8 months update

Eight months have now flown by with little Lucy. No new teeth since last month, the two bottom teeth continue to show more and more. She continues to stick everything (yes everything in her mouth). She expecially loves paper or magazines and will try to crawl away as fast as she can if she thinks you are going to take it away.

She has also managed to get a mild earache this past month that affected her for a few days and also has had a cold with a fairly good runny nose (does not like getting her nose wiped at all). In between all of this she continues to get more outgoing and has grunts and shrieks for lots of different things.

Lucy loves playing with her brother. We recently did some box sledding in the house to "practice" for the snow. Micah really, really wants it to snow here in the Fresno area and just can't understand why it won't for him. We also have started going down our little indoor slide with a beanbag at the bottom, this is lots of fun because Lucy knows she will get help in "getting" Micah once he slides down after her. She also likes waking him up in the morning. We did this several days in a row and then didn't one morning and Micah asked why Lucy wasn't there.

Baby toys are fun but brother's toys are better. In addition to being Lucy-zilla when we make dominos towers, Lucy also is the monster that tries to get the trains. She was good watching for about a week and then decided she needed to get more invovled with the whole process.

While crawling is fine and dandy (and she is pretty fast now), Lucy has started to practice her walking skills. The doctor's office thought she would be walking by her 9 month check-up but looks like it might take a few more weeks than that. She has also focused a good bit of her learning on her talking as mentioned above and really likes music. If she hears something she likes while sitting down Lucy will do a cute little tummy crunch/head bob move and when standing up will get the get going in her legs. She mainly "dances" to the music from her toys but also likes the songs from some of the shows that Micah likes to watch.

Halloween

This year we ended up with a nice Halloween weekend in addition to the two separate trips to our local Ranchos Pumpkin Patch.

To start things off on Friday night Micah and Lucy had a party at their daycare. Jim & Laurie had tasty food for all, some games and prizes on the driveway and a bounce house on the lawn. Micah is always excited when there is a party at his daycare.

Above - Jim and Laurie made a nice picture spot with a bench. Lots of people got family pictures and they also took a fun picture of all the kids together at one time.

Below - They kids also got a chance to a pinata that night. Micah finally understands the concept of getting the candy after it breaks open.

That Saturday we continued our Halloween with a visit from uncle Lito, aunt Nancy and cousins Evan and Ryan. The weather was so nice that we carved the pumpkins outside. Each kid got paired up with an adult and made a jack-o-latern together.

Here is Lucy getting ready to give Jill some directions. Aunt Nancy in the background is the champion pumpkin cleaner-outer. She was done and carving the pumpkin with Ryan before some of us had started.

Here are the boys with the pumpkins lit up after finishing dinner together. Then on Sunday night Micah and Adam took a drive around to look at the jack-o-laterns at other Ranchos houses.

Robin and the Ladybug ready for Halloween. First stop was our second annual trick or treat to the neighbors house across the street. The are now 2 and 8 for the past decade on trict or treaters. Micah likes it becuase he loves his neighbors so much and they love that they have the rest of the bag left over for themselves. Micah's capes was not it the best of shape anymore (we found out Friday night that it is not good to wear a cape while jumping in a bounce house).

Micah wasn't feeling the best so we didn't take hime to the church festival in Fresno. We stayed in the Ranchos and went to the local church festival. They had two ponies there for rides along with several bounce houses and lots of carnival game booths for the kids to win candy. Micah was very excited about the pony. He kept this intent look of concentration on his face the whole ride around in a circle. I wonder if he will make this face the next time we get him on a horse.

We finished up the night with some door to door trick-or-treating and the street just north of Avenue 12. Micah really like this. We saw several families with trailers with lights and haybales to haul a bunch kids on. Maybe we will have to do this a some point in the future too!

The Pumpkin Patch

7 Months Old

AAHHH!! Here we are again way past the 10th and just getting to Lucy's monthly recap. Bear with me, life is a little crazy right now. Lucy continues to surprise us with how active and fun she is. She is very determined and once she has spotted something she must have it. She also hates to miss anything. She is constantly turning her head to catch what is going on.


This month Lucy started eating. Meaning she started right after she turned 6 months. She loves to eat. She opens her mouth big when I bring the spoon to her mouth. She is eating rice and oatmeal cereal, sweet potatoes, squash, prunes, carrots, peas, apples, and pears. Yum! This eating experience is so different from Micah's since he disliked all foods. She eats in 5 minutes while Micah would take 30 minutes with a song and a dance.


Right after turning 6 months Lucy started pulling herself up on anything that could hold her. She is everywhere and into everything. She never sits still.

