Bun In The Oven

Brother and Sister

2012-01-24T14:29:00.005-05:00

Lucy loves holding Hank - it's pretty sweet. In fact, it's so sweet that the first couple times she was holding him I would grab my camera. Now, every time she asks to hold him, the next thing she asks is for me to take a picture! It's goes a little something like this:

Lucy: "hold Hank... hold Hank... hold Hank"
Mom: "ok baby girl, one second, let me finish feeding him"
Lucy reaches and grabs Hank
Mom: "one second baby girl, he needs to finish eating, then you can hold him"
Lucy: "hold Hank?"
Mom finally hands Hank to Lucy once he's done eating
Lucy: "take picture... take picture... take picture"
(can you tell she likes to repeat stuff until it finally happens!)
Mom grabs camera... here are the results!

Check out Hank's pink swaddle! Sorry buddy, somethings just weren't worth re-buying in blue!

Jammie time!

I think he loves her just as much as she loves him...

Check out that smile!

She loves giving him kisses...

And then as soon as I take a picture, Lucy is up, ready to check out how her and Hank look in the photo...

Smiles

2012-01-18T21:28:00.006-05:00

This little guy is seriously one of the happiest babies! It's funny, he is such an extremist - when he's fed and awake he is constantly smiling and cooing, but as soon as he gets sleepy he gets pretty upset. If only he didn't have to sleep, I think he'd smile all day long!

Here are just a few of the smiles I've captured in the past couple weeks. After nights of being up all night rocking Hank, this face makes it all worth it!

Christmas Eve 2011

2012-01-11T17:54:00.006-05:00

Slowly but surely I'll get caught up! Fortunately, blogging is one thing that's easy to do while holding a baby that won't nap in his crib :)

Christmas was crazy... as usual. Someday we'll figure out something that is a little less hectic, but for now, we fit in four family gatherings plus church in two days. Christmas eve we started at my mom's and opened presents. Afterwards, we headed home for nap time and to get dressed for church. We went to the Christmas Eve service at 3:30 then headed to my grandparents afterwards - unfortunately we missed dinner because it took 30 minutes to get out of the Grace parking lot (where I think everyone in Hamilton County decided to go for church!)

Here are just a few highlights from our first Christmas Eve as a family of four.

I love our faces - it kind of describes how the holidays felt!

Passing out presents at Mimi's...

Mimi helped open presents...

While I held Hank and Ben videotaped!

Jordyn was at the most fun age to watch opening presents... everything was soooo awesome!

Santa butt...

Finally awake! Getting held by my oldest cousin...

Ok - time for outfit changes! Each kid had 3 outfits to get through in 2 days!

I couldn't get over how cute Lucy's outfit was, so I was snapping pictures while she was playing... not thinking about what she was doing. Can you imagine where that can ended up?

Hank Christmas Outfit #2

All the cousins at my grandparents..

Getting ready to open more presents at Nanni and Poppi's house...

Mimi helped again...

Present opening was crazy as usual, but I made sure to sneak off and grab a family picture...

And Lucy got some snuggle time with Mimi in...

Finally we headed home and did our own family Christmas. Starting next year I think we'll do the traditional present opening at our house on Christmas morning, but since we were heading to Ben's parents first thing in the morning we decided it would be easiest to open presents at night. Loving on my two babies...

Snuggle Time

2012-01-11T14:16:00.002-05:00

I'm still playing catch up here! These are a bunch of random pictures from Hank's first month of life. Here's what I found in common with these pictures... how much we love cuddling with Hank!

Daddy holding his son - Ben usually takes over about 8 or 9pm and gives Hank a bottle and gets him to sleep while I try to fall asleep ASAP so that I can get a decent amount of rest before my middle of the night nursing marathon begins.

Big sis - Lucy still loves holding Hank a ton. She usually asks to hold him several times a day and has continued to be a great big sister. She even helps bring toys to Hank, likes to have tummy time with Hank, and likes singing and talking to him. She usually says in a high pitched voice to him "Hi baby hank" or "Hi bubba" or "Hi goofy guy"... it's pretty cute.

Even Ruthie gets in on the snuggling...

Ok, nobody is snuggling with him here... but look how cute he is, who wouldn't want to hold this little guy!!

S'mores Night

2012-01-05T15:10:00.004-05:00

While I was pregnant I had grand gestures of making an advent calendar and doing lots of fun Christmas-y things with our family leading up to Christmas... and then Hank came... and I remembered how exhausting newborns are! Needless to say, the advent calendar was put on hold. Their were days when I just wanted to skip over Christmas completely, but we found a few hours here and their to put up our tree, shop for presents and do one activity I had planned for our advent calendar... indoor s'mores.

Helping Dad build the fire...

Digging into the s'more ingredients... who has time to sit and wait to assemble the s'more!

Ok, maybe I'll try toasting a marshmallow... and look at that sweet mullet Lucy has going on :)

Nah, I'd rather just eat it...

Loving on daddy...

Chocolate face!

Cheese!

And let's not forget Hank - he slept through the whole thing!

The Best Christmas Present

2012-01-04T14:54:00.002-05:00

I am so absolutely in love with this little man - I keep taking pictures because I want to soak up every single moment I have with him. I have so many random pictures from over the past month, but I realized these all have a common theme - Christmas! There was just something so peaceful about sitting with the baby by the Christmas tree.

Ok, no Christmas decorations in this one, but this was Hank all dressed up for his first Christmas party. We actually made it out to two Christmas parties and a New Years Eve party this past month... proud of us!

More pictures to come of this adorable little man!

Hank - 1 Month

2012-01-03T14:34:00.007-05:00

So this post is long over due, but I have a feeling this blog is going to be put on the back burner for a while from here on out. It is important to me to document these precious days though, so slowly, but surely I'll get things posted!

Hank is now 1 month old! This past month has been a whirlwind! We've been lacking sleep around here and have been running around celebrating Christmas and New Years - I'm looking forward to a calm January (and hopefully a calmer baby!)

I can't think of one way to sum up this past month, almost every day has been different! I guess that's what newborns are known for though. Some days I've felt like this whole two kid thing is impossible and I want to lock myself in a closet and cry - the days when Hank won't stop crying, won't let me put him down, the house is trashed, my body feels like crap, and I feel exhausted from not sleeping. Fortunately every day is not like that! And fortunately I have a husband that comes home to relieve me, family and friends that provide meals and company to keep us sane, a toddler who is very sweet and lovable and easy going, and I've been getting to see more and more of these lately...

I am also fortunate to have PERSPECTIVE! This is huge. Since this is my second time around, I now know how fast these newborn days go, how much I need to appreciate this itty bitty bundle, and that everything will pass with time. I know that if Hank has a day where he needs to be held a lot, it's ok, it won't last forever. At the same time if Hank has a day where he sleeps really well, I don't get used to it, it won't last forever either! With Lucy, I think Ben and I were paranoid that any stage would last forever - I was nervous that I was holding her too much, or not holding her enough, that I was letting her cry too much or not enough, etc. Now I feel a lot more confident in assessing the situation given my past experience, rather than trying to read 20 different books to figure out what to do with this baby. Just like any job, it's nice being experienced - I always hated being the new person on the job!

So, as I've mentioned before, Hank is a little bit more high maintenance than Lucy. I've researched a ton to see if there was anything wrong with him (food allergies, something in my breast milk upsetting him, acid reflux, etc.) but my only conclusion is that he's just a normal baby! Lucy just happened to be some type of freak baby that liked to sleep a ton and never cried... Hank did have a bad diaper rash (and seemed extra gassy and extra congested) that wouldn't go away with treatment so I did give up dairy for two weeks. The rash cleared, but when I reintroduced dairy, it didn't bring the rash back, so the doctor said I should be in the clear to eat dairy... the rash was just from having a poopy diaper a lot! So again, the only thing I can conclude is that Hank is just a normal gassy, rashy, congested little guy.

Another big difference between my babies - Hank loves to eat! We took him in for his 1 month appointment and he weighed 12 pounds 6 ounces (90 percentile) - that's 3.5 pounds more than his birth weight! For comparison, Lucy weighed 9 pounds 10 ounces at 1 month. He is also 24 inches long (99 percentile). Breast feeding has been going really well (obviously!). Hank seems like a really fast eater, nursing in 20-30 minutes (compared with Lucy's 45 minute nursing) and he is usually full off of one side, allowing me to pump the other side and stock up on my milk supply! And allowing us to give him a bottle each night. Ben usually does this at 9pm so I can get ready for bed.

Sleep is hit or miss, some nights Hank will go for a 5 hour stretch, and go down to sleep with out fussing. Some nights it takes several hours to get him to sleep between nursing and I usually give up and just let him sleep on my chest or next to me in bed (I know, not safe... but after several nights of getting no sleep a mom gets desperate!) Same with naps, some days he takes 3 great naps, some days he needs to be held for his naps. I think the big difference between the babies is that Hank has a hard time settling himself. Even with a paci, swing, noise machine, and swaddle, he still sometimes can't drift off to sleep on his own. Or can't make it through his different sleep states. Fortunately, I know as he matures he will get better at this, so for now, I just consider myself lucky if he makes it through a sleep session without needing to be picked up. The past couple days I've had some success getting him to nap in his crib on his tummy (again, I know this isn't the safest, but I keep the video monitor on and watch him the entire time so I know he's safe.) This has actually seemed to work pretty well, but again, some naps I have to go in and help "carry" him through his sleeps states - either picking him up or putting his paci in several times. We don't do this at night because I wouldn't feel comfortable letting him sleep on his tummy without watching him, so we are still having him sleep in the swing at night. This seems to work about 70% of the time.

He is on a really great schedule though, he seemed to organize himself into a eat/wake/sleep cycle on his own. Right now Hank eats around the following times (give or take 30 minutes): 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm, then he'll sometimes stretch till 1 or 2am. Depending on that stretch he'll usually nurse 1 or 2 more times and then start the day all over again at 9am. Again this is different almost every day, but that's the general schedule for now.

Because of his fussiness, some people have asked if he's colic - I know he's not though. He really is a pretty happy baby overall, and just needs a little extra TLC to help him sleep. If he was held all day I don't think I'd ever hear him cry - unfortunately that's not possible! The toughest times are when we are in the car - depending on his mood, he typically cries the whole time we are in the car, and whenever I am unavailable (i.e. in the shower, helping Lucy, etc.) I've learned to use the moby a lot though, allowing me to hold him and still use my hands. And I've learned to pick and choose when I want to leave the house! Fortunately we've had tons of visitors so I haven't felt too stir crazy yet!

And during his wake time I swear he is one of the smiliest babies I have ever met (ok, I may be biased). But he really is so easy to get to smile (I remember we worked really hard to get Lucy to smile) and he has been cooing a lot lately too... that makes it all worth it, doesn't it?

Ok, I feel like this was an information overload, and no one probably cares about this as much as I do, but that's ok! It's helpful information that I will use when we eventually get brave enough to have kid number three!

And now for Hank's one month pictures - I decided to change up the positions a bit this time around.

For comparison, here's Lucy at 1 month.

People keep saying that Hank looks different than Lucy, but I don't think so... I think they look almost like twins! I guess we'll see as he gets older.

Goofy

2011-12-22T14:30:00.005-05:00

Lucy is hilarious - Ben and I comment almost daily how funny she is. We love playing with her and laughing with her, she really is so much fun to be around.

Last week we were getting ready for nap time so I headed upstairs with Hank, thinking Lucy would follow. Hank was a little fussy so I was rocking him and and calling for Lucy to come up. After about 10 minutes, Lucy had still not come up so I headed downstairs to see what she was doing (praying it didn't involve a permanent marker!). Here is what I found when I came downstairs...

What a goofball! She was curled up in Hank's bouncy seat, just relaxing!

Another day last week she decided to try on my boots. She was pretty cute, strutting her stuff around the kitchen...

I'm so thankful to have the most hilarious 21 month old at home to give me some comic relief after being up all night. What a blessing she is in our lives!

Cousins

2011-12-22T13:32:00.004-05:00

As I mentioned previously, Ben's sister and our niece and nephew were in town for two weeks around Thanksgiving. We don't get to see them much because they live in Texas, so we tried to soak up all the Addy Jo/Hastle time we could! We spent a lot of time playing over at the Wehners, and Kate and I even ventured out with all the kids one day to lunch and Snapperz. Here are the girls playing...

They got along really well, for them both being in the midst of toddler-hood, and seemed to be ok with sharing toys and grandparents (most of the time!) Here's a video I took of the girls dancing - this is actually from the night I went into labor. Shortly after shooting this, Lucy ended up throwing up all over the place! Surprising since she seems so happy!

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-15T20:08:00.004-05:00

I have a bit of catching up to do on my blog... one post at a time! The weeks leading up to Hank's arrival were busy! Ben's sister was in town with our niece and nephew for two weeks and all of Ben's family was in town for Thanksgiving. We got to spend a lot of time catching up with family and letting the cousins play. Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving with the Wehners. We also celebrated with my mom's family during the second half of the day and my dad on Friday but I forgot to take any pictures!

Watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade...

Being goofy...

Trying to get a shot of the girls, but we were unsuccessful!

Again, trying to get a shot with Grandpa, but no such luck...

Family picture!

And just our immediate family...

Two Weeks At Home With Hank

2011-12-09T14:04:00.005-05:00

So far Lucy and Hank seem to be pretty opposite! From how they came into the world to their demeanor at home, I wouldn't know they were siblings if it weren't for how similar they look!

I now realize what a super chill newborn Lucy was, I had to wake her to eat at night and she rarely cried as a newborn. Hank is a little different! Overall he is a really happy baby, he's just had some issues with gas and pooping - every time he has something to get out he gets pretty upset about it. This isn't too bad during the day, because I can hold him and comfort him, but it poses a bit of a problem at night because I can't really get much sleep between nursing and comforting. Most of our nights involve me nursing him (which takes about an hour by the time he eats, burps and I change his diaper), getting him back to sleep, getting myself to sleep, and then waking up 30-45 minutes later because he's trying to poop and is fussing. Then he finally falls back asleep and needs to nurse in about 30-45 minutes... not leaving much time for me to get any continuous sleep! This has led to Hank spending several nights sleeping on my or Ben's chest - something I would have thought I would never do when we had Lucy, but we are in survival mode at our house and I'm willing to do just about anything to get more sleep!

I wrote the first part of this post about 5 days ago, and since then we've had a few good nights with Hank. I have him swaddled, in the swing, with the noise machine running and that seems to work (most of the time). Our nights seem to be hit and miss, some nights he sleeps well, waking only every three hours to eat. Some nights he fusses and has gas between feedings so I spend a majority of the night rocking him and consoling him. Needless to say I am pretty tired! And Ben has realized how different the nights are when you have two kids - I can no longer catch up on sleep during the day, so I usually recruit him to help in the middle of the night if Hank is up a lot.

Hank also got a bad diaper rash last week, so diaper changes have been kind of a hassle lately as I am only using water and paper towels and let him air out for a while while his skin heals (this has lead to me getting sprayed with pee several times!). Lucy on the other hand has never had a diaper rash.

I've wondered if maybe Hank has an allergy to something I've been eating, but he really does seem to be pretty happy for the most part. The only time he really fusses is when he's passes gas or when he's getting sleepy... thankfully he's pretty predictable in this way!

Other than that, Hank is a really good eater, and a much faster at nursing than Lucy was. He usually wakes like clock work throughout the day every 2.5-3 hours to eat and has been nursing for 15-30 minutes at a time.

Lucy has adjusted really well and has loved having Hank around. The only thing she has to work on is not being too rough with him. She's been told "NO" and "that's too rough" a lot this week.

I've gotten a little used to life at home with two kids - some mornings I felt like I wasn't going to survive: when I've been up all night with Hank, 8am rolls around and Lucy's up and needing food and Hanks screaming needing food too, I'm exhausted, hungry, and desperately want to take a hot shower... but somehow by about 10 or 11am, things are all sorted out, everyone's fed and happy, the house is a little messy, but liveable, and I've had a cup of coffee that helps keep my eyelids open for the day.

One day last week Lucy woke up screaming crying and had a fever of 104 degrees. Again, that was another day I thought I wasn't going to make it, I called Ben crying and begging him to come home, but after giving Lucy a dose of Tylenol and a little Sesame Street, things seemed to calm down and life seemed doable again!

So far we've made it out to a play date, Real Moms, and a trip to Target. I'm pretty proud of ourselves! But most days we typically stay inside - which hasn't actually been that bad because we've had visitors most days to keep me company. What a blessing it is to have so many friends and family members near by!

Some pictures from our first weeks at home...

Kisses for Hank...

I love this next series of photos... Starts at happy to hold Hank...

Starting to get a little too rough...

Made that mom is intervening...

One eye stink...

