We joined the Coury's to cheer on Ava in her second to last Upwards Basketball game last season. She improved so much over the year -- in confidence, in skill, in being engaged (instead of standing and staring!)... It was a joy to watch her play hard and demonstrate excellent sportsmanship! This girl cheered hard for her teammatesoff and ON the court!
I wish I could find the video of her coach talking to her one-on-one after the game. He was so proud of her cheering on her teammates! Showing Jesus in such a practical way -- even littles can teach us so much about living the Gospel!
Ava made her second basket of the season during this game -- during the two minutes that I didn't film of her on the court -- RATS! Enjoy what I did film below:
My vivacious, busy, chatty girl is 9 months old!! I packed up most of her 9 month clothes and some of her smaller hats, headbands, socks, shoes, etc. this week. I get why so many moms get baby fever at this point -- she's transitioning so rapidly from baby to toddler! (And no, I am not keen on adding to our family any time soon).
Well-check stats:
Head: 18 inches (90th percentile)
Height: 29 inches (75th percentile)
Weight: 18 pounds, 3 ounces (50th percentile)
My mischief maker!
Just this week Lucy began clapping! She's her own best cheerleader now: Pull a book off the shelf -- clap, crawl across the room -- clap, find her paci -- clap, etc. Tonight she was so tired she was crawling over to me and would stop every couple of feet, sit up, clap as she's crying, then start crawling again. Clearly she hasn't mastered the why of clapping.
Lucy will chow down on anything corn-based -- and that's about it!
Lucy is standing! Yes, she just figured out crawling, and now she's moving on. Crawling is so yesterday! She stood up today in front of the mirrored door in our bedroom -- I wish I could have caught that on video. She was so proud, talking to herself, kissing herself, etc. of course, some of this is because she hasn't learned to sit down yet, so she's rather stuck until she tips over or one of us helps her down. As of her actual 9 month birthday she is beginning to understand easing herself down and will free one hand to put on the ground to attempt to slowly transition to sitting... Mostly it means she falls over, but at least her hand breaks her fall!
Paci love: Have I mentioned that my girl loves her paci to an incredible degree? She even has to have it on hand when she nurses now for when she needs to take a break. There are times she will not calm down to nurse until she has a giraffe in her hand. This girl!!
Speaking of nursing -- she continues to love it! I will ask her if she wants to nurse and she lights up! She'll start grinning and laughing and clapping then will crawl right over to me (unless some flashy toy distracts her -- further proof that she's my girl!).
My girl may be growing up so fast, but she is (and always will be) my baby! Sometimes I just have to sneak in to peak at her sleeping, or swoop her up for a snuggle and a sniff. Seriously, she has the best smell -- I wish I could bottle it -- it just makes my heart sing!
My busy girl is not content with the status quo. The other day I set her in her carseat (without buckling her) and the next thing we know, she's standing beside her carseat, using it to hold herself up and looking quite pleased with herself. She has since transitioned to a big girl carseat, which she thinks is the greatest thing ever since she can see/reach so much more from it.
Recently what I thought were burns on Lucy's fingertips soon showed up on her toes as well. It eased some of my panic that there was some hotspot in our house that Isaac and I couldn't find that gave her some nasty blisters. I took pictures and sent them to some moms in the family -- it looked like Hand Foot & Mouth. Mom's best friend, Bonnie, who used to be a pediatric nurse confirmed it. Along with the HFM came the worst diaper rash we have ever had to treat. Poor Lucy's bum was covered in blisters! Add to all this drama that she was teething worse than ever and it was a recipe for being up every hour on the hour for a few nights nursing and rocking and soothing our poor baby!
Living in a condo has its advantages. One of our favorite perks is the pool! It's nearly almost empty or near-empty, and we take full advantage.
There were many, many times this summer that I'd call Sarah (or vice-versa) for a spontaneous pool date. The kids really progressed this summer from technically being able to swim (barely) to confidently jumping into the deep end and swimming back and forth.
Ready to go swimming!
Swimming makes Lucy hungry
Gwenna sharing her towel with Lucy
Are you sure this is my good side, mom?
Auntie has the magic touch! All tuckered out at the pool
I finally took the iMovie tutorial and realized that it's super easy to edit videos, so enjoy a fun summer at the pool montage below.
September makes me nostalgic for the days of new school clothes, a new pair of "Keds", buying pencils, crayons, and trapper keepers. It's also time to do the Wallup in Puyallup! Okay, it's been renamed the "Washington State Fair", but it will always be The Puyallup to us. We introduced Lucy to the fair this year and she loved it! She cried on the way to and from, but nary a tear was shed once we entered the fair grounds:
Let's go, guys! So much to see!
Oh we will! Thank you!
Isaac refused to sit on the giant hand... I can't imagine why!
We saw an awesome all-seniors band singing "When I'm 65" Ohhh the irony!
Aunt Patty got us free tickets, so we made her sculpture the first stop! It was beautiful!
If you look closely the free form quilting forms footballs and helmets -- mad skills!
Fair fooooooood! *drooling*
Lucy had some serious food-envy happening!
...and so we shared with her...
Wishing...
Cooking demo
Photo credit: Isaac McPhee
Isaac's guilty pleasure: Elephant Ear
And mine: fresh roasted corn with butter and salt! I was dreaming about this for days ahead of time!
Lucy is becoming more independent by the day. We've tried to encourage her budding independence by leaving her toys in different locations in the house and letting her travel around and explore. Lucy has discovered the bookcase where I store her toys at night and loves to hang out in the hallway now. Unfortunately for her, there's a sharp corner just across from the bookshelf, which she discovered with her head while playing. It was a pretty solid "bonk" according to daddy, and she needed some snuggles and no wonder -- she broke the skin on her forehead! It didn't take her long before she was right back in her "spot" and playing happily. Here's hoping her spatial awareness catches up to her newfound adventurous spirit!