One of Lucy's favorite things is her brother. She really likes him right out of the bathtub when he is wearing his dragon towel. She laughs and laughs. Micah loves this too. He can always get her to laugh and she never wants to miss out on what he is doing.

Finally, right before turning 7 months she started cutting her first tooth. She now has two coming in on the bottom. She likes to hide them with her tongue and bottom lip, but we got her with a huge smile.

Who wouldn't love this face.

Grandparents, Teeth and Bikes

Micah and Lucy recently got a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Lee. Everyone was on their best behavior, with Lucy giving lots of smiles and Micah playing lots of board games with Grandma. Grandparents got to see Micah's third soccer game which was the best out of four games that he has played so far (limited crying and saying "I'm done"). We have five more games so we will hopefully see more improvement each week.

Lucy has not been sleeping well lately (for about a week now), and like all good parents we just keep rocking her and putting her back to sleep. Today Jill stuck a finger in Lucy's mouth and found a tooth starting to stick out of her lower gums. Net result: Upside-We know why Lucy doesn't sleep good. Downside-Lots more baby teeth to go.

Naturally everything that didn't go in her mouth before now does. Besides leaves (always rake up the "presents" first just in case Lucy was to find something from the dog before we do) and any toy that Micah isn't actively playing with. She was even commented on in the nursery at Church for all the stuff she tried to eat.

Jill was gone for the weekend with several friends to relax at Hume Lake and attend a women's retreat. Like any good dad I knew that this was my chance to do something that Jill didn't agree with. That's right, I talked Micah into taking off the training wheels and riding his bike with no help. The balancing was not a problem, confidence in his steering ability and not getting hurt took a few attempts to overcome.

I think we won Jill over on the idea once she saw that Micah liked it and that he had already learned that you slow down and put your feet out when stopping instead of crashing. I also compromised and we might do training wheels during the week for family walks and then none on the weekends for practice time.

He likes to make a loop along the inside of the driveway and also ride along the side of the road in front of several of the neighbors houses. Either way he still makes me follow behind him.

Here's a video clip to prove it. By this time I was tired of chasing him so it is just a quick clip of him starting and stopping.

Maybe next time Jill leaves us home without supervision we can work on a bike ramp, or something else like that.

Micah's fun times lately

Micah has been enjoying his first year of soccer so far. He loves his new friends and it truly blessed to have such an awesome coach this year. Sometimes practices can be a little rough on him and he will get whiny and discourage when he doesn't play a practice drill/game as good as one of the older team mates. Each practice seems to get better for him.


To date we have played two games, which he has been excited about. He always asks who he is going to play and if he has any friends on the opposing team. Last week we played our neighbors team with his little boy and this next week we play a team with one of his friends from daycare and his dad. He mainly runs around trailing wherever the ball has just been and every once in a while gets lucky and is in the right spot to get a chance to kick the ball.


The Madera County Fair was the second weekend in September. This year one of the special features was Alaskan Pig Racing. Micah was really excited for it and ended up getting to be the section leader for the last race. He chose Sloppy Joe as his pig to cheer for. Sloppy Joe ended up getting third place, all the section leaders got a ribbon. Micah carried his around for several days and showed it to the neighbors across the street.

The pig racing involved four or so piglets at a time. They looked to be just a few months old. Each time they finished running around the track they got a cookie.

We also saw the 4-H and FFA animals along with a few other items. Jill bought some raffle tickets for a beautiful quilt, but we have not recieved a call yet so I think we didn't win. I also saw some of the giant pumkins that have been grown in Madera County (300 - 550 lbs) this year and I am thinking that I need to add this to my long list of gardening things to try some day.

Lucy has started to like playing with Micah and wants to be around him much of the time (unless she is off exploring). She really likes playing cars with him and with Mr. Potato Head when we are next to her too. Probably the cutest is how much she likes it when he has his orange "dragon" hoody towel on after a bath.

Micah (and daddy) got a new toy. A 56-year young 1955 Massey-Ferguson tractor with the 3 cylinder Perkins diesel. It is at the shop right now getting the engine tuned-up and a general review to getting a priority list for future work items (transmission, PTO and hydrualic system gasket are next on the list, maybe some day we will get to the headlights and a paint job). I am looking forward to all the fun rides we will have together on the tractor. Hopefully we will get things figured out to where this will help me get certain yardwork items done alot quicker and easier. There also is a tractor parade in Madera at Christmas time that I would really like to participate in someday.

