Swimming

Lucy spent much of the week at the pool. She had lots of playdates with friends: Jane, Andrew, and Madison. For some reason, she thinks she is ready to go off the diving board and not once but twice went over to it ready to climb and jump- maybe later in the summer-? She also seems to think that swimming includes holding on to as many toys as possible- for instance, she will find the largest water gun she can carry, a lime green noodle, her my little pony (plus its hair brush) and a tube float and try to jump in the water with them all at once. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she is terrified that somebody will steal her favorite toys and she'll never see them again.

Sunglasses

Strawberry Fields with Gramzie and Pop Pop

Well, if only the farm had known to weigh Lucy upon arrival and then again after she went strawberry picking, they would have made a lot more money. She ate tons of strawberries out in the field and was a splendid pink mess by the time we hitched a tractor ride back to the parking lot. Of course, the tractor ride was a true highlight.

Pool Open!

She had been asking for it for weeks, and it finally arrived: opening day at the pool! She greeted the summer with gusto and was hardly contained in her excitement. She quickly learned that yelling "blow the whistle" to the lifeguards will not speed along break time and that she is not much taller than 2 feet since she more than once plunged deeper and found herself sinking- of course, she thought it was all just part of the fun. It took her a couple of days to realize that the pool is now open for the summer and there is no need to have dramatic displays of saying goodbye to the water and to her pool toys and friends everytime she leaves- much nicer leaving when there aren't major tears and tantrums!
Gramzie and Pop Pop braved the cold water that Lucy didn't seem to even notice and everybody got a great shoulder and back workout from catching Lucy as she jumped off the side of the pool a zillion times.

Gramzie and Pop Pop arrive!

Lucy got to spend Memorial Day weekend with Gramzie and Pop Pop. They read lots of stories, went swimming twice, had a couple cookouts, went out to eat, got ice cream, went strawberry picking and got to have lots of silly time.

Mohawk in the tub

At River Farm with Asher

We went to River Farm with Asher, Aurelia and Amy and the kids had a blast as usual. they climbed, dug in the dirt for worms, which Lucy proudly held while all the older kids squeeled and ran away. When it was time for lunch, Lucy grabbed a yogurt and headed into a tunnel they call the bat cave, with a group of about 10 4th grade boys who were there on a field trip. When I went over to see how things were going, one of the boys said "Oh, she's fine. She actually pretty comfortable." Lucy said "Yeah!" Then Asher went in and sat on another kids lunch and knocked over his soda. Lucy ran out with the big kids like she didn't know who this 2 year old was that was breaking up the party.

Wet and wild

The kids hit the backyard today and found that they had something in common- they both love to play in the water. Finally, something Reggie and Lucy will do together without anybody being sent to time out!

Lucy fell in love today. She got a My Little Pony today and would sit and grin at it and loved brushing its hair and get it wet in her bucket of water. Of course, whenever it hit the water, Reggie would run over to rescue it and Lucy would get concerned that he wouldn't give it back. Check out the fun:

Swinging

Lucy in a tree

Lucy went to her friend, Abe's, 1st birthday party on Saturday. Before we left, she decided that she wanted to wear not one, but two tutus (actually, 3, but we drew the line at 2). Once we got there, she decided that she needed to mimic the older kids climbing trees and found a perch on a large limb.

She had fun, except for the fact that she thought the other kids were out to get her piece of pizza so she would take off running whenever somebody looked at her, just protecting her slice.

Lucy and Asher at Botanic Garden

Lucy and one of her best buds, Asher Landis, went to the Botanical Gardens on Friday and had so much fun! It was only a high of about 55 degrees that day but they decided to get sopping wet anyways. They splashed and laughed so hard that we actually had to drag their wet, tired bodies out of the garden. Lucy also took time to dig and plant some flowers and loved playing in the dirt. In the first video, you can hear them cackling and laughing and splashing. The second video shows Lu digging and working hard in the garden.

Just a cute photo

Lucy loves listening to my mp3 player and dances to whatever is playing. So much so, that it usually ends up in a fight when it is time to put it away. Oh well, she's cute up until that point...

