Not much time, but here are some photos

I don't have a lot of time today. I need to get the revisions of my dissertation to my advisor. We want to get it to committee so they can read it and I can defend in January. I'll write about Lucy's birthday and our trip to Denver as soon as I'm done. In the mean time, here are some pictures (and video clips) of our adventures.

PS -Halloween is included.

Eleven Months

Lucy is 11 months old now and quite a character. She is not walking yet, but is climbing everything she can get her hands (and feet) on. She also talks. She talks a lot and uses her hands (like her Mama), but we have no idea what she is saying. Sometimes she'll stand and talk for a good five to ten minutes, gesturing and making appropriate tones for a conversation, but she might as well be speaking Chinese for what her father and I understand of it. It is really cute though and I hope to someday catch it on camera.

We went to the zoo yesterday. She enjoyed the animals, but was kind of afraid of the tigers (as much as she likes kittys). She really liked the monkys though (of course they have a lot of monkys at the Kansas City zoo). Her daddy bought her a bright yellow lion with an orange mane and big purple eyes. She really likes that too. Her daddy might spoil her a little bit.

Speaking of Major, he scratched his eye again. Someone needs to talk to him about not doing this anymore because someday he might do some real damage (and it looks pretty painful). The doctor gave him some antiobiotics and said his eye would feel better tomorrow. The doctor also said there shouldn't be any permanant damage, but that he needs to knock it off.

She has lots of teeth (5). Three on bottom and two on top. I think she is working on another one on the bottom too. She prefers big people food and discovered tonight that she likes apple pie and ice cream (cause who doesn't). I felt bad for Major (because of his eye), so I baked him a pie (we have so many apples right now). I also got him some French vanilla (his favorite and possibly Lucy's too, but it is hard to say because of course she hasn't had chocolate yet...that will be interesting...will she be more like her father and prefer vanilla or more like her mother and identify chocolate as the only valid food group).

Lucy loves kittys. We found her a book that is nothing but pictures of cats. It is the first book she reads on her own. She looks at it almost everyday. She sits on the floor and opens it and talks to the kitties and (it has different textures, so some kittys have furry tails, etc.) and pulls their hair. Her father is getting her kittys for her birthday. Her mother is making sure they (the kitties) are over six months and have a reasonable chance of escaping. Her daycare provider has two cats, so she has been around them since she was just a few weeks old. We also never really leave Lucy alone, so it should be okay.

Well I think that is all I have to report right now. We still need to do the invitations for Lucy's birthday, so if you haven't gotten one don't feel bad. We haven't even started them yet. Oh well. Just remember it is the 14th of November.

PS - No she hasn't slept through the night yet, but her father no longer allows me to get up and feed her before two a.m. If she wakes up before two, he goes in and holds her until she goes back to sleep (because otherwise I would go crazy). She did pretty good last night and only woke up at midnight and 4:30 a.m. Of course the night before she woke up and cried every ten minutes for two hours starting at 12:30 a.m. (even while her father was holding her she woke up and cried every ten minutes...Major thinks I should sleep when he is with her. It is very sweet, but I can't sleep when my baby is crying...Mommies don't sleep while their babies are crying. It is a physical immpossibility).

Haven't heard from my advisor on my dissertation yet, but he's got it.

Ten Months and Counting

Sorry it has been almost a month. We've been crazy busy as usual. I turned in a rough draft of my full dissertation (via email). I will turn in a printed copy to my adviser's box tomorrow. It is around 220 pages (without the bibliography which adds another 20 pages or so) in 11 pt, times new roman font (standard 1 inch margins). Some people compare writing a dissertation to having a baby. Having done both at the same time, I can honestly say that is not really a very good metaphor. Anyway, this blog is about Lucy not my dissertation, so here goes...

Lucy has at least one and possibly two new teeth. She has a for sure new tooth on the bottom (bringing her incisor count up to three) and may have a new incisor on top. She doesn't like to show the top of her mouth, so I've only caught glimpses of something. The teething has been rough. There were a couple of nights of tears nearly all night. Major and I were at our wits end, but we made it through (and she only slept with us once). I'm really glad we don't remember teething. It looks awful. Oh and no, she has not slept through the night yet. Some babies are just like that...I was, so I can't really be too critical of her.

