getting behind

I haven't forgotten about my blog. But with birthday parties and Christmas just around the corner. My plate has been full and I've been too tired to think about blogging. I'll be back once the craziness is over. Till then, Merry Christmas everyone.

Oh, and if anyone is interested in seeing all the birthday pics from Lucy's party. Let me know and I'll send you the link.

12 months old

Today my baby turned 1 year old. I still can't believe that a whole year has gone by. This has been a year of such joy. We have had a few challanges along the way, but overall it's been a great year. Dan and I have learned a lot and still have so much more to learn. Now that we're parenting a toddler, it's a whole new ballgame.

Lucy isn't walking yet. She loves to push the kitchen chairs around and walk with them. She looks like a little old lady with her walker-cracks me up. I think it'll be at least another month if not longer before she attempts to take a step. She's also getting a few more teeth. She currently has 9, almost 10. I noticed that she might be getting 2 more back teeth. It's hard to tell though because Lucy will not let you look in her mouth. I am very thankful that teething has never really bothered her.

Lucy is also pulling her hair out. Several months ago she started pulling at her hair when she sucked she thumb. It was pretty cute to watch the thumb go in her mouth and the other hand go to her head. At the time she started it, I didn't think much about it. But in the last few weeks her hair is starting to get really thin on one side. There's really no way to get her to stop because she does it when she sucks her thumb. I know it's a comfort thing and it's now become a habit. I'm going to have a bald headed baby in another month or so. The one good thing is that she only sucks her thumb when she's tired and not all day long.

Well, here is our last monthly picture. The onesie made it to the end!!

I am looking forward to the months ahead and all the new things Lucy will be learning.

Sunny days, sweepin' the clouds away

I have recently renewed my love for Sesame Street. Growing up with only six TV channels, the only choice for anything remotely entertaining for a child on Sunday mornings was Sesame Street. After getting ready for church I would turn on PBS and watch till we had to leave. I know for a fact that I watched it till I was way over the viewing age limit.
In the last month I have been letting Lucy watch an episode each afternoon when she gets up from her nap. I really don't let her watch any other shows for the simple fact that I find so many of them annoying. I have to give a lot of credit to the writers of Sesame Street. They write for the adults as well as the children. I find myself actually watching with her.
Here are a few examples of what I have found so entertaining. One episode we saw had a spoof on Indiana Jones. The show featured "Texas Telly" trying to find the Golden Triangle of Destiny. Another show had a song and dance number titled "Pre-school Musical", and I watched an episode that spoofed Law and Order. On today's show they had a segment called "30 Rocks". As you can probably guess, they were spoofing Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin's show 30 Rock. What gets me is that they get the muppets to look and sound so much like the real charaters. I find myself laughing out loud while watching. Little kids are not going to get it, so thank you Sesame Street for entertaining me as well.

a few new things

I want to blog about this so I have it documented somewhere. Even though I think that I'll remember this stuff forever, I know that's just not the case. 

Lucy is saying a few words. She's been saying da-da for a while, but now it's definitely with meaning.  She's also learned "Hi" and "baby". 

One of my favorite things she does right now is sing along to Old MacDonald. She knows that the duck says quack and as soon as I start singing "Old MacDonald had a farm", she will very loudly join in with her "kack, kack, kacking"  So we sing the same animal over and over because it's the only one she knows. I need to get it on video because it really is funny. 

It seems I not "off my rocker" as much as I thought

In my last post I talked about how I strive to keep my floors clean. One way we do it is by kicking off our shoes when we come in the door.  This morning my quirkiness has been validated.  The Today Show had a segment about how our vacuum cleaners are spreading bacteria and germs. It was quite alarming.  The bristles on the vacuum they tested had e. coli and fecal material present, enough to make a child sick. How did it get on the vacuum?  The reported stated that shoes and pets are big contributers. One of the suggestions to help keep your carpets clean, remove your shoes.  

I just need to stop watching TV. I learn too many disgusting facts. 

Public enemy #1

I hate a dirty floor.  In my house, this is my number 1 enemy.  It is a daily battle for me to keep my kitchen and dining area floors clean.  Lucy is not the neatest eater and much of her food ends up on the floor. I find myself Swiffering the floors 2, sometimes 3 times a day depending on what we've been eating.  I am always amazed everytime I pull that Swiffer pad off and it's filthy. I'm thinking, I just did this a few hours ago, how in the world does it get so dirty so fast.

I know it doesn't bother some people. Heck, growing up we didn't always have the cleanest floor. With 4 kids running in and out the door tracking stuff in I think my mom just figured there were bigger things to worry about. Not that my mom is a poor housekeeper. In fact, she's very particular when it comes to cleaning. But I think back then, she was busier with other things.  

