1st Birthday (Part I)

We had Lucy's first first birthday party on her actual birthday at our house. My parents and Justin's mom came in town for it. It was pretty low-key....beer....brats...potato salad...20 adults....11 kids....the normal now. We sang Happy Birthday to her at 4:38 pm and then she got to attack the cake. She didn't get as messy as I'd hoped, but she did a pretty good job. And she was certainly proud of herself!! Sheer happiness...

Mischievousness

She's a stander, and is very proud of herself for it.

Don't Stop Reading

To the three of you out there who actually read this blog, please don't stop! I know I haven't posted in quite a while. I've been out of town the last 3 weekends (pictures to come) and now our home computer decided to stop working. We hope to get things back up and running soon.

A quick update on Lucy....she met her great-grandma Washburn. She is crawling and pulling up like a crazy person. She has 2 teeth and 2 on the way (which has been/still is hell). All she wants to do right now is have us walk her around holding onto her hands. This isn't too bad for me, but its killing Justin's back. He's a bit taller than I am.

Lastly, Lucy hates sleep.

She finally did it!!

She's crawling people, she's crawling. Not army crawling, mind you. Actual hands-and-knees-across-the-floor crawling. It started last week and she perfected it over the weekend at Justin's mom's house (Nana/Susan has a bit more carpeting than we do. Its all about traction.)

To add insult to baby-proofing injury, she is also pulling up like its her job. She's managed to use anything and everything to get herself on her feet.....tables...chairs...the side of her crib...the side of her pack-n-play...the wall....anything she can get her hands on. She hasn't quite gotten the walking-while-holding-on thing down yet, she's only done it a few times. But, I'm sure that will be in our near future.

I will work on getting some video this weekend.

The weather is getting nicer!!

A little front yard playing. For the few of you who have seen our new front yard, it isn't very big. (The blanket was only about 3 feet from the sidewalk.) But, it is big enough!! We got lots of smiles and "ahhh" comments from strangers walking by. Lucy is much obliged to smile right back.

Her first ride in a swing!!! I'm not sure she really understood that she was moving...she was way too distracted by the baby in the swing next to her. She is going to be quite the social butterfly.

Now that the weather is better, we've started walking to daycare every day. It's wonderful to get outside and Lucy loves it. She talks and talks and talks and swings her little legs. The only part that sucks is that now that we've switched strollers, we don't get to see her face. (see our view above). But she looks darn cute to everyone else!

Proof she's growing...

3 months
6 months
9 months

Screaming match

Lucy Cheers for the USA!!

The Chicken Incident

So, as we make the sojourn into actual foods, we have come to the conclusion that we might just have a picky eater on our hands. It's in fact gotten to a point that we are not excited when "she doesn't hate it," when fed a new food.

However, there is in fact one food that we will not be feeding Lu (again) any time soon.

Gerber Chicken.

If you have ever had the opportunity to smell a container of Gerber Chicken, I'm sorry. If you haven't, consider yourself lucky. If I would put the container up to your nose, and you didn't say "is that Tuna?" I would consider you not to have a sense of smell. However, despite all this, I believed it was still a good idea to feed this to my daughter. Father of the year right here.

Anyway, on a recent evening, I decided that Lucy had lived on a Vegan diet (remember, no milk) for far too long and that she needed to join the wonderful world of carnivores. Hence, Gerber Chicken.

As I initially fed it to her, all seemed fine. However, a second later, she got the face that she only reserves for foods she really really hates (so far, peaches, applesauce and the aforementioned chicken). How do I describe the face? Pretend you are handed a fruit and told it's an orange and you take a massive bite of it, only to find it's a lemon. That's the face.

So, no big deal, right? The face happens, we move on. That's it.

Not this time.

Lucy then proceeds to start gagging. Now, this too, being our picky daughter is not shocking. Again, it's happened, no biggie.

Not this time.

Lucy then continues to gag. And then stops. All is well.

Not this time.

Lucy then projectile vomits all over herself and me.

Aaaahhhhh....Gerber Chicken. You're no longer in the feeding rotation.

Lucy's First Swim Lesson. She loved it!!

Sorry its been awhile...

As some of you know, I started a new job two weeks ago. So the last month has been a bit crazy. Sorry for the lack of posting. I will try to be better now. (for those interested, the new job is going great!)

A crawling update....she's still not doing it, but man can she get around army crawling. Its awesome. She'll get up on her hands and feet and rock back and forth...she'll even take a few steps, but she can't get the hands and feet together. Here are a few updates pics/videos...


Lucy's first taste of sugar. She LOVED it. (notice the drool on my hand). And despite the fact the girl still doesn't have teeth, she managed to gnaw off part of the twisler. That's some commitment!

Just funny.

She's even closer now....

Some New Pics

Lucy was trying to help dad pick something to cook for dinner. She kept turning to the page for chocolate marshmallow waffles. Interesting...
The perils of freedom of movement. She routinely gets stuck under pieces of furniture.
Go Colts!! Superbowl bound!!
Go Cats!! (Thanks for the outfit Uncle Jim. We had to change the shirt after eating. She isn't the cleanest eater, yet.)

No more dairy free!!

Ahhh....pizza....I missed you. 7 months without cheese is too long.

She's So Close

Lucy is trying so hard to crawl. She can definitely cover some ground rolling around, but I'm not sure she can direct where's she going. Just in the last few days she's started army crawling and scooting around in circles. As you can see from the video, now she's lifting her bottom up. She's so close! I think she's starting to get frustrated, but it's part of the learning process, right? I'm so excited for her to do it, and rather afraid at the same time. Our lives will really change once she's mobile.

Christmas in Chicago, then Denver, then Chicago again

Lucy got visited by Santa 3 times this year. The first time was at home before Christmas. Justin and I decided this year we would each buy presents for Lucy but not tell the other what we got. That way everyone had fun opening presents. Here is a pic of Lucy checking out her loot!Then we headed to Denver for the Smolen Family Christmas hosted by my brother Joe. 11 Adults and 7 kids (under 8) in one house. It was a blast. Lucy was an angel on both flights and was great with her cousins. They were great with her too. It couldn't have gone better. We spent 4 nights there eating wonderful food, playing games and tubing in Copper Mountain. (Lucy stayed in the lodge for the tubing).(a great pic of all the girl cousins!!)

Then we headed back to Chicago for Christmas with Justin's mom (a/k/a Nana). She was kind enough to come to us this year, which made things MUCH easier on Lucy. That way she wouldn't be away from her own crib for 8 nights in a row. It was a great time...very quiet and relaxing. We all got much needed rest and had a ton of fun exploring our new neighborhood.
But, as you can see, Lucy's favorite part was clearly unwrapping her presents.



I hope you all had as wonderful of a holiday season as the Burtnetts did!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!