Hanks First Bath

2011-12-09T13:49:00.002-05:00

We skipped over the whole sponge bath thing because by the time we had our lives together enough to give Hank a bath, his umblical cord had already fallen off! So far he's had two baths and was pretty chill in the bath the whole time.

Lucy loved having Hank in the tub with her. She really does love being a big sister!

All cleaned up and snuggling with my two babies before bed...

Hank's Birth Day

2011-11-29T15:29:00.010-05:00

Our little boy has finally arrived! We were so excited to meet our bundle of joy on November 26th, he came into the world at 4:47am, weighing 9lbs, 0ozs and was 21.5 inches long. Here is a breakdown of our last week with Hank...

My last week of pregnancy was filled with a lot of anxiety and a bit of frustration, and of course I was starting to feel pretty miserable and uncomfortable (understandable since I was carrying a 9lb baby in my belly!). My entire pregnancy we had planned to induce early (as long as my body was ready) so that we would have a smaller baby in order to avoid the tearing and surgery I had after Lucy's birth. At my 39 week appointment I was 3cm and 50% effaced, but the doctor said my cervix was not low enough so he wanted to wait on the induction. That meant, because of Thanksgiving week, the only day to induce would be Tuesday (two days before my due date). Unfortunately because of Thanksgiving, the timing was not ideal for our families (to help with Lucy) so I opted (out of stress and anxiety) to not do the induction on Tuesday - I just didn't feel comfortable with our plans for Lucy. And so, again unfortunately because of Thanksgiving, my only other option to induce was the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (5 days after my due date) - not early at all (as I had planned)!

This left me feeling worried about having a baby that would be too big, let down that we wouldn't have the baby when I had thought we would, stressed about the baby's movements and his health (suddenly I felt like he was still all day long) and anxious about what our plan would be for Lucy and Ruthie once the baby came (every day was a different plan depending on grandparents work schedule and what family was in town taking up bedrooms because of the holidays). So on top of feeling absolutely miserable physically, emotionally I was starting to lose it too.

Needless to say, every day felt like an eternity as we waited. As if all of the above wasn't bad enough, my body started contracting almost a week before Hank came. Every day my braxton hicks contractions would get stronger and stronger (to the point of waking me out of sleep), and closer together - but just when we thought it was time to pack our bags, they would go away. Even Thanksgiving morning, we were timing contractions 5 minutes apart for a 30 minute period, and then they just suddenly stopped. Talk about frustrating! With Lucy I felt nothing before the actual labor, so I was really confused about what my body was doing this time around.

Finally on Friday night (November 25th), Ben and I were getting settled in, watching a movie, after having spent the night cleaning up Lucy and our home because Lucy had thrown up 3 times that evening, my contractions picked up! Of course, the night Lucy is puking all night is the night Hank would decide to enter this world! The contractions came on pretty fast and strong and because I'd been contracting all week we had a feeling we would need to get to the hospital fast. Ben's dad came to stay with Lucy and fortunately she had stopped puking for the night.

When we got to the hospital I was 6 cm and my water had broken. I wasn't really sure if my water had broken, but I had a feeling it was, and sure enough when they checked it was broken. I think they said I must have had a small tear that led to a slow trickle which is why I wasn't totally sure if it had broken. We did paperwork for what seemed like hours and I made sure the nurse knew that I wanted an epidural as soon as they could get it to me - I was starting to get extremely uncomfortable!

Once the epidural came, things were much better - I was still at 6cm and thought I'd have some time to rest before pushing. I think I slept for about 15 or 30 minutes, but the nurse kept coming in to check on Hank because his heartbeat was dropping when I was contracting. After making me change positions a lot she decided to check me again and announced "you're complete, I'll go call the doctor" (which is why Hank's heart rate was dropping)... I was shocked! I think I'd had the epidural for 30 minutes and it was already time to push!

The next part happened so fast, it was surreal... we did a practice push and the nurses said I was pushing great (even though I couldn't feel anything because I'd just gotten the epidural). The doctor came in, I pushed during one contraction, then during my next contraction she had me start to push, then stop, pulled the baby out and put him on my chest! What?!?! I was not expecting Hank to come after 4 pushes when Lucy had taken 2 hours of pushing.

What an awesome experience- they laid Hank on my chest and Ben cut the umbilical cord (neither of which we got to do with Lucy because NICU had to check her right away since she had taken her first poop in my uterus). Of course I fell in love with Hank right away and any fears I had about loving him as much as I love Lucy were gone as soon as I held him in my arms. Nothing can compare to the feeling of holding your own baby for the first time after thinking about him and praying for him for over 9 months.

The doctor stitched me up, and left - I think she was at the hospital a total of 30 minutes! All in all I think I was in labor about 5 hours (including an hour of labor at home)- we were admitted to the hospital at 12:30am and Hank arrived at 4:47am. Talk about a fast entrance into the world!

Because Hank came down the birth canal so fast he did have some bruising on his face - I felt so bad for him, his little body was pink but his face was black and blue from slamming into my pelvic bone as he shot down the birth canal. Fortunately the bruising began to clear right away and was almost not even noticeable within the next couple days. And the nurses said it didn't bother him at all. Other than the bruising, Hank was a perfectly healthy baby boy. I was so relieved, thankful, and in awe all at once!

Waiting for the doctor (you can tell my nurse was kind of spunky!)

Holding Hank for the first time...

Getting cleaned up...

Much happier with mom! (you can see some of the bruising here)

Proud dad!

Warming up before his bath... you can see the bruising here as well...

The next day, meeting his big sister for the first time! She couldn't come on Saturday because she had thrown up again at her grandma and grandpa's house... I was really sad, but knew that it would be better for her to stay home and get better.

Handsome boy! Bruising almost all cleared up!

A shot of Lucy for comparison... twins I think! Looks like we'll have another Ben clone :)

Snuggle time with mom...

All dressed ready to go home!

And another shot of Lucy to compare...

Looks like they both loved their pacis!

Lucy 18, 19, 20 months

2011-11-19T21:54:00.005-05:00

Well we are still waiting on Hank to make his arrival, so I figured I'd do one last update on Lucy before our lives get turned upside down. I haven't done a general/monthly update on her in a couple months, so I wanted to make sure to write down what things are like as Lucy moves closer to her 2nd birthday.

Things have been great! I think these have been some of my favorite months, of course I think I keep writing that... maybe I just keep falling more in love with this little girl! She sleeps so well, and continues to love her big girl bed. She usually sleeps 11-12 hours at night and takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon, but will always play in her bed if she is not quit tired yet or wakes up a little before I am ready to get her. It's amazing, she has no desire to get out of bed till I come get her.

Lucy's temperament has been pretty great too - she continues to be a very happy baby, and as her vocabulary has grown I have been able to interpret her needs better. She still has melt downs, and I am currently still just walking away and ignoring her as a punishment, but overall she seems to be a really happy kid. We haven't started time outs, I'm not sure when we will, but overall she seems to do pretty well at listening and when mommy says "no" she knows I mean it.

She loves, loves, loves babies right now. Baby doll usually accompanies us wherever we go, and usually does whatever we do - takes baths, eats dinner, gets her diaper changed, etc. I love watching her be a mommy to her baby, but sometimes it gets a little crazy when I am doing something and Lucy needs help with the baby (i.e. she needs me to wrap the baby in the blanket so she will say "wrap it", and continues to repeat that getting louder and louder until I come, "WRAP IT", "WRAP IT"... we are working on not whining and asking politely for things right now!

Which reminds me, she is talking up a storm and I have found myself sometimes missing the quiet during the day! She likes to say things and then repeat them until I repeat what she is saying... I need to record this someday... it's cute, but makes for a long day sometimes! And she picks up EVERYTHING we say... I find myself not wanting to say words like "dangit" or "shoot" because then Lucy walks around saying "shoot, shoot, shoot"... but it's also pretty fun because she'll sit at dinner and say the most adorable things like "hey girl"... and one of her favorites, "no way".

She loves singing and music, I downloaded a couple kid songs on my phone and we usually listen to them when we are driving and at least one time at home (if not several times more). She knows the names of all her songs and is even picking up on some of the words. She has specific requests and again, repeats these requests until I comply. A car ride usually goes like this... "elmo song, elmo song, elmo song"... elmo song playing... "spider song, spider song, spider song".... itsy bitsy spider playing... etc.

She continues to love reading and would probably sit in my lap all day and read if I would let us. She loves being outside and taking walks to the park, although we haven't been able to do this as much since the weather is getting colder. She seems to be very sociable, but she still mostly plays by herself when we are with other kids or when she is at the church nursery. Although she seems to love it there - we go twice a week (once for Bible study and once for church) and she always goes right up to the door and walks in without even looking back to say bye to me!

I'm sure there is so much more to say, but these are the things that stick out to me. I'm trying to soak up as much time with my baby girl these last days she is an only child. I'm so excited for the joy Hank will bring to our lives, but I do find myself wondering if I'll be able to snuggle and cuddle and give as much love to Lucy once he comes. I know it's worked for millions of families before ours, so I'm sure we will adjust and not even remember what life was like before Hank in a couple months, but for now I am cherishing the one on one time I get with Lucy as much as I can.

I wanted to get some updated pictures of Lucy in this post, but I realized I hadn't taken any since I last posted - so I made sure to go out and grab a couple before publishing this... for that reason, these are a bit random, but still showcase our adorable, goofy little girl!

The weather has been pretty crappy lately, so we went to the mall twice this past week to play at the indoor play park and get some pretzels...

Stuffed...

I'm so thankful for indoor kid areas!!

We did still venture out this week, but just bundled up to make sure we stayed warm...

I love this little girl in a hat :)

Instead of playing at the playground, Lucy decided to walk around the softball fields - which were super muddy so Ruthie and Lucy had to get washed and changed once we got home!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-09T15:41:00.007-05:00

We started our day with a fun Halloween bow from "aunt" beth...

And here I am trying to distract her with one camera while I take her picture with another camera...

Later in the day Lucy dressed up as a scary pink skeleton! And I attempted to capture a few shots of Lucy next to her age pumpkin...

And here she is last year - wow, she has grown so much! (we did .5 because Lucy was a half year old, but looking back I wish I would have just done 0, oh well!)

I had trouble getting her to sit still and smile at the same time so here area a couple other shots...

And at this point we were chasing pumpkins down the driveway, so I gave up taking any more pictures!

I wasn't planning on taking Lucy trick or treating, but we wanted to stop by and see the grandparents, who wanted to show her off to the neighbors so we actually ended up going to a couple houses. Lucy got the hang of it right away!

It was pretty adorable, she would go up to houses and take a piece of candy and then reach in to get a second piece of candy. We would tell her no, that we just take one piece, but most people thought she was so adorable they let her take as much as she wanted!

And soon enough she was eating the candy straight out of the bag...

Fortunately she got some practice in grandma and grandpa's neighborhood, because then we headed to mimi's house to trick or treat with the big kids...

A quick picture with mom (and hank's in there somewhere too!)...

One last picture... still going strong at the end of the night!

36.5 Weeks Baby 2

2011-10-31T21:40:00.006-04:00

Here's the latest picture of my belly!

I looked back to see how I was feeling with Lucy and it seems like I am doing better than I was at 36 weeks back then.

I took the two pictures at different angels so it's a bit hard to tell, but I think my belly is about the same size? At this point with Hank I have not had much swelling at all. I have definitely noticed some, but I can still wear my wedding ring most of the time and there are only a couple pairs of shoes I can't wear (with Lucy I could only wear 1 pair of my shoes because my feet were so swollen). I am however starting to feel very stretched and like there isn't much room left in my belly for this boy to grow. It often feels like he's kicking his feet up into my ribs and when he gets into a weird position it feels like my skin is about to rip apart (oh great... here come the stretch marks).

I think I've gained a bit less than with Lucy at this point too... I'm at about 32 pounds, where I think I was closer to 36/37 with Lucy.

Sleep is sometimes good, sometimes bad. I usually get up to use the bathroom 1-2 times per night and sometimes I get back to sleep no problem, sometimes I lay awake for about 1-2 hours. I haven't been to exhausted (mentally anyway) though, I think God prepares our bodies to start getting used to being up all night. But I do think I am sleeping better than with Lucy and I have a lot less back pain. It's amazing what not sitting at a desk all day does for your body.

Can't believe we are in the final stretch, I am so excited to meet this little boy and to see what life with two kids is like. But I think I'm most excited to see my toes again :)

Kisses for Hank

2011-10-30T17:30:00.003-04:00

Here's another video from when we were just laying around the house... have I mentioned how much Lucy likes to tape and watch herself. I think she'd do this all day if I'd let her! This video does a good job showing how verbal Lucy has become - saying three word phrases, speaking much more clearly (one day she repeated us saying "not today" and we thought it was the cutest thing ever), mimicing everything we say (I'm not sure who, but somebody taught her to say "no way", so now instead of "no" we get to hear that), and talking in full sentences with made up words in the middle (i.e. I can make out the first and last words, but everything in the middle is toddler gibberish) - but my favorite part in this video is when she gives Hank a kiss... so precious.

IU Homecoming

2011-10-30T17:13:00.006-04:00

Looking back on this month of posts has made me realize how busy we have been these past couple months! I think we definitely wanted to fit in as much fun before Hank comes (not that he won't be fun, but we just know life will be different) and enjoy the fall weather as much as possible. This post should bring me up to date with our activities...

This past weekend we went down to IU for homecoming. I think we've made it to at least one IU football game every year since we graduated, and I love that we are able to keep the tradition alive despite our growing family. And of course when I say IU football game, I actually mean IU football game tailgate, I think we've only been to a game once... but I guess that's what happens when your team has a losing record every year.

I didn't grab many photos, but here are a few from the day...

Lucy and Drew before heading to IU. Drew didn't come, so we missed getting to play with him, but at least they got to see each other before we left! I'm not sure what I'm more impressed with - that they are both smiling or that they are both standing still!

Our little cheerleader at the game...

And here she is last year at homecoming...

Eatting M&M's with dad (one of her favorites!)

The boys...

Of course I forgot to grab a picture of the girls... but oh well, at least I am documenting that we were there.

We're Ready For Hank!

2011-10-30T16:44:00.005-04:00

This is a little bit of a catch-all post, but as I was looking through my pictures I realized they all had to do with one thing: preparing for the arrival of baby Hank! This past month I have been in major nesting mode- getting the nursery ready, washing newborn clothes, installing the car seat, and setting up the bassinet. Here's some pictures from along the way...

The big sister... she may not really know what's about to come, but we talk about Hank a lot and being a big sister...

The below picture may not look like it has a lot to do with Hank, but if you look closely you can see a sling on Ben's arm. That's right, at 35 weeks pregnant, we thought it'd be a good idea for Ben to have surgery on his shoulder! Ben had a tear that he just found out about and since Hank is coming soon, we decided it would be smarter (financially) to have the surgery this year, since our deductible will be met with having the baby. It actually hasn't been that bad and after only a week Ben is feeling great, able to have a lot of motion with his arm and has already gotten back into the swing of helping with Lucy and the house (even it if it is with one arm at times!) Which is good, because I'm only getting more and more immobile and uncomfortable as this little boy grows!

Lucy moved to her big girl bed! And is loving it... in fact, she often asks to get up in her bed during the day just to lay around for a little bit. I'm not sure if this is because this is the only place she can have her paci's or if it's because she loves the bed, but either way, I'm just happy she likes hanging out in there. We had no trouble with the transition and she has only gotten out of bed a few times and as soon as I put her back in bed she doesn't get out again. She'll even just lay in bed and play after she wakes up! I was really sad to move her out of her crib (my baby girl is growing up!) but the fact that she loves the bed so much has made it much easier.

Here she is playing one day...

And here she is all curled up at night...

Some how she always escapes out of her covers, so I usually go in to tuck her back in. Look how tiny she looks in that big bed!

And so of course that means... Hank's crib is ready! I originally didn't think we'd move Lucy to the big girl bed till after Hank was born, but after talking with the doctor and some friends, we decided to move her before he came. So now I will get to really start decorating and hopefully have the room somewhat ready by the time he arrives... here's a look at what we've done so far!

And the latest thing I got set up was our bassinet for Hank. With Ben only having one arm, and with my strong nesting instinct, I've learned a lot about how to assemble things in our home! I guess it's probably good I know how to do a couple things around here :) While I was getting things set up, Lucy of course wanted to check things out for herself...

We're ready for your baby Hanky (as Lucy calls him) and can't wait to meet you!

The Children's Museum

2011-10-30T16:25:00.005-04:00

A couple weeks ago we decided to do a staycation here in Indy. Ben had some vacation days left he needed to use up, we wanted to save some money, and I was really wanting to have some family time and do the things in Indy we never really have time to do because we are usually pretty busy on the weekends. We ended up going to Chicago for the weekend to watch Katy in the marathon, but the rest of the time we stayed home and had fun just the three of us. One thing Ben and I both wanted to do was go to the Children's Museum so that was our first outing!

