Hiking with Friends

I am most definitely in love with the Northwest in the summer time. There is no better place to be. I love the cool sun and the fresh air of the mountains. I love how easy it is to drive a bit up the freeway and you are quickly out of the city, away from massive parking lots and stores. I love mountain lakes and the forests. I would hike every day if I could. Thankfully Pat and I share the passion and Lucy is loving it as well. She is a fearless baby and even tries to scale the large boulders in her path.

This past weekend, our friends Erin and Neil were visiting. As always, it is so good to spend time with them for so many different reasons. They stayed over Friday night and then we headed out for our day hike on Saturday morning. Erin and Neil are moving up to Calgary. It was so good to spend that time with them but a sad reminder that we will miss them very much. Lucy absolutely loves them both. It is stunning to watch them together. Lucy is a complete shy baby around everyone but Erin and Neil have completely won her over. Lucy doesn't care if I am around or not. Erin and Neil are just as "safe". We call Erin the baby whisperer. Somehow she is able to relate on Lucia's level and completely engage her. I love watching it. Erin will be the best mom someday and, of course, Neil an awesome dad too. Anyway, Erin taught Lucia how to high-5 on our hike and she absolutely loves doing it now.

So, back to the hike. We hiked up to Heather Lake which is a 4.6 mile hike up to and around the lake. It was a beautiful day with cloud cover in the morning and clearing while we were up at the lake. It is a nice quick hike to such a great spot. Lucy was too cute and a trooper. She fell asleep for nearly the whole trip down the trail. Love that cute face smashed up against the baby carrier! More hikes to come!

Starting out the hike in the woods. There were some seriously old trees on this hike. Unfortunately, a number of them were cut down some time ago.

Lucy climbing up rocks and me just trying to keep up so that she didn't topple over the edge.
View of the lake from up on the boulders.
The family.
Erin and Neil
Lucy leading Erin up the trail without us.
Lucy showing Erin everything in sight.

Saturday Hiking....my favorite!

I love love LOVE the outdoors. It makes my husband crazy, not because he doesn't love the outdoors, but because I go crazy if I can't get outside at the first hint of sun. I try to tone it down...honestly! Anyway, Pat did an awesome job of coming up with fun things for us to do this past sunny Saturday. We headed out to the Mt. Baker National Forest and went on a really easy hike up to the Ice Caves. It was easy but perfect because Lucy did great on the drive to the trail and then loved every moment of the hike. The mountains were beautiful and Lucia was so excited to be outside. She kept pointing at everything in sight and making her "OOOOOOOH" sound like I could reach up and pull the tree tops down for her to hold. It was great fun. It made me really excited for the trails up on the North Cascades to open up enough that we could hike them safely with a baby. Many more hikes to come this summer.

Buddies!

I am so thankful for our friends Lindsay, Trinidad, and Jackson. Jackson is only 4 weeks younger than Lucia, so it is so much fun to hang out and watch the two little people playing together. They are too cute. Here are a few pictures from the other day. Lindsay came over for a few hours before their naps. It was just one of those days where we were both bored out of our minds and had high energy toddlers to deal with. Better to join forces when that happens!

I only wish that I could have caught them dancing on camera. It was the greatest thing I have seen in a while. They were totally going for it with the dance moves. Too cute. Maybe next time I will be fast enough.

Words and Favorites

I realized that I haven't posted anything about Lucia's words. She has been saying mama and dada for quite some time now. She most definitely prefers to say dada though. My favorite is when she hears the garage door open at the end of the day, she looks at me with an excited smile, hollers "dada" and starts knee walking toward the door. She sits about 5 inches away from the door and waves her little baby hand until Pat walks in. Back to the words...she is starting to be able to say "doggie" and "ball" though not on command and they don't always sound quite right. She also says baba (bottle) and wawa (water).

As for favorites, she definitely goes through these really cute stages where she is stuck on one thing or another. Here are her favorites for this stage (14-15 months):

Lucia's favorite food...cheerios! Though that is rapidly changing post infection. The doctor said that her infection may have been present for quite some time effecting her appetite. In 2.5 months she did not gain a single ounce, in fact she lost 1 ounce. All of that to say that today her favorite foods included yogurt covered pretzels, fish crackers, chocolate pudding, peanut butter bread, and anything else high in fat that I could get into her little body! But...cheerios are still the long standing favorite.
Favorite toy...the wooden school bus from Craig and Renee. She pulls that thing along with her all over the house and heaves it up onto the coffee table and dining room chairs bashing it and the furniture along the way. I don't care though, it is too funny to watch her cart that thing around.

