Gaga, Dippa Dippa and a Rocket

I've written that Lucy has an imaginary dog, named Agic. Well, Agic has been joined by another imaginary dog named Pluto. One has a blue leash, the other a red one. They are pretty calm these days and she usually says that they are outside playing in the woods or they are under the table eating a bone. Now that she has her dogs well trained though, her two imaginary friends, Gaga and Dippa Dippa are in the mix. These two are always on the go and Lucy obsesses about what they are doing, where they are going, etc. She has some of the most elaborate stories about shopping trips they are making (usually to buy milk, diapers or dog bones for Agic and Pluto). The other day I caught her talking to the toilet and asked her what she was doing and she looked at me so perturbed and said that Dippa Dippa was going potty. The other imaginary item in her world is Rocket. Rocket is just that except that it tends to get lost from time to time. She will spend an hour looking out the window or around the house for Rocket and sometimes Gaga or Dippa Dippa or even La La go on the rocket and tell her stories about space.

Ian and I can hardly keep up with her great imagination and sometimes wonder if Lucy can. The stories always start out with Lucy seeming to recognize that she is making up the story but sometimes we swear that she gets so swept up in her own imagination that she can't tell what is real and what isn't . She can get very upset about Rocket being gone or Gaga not returning from the store before nighttime. They say that a great imagination at a young age is a sign of great intelligence. We just love to hear the stories and laugh at all the antics of her "friends".

Egg Hunt

We had a great egg hunt on Sat. We had more than 50 people turnout with more than 25 kids there. We also had more than 300 eggs for the kids! Lucy had a great time and loved hunting eggs, playing with her friends and eating sweets galore!

The Big Bunny Lives

We are hosting an egg hunt with all of Lucy's friends tomorrow morning. Folks have been dropping filled plastic eggs all week and have at times left them on our door stop when we are out. Everytime this happens, Lucy is convinced that the Easter Bunny has left them for the egg hunt. I'm not sure why he would drop the eggs off a dozen at a time, but whatever works.

Lucy says that she is going to gather all the orange eggs tomorrow, plus a green one for me, a pink one for Bon Bon and a blue one for Baby Sister. (Notice, green is my favorite color, pink in Bon Bon's and Baby Sister is a True Blue Fan so I guess that is appropriate as well.) We'll see what other kids think when Lucy insists that all the other kids give up their orange eggs for her.

CONGRATS to Lauren and Damon on the news of a baby boy on the way. We can't wait to meet him in August and Lucy is happy that she will remain queen and Little Sister will remain a princess with no threats to the crown since you can always pummel your little sister into submission!

Daffodils!

Lucy is really in love with all the daffodils that are popping up everywhere. Good thing that Belle View plants hundreds of them in our Town Center. We decided to have a picnic among the daffodils and take a few pictures (including Lucy's annual bunny ears photo among the flowers). Lucy kept telling me to put the camera down, but I just couldn't. Here are some of the photos we snapped. Notice that her pink slinky is in many of the pictures. She used it as her "pogo stick" and hopped all over the neighborhood. She just couldn't understand why I didn't want to be seen hopping with a slinky between my legs along the main road in our neighborhood while we "hopped" to the library. I don't have much bounce these days and I am not sure that it is appropriate for any grown adult to hop with a slinky between their legs at anytime in public. She and I will jut have to disagree on this one!

We are in the single digits!

8 weeks and counting! I went to the doctor on Monday and all is well with the baby. We have a name chosen although we aren't revealing anything quite yet and we seem to have anything and everything that we will need. Lucy is starting to get really excited and talks to the baby through my belly all the time. She also uses my belly as a pillow when we read books or cuddle together. She is also relieved that in a few weeks the belly will be gone and she will be able to knee me in the belly all she wants again.
She can't wait to be a big sister and we can't wait to meet Little Sister. The doctor isn't counting on me going the full 40 weeks so maybe it will be early May rather than mid-May. Here I am at 8 months. We take a picture each month to chronicle the baby's growth and include Lucy and Reggie as well. It's hilarious. Reggie gets into position automatically when the Polaroid comes out and Lucy has to have her own copy each and every time.

Louisville Zoo

Lu and I spent the morning at the Louisville Zoo taking advantage of a no-rain day. Lucy was thrilled to see giraffes, polar bears, the baby elephant, rhinos and a peacock, all of which we don't see at the National Zoo. She loved seeing the elephant show with the baby elephant holding on to his mom's tail while they paraded through their yard and her impression of the elephant leg lifts is hilarious. Since he is never far from her mind, we had to stop in the gift shop on the way out to "get Ronin a postcard".