(We actually had also planned to go to an apple orchard but at the end of the staycation I had come down with a really bad cold and Ben made an appointment to have his shoulder looked at so we spent one of our days at the doctor's office. This would then lead into another week of sickness for me and Ben ending up needing shoulder surgery... maybe that's why I'm so behind on my blogging!!)

Our first stop was the Barbie exhibit! Unfortunately I forgot my camera in the car, but I got some shots with my phone...

They have a little run way where you can dress up and walk down like a model - I don't think Lucy fully got this, but she of course loved all the attention...

Then we headed over the the wonderworks exhibit for a little more hands on fun. I think Ben enjoyed being at the museum as much as Lucy!

And of course, a trip to the Children's Museum would not be complete without a ride on the carousel (of course I hated this as a child, so I'm hoping my fear of "fast" moving objects is not passed on to Lucy!)

We were all exhausted by the time we got home - but I was so glad we went and am excited to get a family pass this winter so Lucy can get some of her energy out when it's snowy and cold outside.

The Library

2011-10-30T15:30:00.003-04:00

Lucy and I usually go to the library every couple weeks to return books and check out some new ones. She loves to read, and I love to have something different to read (there are about 5 books in our house that she wants to read several times each day)! I snapped a couple pictures on this day - Our friend Kristy visited recently and somehow convinced Lucy to keep bows on her head (or "hats" as Lucy calls them), so I've been having fun dressing her up! I also just thought she looked so grown up with her jeans, sneakers and backpack ready to go to the library...

But first, as soon as she saw me snap a picture, we had to turn the camera around so she could look at herself. I'm having a lot of trouble taking pictures these days without her trying to grab my phone!

I guess she thought she looked pretty cute too :)

At the library I usually sit while Lucy brings me several books (we're talking 20-30!) to read to her, then I sneak a couple of my favorites into her bag to go check out.

Then with a bag full of books, we head home!

Goofy

2011-10-30T14:42:00.002-04:00

This video is from a couple weeks ago, maybe even a month! But I just love it so much and love how goofy Lucy is in it, so I just had to post it. It's probably long and boring to most, but to me it shows how energetic, silly, happy and fun our little girl is. I want to make sure I always remember these days!

By the way, this is taken with my phone, while Lucy is watching herself, so it's not the best quality, but it's hard to get pictures/video of her without her getting to see herself these days!

Recipes - October

2011-10-20T14:21:00.002-04:00

I haven't been keeping up with this, and as I thought more about what I want to accomplish by writing these recipes down, I realized I really just need to make a quick note about meals I like to make and then hopefully one day I'll put all the meals together in a cook book and never have to say to myself... "what should I make for dinner?"

So here's a random bunch of meals I've made the past month:
Breakfast Casserole: (I made two of these) http://www.bhg.com/recipe/eggs/farmers-casserole-for-12/ (with sausage) - one of our very favorites, and http://allrecipes.com/recipe/amish-breakfast-casserole/detail.aspx (with bacon) - another one of our favorites... the sausage is less time consuming to make, but a lot of people seem to like the bacon one too.

Stromboli: this recipe I got from a friend who brought us a meal with Lucy, and it is one of our favorites... we made the pizza one with green pepppers, onions, sausage, pepperoni and cheese.

1st - Ham & Cheese Stromboli

1 frozen bread dough
2 or 3 cups of any type of shredded cheese you like
2 or 3 cups luncheon meat ham cut into small pieces
Mustard of any kind

I hate to tell you this but I never measure my ingredients when I make this, it is all kind of a guess. Brian likes a lot of meat and cheese so I just add until it looks like enough! Only Linnea and myself like mustard so I only add mustard to one of my loaves, the other one is just meat and cheese.
Thaw out the bread dough for 4 or 5 hours (until completely thawed out and easy to roll out). Then roll is out so it is fairly wide (about 5 inches). Spread the mustard on top of the bread dough (as much as you like) then add half of the cheese putting it down the center of the bread length wise. Then add the meat on top of the cheese and then the rest of the cheese on top of the meat. Fold one side of the dough into the center and then take the other side and pull it into the center but overlapping a little onto the side you just rolled up. Then take either end and fold them down on top of the sides (kind of like you are wrapping a present) then very carefully flip the entire bread loaf onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown.

2nd - Pizza Stromboli

1 frozen bread dough
1 can pizza sauce
1 lb. ground beef cooked
2 or 3 cups mozzarella cheese

Do the same as above except put half of cheese on the bottom then mix pizza sauce and hamburger together put on top of cheese and then add the rest of the cheese on top of meat sauce. You can add pepperoni or any other ingredients that you like on your pizza. The rest of the directions are the same as above.

Pretzels: http://www.sprinklesofparsley.com/2011/01/homemade-auntie-annes-pretzels.html - yum, these were a hit! and are super easy to make

Chicken Tortilla Soup (can't remember if I posted this one yet) - another one of Ben's favorites, serve with fried tortilla strips, cheese and sour cream. http://www.food.com/recipe/max-ermas-chicken-tortilla-soup-148807

Cobb Salad- this was pretty easy and fast to make, I didn't add egg or bacon because I didn't want to dirty too many dishes, http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/southwestern-cobb-salad-92069.aspx?cm_mmc=eml-_-rbe-_-20110823-_-1014&cm_lm=147A734116A31DAF7E13920CFD7B027A

Winter Squash Soup- yum! this was delicious, although no one in my home was a big fan except me, so this might be a good recipe to take for a girls night or something. http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/10/the-leaf-peeps/

Apple Crisp- also from the same blog post as above, this was also delicious and super easy to make! I added pecans to the topping. http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/10/the-leaf-peeps/

Weekend Getaways

2011-10-12T20:43:00.006-04:00

I'm still really behind on updating the blog, so I decided to make this a catch all post for a couple things Ben and I have done without Lucy. Since this blog is mostly about her, I figured it'd be ok if I skimped a little on these trips... but I still want to make sure I remember that we had time to get away during this phase in our life. I hope Ben and I always remember to make time for our marriage and make time for ourselves!

Over a month ago I had another girls weekend away (I know what you're thinking, this girl is super lucky - and you are right, Ben agreed to watch Lucy while I traveled with girl friends for three weekends this summer, he knew it was important for me to have some time to recharge, and I was so thankful he supported me going on these trips!) Labor Day weekend I went to Pigeon Forge with Courtney and Beth - we had a great trip with lots of laying out time by the Lazy River, relaxing time in our super deluxe condo, and did a couple touristy things each night. We all agreed Pigeon Forge was a little to family/touristy for us, but I'm still glad we went and experienced it! We just know not to go back till we all take our kids :)

A couple highlights: seeing a magic show at the Wonderworks building... I think we spent most our time laughing AT the magician, not WITH him, but oh well, we had fun!

We ate at a couple good spots: the Dixie Stampede (dinner and a show!), a Japanese hibachi grill, and a small country restaurant (I can't remember the name of).

A few weeks later, Courtney and Ian took Ben and I to a Colts game, so we (or should I say my mom) returned the favor by taking them out to dinner at Ruth's Chris before. It was an awesome night, with amazing food and amazing seats (we were in the second row). Definitely not something any of us could afford on our own, so we were all appreciative of the free tickets and free dinner!

Lastly, we headed up to Chicago last weekend for a last trip before the baby comes and to watch Katy in the Chicago Marathon. We had planned to take Lucy, but both sets of grandparents offered to watch her so we figured we couldn't pass up an opportunity like that! I was so glad we didn't take her, it was a super relaxing weekend plus it would have been stressful trying to get her around as we tried to find Katy in the marathon. A couple shots from the trip...

Waiting for Katy...

We spotted her 3 times (although she only saw us twice) which was a pretty good accomplishment considering how crazy busy the city was that day. Go Katy!

I'm guessing things are going to slow down over the next month as we get closer to my due date, but I must say we've had an amazing summer full of lots of fun trips and lots of fun activities in Indy. I can't believe how fast time has flown by!

Hank's Sprinkle

2011-10-12T20:17:00.005-04:00

Last week our Bible Study surprised us by throwing a "sprinkle" (i.e. smaller shower) for baby Hank! One of my prayer requests at our previous study had been to be less anxious about all the stuff we still needed for Hank, and they totally heard my prayer and responded - what an amazing group of friends!

Everyone brought over some food and lots of clothes for Hank. I was so excited to have a chance to celebrate this little guy.

Our small group:

Going through all the clothes after everyone left...

I mean is this boy spoiled already or what???

I think we're going to be set on clothes for awhile! We are so thankful for such an amazing group and feel so blessed to have each one of these people in our lives.

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-11T15:01:00.005-04:00

Last Sunday we headed over to a pumpkin patch near our farm, to have a little family time and celebrate fall!

We went to this same pumpkin patch last year...

And I'm amazed at how much has changed in just a year!

Lucy loved walking around, playing with the farm dogs, and trying to pick up pumpkins. This one was a little big for her!

We also got to take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch...

But we decided to walk back and let our little ball of energy run around for a bit.

All in all it was a great day! We are trying to soak up as many memories as a family of three and get out a lot before our lives get turned upside down soon!

32 Week Pictures

2011-10-11T14:47:00.004-04:00

Ok - so I'm actually now almost 34 weeks, but I took these pictures early last week, so they were pretty close to 32 weeks... I've given up trying to get the picture on the day of! Still feel overall great, and I think better off than when I was 32/33/34 weeks pregnant with Lucy.

With Lucy I was reporting: "32 weeks and definitely feeling it! Symptoms of pregnancy currently: lots of back ache (although I've gotten 2 massages in the past 2 weeks!), stretched belly button, sleepless nights (I've found the couch is the most comfortable place to sleep), and trouble breathing. The third trimester is in full swing!"

But with Hank I have not had any back pain (except when I overdue it, I end up having to rest and put heat on my back the next day), no stretched skin feeling (I'm guessing that's because of the stretch marks Lucy gave me, my skin was already ready to expand for Hank) and I've been sleeping pretty well (up until this past week, I've had a really bad cold and have been coughing throughout the night, leaving me extremely exhausted!).

Here I am at 32 weeks with Lucy (look at the snow on the ground! I'm thankful it's been in the 80s here this past week, perfect weather!):

32 weeks with Hank:

A Day at the Zoo

2011-10-03T21:11:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago (I'm still catching up!) we headed to the zoo with Jadyn. Ben had taken Lucy while I was out of town and said she loved it so I was eager to go at least one more time before it closed for the season. She had a blast! Of course, I never remember to bring our regular camera with us... this time I did, and as soon as I tried to take my first picture at the zoo it died! Oh well, at least I got some OK pictures with my phone.

First stop was the dolphin show! This surprisingly held Lucy's attention pretty well.

Then off to the aquariums, Lucy loved looking at the fish and sting rays.

Then we went to pet the sharks, Lucy wasn't tall enough to get her arm near a shark, but I don't think she would have been brave enough to try it either!

A friendly wave from the distance was all she was willing to give.

Not sure what I said to them to get this pose!

Checking out the monkeys with Daddy...

The only picture I got in... didn't turn out great, but I asked Ben if he could take at least one picture of Lucy and I! She was distracted by the grizzly bear behind the fence...

And this last one is for our friends Katie and Brent... they had Grand Cayman Iguanas at the zoo, so of course we thought of them and remembered our trip last November when we got to see the Iguanas actually in Grand Cayman (not caged up at a zoo!)

Artwork

2011-10-03T20:51:00.004-04:00

We've been working on a lot of "art" projects lately at our house. Lucy loves coloring with crayons, so we usually color once a day. A few weeks ago we tried out some painting too! It was pretty fun, but I was hoping the project would keep her a little busy longer! It was a lot to set up and clean up for only 10 minutes of enjoyment... maybe we'll try again this month with some more colors.

Sometimes things get pretty serious at the coloring table...

But sometimes they're not!

Having fun with paints...

Hey, who painted on my belly!

Cookies

2011-10-03T20:31:00.004-04:00

Last week, Ben watched Lucy one night and mentioned that he had given her an Oreo after dinner. I didn't think much of it, we don't usually give her too many sweets, so I figured what would one cookie hurt? Little did I know he had created a monster! The next morning, what was the first thing she asked for... a cookie! And she would not give up until she had what she wanted.

I originally started taking pictures to text Ben and tell him about our daughter's new passion that he had instilled, but then the whole process was just too cute to not keep taking pictures! Here's how it all went down...

Ah ha! Spotting the cookies in the distance:

Got them!

Eying the loot:

Now how do I get this open:

Mama, help peas (please):

Her dad taught her the proper way to eat an Oreo, from the inside out:

Oh, what the heck, that was taking too long, I'm just shoving this one in:

A happy baby!

Now I see why Ben couldn't resist!

Rody

2011-09-22T13:05:00.004-04:00

These pictures aren't that great and this video is from awhile ago, but I wanted to include them on the blog because Lucy has had so much fun playing on "Rody". Thanks to Aunt Trit for this wonderful gift! She loves playing on it!

This was the first day we got Rody, and Ruthie was very interested in it as well! I think this video is from late July.

3D Pictures with Hank

2011-09-20T07:40:00.005-04:00

Last week we were lucky and got another glimpse of our little guy at a 3D ultrasound. I switched practices from when I had Lucy and so far have really enjoyed the new practice and new doctor I am seeing, and to top it all off, they offer their patients a free 3D ultrasound at 30 weeks... pretty sweet!

Hank wasn't being super cooperative, so the pictures didn't turn out great, but you can definitely make out some more distinguishable features on the 3D ultrasound versus the regular one.

On the below two, you can see his hands are up next to his cheek...

And here's a little more of a profile shot...

We also had her check to confirm again that it's a boy... and he is! So we are feeling confident about the clothing/nursery colors we've picked out :)

The day before I had a regular 30 week appointment that I took Lucy to. While the doctor was listening to the baby's heart beat I asked Lucy who we were listening to and she shouted out "Hanky!"... it was pretty precious. We talk about "Hanky" all the time these days (like last weekend when we toured the hospital and she called it "Hanky's home"), but I still think Luc has no idea what's in store. I do think she's going to love this guy so much and I can't wait to see her as a big sister, but I also wonder what she will think of having to share mommy... I guess only time will tell!

Getting Ready for Hank!

2011-09-12T16:37:00.006-04:00

Being in the third trimester, I of course am starting to get a little stressed about all we have to get done before the baby comes. Fortunately I was relieved to look back at my blog post when I was 28 weeks with Lucy to see that I was just as stressed then, and we got everything done before she came. So I have to take a few deep breaths every once in awhile and relax! Plus, I was looking back through my phone pictures and realized we've actually made a lot of progress. While the nursery may not be painted yet, we have taken several steps to get our home ready for Hank.

1. Get baby gear out of attic

Of course, Lucy had to test out all this "new" stuff that we had!

2. Pack up all clothes and pink baby stuff that we don't use for Lucy anymore (this was a really sad thing for me! I can only hope we have another little girl someday who can wear all of Lucy's adorable baby clothes that she only got to wear for a short time)

Lucy wanted to try on clothes as I was packing them up. Here she has on two fleece shirts on top of her t-shirt... what a goof ball.

3. Buy a double stroller

Found one on craigslist! And Lucy already loves it. I actually had to pack it away because she wanted to use this stroller instead of her single one.

4. Buy bedding, nursery furniture and clothes

I was so excited last week to finally pull the trigger on some crib bedding for baby boy, I ordered it online from Target and loved it even more once it came in the mail. You can also see our new bookcase that Ben set up for me and a growing closet of blue! I've been trying to stock up on sale items and use old giftcards, so fortunately I haven't had to spend too much yet... but having kids of the opposite sex sure is expensive! Hoping that I can find some good deals at garage sales, or borrow from friends so we don't break the bank.

5. Practice changing tiny baby diapers

Well not really, but I love that Lucy tries to put a diaper on her baby doll. I can't wait to see what a big helper she is with the baby. Of course, she probably won't be able to help out with diapers for several more years... but I guess that's where I come in!

We have so much more to do, but I do feel pretty accomplished about what we've done so far. And I love that Lucy has been helping all along the way!

2011-09-12T15:35:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago (I'm still catching up) we spent almost a full week in Northern Indiana at Lake Wawasee and Lake Webster. The first half of the week we stayed with Katy and Brandon at their family's cabin on Wawasee, then headed over to my family's cabin on Webster for the weekend. We had a lot of fun (as you can tell by all the pictures) and continue to be thankful for friends and family that have lake cabins and boats that they share with us! I hope Lucy has the opportunity to grow up going to the lake every summer like I did. (Hopefully she'll like the boat a little more than I did though!)

