The last day in March

Tomorrow it will be April. I really look forward to warm weather and the opening of a new arena for play (the outdoors). Lucy will probably spend the summer in the little wading pool again. She is growing up so fast, in a little over a month she'll be 2 years old. It's amazing how fast this happens. My baby rarely falls asleep in my arms anymore. This is not some amazing parenting trick, that I have my child "trained" into falling asleep on her own. I mean, I tried to teach her how to stay asleep (calm her self mid-night time) but the inital falling asleep ... that was my time to hold her and cuddle in a calm and peaceful environment. These days, being held is far too stimulating for her. She has too much to talk about. When she is falling asleep she talks about her eyes and her nose, she talks about being nice, she calls out for Sassy the dog, meows for the cats and randomly SHOUTS hi ... she pretends to want to kiss me and then licks my face and laughs hysterically. Eventually I ask her if she's ready to go in her crib and she nods yes. She almost always settles down and falls asleep relatively quickly after this. Tonight, she must have known that after I put her in her crib, I immediately started cooking the chicken for Mel's baby shower. She started talking, singing and lauging in her crib. I let this go on for about 1/2 hour before I turned the stove down and gathered my child from her crib. I restarted the bedtime routine. This time she fell asleep in my arms! I stared at her for awhile, kissed her sweet sleeping face and layed her in her bed ... oh please don't let this be the last time she falls asleep in my arms ... please no!

Wednesday

Well ... knock on wood. I think Lucy is good to go. She is definately ready for a return to daycare (on Monday) as she has been singing a song that she learned at daycare. There are only two recognizable words but all the other "words" are very correct in her head as she says the same thing each time. It's a song in Spanish ... I love that she's learning Spanish at daycare, I just have to keep remembering to listen for it (thank goodness I know the language). She always says "si" instead of "yes" and will often say por favor in place of please. Very adorable little Spanish speaking Ethiopian girl. Tonight for dinner she ate an entire polish sausage. I find this incredible. Yesterday for dinner, she had spagetti with meat sauce. I cut the noodles up. Lucy normally doesn't "do" noodles but has in the past accepted spagetti noddles with meat sauce. Last night, she put a bite of spagetti in her mouth, and worked on it awhile ... before I knew it she spit out perfectly clean noodles and ate the sauce. She's pretty talented. It is sometimes irritating that I have a picky eater. It's the THINGS she's picky about. She won't eat rice or pasta ... it was only in the past week that she accepted bread. She gave up most crackers. Yogurt is a no go ... even in the midst of post-surgery she wouldn't eat posicles (that's ok with me!). Soup, no. Most meat she'll eat, especially if it's covered with katsup. Of all things ... she LOVES the Ethiopian yellow split peas with injera (yeah to this). One night she ate almost an entire can of peas, the next day, she wouldn't even look at them. Fickle fickle fickle.

World AIDS Orphans Day - same day as Lucy's birthday

zoo therapy

Lucy has been down and out for several days. Despite the surgeons claim that there is little or no pain with adenoid surgery ... Lucy was most definately in pain. I took her to the pediatrician on Monday and she had ear infections and chest congestion so they switched her antibiotics. Last night she slept great (waking up only once at 11pm). She seemed happy when she woke up so I decided we would go walk around the zoo a little, trying to avoid people but also just getting out of the house. I think she had fun being in charge of the pace of the walk. She wanted to go backwards, we went backwards, she wanted to splash in a puddle, we splashed, she wanted to pause for no apparent reason, we paused. I am sure the people behind us didn't appreciate the pace we kept, and the abrupt turns and stops but she deserved to be in charge of her life for the moment. Tonight she's already cried out once, and was grabbing at her ear when I went in to rub her back ... oh I hope she is on the mend. Lucy has found a new hilarious sport ... licking her mom. She pretends she's going to give me a kiss, and then at the last moment sticks her tongue out, grabs my hair traps me in and licks my cheek. She cracks herself up. I have been needing extra moisturizer. The adenoid surgery wasn't a sure fire cure to her liquid aversion, and her picky eating. She has finally incorporated some grains in her diet in the form of plain wheat bread, eaten crust first ... what a crackpot. Here are some photos from today, not the greatest but remember we were going at her pace, doing her thing and apparently pausing for photos wasn't her thing today.

Thank you dearest ...

Armpit thermometer ... you are accurate (I know this because I used you right after the doctor took Lucy's temp and you were right on!) and fast. Children's Tylenol Grape: oh how you comforted Lucy and took away her pain and fever. Hop Hops (aka Gerber fruit treats): Lucy loves you so much she will do anything, including drink, for a taste of your sweet goodness ... one hop hop, one drink. Wiggles: you entertained us both, over and over and over and over and over and over ... I really appreciated that one time that you entertained Lucy enough that she didn't realize she wasn't attached to me for that two minutes (my bladder thanks you too).