Lucy has some of her chunky monkey status back. She seems to gain all her weight and then grow into it. She'll think back out especially when she starts to walk, which she is trying to do now. She just hasn't quite got it figured out. She will though and then her dad and I'll lose a lot of our baby weight too ;)

With doctor's approval, she has been eating some people food (besides the standard baby purees I mean). She loves ice cream and whip cream (just a little though) and pancakes. She thinks most foods mom eats are great (way better than her food) except oatmeal which always gets the, 'I'm dying why did you give me this horrid stuff' face. She isn't too thrilled with meats either, but she seems to like the soups I make (chicken and beef) okay. She just isn't too into Gerber and their, 'this tastes like Campbell's veggie beef soup after it's been in a blender' flavors.

Lucy loves to feed herself, but Daddy hates it. He wants to skip the messy stage, but I'm pretty sure we can't do that...isn't the next three years all one big messy stage. Anyway, it is okay. Mommy loves making mud pies (and is big enough to give Daddy a taste of his medicine if he turns the hose on her).

We're going to Denver at the beginning of November, but will be back on the 12th. Lucy's first birthday and our house warming are scheduled for Sunday November 14th. Exact times to follow. There will be cake and snacks. Lucy has an Amazon wish list. I'll put a link on the blog. Some of the stuff really isn't age appropriate. I mostly made it so I could remember stuff I thought she might like now and in the future. If you decide to get her something from the list(and please don't feel that you have to get her anything), please take that into account. I do understand people's desire to buy baby's presents (Daddy won't let me near the Babies R Us anymore especially if I have the credit card). Also, Daddy set up one of those college accounts (501 something or other like that). If you want details, please talk to him. He's kind of freaking out...we got the tuition schedule for the Montessori preschool (through junior high). Ah well what are you going to do...and don't say Public School. I believe in Public School, but they need so much work right now that it wouldn't be fair to Lucy to put her in one just to make a point. I'll keep fighting so that hopefully her kids will be able to go to public school, but for now she's our daughter not a political cause.

Now that I've gone all soap boxy, I better stop and check on the little one. She's been napping for about half an hour and usually needs to be repositioned about now (she falls asleep in the strangest positions). Oh...check out the new pictures...the nursery photos are finally in there as promised. We're going to remove the tall white book case though...now that she is almost walking.

Running Behind

Running behind as always. I haven't had the chance to post the pictures of Lucy's room (different camera than I normally use), but take a look at the latest posted above. They include Lucy's first ice cream (doctor approved). She really seemed to love it and her look of sadness is a result of my handing the cone to her father to take a bite. Apparently she thought we should keep the whole thing for just the two of us. While I understand her displeasure, the doctor said a few bites...not a hot fudge sundae.

We've also got a few of her in the big girl pool. We went on a hot day in late July (they had it closed for maintenance for a couple weeks in August) and got lighteninged out after about an hour and a half. She had a lot of fun and we're ready to go back.

Nine Months Tomorrow

I just got the little one down for a nap and thought I better post something while I had a minute. It is easier to download pictures, so I'll get some up when Major gets home. He promises that he will figure out how to post video (because I never could...just not the technologically savvy). We've got a good one. Lucy has learned how to crawl. She loves to chase her big red ball (she pushes it with her head) around the living room and play room. She'll also come to you if you hold out your arms for her. She is so cute. She prefers to wear long pants when she is moving around through because the carpet is a little rough on her knees.

No new teeth, but she is teething again. Major's mom likes to tell a story about him chewing on a wooden chair. Well this morning I caught her chewing on the bottom of her wooden rocking horse (no paint was removed). I pulled her off of it and gave her a toy that was a little more appropriate. She is putting everything in her mouth and drooling excessively. Hopefully she'll have some top teeth to match her bottom teeth soon.

Lucy is right on schedule with her milestones including separation anxiety and clinging to her Mommy and Daddy. She has given up sleep because it requires she be away from Major and I for too long. She still prefers me, but only because I'm more of a sucker and let her have her way more often. Daddy tries to be firm and tell her she has to go to sleep on her own (and then Mommy sneaks in and holds her in the rocking chair until she calms down and goes to sleep). Of course Major is right, but it is so hard to see her unhappy. Yeah, I know, we'll both get over it.

In other news...

With the new crawling, it became imperative for Major to finish the kitchen cupboards. He did, at least the bottom ones. They look really nice. If he finishes the top...I mean when he finishes the top ones, I'll post a picture. After that we'll get new counter tops (from Home Depot...very reasonable) and a new faucet and the kitchen will be done. So excited. We changed how we plan to paint the living and play rooms because we bought different curtains than we originally intended. We now plan to paint to match the curtains. This weekend we should finish Lucy's room by hanging wall art. We're going to put up some Winnie the Pooh decals and some framed pictures I've been collecting. I'll try to remember to take a picture.

