Date Night!

Pat and I have not had many opportunities to get away just the two of us. Thankfully our good friend Erin is awesome and was up for watching Lucia last weekend. Pat was supposed to go on a photo trip with a friend Friday through Sunday. Instead, he stayed home from work on Friday and made me chocolate chip pancakes with fresh raspberries. We had a totally relaxing morning and then wine and cheese for lunch on our patio. It was a perfect sunny and warm fall day. That evening he had made reservations for dinner at a place downtown, so we dropped off Lucia and headed out for dinner. We had such a great time and Lucy did really well with Erin. Erin and Lucy are buds, so we were not worried about that part at all. It was a great day! Thanks a million to Erin for being so sweet with Lucy and giving up her Friday to watch our girl!

Lunch on our patio. Pat being his crazy self.

Getting ready to head out for our date

Trip to Tally!

I was able to take a trip to visit my two sisters in Tallahassee, Florida back in mid September. I loved the trip and loved being able to see them and spend time with just the girls. Pat is so generous and stayed home with Lucia taking a day off of work to make it happen. He is really supportive of me having time away from the house to spend time with friends and, in this case, family across the country. This was my first overnight trip away from Lucia. I was away for 4 days and missed her but not in a way that kept me from enjoying hanging out with my sisters. It was good for me to have the time away.

Here are the three of us at a huge garden at a state park in Tallahassee. We spent a few hours walking through the gardens and hanging out by one of the lakes hoping to see an alagator...no luck.
Tallahassee, or rather Northern Florida and Southern George, have the most amazing trees with hanging Spanish moss. I had to get a picture. I love them but have no idea what the name of the actual tree is.
I LOVE the beach, so we decided to take a 2-hour drive over to the Gulf Coast so that I could lie on a real beach, get a tan, and swim in the ocean. Well...we took the 2-hour drive and I did swim in the ocean but didn't quite get that tan. It was pouring down rain; pouring Floriday style rain. We ate lunch at a seafood place to see if the rain might stop but it just kept on coming. We were about to leave but then decided we at least had to walk out to the ocean so that we could see it. Bythe time we made it out there, we were completely wet so we just went for it and jumped in the ocean anyway with all of our clothes on. It was such a great time! Much better than sweating to death on the beach. :) Here we are in the car driving home completely wet with salt water. Hum...we didn't really plan out that part...poor car!
Lindsey and I making Fondue after our rainy trip to the beach.
Visiting Lindsey in her room at FSU
Lindsey and Kaitlyn had outfits made for Lucia while they were in Africa. Both of them are crazy cute. Here we are checking out the gift from Lindsey.

6 month bliss

I feel like Lucia is at such a great age right now...

She still sleeps 12+ hours at night

She takes 3 naps every day,

She laughs when we kiss attack her,

She plays peek-a-boo,

She gets excited when either of us walks into the room,

And so many other wonderful things

She seems to make a new face or noise every few weeks that she tries out and then moves on to something else. The two recent ones are when she makes a wawawawa sound. It is a happy sound and she seems to be just trying out the wa sound with her mouth. She has also taken to saying mamamamama whenever she wants something. It is pretty darn cute and, of course, I am a sucker for it even though she doesn't really connect that I am mama. The other sound happens when she puckers her lips, scrunches her nose, and then breathes in and out of her nose. I'll see if I can record her doing that because it is hilarious. I love all of the baby sounds. I feel like she is able to communicate so much better with us and that will just continue.

She is also branching out in the world of solid foods. She has mastered/keeps most of it in her mouth oatmeal, pears, bananas, and rice cereal. I hope to try sweet potato (again), carrots, and apple this coming week. She wasn’t a huge fan of the sweet potato last week but we'll give it another shot. I am enjoying making my own baby food. I have done pretty easy stuff so far given that you just mash up the banana and the pear cooks for about 5 minutes and then goes through a food mill.

Lucia is getting so funny with her baby playing. She is starting to sit a bit on her own when she is interested in the toy in front of her. She can also do a 180 when she is lying on her belly in order to face the other direction. We bought her an exersaucer the other week. They thing is a massive plastic and battery disaster. Seriously, I never thought I would own something so terrifying but.... she LOVES it! She goes to town on that thing. I'll try to post a video soon of her playing in it.

