NOPEblopomonomo

Well I officially failed at NaBloPoMo this year!  Life got in the way about blogging about life I guess.  We have been busy.  Here's a little sample of what's been going on ...

 Lucy fell asleep exhausted on the way home from Thanksgiving.  Since Auntie Jen was already home from her festivities, sitting on the sofa, I plopped Lucy down, it wasn't long before a couple animals joined in the snuggle fest. 

 My beloved Azazel cat was very interested in the camera that night. 

It was so nice to have a four day weekend.  Lucy of course was driving me batsh*t off and on.  She's so intense. SO INTENSE.  It's hard to keep her engaged in a positive way, it's exhausting. 

 Here's the kitty again. So Lucy has been shifting the ways in which she tests me.  In a way it's getting easier (or else I am just so numb to it).  She's doing  alot of random/obnoxious nonsense word shouting.  "BANINO!" lord this drives me crazy.  She's all over the animals.  She has taken once again to being disrespectful and defiant.  The big difference though (thank god) is that these testing moments while more intense are much much shorter in duration.  We can actually have long long moments of playing, working, being together with no issues.  Most days it's pure joy being with her. 

 In terms of school.  Lucy is still having some struggles.  She can be defiant (although much less so now) with her teachers, she is very very wiggly and has a hard time keeping her body where it belongs, and she struggles with peer relationships.  She's always gotten along better with kids that are older or younger then her.  She particularly likes toddlers, and specifically toddlers that will follow her around like puppies.  J & S-wow came over to play (we had an 8:15 am play date!) on Saturday morning.  Ahhhhh was nice to have the little guy here to take some of the pressure off of me.  I felt a little sad for his momma who watched Lucy bounce her way around the house and kept muttering to herself "I feel like I am seeing into my future"  or "wow, so this is what it will be like 3 years from now".  Yeah. I believe she fb'd about drinking beer that night.  At least we didn't leave her with any false hopes about peaceful times in the near future! 

 we are slowly but surely bringing Christmas to our living quarters.  She was actually happy in this photo.

Zep the dog is not sure about Christmas trees. 

Lucy's rock show

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Scenes from a Sunday

 Woke up to an icy non-wonderland.  So slick could not even walk off the deck.  So we stayed home most of the day.  First we made some home-made wheat bread. Lucy did most of the mixing.

 she also did a bit of kneading.  the bread turned out delish!

 at some point in the day Lucy put on a little rock and roll show. 

 when the ice melted, we went up the road to the Electric Fetus where we did a little

pretty woman type of shopping. 

 listened to some music

 we ran into Fran Healy from the band Travis before he went down to prepare for his in-store performance.

 he taught Lucy a little guitar

 put on a beautiful performance

 Lucy watched and listened very intently.

after the show he gave her his pick (much to the dismay of the woman behind us), and she had  him sign it for her.



We've been busy

 Have most definately been not keeping up with NaBloPoMo and that is fine with me. We have been busy this wee. So busy that in the evenings we just fall dead asleep.  I myself have been caught up in that dang Dragon Tatoo, Salander trilogy.  Too busy reading to write!

 We babysat Ivy for a little bit one evening.  Acutally Lucy babysat Ivy, and I watched Lucy. 

Here is Lucy letting Ivy pick out eye shadow. 

 took some photos tonight at Lucy's Martial Art's class.  Here she is stretching.

 deep cleansing breaths

 I'd call her a power meditator. Intense in everything she does.

 going through her forms.

Lucy has been doing much better in kindergarten.  She is really coming around and settling down. The big shift, I think, has been that she has had the desire to do good. She wants it now. It's hard for her but she's really really trying. 

Snow

school picture day

 Know what's weird about kindergarten?  Knowing that you kid is getting her school photo taken, you know with backdrops and lights and everything and you are not there.  I will have clue what was going on on her face, her nose area, her hair, her smile until the package arrives.  Even worse?  She missed the first photo shoot due to her illness, so she only has one shot to shine.  OH and Lucy really really wanted her hair down for her school pictures.  I love that she has opinions about stuff like that, and she really LOVES all the attention she gets when her hair is down.  Wanna know the killer???  She had school photos this morning, and this afternoon?????  A swimming field trip.  So, we'll definately be having a fight come Sunday morning, when we finally will have time to tackle the taming of free hair. 

Sunday mornings

for the past several weeks, we've taken advantage of our sunny Sundays and headed out to the suburbs/country to an awesome park. 

 out in the far eastern side of Minnetonka, I consider this park a kids "off leash" park.  there is a lot of green space, with a natural barrier. 

 lots of space for kids to explore their independance, get exercise, fresh air

 grass in the hair

 connect with friends

and just enjoy a Sunday morning.  the mom's mostly get to relax.  you can see most of the park from one or two spots. has a nice non sandy surface (no sand in shoes, or imbedded in scalps), and up until last weekend had a flush toilet/running water bathroom.  

oh baby lucy

 so stinkin' little and so cute.

 still having a fever after one week home.

giving her momma gray hairs right away

 had that big ol' "hungry baby" belly still. 

 still had those sparkling full of life eyes

Haymoflauge

 Just a little warning, and hopefully a reminder for the 2011

apple orchard season. 

A soft fleecy sweater +

 a very dry hay stack +

 a very active girl =

 a prickly impossible mess!

 almost lost her a few times in the hay pile.

two washings, some fine tuned hand de-haying and the shirt still aint right.

Lucy sure had fun though!