Grandma, Uncle D, Pops and Opossum Poop?

We had a great time at Pops and Grandma's and Lucy was spoiled rotten by yet another set of grandparents. She really enjoyed dying Easter eggs with Grandma, blowing bubbles in the backyard, playing with and kicking balls in the backyard, riding the tiger rocking horse, jumping nonstop around the house and landing on the big bean bag or with all of the beanie babies. She marched right in and went to Grandma's stash of pennies, which Lucy has a great affection for, especially when they can be used to gobble up jelly beans from the gumball machine. As usual, Uncle D was a trooper and pretty much did whatever Lucy asked of him, including going up and down the basement stairs a zillion times. Lauren coloring? Well, Lucy got a giant Tigger and Pooh coloring book while we were in town and Aunt Lauren spent about an hour coloring a large picture of Piglet. It was perfect and just when she was putting the finishing touches on it and only had the ears and nose to go, Lucy came over, grabbed a green crayon and scribbled in the nose. In Lucy's words, "it was hilarious!"

And opossum poop? Pops and Lucy have plenty of inside jokes, but this one might perplex just about anybody. One of them yells, "who wants opossum poop?" and they both (or the whole room) holds up there hand and says, "I DO!!" I dunno.

Another memorable moment from the trip? Walking into the kitchen, peaking around the open refrigerator door and seeing Lucy sitting inside the refrigerator with Pops sneaking her potato chips. Good thing that what happens at Pops' stays at Pops'!

Taylor's 21st birthday

Taylor turned 21 on Sunday, March 16. We were all in Lexington to celebrate at dinner and a few of us hung around to take her out at midnight. Lucy loved the party horns, cupcakes and entertaining Grandpa at dinner, everybody else enjoyed themselves at Two Keys (yes, I went to Two Keys at 8 months pregnant and drove the whole gang home that night- I do not recommend this for other pregnant ladies, the bars don't close until 2:30am!) We had a great time and enjoyed watching Ian and Coulter chase UK basketball players around the bar, everybody danced and all in all, I think Taylor's bday was a huge success!

Bon Bon and Grandpa and a GIANT slide (oh yeah, and her debut on local news!)

We saw Grandpa and Bon Bon in Lexington for Taylor's 21st birthday and Lucy entertained Grandpa throughout dinner. Then they were able to play and play and play at their house on Tuesday while I had an appointment. Lucy baked cupcakes with Aunt Lauren, Bon Bon indulged her in a super-long bath and let her help make and prepare dinner for everybody. Lucy was so excited to show me the chicken nuggets she had made from scratch and the "noodles she counted".

Other highlights from her trip with Bon Bon and Grandpa:

A trip to Incredible Dave's restaurant where Lucy tackled the biggest inflatable slide you ever did see. She never hesitated. She just sauntered right up, climbed the enormous ladder and slid down (head first) down the super-high slide. She loved every minute of it and within a short while, she was racing some of the big kids down the slide, all with a big smile on her face.

Playing the piano- Bon Bon, Aunt Taylor and Uncle Damon all indulged Lucy and played songs for her while she sang at the top of her lungs. Her #1 hit, a tie between "Twinkle, Twinkle" and "Abcs". But there were many, many more. She even made up a few songs of her own. She was also concerned with "cleaning" the piano and would take whatever was in her hand and wipe it down.

Egg Hunts- she hunted, she hid, she did it all, and all for treats! She also decorated eggs with Bon Bon one afternoon.

Playground with the whole gang. We went to Ascension's playground to play with Uncle Damon, Aunt Lauren, Aunt Taylor, Bon Bon and Lucy was happy to have a different person every few minutes take turns sliding, climbing and running around with her.

Frankfort Ave. Easter Parade- Taylor, Lauren and Bon Bon went with us to the world's greatest neighborhood parade. Never have I been to a parade where just anybody could enter. And they did. We saw kids participating dressed as Batman and Hannah Montana with their parents driving the car and them lip singing or throwing candy to the crowd. Instead of marching bands, there were rock bands on trailors. Lucy got to see the Easter bunny, pet a Humane Society bunny, and loaded up on an entire Easter basket full of candy collected from the parade. It was cold, but fun and she wore both her warm snow hat and her Easter bonnet, making it look like she had on some sort of strange sombrero. While she was sitting on the Easter Bunny's lap, she was asked to take photos for the Courier Journal and at the end of the parade was interviewed for WHAS 11 News. When asked why she came to the parade, Lucy answered, "For the candy". When asked if she would return to the parade next year she said "Yes". Her television debut!