Happy Halloween

ahhhhhh the quiet of this moment.   We've just had a very fun few days/nights with Diane and her boys.  Hanging out here, playing in the hotel pool, celebrating with 30 of our closest friends/family members our 4th famiversary (sorry Diane that one just got out of control, it shouldn't surprise me that SO many people want to celebrate Lucy, but it did surprise me ... and the restaurant, and probably every other diner at the restaurant).  By the way, I should mention that the folks at Fasika Ethiopian restaurant in St. Paul are incredibly patient and accomodating.  I don't think I've ever been disappointed at that restaurant. 

Lucy was a pretty darn great hostess.  There is nothing she likes more then a house full of boys.  This morning she covered Irmao with two blankets, brought him some hand sanitizer and offered (very selflessly) to watch hime play Nintendo DS.  She's quite the giver.   Wendim and Lucy spent quite a fair amount of time rekindling their friendship and baby Og, well he just charmed the pants off of everyone he came near.  I was on the phone with my mom this morning and I believe she said something like "oh my god he is just too cute" and he is.  Diane KEEPS claiming that he's not very cute in the middle of the night but she never once offered to let him sleep in my room, so she must secretly like all that extra time she spends with Mr. Perfect in every way.  

Today we lost a little love (Lucy and I) because I was pretty much ignoring her as I put our house back together and obsessed over our stinking washing machine that wouldn't spin our blanket yet REFUSED to unlock itself so that I could redistribute the weight.  Shoot, I even unplugged it.  Lucy stared at my as I hit the machine and screamed "NO NO NO NO NO!" I think she was glad that I was refocusing my irritation from her to it.   She went up stairs and I sooned joined her to be presented with a beautifully spit cleaned back door window.  I now refer to that window as either 1. an H1N1 factory or 2. privacy glass. 

So in desperation we went for a nap drive.  A nap drive is a test to see if she's really tired.  We get in the car, no jackets, nice warm fleece blanket.  We drive towards the drive through coffee place.  My rule: if she falls asleep before we get to coffee place I get nothing but a nap outtta my kid,  if she is awake when we get to the drive through I get coffee but probably no nap.  Today she was awake at the coffee place (rats), so I got coffee (!!!) and as we turned around to head home voila, she crashes!!!!   Dynamic duo, coffee and a nap!  

no photos, my camera is being held hostage by a famiversary attendee ... will post photos later.

Four Beautiful Years

10-24-2005  within moments of meeting for the first time.  She was already talking.

October 2006  from baby to toddler.

October 2007 a glimpse of the preschooler. 

October 2008 my baby meets baby M.

October 24, 2009.  My baby is a little stinker.

Hair Hair

I swear Lucy's hair changed over night.  What happened?  It was never "easy", not for me anyways but we had an established hair care routine that at least worked and ended up cute.  These days it still ends up cute but getting from point A to point cute is really changing. 

Old hair care routine:   once a week (or so) take down hair from whatever style it's in and either rinse it with conditioner in the tub or wash with shampoo then rinse with conditioner.  While conditioner is in hair I would have her lay in the water while I underwater combed most of it (the comb used to to through fairly easily under the water).  Then she'd play in the tub while I parted and combed and put her hair in sections.  I'd either finish the style in the tub or do the rest while she watched a movie.  During the final styling I would put a heavier leave in conditioner in her hair.  Viola, fairly drama free hair (always dramatic fussing leading up to the hair doing, but usually only fussing if I pulled during the hair doing).

These days something is happening.  I haven't changed products, well I have but I haven't had one solid product I've stuck with during the years.  Now, I take down her style, get her in the tub and when I get it wet it almost immediately sucks up and starts matting.  Tonight I tried washing it (it's been awhile) to get the products out, then conditioning it.  It took a long long time to coax the mats out of her hair ... and the thing is, the hair was in pigtails and mostly combed out before we started.   This is the second time this has happened.  The last time, I thought it was because I had let her go a couple days with free hair.  That time ended in a funky "trim", that still needs to be addressed by a professional.

Tonights episode was not as traumatic for Lucy.  I got the mats combed out and used a lot of conditioner to help, it didn't pull on her too much and she stayed mostly busy playing with water.  Her hair ended up really cute in 6 braids.  I think it helped that I washed one section at a time after I noticed it was starting to mat up when I got it wet.  Once I had the braids all in, I rinsed her hair off really well with water from the sprayer, then I put some olive oil in to condition it.  

Anyone have experience with any of this ... any one???  Suggestions? 