Lastly, we went to our local small animal livestock auction house that has a sale every Saturday morning. Micah liked this light brown Alpine doe and there was not alot of other choices available that day so she was the one we bid on. She gets along well with the other two goats and has been named Bella "the Ballerina" by Micah. Next month will be our target breeding time so we will have to figure out what to breed for since both females are dairy goats, but there is also a good demand for meat goats in the area. This year it will probably come down to price and hopefully a neighbor and help us with a free option.

Lucy - 6 months update

This had been a huge month for Lucy. She has learned so many new skills. Just a few days after turning 5 months old she started sitting up for longer than a few seconds. A few days later she was able to actually get herself into a sitting position. She loves being able to sit and play.





But sitting didn't last long for Lucy. At about 5 1/2 months she decided that she was going to crawl. She had been getting up and rocking on her knees for several weeks. Then face planting because she couldn't figure out that she had to move her hands. Then one day she just took off. Life hasn't slowed down for her since this. She quickly began crawling up and over the shelf on the coffee table and over our legs. Lucy also worked really hard on learning how to climb up the 3 places we have a step out of the living room. When we put her down in the living room she heads straight to the concrete step that leads to our entry way. Yes, I said concrete, very dangerous. Once up and over she just sits up there. I guess the challenge of climbing the step is the fun part.

Lucy also began spending time in the swing. She has always loved being outside, so the swing has been a perfect place to chill for her.

Our favorite thing that Lucy has learned this month is shrieking (not!). It's so fun (not!). She will be perfectly fine and then just start screaming.

Well, we think she might be a super baby. Or sometimes I think crazy baby!!!

5 Months Old

Well, we are a little bit late on this post. I have been really busy with getting ready for school. It's now 10 days after Lucy turned 5 months and she has learned and done so many more things in those 10 day. I'm going to try and go back and only tell you things she was doing at 5 months just for my own record keeping.

Lucy has been doing much better with her spitting up. We found a formula that has really helped with this. Thanks to this, she has been able to spend more time on the floor and on her tummy. She rolls around very quickly and easily. She is laughing more and loves to give big smiles. She can sit up for a few seconds by herself before falling over. Lucy is a big wiggle worm so it's hard for her to stay up. She loves to look around and hates to miss anything that is going on. She likes to change activities a lot, so I'm always looking for something new for her to do.



Lucy loves the water. She loves her bath and the pool. When you hold her in the water she loves to move her legs like the breast stroke kick. She really looks like she's swimming. I love it!! Hopefully I'm going to have a little swim team girl.

Summer Fun

Well, it is about halfway through the summer. I haven't been very good at keeping up with Micah's activities. So, here is a catch up on all we have been doing. I probably don't have them all in the right order, but you really don't care about that.

One day we went to a pick-your-own farm in Hanford. There were all kinds of berries there, but we stuck mostly to picking blueberries. This is because blueberries are very easy to pick and the ones a person picks are all good. We also wanted some blackberries but it is hard to tell which ones are ready on the vine. So, we just bought them from their little store. We made a delicious berry pie and blueberry muffins. Yummy!!
Micah wasn't the best at picking, but he was sure good at eating. At the farm they let you eat as much as you want while you are picking. Crazy!!!

On another day we went to Playland. You got to love the groupon that lets you ride all the rides for $5.

Micah and I visited the Rancho's Firestation. It was a very hot day, but this firefighter still got dress in all the gear to show the kids. They really want the kids to not be afraid of them in their gear in case they have a firefighter in their house. Micah was a bit scared of him.

Micah loves to catch frogs and toads. He carries around his bug catcher and hunts for them all the time. Hint to parents, let them out at night or else they usually aren't living in the morning.

He's even willing to give this one a big kiss.

Last week we went to the Cat Haven. This "zoo" has all sorts of big cats. You walk on a trail to see the cats. Micah seems to have a hard time with this place. We went last summer and had about the same experience. He decides when he gets there that he absolutely cannot walk. That is a problem because in 95 degree weather and "hiking" I absolutely will not carry him. So, I think we will hold off on going again any time soon.

He's pretending he's interested and hasn't been throwing a huge fit the whole time.

Our summer has been a blast so far. It's going way to quick. After being off work for 5 months I'm feeling it all coming to an end very soon.

4 Months Old

Here we are at 4 months.
Lucy has found her toes. I love it when babies find this built in toy, that never goes away and can be found at any time. She tends to play mostly with this left foot.

Lucy can now roll from her tummy to her back and then back to her tummy. This is good because on her tummy always ends in spit-up. I'm not sure she will ever learn to crawl because I rarely let her stay on her tummy.