Baby's First Basghetti!

Flashback:

Mom: "Katie, say sss--sss---spaghetti"
Me: "Ssss---basghetti!"

This must have been one of the more lasting mispronunciations because I vividly remember standing in the kitchen with my mom, trying to get that "spa" to come out right.  Flash forward -- a lotta years -- and my kiddo is ready to try her first basghetti!

It felt like a rite of passage.  I made spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner and forgot to portion out some ground beef for Lucy to eat separately.  Isaac suggested we just go for it and give her some spaghetti.  This requires pictures!

She loved it!  She ate every bite of her portion, then it was straight into the bath with the girl!  She had sauce in her ears, up her nose, and all over her face and neck.  

Cousin Love!

We love spontaneous (and planned) cousin visits!  

The kids stopped by the other morning to do school while their mom went to Physical Therapy.  All in all, they did really well at staying focused, despite this little distraction trying her best to make them play with her: 

These two are a month apart and it's so fun to see them growing up together!  It's hard to believe looking at them that Lucy is the older of the two. She's definitely the more dainty! 

My best friend growing up with our babies!  Best buds: the third generation (our moms are super close)

Lucy likes to leave her giraffe in the most unusual and precarious places! 

Rachel, Lael, and London even had an adventure with us in Ikea.  I'm nearly as attached to Lucy's giraffe as she is, so imagine my heartbreak when we lost it in Ikea.  We searched the area twice, then headed for the front to check out.  Our last hope was that someone had turned it in to a sales associate.  We found a very sweet, helpful employee who immediately got on her walkie-talkie.  Turns out someone HAD spotted it and left it in the department for us to find (must have been AFTER our two trips through).  I nearly cried of happiness!

Playing together at Ikea (in the ah-mazing returns section)

10 month discoveries!

Just this last week LuLu has discovered doors and curtains.  It's not uncommon now to hear muffled crying coming from behind a closed door.  Once we manage to slowly open the door, moving her slowly back from leaning against it, we get the biggest smile as if to say, "oh good, you FOUND me! It's dark in here!"  Then she usually proceeds to attempt to close the door in our faces again.

"Quit laughing and help me, mama!"

I walked into the bathroom to find this!  Where's baby? 

10 months

Happy 10 months, baby girl! 

My baby is 10 months old!  How is that possible?  She's signing, walking around the coffee table, saying "mama" and "dada", but still no teeth.  I guess in some ways she's still my sweet infant.  I just wish there was a way to bottle up just a sliver of her sweet innocence (and mischief) as she plays! There are not words enough to express my love for her and her budding independence, curiosity, and drive -- even when it means short naps (or no naps!), testing boundaries, and discipline -- for her and me!  **As I dash off to pull her back from the fireplace!**

Lucy finally has enough hair to wear a clip

My little girl is more and more independent as each day goes by.  She enjoys playing with books (mostly just pulling them off the shelf and beating on them or gumming them), her ukelele, and taking each and every toy out of her bin and then playing with the bin itself.

Her daily routine: independent play at the bookcase

We can get a good 20 minutes out of these blocks at a time! She loves them, Nana!
Wearing a cute outfit all the way from Japan from Aunt Patty and Uncle Bob

This month has brought with it lots of teething, and I feel certain that there will be some pearly whites making their appearance sooner than later.

My sweet ham poses herself!

Lucy is eating like a champ these days, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner most days, in addition to nursing.  She loves to eat what we're eating, and so far has a great palate.  Read: she's less picky than Isaac or I am. She doesn't love avocado.  That's about the only food (other than purees) that she flatly refuses to eat.  We're holding off on dairy for the time being since it seems to be giving her hives.

"Studying" daddy's Greek flashcards

There are no words for how much I love her! 

I'm not sure how it's possible, but I love HIM even more! 

She's going to be a reader! 

Baby in a box! 

A party dress is the perfect attire for wreaking havoc and destruction

Apples -- mmmm! 

Every girl needs some naked book time! 

I just love to watch her sleep!

And one more video because it just makes me laugh every time I see it: Lucy and the head scratcher:

Oh, POOP!

I've officially reached a new low in cloth diapering: poop in the washer.  Now this is not the little bit of poop smeared onto the diaper that's left after a thorough rinse.  This was a beans and tomato bits poo.  POOP. IN. THE. WASHER. Folks!  I was dying.  I was mortified! I was trying to keep my lunch down.