Ok, here are a few recent pictures of our little lady.
Heading out for our first "fall" walk of the year with our friends Rachael and Hollis. Rachael and I walk Greenlake each Wednesday and it has been the best tradition to start with our little people.
Dad and rice cereal
We put Lucia in her swing during our dinner time in hopes of teaching her to be patient as we eat. Most of the time it works. :)
Our daily sitting practice
Lucia investigating her gifts from Aunt Kaitlyn and Aunt Lindsey. Both outfits hand made in Africa!
Standard nightly Dad kiss attack
Hang out time with Mom

6-month appointment

Lucia just finished up her 6-month check up at the doctor’s office. She survived the shots with only a little bit of crying and a look of betrayal. :) I was excited that she wouldn't have to get shots for at least another 6 months but it turn out she will have to get 4 during flu season! Can you believe that...4! 2 are for the regular flu and then another 2 for piggy flu. Sheesh, poor kid. Apparently pregnant women and babies are in the high-risk category for the shot and then Pat and I will be in the next because we have an infant. More baby thigh pain awaits my little Lucia. I have to say that the whole ordeal does put her to sleep quickly. We hit the freeway on the way home and she fell immediately to sleep and has been passed out in her car seat on the floor of the nursery for over an hour. Such a sleepy girl.

Fall has also started to show up on the scene. There will be a few days of rain and clouds followed by 70+ degree weather. I busted out some fall clothes for Lucy the other day and couldn't help but take a few pictures. Heck, what am I talking about, I take pictures of that kid every day! Anyway, I thought that she was crazy cute in her little jeans. Such a big girl now.

Cute things that the little 6 month Lucia is doing:

1. Loves to flap her jingling carrot around (featured in a picture below)
2. Gets a HUGE smile when looking in the mirror at herself
3. Starts dancing and smiling whenever Dad comes home from work
4. Tries to bend over backwards to see anyone that may be within sight while eating her bottle.
5. Wants you to kiss her fingers or let her play with your hair when feeding her a bottle.
6. Always wants to sit at the table with the big kids and swat the edge of the table.
7. Tries to make a fire with her feet by rubbing them together with crazy baby speed.
8. Freaks out whenever strangers want to hold her.
9. My favorite, of course, is making her smile and laugh. Her toothless grin is unbeatable in cuteness as is her hilarious baby laugh.

I thank the Lord for my baby girl!

Fun with Rice Cereal

Lucia had her first taste of rice cereal today or at least I think she tasted some of it. Most of it ended up on her shirt, her face, her hands, and my arms. :) She thought it was pretty great to gurgle with it, so I am not sure how much nutrition was actually provided. If nothing else, she was cute and it brought me great joy to watch her and know that she is growing and learning. It is hard to believe that we are starting the solid food process. It will be fun to see how she does with the rice cereal over the next few weeks before we move her on to more advanced foods. I am sure that I was the most excited about the experiment. Pat humored me and went along with the over exuberance, did the filming and took pictures to document the big day!

Sure Mom, I'll take the whole bowl at once. Bring it!
Yeah for rice cereal bubbles
Just keep going with it even if nothing is actually making it into her mouth

TaDa!


Warning that this video will only be interesting to intense Lucy fans. It is the full feeding video.

Visit to Victoria

We took a great family trip to Victoria, BC this past week. It was Lucia's second trip to Canada in her 5 months on this earth. We had a great time enjoying the city and Butchart gardens. We were there from Wednesday to Saturday and spent most of the time wandering the city, eating good food, enjoying our crazy little lady, and visiting the gardens. We found a few good pastry and coffee shops for breakfast including a Danish Bakery that was impressive. We took our breakfast out to the Parliament lawn where we could sit on a bench, people watch, and enjoy view. The highlight on Wednesday was this French Bistro that we went to for lunch/dinner. It was so cute and quiet. Lucia slept for over two hours while we enjoyed the French cooking, wine, and chill setting. It was great to say the least. It felt like we were out on a date! Thursday was Butchart Gardens day. I could have spent the entire day there! I would have just found a quite bench and read a book all day long. It was amazingly beautiful. Lucia did really well there too. She loved walking around in the baby front pack and then slept for a good portion of the trip as well. On Friday, we walked around the city a bit, ate a lunch at a great place on a pier, and walked the waterfront...we got a lot of walking in. :)

It was a great trip and the weather was perfect! Here are some pictures from the week

Lucia did a nice job balancing on this massive pillow log and we found it pretty darn funny. Here she is after one of the rolls off of the log.
Lucia and I on one of our many walks in Victoria along the waterfront

And now Pat and Lucia on the same walk

Patrick and Lucia on the waterfront with the Empress in the background
The thugs at the dinner spot along the waterfront
Lucia looking cute after waking up from her nap
Butchart Gardens
Family shot in front on the sunken garden. The picture doesn't do it justice. That place is seriously amazing!
Another shot of the sunken garden
Pat trying to feed Lucy a hot dog.
A pond just in the parking lot of the gardens
Lucy out after her bottle given by Dad
Our little tulip :)
Me and the little lady having breakfast in front of the Parliament building

Fun with Grandma and a Giraffe

We had so much fun with my mom in town. Lucia loved playing with her and Grandma soaked it all in. We can't wait for the next visit. Here is video of Grandma Janice playing with Lucia. Unfortunately I only captured the tail end of the laugh attack.