apple of my eye

well, lucy's sister definitely has her eye sockets going for her :) we had an all good news ultrasound this afternoon! baby is growing right on track, weighing in at 1lb 6oz. she's still teeny, with a 4cm in length thigh bone :) can't wait to snuggle this little cupcake when the time comes! i think by this time in my lucy pregnancy [23 weeks], the nursery was painted and i was simply twiddling my thumbs, waiting for her to make her grand entrance ;) what can i say...i'm type A. yet this time around, we're filling up every day from now until the end of may with a quickly growing toddler, while figuring out which roof we'll be living under 4 months from now. monday's the big day- the virtual tour is set & despite the snow that's headed our way, we're hoping for some showings next week! take a peek!

http://www.midwestvirtualtours.com/8646/

tonight's date night! story for dinner and romeo & juliet at the kc rep.  lucy gets so excited for girls'  night with her meme :) happy weekend!!!

-ivy

my lucy

all of a sudden, my lucy has the biggest personality i could imagine! she's opinionated, fearless, sneaky, and soaking up the world around her like a heavy sponge. 

she suddenly has a real interest in characters. it's no longer me picking out what she likes. she gravitates towards her minnie mouse & daisy duck toys, and gets insanely excited when she's wearing one of their pictures on her shirt or pajamas. she'll bend her head forward, give them kisses, and look up at me with her olive-green eyes wanting to know if i can see the magic happening on her clothes. 

she received a dora the explorer sing-along book from a family member for christmas, and given that i know nothing about dora, i didn't give it a whole lot of thought other than the songs are catchy and lucy enjoys them. "enjoys them" has quickly become an understatement. all she wants now is "doh-da! doh-da! doh-da!" and we made the mistake of showing her a bit of an episode. now she'll grab her book, scream "doh-da!!!", point to the tv and start sobbing her biggest crocodile tears because doh-da isn't showing up on the screen. this happens multiple times each day. 

she loves carrying things- lots of things at once. pens, little people princesses, makeup brushes, bracelets- as many as she can fit into her tiny hands at one time. and when she drops one, she goes from 0 to 60 in less than a second- full on tantrum. as soon as she gets her hands on all items again [through frustrated tears] she's right back to her happy-go-lucky self. 

she slides down the staircase on her tummy much faster than i can walk down them these days. she has no fear. 

just this morning, i was loading up the dishwasher in the kitchen and she was out of my sight for a total of 60 seconds. i peeked in the living room to find her [literally] dancing in the center of the coffee table. [lucy's dancing consists of stepping back and forth from left foot to right as fast as she possibly can, and doing so in the midst of a giggle fit. if that's not dancing, i don't know what is]. no idea at what point she's learned to lug her 20 pounds onto tables. [note: dancing on tables is something i plan to quickly nix from her repertoire]. 

she loves to mosey up, pretend she's ready to give me or daddy a kiss...and then quickly run away, leaving us behind with a giggle and a smirk. how did my sweet baby learn to play hard-to-get? 

but then there are those times she'll come up to me out of the blue, purse her teeny lips, and give me the daintiest kiss before resuming her play. those moments get me. maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, but i can hardly handle her sweetness. 

she's putting more and more words together. she now asks for "more cheese" rather than just "more" or cheese", and she'll attempt a repeat of any word i say. i guess that's my sign to officially censor any sailor-talk i've been keeping. 

she's sweet. sweet with a touch of sass and lots of endearing spunk. i love her :)

-ivy

toddlerhood welcome

i've been a total madwoman over these past few days. i finished lucy's baby book and first year photo album, which had been complete ongoing projects. i had planned to finish both this past fall, but because i had such terrible nausea during the first trimester with my current pregnancy [& lucy's too, actually], getting through each day & taking care of lucy was about all i could handle. then came the holidays, and now here we are- already the end of january! i definitely don't want to go into this move with any extra loose-ends on my plate. i'm such a planner...it drives jon nuts at times, i'm sure :)

lucy's tantrums have hit a new toddler high :) she's all about testing boundaries & wanting her way...NOW! saturday marked her first public tantrum while we were furniture shopping for her "big girl" room. she reallllly wanted to sit in a pretty pink chair she found...and do nothing else. i liken it to if we were given a huge paycheck that was all of a sudden taken from us, and we had no idea whether or not we'd get it back. with this in mind, jon & i laughed our way through it :) really, what can you do? on the furniture note, our plan is to get lucy's furniture for her new room, and transition her to her new bed when she turns two in september, about the time we'll be transitioning her sister from the cradle (which was mine, and then lucy's:) to the crib. phew!

last week, lucy figured out how to go down the slide by herself for the first time!

and i snapped a video of a few of her favorite sounds. snake & horse are pretty sweet, too :)

my 2 favorites during a daddy/daughter morning this past weekend :) 

house goes on the market a week from today!