Well dissertations don't write themselves and I have so little time. It is coming together nicely though, so hope to be done before Major finishes the kitchen (don't tell him I said that).

She's Got Teeth

Lots of stuff to report today. First, Lucy has teeth. That's right. Her two bottom teeth finally came in and did it at the exact same time. She's still teething, but I'm not sure which part of her mouth is bothering her because she moves her teethers around depending on the day and the time. There are pictures of her pearly whites.

Lucy took her first and second bubble baths last month. Check her out in the pictures. She seemed to think it was pretty fun and had a good time hitting the water to move the bubbles around the tub. Next month, food coloring. We'll see what she thinks when the water is blue or green or orange or maybe even purple.

She is trying to crawl a lot, but she still hasn't quite figured out how to launch herself forward. She just keeps getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. The other day she tried getting off her knees and going up onto her tippy toes, but when it didn't help she stopped doing it. She is otherwise pretty mobile and able to roll/squirm her way where she wants to go. There are some pictures of her on all fours trying to go forward.

I snapped some pictures of the nursery now that it is together (sans wall art) for people who have not seen it. It came out really cute I think. It'll be pretty spacious once we're able to take out the rocking chair, but for now it suits our purposes.

In some pictures you may notice the inclusion of cake pans and pots. Lucy is in love with making noise right now. Mommy encourages it, but Daddy isn't so sure. I keep reminding him that a noisy baby is a happy, healthy baby. Besides how many years do you get to make as much noise as you want for as long as you want without anybody saying anything. There aren't actually that many perks that come with being a baby. She should live it up. I keep telling him to let her try and feed herself too, but he isn't feeling the messiness. Don't you ever wish that you could just go out and get as messy as you wanted. I wonder what's going to happen the first time she and I go out to make mud pies.

I also included some pictures of the rest of the house that is mostly together. We hope to have a housewarming soon, but haven't had a free weekend since the move. Hopefully things will quiet down a bit now that the fourth has past. We'll keep people updated.

For those keeping track, Dr. Janzen (my advisor) said to go ahead and put my chapters into a complete draft (all 450 pages of them). I'm hoping to have that done by the end of August. After that, we'll review it (cut some stuff out) and make sure it is nice and solid and then give it to the rest of my committee. They'll read it, let me know any problems they have with it, and then when everyone agrees we will have my defense. This process can take anywhere from a month or two to a couple of years (don't worry I took that professor off my committee). I hope to defend soon and will keep everyone updated.

Happy Fourth of July

Lucy is 7 and 1/2 months old and moving ahead with leaps and bounds. Although she still can't go from a lying position into a seated one (and boy she sure does try), once seated she has no problems staying that way for a very long time. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth too, so crawling is just a few days away (right now she mostly pushes herself backwards on accident moving further from whatever object she is trying to move towards, which seems to perplex her more than frustrate her). She rolls all over the place and, just to be contrary I'm sure, still hasn't had any teeth pop through her gums. You can see them through her gums perfectly, but they are just taking their slow sweet time actually coming out. Poor Kiddo! Most of the time she is fine, but some days nothing soothes her. This week I purchased one of those mesh feeder bags (it is a little mesh bag that attaches to a handle). One of the mothers at the lactation class suggested putting some frozen grapes or watermelon balls in it and letting her suck on it to numb her gums, so we're going to give that a try today.

Lucy slept through the night for about a week, but then started waking up again. I think it is the teething. Major thinks it is a combination of the sun staying up so long and the sound of fireworks going off at dusk. This too will pass in time whatever the cause. It was nice to sleep for a little while. I'm calling it our summer vacation.

We're moved in and mostly unpacked. Still a few boxes here and there. I'm working on picking up odds and ends for the house (like drapes). We were hoping to do some of that this weekend, but I'm not sure we'll get around to it. Lucy and I ran errands all day Friday and then yesterday we drove to St. Joe, so I'd kind of like to keep her home today where she can crawl around and play. If it was just a trip to Target it wouldn't be so bad, but the best drapes are at the Penny's Outlet, so it is a bit of a drive. Speaking of driving, I'm hoping Major will call John and Jan to see if they'll watch Lucy on one of these upcoming weekends, so we can go to a movie. Maybe if I put it in the blog he'll remember (and maybe not...I'm going to invent digital string that not only ties around your finger, but has a scrolling line of text that tells you what you're supposed to do).

Uh-oh, sounds like nap time is over. I'll post again as soon as I can.