Lil' Sprout

So it is official, I am totally clueless as to how to do Lucy's hair. Her hair is just so wild, it truly has a mind of its own. Yesterday, I did a front, bang ponytail, which looked pretty funny. I told Don that she looked like a lil' sprout. He asked me why I said that and I said, "Her hair looks like a water sprout." His response was, "Oh, you mean water spout?" Most of you know how I have a tendency to mix up words sometimes (which I got from my father). So to me, Lucy is going to be my little water sprout.

Last Friday Lucy had a playdate with her new friend, Maria. Don and I have enjoyed getting to know other families in our neighborhood. Both of the girls looked so cute together! Maria is just a doll and has the most beautiful smile. Hopefully Lucy will get to play with her new friend again soon.

I had to post this random picture. I love spring in Baltimore, but it can be somewhat problematic when you park underneath a tree. You can't really tell from the angle of the photo, but seriously the whole car looked almost pink. I told Don that he should drive around like that for the day as a tribute to the fact that spring has arrived, but he insisted on washing off the flowers.

Kristin & Eric's Baby Shower

So I am late in posting these pictures, since we had my sister's baby shower on the 19th of April. But better late than never as they say! We had so much fun planning for their shower. My mom, Eric's mom, and our friend, Mary, organized the event together. Kristin and Eric got lots of great presents and the food was so yummy. After all the weeks of planning it was so wonderful to see all our hard work come to fruition. The day went really smoothly and it seemed that Kristin and Eric really enjoyed themselves. Lucy was a little partied out in this picture. She took a nap on her Puppy's shoulder during the shower. She was just too tuckered out to make it through the whole long day. She sure looked cute in her party dress and matching bow!
Kristin's growing baby bump is just the cutest. Although she drives me nuts because she has only gained like 1 pound (well a little more than 1).
I am posting lots of pictures of the decorations, since Mary and I put our blood, sweat, and tears into all the decorative touches at the shower. Mary and I covered the cupcake tree with tissue paper and ribbon and my dad made the floral topper. The cupcakes were from Sweet Mandee B's, which is the absolute best bakery in Chicago.

The centerpiece containers were from http://www.blumebox.com/ and I used decorative ribbon to spice up the box. Also we inserted wooden animals glued onto sticks into the floral arrangement. My mom designed the table runner, which ended up inspiring our entire design concept.

You can see in the background the hanging mobiles, which Mary made. We had 11 of these hanging from the ceiling of the room and we used cardstock to cut out rings and circles and then attached them with invisible thread. I had absolutely no patience for this project, so poor Mary got stuck assembling these until 2:00 AM while I found ever conceivable way to avoid helping. Although I was doing other things, just not being very helpful with the mobiles. The favors were a cute little polka dot pot with personalized M & M's inside and a sticker on the top that said "Welcome Baby Flo, June 2008."

This is a picture of the table with the prizes for the games. Also, I made game packs which had the game sheets attached with a giraffe stamped paper/ribbon band. I went a little crazy on trying to find ways to add decorative elements, but hey Kristin is my only sister so I only get to do this once.

Cherry Blossoms

A fews weeks ago we went down to Washington D. C. to see the cherry blossoms. This is a special time of year where all the cherry blossom trees around the city (many of which were a gift from Japan years ago) bloom a beautiful whitish-pink.

Kim and I had fun trying to get some pictures of Lucy - she was a tired and cranky girl, but for her that means she is a bit less of a joy than she usually is.

Spring here in the Baltimore/D.C. area is our favorite time of year - the blooming flowers and trees are beautiful and the weather is perfect for many weeks.

Happy Spring to all of You!

Uptown Girl

We are trying to get Lucy to wear sunglasses as the beautiful Baltimore spring is here (sorry for all you Midwesterners...). She's not a fan - yet.

She does like her leg warmers, though. Your a maniac on the floor, Lucy!

We have also introduced the sippy cup, which she enjoys treating as if it's an over-sized pacifier. I still don't think she knows where the water is coming from, but its funny when she splashes herself and looks all surprised.

Out and About

Recently we attended a playgroup with some other families in our neighborhood. It has been great to get to know other families and their children. We actually discovered that there are a number of families with infants around Lucy's age within several blocks of us. Here Lucy was all bundled up for her walk with dad to the playgroup.

Lucy entertained herself at the playgroup by chewing on the pieces of a foam playmat. She was so thrilled by the foam tiles that we had to buy a set for our home.

We also recently went to an event called "Baby Loves Disco," which was held at a local club in Baltimore. Basically they opened up the nightclub to families on a Sunday afternoon and the kids (and parents) danced to music while the parents could have a few drinks. It was an interesting concept, but I think that Lucy may enjoy this sort of thing more when she is like 3 or 4 years old. The music was so loud that she seemed a little stunned at times.

Back in the Day...Lucy at 1 month old

Lucy turned 9 months old on Saturday. Update on what she is into lately: she loves to squeal and laugh, imitates us by sticking out her tongue, she says "hi" (but has not idea what it means yet), she also says "mama" and "dada" on occasion but again has no clue it refers to us, when down on all fours she can put herself back into a seated position, she continues to pull herself up with more ease into a standing position, she can cruise from one piece of furniture to another that is close by, she is very interested in moving around and doesn't like to be still, she loves to roll from her back to her front over and over again when in her crib and on our bed, she is eating more textured foods, and as you can see from the previous post is learning how to self-feed. However, she still is not crawling. She is an absolute joy and I can't believe how fast the last 9 months have gone. I am feeling nostalgic, so here's a video of Lucy at 1 month old. It is incredible to see how far she has come in the 8 months since this video was taken. I remember when she was a newborn and we thought it was the coolest thing in the world when she hiccuped. And know she does something new and amazing everyday. At the time, we had no idea how much excitement was in store for us as we would witness her growth and development.

Cheerio Girl

More Easter Pictures

So I promise this is my last post from Easter. We got a lot of really great shots that weekend. One funny memory was when the cousins (and Don so he could make sure Lucy didn't topple over) took a bath in my parent's jacuzzi tub. They had a lot of fun splashing around and squirting each other with bath toys. Look at how miniature Lucy looks in such a big tub!Our nephews, Lucas and Asher, enjoyed exploring the Easter baskets that I put together for them. Asher didn't seem to mind that he got a pink Easter basket. Thanks dad for picking those up for me!
Don, Lucy and I after church on Easter Sunday. Willow Creek had a wonderful service. The best part was that we were able to worship with both sides of our families, which doesn't happen very often.

I am so sad that she can't wear this dress again. Don and I had such a great time picking it out. She even had matching little white shoes with pink flowers on them. I have somewhat of an obsession with buying shoes for her. Somehow I can always seem to justify buying shoes. It just seems so practical (never mind the fact that she isn't even walking yet)!

I think I was more interested in Lucy's Easter basket than she was. I put cheerios and puffs in plastic eggs since she obviously can't have candy yet. She also got some new bath toys which of course immediately went in her mouth.

Don and Lucy cuddling together. We had a lovely Easter dinner with my family, Don's parents and Don's brother and his family. It was a day filled with lots of memories.