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Thursday, February 27, 2014

Bath Time




In case you thought she couldn't get any cuter :)

Cruising

Lucy is now doing what I've heard referred to as "cruising". She can pull herself up on the furniture and use it for balance as she walks.





This usually involves pulling everything off of the book shelves. She loves it. 

Friday, February 21, 2014

Selfies

During the long days when M is in Denver for class, he asks me to send him pictures of Lucy and I...

{I sent this one to him yesterday. We were trying to take a cute "selfy", but then Lucy decided she would like to grab my nose. I think it still turned out pretty cute anyway.}


Thankfully, my baby is feeling better. This week, she scared us with a fever of 103. Also, I woke up to her throwing up on me one morning. That was awesome. But she seems to be feeling much better now. She does not have a fever, and she is keeping food down. The bad news is that she passed whatever bug she had on to M and me. As I write this, I am still high on Nyquil :) 


Happy Friday!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

My Little Valentine








Hope you all had a happy Love Day!


My little Valentine is feeling a bit under the weather :( She has an upset tummy, and she seems to be having a little trouble keeping food down. Hopefully, this bug will pass soon, and she will be back to her happy self! 


Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Balancing Work and Motherhood

As Lucy gets older, one of the challenges I face is the balance of work and motherhood. It is a very delicate and often confusing balance. Lately, I am beginning to realize that it is more complicated than I expected. 


Before Lucy was born, we decided that I would continue to work. I have a very flexible job, and I am fortunate that I am able to work from home most of the time. Fortunate because I get to spend all day every day with Lucy. 

As you might imagine, this is not easy. When Lucy is awake, she commands all of my attention and energy. On a good day, I can set her up with some toys and manage to get half an hour of work done here and there. But most days, I have to wait until she is napping, or asleep for the night. This would be fine, except that there are other things to be done as well. I find myself asking questions like, "How important is it that I shower today?" "How clean does my house need to be if no one besides me will see it?"

It becomes a game of time management. And even with the fancy, modern-day inventions (like smart phones and dry shampoo), it seems like an impossible juggling act. I don't know how other moms do it. 


Childcare, which is a great option for many working moms, isn't practical in my situation. But I definitely see the appeal and even the necessity. I would love to have a Mary Poppins esque figure to clean my house and teach Lucy how to use her imagination. 

The struggle for me is feeling as though I am half-way doing many things, when I want to be wholeheartedly doing one thing. I know all moms live in this tension constantly. We feel guilty for not being able to do it all. Why? When did this even start, this idea that we should be able to do it all and still manage to have dinner on the table by 6? It's a myth, and we all know it's a myth. But we still buy into it. 

I don't have a solution or anything. I just think we need to give ourselves a break. I am speaking mostly for myself, but I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. The struggle is universal. 

(I strategically used the 30 minutes I allotted for dish washing to write this blog post. Oh well.) 

Monday, February 10, 2014

Winter Blues

This time of year, I always get what I call the "Winter Blues". Christmas is over, but it's still winter, and spring feels impossibly far away. In Colorado, this time of year is especially challenging because of the cold. Temperatures can easily dip down into the negatives, which means that Lucy and I are mostly stuck indoors.

I decided to come up with a list of ways to combat these "Winter Blues". I'll be sharing different ideas as we go along.



This past weekend, it stopped snowing (for a nanosecond), so we went on an adventure. Which brings me to idea #1. 

Go on an adventure.

It can be a small adventure or a big adventure. Mostly, it just feels nice to get out of the house. We had a small window of time, and we were hungry. So, we decided to go to Vern's (a locally-famous country diner / liquor store) for giant cinnamon rolls. It was an adventure because we had never been there before and also because Vern's is that sort of place. Since this is the spot where the true Coloradoans eat, we feel that we have now been initiated properly. 

To be honest, I probably would not have attempted this on my own with Lucy. It just so happened to be M's day off, so we all ventured out in the snow together. Most of the time, M is in Denver for class, or studying, which means that us girls must fend for ourselves :) My other ideas will have to be more realistic for just the two of us. 

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Crawling

Today, Lucy will demonstrate crawling for us...


You can tell that she is very proud of herself :)

Monday, February 3, 2014

Bath Tub


Our big girl is now taking baths in the tub! No more sink baths for this girl. 

Saturday, February 1, 2014

9 Months

Our Lucy girl is officially nine months old!

{Standing up!}

She is turning into quite the busy little girl. She has mastered the "inch worm" crawl. It may look awkward, but it gets her where she wants to go, and it gets her there fast. Even though she has plenty of wonderful toys to play with, Lucy seems to prefer power cords, cell phones, and car keys. And of course, Daddy's glasses. 

At nine months old, Lucy weighs a whopping sixteen pounds. This may not sound very heavy, but take it from the lady who lugs her car seat around all day - it's heavy. 

Lucy has also learned a fun new trick. She can wave and say, "Hi." This trick is particularly adorable, but she won't do it on command. You have to play coy with her and pretend you forgot she is in the room, and then you might get a "hi" and a wave. 

Her little personality comes out a little more every day. She is friendly and cuddly, but also very independent and strong-willed. I can tell we are going to have our hands full during her teenage years :)