Lucy's botched clean up attempt

So I was getting us ready to go to storytime today when I heard Lucy dragging her popper into our bedroom. I peeked out to see what she was doing and she jumped from being startled and immediately started stuttering and stammering her words. She then grabbed one of Ian's clean shirts that was sitting nearby and threw it down on the floor. I went over to see what she was doing and it turns out that she was trying to hide the dirt that she had sprinkled all over our floor from the plant in our room. She had grabbed her popper to "vacuum" it up and when that didn't work, thought the shirt would hide it. See what I'm dealing with- ridiculous!

She had a great time at storytime, her favorite since they bust out the bubble machine at the end and they sang songs and read books about frogs today and she promptly showed them how frogs jumped and kept yelling "ribbit" at random times throughout the storytime. She then took on a 3 year old who wouldn't share a ball with her and told the 3 year old that "I was a big kid too!" Needless to say, she got the ball after quite a battle.

Here's Lucy from last week in her UK cheerleading outfit- I guess she's now supporting the baseball team.

May 15 Crazy monkeys and Happy Birthday Pops!

Lucy went to the zoo today. It was so crowded with school groups (which she loved) and the animals were all loud and energetic everywhere we looked. Lucy loved listening to the super loud Gibbon monkeys and her new favorite is the hippo. When we were watching the hippo, Lucy commanded a small group of elementary school kids attention with all her knowledge. She explained to them that the hippo was big, he was in the water swimming, he moved his ears, he had a red ball and the elephant was walking next to him. They all listened to her tutorial like she was the zookeeper!



Today is also Pops' birthday and she has a special birthday wish:

Mother's Day 2007

We went hiking at Great Falls National Park on Mother's Day and then we went out to dinner and out for ice cream that evening. Lucy told me "Happy Mother's Day" about a zillion times and showered me with kisses and "I love you"s as well.

Here's Ian and Lucy "skipping" stones:

Happy Mother's Day (and Father's Day!)

Hi Everybody! We wanted to do something special for both mother's day and father's day and thought that enabling everyone to see Lucy videos and to be able to access them whenever you wanted was a great gift. We hope you love it as much as we have loved putting it together. We will update frequently and will post videos in the archives as well in the next few weeks.

5 Little Monkeys

Lucy loves to sing songs and this one is probably her favorite since it combines her other favorite pastime- jumping. Sorry the videos are not upright, we'll work on that!

Hot Dog!

Lucy loves this song and it is definitely worth watching. She could care less about the entire show, she just loves the last song and we try to tune in for the last 3 minutes of the show every day just so she can run to the tv, dance and sing her song.

Take your Lucy to Work Day

Lucy and I went into DC to play in the National Sculpture Garden and to have a picnic with Ian. Lucy got to see Ian's work for the first time and hopefully will now not assume that he just rides the train and bus all day, even though I'm sure he would find that great fun. Lucy loved the big fountain in the garden and threw about 20 pennies into it. She chased the ducks, and hid in the landscaping. She really loves the giant sculptures and has a hard time not climbing on them, touching them and yelling strange things at them. All the security guards loved her and she would yell "Hewwo!" at them.

She promptly went to work at Ian's desk. She typed on the keyboard, scribbled some drawings on a notepad and talked on the phone, which was really his mouse, and all in about 2 minutes. Then she went around and said hello to all his coworkers, whether they knew him or not and interrupted a meeting with his directors. Good things she's so darn cute.

Lucy's Splash Party

Lucy hosted an all-girl Splash Party at our house on Wednesday. Her friends, Jane, Brielle, Laila, Hannah, Gillian, Teagan brought their buckets and had a blast getting sopping wet! Lucy and Brielle especially liked filling the buckets, carrying them several feet away and then dumping them on themselves (and it was some cold water!) Lucy and Brielle then decided to run throught he backyard going up and down the hills.

Lucy is starting to love playing dress up

Lucy has discovered the fun of playing dress up. She loves putting on her cat ears and a tutu and an apron and running around the house, outside, wherever.

Lucy at a birthday party

Lucy and Reggie waiting for Daddy to get home