Sam's Birthday

Since Tyler and I had so many Doctor's appointments in the city this week, we ended up staying at my parent's house from Sunday afternoon until Wednesday morning. It was fun to be taken care of a bit and spend time with family. As a result we were able to join the parents, Trevor and Sam for Sam's birthday dinner last night. We went to a tiny little Vietnamese restaurant off Bow Trail that is a family favorite. Tyler and I discovered the restaurant just after he came home from his mission and have been going so regularly, that the owner (Hon), knows us by name. We have taken all our family there and he is now on a first name basis with all of them as well. Our most favorite dishes are the #27 and B4if you're ever in the neighborhood. (It's across from Westbrook Mall). I didn't think to take a picture of the food before we'd already started consuming. One of the best parts is that you get your meal within 10 minutes of ordering...and 10 minutes would actually be a long wait. It's awesome.

The family squished around a small table and enjoyed our meals. We got a kick out of Lucy trying to eat her noodles with chopsticks like the rest of us, and thought it even more funny when she managed to eat half the plate. Wax-on, Wax-off little ninja.
Lucy also chose a birthday card for Sam that had her favorite Disney princesses on it. It was actually a card for a 3-year old, but logic doesn't always prevail with toddlers. The best part about the card is that it had a cut-out crown on the inside, inviting the birthday girl to wear it all day to truly be a princess. My favorite part was the instructions that told Sam to ask an adult to help her by using scissors to cut along the dotted line. We have often joked that with Sam being the youngest, she is babied and my mom won't even let her cross the street by herself (this is a literal fact that we're hoping to be remedied by her 17th birthday)...so the fact that the card told her to have an adult help with the scissors more than made up for the fact that it was a 3 year-olds card.
Sam, I hope you've enjoyed your first 17 revolutions around the sun and that they haven't made you too dizzy...although I think the lack of oxygen at your altitude probably contributes more to dizziness than revolutions around the sun. Happy Birthday.

Needles

Lucy had to go to the Children's Hospital today to get some blood work done. She was very brave and most excited to ride in the elevator. The part that bothered her the most was having the elastic band tight around her arm in preparation for the needle. They are so quick and gentle at the hospital that I don't think she barely noticed the needle. Before we went in I told her she'd probably get a cool band-aid and possibly a sticker. She shed a few tears and had already won the technicians over, so when it came time to hand out the loot, they handed it out in bundles. She walked away with a Strawberry Shortcake band-aid, a Dora tattoo (non-permanent of course), a Dora sticker, and a tiny orange turtle for the bath-tub. I'm sure they'd have given her more if she asked. She was most excited about her turtle (as shown in this picture hours later) and hung onto it for most of the day. Brave girl.
(By the way, she named her turtle "frog")

People Skills

We went to the obstetrician for the first time today. Up to this point we've just been seeing our family doctor to save us the drive to south Calgary for each appointment. Our OB is a great Doc, but could probably brush up on her bedside manner. She's a little abrupt and chaotic at times, but makes me feel confident because she definitely means business when it comes to birth and babies. She was our Doc for Lucy as well and so she was able to compare my chart to the last time. According to her records I am the exact same weight and all my measurements are exactly the same as last time. Here's hoping that means our baby's temperament will be exactly the same too...probably impossible.
As for her lack of people skills, the OB also delivered (no pun intended) some bad news by saying she didn't think I'd be early. Maybe a few days, but not to plan to be going into labor anytime this week or anything. She obviously hasn't learnt that this is not exactly what an 8-month pregnant woman wants to hear.

Little Eyes and Ears...Part 2

Lucy's ability to pick up on the negative aspects of conversation is becomming uncanny. A few nights ago in the tub, she threw one of her toys and said, "That's dumb." I had to remind her that we don't say "dumb" and she replied by saying, "Sarah says that". I told her we would have to tell Sarah not to say that anymore. She proceeded to sit in the tub for the next five minutes repeating over and over, "We don't say dumb. We don't say dumb. We don't say dumb." When I finally said, "LUCY!, stop saying dumb." she responded by asking me about every other thing we have taught her not to do: "Mom, do we hit anybody?" "No Lucy, we don't hit", "Mom, do we kick anybody?"...etc.
And tonight, she added another phrase to her growing list of things not to say, "What the heck?" This was again followed by a lesson from mom that we don't say that...to which she responded, "Matt says that."
I guess we're going to have to start practicing some good old-fashioned censorship 'round here.

Tattle-Tails and Trivial Pursuit

Visiting Grandma and Bumpa's house today made for some interesting interactions between Emma and Lucy. Lucy is quick to tell anyone whenever Emma heads for the stairs by yelling: "Go Get Emma Please! Go Get Emma!" At one point, she rushed over to Tammy yelling just such a statement, and we heard Emma from the stairs yell out, "Lu-cy!" As if to call her a tattle-tail...all the adults got a quick kick out of it.

As Lucy woke up from her nap she was quick to yell out: "I'n awake!"...."Gramma Boo-urne, I'n awake!"

As Tyler read us Trivial Pursuit Genus questions one of the answers was 200. Lucy quickly repeated the new word. He then asked her if she could count to 200 and she responded by saying, "100...200!" I guess we never specified by what she had to count by.

Captain Fierce

While eating lunch today, Tyler decided to put my hairband over his eyes and pretend he was a superhero. Lucy got quite the kick out of it and soon wanted to try for herself. This is her "grumpy" face that makes her look tough.