Part of my obsession stems from the fact that Lucy is on the floor all day long. She crawls and scoots and I don't want her getting crumbs and dust all over her. Besides, she will find the tiniest piece of whatnot on the floor and anything she finds goes straight in her mouth. She found an old Cheerio I had missed under the counter the other day and she popped it right in her mouth. She looked very pleased with herself for that one.

In our effort to keep our floors clean, we are a "no-shoes-in-the-house" family. We always take our shoes off at the door and usually ask our guests to do the same.  I know some people think it's a bit extreme, but just think about all the places you've walked during the day. Then you come in and put that on your floors and carpet. YUCK.  Do you really want the germs from the public restroom you visited to end up on your carpet?  You think I'm weird, I know. But I saw a segment on some morning show and it was about all the stuff you bring in on your shoes.  You're probably thinking, how did I ever survive to be this old because we never worried about this growing up and we lived!  Well, now that I'm old enough to understand it all, it bothers me.  I realize that some germs are healthy and we need germs to build our immune system. I am just not ok with the germs on your shoes.  

11 months old

Lucy is 11 months old. Where did the time go? I can't believe that I have to start seriously planning her 1st birthday party. She is growing up so fast and in a month I will no longer have a baby, but a toddler. 

In the last month Lucy has gone from barely crawling to standing and pulling up on everything. She's starting to cruise around the furniture. She's pushing the kitchen chairs and walking behind them. She figured out how to climb the stairs last week so out came the baby gate.

  We are pretty much done with bottles and formula. I'm still giving her a bottle in the morning, but only because I am trying to use up the last of the formula. She loves drinking milk and water from her sippy. She becomes very territorial with her cup when you try to take it away. :)  She's such a good eater and likes a wide variety of foods. Cheese is by far her favorite though. 

Dan and I measured and weighed her a few days ago. She's a little over 28 pounds and about 32 inches. She's mostly in 24 months size clothes, but occasionaly I can find some 18 months stuff that runs big.  I've definitely built some upper body strength in the last few months. Carrying her around is no easy task. 

Lucy has such a fun personality.  I can see her being a bit of a ham as she gets older. 

Here is our monthly picture.  And surprisingly, the onesie still fits. It's tight, but it fits.

What a face!!!

confession

I'm addicted to Diet Coke.  My favorite Dt Coke though is the fountain drink from McDonalds. I don't know why but the Dt coke from any McD's always tastes so much better than anywhere else. Lately I find myself going through the drive-thru several times a week while I'm out just so I can get a Dt Coke. It doesn't help that I have a drive-thru 3 minutes from my house. Darn you McD's for making your Dt Coke so tastey.  

Becky, I'm calling you out. You're a cheater! 

cheater, cheater, cheater!!!!!!

LOL..............................................................

taking my turn

A few blogs that I read have been doing this "game" so I thought I'd steal the idea and start it here too.
The directions: Open the 6th album/folder and post the 6th picture in the album. So, here is my picture.

This was taken at Pastor Matt's annual tree triming party. Every year right before Thanksgiving he invites a bunch of friends over and has them decorate his house for Christmas. There's lots of food and music and it's always a fun time. This picture was taken in 2006. It's one of our famous "self portraits". For some reason we usually have pretty good luck with taking pictures this way. 

Ok, now it's your turn, Abbie, Becky, Karen and anyone out there who has a blog.

a few pictures

Last Saturday Dan and I took Lucy to the pumpkin patch in Arthur and then went to Uncle Richard's birthday party. Here are some pictures from our day.

Checkin' out the chickens with dad.

Let's see how tall you are.

Wow, that pumpkin is big!!

I think we'll take these two.

I'm a horrible mother. This is the first time Lucy has been in a baby swing. By the time the weather got warm this summer we were in the midst of packing and moving. Then we were trying to get settled in the new house. Also, not every park has baby swings. I was having a hard time finding one. But, it was worth the wait. She loved it and laughed the whole time. Make sure to watch the video below. 

10 months old

I should have posted this last week, but the time has gotten away from me.
Lucy turned 10 months old on October 4th. I remembered to take her picture on the right day this month too. Yay me!

Lucy is growing up too fast. It's so much fun to see her personality coming out and to be able to interact with her in new ways. She's learned to give "kisses" and we've been working on learning to clap. She catches on pretty quick. I am amazed everyday at the new things she learns.

This month Lucy has finally figured out how to crawl. She's doing it more and more everyday. She still reverts back to the army crawl because she's much faster that way. She's into everything and she's "talking" nonstop. She is really good at mimicking the sounds we make.

Here are a few pictures from this months photo shoot.

This one cracks me up. This is what we go through each month.

I caved

I posted a while back that my laptop died and I was trying to make do with Dan's business computer. I was hoping to wait and then maybe get something closer to Christmas. HA, that didn't work. Sunday after trying to upload my digital pics to his computer and having a heck of a time doing so, I gave in and told Dan he could buy me a new laptop. So, last night he made a trip to Circuit City and here I am typing a new post on my new computer. It's pretty cool cause it has a fingerprint reader so when I want to log on I just swipe my thumb across this little doo-hickey and it reads my thumb print. Also, it has a touch screen so I can navigate webpages by just touching the screen. the only downside is that I don't like having to try and figure out all the bells and whistles. I know that once I become familiar with it all I'll love it and wonder how I ever lived without it.