Lucy has had a rough few days. Saturday was by far the hardest for her, she was obviously in a lot of pain. My poor girl. Today started out rough but she progressively got better throughout the day. We only needed three doses of tylenol today and her fever never got over 100. Let's hope tomorrow is even better!

Lucy's surgery

Well ... Lucy survived her adenoid surgery. I am fairly certain that she expected this outcome. She was such a good sport. Her surgery was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. which meant that she couldn't eat all morning. She could drink until 9:30 a.m. but for those of you who really know Lucy, drinking is not her thing. She was happy most of the morning, I took her mind off her empty tummy by letting her splash in the tub and walk part of the way to the hospital (grandpa picked us up when Lucy started loosing focus). She remained in good spirits until about 11:30, when the hunger, tired and bored started kicking in. I went with her to the OR where I helped the anestesiologist put her under which was about the most traumatizing thing I have done as a parent up to this point (even more then going back to work ... and a year and a half later I am still not over that). The surgery went fast, it took her awhile to wake up enough to join me in recovery. She fell back asleep in my arms, and aside from the 5 minute car ride h ome, and a brief stint with grandpa spent from 1:30pm - 8:30 pm in my arms. She slept through the night and woke up almost her old self (minus the snoring and apnea). She started faltering late morning, and again tonight after 5pm. She is running a fever now, which the surgeon said is expected ... but as "normal" as it might be, I suppose it means another night of my heightened anxiety and checking in on her a lot. Lucy is a rock ... she's not as "out there" happy, but she is still taking all of this really well ... what a superstar she is!

A Lucy a Month ... up to date

January, February and March 2007

A Lucy a Month part 3

June, July, August, September, October, November and December 2006.

A Lucy a Month part 2

Dec 2005, January 2006, February 2006, March 2006, April 2006 and May 2006

A Lucy a Month part one

July, August, September, October and November 2005. (July - October are in Ethiopia)

You have to watch this ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENp7c6TtBHk

This is Bono's acceptance speech at the NAACP ... Powerful and well worth 7 minutes of your time.

When I let her choose her own clothes...

She's a fashion icon ... Lucy had one of her first girl friends over last night. An older girl M (5 yrs) came for a visit. Lucy was in heaven. M took Lucy on as someone to entertain. Lucy let M lead her around all night, no problem. I think Lucy found her new hero. Even when her very special friend Isaac came over Lucy could barely stop playing with M to say hi to him. I think my girl has started having nightmares ... so sad ... what would she have nightmares about ... hmmmmmm . From what I can tell the things that are most disturbing to her at this point are: most foods, the car seat when the weather is nice, diaper changing, sitting still for any reason, and doing anything she doesn't want to do.

on a side note here is a link to a trailer about a documentary about HIV + orphan adoption, featuring the fabulous Erin (supermom to 10). http://www.decaproductions.com/

Spring

Winter is winding down. It's so wonderful to be able to go outside without gasping due to the cold, without slipping on ice, without having to bundle anyone up. I love spring. Lucy is all about going for walks. She's so incredibly precious. When I tell her to get her boots so we can go outside she says "yeaaaaaaa!" While we are walking, every so often she'll just laugh ... nothing particularly funny needs to be happening, she's just that happy. Isn't life great???? Here are some more photos of Lucy. The one photo with the boot is her trying to get ready to go outside ... I love the placement of the hat, very "southside" of her ...

and the Oscar goes to...

Little Lucy A. ... for her fine performance as a sad little girl. Show times are about anytime she is told no, or not given exactly what she wants when she wants it ... you can also see this fine performance if you or any other child happens to be sad for real.

Perfect Saturday

Photo is from last summer.

Today was practically perfect in everyway. First ... Lucy is feeling better and today it was most noticable. She slept until her normal time and seemed happy when she woke up. Lucy was happy almost all day long so we have said goodbye to the whineys. We drove up to my parents and visited for awhile. Lucy went for a sunny walk with grandma and I cleaned out the car. Came back home and did some springy type cleaning while Lucy slept for around 3 HOURS! After dinner we visited Sara until bedtime. Having the sun and warmth is great! Lucy loves being outside and has now taken to throwing real live tantrums when we go into the garage instead of continuing our outdoor walk. She does not want to ride in the car she wants to walk everywhere. Lucy is showing her love of puddle splashing ... super fun!

Sick again...

Yes folks it's true, Lucy is sick again. This is the bizzillionth time she has come down hard. The pediatrician defined her as "chronic". She is having her adenoids removed on March 22 and the professionals tell me that they are fairly confident that the surgery will help her with what ails her. This time it is fever, ear infection, sinus infection, cough. Please send us healthy vibes.

Here is my sick girl ... resting her weary head