I've lost some of you readers now for life, I just know it.  Yes, the near-worst has happened.  "NEAR-WORST?!", you exclaim.  Yes, my few readers: NEAR-worst.  I was fortunate enough to discover the mishap before moving anything to the dryer.  Before putting anything back on my child's cute little tushie.

So much gagging and wiping and bleaching (soooo much bleaching) and hand washing later, I am happy to report my washer is poop-free.  My diapers are being stripped (read: really, really, really thoroughly cleaned).  And all will be well in our little world soon enough. 

I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but I suspect the blame lies on me... I have a bad feeling that I forgot to rinse a diaper that was soiled while we were out and about.  That's a mistake that will NOT be made twice. (Lord, PLEASE help my baby-brain and do not let me make this mistake again. Amen!)

And where was Lucy during this time, you may well ask?  She was taking full advantage of my distracted (distraught!) state and climbing into the cupboard under the sink, which reminds me: we need to baby-proof it and/or get rid of the few remaining toxic cleaners.  

Just another glamorous day in the life of this mama... And I wouldn't trade it for all the money in the world! 

Pumpkin Patch 2014

My sister, cousin, and several of the kids went to Spooner Farms this week to get into the autumnal spirit.  It's been a very warm, nay hot, October, and we were in need of some fall activity.  The day started just right: foggy and cool with dew on the spiderwebs.  It was a perfect Washington Fall morning.  The children settled into the school, Lucy settled in for a nap, and I went thrifting.  What a lovely start to the day!

We piled in the car and met up with Tori, Gwenna, Amelia, and their friend Jed.  Spooner Farms is so fun!  The kids milked a cow and saw chickens, turkeys, chicks, piglets, and Amelia's favorite: bunnies.  Noah impressed the gal running the milking parlor with his perfect technique!  

Amelia was less certain about the cow -- real or not. 

This is how the cowgirl and the lady sit!

Duck races are always a blast!  There was such an air of concentration! 

I just love to watch Gwenna play.  She's such a spitfire: everything she does is done with such spunk and flair! 

Not to be left out (or left unsupervised) is her adorable little sister.  This girl is every bit as busy and spunky as G.  She's quite a cheerful little bundle of mischief! 

We said goodbye to the Bonds and headed off to conquer the corn maze.  Now Sarah and I did so with some trepidation after our experience two years ago wherein we entered with a map, wandered in circles, failed to find 3 of the 5 checkpoints and had to escape through an emergency exit.  Ava, our little human GPS was quite confident.

For the first 15 minutes or so she led us just right -- we found a volcano, a checkpoint, a couple cool dino-fact signs... Then we began to retrace our steps.  She still knew which routes we'd followed and which we hadn't, but we were definitely stuck on one half of the maze.  Fast forward -- a LONG time and a nap for Lucy in the ergo -- and we still hadn't found three of the checkpoints.  Sarah and I were starting to exchange looks and quips.  History is repeating itself.  Here we are with maps in hand (but no pens to chart our progress OR the correct route through the maze), confidence waning, when we pass an emergency exit.

So confident! 

It was a prehistoric theme this year 

My sweet sleeper! 

Dressed for fall despite the heat

A few minutes and one more checkpoint and we pass the emergency exit again.  Sarah, who is newly returned to the land of two shoe wearers, ducked out with Lucy.

Ava was visibly upset that we hadn't completed the maze, so off we went.

We struck off into what turned out to be a new path and found the fourth checkpoint, an archaeological dig, another dinosaur, and finally, finally we found the front of the maze.  Okay, I know where we are. We can hear Sarah and Lucy on the other side of the corn wall.  I did some quick mental tracing of the map and took off with the kids in tow behind me: left, left, curve, right, jog left, four more turns and WE DID IT!  The kids took off running for FREEDOM!

What! A dig site! 

Running to FREEEEEDOMMMMM

Sarah and I decided that all future mazes will only be undertaken with three things:
1. A map
2. A pen
3. A Brian (or an Isaac) -- definitely NOT someone who has gotten lost in a maze, on a mountain, and pretty much everywhere in between.

Finally we hit the pumpkin part of the patch.

Mmm... Smile? I'll get back to you about that, mom. 

All done, mama! 

Passing the tradition on to the littlest cousin! 

Three big kids!