Favorite hide out...under the dining room table. This is her fortress. She loves to spend quite a bit of time under the table and she loves it even more when you join her. It is a different game each day. Some days we fight pirates and the table is our boat. Sometimes we are on a deserted island and outside of the table is the vast ocean. Okay, she might not get it yet but she'll appreciate my craziness someday. :)

Hospital Trip For Lucia Baby

The Murphy family has had quite the week though, thankfully, we seem to be on the tail end of things! Lucia started to get sick on Sunday evening with a fever. We ended up taking her to the doctor on Tuesday morning where they did a blood test and a urine test requiring a catheter for the poor girl. She was non to happy about it but survived the trials. Wednesday the urine test came back positive for a UTI, so we started her on antibiotics. That night and Thursday morning she was in so much pain that she just cried and cried flexing her legs and curling up into a little ball, so I took her in again on Thursday. More blood tests this time and shots of antibiotics. The shots definitely seemed to help though we got a call on Friday from the doctor that the blood test from Thursday showed that the infection had spread to her kidneys and into her blood. We took her to the ER on Friday evening after we got the call from the doctor and spent about 4 hours there before being admitted to the hospital. She had to get an IV and another blood test while in the ER and the IV stayed in throughout the stay. They monitored her, gave her liquid through the IV along with IV antibiotics. She seemed to quickly be getting better. On Saturday, in the hospital, she began to get her appetite back and started to drink a bit more. She also had a Ultra Sound to take a look at her kidneys and bladder. All went well during that test and her bladder and kidneys look just fine. As of midnight on Saturday, the ER blood test did not show any infection, so we were given the option of checking out of the hospital at 1:00am on Sunday morning. We took it! It was so nice to wake up in our own home on Sunday. Lucy did great on Sunday. She ate fairly well and drank well and played hard. Today, Monday, we have a doctors appointment in the afternoon for one final look at the blood tests. We are hoping that we will not have to have another blood test today, but it is possible. Lucy will also have to have a catheter again next week for a dye test. That should be the end of the pain for a while. She is a trooper though she definitely no longer trusts doctors and nurses. :)

Here are some pictures of the stay at the hospital. She did look very cute in her gown. Please excuse our loveliness. We arrived on Friday night and didn't shower until Sunday. Not the prettiest of pictures.

Lucy, after getting some energy back wanted to push the IV stand all around the room.
Pat checking out Lucia's head. Turns out she is going to be crazy smart!
Playing doctor
Dad and Lucy watching cartoons to pass the time. She also has a lovely chocolate and green bean covered face.
Mom...PLEASE take this awful thing off!!
The whole family in Lucia's hospital crib. Max weight is 350lb just in case you have a very big baby.
Lucy getting some play time in at the hospital kid's play room...

For Real-zeez Day

I most definitely have an amazing husband! First, I get to stay home and take care of our daughter rather than trying to balance a full time job and being a mom at the same time. I know that lots of moms do that and do it very well, but I am grateful for this luxury. Anyway, on top of that sacrifice, Pat does tons of thoughtful things for me on a very regular basis. I know that he thinks about what I would want, even though it may be the opposite of what he may want, and decides to indulge my desires over his own. All of that to lead into what Pat called "For Real-zeez Day". For Real-zeez Day was a complete surprise to me even though Pat and my friend Lauren had been planning it for a few weeks. The day started out with Pat getting up at his normal time, 5:45am, and heading off to work. I came downstairs to eat breakfast and there was a note on the fridge to call him. So...I called. He told me not to eat breakfast and that he would be home soon. He would give me no additional details. :)

When he arrived home, he brought with him flowers and tons of food. He informed me that he had taken the day off and that I was to follow all instructions and not ask any questions. I love surprises, so I was happy to comply. He made us smoked salmon omelets and strawberry chocolate pancakes for breakfast. After breakfast, the three of us went for a walk around the lake in our neighborhood, which I love to do. For the most part, I am most happy outside! When we came back he put together a lunch of my favorite stinky cheese, crackers, strawberries, honey, and ice wine which I love like crazy. Then he sent me off in the car with directions to head south on the freeway and call me at a certain point. The car was covered with little riddles that I was supposed to interpret in order to figure out what I was doing for the rest of the day. I finally ended up at my good friend Lauren's house! This was an awesome surprise! I LOVE hanging out with Lauren and I love time away where I don't have to worry about all of the logistics of being a mom. Don't get me wrong, I love being with Lucia, but this was such a great and needed break. So, Lauren being the crazy sweet friend that she is had suggested all of these activities to Pat and they had worked out what to do for the rest of the day. First we went to a chocolate factory in Fremont. It is one of only 12 chocolate makers in the country. We ate a ton of chocolate and went on a really interesting tour of the facility. Next we went to get pedicures. Now, this was no lame pedicure. This was downtown on 5th avenue with the extra perks. It was so fun and my toes look lovely. We finished the afternoon off with beer at a brewery downtown for happy hour and then had a late dinner at a great restaurant...and more beer. It was so nice to have the morning with Pat and my lady and the afternoon with a great friend with time to relax and unwind.

I am very blessed with a wonderful husband and friend! Thanks to Lauren and Pat!

For Real-zeez Day breakfast with Lucia. She got a chocolate chip pancake too!
Pat taking hold out pictures as a sign of love for me...he generally hates doing this....probably because I make him do it all the time. :)
Lauren and I at the chocolate factory! I have one picture of us with the hair nets on but that one will not make it to the blog. I realized that I had the flash on and there was no flash photography allowed. I look very freaked out in the picture. Not a good look.
Super bright nailpolish for our awesome toes!