Too Soon

In case anyone else missed it, last night was a fairly clear night, with some pretty alright weather in this here province. I know this because I saw most of the night. I decided to go to bed at 10:00pm last night. Pretty decent (ie. lame) for a Friday night. I was enjoying my much needed time in bed when at 11:30 I was awoken by some killer back labor. I continued to have contractions every 20-25 minutes, mostly in my back, hips, and legs until about 4:30am. I wouldn't have been surprised in the least if my water broke last night, but fortunately, things calmed down and I was able to get some sleep. Tyler was up at his parent's house playing RISK with his siblings till 3:30am, so he missed much of it, which only meant I had more of the bed to roll around in while trying to find a comfortable position. The worst part was that the contractions were just far enough apart that I'd just be settling down and falling back asleep when another one would start. No signs of labor today, but here's hoping the next 4 weeks aren't all like this.
I am getting to the point of feeling like I'm ready to be done, but when the prospect of early labor actually hits you in the middle of the night, you really start praying hard that your secret daytime wishes aren't coming true.

Snow Bear

Today, Lucy and I decided to enjoy some outdoor time and build a snowman with the mountains of snow outside our house. We got completely bundled up and headed outside to discover that the snow was actually not the greatest for making a snowman. In most places the wind had blown it so much that the drifts were hard enough for her to walk on top of...and everywhere else it was too powdery. So I ran inside quickly and got some water to help make slushier snow that would stick. Because of the lack of good snow, our grand idea of a snowman quickly scaled down to a snowbear. Once the bear was complete, we added the scarf and Lucy named him Frosty (because all snowmen/bears with a scarf are named Frosty). He sits outside our living room window and she enjoys looking out to see how he's doing.

Happy Valentines Day

For the past week, Lucy has been surprising her dad with pictures, treats and little valentines in his backpack for him to find when he got to work. Yesterday, as a finale to our week of surprises, we spent the afternoon making and decorating sugar cookies. We delivered them to Tyler at his office this morning and stayed for a nice visit. It was a fun way for them to celebrate valentines day together, especially since Wednesday nights are our Youth Activity nights and Tyler and I are both in YM/YW.

Lucy has so much fun cutting out the dough into heart shapes. It's like real-life play-doh. When we got to Tyler's office today, we called him from the foyer. Lucy and Tyler's conversation went like this:

"Dad, you at work?"

"Yeah buddy, I'm at work."

"Me too!"

"What?"

"Come and see me...outside."

Tyler proceeded to the foyer to find us sitting there waiting. It was a great surprise. And immediately, Lucy said, "Dad, we have cookies!"

She had been very patient waiting to have a cookie until we gave them to dad.

Off to the Races, etc

Because of the Worldwide Leadership broadcast this morning, Lucy spent some time with Aunt Janeen while Mom and Dad went in to the Stake Center. It's not really babysitting, as I think Janeen has just as much fun as Lucy. We thought we'd post a few pictures of their adventures together.
Lucy got this shopping cart from my mom for Christmas. When she pushes it around the house she feels the need to bend over as far as possible. It looks like she's practicing to enter the shopping cart races.

Here's a picture Aunt Janeen took.

Swim Fan

Tonight we took Lucy swimming at the Cochrane pool for the twoonie family swim. We haven't been swimming in almost a year except in the lake on summer holidays. In times past, Lucy has been pretty timid when it comes to swimming and all things water related. We figured we'd go for maybe 45 minutes to an hour just to get some family time in and relieve my aching joints with some float time in the pool. Well, as soon as we told Lucy we were going swimming, she was so excited. As we stood in the family change room, she was the loudest kid in the area, squealing as she waited for mom and dad to change. We ended up spending an hour and a half at the pool and had a hard time convincing her it was time to go. She's taller now and is able to stand up on her own in the shallow end of the kiddie pool, which I think gave her much confidence. She was able to have piggy-back rides with dad and jump from an under-water landing into our arms. The jumping was still pretty sissy, but she's getting there. And now that she's older, any shyness towards adventure is dealt with very maturely. Instead of crying, she politely says, "nope, I just don't like that."
It was a unexpectedly awesome evening and we were glad we decided to go. This pregnant body felt pretty good to be floating around for a while too. Looks like we'll have to go again soon. Now we're completely tuckered out and ready for a good nights sleep.

Little Eyes and Ears

Oh what things our children pick up on when we don't think they're paying attention. The other night we were sitting at the dinner table as a family when Lucy suddenly decided we needed some dinner music and broke out into song. Her choice of music for the evening..."Crazy" by Gnarles Barkley. She threw her head back, closed her eyes and started singing "Crazy!...make me crazy!" pretty well in-tune and with great facial expressions.
Tonight, as we were sitting in the living room, she was reading a book to herself and licked her finger before turning every page. The best part is that it was a board book, so really, licking the fingers is a fairly unnecessary step in the page-turning process. Tyler and I had to cover our faces as to not let her realize we were laughing at her.

Teething

Lucy has spent the last 3 weeks either teething, or with a cold, which has made her a little on edge, but still an angel (how long can this possibly last?). She walks around with all her fingers in her mouth and her shirt covered in drool as if she was a newborn. The benefit to her teething so late is she can actually talk to me about it. When I ask her what's wrong, she says, "teefies sore." The bad thing...she likes the taste of medicine and always asks for more. She has cut 4 teeth in the last 2 weeks and it looks like she's in the process of cutting 2 more. Most of these have been molars too, which will be great for the chew factory.

This picture is of her yesterday morning. She was so tired that I finally had to wake her up at 9:00am to get started on the day. She insisted on cuddling on mom and dad's bed with her blanket. Dad called just a few minutes after 9:00 to talk to her and she spent most of the time looking like this and just nodding her head, but not really talking. You can see her cheeks are a little swollen and red. Poor girl. She never ceases to make us laugh though, even when she's sick. Last night Grandma bought her some raspberries and asked her if she wanted one of them. She replied by saying, "No grandma, I want lots of them."