11 Months!

Wow. This is the last time I will measure my daughter in only months...next time I will be able to measure her in YEARS!

Yep, that's drool. Kind of works with the shirt though, eh?

Lucy is not walking quite yet, but she is SO close! Instead of falling to her knees and crawling to the next closest piece of furniture, she is now sort of falling towards it. Won't be long before the top and bottom of her body are coordinated. She is also able to stand and bend down to pick something up off the floor without falling down. Even though the steps aren't there, she's still incredibly mobile and curious - a deadly combination. Nothing is safe in the house. She recently learned to flush the toilet, and she also loves to examine a load of laundry as it spins in the front-load machine. Her favorites lately are cupboards and drawers. A few are off limits, but for the most part we let her explore and see what fun things she can find. We have noticed lately, though, that if something is taken away or a voice is raised in "no," she can turn on the waterworks pretty quickly. Sometimes she wails as if she just got pinched or something! It's dreadful to hear, but it's 99% drama. We wait it out and within minutes (if not seconds) she's moved on to the next adventure.

Look Mama, salad servers!

Meal times are going a lot better, and she is slowly starting to depend less on bottles/formula. This girl can eat! She's tolerating a lot more variety, but her favorites are carrots, applesauce, yogurt, peas, chicken, animal crackers, strawberries, multi-grain Cheerios, bananas, and BREAD - takes after her father in yet another way! She's still got his hairline too...but seems to be getting more "real" hair. We're getting close to barrette territory, folks! Although I can't imagine her being any cuter with something in her hair. She draws attention wherever she goes because she's so dang happy and smiley. We are seriously so lucky.

With Grandma L. at Brandon's rugby game

Lucy is also now having full conversations with people, although we have no idea what she's saying. She knows who we all are, but throws out a lot of "Mamas" and "Dadas" and a bunch of other stuff that she's very sure of but we're clueless on. Occasionally a "Mama" is tossed specifically (or accidentally) in my direction, and it melts my heart. We are just enjoying every minute of this time, before she's walking all over the place, before we become the parents of an official toddler...sigh. A little bittersweet, I have to be honest. The time goes by way, way too fast. I am loving this little girl more and more every single day.

Bedtime: Earth Day Edition

Bedtime was...a process this evening. I tried to take one photo of the cute new jammies in honor of Earth Day, and found myself in the midst of an overactive near-toddler photo shoot. I thought she'd never go to bed...but as you can see, we eventually got there.

Earth Day Challenge

Lastnight I went to Target and DOH! I forgot to bring my handy-dandy reusable Target bags. I forget them way too often, and I have to sheepishly haul my wares to the car in those horrible plastic bags. I am sheepish because:

• Single-use bags made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) accumulate and persist on our planet for up to 1,000 years.
• The U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.
• Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistake them for food.
• Each high quality reusable bag you use has the potential to eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime.

More fuel for the fire here.

So...this year for Earth Day, I am vowing to go the entire week without using plastic bags (or paper for that matter - it's not better). Not just at Target, but everywhere...in my lunch, at Kohl's, and anywhere else I need to go this week. I have put a Target bag and another plain reusable bag in my car. (And don't worry, I rarely escape a week without at least 2 trips to Target, so I guarantee that more shopping is required!)

This is something simple and easy, and will hopefully help me re-establish good shopping and lunch-packing habits. I'm ashamed that I've become so lax. Will you join me by trying it for just one week?

New Adventures in Rugby

I think I've mentioned that Brandon decided to play rugby instead of lacrosse this spring. He had his first game lastnight and a tournament today. I can't say that I quite understand the game yet, but I can say that he's having fun. He got a little banged up today, and a lot sunburned (we forgot to send the sunscreen), but we can tell he's really enjoying himself. He'll have games most Fridays and Saturday from now through the end of May. Here are a few shots of Hopkins vs. Minnetonka lastnight. He's easy to spot because of his red hair, and because he's taller than pretty much everyone else. :)

Brother and Sister


Yep, we've got some pretty cute kids around here.

Happy Easter Everyone!