Lucy is ONE!

Lucy and her new baby, Rachie (my baby doll)

My baby is one year old today!  I've been saying that over and over all day today in an effort to make it feel more real: my sweet baby, my Lucy, has been here for an entire year!  I've been reflecting all day (all week, really) on where I was at this time last year, mentally following my progress through labor.  A year later and I can say that the memory of the pain fades, but the joy of her arrival continues to grow!

Stats:
Height:  30.5 inches
Weight:  20 pounds
Head:     90-95th percentile

My sweet sleeper on her last night as an 11 month old.  

I tell many people that Lucy came out of the womb with opinions and that has certainly rung true.  She is tenacious!  She's silly, happy, Busy with a capital B, sweet, only occasionally snuggly, daddy-loving, cousin-chasing, and definitely a mama's girl.

She's still nursing full-time, which was a huge blessing (and relief) to me this past week as she's fought to cut four teeth at once -- all on the top.  My poor girl didn't have much of an appetite, and would only nurse, but seemed to rally just in time for her birthday and ate whatever I offered today.

Lucy still isn't walking, though I'm convinced she was on the cusp of taking off before she was knocked out by teething (see my previous post).  She motors around on all fours, getting into mischief, hiding behind doors, playing peek-a-boo, opening (and emptying) drawers, and hiding things in my boots that I find when I'm in a rush to get out the door.

The nose-crinkle is a new favorite!

Lucy says hi and ba ba (bye bye) accompanied by a wave, mama, dada, and oh!  She can sign "more" and "all done" and understands the sign for eat, nurse, orange, water, and drink, but so far only responds to them with a grin.  As I said before, she's tenacious and she's decided that two signs are quite enough.  If she's displeased with a situation or wants to be done or somewhere else, she signs all done or waves and says bye bye.  If she wants something (especially if it's out of reach or she's been told "no"), she asks for "more" with the most pleading puppy dog eyes.  It's really hard not to give in, but we persevere, even when our sweet girl turns into a very demanding, angry little minion.

I can see glimpses of her toddler-self emerging, and I know we'll have our hands full guiding her strong-willed nature into positive avenues.

After a rough week, it was a blessing and a joy to see her spunky self shine through today.  We had a surprise visit from auntie and cousins and she dove into Noah's arms when she saw him.  She giggled with me playing peek-a-boo behind the door, and outright laughed when daddy tossed her in the air.  Our sweet Ms. Magoosey is back!

Birthday-Christmas fusion

We thank the Lord for the gift of this sweet, healthy, beautiful child.  She is our first and has taught us so much about love, about ourselves, about the way that God loves us...  We treasure her and the joy that she continually brings to us.  We cannot imagine life without her.

Too many pictures, mama!

Here's a quick video of her day... just some clips of Lucy being a 1 year old!  I know I'm biased, but the whole peek-a-boo scene near the end is pretty much the cutest thing ever!

Lucy's First Birthday Party

About a week ago, we had a small party for Lucy to celebrate her upcoming FIRST birthday!  I can't believe it's been nearly a year!  Since she was born three days before Christmas, I wanted to take special care that her birthday was separate and unique -- a day to celebrate the blessing she is!

These two! They're inseparable! 

Tutu buns: I can't get enough! 

Getting her hair done by auntie

Giraffe is a must at any event! 

Playing with Gramps

We had presents.  I'm pretty sure her favorite was the laptop Nana gave her.  Now she can "work" when we're on our laptops...

Checking out baby Rachie's fingers

She loves Seahawks Bear, Uncle Seth! 

I can't wait for it to be warm enough to wear the new dress from GG Nancy...  Lucy seemed to prefer sitting in the box. 

Hard at work! 

 I had this great idea that I'd keep her smash cake really simple and decorate it with nonpareils.  Lucy wasn't so thrilled with this idea, as it turns out.  She did NOT like the sprinkles one bit.  She scraped them off the cake, then got frosting on her hands and she was DONE. She did not want anything more to do with the cake.  Oh well! So much for the fantastic, epically messy cake smash photos!

Mama, get it OFF my fingers! 

No, I really don't want it, mama

Okay, if you feed it to me, I guess I'll eat it

Hm...sugar is tasty! 

Much happier with her seat and a spoon! 

This kid had quite the sugar rush! 

Lucy loves Gramps! 

Hi Grams! Let me check out your face! 

Reading her new book from GG Nancy

Auntie love

Hope we're not creating a workaholic! 

GG Nancy bought her a popper. She thought it was hilarious to be chased around and around in circles by Ava

Birthday party shenanigans! 

We love you, Lucy Margaret! Happy birthday, big girl!

Teething

This week has been hard for our little Lucy Bear.  We only thought we'd experienced teething up to this point, but we. were. wrong.  This weekend Lucy wasn't quite herself, she was more fussy and clingy than usual, but we thought it was due to the excitement of back to back parties.  

On Monday Lucy was clearly in pain, by Tuesday she'd spiked a fever and was snuggly and pitiful.  Our poor lil puddinhead wanted so badly to play, but it just wasn't in her.  After a very rough night, we packed up and went to workout, where she laid on cousin Ava's chest for 45 minutes, ultimately falling asleep.  If you've ever spent any time with Lucy you know this is uncharacteristic on many levels.  She doesn't sit still, she isn't snuggly, she does NOT fall asleep anywhere but her crib (or her carseat if she's exhausted).  

Going, going....gone! 

My sweet girl was a total limp noodle.  She reminded me in this busiest of seasons to stop and cherish her fevered snuggles. A couple of times she got down on the floor and tried to crawl, but it was too much for her and she laid down on the floor.  

After days of “go, go, go”, it was a good reminder to me that sometimes a mama needs to be still and hold her baby.  My sweet fevered girl needed me.  She wanted to be rocked and snuggled and kissed. 

Fever just starting -- just needing to sit on mom's lap, but still pretty happy! 

Definitely not feeling well: She laid down on my bed and cried when I picked her up. 

Snuggle, sleep, sit up and smile, collapse: REPEAT.  

We called in some snuggle reinforcements! 

She traded off "fresh" packs, but this one never left her body for 24 hours. 

We thought she was feeling better when she got down to crawl...she didn't make it around the coffee table. 

Feeling well enough to get into mischief

Stealing ornaments!