Pat and I have been so blessed to have Kaitlyn staying with us for the past few months. One of the perks is that she was crazy enough to give us a weekend of babysitting as a Christmas present! So...we just had our first weekend away without Lucia. She was a champ with Kaitlyn and we had such a great time sleeping in, reading, eating good food, and having some wine. We went to an Inn called Cave B just east of the Columbia River. In fact, the Inn/Winery is right on the river and our little cabin had a great view of the gorge and the surrounding grape vines.
Here we are outside of our stand-alone room looking back toward the main inn. The inn through the fog. We initially picked a place east of the mountains for our trip so that we would be able to see the sun even though it wouldn't be warm. Hum...no sun for us. :) It was crazy foggy the whole trip but we made the best of it. It was still fun. Both days, we drove down into this old lakebed to hike around and, of course, Pat took pictures. It was cold, about 38 degrees or so, and foggy so it felt even cooler but if you kept moving it wasn't that bad. The rock formations were quite beautiful. You can't see the scale from this picture, but there were massive cliffs leading to the lakebed. Pat taking pictures Oh, wait, there's the sun! It popped out on our drive home. I love being on the open road when the sun is shining. It top it off, the ground was covered in snow. We were even able to see Mt. St. Helens on the way over one of the smaller passes.
We have had a fun start to the new year. lucy turned 10 months on Jan. 10th. It seems impossible that she could be that old but, on the other hand, impossible that she has only been with us a short 10 months. She continues to make us laugh every day with her "talking" and laughing. She is working on big kid foods now. She is not exactly a huge fan. She tried tortilla soup the other night. That was not a winner. She made it through a few baby sized bites of Tandorri Chicken w/rice today. We'll continue to slowly work her into it. I think that she would much rather stick with pears and butternut squash for the rest of her days.
She also had her latest checkup and she is now 17lb 10oz, which puts her at 13% for weight. She is also 27.5in tall and 34% for girls. These days she is enjoying her exersaucer and spends a lot of talk talking to her toys. She is an explorer for sure. She will roam the house and tries to pull herself up on any dangerous item she can find.
As for me, I am loving every moment with her. I can't imagine what I would do if I had to go back to work at this point. I am so grateful that the Lord has blessed us with the ability to have me at home with the lady. She brings me so much joy. I try to find new things for us to do together. My latest attempt was a kids indoor play "cafe". It was hilarious. Maybe better for the big kids. I spent most of the time trying to keep her from being stepped on or from putting grime infested toys in her mouth. Hum...we'll try something else next time. :)
We are also really enjoying our time with Kaitlyn. She has been living with us since the middle of October and will be here until the middle of March, which will include Lucia's 1st birthday. I am so thankful that Lucy has had so much time with Kaitlyn and, of course, I am thankful for all of the help. :)
December has flown by and I have a million pictures of all of the activities. I thought that I would limit the pictures for this blog but, as you can see, I couldn't do it. Instead this is the longest blog post ever!
To start off the holidays, my mom and Lindsey arrived on 12/18. We did a bit of Christmas shopping to finish up our lists and make batches of sugar cookies, red and green sprinkle cookies, peanut butter blossoms, fudge, and amaretto truffles. We had a great time hanging out with Lucia. It is endless fun to watch my family interact with Lucia. My mom had not seen her since the end of July and Lindsey since the middle of May. She warmed up to them quickly and was soon hamming it up for everyone and taking in all of the attention. Here are some pictures from the first few days with just the Summerill ladies. The lady has started doing a lot of funny things recently. I'll list off a few of them:
1. She does what we call a "butt dance" where she sits on the floor and rocks around like she is dancing. It is pretty cute. 2. She can wave "bye-bye" 3. She says "mama" and "dada" which often comes out more like "mamamamamamamam" or "dadadadadada" but we know what she's saying. 4. She lip twazzles. I'll post a video to explain. 5. She lets you tap on her mouth to create funny sounds. Another video to explain this one. 6. She can pull herself up to her knees now on furniture and other low things. 7. She enjoys drinking water from our glasses and can move the food on her tray into her mouth...unless it gets stuck on the side of her face. 8. She likes to bonk foreheads
On to the next part of Christmas break...Craig arrived on Monday, 12/21. We spent a lot of time getting ready for the festivities and part of the group spent some time downtown enjoying the city.