I must mention that throughout the week, Lucy was extremely happy! She slept at least 13 hours every night and would take 3 hour naps every day... she was perfect. We were so thankful to have a happy, go with the flow baby, while we vacationed.

The first day Ben worked out of the Ft. Wayne office, so it was just Lucy and I who ventured out on the water. All ready to swim! With her new gender-neutral life jacket (although I think it looks rather boyish), that I was reluctant to buy, but the practical side of me knew Hank wouldn't want to wear a purple and pink life jacket when he is ready to fit into this life jacket (or should I say Hank's father wouldn't want him to!)

Helping Bbop drive the boat!

Katy and Brandon were tons of help while Ben was away (and even when he was back) - for not having kids, they sure know how to love on Lucy and lend a helping hand!

Somebody found a new favorite food while on the trip...

Hanging out at the sandbar...

Testing out the tube as we headed back to the house... (I'm not sure Lucy liked this so much!)

Once Ben got back, we took everybody tubing. But first a business call... (this picture is kind of silly, but it's one of my favorites from the trip!)

Family tube ride...

Twinsies...

And of course the big kids went tubing too!

The next day was filled with some of the same activities, including a little wakeboarding...

And I can't forget my other baby who loves the lake too... Ruthie had a blast swimming. Although she can't tell me in words, I'm guessing it is her favorite thing to do. Whenever she was outside, she was jumping in and out of the water, fetching whatever we would throw her.

We had beautiful weather both days, and enjoyed dinner on the patio each night.

Some people enjoyed doing other things on the patio too..

(I know Lucy will probably kill me for including this shot when she is older, but I had to capture her famous poop face!)

On our third day, we packed up and headed over to Lake Webster. Most of that day was spent packing and unpacking, so it was pretty uneventful. We woke up the following day though and headed to the beach. The weather was not quite as nice, but we still got in some good beach time.

Playing in the sand with Jordyn...

Taking a goldfish break

Ben trying to get Lucy to swim... but she was not very happy about it!

Our final day, Sunday, we headed home and surprisingly got some much needed relaxing time! Funny how you usually end up needing to rest after vacation :)

28 Week Belly (but actually 29)

2011-09-10T21:08:00.004-04:00

Ok - so I say this every post, but this belly picture is a little late again!! This time I really am actually 29 weeks and 2 days, so I'm not really even close to 28 weeks... oh well! It's hard to grab pictures this pregnancy because I want to wait until I've at least showered (which usually isn't until late in the day) and by then I'm usually showering and getting ready in such a hurry because we are heading out the door.

So I've included a 28 and 30 week picture with Lucy. Baby boy's belly picture is sandwiched in the middle!

(Lucy 28)

(baby boy 29)

(Lucy 30)

Looks like I continue to grow about the same! Although, one nice part about being pregnant during most of the summer is the nice tan I get to keep for most of my pregnancy :)

Weight gain is actually the exact same, unfortunately! I have gained about the exact same weight that I am number of weeks, which is how I was with Lucy. I was trying so hard to gain less this time, but I just don't do well with exercise and proportions when I'm pregnant I guess! Looks like I'll be back doing Insanity after this baby as well.

Feeling really good still, things are getting more tiring and harder to do as my belly grows, but I still feel pretty mobile. Baby boy moves around a ton, so I feel like he is growing strong. I did have one concern at the doctor because I get side cramps a lot easier this time around, so he checked my cervix to make sure my body wasn't preparing for labor. It wasn't, so all is good! I guess I'm probably just walking more this time around so I notice the cramps more.

One last update - we have officially decided on a name! Henry Benjamin Wehner, but we'll call him Hank for the most part. We had debated on the name for a while- although it was the first and only name we loved for a boy, we soon found out after picking it that our good friends were naming their son Henry as well! We debated for about a month if we wanted to stick with the same name as our friend's son, but in the end I couldn't think of any other name that I loved as much. Plus we chose it in the exact same way we chose Lucy (I gave Ben a list, he picked his favorite and we went with it, clean and simple), so I wanted to stick with our gut feelings. And ultimately, our little boy will go by Hank and theirs goes by Henry, so they practically each have their own name!

We refer to everything at home that is baby boy's as "Hank's" and Lucy talks about "Hanky" in mommy's belly, so I'd say it's pretty safe to use that from now on :) We can't wait to meet you Hanky!

Heels

2011-09-07T15:28:00.007-04:00

Lucy was given a set of play dress heels by my sister. I thought she wouldn't be interested in them for a while, but there was a period when for several weeks all she wanted to do was put the heels on and walk around. I have to admit, watching her walk in heels was pretty impressive, even I have trouble walking in heels sometimes! Maybe she has a future in modeling?

Lucy 16 and 17 months

2011-09-07T14:19:00.006-04:00

I need to do two baby updates - one on Lucy which I'm trying to accomplish here, and I need to get a 28 week picture posted, since I am almost 29 weeks... hopefully that will come soon! I stopped doing monthly updates on Lucy because I just didn't think it was sustainable, but she is still growing and changing so much, I want to make sure I remember these times and especially when it comes to raising future kids. So here's an update on our last few months...

For the most part, these last few months have been extremely easy. Once Lucy got over all of her illnesses, she went back to being a happy, easy going baby and was sleeping really well too. Lucy still sleeps 12-13 hours at night (7:30/8pm - 7:30-8:30am) and takes one 2-3 hour nap during the day (going down around 12 or 1pm). I've found as long as she gets in a good amount of sleep, our days seems to go much easier with few tantrums/melt downs and little whining. Things have been this way for most of the past two months, although the past two weeks Lucy has gone back to not sleeping well and being pretty cranky during the day (seems to be a repeat of how she was acting at 13 and 14 months). I guess all things, whether good or bad, eventually come to an end when you deal with babies! I'm not sure what phase we are in now, or if it's a sickness (she has a runny nose and I took her to the doctor to have everything else checked and they said she was fine), but I'm hoping my sweet little angel will come back soon!

An example of this change over the past month - we took Lucy up to Lake Wawasee/Lake Webster (more to come on that in the future) and she was incredibly happy and slept perfectly (I swear I didn't hear her cry once). Then the Monday we got back from vacation, everything was frustrating Lucy and making her have a melt down, leading to lots of "rest" times in her crib (when I wasn't sure if she was tired, but we both needed a break from each other!) and at night she has been playing in her crib for 30minutes - 1hr+ before falling asleep. I guessing the crappy sleep she is getting is related to the crabby attitude she has during the day.

Maybe the girl has just become more opinionated? Or maybe she is tired of being with her mom all day - i.e. she doesn't seem to cry at all when playing with Grandma/Grandpa/Mimi or JJ. Typically melt downs seem to happen when Lucy gets frustrated about something, I can't figure out what is frustrating her, how to help, or I refuse to help (i.e. give her a paci when it's not bed time) so she starts screaming/crying at the top of her lungs and flailing about until I am able to hold her/cuddle her to calm her down. Sometimes we get over this easily - like when we are at home and I can pick her up right away. Sometimes I go nuts in the car because I can't comfort her in her car seat so I listen to a screaming baby in the car till we reach our destination. Or sometimes these melt downs happen at the store and I must push the cart, hold Lucy and get out of there as fast as possible! (since I'm also carrying around baby boy all day as well!) sigh... welcome to toddlerhood I suppose...

Ok - now for more fun updates! I say all of the above, because we are in the midst of a crabby time, but seriously, must of the past two months Lucy has been all smiles and no tears - and a whole lot of fun. She loves to carry things around, whether it be her library book bag, her blankie or her baby, she loves to be responsible for toting something around. She also loves pushing things, again sometimes it's her baby doll stroller, but sometimes it's any random object, like her own stroller, boxes or items around the house. She has been giving the most amazing hugs lately, running up to me or ben and grabbing us around the neck (which seriously makes my heart melt every time) and has discovered a new fake laugh that she likes to show off when other people are laughing or when she is doing something silly. It's pretty cute :) She continues to LOVE dancing, seriously, this girl likes to break it down any time there is music playing and she also continues to love reading. We spend lots of time throughout the day going through her books while she calmly sits in my lap. She loves swinging and we also sing songs as she swings - whenever I say let's sing our ABC's, she starts us by going "A, B..." and the rest is her own language, but it's cool to hear her say the first two letters!

Her vocabulary has taken off, it seems she not only is learning several new words a day, but she is also willing to try out any new word you give her. She also has started making strong associations, like whenever we see a baseball park she asks for daddy (since she knows he plays softball) or whenever she sees a young dark skinned girl she thinks it's JJ (this ones kind of funny, but super cute). I think she has started to associate curly haired girls with Katy too!

Ben and I are absolutely in love with the stage Lucy is in, we love playing with her and find ourselves laughing with her all day long. She has become such a fun playmate and continues to be an absolute joy in our lives!

A few pictures from over the past couple months...

Debuting her two piece at the splash park...

We went to a splash park about once every two weeks this summer. Although Lucy would have fun, she still never warmed up to the idea of water being splashed at her by the fountains!

Playing in the back yard with Jadyn and Jordyn - I had them most Monday nights this summer and Lucy has a blast playing with her cousins!

Sleeping...
.

My absolute favorite part of the day is when I sneak into Lucy's room before going to bed to check on her and watch her sleeping. Watching her as she is completely passed out is the most precious thing in the world! I love seeing the different positions she has ended up in and watching her little chest rise and lower while she sleeps. I like to think that she is laying there feeling completely protected and without a care in the world, that her dreams are filled with happy things, and anxiety and worry don't bother her as she drifts off to sleep. I love that we are able to provide a warm, safe, loving environment for her every night and every day, and I guess seeing her laying there, completely vulnerable, reminds me of that.

Here's a picture of Lucy from a photo shoot we did... oh wait... that's Ben as a baby! Isn't the resemblance amazing! People always say she looks like her daddy, but I think this picture really shows how much she looks like Ben...

At the Park!

We usually make it to the park at least once a week, if not more. Lucy, my little dare devil child loves to do EVERYTHING at the park, so I follow her around as she attempts all the slides, all the swings, all the steps, etc.

Dinner at Bazbeaux. Lucy was dancing almost the entire dinner. I tried to get a good video of it, but our food came right when I was taping her, so I didn't get anything good. We had such a nice time sitting outside, eating, and watching our little girl dance throughout the entire meal!

Ikea Visit!

2011-09-07T08:56:00.005-04:00

After my Chicago girls weekend a couple weeks ago, Ben and I headed over to Cincinnati for the day to meet up with our good friends the Kruithof's, who were in town from Grand Cayman, and to make a quick stop at Ikea for a couple baby boy items.

It was so nice to see the Kruithof's, even if it was just for a couple hours - we miss them a lot!

After lunch, we headed over to Ikea and Lucy fell asleep in the car - we were hoping she would transition into the stroller and sleep a little while we shopped, but no such luck, she popped right up when I picked her up. All in all she did great, she loved shopping and trying out all of the home items. Although sometimes Ben and I were ready to move on and she wanted to stay and play with the furniture...

As you can tell from below, she knows who is boss!

We didn't get a ton of stuff, I was a little disappointed with the amount of time we spent there given that we ended up only getting a few items I had already staked out online... next time we'll know not to get sucked into walking through the entire store! The best item was a new cube book shelf for baby boys room - I'm excited to get this set up and get his room pulled together (more to come on that).

Last stop - the cafeteria. We couldn't leave without at least getting some french fries!

Recipes - August

2011-09-07T08:46:00.002-04:00

We've been so busy, I'm not really sure what week these recipes are from, but I wanted to write them down so I remember. I have so many other things to post on... more to come!

Monday - Chicken Quesadillas
Tuesday - Flank Steak (posted about this already)
Wednesday - Lasagna (no special recipe, just followed the box)
Thursday - Goat Cheese Pizza, http://allrecipes.com/recipe/goat-cheese-arugula-pizza---no-red-sauce/detail.aspx, made this for a girls night out and it was delicious! used spinach instead
Friday - Fettucini Alfredo, bread and salad, http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fettuccine-alfredo-v/detail.aspx, made this before but tried a new recipe and this was AMAZING! Ben was raving about it... the freshly grated Parmesan definitely made this dish.

Dessert - Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies, http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chewy-peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies/detail.aspx, these were good, but not over the top amazing - I used dark chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet, so maybe that taste was over powering?

State Fair

2011-08-16T13:55:00.004-04:00

Still have so much catching up to do on the blog! We've been so busy, I haven't had time to post all that we've been up to... but I've been so glad to have that problem as we've been doing so many fun things.

Last week we went to the State Fair twice! Erin and I took Drew and Lucy on Wednesday and Ben and I took Lucy on Thursday to celebrate Ben's birthday.

I was thankful Erin agreed to go with me, she's due in about 5 weeks so I can only imagine how uncomfortable she's getting! But she was a trooper and I think we ended up staying about 3 hours. We also got pretty lucky because the heat wave we've been having is finally over and some cool weather came in just in time for the fair!

Checking out the animals...

Lucy loved the animals, she got really excited and would give a fake laugh every time we saw something new. Drew was a pro at petting the animals, but I think Lucy was a little nervous. She would reach out to touch one and then pull her hand back really fast... it was pretty cute...

I had to include this next one because it shows her carrying her blankie around. Normally she is not attached to any object in particular, but lately she's been loving to carry various things around for long periods at a time. On this day it was one of her blankies and unfortunately it was through the animal stalls so that blankie had to go straight to the wash as soon as we got home!

Lunch time! Oh how I love fair food... we got a corn dog and lemon shake up to share... then Lucy ate about half of Erin's french fries...

Finally we stopped by a kiddie area and saw a circus act perform and got to run through a couple stalks of corn... can you spot Lucy?

The next morning was Ben's birthday, I made him breakfast and then he headed off for work (which was actually a day of golf... lucky him!)

Once he got home we headed back to the state fair. Checking out the animals again...

And eating more fair food! While we were eating a parade went by so we had fun watching all the people and tractors pass by...

24 Week Belly - Baby 2

2011-08-12T22:33:00.002-04:00

Ok, so I was actually 25 weeks when I took this, but for the sake of comparison, I'm going to call this 24 weeks! Still feeling really great, noticing my belly getting bigger, but not at all uncomfortable yet. I even sometimes sleep on my stomach still - which is amazing, because it's what I miss the most during pregnancy.

And for comparison, here's me at 24 weeks with Lucy... looks about the same!

Girls Trips

2011-08-11T14:00:00.008-04:00

We have been so busy traveling the past couple weeks, I haven't had any time to write about all of the fun we've been having! Hopefully I'll get caught up in the next couple days because we're back to traveling next week.

The past two weekends I felt so incredibly blessed! Blessed to have two weekends away with great girl friends, blessed to have a loving husband who supported my decision to get away before baby 2 comes, and blessed to have parents who live close by and could help Ben while he was a single parent. The last weekend in July I went up to Chicago for a "Kappa Reunion". Every year in the past we have had a wedding or baby to celebrate in our group of friends, but this year their was a bit of a lull in the action, so we decided to get together just to catch up! It was a perfect weekend of talking, laughing, and relaxing. We hung out at the beach for a little bit, ate at two cute breakfast places, and went to Second City to see a hilarious comedy show. And fortunately for me, Erin was not feeling up to sleeping on someone's couch since she was 30+ weeks pregnant, so she let me share a hotel room with her and David. We pregnant ladies have to stick together.

A few highlights from the weekend (no great photos of the group, and these are all just from iPhones... but oh well!)

At Adobo Grill before the show...

Second City...

The following weekend I flew out to Washington D.C. to meet Katy. She was there presenting for a conference and was then going to be driving all the way back to West Lafayette (their new home) by herself so I went to explore the city and keep her company on the drive back. I left Indy on Friday morning and it ended up taking me 9+ hours to get to out hotel in D.C. - I flew to Atlanta, then to Baltimore, took a train into downtown D.C., walked to find a bus stop, caught the bus out to Georgetown and finally laid down to relax! Fortunately I caught up on some reading, so the day didn't seem too long.

The long travel day was definitely all worth it though, Katy and I had a great time catching up and exploring the city. I don't think we've had a girls weekend away since before I was pregnant with Lucy and I forgot how nice it is to have an entire weekend just to hang out and have no agenda in mind.

Of course we did do a lot of exploring as well, we were in Washington D.C. after all! Here are a few highlights from our trip - all with my iPhone again.

The first night we ate at a Thai restaurant and then tried to get cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes (from the TLC reality show, DC Cupcakes) on the way home. Unfortunately, they close at 9 and we had showed up at 9:05pm... snagged a quick picture though... and then went to get some delicious frozen yogurt from Ice Berry.

No to fear though, we woke up the next morning, determined to get cupcakes! So we went around 11am and waited in line for about 30 minutes to snag these beautiful masterpieces...

