Lucy's Shower

We had a great time last weekend at Lucy's shower. It was so nice of Brian's co-workers to give us such a nice welcome home for our girl. One of the highlights was Lucy interacting with a little five year old girl that was there (pictured). Ellie was so fascinated with Lucy and was by our side the entire evening. She looked at me one time and said "she is the cutest little girl I have ever seen." Of course my heart melted. It was also funny when Ellie said, "I have never seen a baby with black eyes." Don't you just love the raw honesty of children? We had a great time and feel very blessed that Brian works with such a thoughtful and supportive group of people.

Other updates....Lucy is "creeping" now. (This is when she scoots on her belly...very close to crawling.) She continues to sleep like a champ and laughs all the time. As you can see from the video in the last post, she LOVES her music. She had the best behavior we have ever seen from her at church last night (not that she is really ever bad in church). She loves to laugh and flirt with the people around us. Over the weeks, lots of people have come up to us after church because they want to meet Lucy. When we were walking through the parking lot last night someone yelled "Hi Lucy" from their car as they were driving away. A very popular girl!

On a different note, our poor girl has had numerous doctor visits lately; she had to see an ENT as she had lots of ear wax buildup, as well as fluid in the ear. For anyone who has ever had a Dr. digging around in your ear, you can probably empathize with what Lucy went through; it was a very upsetting experience for her, and heart wrenching for ma-ma. In addition, some blood work has shown that her thyroid levels are high. The Dr. is hoping that this is from malnourishment when she was in China and that the problem will fix itself with proper nutrition. For now, we are monitoring it and will get another blood draw in a few weeks.

Life is good, and will be even better if we get a COLTS win next weekend!!!! Love and good thoughts to all of you....

Lucy dancing!

I have attempted to upload video of Lucy dancing last weekend. Hope this works....

Watermelon Hat

A quick post to share these photos we just took. Isn't she adorable in her watermelon hat? Thanks to Layne for this great gift from NY.

January Updates

As you can see from the photos, Lucy is quickly being converted into a Sabres fan….thanks Aunt Bridgey and Daddy!  Other good news…bath time has become a happy event!  She is actually smiling when done!    Granted, we get the bathroom up to about 100 degrees (with the space heater), we slowly remove one article of clothing at a time, she sits in a dry baby tub and we just sponge her down… but hey, it works!   No more screaming at bath time. 

We saw Dr. Borchers yesterday.  Lucy now weighs 14 pounds, 11 ounces.  We may have discovered through blood work what is causing her slow growth:  thyroid issues.  We will get more blood work to determine the next course of action.  But other than this, and the large amount of ear wax that an ENT will have to remove, Dr. Borchers was very happy with Lucy’s development (she is rolling all over the place), learning and attachment. She has become a bit more finicky with her eating, but I think it is just that our spicy girl wants to feed herself.  Speaking of which, her first word was “na-na” (banana) and her second was “Da-Da” (daddy).  She will automatically wave bye-bye when she sees Brian on the stairs going to work.  She says “Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma” but I am not sure if she is just babbling or actually associates me with the word.   We’ll get there…

Today Lucy went to her first music class… I think MaMa liked it as much as Lucy.  It was so interesting to watch her interacting with the other kids and the instructor.   She rocked and clapped and laughed…so fun! This Saturday Lucy will go to her first “party.”  Brian’s co-workers are graciously hosting a shower for all of us;  we are looking forward to it!  I will post more pictures soon.  And maybe some video too….

more photos...Lucy's Birthday

Happy Birthday Lucy!

Lucy is one!!!   We had a very eventful week, with the highlight being a birthday celebration for our sweet girl.  After an 11 hour night's rest, Lucy woke up on her special day just playing in her crib and clapping her hands.  Brian and I heard her from our bedroom just lying in her room enjoying her morning.  Typically she will cry to let us know she is awake, but not on her big day.  She must have been so happy to be turning one!  It was so cute! As you can see from the photos, Lucy had lots of friends come visit and celebrate with her on her big day!  We were so happy to have our good friends Johanna, Ross, Molly and Damon stop by with their kids (Lily Kate, Ella, Nate, Patrick, Charlie and Abby) to meet Lucy and celebrate.  In her typical form, Lucy was initially reserved and shy.  But after some time, she warmed up to everyone and loved playing with her new friends.  We all sang Happy Birthday, ate cake and enjoyed opening nice gifts for her.  It was also nice for Brian and I to catch up with our friends and enjoy some holiday cheer.  Thanks to everyone for coming over and helping our daughter to celebrate.  It is a wonderful memory that we will always treasure. Other than this, Lucy continues to do well and seems very comfortable and happy in her new routine.   She LOVES music and will rock and clap whenever she hears it.  She smiles all the time and her appetite seems to be increasing (yesterday she had a jar and half of baby food for lunch… a first). She makes us laugh all the time with her funny ways of talking and expressing herself.  This upcoming week she has an appointment to have some lab work done and see the audiologist.  Also, a few more "guests" will come over from Help Me Grow to do a developmental assessment and give any necessary recommendations.  As far as this writer is concerned, I am suffering from what my sister says is something all new mom's have:  the syndrome of losing things.  The latest casualty was my car/house/work keys.  What I have learned is this:  when in doubt, check the roof of your car!  After two days of searching, they were found on the top of the CR-V!   I believe that I traveled to and from Indy, as well as all around West Chester, with those things on the top of the car!  Can you believe it?   Brian always has complained about how big and clunky they were, but I say I win this one…if they weren't this heavy my guess is they would currently be lost!  Thank you St. Anthony! We hope that all of our family and friends are graced with many blessings in this New Year!