Words, words, words!
Lucy has been bursting with verbage lately. Of course you have to speak “Baby” to translate what she means. Fortunately, “Baby” is my third language. Here is what she has been saying:
-Mama
-Dada
-Buh buh (For her little stuffed bunny)
-Buh (Bath)
-Buh (Book)
-Muh (Milk)
-Muh (More)
-Guh (Gus- the dog at school)
-Duh (Dog, or also for Gus)
New Signs:
-Thank You (She’s really good at this one)
-Hat
-Bath
-Dog
Steps!
Hooray for Lucy, she took her first steps tonight! Let me try to capture for you the joyous little moment that Ellie. Lucy, and I shared tonight.
After school we went to get some dinner at Pick Up Stix, where the girls behaved beautifully and ate good too. Ben was working late, so we stopped by Barnes and Noble so Ellie could pick out a few books to give her friend Tabby for her 3rd birthday this weekend. (Ellie was insistent that Tabby wanted books, not toys, and Ellie picked out all the books herself). Finally we got home and were playing in their room before getting ready for bed. Ellie was jumping in Lucy’s crib, which she loves to do, while I played with Lu on the floor. Lucy was holding on to the crib, looking up at Ellie, when she let go and stood there. She’s been doing this more and more lately, standing for 10-15 seconds, but has never taken steps. She smiled with delight, very proud of herself for standing for so long. I think she knew that she felt steadier than usual. When she started to sit down, I encouraged her to stand back up. Ellie cheered her on too from above. Lucy really liked this and smiled and giggled more as we applauded. Then I pointed to her foot and said, “Move your foot Lu. Take a step.” Ellie echoed down, “Move your foot Lu. Step.” Then Lucy giggled, thought about it, giggled some more, and stepped. Hooray! Ellie and I went wild, we cheered, clapped, and hugged Lucy. She ate it all up, quite pleased that we were so thrilled with her. Then I stood her up again, and this time, obviously eager for more cheering, she took three steps. Again, her fans went wild. That was all the steps we got for the night because Lucy wanted to go up in the crib to play with her sister. Ellie hugged her and said, “Good job sweetie. I’m so proud of you.”
Lucy is One!
Lucy turned one year old yesterday, on April 19th. My little sunshine had been a part of our lives for 12 whole months and I can hardly remember what we did without her. Here are a few pictures and a little bit about what makes Lucy so special.
- Lucy loves her sister and loves to follow Ellie around everywhere. Sometimes, I’ll let her crawl from our room into Ellie’s room in the morning to “wake up” Ellie. Ellie likes to say, “Hi Lu. Hi sister.”
- Lucy is the easiest baby to put to bed. You rock her for 2 minutes and lay her in the crib.
- Lucy doesn’t like to stay asleep all night. I frequently have to go in around 2am to rock her back to sleep because she’s had a bad dream. She always goes right back to sleep and then wakes up again around 5:30am (But I don’t mind.)
- Lucy is very adventurous and will crawl just about anywhere she can get to. She’s also a super fast crawler, who finds the idea of walking just plain silly.
- Lucy is an eater of all things yummy. She’s been treated to much more than Ellie ever was (Cupcake, ice cream, juice, and more). She also loves her veggies, toast, yogurt, raisins, and just about anything else she can hold onto. In fact, I have to give her finger foods (like raisins) one at a time so she doesn’t shovel them all into her mouth at once.
- Lucy is just plain sweet!
On her birthday, Lulu shows off her new dress.
Lucy takes a bath on her birthday
A good Lucy face
Lucy shows how old she is, one!
My gilrs playing at the park together
Mama!
Lucy has been talking for a few months now, that is if you count “buhbuh” as Bye Bye, and “dadadadada” as Daddy. She also has a great sign vocabulary and can do the signs for Please, Mom, Dad, All Done, Bath, Dog, More, and Sleepy. She makes alot of cute little sounds too; my favorite is her long slow “uhhhhhohhhh” when she purposefully drops food or a toy on the floor. It’s pretty cute. . . for now. However, I haven’t been convinced that she was really saying Mama when she would occasionally mumble “mamamama”. Sometimes she’d be looking at me and other times she wouldn’t. But today, we were sitting up in bed playing when she looked right at me and said “Mama!” It was an enthusiastic Mama to boot. Good job Lucy Lu!
Peer Pressure
Seventeen days have passed in April; seven posts have appeared on this site. That’s not even a passing grade. Failure sucks. In fact, I hate failing, probably more than anything. I consider myself a friend of commitment. From early on in life I’ve been a follow-througher. Part of that track record is because I often do care what others think and am easily influenced under the watchful eyes of others. I don’t consider this a negative character trait. It’s not unhealthy to care about the opinions of those you love and allow their presence to shape your behavior. Now in my late-twenties, I am more confident than I used to be filtering out the opinions that don’t matter from those that do. So here I am blogging for the faithful 4 people who check these posts. It’s easy to allow a commitment to simply fade away into the oblivion of good intentions when it is only yourself that knows about it. It’s easy to quit when no one is watching you, no one checking in on you, and no reward for consistency. There’s a positive side to peer pressure when it spurs you on towards a commitment that you’ll be glad about later. (Thanks for the positive pressure.)
When I look at parenting through this lens, it’s easier to do. I have a commitment to my child’s well being, and even when might I think no one is watching, someone always is, my kids. When it’s me and my two year old, she might not tell on me if I don’t follow through on discipline, but she does notice. She notices when I say one thing and do another. She notices when a threat rings hollow. When it’s me and my two year old, I stick it out even when quitting seems akin to survival in the rationalizations of my conscience. She is my positive peer pressure when the going gets tough.
Tonight I had to spank Ellie because she was being what we call “naughty.” At our house, spankings are doled out sparingly on occasions when a timeout won’t be an effective deterent. We had some family over and I stepped away from the card game to lay down the law. After the spanking, talk, and hugs, I put Ellie to bed. The hardest part wasn’t the disciplining because I know that it is in Ellie’s best interest. The hard part tonight was returning to the room full of adults, not knowing what they might be thinking about my parenting methods. This is the negative side to peer pressure, when I contemplate (even consider) renegging on a commitment because of what others might think. I guess peer pressure is something that is always lurking, always waiting to turn the weakly resolved into quitters. Or perhaps turning the easily influenced into champions perchance. Of all the people watching tonight, the most important one was Ellie and not the room full of onlookers. I may not be a successful blogger, but I’m still hopeful about the whole parenting gig.