And let me tell you, it was worth the wait! From top to bottom, left to right: Banana Split, Red Velvet (for Ben), Blueberry Cheesecake, Salted Carmel, Peanut Butter Fudge and Vanilla.

After exploring Georgetown, we decided to spend the rest of the day in the city so we took a bus (Katy was my inspiration for all of the public transportation on this trip!) to Dupont Circle to get some burgers and fries from the Shack Shake and then walked over to the White House...

And stopped by the American History Museum because we had heard there was an exhibit featuring the First Ladies' Dresses. Katy with Michelle Obama's Dress

We also checked out Julia Child's Kitchen while we were there...

After the museum I needed to rest (I did pretty well for being 24 weeks pregnant, but I do have my limits!) so we sat at a cafe and got some water... only to get caught in a rain storm! We waited the rain out and then walked by the Washington Memorial and got pretty close to the Lincoln Memorial, but got too tired and too hungry to walk all the way there. We took the subway to Adams Morgan to get dinner at a place called The Diner. Then took a bus, walked and another bus to finally get home! I was exhausted! But so glad we saw everything we did in the short amount of time we had.

The next morning we got in the car and headed home. We had planned to stop at an outlet mall, but after 3 stops to pee and eat, we ran out of time to get to the outlet mall before it closed... oh well! We spent about 6 hours of the drive talking so it seemed to fly by!

After two weekends away I was so excited to see Ben and Lucy and am looking forward to spending most of this upcoming weekend with just them, I missed our family a lot! Not that I don't love spending every day with Lucy, but distance really does make the heart grow fonder, and two weekends away was just what I needed to get re energized to care for Lucy, Ben and our home. My spirit is so lifted!

Oh and for those of you worried about Ben, he's had his time "off" too! Earlier this summer he went to visit his friend Sean in California. I asked for some pictures from him, but when I flipped through the camera I realized there was not one picture that included Sean or Ben - they were all just of the scenery and stuff Ben saw while he was there! So here's a picture from Ben's trip...

Weird... I know... that's why I hadn't originally posted any pictures in the first place :) By the way, this is from Ripley's Believe or Not Museum... so I guess it's not that weird! He also spent a Saturday at Kings Island with his brothers and another Saturday golfing in Northern Indiana with some friends. We both have had some great weekends away from Lucy together and by ourselves, and I think our marriage is so much stronger and we are such better parents because of it!

Recipes - Week of August 1

2011-08-09T14:24:00.004-04:00

Lots of travel, so this was a short week... but managed to make a couple meals!

Tuesday: Spaghetti and Meatballs, Asparagus and Garlic Bread. Meatballs - http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/easy-meatballs/2959910f-1b27-438a-9085-d40b1950db20. Meatballs were super easy to make, I'd definitely do them again... spaghetti was simple, just sauce from a jar!

Wednesday: Chicken Stir Fry and Brown Rice. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chicken-stir-fry/detail.aspx - this was a pretty easy and delicious recipe, I added soy sauce to the vegetable mix for more seasoning.

Thursday: Mexican Chicken and Rice Bake. Very delicious and easy, although I would add more sour cream and some salsa/more tomatoes to the mix. Also, made this with brown rice.

Dessert: Banana Nut Oatmeal cookies. http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/04/chewy-low-fat-banana-nut-oatmeal.html#more - these were good, but tasted too healthy to really be called a "cookie", tasted much more like fancy banana bread.

23.5 Week Survey - Baby 2

2011-08-03T20:13:00.002-04:00

Ok, so I am actually almost 24 weeks, but I did this survey when I was 23.5 weeks with Lucy, so I wanted the titles to match!

Week and day: 23 weeks and 6 days

Belly Button in or out: almost fully out, well as much as it probably is going to be, I don't think my belly button goes as far out as others, but I definitely noticed it popping out early this time.

Wedding rings on or off: On, so far, but they are pretty uncomfortable during these hot summer days. Plus I don't think my fingers every went back to their original size... wondering if I'll need to get the rings re-sized.

Food cravings: Salty stuff, but also I've noticed a strong desire for chocolate/peanut butter foods... even if that means taking a piece of baking chocolate and dipping it in a jar of peanut butter... whatever works!

Food aversions: none

Nausea: none - I really feel like my normal self, besides a little extra around my belly

Energy level: energy level is great! although I do find myself tiring easier than normal, i.e. today I took a quick nap while Lucy was sleeping and I find myself doing that about once a week or so. Most days I'm full of energy, but some days I'm just dragging...

Weight gain: About 20 pounds, I have been watching this very, very closely and I think I'm doing pretty good. Last time I seemed to have gained the same amount of weight that I was in weeks (i.e. at 32 weeks I had gained 32 pounds), I'm tracking a little under that this time, so yay!!

Mood: I definitely am more aware of my temper this time around - last time I think I didn't realize how moody the pregnancy had made me, I just thought that was my normal... now I realize that Jess off of pregnancy hormones is a different person than Jess on pregnancy hormones... things seem to make me angrier quicker and/or I get sad about things quicker... funny, this time around instead of it all being directed at Ben, I have found myself getting angry/sad about friend and family stuff more often... lucky Ben!

Maternity clothes: shoot, I think I broke these out around 8 weeks!

Size of baby: Almost an ear of corn! A foot long and just over a pound. (just left this from last time... I'm assuming it's the same!)

Changes of baby: Brain and taste buds developing, lungs develop respiratory "branches"

Next appointment: Today, got a little teddy bear with baby boy's heart beat to bring home - cool! but Lucy doesn't like it :)

Other: Last time I mentioned how strangers congratulate me on the pregnancy - this actually doesn't happen often, maybe people see me with a kid and just assume I still have a little left over from the first baby! I feel like I had so many other things to say here that I wanted to remember about carrying baby boy, but I forget now... ahh pregnancy brain! 24 week pictures to come soon!

Talking

2011-07-20T21:22:00.002-04:00

Lucy has discovered the joy of video taping herself via my iPhone. She loves to make videos of herself and then watch them... hmmm... maybe this is not the best thing to have taught her! Oh well, thought this video was pretty cute, it's long, so sorry - but I mostly post on her for myself anyway, and I liked the whole thing!

Recipes- First Half of July

2011-07-16T23:02:00.007-04:00

I have not been good about keeping up with my recipes, but here is a list of what we've tried over the past couple weeks. I probably missed somethings, but these were the most memorable! I even remembered to take a few pictures this time...

1. Spinach and Feta Pasta (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/sukis-spinach-and-feta-pasta/detail.aspx) - I love the Hippie with a Benz omelet from Cafe Patachou, and I was thinking how easy it would be to make this at home! So I bought feta, tomatoes, mushroom and spinach for omelets in the morning, but wanted to leftover ingredients somehow so I came looked up this pasta. Very tasty and very easy! I did not add the feta cheese until after the meal was in a bowl, more as a garnish. I also would recommend cooking the mushrooms a little longer than the spinach and tomatoes. MAKE AGAIN

2. Egg Rolls (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-egg-rolls/detail.aspx), Fried Rice (http://www.food.com/recipe/benihana-japanese-fried-rice-71472) - I've made this fried rice before, it was good, but the real hit of the meal was the homemade egg rolls... I loved these! I would definitely make these again, although wrapping them was a little time consuming, it was worth it. Everything else was pretty simple. Also, I could only find spring roll wrappers, so we had to make do with that, but they were still good. MAKE AGAIN

3. Pot Roast (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pot-roast-recipe/index.html) - This is one of our favorites, Ben loves this and I love how easy it is. We never usually add the wine (because I don't have it on hand) and I usually add potatoes and carrots to the crock pot for the last hour or so of cooking. MAKE AGAIN

4. Spinach Lasagna - I actually made this twice over the past three weeks, neither time really following a recipe. I had a spinach recipe that I loved but couldn't find it so I just followed the box directions and made adjustments. One time I did just spinach and the second time I did beef and spinach. Lucy loves it, so that is a hit for me because she's getting veggies, meat, dairy and grains all in one dish! MAKE AGAIN

5. Steak Sandwiches, Sweet Potato Fries and Corn - After seeing a Penn Station commerical one day, I was eager to trying making some steak subs at home. I wasn't sure what type of meat it was and how to slice it up, when low and behold they had pre-packaged steak sub meat at the grocery store! They basically had already sliced up steak and frozen it and you just had to heat it up on the stove... very easy. I like this meal because although it wasn't super healthy, I felt better about eating this than going to Penn Station - I used whole grain bread, added sauteed peppers, and had sweet potatoe tater tots and corn on the side instead of greasy french fries. I might try a friend's recipe I saw for this one next time.

6. Paula Deen Chicken Nuggets (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/chicken-nuggets-with-honey-mustard-dipping-sauce-recipe/index.html), Green Beans (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/country-green-beans/detail.aspx), Mashed Potatoes - this is one of Ben's favorite meals, but it's pretty time consuming so it's not one of my favorites to prepare. The chicken nuggets are amazing however, and I would definitely recommend them, it just takes time to coat each piece of chick with the crushed chips. The green beans were a new recipe and a hit, I didn't have bacon or ham so I used bacon bits and oddly enough it turned out good! MAKE AGAIN

7. Flank Steak, Broccoli and Brown Rice- The flank steak recipe is one I got from my good friend Jane. It's really easy and really delicious. You just slice up the flank steak into thin strips, marinate (we used teriyaki flavor) for an hour or so and then grill for about 5 minutes. We added it with broccoli and brown rice and it was almost like a delicious stir fry. MAKE AGAIN

8. Flat Iron Steak (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/perfect-flat-iron-steak/detail.aspx), Salad, Pasta Salad (box) - I was in the mood for red meat these past couple weeks (can you tell)! This flat iron steak was a cheaper steak at the grocery so I thought we'd try it out. I didn't love the flavor and probably won't buy it again, knowing that the flank steak was similarly priced and much tastier.

9. BLT w/ avocado, chips and strawberry shortcake - Last but not least, I needed something for this past weekend that would be simple and BLT's sounded good so I made these up, and had some delicious strawberry shortcake (but really with angel food cake) for dessert! MAKE AGAIN

Phew! That's a lot, but as I was planning out meals for this next week I've already started looking back at my old meals, I'll be glad to have this to look back on!

St. Louis Weekend

2011-07-13T21:38:00.005-04:00

Goodness, we've been traveling a lot! We went from not traveling for several months, to having three action packed weekends in a row! It was actually a blast and they were much needed vacations, and much needed time with family and friends. Our final trip was a short trip to St. Louis for a Cardinals game. Just Ben and I went, so there was much less to think about and it was a bit more relaxing.

My mom had to go out to audit two of their restaurants in St. Louis so she invited us to join her for the weekend for dinner at Ruth's and a Cardinals game. It was a blast!

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza downtown, and Mom got us upgraded to a suite on the 20th floor, so the room and the view were awesome! We almost didn't want to leave the room!

We spent the first part of the day at the roof top pool (that had another great view!) Here I am posing with baby boy...

And then washed up and headed to dinner - even though we were all pretty stuffed from the wings we ate at Hooters for lunch (I think this was my first experience at Hooters, but what can I say, when the baby wants wings, the baby gets wings). Let's just say dinner was a little more classy...

Next up was our golf car ride over to the game... probably my favorite part of the weekend! Nothing beats riding around downtown St. Louis on the back of a golf car that goes 20+ miles an hour!

The game was a blast - we had great seats, and by great I mean they were in the shade, which was pretty much the only thing I was hoping for!

But after six innings, we decided to head back to Ruth's for a little dessert and drinks. Then I insisted Ben and I walk around for a little bit to try to work off some of the thousands of calories we had consumed that day!

The next morning we slept in late (a treat, since usually our little bean is usually calling out our name bright and early in the morning at home!) and went to a local breakfast place called Rooster. It was delicious so I was glad we walked a little further than we needed and stayed a little later than we should have to make it there.

Lucy had a blast staying with Grandma and Grandpa Wehner, and didn't even want to go home with us when we picked her up! They must spoil her rotten over there... like any good grandparent should :)

Fourth of July - Holland (part 2)

2011-07-13T21:22:00.005-04:00

On the actual Fourth of July we spent most of the morning packing up at the hotel. Lucy slept in till 9 so we had a late breakfast and then headed over to Ben's grandparents for their 60th anniversary party- a cook-out with Ben's aunts, uncles and cousins.

Our little firecracker, one year ago...

And now, all grown up! (but still just as bald... ok, ok, her hairs growing, you just can't see it in this picture!)

Thanks for my Fourth of July outfit Mimi! You got me one last year and this year... so I'm expecting something cute next year!)

Playing on the swing set at Great Grandma and Grandpa DeGraaf's.

Hanging out with two of my favorite guys at the cookout. Dad...

And Grandpa...

And let's not forget baby boy... he's hidden somewhere in there!

We headed home from the cookout, Lucy napped about 45 minutes in the car (even though she was exhausted and usually naps for 2 hours, I've found car naps never make it past the 45 minute mark). But instead of going straight home, we went over to Beth's for a Fourth of July cookout and to catch some fireworks. I forgot to snag any pictures there, but we had a blast and it was a great way to end our busy, fun filled, Fourth of July weekend!

Fourth of July - Holland (part 1)

2011-07-13T20:56:00.006-04:00

After picking cherries we continued on our way to Holland, where Ben's grandparent's cabin is. We had a great weekend hanging out with Ben's family, relaxing on the beach and touring Holland! Here are a few highlights from our trip...

After getting to Holland, we chatted with Ben's grandparents, met up with the family, and got to spend a little time on the beach. I was anxious to get back to the hotel to wash off all the camp gunk and I figured Lucy could use a nap, so we all took a shower/nap break back at the hotel. After the break we went to Russ's for dinner (a locally owned favorite of the Wehners) and then walked along the pier at the Holland State Park...

Lucy and Grandma watching the boats come in. This girl LOVES her grandma!

Uncle Nick showing Lucy around...

Walking on the pier with Dad...

Playing in the sand after we had just cleaned up at the hotel! Oh well, she had fun...

We spent most of the day on Sunday at the beach with a stop in the middle for a cook out with Ben's grandparents, aunt and cousins...

That night we walked around and ate dinner in downtown Holland. I have been to Holland several times but this was our first extended weekend and it was so neat to see other parts of the city besides the beach (don't get me wrong, I do love the beach!) It's an adorable town with lots of neat shops and lots of history too (Ben's parents met at college there so we got the scoop on all the places that were still around).

After dinner we toured Hope college, with Ben's dad, mom and brother Nick being our tour guides (all Hope Alumni). It was fun to learn about the campus and was especially nice for Luke as he will be going to Hope in the fall.

Of course, we made sure that Lucy didn't get a good look around - she will obviously be going to IU when she is ready for college.

Fourth Of July - Camping

2011-07-12T13:50:00.006-04:00

We had planned a trip up to Holland, Michigan for the holiday weekend to hang out at the beach and see Ben's extended family. We weren't supposed to leave till Saturday morning, but since it's a 4 hour drive, I was eager to get up north and have as much down time as possible - so we decided to camp on Friday night!

Ben and I have enjoyed camping in the past, but this was our first time taking Lucy. She did great! All in all the camping experience was not that fun because it rained our entire trip up to the campsite so the campgrounds were extremely muddy and all of the wood was wet. Plus the actual campsite we stayed at was not that nice and the amenities were only so-so (i.e. no fire pit, not all sites had picnic benches, there was no gravel to drive on so cars kept getting stuck in the mud). Also, I think we will probably wait to try camping till Lucy is a little older next time - although she was a happy camper, it was a lot of work to get the tent set up, get the fire going and cook dinner and she couldn't really enjoy the things that make camping fun like roasting marshmallows and cooking hot dogs over the fire.

Here's Ben and Lucy setting up the tent...

Dinner! The fire took so long to make because of all the damp wood, but Ben worked hard and finally got some nice heat going!

Lucy and I spent a lot of time in the back of the car - it was much drier, less buggy and all in all a better place for mommy to sit

Especially after Lucy found the mud puddles...

That was fun to clean up.

We had planned on making breakfast the next morning but we didn't want to have to rebuild the fire and we were pretty ready to wash up and get out of the swamp, so we decided to go out for breakfast. This left us a little extra time in the morning before Ben's family got there so we made a pit stop to pick some fresh Michigan cherries..

This was a lot of fun and I loved the spontaneity of our morning, but I wouldn't recommend taking a 15 month old to pick cherries... she wanted to put each one in her mouth, which we normally wouldn't mind except the fact that these cherries had pits and we were nervous about her choking. Better to try a blueberry farm next time!