-ivy

new year- new beginnings

whew! time is passing faster than ever! it feels like we're living in a bit of a whirlwind. at 5.5 months pregnant, chasing a 16 month old [who is 100% toddler], getting our house ready to sell, and teaching 2 days a week- i'm finding little time to sit at the computer & reflect on it all. 

the stager came yesterday to help us set up the house for selling, and tomorrow we're getting new appliances installed. friday the photographer comes, and our house officially goes on the market monday after the super bowl- february 3. 

we've put so much love into our first home that it's definitely bittersweet to have begun this process. we're beyond grateful and excited for the next chapter in our little nest's life though :)

but let's be honest. this baby is due in [less than] 18 weeks. that means 18 weeks to cram some serious life stressors in! selling our house, buying a new one, and moving all by [God willing] memorial day, when i'm due. we've prayed about it, and said multiple times that this is going to have to be the perfect storm in order for it to all pan out the way we're hoping. my goal is to have both girls' rooms done by may 15. i've never missed an end date- gotta keep up the streak. eeeeeeeeeek!

in the meantime, lucy is becoming more & more "toddler not baby" each day. this morning, as i'm hand-washing dishes while we wait for the new dishwasher to be installed, she took advantage of some downtime and ran into the bathroom, unraveled the toilet paper roll, ran into the living room and pulled out several files from the filing cabinet, then dumped a cup of ice on charlie's head- all in one minute's time [this following a quick rummaging of my bathroom drawers, and an innocent breaking of my favorite headband]. she's a quick one! and super spunky to boot. she reminds me of a tiny punky brewster- sweet, sneaky & stylish :)

i am so so so excited that jon & i have named lucy's little sister! names have always been one of my favorite topics :) we wanted the girls' names to compliment each other, so it was a bit of a process breaking down lucille jane & all of the reasons why we love and chose that name for our first-born. i can hardly WAIT to share it with the world, but jon loves surprises, and has asked me [like last time] to keep hush hush- not an easy task for a girl like me! 

i've begun to feel lots of sweet kicks & tumbles over the past few days, & we're counting down to our next ultrasound on the 31st! 

-ivy

smile, lucy!

lucy & i are so excited to have jon in town this week! he travels quite a bit for work, so the weeks when he's home aren't taken for granted!

we had a fun family weekend, running errands & catching up after jon's work trip to canada last week. 

lucy could stare at herself in the mirror for hours. can't say i blame her!

"lucy, smile pretty!" 65degrees on a sunday in january was just what this sweet thing needed. 

we had a mommy/daughter date at the mall this morning. lunch at nordstrom café [lu loves their cheese pizza!] & a romp in the children's play area. 

lucy loves to run to other kids, blow kisses, wave & say "hi"- she melts me. today for the first time she looked at me & said, "hi mama" :)

happy monday!

-ivy

here we go

i've [unsuccessfully] attempted the whole blog thing before, and after an encouraging push from a fellow mama blogger [thanks, beth!], i've decided to try it out again as a fun way to document the sweet life of lucy jane and our growing family :)

miss lucille is now 15.5 months old. not sure how that happened! she is full of life & spunk, and her favorites include hosting tea parties, reading books & taunting her fur-brother, charlie. 

lucy at 12 months, photographed by the amazing shannon lockwood of babydayphotography

preparing to host a saturday morning tea party for charlie & her dollies

eating ice chips...in her fairy wings...with her cabbage patch hat from her auntie amy...and throwing in a downward dog for good measure - the perfect picture of my sweet lucy at 15 months 

...and a sensible downward dog at her 15 month check-up

the 20 pounder at her pediatrician's office [pre-shots] this week :)

lucy announced in november that she'll welcome a baby sibling come may 2014!

baby's a-growin...

and just last week, jon and i headed to dinner, opened an envelope and learned that

we are expecting another girl! i am overwhelmingly thankful and so very excited! having 2 daughters, 20 months apart is an absolute dream [i'm saying this pre-high school, mind you]. i'm just thrilled for these girls! 

lucy's been researching. she's clearly excited, too. 

i'm a bit baffled by how closely may is sneaking up on us [it's already mid-january!] we have plenty to do in the meantime, as we're preparing to put our house on the market. in this new year, i'm working to consciously take life one day at a time, stopping to enjoy these precious moments.

-ivy