Oops

Today Lucy and I made a quick trip to Springfield to Babies R Us. I hadn't planned on going to Springfield today, but after I backed over Lucy's stroller when leaving the garage, I needed to go buy a new one. What a day!

Whatever, Martha

Since we moved and got our cable reconnected we've been getting some extra channels. I know we didn't sign up for these channels, so I'm not sure if we are actually paying for them. I am not sure how long we'll have them so I am going to enjoy the mistake while it lasts. One of these new channels we get is called the Fine Living Channel (FLN). It has some cooking shows and home improvement type shows. I have discovered my absolute new favorite show. It's called "Whatever, Martha". It's a show with Alexis Stewart and her friend Jennifer and they sit and watch old Martha Stewart clips and make fun of Martha and her projects. Alexis is Martha's daughter and so she can get away with making fun of her mother. This show is hysterical. If you have the FLN check it out.

baby feet

I have been searching for the last month to find a pair of shoes for Lucy. Now that the weather is getting cooler I want her feet to stay warm and I also just want her to get used to wearing something on her feet. I have looked at all the local stores. I haven't been able to find anything that fits. Yesterday, Mom and I took Lucy to Luers Shoe Store in Springfield. They are a children's specialty store and it's been around forever. I figured if anyone could help me find shoes for Lucy it was this store. We walked in and within 5 minutes she had her first real pair of shoes. Unfortunately, the size Lucy wears made the selection limited. In fact, we only had one choice. When you wear a size 4 extra, extra wide you take what you can get! No wonder I couldn't find shoes at a regular store. She's an extra, extra wide!!!! We came home with your basic white Striderite baby shoe. It'll have to go with everything! :)

M.I.A.

I haven't been blogging too much the last few weeks. I guess I've gotten lazy and I just keep putting in off.
I need a new computer. As I said in my last post, my laptop bit the dust. Which totally stinks cause it was only 2.5 years old. Dan, being the amazing husband that he is, was willing to go out that day and buy me a new laptop. We went and looked but the $700-$800 price tag is a little hard to swallow.
Do I really NEED a new laptop? No. Do I want a new one? YES. I am trying to be content with the fact that I can use Dan's business computer, but it's not the most convenient thing. His computer is in the basement and it's scary down there! Not really, but it is COLD. I have to dress for a winter day just to go check my email.
I am trying to wait it out and maybe for Christmas I'll give in and let Dan shop till he drops. Who am I kidding, I won't make it till Christmas!

Ok Becky, here's your new post.

I am thinking of planning a funeral for my laptop. It died today.

Family history

I haven't always been interested in History. During High School I didn't have much interest in it at all. By the time I finished college I was only a few credits short of a History Minor. It's funny how things change and how your interests grow and change over time. I have come to really enjoy History and learning about the past. One particular area that fascinates me is family history. I often wish I had sat down with my grandparents and asked more questions. There's a lot of things I'd like to know that no one else can answer. Sadly, even though my Grandma Ryan just passed away a year ago, for the last 10 years at least she had suffered from dementia and couldn't answer much about her childhood or early years of marriage. What I am left with are beautiful historic family pictures and no one to tell me about them. I am lucky that on both sides of my family there are many old photographs that at least give me glimpse into where I come from and who my adcestors are.

I thought I would share a photo with you. This is a picture of my great-great grandparents and their 3 children. The oldest girl in the picture is my great-grandmother, the mother of my grandpa Elmer Ryan. This picture had a date on it and it's sometime in 1888-89. I love looking at these old photos and imagining what their lives must have been like. It amazes me that this picture has survived over 100 years. I'm sure they would have never dreamed that their great-great grand-daughter would some day be blogging about it.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Montgomery with Harriet Ann, Rayment,(not sure on this name, that's what it looks like it says) and Charlie.

new trick

Lucy has learned a new trick this week. It's something she's been working toward for awhile, but finally, she can do it. Lucy has learned to sit up on her own. Now, she's been sitting by herself for over a month now, but she would be in that position because we sat her down that way. What she has figured out is how to go from lying down to sitting up. What is funny about it is the way she does it. I've been around lots of babies and have never seen one do what she does. Most babies will get to a sitting position from being on their tummy. They'll get on all fours and then push themselves back to a sit. Lucy's figured out a different way. She will roll onto her side and prop herself up on her arm and from there she will use her arm and lots of tummy muscles to pull herself up to a sitting position. She did it once last week and we thought it was a fluke. Today she was able to do it several times. I haven't been able to capture it on video yet. When I do I'll post it so you all can see it.