It's a boy! And 20 Week Pictures

2011-07-11T21:52:00.008-04:00

We went last week to our 20 week ultrasound and found out that baby 2 is going to be a little boy! While Ben and I were both excited I think we were both very surprised too. I didn't realize it until then, but I was really thinking this baby was going to be a little girl... I guess that's the only thing I've experienced so far, so that's the only thing I knew to expect. I'm excited to see what life brings as we add a little more testosterone to our family, and I'm especially excited for Ben to have a little football player he can coach in the back yard.

It wasn't until I went grocery shopping after the ultrasound that reality really set in and I realized the amount of pink things in our home and the amount of blue things we'll need to load up on - clothes, blankets, nursery decorations, etc. And I think being able to picture a little boy in our home just made reality set in even more that we were soon going to become a family of four! And all that still needs to be prepared for the arrival of our little boy - his room is full of stuff that needs to be moved out and then we need to go buy stuff to fill it back up! Needless to say I've been spending lots of time online since the ultrasound looking at nurseries and furniture and trying to decide how we can best maximize our space and the furniture we already have while creating two adorable spaces for our new little boy and his big sister.

Fortunately my mom has already got us on our way and bought us our first baby boy clothes, blankets, bibs, a robe and a teddy bear. I have a feeling this little boy is going to be just as spoiled as his big sister!

And here is an updated picture of my belly!

And as a comparison... here I was with Lucy at 20 weeks... looking about the same!

Lucy 15 Months- Stats and Updates

2011-07-05T22:20:00.005-04:00

Since I last posted an update on Lucy we've had a couple tumultuous weeks! Unfortunately Lucy had been sick for about a month and a half so we are just now entering a state of "normal" in our house. She went from having a cold/flu for almost two weeks to picking up another cold/flu, and somewhere in between got two ear infections! Poor girl! She spent most of those days with a paci, sleeping whenever she wanted, watching TV (something she normally isn't allowed to do) and hanging out in mom's arms. Anything to make my little girl feel better!

So as far as normal, I still don't have a good grasp on what a normal schedule looks like for us. With the weirdness of her schedule before the sickness, then the sickness, then two vacations after the sickness I have just been taking each day as they come and trying to watch Lucy's cues as much as possible. Some days she takes two naps, most days she takes one. Some days she seems cranky but doesn't want to sleep so she goes down for some much needed quiet time in her crib. Some days she sleeps a normal 7:30pm-7:30am schedule at night, some days we lay her down at 7:30 and she plays until 8:30 or 9. Hopefully within the next couple weeks (now that we are down with traveling for a bit) we'll get a better routine going.

Fortunately though much of the crankiness is gone and Lucy has been much less clingy to me. Although she still loves a decent amount of mommy time, it has been fun to see how she now also prefers her grandparents, Jadyn, Jordyn and Ben and will even sometimes choose them over me (something I'm very happy about!)

We have been working on a couple things I spoke with the doctor about in the past couple days. One problem I was having was Lucy's desire to snack all throughout the day and eat half her meal in the highchair and half her meals in my lap. Instead of this routine, I am now trying to have set meal times (difficult when her sleep is all over the map though) and only let her eat in her highchair or booster (difficult when we are on vacation though). So far we've had some success with this, but it has been taking a lot of reinforcement!

The other thing we've been working on is discipline. This is a whole new ball park for me and something I have been asking many of my other mommy friends about and reading lots of books about! It felt like such an abrupt change moving from baby-hood to toddler-hood, I definitely was not prepared. Fortunately, Lucy does not get into trouble a lot, and typically if she does do something bad I know it's time for a nap or bed time. My doctor suggested, and I agree, that at Lucy's age time outs can be somewhat difficult so if she does do something bad (i.e. hitting mommy out of anger) I get on her eye-level, tell her "NO NO NO" and then walk away from her for 30 seconds. So for right now, we are trying that - so far I've only had to do it once or twice, like I said Lucy just doesn't seem to be getting into too much trouble yet.

Two funny things that happened this past week that I want to remember are when Lucy sneezed and as Ben was reaching for a tissue, Lucy grabbed my shirt and wiped her nose with it (thanks luc! I wasn't trying to keep that clean or anything!) and when I was sitting in the family room I watched Lucy climb up the stairs. I thought it was funny she would leave a room that I was in (she usually likes to be close by) so I let her do her thing. A couple second later she came back down the stairs, and was running over to me with a paci in her mouth looking as happy as could be. Apparently she had snuck upstairs on a paci hunt and was proud of herself for finding one!

Other than that, Lucy's personality continues to blossom and I find myself laughing with her throughout the day. She is so adventurous and continues to love being outdoors. A few shots from the past couple weeks...

On our way home from a splash park day and visit to Mimi's

Playing in a box of oatmeal...

Splash park one evening with Jaydn and Jordyn...

15 month check up stats:
weight - 25.4 lbs, 85%
height - 32 in, 91%
head- 18.5in, 80%

Blacksburg Virginia 2011

2011-07-05T21:43:00.006-04:00

I have lots of catching up on the blog to do as we have been traveling the past two weekends, we went to Lucy's 15 month check up at the doctor and we find out the sex of the baby tomorrow! So lots of new posts to come... First up- we traveled to the great state of Virginia to visit with Katy and Brandon for a long weekend.

Lucy and I had been once before...

But this was Ben's first visit. I had to include the above picture from our last visit to not only show how little Lucy was when we visited last time but also to note how much she liked Brandon when we visited last time. Unfortunately, this time, she wanted nothing to do with him and was a little frightened every time he came in the room... sorry b-bop... maybe she'll turn around next time we see you!

Lucy did really great during the 7 hour drive, although we thought she'd sleep more, both times in the car she didn't fall asleep until 10pm (she normally goes to bed around 7:30 or 8pm). This made for a lot of entertaining on the way there since we left at 3:30, but fortunately, Lucy seemed pretty happy and only got a little cranky towards the very end when she was obviously over-tired.

We did make one pit stop for dinner at burger king on the way down...

Katy and Brandon had the perfect weekend planned, a lot of fun activities but a lot of down time as well. The first day we planned to do a hike, but while we were getting everything together we realized it might be best to lay Lucy down before leaving, so we walked around K/B's neighborhood and then had a picnic lunch on their front porch...

Lucy had fun trying to balance on their hilly neighborhood... she's not used to going up and down all the time!

I think one of my favorite things about K/B's house is their front porch. We happened to have amazing weather while we were there so we spent lots of hours sitting/eating/talking/relaxing on their front porch. It was perfect!

The boys also snuck in a quick tour of the Virginia Tech campus via the Miller's tandem bicycle. Love seeing these two grown men on a bike together...

After Lucy's nap we headed out for a hike. We hiked out for a mile to a gorgeous waterfall and then came back (although the out part took much longer because we took the scenic/rocky route). The waterfall was a perfect spot to take a break, for Lucy to play in (little pools in the rocks near the waterfall), and for the boys to swim... unfortunately our camera battery died so we only got a couple of shots on the way to the waterfall...

Ben carried Lucy the whole way!! I was impressed... although I did mention the fact that I was carrying baby 2 the whole time too :)

We ate at Cabo Fish Tacos that night, a short walk from K/B's house in dowtown Blacksburg and then I think everyone passed out pretty early since we had stayed up talking till 2 a.m. the night before!

The next morning we went tubing down the New River. This was one of my favorite activities because it was sunny and relaxing! And Lucy passed out on Ben's lap, making the ride even more relaxing!

That night we ate at Homeplace, an all you can eat, family style restaurant were the friend chicken, mashed potatoes, rolls, beans and corn are brought to your table until you say stop! This was a really neat place to visit, it was an old farm house turned into a restaurant and the food was great.

Our last day we just laid low, hanging around the K/B's apartment and packing up our things while Katy had to go to a baby shower for one of her friends. All in all we had a great time visiting and were so thankful for friends that enjoy having Lucy around as much as we do!

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-21T14:41:00.005-04:00

We had a nice weekend celebrating Ben and both of our dads. We are always thankful that we live so close to family, but being able to see both of our dads on Fathers Day is a great reminder of how lucky we truly are. I'm so thankful Lucy will grow up knowing both of her grandfathers.

We did some shopping on Saturday and had planned on going for a picnic, but after a full day of rain we decided to stay in, so Ben picked KFC as his Father's Day Eve meal of choice. A few pics from us playing around this weekend:

Shopping at Target, Lucy decided to ride on the front of the cart...

Ben wanted to have a day of fun in a box leftover from a chair we bought...

Lucy did not like this idea...

So Ben had some fun on his own...

On Sunday we had Ben's family over for brunch and my family over for dinner. I forgot to snag a pic with Ben's dad, but here's a picture after dinner on Sunday night with my sister and my dad... not the best quality, but I'm still glad we grabbed it!

Baby 2 - 16 Weeks Update

2011-06-13T13:23:00.002-04:00

I'm a little over 16 weeks now and feeling great! Once I hit 12 weeks my body has been feeling almost normal, besides my growing belly and being a little more prone to headaches. This is again, just like Lucy - fortunately I remembered getting headaches in the beginning, but not the entire time, so I'm hoping my almost daily headaches will go away soon. Baby is healthy so far, and we get to find out the sex of the baby on July 6th!

Dancing in the Street

2011-06-13T11:30:00.006-04:00

I have not been good about taking my camera with me lately, as I mentioned before, my iPhone has such a good camera on it so I usually just end up taking pictures with that... although it's not as good as our regular camera, so I should really start carrying around our camera more often! Anyway, all that to say, we did a lot of fun things this past weekend, but I didn't really get any pictures of them besides a couple with my iPhone that I wanted to include here... but I also figured I'd write down what we did because I do have such a bad memory and I want to remember what keeps us so busy!

Friday night Ben played softball so Lucy and I went to watch and played with some of the other kids that came to watch their dads. On Saturday we didn't have much planned besides me volunteering at Shepard in the morning, so after getting some chores done we had our day wide open in front of us. We stopped by Ben's parents house to go to their neighborhood pool for a bit and then decided to take a walk on the Monon and eat dinner at Bazbeaux. Much to our surprise, when we pulled up to the Monon the street was blocked off and there was a festival taking place in downtown Carmel! We had such a fun time walking through the festival, still made it to the monon and Bazbeaux and got a funnel cake for dessert on our walk back through the festival to our car.

There was a band playing so we stopped to enjoy the funnel cake and let Lucy out of her stroller for a bit, and it turns out, give everyone around us a show- Lucy was the life of the party, showing off her dancing skills to all of Carmel:

Tons of people kept stopping and saying how cute she was and how fun it was that she was dancing... we agreed!

First taste of a carnival food (and loving it)...

The night ended up being a blast, and I was so glad that we have enough space and time in our lives right now to stumble upon random carnivals and enjoy time as a family!

And although I don't have any pictures, I must include that Sunday was a great day as well- Ben watched Lucy and I got to begin some birthday festivities by going out with Beth and Courtney on Beth's boat and then going out to dinner with my mom and sister at Ruth's Chris... both things were a wonderful way to start my birthday week!

Summer Time!

2011-06-13T11:13:00.006-04:00

We are in the full swing of summer here and I am loving it! Lucy and I spend most of our days outside, but take some breaks from the heat since it's been 90+ degrees lately!

Here's a glimpse of some of our summer activities...

Swinging in the front yard (sometimes baby gets to swing too)

Going to the zoo with Drew (this was the Lafayette Zoo, but hopefully Erin and I will make it to the Indy zoo sometime this summer too!)

Bike rides with dad

Ok, this one's random, but lately Lucy loves to play in the car - I have no idea why, but every time we go to the garage she asks to get up in the car, usually by pointing and yelling "mamamamama!" or sometimes I get a "peas" (please). So I just let her do her thing!

Playing in the sprinkler (this is not really a hit, I think maybe it's a little scary for Lucy, but she likes to watch Ruthie run through and drink the sprinkler water)

Backyard pool and waterslide!

Hanging out in just a diaper

I like the above picture because I love how tiny Lucy looks in our back yard, I love that she actually let me leave her side! (we've been having some progress in the clinginess department) and it reminded me of all the backyard issues we've already had this summer: 3 snakes, a dead bird in our dryer vent, and a tree knocked over one of our fence posts (note the missing fence post in the back)... ready for a little peace and quiet at our house!

Recipes - Week of June 6

2011-06-08T12:21:00.004-04:00

This week we had dinner plans with some friends and went downtown for the Celebrity Indians Game, so I only planned for 2 dinners, but made a couple other meals for Lucy during the day...

Dinners:
Jimmy Johns-like Subs- this isn't really a recipe, but I have been craving Jimmy Johns so much that I decided to buy some french bread and make myself a veggie sub and Ben a turkey sub. Definitely a make again, this was super easy and really filling, next time I'd probably make half the loaf so we don't waste so much.

Veggie Sub:
Avocado spread (basically quacamole)
Tomato
Cucumber
Lettuce
Provolone Cheese
Low Fat Mayo

Turkey Sub:
Turkey
Tomato (although Ben doesn't like tomatoes, so I left it off)
Lettuce
Mustard
Low Fat Mayo

*no sprouts bc I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to eat them when you're prego

Taco Salad- this is a staple at our house, I think it's pretty healthy (we use low fat ground beef and low fat sour cream) and Ben loves it, so it's one of the few recipes we are both happy with! I just throw lettuce (romaine if I'm feeling really healthy), ground beef, tomato, cheese, salsa, low fat sour cream, and a couple chips in a bowl and it's ready to go!

*these two meals work well together because I could use leftover lettuce and tomato in the salad and didn't have to waste any fresh veggies!

Carrot and Broccoli Orzo- Erin gave me this recipe to try out for Lucy and it was definitely a hit, I will definitely make this again, but maybe add a little more broccoli and a little less carrots (for my own personal taste preference).

Banana Nut Bread- Make Again. I did part whole wheat flour and part regular, and also added some walnuts. This was a hit with Ben and I, but Lucy didn't really seem to like it (which is who I was really making it for!)

Tiramisu Cake- Made this for our dinner with friends... we were in charge of dessert and it was Italian night! This was is a maybe, it took a lot of time to prepare and was kind of a mess to put together, so I'd probably only make it if someone had a birthday that really liked tiramisu.

Maybe I'll get fancy and add actually take some pictures of what I make in the future... we'll see

Lucy 13 & 14 Months

2011-05-24T12:18:00.005-04:00

I decided to stop doing monthly updates after 1 year of age for Lucy because, well, it just seemed like a good time to stop and I didn't know how sustainable monthly updates will be once we have 2, 3 maybe even 4 little ones running around here! Heck... maybe the blog won't even be around by then. But I did want to do an update about the past couple months because they have brought tons of new changes as Lucy moves into full swing toddler-hood. I want to make sure to remember what 13/14 months is like so that way when future babies come along I won't be thinking, "well, Lucy never did this" or "Lucy always slept so well, what's wrong with this new baby" - I want to remember that things weren't always perfect, by the book, or on schedule!

So these past two months the biggest change (that has then affected every other area of my life) has been Lucy's sleep schedule. I started noticing that when we got back from the cruise (and right before), Lucy was being a little finicky about going down for 2 naps, sometimes just playing in her crib until I would get her after 45 minutes or so. She also started playing for about an hour every night when we laid her down for bed. So finally about 3 weeks ago I decided we'd move to one nap even though I wasn't ready for it and I don't think Lucy was really ready for it, I was thinking we'd have two naps for at least another couple months.

The great thing about moving to one nap is that we are able to do a lot more of the fun kid stuff, like go to the library, make play dates, go to the pool, etc. because I'm not rushing from one nap to the next. Lucy also takes a solid 2 hour nap and typically goes down pretty good at night instead of having 2 shorter naps and a rough bed time. Unfortunately, I'm just not used to this new schedule - so while I'm excited to do some of the fun new stuff we are able to do, we haven't really yet because I've been so used to having to be at home for 4 hours of the day. I also can't quite figure out when to get anything done, especially because not only did I lose a good chunk of mommy-alone time by getting rid of a nap, Lucy also wants to be held almost the entire time she is awake (part of why I don't think she was fully ready to give up the second nap). The days are getting better, and I've found certain things that keep her happy (like being outside, going on walks, reading), but all of those things involve me and don't allow me to get things done around the house.

Some days are ok, but it seems most days, this is the face I usually see...

Lucy seems frustrated about most things, and I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what it is she wants to make her stop crying (i.e. she wants a cracker, but I can't find which one she wants so she throws a "tantrum" until we get the right one, and oh yeah I can't hand her the cracker, she needs to be able to get it out of the box herself, I figured that out after another "tantrum".) These days most of her communication involves, crying, whining, hitting, and pushing.

And it seems as long as I'm around, nobody else is as good as mom. I'll leave to volunteer on Saturday mornings and Ben says she won't cry at all. But as soon as I get home, the crying (or should I call it whining because most often it's a fake cry) begins...

It seems, around everyone else Lucy is a completely happy baby, who doesn't cry. But around me she is only happy if I'm holding her.