On Christmas Eve, Pat, Lucia, and I drove over to the Murphy's house to enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Terry, Kathy, Jai, Sten, and Solveig...and, of course, the soon to arrive Anderson baby. Lucy sang for a good portion of the Christmas Eve service and made a few friends with the people sitting close by. Lucia loves to "sing" her way through every church service. It is cute and wonderful during the worship portion of the service but then either Pat or I always have to take her outside during the preaching because she just wants to continue to talk with us. :)
Here are some pictures from Christmas Day with the Murphy and Anderson families
Solveig in her new play high heels... Dad, Lu, and a Christmas bottle. Pat is checking the thigh pudge factor. A Southern Christmas breakfast. Our first family Christmas with our little lady, Lucia Kate Pat with the cousins... The best present of 2009 Lucy eating her first Christmas present Lucy lady with Papa Murphy
We headed back to our house Christmas night for the Summerill Christmas festivities on the 26th. We had the traditional Summerill Christmas breakfast, which consists of buttermilk waffles piled high with a variety of fruits and, for some, ice cream. Starting the day off with a ton of sugar. Now that is my kind of breakfast! We had a great time opening gifts and having Christmas dinner together. Christmas is so much fun with Lucia. I can only bet that each year will just get better.
Kaitlyn's o-so-generous gift of 3 days of babysitting while Pat and I take a trip together! We are going to head to Cave B Inn east of the mountains. Sigh...I can't wait! Grandma and the little lady. SO cute and I swear my mom looks like she is 35! I hope I got those genes. Kaitlyn wrapped Lucy's present in such a way that she could pull on the string and it would unravel! I have such fun siblings! Investigating the ribbon Lucy attacking Craig's beard Lucy attacking her new toy...again...she's crazy! Opening books from Grandma! Mom got her my two favorite classics including Blueberries for Sal Lucy opening presents with the big kids Craig and the cutie Renee Summerill/Murphy Christmas dinner Lucy and Dad opening presents together Aunt Lindsey and Lu reading Lucy trying on Lindsey's new shoes After Christmas day came Kaitlyn's 25th birthday. We all went downtown to a restaurant/bar on Capital Hill eat sweet potato fries and drank pumpkin beer. We had a great time there and then had our favorite cupcakes back up at our house. Lucy kept an eye on our waiter the entire time that we were at the bar and he was in view. Apparently you can't trust Capital Hill waiters. Good thing she was on the look out. :) She also enjoyed sitting on my head. Hum...we got a few looks.
Kaitlyn blowing out her candle Lucy style...with a lip twazzle Kaitlyn and Lindsey on the frozen lake by our house Lu on my head...this is normal Lucy with Lindsey's glasses on the way downtown Mom bought Kaitlyn "middle sister" wine for her birthday...clever The party...minus Pat as he is the one taking the picture Part of the table at our lunch out Lu, once again, attacking Craig's beard. More fun with Craig's beard Humm...looks like Lu needs to cut down on her consumption
The fun started to wind down from there. Mom and Lindsey left the following day and Craig and Renee on the 30th. It was great to have everyone in town. We had quite a fun Christmas break.
The inn through the fog. We initially picked a place east of the mountains for our trip so that we would be able to see the sun even though it wouldn't be warm. Hum...no sun for us. :) It was crazy foggy the whole trip but we made the best of it. It was still fun.
Both days, we drove down into this old lakebed to hike around and, of course, Pat took pictures. It was cold, about 38 degrees or so, and foggy so it felt even cooler but if you kept moving it wasn't that bad. The rock formations were quite beautiful. You can't see the scale from this picture, but there were massive cliffs leading to the lakebed.
Pat taking pictures
Oh, wait, there's the sun! It popped out on our drive home. I love being on the open road when the sun is shining. It top it off, the ground was covered in snow. We were even able to see Mt. St. Helens on the way over one of the smaller passes.
