Lucy's New Favorite Thing

Rather than reveal what it is, I'm thinking the video should be the big reveal....it "speaks" for itself.



P.S. You want volume on this one....trust me

Bloomington

Last weekend the fam headed to Bloomington, IN for a wedding (one of Justin's fraternity brothers). It was a long and wonderful weekend. We spend almost all day Saturday in and around Bloomington, heading to some of Justin's old stomping grounds. We stopped at Oliver Winery on the way down. It was a beautiful day to spend outside drinking some gooooood wine! Then we headed to Nick's for some beers and their world famous Stromboli.

We have to send out a special thanks to Nana (Justin's mom) for coming with us and babysitting. She was kind enough to give up her Saturday and Saturday night so that we could go to the wedding. She and Lucy stayed back at the hotel while Justin and I went to the wedding and reception. It was the first time that someone other than Justin or I put Lucy to bed. From all accounts, it went off without a hitch.

The Perry Triplets

Last weekend Lucy got to meet The Perry Triplets for the second time. She was in quite the mood the first time the kids met, so no pictures were taken. She was much happier this time. As you can imagine, it was difficult to get all of the kids to cooperate for a picture. There were 25 pictures taken. These are the best! As you can tell from the last one, I think Lucy got a little tired of the paparazzi.

(Brandon, Lucy, Lila and Alex)

Stupid Donut

Stupid mom. I had a chocolate frosted donut Sunday morning. The chocolate isn't the problem, its the butter in the frosting. Stupid mom. Lucy has literally woken us up from the sound of her pooing this week. It carries over the baby monitor. Stupid mom. Upset baby.

Sweet baby

Lucy as Elton John circa 1970

Babies Babies Everywhere

Last Sunday we got to go to a reunion of the couples from our birth class. Six couples (and therefore six babies) showed up. It was a lot of fun. Not only was it fun to see all of the babies and watch them interact (Lucy was quite confused with all of the little people and crying), it was nice to share stories and ask questions. After all, we're all going through the same thing!!

Lucy was super happy to be playing with all the babies. She's so stinkin' cute!

Lucy's first boyfriend

We are happy to introduce all of you to Lucy's first boyfriend, Mr. Banana Grabber (for those Arrested Development fans...) He is one of the four friends she has hanging from her home gym (Mr. Monkey Pants, Henry the Hippo, and Jerry the Giraffe are the others). Mr. Banana Grabber happens to hang the farthest down and now that Lucy has started to discover that she has control over her hands, she can hit him an move him around. She loves doing this and we love watching her do this...for hours... While playing with Mr. Banana Grabber, she has absolutely no interest in her parents and she gets upset if you move her away from him. It's hilarious.

The New Saturday Night for Jessie and Justin

Now that we don't/can't go out on a Saturday night....we decided to bring the bar to us. Justin got an array of German beers so that we could have a taste test. Please note the baby monitor in front and the Cubs game in back.

Random Pics

Lucy LOVES to take a bath. She sits in the water and kicks and kicks and kicks. I think she's going to be a swimmer!

This is Lucy's groovy dress. I think it looks like she should be in an Austin Powers movie.

Lucy has gotten much more interactive in the past week or so. When I get home from work, we talk about what happened during the day. She was clearly interested in whatever story I was telling.

Story time is part of our bedtime routine. Beady Bear was one of my favorites growing up.

Day One of Daycare

Well, we made it through the first day of daycare. For me, the anticipation was much worse than the reality. Only a few tears on the way to work. But, I'm not convinced that it wasn't just because I cried myself dry Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

For those of you who don't know, we're sending Lucy to an at-home daycare. Miss Sandra and Miss Barbara will be caring for our little bundle. Miss Sandra is the mother of a friend of a friend....so I know she's not totally crazy. In December, there will be 8 kids from 2 months to 5 years old. Three of them will be infants. Lucy is the oldest infant and will be the only infant until September, which is great because it will give her time to acclimate to everything while still getting a lot of individual attention.

Today, Justin and I both dropped her off at 7:30 a.m. I managed to make it until noon before calling to see how she was doing. According to Miss Barbara, she'd already eaten twice and was in the process of taking her second nap. I find the first part easy to believe. I find the second part impossible to believe. But, as Justin said....if they want to lie to me today, that's okay.

I picked her up at 5:00 p.m. When I got there, everyone was on the back porch for story time. As I walked up and said hello, Lucy cried. Miss Barbara said that was the first time she'd fussed. (Ya right!) When I picked her up, she stopped crying. That melted my heart.

I think the whole experience was a bit exciting/overwhelming for Lucy. She was a tad worked up this evening, but eventually calmed down and went to bed at 8:00 p.m. Hopefully she sleeps through the night!!

Lucy's First Street Fair

For those of you who have not lived in Chicago, summertime is the best time. Each neighborhood has a different street fair/festival. Last Saturday was one of our favorites, Retro on Roscoe. We decided to take Lucy. It was a little cold, so she had to go in her PJs, but she still looked damn cute. As with her pub crawl, Lucy did awesome.

Lucy's First Pub Crawl

In order to mourn .... uh celebrate ... the end of my maternity leave I decided I needed to mark the moment. What better way than a cold beer on a beautiful summer afternoon. Lucy and I headed to a local bar/restaurant by our house called Justin's and waited for Dad to get off work. Once Dad joined us, we headed to another local bar/restaurant, Sheffield's, for a few more. It was a wonderful time and Lucy was the best baby in the world.