I haven't quite figured out this new schedule either - some days Lucy is exhausted by 11:30 and passes out in the car (I never mind this though, mostly because its so precious, but also because she usually transitions to her crib no problem)

But some days I lay her down at 12:30 (her usual nap time and she plays for a while). Same with night time, some nights she goes down at 7:30 no problem, some nights she plays for an hour. It's nice that it's playing and not crying - but I just wish I could figure out when this girl is supposed to be sleeping!

So that's what I've been busy doing lately - fortunately, I know in time, this phase too shall pass, and we'll get back into a routine and things will be grand... I just need to survive until then!

Ok, how about some fun updates... Lucy talks up a storm these days - "momma, dada, cracker (this is her favorite word), bapala (or something like that, she says the same phrase every time she wants a banana), baby, quack, dog, grandpa, JJ (jadyn), ball, paci, no, hi, bye"... and maybe some others I can't think of now. She also knows where her nose, ears, head, belly and toes are. She's able to go up and down the stairs on her own, and loves climbing on top of and standing on top of just about anything. As I've mentioned before she LOVES being outside. We spend most of our days swinging, walking, pushing things and playing in our sandbox. We also spend a good amount of the day reading books, so I try to take a trip to the library about once a week to refresh our collection. She's super, super outgoing and waves at literally every person she sees when we go out (expect if they wave at her first, it's funny, she has to initiate the wave, otherwise she gets shy), and loves playing with other children. I've enjoyed having my niece and nephew over to play because that is one time Lucy seems to stop caring about me and wants to be off and playing with the kids.

A couple fun pictures from the past two months...

Playing in the sandbox with dad...

Brushing her teeth...

Weekly Menus

2011-05-23T13:07:00.004-04:00

I've decided to start a little something new on my blog - recording the weekly recipes I plan for our family. It's mostly for my benefit, since I feel like every week I am racking my brain trying to think of new stuff to cook... but I also figured anybody else who reads this might benefit too, since I know I like using recipes my friends have recommended!

I'm going to include the recipe, a link or the recipe (if I got it online) and then a rating - "make again", "ok", or "don't make again". These are mostly reviews given by Ben, but including my thoughts on if the meal was worth all the effort put in! For our family, Ben likes meat, fried things and generally stuff I consider pretty unhealthy :). I like to make sure we are getting all of our food groups in and eating healthy, so you'll see a large variety in what I prepare as I try to keep Ben happy but stay healthy as well!

MONDAY- Rachel Ray Buffalo Chicken Sandwich (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/hot-buffalo-chicken-sandwiches-recipe/index.html): Make Again... this is super easy and Ben loves this meal. I already forget what I served on the side, I think maybe salad... thus why these posts will be helpful in the future.
TUESDAY- Bennihanas Fried Rice (I used a recipe from a cookbook, but the first time I made this I had found a good recipe online. I liked the online recipe better): Make Again. We served frozen egg rolls and edamame on the side.
WEDNESDAY- Black Bean Burritos (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Delicious-Black-Bean-Burritos/Detail.aspx): Make Again. This was a new recipe I tried, and I really liked it... Ben was ok about it, but since it was simple and healthy, I'm definitely going to make it again.

I had Chicken Lo Mein planned for Thursday, but I think we ended up having plans twice this week, so I actually ended up wasting some of my ingredients... boo.

And I made these bad boys for Lucy's lunches, but they were not a hit. I ended up throwing most of them away because I didn't really like them either.

Spinach Nuggets

1 16-oz package frozen chopped spinach, cooked, drained, and chopped further if needed
1 cup Seasoned bread crumbs - (3/4 cup breadcrumbs and 1/4 cup wheat germ or flax meal is a healthy substitution!)
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese Try tomato & basil cheddar!)
3 Large eggsor 5 egg yolks

Heat oven to 375F

1. Lightly coat a baking sheet with olive oil and set aside.
2. Combine all remaining ingredients and mix well. *Add seasonings if you like - garlic powder, pepper, extra basil & oregano for example. Add a fruit or veggie puree to substitute for the eggs if desired*.
3. Shape mixture into nuggets or fun shapes such as squares or squigglies etc..and place on baking tray. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, turn nuggets over after 15 minutes. Serve warm

You can "roll" this out and then try using small cookie cutters to make these into fun shapes

Summer Days

2011-05-20T12:36:00.004-04:00

It has finally been warming up around here, so Lucy and I have been taking full advantage of the nice weather and playing outside a lot! This is Lucy's absolute favorite thing to do - she LOVES being outside.

My mom gave her this baby doll stroller and she loves to push her baby around in it. It's pretty cute to watch.

Although we've had a couple moments when the stroller was not cooperating with Lucy and so the baby got tossed. These are the times when I realize that we are in full swing toddler-hood, as Lucy tries to communicate something with me, and then gets irritated when I can't figure out what she wants.

Finally she was happy to sit in the stroller herself! I think she's practicing to be a big sister...

And of course, with the weather heating up, we had to break out our kiddie pool. I tried to get more pictures of this day because we had a lot of fun playing in the water and eating Popsicles, but I realized a lot were not internet appropriate. But here's our back yard set up... I was concerned about Lucy getting too much sun, so I rigged up a little backyard oasis for us.

Baby 2 - 12 Week Update

2011-05-19T19:40:00.007-04:00

I'm way behind on my blogging, as I've been wanting to get an update on Lucy and and update on the pregnancy on the blog for the past couple weeks, but somebody has been keeping me very, very preoccupied (more on that in the next post). For now, I wanted to report on the happenings of baby 2 and the pregnancy so far. As I mentioned in my previous posts, some of the immediate symptoms I had before taking the pregnancy test were the same as with Lucy, and it turned out that the entire first trimester has been almost exactly the same. Same cravings - salty foods, McDonald's french fries and same aversions - coffee (convenient since I gave it up anyway!) and sweet things don't really sound that appealing (don't get me wrong, I'll have dessert, I just don't care for it as much as I did before). I also get in the mood for random things at random times and that is pretty much the only thing I want... that seems to change daily.

Nausea and fatigue were pretty much the same too - fortunately, as with Lucy, I never actually got sick, I just felt nauseated if I didn't keep my stomach full. Ben and I joke that I usually have 1st breakfast, 2nd breakfast, 1st lunch, 2nd lunch, dinner and then a bed time snack. Unfortunately, as with Lucy, this led to weight gain in the first trimester which is not ideal! At least this time I knew that I would gain the weight this first trimester and then things would slow down once my appetite went away (which it already has!) So, I've gained about 10 pounds so far, which is far too much for an average pregnancy but I guess for my pregnancies it is normal, because that's exactly how much I gained with Lucy.

Although the tiredness was the same, it still felt miserable! I had forgotten how tired the first trimester really makes you. Except this time around, one benefit of being at home instead of working, I got to take naps when Lucy napped or at least rest a bit when she rested. The tiredness lasted for about 6 weeks (I'm starting to feel a lot better) and honestly in the midst of it, I literally felt depressed. We had a really rainy April, which I think made my mood even worse, so I felt like doing nothing. At least when I was working, I was forced to go do something every day, see people, act normal. This time around, I was too tired to make plans, but I got so tired of sitting in the house... watching the rain come down. So I was in a pretty bad mood about my situation (the hormones probably didn't help). My internal clock also seems to have switched, like with Lucy - I'm exhausted and ready for bed at about 9pm and up in the morning at 7/7:30am ready to go (normally I'm more of a night owl).

Back to the hormones - I felt emotionally about the same, on the verge of tears any time I read or see anything slightly emotional and I've felt just the slightest bit more on edge... luckily Ben was ready for it this time! Tiny things seem to bother me and I find myself getting annoyed easily. It's funny, I know when I'm being bothered that it's totally irrational and that I'm only upset because of the pregnancy... but that does not seem to make me feel any better or make the situation any less irritating!

The biggest difference this time around is that my belly has already started to pop out. I looked back at my "15 week survey" and saw that I wasn't even wearing maternity clothes yet. This time around I broke out my maternity pants at around 9 or 10 weeks! It just felt wrong keeping them locked up when my regular pants were starting to get too uncomfortable.

Here's my belly so far with baby 2 (this is supposed to be 12 weeks... but it's actually 13!)

I think that pretty much sums up the last 12 weeks - thankfully I am beginning to feel so much more normal, and am very excited to enjoy the honeymoon phase of this pregnancy!

Big Sister

2011-05-12T10:56:00.001-04:00

We have some news to share...

Lucy's going to be a big sister! I am 12 weeks pregnant today - we've told most of our family and friends, but now that I'm officially done with my first trimester I thought it was time to share the big news on our blog.

We found out around 5 or 6 weeks - I had come home from volunteering and told Ben that, "I may be crazy, but I feel like I'm pregnant." I had woken up that morning feeling kind of dizzy in the shower and nauseated before I ate breakfast. Then while I was down at the Shepard clinic I started getting hungry again (I always had to eat 2 breakfasts when I was pregnant with Lucy). And to top it all off, I had driven by a McDonald's the day before and had this strong desire for their fries (my favorite food while I was pregnant with Lucy). Granted, all these things could have just been in my head, so I told Ben I was going to take a test, but I was 95% sure I wasn't pregnant.

Boy was I wrong! We were both so excited to see the positive result on the test, and I was personally so excited that getting pregnant had been so easy this time around. It had taken us about 6 months to get pregnant with Lucy, so we just assumed it would take that long this time around. In fact, I had made an appointment to see the doctor to talk about why my period hadn't come back after stopping nursing. Well... turns out it hadn't come because I was pregnant! Needless to say we were planning for the babies to be closer to 2 years apart, but since the pregnancy came a little faster they will be more like 20 months apart. Baby 2 is due November 24th (Thanksgiving).

I plan to take some pictures of my belly to post along the way - probably not as many as with Lucy, but I'll probably do a monthly update. And of course share how I'm feeling... more on that to come in later posts. For now, we just wanted to share our excitement. We can't wait to meet our new baby in 6 short months!

Mini Marathon

2011-05-12T10:45:00.000-04:00

This past weekend Ben ran in the mini marathon! I was so proud of him for not only getting a great time, but also for all of the training he did leading up to it. There were many mornings that he would wake up at 5:30am go to the gym and run, just so he could get home and hang out with Lucy and I during the evenings.

Not only did Ben do the marathon, but 3 of his brothers and his mom ran as well. Lucy and I went to watch, but unfortunately only caught site of Ben and Ross (although Luke and Nick ran by while we were standing there, some how we missed them). Here are all the boys after the race (we missed seeing Mom Wehner because it had started raining and we needed to head to the car before she crossed the finish)

Lucy and I tried to catch Ben at the 4 mile mark (which also happened to be the 10 mile mark) but I think we just missed him. I was so bummed, Lucy and I had rushed out the door, and rushed to the 4 mile mark, but Ben was able to get to the start line faster than we had planned so I think I was about 10 minutes to late. We did get to see him at mile 10, we just had to wait about an hour till he came back around.

Katy and Brandon were in town for Katy's graduation so they met up with us at the finish and then we celebrated with Ben at Taste in Broad Ripple.

Mothers Day 2011

2011-05-09T09:12:00.006-04:00

Last year we planted a tree on Mother's Day - Lucy was almost 2 months old. Here we are with the tree last year...

And here we are this year! Lucy has definitely grown! I'm not so sure about the tree... at least it looks a little fuller. Maybe in about 10 years we'll actually have some shade in our backyard!

A couple more shots of mom and baby...

We had trouble getting both of us to look...

I tried to get a couple of shots with Lucy by some flowers in her pretty dress from Heather and Christian... but couldn't get her to look here either! I think there was just too much going on outside!

At least I got one look by her sandbox...

And one with her daddy...

We spent the morning relaxing - Ben was going to get me another tree to plant, but I decided I wanted to go shopping for clothes instead (maybe we'll just plant one for each kid or something.) We were getting ready to leave for the morning, but Lucy was getting fussy so we laid her down and she ended up sleeping for 2 hours... thus, no shopping trip that day (although I did some online ordering instead!) It was nice to just sit around though, Ben made breakfast and cleaned up (what a treat!) and after Luc woke up we headed to my moms for a family get together.

Rainy Days

2011-05-08T19:43:00.005-04:00

It has been raining, A LOT, around here lately, so Lucy and have been spending a lot of time inside. During these days Lucy has read a lot, run around the house a lot, gone up and down the stairs a lot, and emptied out as many things as possible. I'm not going to lie, I've been going a bit stir crazy - but fortunately, somebody has been keeping me on my toes...

This was a fun mess to clean up!

Lucy has also likes to climb in and out of our stove drawer. I especially liked these photos because she and her baby doll look like twins!

Kisses for the baby...

Fortunately I don't think it can continue to rain for much longer, so I'm looking forward to warm outside days playing in the yard, going to the pool and taking lots of walks!

My favorite chair

2011-05-08T19:30:00.003-04:00

Recently, Lucy has figured out how to climb up onto things. She is so proud of herself when she does this, shouting, clapping and hopping up and down whenever she is pulled herself up onto something - it's pretty adorable. One of her favorite things to climb up on to is a chair we have in the corner of our family room. It's probably my least favorite item in our home (a chair Ben's had since college), but now I've found a new love for this chair as I watch Lucy climb up onto it and sit, completely content, for at least 10 minutes (which is like and hour in toddler world).

Here she is with some of her friends (baby and big bird)...

I took shots over a couple days to show just how much she gets into the chair... it's a daily ritual. This time I saw her rocking her baby in the chair... just like her momma rocks her...

We've also had snack time in the chair- it makes me feel like she's so grown up. I give her a cup of crackers and her milk and she sits still to eat them.

Easter 2011

2011-04-27T09:57:00.004-04:00

Now that Lucy has been alive for a full year, it's exciting to experience each holiday a second time around with her (ok, so Easter was the first time we experienced this, but I'm excited for all of the holidays coming up to compare this year to last year!) Here's a look at our sweet baby girl one year ago...

And now all grown up!

Showing off our Easter dresses... even though it was cold and miserable here, we dressed for spring!

We started by decorating some Easter cupcakes at home (ok, only I did that, but Ben helped make a casserole while I was hard at work making icing "grass)

Then spent the rest of the day with family, first at Grandma and Grandpa Wehners for a big Easter lunch (and the best shot we got as a whole family)

Then to Nani and Poppi's for Easter baskets, an Easter egg hunt and dinner. Here's a shot of Lucy finding her basket...

And then moving along, totally uninterested in it

Ok, maybe the egg hunt will be a little more interesting... She's spotted one!

Reaching for it...

Victory!

In all actuality she wasn't that interested in this activity either, she was more excited about being outside and watching all her crazy cousins run around. This was the one egg she actually went after, the others she just walked right by!

Dyeing Easter Eggs

2011-04-27T09:45:00.002-04:00

Even though she is a little young, I thought it would be fun to dye Easter eggs with Lucy this year. She didn't really get what we were doing, but I think she had a good time trying something new! Here are a few pictures from our adventure...

Getting our supplies ready...

Inspecting all the materials (love that serious face)

Dropping the eggs in (Lucy was not that interested in this part, so that was mostly fun for mom)

Waiting for the eggs... so we snagged a quick picture with dad after his 9 mile run! (he thought it was pretty cute that they both didn't have shirts on)

Pulling the eggs out - Lucy actually liked this part a lot, so I think we re-dunked all the eggs twice so she could pull them all out again!

Ta-daa!

Cruising

2011-04-21T20:08:00.004-04:00

Ben and I just got back from vacation - we took a 3 night cruise out of Port Canaveral to the Bahamas and CocoCay (an island owned by Royal Carribean). It was our first trip with out Lucy, which also included our first night away from her and basically the longest time we've been apart from her. As hard of a decision as it was to leave her, we both wanted to set a precedent of putting our marriage first and we felt like a long weekend away was just what we needed. Hopefully we will have more mommy-daddy only trips in the future!

Lucy stayed with her Grandma and Grandpa Wehner while we were away, and they loved having her! In fact, they even said they'd keep her an extra night if we needed some time to recover from a long day of traveling home... we appreciated the offer but couldn't wait to get her back in our arms! What a relief... I was so nervous that they'd be itching to give her back to us when we got home, afraid she wouldn't sleep or would be a bother, but they said she was a perfect baby!

Our first day of vacation we flew into Orlando and stayed the night there. I have to admit, leaving Lucy was much, much harder than I had imagined! I figured I would miss her, but the first 24 hours felt horrible - and I kept telling Ben I wish we hadn't left her. Fortunately the feelings wore off, but I was so shocked at how empty those first couple hours without her felt. Once we were on the cruise ship, Ben and I got into the swing of just being us and completely relaxing (i.e. watching TV, laying out, and eating... repeat)

A couple highlights from our trip:

Getting off the ship in Nassau (I swear I have a shot that is almost identical to this of Ben on our honeymoon, he has the same jersey and bathing suit on that he wore 4 years ago!)

