bit busy these past two months as I worked with a friend to plan a benefit for mutual friends of our. It was an awesome experience but it did become the focus of my time...thus the lack of blogging.

So, back in September, my mom came up for a week long visit. It is always so much fun to see her with Lucia. Lu gravitated to her "Gra-Gra" immediately. She would drag her all over the house having my mom read to her or play dinosaur games with her. She definitely had a full time buddy while my mom was in town. I definitely with that my mom lived closer so that Lu could experience the Gra-Gra love more often. We did pack our trip with exciting baby adventures! It was definitely non stop fun here at the Murphy household!

On the first day, we went down to the zoo to check out the animals. Lucy, as usual, loved the zoo! The classic Lucia face may not express the full glee though. :)
Next we headed up to Deception Pass for a day in the sun at the park. Lucy was crazy cute trying to throw rocks into the water. I think that this is also where her intense love for slides was born. She LOVES slides. In fact, she asks about sliding every morning now. This is where it all started...sliding with Gra-Gra.

Mom and I took Lucia to the Seattle aquarium! I thought that it was going to be a bust given her lack of enthusiasm for the first building but then came the second building and...the seals! Seals are now on the top of her list of favorite animals. She was barking like a seal non stop and saying "wow" "wawa". Mom carried her back and forth and back and forth from one seal viewing point to another. She loved them. Who know seals would be the highlight!
and the felt board...
On the weekend, we all headed up to a lake in the North Cascades for a hike. It was a beautiful day. The weather was perfect and we playing in the water a bit until we could no longer feel our feet! Lucia would have kept going until her feet fell off...and my arms. :)


One of the sweetest things to watch is Mom reading to Lu. I love it! Mom made her a very sweet book for her birthday and they read it together for the first time on her trip. Lucia now asks for the "Gra-Gra book".
Ladies (+ Maxie) tea time! Another of Lucia's favorite activities.
Come back soon Mom!!!!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Anderson Cousins

I am definitely behind on blog posts but wanted to put up these few shots of the cousins! Jai, Sten, Solveig, and Allistaire came over for dinner a few weeks back. It is so much fun to watch Lucia and Solveig play together! I love that they have made it to that stage, and I know that it will only get more joyful from here on out. I love these three ladies!

Lucia is going in for the kiss....Allistaire's not sure what to think.
Such a lovely cutie!
Solveig and Lucia playing together.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Summer Vegetables

Corn, corn, corn and more corn. My baby loves vegetables. She's still trying to figure out how to eat the corn but she got progressively better at it as the night progressed.




Family Vacation

Wow, it has been a month since I have posted anything and I have a lot to talk about. I'll start with our family vacation though and then put up some smaller posts from there. Lucia is growing so fast and she is most definitely a hilarious toddler at this point. I love it. She does the funniest little things from "this little piggy" on her own toes to saying "please" and "thank you" in the tinniest voice ever. She is a little sweetie!

So, Pat, Lucia and I headed to California back on August 28th. Lucia did great on the flight down. Thankfully it is a very short flight though because she didn't have her own seat this time around. We had play dough, stickers, a coloring book with crayons, and a stack of other toys to keep her entertained. We had a 6am flight, so the poor baby had to get up at 3am. By the time we got into our rental car around 9:30am, she fell asleep before we even made it onto the freeway. Here she is still holding her half eaten fruit stick.

Our first stop was in San Francisco where we visited and stayed with Craig and Renee! It was so great to be able to see them. We spent a lot of the two days walking around seeing the place. It was beautiful both days and classically windy. We went to 4 different parks at least and Lucy loved it. She is usually so shy around anyone but Pat and I, but she completely LOVED Craig and Renee. It was the funniest thing to watch. She just kept saying Craig's name over and over again. She also loved their cats...poor cats...they were not too excited about the little lady. It was so nice for Pat and I to be able to spend uninterrupted time together too. There is nothing like being able to hang out outside of the house where you don't have to worry about all of the errands and chores that you should be doing.
Craig and Lu in a tree at a park.
Another park playing with Dad. She loved the swing and the slide.
Aunt Renee and Lu at the same park (in the mission district).
Hum...okay, it was definitely more than 4 parks now that I see more pictures. This was at the Palace of Fine Arts. Lu loved these plants.
After our two days in San Francisco, we hit the road and drove down the coast to the Santa Cruz area. We stayed with on of Pat's friend's dad. It was so sweet of them to let us crash at their house. They have a beautiful house that is right across the street from the beach. Honestly, I could have spent weeks in that place. The house was great, the beaches were beautiful, and there were so many things to see and do. The CA coast in this area is stunning. It is beautiful at every turn. It looks like some magical land. I love it. So, here is Lu at the beach on our first day in Santa Cruz. It is the Pacific Ocean people, so it was still cool thus the lack of a bathing suit.

The first full day in Santa Cruz, we grabbed pastries at this awesome shop, headed south along the coast and stopped at one remote beach (below), then went to Point Lobos Park, and then back up to Carmel for a quick dinner.

hiking back up to the car from the beach.
California coast between Santa Cruz and Carmel. Pat stopped to take pictures and I just stood there taking in the beauty and sun (and periodically feeding Lu fish crackers to keep her satisfied).
Here are two pictures from Point Lobos that don't do it justice at all! We were only there for an hour or so but I could have spent all day there easily. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Everything you look at is just stunning and the light was beautiful not to mention the sound of waves crashing against the rocks. Lucy, on the other hand, was not nearly as impressed. She was pretty darn fussy by the time we made it here but we forced her to power through. In the end, it worked out well and she was making seal sounds out of her little baby head.

From one of the points at Point Lobos. Can you tell how trilled Lu was by this time?
Out...with all of her friends to prop up her head
Next we headed up to Napa for just one night. It was a hilariously short trip but we did make it to one winery. We didn't do tasting given our 2 foot friend but we did have wine, cheese, and bread on their lawn.
Me with my buddy!
Lucy stopping to smell the roses. I think that the winery was one of Lucia's favorite spots. She was able to run free and run she did!
After Napa, we drove out to the coast and then headed north on what seemed like mountain roads. I don't know that I have ever driven on something so windy and small. It was crazy and apparently this section is called the Lost Coast. There is hardly anything there. You drive for miles and miles without passing anything and then hit a "town" of 300 or 400 people. It is beautiful though. Here is the view from our hotel in Gualala.
Lucy made quick friends with the dusty path. Plopped herself right down in the dust and started smearing it all over her face. It was so cute!
A Lucia sized seat
The beach outside of the hotel in Gualala was so beautiful. The sun was shining the first day there and our time at the beach that day could not have been better. I love just standing and watching the waves roll in. Lu, of course, loved the sand. She played so quietly with her "boons" (translation: spoons) which were actually plastic shovels from her beach play set. She loves any kind of spoon. She sat for at least an hour just putting all of the shovels into her bucket and then taking them back out again. This afternoon at the beach felt magical. It was so peaceful. I didn't want it to end.


The next day was fairly foggy, so we heading out on a bit of a drive up the coast. Pat stopped to take some pictures and Lucy fell in love with these horses. She kept saying "Neigh, down, dada". She was trying to convince me to put her down so that she could run across the road to Dada who was closer to the horses.
The trip was so great. You can't beat being out with family. I love our little family with Lucia. She adds so much joy. Pat and I had so much fun laughing at all of the funny and crazy things she did.