A Message for All the Grandparents in the House

Lucy's been vocalizing for a few months now, but a couple of weeks ago she really found her voice . . . she spent a couple of days just shrieking to herself for fun. Now that I know the shrieking was a short term phenomenon, I feel comfortable saying that it was very cute and kind of hilarious while it lasted.

She makes all kinds of exciting noises now, including shrieks, squeals, gurgles, coos, grunts, hoots, hollers, and raspberries. She's even getting the rhythm of conversations, so sometimes we can engage her in a back and forth dialogue which is really fun.

She told us she wanted to give a shout out to the grandparents:

Behold, the Buried Treasures

Our fabled nesting instinct seems to be kicking in a lot harder post-Lucy than it ever did at the end of my pregnancy (I kept waiting for the urge to clean, but no luck), and lately we've had our busy hands all over this house.

I finally made some wall art for the nursery:

Shaggy spent some time last weekend chopping down the honeysuckle that was climbing up the trellis in our back deck area.

 
It was lovely when we moved in, but after four years of no pruning had begun to take over the entire deck and tear down the trellis that was holding it up. Shaggy took the clippers and went at it, excitedly unearthing an actual birdhouse that had been placed there by the previous owners and promptly devoured by the vines.

Behold, the buried treasure.

And in other news, Lucy rolled over for the first time! She went front to back (though she has been showing a lot more interest in back to front), and has not yet repeated her feat. I've read that babies are often surprised the first time they roll over, but she didn't seem to think it was much to remark on.

Here, posing as an inchworm on the couch. (This isn't actually from the night when she rolled over, but it's a pretty good indication of the "before" shot.)

Which Celebrity Do YOU Look Like?

Ain't nothing but a drool dog.

 

Toy of the Moment

 

I guess technically it's a tossup between this little guy and her own hands . . . 

Thanks Grandma!

All Saints' Day Donuts

To celebrate the morning after Halloween Molly and Geoffrey hosted a donut and apple cider party in their back yard. If anyone reading this has the chance to cultivate friends from Michigan, I highly recommend it.

The donuts were delicious, and all of the guests clamored around to eat them as soon as they came out of the oil and into the carton filled with cinnamon and sugar.  They reminded me of the donuts that my grandpa used to make with leftover mashed potatoes from dinner. Eventually those donuts were so popular around our house that my brother would cajole my grandpa into cooking way more mashed potatoes for dinner than we could ever eat just so we wouldn't have to risk not having leftovers.

Sweet Lu

Lucy hangs out with her new friend Pippa

Geoffrey deep fries donuts in the back yard

 

Donuts frying in the cast iron skillet

 

The finished donuts, fried and rolled in cinnamon and sugar. It took many, many rounds of donut frying before any of the guests would hold their appetites long enough to let the donuts pile up like this.

 

Shaggy and Charlie with some hot apple cider

 

 

Emily, Lucy, and Erin

Erin with Teaberry

Gina and Jeremy, new parents of Eli

Eli Henry, one month old