We tried to keep the trip pretty cheap, so didn't do any excursions. The first thing we did in Nassau was head to a beach within walking distance from the ship:

Then walked around the town and grabbed a beer and some hot wings (I know, I know, we have all you can eat food on the cruise... but hot wings sounded soooo good!)

Back on the ship... one of the many things we love about cruising... towel animals! Also, a shot of our cabin... it was much smaller than the other two times we cruised when we had a balcony, but neither of us seemed to mind.

Formal night... and the only shot we got with both of us in it!

The Atlantis at night

A little wind blown... and sun burned! We really only had one good day of sun, so we made the most of it!

Day 2 - relaxing at Cococay! Well, first we took an extremely long walk, trying to make it around the island but then turning a wrong way and ending up on a gravel road in our bare feet... ouch! So this is what we did when we got back... (Ben and I were both reading Harry Potter on the trip)

And one last shot, wanted to include this fashionable hat I got... ok, just kidding... wanted to include this one because we had a long day of travel on our way home. We got off the ship about 7:45am, but our shuttle wasn't supposed to come till 9:30am and then our flight wasn't supposed to leave till 2:30pm. So I decided to make the most of sitting outside in Orlando, and tried to get some more sun! But did not need anymore on my face...

Fortunately the shuttle came early and we were able to get a nonstop flight home, putting us in Indy an hour earlier than we thought. The whole day I was so excited to see our baby girl, it was so great to be back together as a family when we got home!

A Chance to Slow Down

2011-04-09T20:32:00.003-04:00

So... I haven't posted lately, but not because I've been too busy or stressed, mostly because we haven't been up to much... which has been AMAZING! After painting and re-doing a lot of the downstairs, then planning for Lucy's party, I needed a break. But I did want to get some pictures that I've taken over the past couple weeks to show how big our baby girl is getting and share some of her favorites lately...

Helping Dad mow the lawn (don't worry it's turned off!) Lucy has been loving pushing things around, like her stroller, almost the entire way home from the park... so naturally she loved help her dad push the lawn mower (and by the way, yay for having enough sunshine to have to mow the grass for the first time this year!)

Getting into everything! On this day I was getting ready in the bathroom and peaked down to find I could no longer see Lucy. Somebody had sneaked into the cabinet...

And this isn't a great picture, it's hard to snap a baby that's on the move with my iPhone, but just had to show off these adorable new shoes we got Lucy...

Other cute things she's been up to - going over to the pantry, pulling out the cheez-its and saying "cracker", as she looks for me to give her some, calling everyone a baby (especially pictures of herself and her baby dolls), saying "owwwww" a lot, even when she is clearly not in pain, and finding her head and toes when we ask where they are.

Lucy's First Birthday

2011-03-31T12:37:00.004-04:00

Wanted to put a few pictures from Lucy's party here on the blog. We had a wonderful day celebrating our baby girl! Our house was full of people who love Lucy very much and who have been a part of her life and our lives as a family this past year- it was great to have everyone all in one place!

The birthday girl, complete with a tutu, leg warmers and an "I am 1" onesie... I forgot to get a full body shot with the shirt... oh well!

The dessert table, all food was doggie themed... "pup-cakes", puppy chow, dog bone cookies, and a smash cake for Lucy.

Drinks... and a newly wallpapered wall! Poodle theme designed by the lovely Katie Kruithof...

Food... hot dogs, corn dogs, kibbles n bits pasta salad, and doggie bags! (plus our new gray walls!)

A year of lucy... pictures from each month

Birthday cake!

Completely uninterested in the cake, and wondering why everyone was staring at her

Trying out one of her new presents

Love our silly family :)

More laughing!

2011-03-24T13:15:00.006-04:00

I was so glad I grabbed my camera for this, I just love it when Lucy giggles! We can almost always get her to laugh by tickling her or blowing raspberries on her belly, but sometimes she'll actually find humor in things... like the cow falling off the table below...

She is such a joy in our lives! We are so thankful for each little giggle she gives us!

12 months

2011-03-24T12:28:00.005-04:00

I have a lot of catching up to do! This week has been all about rest and recovery (well for me anyway, I don't think Lucy got that memo) since our house is now painted and Lucy's party is over.... but I don't want to forget my final month update!

Well, we did it! Lucy is officially 1 year old, and moving out of her "baby" months and into toddler-hood. So many things have been changing over the last couple weeks as she grows up and becomes more independent. We are officially done nursing, and fortunately, it was totally baby-led. I was nervous she was going to be upset when I tried to wean her, but I honestly think she was more upset that I was trying to nurse her towards the end. My busy-body little girl just did not want to sit still and eventually I think I just lost my supply... but I made it till she was 11.5 months old, so I feel very accomplished about that! She is officially drinking whole milk now and LOVES it.

She has still been taking 2 naps, totaling about 3 hours (although this past week that has changed... not sure if she is ready to drop down to one already???), and sleeps a good 12 hours every night. The best part is, even if she's awake in her crib, she sits and is content to play, so I've laid her down for naps a couple days and just heard her talking away... I suppose that's better than not having a break at all!

She is loving the warm weather and wants to be outside every second she can, and when I don't let her she has been throwing little fits - collapsing onto the floor and fake crying in hopes of getting her way. Hopefully she'll learn soon that her tactic isn't working! She is into everything and loves to open and close doors, cabinets and drawers and then empty out the contents of whatever drawer/cabinet she has uncovered... this has obviously made for a messy, messy house! This curiosity has also led her to discovering the toilet and what she can drop into it (like my iPhone!) and trying to climb up and stand on top of just about anything... I have a feeling we'll be using a lot of band aids in the near future.

She loves going to the park and going down the slide, or just exploring and watching the other children play. She LOVES other kids and always gravitates toward them whenever I put her down. One day I took her to the library and could not keep her away from another family... it was kind of awkward, she kept walking over to them and staring and pointing at the baby! She still loves reading and sits and reads with us several times throughout the day... and of course loves the TV whenever its on. I even have to turn the news off, otherwise she'll sit and stare at the TV... doesn't she know that's boring to watch? She loves going up and down the stairs, although hasn't mastered the going down part and usually likes me to give her a piggy back ride down.

She talks a lot, and we've made out mama, dada, dog, woof, baby and hi... but they are all still pretty inconsistent. She mostly just likes to babble and scream and make funny noises with her tongue... all of which make me laugh throughout the day. And it appears she is beginning to understand a lot of what we say... she'll bring me a ball, book, or baby when I ask, she'll wave bye-bye when we say "say night-night" or "say bye-bye". She'll even shake her head "no" when we ask her to give us kisses! Not sure if that's the response we want... but it's pretty cute. At least we can get her to blow us some kisses every once in a while.

She continues to be a super happy baby and pretty independent. She still loves her mama and needs to be held/cuddled every once in a while, but ultimately she's most happy running after Ruthie in the back yard... have I mentioned how much she loves dogs?

We went to the docotor this month... Lucy has gotten huge! I remember bringing my sweet girl home from the hospital and always being nervous about her weight gain. Well I have nothing to fear now, she loves to eat and drink and has shot up on the growth charts.

Weight- 23.3lbs (83%... her last two visits she was 52% and 38%)
Height- 29.8in (73%... last visit she was 58%)
Head- 18in (72%)

Doctor said she is healthy and everything looks on track with her growth and development... although she did discover Lucy had an ear infection, so I was glad we went when we did! We are lucky though, this is Lucy's first ear infection, so she made it an entire year without getting one!

Now for the birthday girl!

being a goof ball... as usual...

happy as can be!

Spring is Here!

2011-03-15T08:20:00.004-04:00

A couple weeks ago the weather started to warm up and we have been trying to take advantage of it as much as possible. I love the sound of Lucy's little feet as she walks on the side walk. The pitter patter her shoes make is just the sweetest noise!

You can also get a glimpse of our strong willed little girl here... she kept wanting to go straight to the street and was not happy when we redirected her!

So excited to take many more "walks" with this little one as the weather continues to warm up!

On a side note, out painting and wallpaper project is done!!! hallelujah! Just in time to celebrate Lucy's birthday.

Water Park

2011-03-08T08:16:00.003-05:00

Our house is under construction right now, we've been trying to get the whole downstairs painted before Lucy's first birthday party... so I've been spending almost every waking hour caulking, spackling, sanding, painting, etc. That leaves little time to post, but I wanted to get a few pictures up from when we went to the indoor water park with my sister and Jadyn and Jordyn (I forgot my regular camera, so help my iphone VERY carefully as I snapped a few shots.)

Lucy had a blast and it was so fun to watch her really explore. She loved all the people and all the water toys they had for kids to play with. And she wanted nothing to do with her mom! I kept trying to hold her hand as she walked around and she kept brushing me off... my little baby is growing up!

I put a tshirt over her onesie because she seemed to be really cold when we first got there... I think it helped her warm up a little, at least her teeth stopped chattering.

Watching the big bucket of water dump over...

Cousins!

Indoor Playground With Drew

2011-02-28T20:14:00.004-05:00

Mom took me to the indoor playground this past week... it was a blast!

My friend Drew came to play at the park as well. He was down visiting me from West Lafayette... again... I think he has the hots for me or something... at least that's what I thought after he kept trying to hold my hand!

He was quite the gentleman though, and let me drive... even though I think my driving skills made him kind of nervous!

I hope he comes to visit again soon... I miss him already!

11 Months

2011-02-23T14:43:00.003-05:00

Wow, now we are officially in the home stretch of finishing up Lucy's first year... We will be celebrating our little St. Patty's baby soon! I can't believe how fast things have gone! When Lucy used to be up all night and was nursing round the clock, I honestly thought I was so ready for her first birthday to come, but once we got into the swing of things and Lucy started sleeping more time started going by way too fast!

This month Lucy continued to sleep well, 12-13 hours every night and 2 naps a day totaling 2-3 hours (sometimes even 4 if I'm lucky!) She goes down really well for me, and will put herself to sleep, but we've had trouble getting other people to put her down to sleep. This hasn't been a big deal so far, but I'm hoping we can get that figured out so Ben and I can have our first night away from Lucy in the near future!

We haven't had a night away from Lucy yet because I am still nursing her during the morning and evening. This month she gave up the middle of the day feedings, I tried offering her formula but got worried that she wasn't consuming enough (I don't think she really liked it) so I went ahead and switched to whole milk a little early (which she loves!). I was a little sad to give up those two feedings, since my goal was to make it to 1 year, but I was actually able to keep the morning and evening feedings and haven't lost my supply. My plan is to officially take those two feedings away when she turns a year... and then pat myself on the back for nursing my baby girl for one whole year! I stopped pumping around 9 months since I could never get much milk out, so I've felt a little stuck at times, knowing I needed to be home with Lucy every evening. So, while I'll miss nursing Lucy and the closeness that comes with it, I'm excited to have a bit more freedom.

Lucy's personality has continued to blossom this month, we have such much fun playing together and she laughs all the time now. She loves playing peek-a-boo, especially when I sneak up on her and loves wrestling around on the bed. She especially loves getting a horsey-ride from mom or dad (below) or getting to ride on our shoulders or back... and I mean she LOVES to do those things, to the point where she throws a little tantrum when we take her off or won't put her on our back... so glad we introduced those things to her!

She also loves dancing still, anytime music is on and continues to carry a baby doll or stuffed animal with her wherever she goes.

People continue to comment on how happy Lucy is and how much she smiles... I always tell them how lucky we are! And how nervous I am if we ever have a baby that isn't as happy as Lucy. Friends will be with us for a whole day or over a weekend and say, "I never even heard her cry once!"... and I realize how much I take that for granted! She loves people and loves to smile at every person we pass in the grocery store and especially loves other children.

Her vocabulary is expanding and I think I've made out the following words: mama, dada, nigh-nigh, hi, bye, dog... although she's still pretty inconsistent with using them.

No doctor visit this month, although we did take her to the med-check one night because I thought she had an ear infection. Fortunately Ben's mom was working so she got us right in to see the doctor, only to find out there was no infection but she was running a fever. The fever ended up lasting for 4 days, with no other symptoms except for an extra cuddly/fussy baby... at one point I thought maybe she had meningitis and yelled to Ben that we needed to call the doctor immediately! Of course, I was over-reacting and had been researching a bit too much online and Lucy was actually fine :)

11 Month Photos... a cuddly baby girl...

All smiles as usual...

Happy Valentines Day

2011-02-16T22:36:00.003-05:00

We had a lot of fun celebrating Valentine's Day this year - I made breakfast for Ben, complete with a fruit smoothie, egg casserole and heart shaped toast! And I intended to surprise Ben at work with a dressed up Lucy, but he was in meetings, so instead we took lots of pictures...

Lucy and my Valentines Day together...

Dressed up, ready to go surprise Daddy

Getting the chocolates ready

Inspecting the wrapping carefully, this has to be perfect!

Making sure all of the chocolates are in there... you have to shake the box really hard to get a good count...

What? Dad's in meetings???

Fine, I guess we can't go see him... we'll just send him this text to let him know what he's missing out on:

But wait! Mom, come over here... look at these nice flowers Dad left us

Wait... is that a carnation I see? I thought Valentine's Day was about getting roses???

Ok, well, at least they included the leaves, those are my favorite part of flowers anyway.

Game Night!

2011-02-08T13:14:00.002-05:00

I won a free game night package from Coffee-Mate, so we invited friends over and had a blast, drinking coffee, playing games and staying out of the snow and ice! Couple shots from the evening...

Coffee-mate supplied the creamer, games and samples/coupons for everyone to take home. What a fun night!

I Whip My Hair Back and Forth

2011-02-08T08:11:00.003-05:00

I've got a serious subject I want to talk about... some people have been asking about my hair growth and wondering where all my hair is, so I've got to clear this up.

I've got tons of hair! See...

Look at it all standing up back there. I think I'm almost ready for pig tails.

Phew! It feels good to get that off my chest.

Snowed In

2011-02-02T22:24:00.008-05:00

Well, we've been locked up in the house for the past couple days, so I don't have any fun trips or activities to report on, but I've taken about a million photos of Lucy with my iPhone over the past week, so I thought I'd share some here and record some of Lucy's favorite things to do right now. Sometimes the quality isn't as good, but the iPhone actually takes a pretty decent picture... and I have it on me all the time, so I find I'm getting lots more shots of Lucy in action.

I thought this velor jumpsuit from my sister was just too cute! And it made me think of Lucy as a little cheetah girl (since we've been watching a little bit too much of Keeping Up With the Kardashians lately). The baby doll she is grabbing for is one of her favorite toys. She likes to kiss it, rock it, hug it and carry it around the house... precious.

happy baby

Lucy loves to play with Ruthie's bones

And will sometimes even give them back to her... but usually she's taking them, or pouting when Ruthie takes them from her (note the dog nose in the corner). Sometimes she'll even "throw" them to her, a new trick she learned this week.

no explanation here... just one cute baby

Lucy has now mastered opening cabinets (sigh), which leads to this pantry getting dumped out often and also led to her finding the recycling trash and grabbing a sprite can before I noticed it!

Lately she keeps pointing outside, usually when Ruthie is out there, but other times she just likes to go up to the window and look out... I think she is starting to feel the cabin fever too!

I think I've forgotten to mention this on the blog yet, but this girl LOVES her some TV. We rarely have it on for that reason, but once a week when I need to clip her nails I pop in a Baby Einstein DVD for 5 minutes to get her to sit still. This week, I walked away for a second and snagged a couple pictures of her, but the pictures don't show just how still she was. I've never seen this girl sit completely still doing one thing for more than 5 seconds, but the TV had her full attention.

Lucy is a really good eater and still typically likes to feed herself finger foods, but we've been working on using a spoon. She's really good at taking the spoon out of my hand once I've loaded it up and getting it to her mouth... most of the time. This night, I was on and off the phone and not playing close attention, until I realized what a mess there was! Woops!

Speaking of being on the phone, maybe I've been on it too much lately because now Lucy likes to "talk" on the phone too! She holds it up to her ear and talks gibberish into the receiver.

My iPhone may be "her" favorite Christmas present. She loves to carry it around, especially when I turn music on it, and "talk" on the phone, dance with it, and look at pictures of herself on it... Usually she is carrying it and another toy around the house with her. Seriously, I think she is almost always carrying something with her, if not two somethings. This goat, Elmo, Big Bird, a stuffed bear and her baby dolls are her favorite things to carry around...

I love her faces in the above and below pictures - above I think she is screaming something (pretty typical) and not sure what she is doing below... what a ham

Last couple pictures, I tried to grab a couple shots of her "hugging" and "rocking" her stuffed animals... seriously so precious!