Tummy Time

Hank has been squirming around a lot lately. His little moves must be getting him around - often we'll find him in his crib on the opposite side, facing the opposite way than we laid him down.

Here's a little video of him squealing and squirming - love this little man so much!


He was being such a ham during our monthly photo shoot that I couldn't help but get a couple extra shots, this time on his belly...


Love these smiles!


Squirming...


The stare down...

Hank 3 Month Video

There's nothing really special about these videos, but I like being able to look back at videos as well as pictures on the blog, so here is some footage of Hank at 3months. In the first one, you can see him kind of rocking back and forth - I'm guessing how he gets rolled over in his crib, although I've never actually seen him doing it. The second one shows off a bit of Hank talking.

I'm A Little Teapot

Ok - I'm finally caught up on my blogging - hopefully my kids don't change or do anything cute over the next month so I don't have to blog about it :)

Yesterday I was trying to clean up Lucy's room while the kiddos played on the floor and as I was listening to Lucy singing (as she usually does throughout the day) I realized she sang the entire "I'm A Little Teapot" song! I quickly grabbed my camera and got her to sing it for me one more time... oh my goodness, I don't think there's anything more precious than this!

You have to listen closely, but if you follow along you'll hear each verse of the song...

Lucy and Hank

Another older video - just a little snippet of my two babies together...

Hank Video

These videos are probably like 3 weeks old, which in newborn terms is like a lifetime, but I am way behind on my posts, so I'm just now getting them up. I wanted to show how talkative and smiley Hank is, but these videos don't even capture it that well - he must have been camera shy! Oh well, I still want to remember all of his adorable mannerisms at this age...



This one shows a lot of Hank's movements - he is constantly kicking and swinging his arms... guess he's just an active little guy!

Kisses for Hank

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.

Goofy

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!

Talking

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!

More laughing!

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!

10 Months

I'm a little late getting this up, but we had a lots going on last week! Lucy is 10 months now, and too close to a year for comfort! She continues to grow and change every day and seems to be a whole new person every week. This month she worked on mastering walking - which she now is great at, has been working on her sign language - getting better at "more" and "all done", and has picked up some new dance moves...


We just got a blu ray player in the family room and so most days we crank up the music and get down to the Sesame Street channel... I'm glad Lucy doesn't judge her mom's dancing skills yet.

Sleep has been great this month, Lucy had a minor cold that kept her up a little more than usual, but other than that she has been sleeping 12-13 hours at night and still take two 1-2 hour naps during the day (or more! today she slept for 3.5 hours in the afternoon... it was AMAZING!)

She is still nursing 4 times a day, but I can tell she is really uninterested in the lunch and dinner time nursing sessions, so I think those might be the first to go... it's crazy to think that I am going to be weaning her soon, it really feels like this year has gone by way too fast!

As mentioned before her personality has really began to blossom, Lucy has been so much fun to play with this month. She loves to walk around babbling and screaming, and laughs all the time now. She has started showing more preference for me, but likes to scream and yell for her daddy to come play with us if he's not in the same room. Despite her preference for me (which again usually shows up when she's tired or hungry) she still has been great to drop of at the nursery and with family, and everyone says she is such a happy baby while we are away. She loves to nod her head yes and shake her head no when I say "yes" or "no", and is still working on words - I think she is saying mama and dada about us, but again, not totally sure here... also, I think she is making out dog and woof sometimes... but other days not, so who knows!

And besides dancing, another one of my favorite things Lucy developed this month was a love for reading... up until this point, we have tried to read to Lucy and she has wanted nothing to do with it- wanting to get out of our laps and be on the move. But this month she has started to actually bring books over to us and will sit in Ben's lap while he reads her several books at a time. It is absolutely precious.


Lastly, another favorite (I have a lot of favorites this month!) Lucy has started giving kisses, she first would only give them to her baby doll, but now Mommy and Daddy sometimes get a kiss every once in a while too- I love those sloppy wet lips on my cheek! Speaking of baby dolls, they are still probably her favorite to play with and get drug around the house with her, get lots of kisses, and sometimes get rocked and hugged while we are dancing... precious.

A few more 10 month pictures...


Such a ham


Looking for books while we were taking pictures


This is a popular face... Lucy loves to growl and scream all day long... such an intense little baby (wonder where she gets that from???)

Play Date with Drew

I went up to visit my good friend Drew a couple weeks ago. He is much older and wiser than I, but I'm slowing picking up some things from him.

Awhile ago, we could barely even play together... (Lucy 4 months, Drew 10 months)


But now we share and sometimes even fight over toys. Drew even shared his new Christmas present! Although it took some explaining from him for me to understand.


He and Katy thought me a new trick. When you bring your hands together everyone seems to gets really, really excited... I think I'll keep doing that a lot.

Wrestling with Dad

Laughing

If I'm ever feeling sad, I think I'll just watch this for a pick me up...


(Lucy laughing while I blow raspberries on her belly)

First Steps!

What an exciting day!

Lucy started getting closer to walking while we were in GC, she'd take one step on her own, but then always fall right away. And she was getting faster at walking holding our hands, but it still seemed like she had a long way to go before walking on her own. Then yesterday, I guess things just clicked all of the sudden... I wasn't expecting it at all! It's amazing to watch the transformation happen, one day putting one foot in front of the other seems too complicated, then the next day it just makes sense to her. I love watching her grow.

She started being able to push herself up off of the ground (not holding on to anything) at the beginning of the day, which was enough excitement for me- then Ben was playing with Lucy in the kitchen and had been counting her steps, when all of the sudden he just kept counting... "1, 2, 3, 4... Jess go get the camera!!!" So I ran upstairs and got the video camera and got some of her first steps on tape:

Yes, we are using puffs to motivate her :)

A few more steps this time...

She is still very cautious about the whole thing, and I think realizes that crawling for right now is a little faster... but I'm sure she'll get the hang of it soon enough and be off running soon!

Crawling!

Lucy started crawling last week! We were on vacation in Florida with my family - I think these new water toys gave her the motivation to get moving. I got some video of her going after my cell phone. Look at her move!

Pre-crawling Moves

Lucy is working so hard to crawl- I just had to get some video of her moves, she's getting so strong! I think there are definitely some hardcore pilates/yoga moves mixed in here...

Rolling Over

Lucy learned to roll over this week, and now we can't keep her on her back! In fact the first night that she learned to roll from back to stomach, we ended up having to go roll her back over every couple hours through out the night in her crib. I think she'd get flipped over and then got a little freaked out that she was on her tummy and couldn't find her paci.

She is such a strong/smart little girl, it was amazing to watch as she grunted and twisted and finally made it over for the very first time. We had been practicing, I'd help her make the full roll - and then on Wednesday, it was like things just clicked!

Now she's a pro...

3 month video

I took this closer to when Lucy was 3 months (she is 3.5 now) but just now getting it up! Just some footage of how big she is getting!

Smiles 2

I guess you can't put 2 videos in one post... so here is the second one!

Smiles

I got these two videos a couple weeks ago, and realized after watching them that they don't even fully express how smiley Lucy is... I'll need to get more video this week! Lucy spends more time smiling and cooing than crying, we are so blessed! Her faces and excitement bring so much joy to my heart, it's amazing how much she lights up my day. Sometimes I'll be changing her diaper and she'll let out this big squeal, like she's so excited about the new diaper she just can't help herself! I wish going to the bathroom made me that excited :)