Friday Cute Shot

Welcome to the World of Charlie Brown

Last weekend Shaggy was getting together with some guys in the neighborhood to talk about brewing beer. Two of them went to the third one’s house where his 5-year-old told them his dad was out on a bike ride and would be back soon. As they walked away, the 5-year-old’s friend asked him ‘Who were they?’ and Shaggy heard the neighbor boy reply: “One of them is my neighbor and the other one is the baby’s dad.”

Shaggy was the baby's dad, and he realized then that he had crossed into the Charlie Brown world where all the adults are just someone’s parents, and to the kids they only sound like “Waa waa waaah.”

What Lucy is Reading Now

Answer: Pages she tore out of the scrabble dictionary. Letters that start with Aa have now been committed to intestinal memory. Future book burner? Only time will tell.

Friday Cute Shot

I'll swing by my ankles, she'll cling to your knees

Swinging at the Park from Amber Broughton on Vimeo.

But She Still Prefers to Walk

A little over a month ago, almost imperceptibly at first, Lucy began to move forward. It started with a little foot propulsion, a swift kick with pointed toes that allowed her to reach an inch or two forward to reach a toy where days before she could only roll over, arch her back, and hope.

Within a week the arms got into the action as well, and a frog-legged push with a bent knee coupled with a nice pull could move her across the floor in half-foot jags.

By a week later she could cross the entire rug in a short pass, particularly if a delicious power cord or a juicy pair of shoes lay within reach on the other side of the room. She would get up on her hands and knees sometimes, but attempts to move like that were frustrating and she'd usually just end up on her belly again, shuffling and scooting with aplomb.

Eventually the hands and knees movement got a little more coordinated, and she could get in a move from one knee to the other before collapsing once again.

And now, sometime in the last week or so, it has become official. Lucy can crawl.

Crawling and Scooting from Amber Broughton on Vimeo.

As far as she is concerned, however, crawling is just a means to a much better end:

The point of crawling from Amber Broughton on Vimeo.

Words Lucy Seems to Understand

kiss
mama
dada
doggie
Lucy
peekaboo
milk
high five

In Memory of Gigi

Lucy's great grandmother, Ruth Katherine Knight Pitzer, "Gigi" to her great grandchildren and "Meama" to the grandkids, passed away last weekend at the age of 90.

Amber, Lucy, and I visited Gigi in Virginia for the first time when Lucy was not quite two months old. I was really excited for Gigi to meet my daughter.

Gigi had a huge smile that never left as she held Lucy for the first time. She kept saying "I love you!" to Lucy over and over, joyously singing "Lu! Lu! Lu!" as if her happiness couldn't be contained. Lucy, who had just started smiling, was fascinated by Gigi, and beamed right back at her. She hadn't smiled at anyone that much before!

As I post these pictures, I am remembering how Meama showed me the same love and affection all these years. There are a lot of grandkids and great-grandkids who miss her.

Weekending

For most of the last week we've had really nice weather, so we've started taking Lucy out in the evenings to sit on the sidewalk and explore the ground. A couple years ago we dug up our front lawn to put in raised garden beds, and we have a back deck instead of a back yard, so we've adopted the front sidewalk and accompanying lawn strip as our official front yard. I like to think of it as a small, pesticide free, local park.

As long as Lucy can get her hands in the rocks and grass and dirt, she doesn't seem to mind one way or the other.

She loves to stare and wave at Rudy, the barking dog that lives across the street, and she gets really excited when Rudy wags her tail.

Being outside so much has also given us a lot of time to get to know the neighbors better. The slightly older kids are very excited about Lucy, especially the parts where you can throw grass on her head and try to get her to eat flowers. ("She'll eat anything!")

Lucky girl to have so many future friends waiting in the wings.

P.S. If this face is not the spitting image of her father, I don't know what is.

Friday Cute Shot

What Celebrity Do YOU Look Like?

Friday Cute Shot

If You Are Also Small and Wiggly . . .

Lucy and Biscuit

In the last month and a half, Lu has become more and more aware of and interested in other living creatures, particularly animals and small children.  When we're out for a walk and we pass someone wth a baby or a puppy, Lucy will maneuver in the sling to get a better view and usually make a series of squeaking sounds in their direction, trying to catch a roving eye.

Several weeks ago Lucy met Biscuit, the delightful new puppy of our friends Erin and Eddie.

Lucy Meets Biscuit from Amber Broughton on Vimeo.

She has also expressed interest in our neighbor's dog, my brother's very patient cat Zeus, and a sweet little girl that we keep running into all over town.

We also had a great time a couple of weeks ago at our third birthing class reunion where Lu got a chance to touch the hands and faces of several other babies her age while the parents compared notes and strategies over beer.

Then last Friday was free day at the Portland Children's Museum, so we took Lucy over after work to check it out. We were afraid it would be really crowded because it was free, and there were a lot of kids there, but it wasn't nearly as bad as we feared. Plus, they have a special exhibit just for the under-three crowd called The Baby's Garden, and there weren't many babies in there.

But Lucy loved it! She was especially intrigued by all the other children, and how fast they could move. She would grab my hand and wobble over to some nice unsuspecting toddler a few months older and say hi ("aaah-aaaaaah!" in Lucy parlance), but before she could get much further in her attempt they would be gone. There was one boy playing at the fish table with Lucy that she just found fascinating, but her advances seemed to turn him shy--at one point she was kind of chasing him around with an orange plexiglas fish, just chattering away and not at all discouraged by his fleeing form. I think this kind of persistence will bode well for her later in life, assuming she can appropriately balance the fine line between exuberance and stalking.

For any Portland parents out there, I definitely recommend checking out the museum. Every first Friday is free from 4 to 8pm.

Happy Easter

In celebration of Easter this morning, Lucy rolled right over to the record cabinet and pulled out "Rite of Spring". Who knew we even know we had that record? I guess it was calling to her.

Then she put on her spring flower romper and read a book about lambs and ducks (the sheep speak her language--Baa Baa Baa!).

After that she broke out a package of new Easter hangers and waved at her reflection in the diaper pail.

Easter Wave from Amber Broughton on Vimeo.

Happy Easter!


P.S. For posterity, I'm supposed to record that Lucy did receive some Easter chocolate from her grandma which her parents promptly devoured and left no trace of for photographic evidence. So Lucy, know that you weren't stuck with just hangers on your first Easter. Thanks, Mom!

Friday Cute Shot

Indian Poker and Other Baby Games

 

Hop on Pop

When we first brought Lucy home, we were too busy figuring out how to feed her, hold her, change her, help her sleep, and try to find some time for ourselves to sleep to worry about much else. But after a couple of weeks when we started to get the hang of things, I wondered: what exactly do you do with a baby all day? How do you play with a tiny little baby? 

I asked, of course, my friend the internet, but all it had to tell me was read some books and try some baby yoga and massage. Those ideas worked fine, but as Lucy has grown we have found more and more games that we can all enjoy. So, in case anyone out there is in a similar boat, here are some fun games you might consider playing.

Indian Poker

How Much is that Baby in the Window?

Jailbreak

London Bridge