Saturday

We had time to clean out our pumpkins

We took a needed and well deserved (by me) nap before changing and heading to see The Wiggles Live (much thanks to Betsy for getting us in on some tickets)

we designed this outfit ourselves ladies and gents ... Lucy is the stylish one in our family

Lucy caught up on Wiggly news while waiting for the show to begin

Ivy and Lucy = two beautiful young ladies

The Wiggles with the Big Red Car

The Red Wiggle walked all the way up to the balcony, shook Lucy's hand and all I got was this photo of his arm pit. 

Thursday

Lucy had another sick day at home.  I worked 1/2 the day and was able to come home to my wheezer for the afternoon and evening. 

We took advantage of the evening to make some squash soup, some beaded necklaces and to love our puppy. 

Sick

Lucy's sick but so far (knock wood) not too sick.  She has a cold right now, which has triggered her asthma which unfortunately means that my normally incredibly active, short attention span child is now hopped up on albuterol ... wheeeeeeee ...    Here's to hoping we can back off the every four hour neb starting now. 

seems like maybe Zep is a little freaked out by the albuterol maniac

and here are the eyes of the sick. 

Sunday at Emma Krumbees

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Saturday

Today was a nearly perfect day.  Wake up was perfect for Lucy, I ruined it all for myself because I was convinced she was waking up at 5 again so I layed in bed willing it not to be true.  Once I decided that she was sleeping it was already past 6 and I was just awake.  Lucy slept until almost 7 by the way (nice job rooster girl). 

I let about 45 minutes slip by before I told Lucy that there was snow on the ground.  About 3 minutes later we were outside.  Turns out the end of the season winter wear clearance jacket makers are not into coordinating with the end of the season winter wear clearance snow pant makers, the good news is that the jacket and snow pants will fit her all year AND doesn't matter that they don't match, she looks good in anything!  Zep the dog seems to be enjoying the snow more now that he's older.

We came inside and enjoyed a little quiet reading time.

We made and ate home made apple sauce, and my first home made apple pie (made in a corning ware casserole dish because I have no pie pans).  Yum.

We babysat the three boys for a few hours.  We ended up making a couple batches of home made playdough.  One brown - using cocoa powder (smells good, tastes [despite my warnings 3 of the 4 kids had to taste] not so good.  The other was light brown (was supposed to be orange) - using cinnamon and something else, smelled good.  

The boys went home and Lucy and I enjoyed a nice dinner together.  Lucy had a nice olive oil bath.  We rocked and watched Nemo and she fell asleep in my happy happy arms.  

Love ...

I love Thursday mornings.  Lucy gets to spend about 45 minutes with me at work.  I am the coverage worker and also a single mom.  Since Lucy can't be dropped of at her school until 9am and my coverage starts at 8:30, there's a little problem.

I bring her with me until a little before 9 and then run her to school quick and go back to work.

For two weeks in a row Lucy has demonstrated empathy and compassion to a degree that brings tears to my eyes.  She's also social (in a healthy way), helpful, hysterical and fun.   Last week a coworker was having a rough morning and Lucy just walked up to her and leaned in for a hug, then walked away.  It was touching and sweet, a gift without expecting anything back.  Truly from the soul.  It took my breath away.  This week Lucy was loving and caring to two of the preschoolers that attend the program I work for.  She was just so soooo sweet, and helped a preschooler transition into school in a calm, peaceful way.

Lucy loo, I love you!

Wrong or Right ???

After an extremely traumatizing hair doing experience last night (by the way, how in the heck does a kid get a free hair FULL of fine sand when it's been raining for a week straight with no opportunity for outdoor play?).  I mean it was BAD folks. Bad.  I figured that leaving her hair down for two days/nights would result in some discomfort during comb out time but last night was hands down our worst hair night ever.  It involved me "trimming" quite a bit off the ends, just to rid of some of the knots.  It involved a bathtub coated with sand.  It involved a lot of crying.  The result is some wonky knots in random none logically parted areas of her head.  There are 5 sections if that gives you sort of a visual of what we are talking about here.  I am pretty sure we'll be seeing a professional beautician to sort of even out the trim I gave Lucy.  

So maybe I had an unfair advantage this morning when I offered the following "choice":  "Lucy here's a deal for you; If you eat all of your eggs for breakfast (eggs are not a favorite) we'll do your hair after school.  If you don't eat them, we'll do your hair this morning."    Lucy immediately sat down and ate all of those eggs, all of her apples, drank her milk and put her dishes in the sink.   So she'll have wonky hair this morning but a full belly!

and um. if we do free hair again, it'll be put up before bedtime this time.  lesson learned. 

She is like 13yrs old now ...