Hawaiian Princess

Lucy loves this necklace.  She puts it on and walks around the house wearing it almost every day.  Today it was rather appropriate.

It was such a sunny day, we went for an impromptu walk around our neighborhood.  Lucy drove.

Big Shoes!

She did this all by herself.  I just happened to have a camera nearby.

In So Many Words...

Go!

My little Lucy is talking...she babbles actually...a lot.  I've noticed when she's tired she'll start repeating words on command.  I usually exploit this and get her to run through her entire vocabulary.  Right now she can say the following words:

• Mommy (mom or mama)
• Daddy (Da-EE)
• Nana
• Papa (most days it comes out as Baba)
• Go
• Hi
• Bye
• Hello (Ho)
• Cheese (Sees)
• Up
• Out (Oug)
• Ball (Bauw)

And if you ask her animals noises, she responds with:

• What does the sheep say? "Ba!"
• What does the dog say? "Woof"
• What does the cat say? a cute, high pitched "Oueeemmm"
• What does the gorilla say? "Ah, Ah, Ah" (Supposed to be Oo, Oo, Oo, but close enough)

I want to try and remember to start recording some of these little things for myself.  I know I'll thank myself one day when she's too old or too cool to play with Mommy.  So on that note, I will also remind myself that at this age (almost 17 months): she has almost all of her teeth except for her two-year molars, she likes to walk in-between my legs when I'm doing the dishes, she tries to drink her bath water (yuck!), she loves Bob Marley songs, still loves Yo Gabba Gabba, and still insists on holding Roxy's leash when we take her for a walk.  She sleeps on her side with her head on her little pillow, she still does a little bounce whenever she wants me to repeat something (as if to say "again!"), she is still fearless and not very shy, she comes running and laughing to the door when Lola says "Mommy's home" (so I've been told), and she does the same for Daddy, and she loves to Skype or do "Face Time" with Nana and Papa. She is growing into such an amazing little being.

Where the Wild Things Are

Lucy with her loot.
She chose a Whooping Crane? (interesting choice)
And another mini-Roxy.

Lucy's first trip to the Brookfield Zoo was a success.  I think we pushed her to the limit though, because we did EVERYTHING!  The butterfly exhibit, the dolphin show, the carousel ride, and the petting zoo.

The butterflies were not as exciting this time around it seemed.  I think Lucy really just wanted to touch the fountains.  She's all about water nowadays.

The dolphin show went about how I expected it would.  She didn't want to sit for it, but we walked the bleacher stairs while we waited for the show to start.  She made it through most of it on our laps before she cried at the loud applause and music at the very end.  She's such a trooper.  Maybe next time.

I think the best reaction (and now therefore dubbed her favorite animal there) was the response to the giraffe.  She took one look and as soon as she saw it she girlishly and excitedly called out a very high pitched "Woof!"

Stretching our legs...

Lucy and her whooping crane...

The ape house went over well.  One of the animal noises Lucy will do is the gorilla.  She wouldn't perform it for the actual animal though!  However, the gorilla beat on her chest for us which was quite a performance.

After the monkeys and gorillas, we ran around and did a bit of our own monkeying around.  Jump!

We had one very tired little girl by the time we made it to the petting zoo, but she wasn't scared at all!

Look at her yank on that ear!  She had a good grip on it.  Poor goat.

She didn't care for the carousel...too early?

Great way to end the day...zebra pajamas for the night!

Happy Father's Day!

Is it me or does this family seem to be eating a lot of ice cream lately?!  Lucy and Daddy shared a popsicle before bed...appropriately enough seeing as how this weekend was spent celebrating Dads.  A sweet moment I caught on camera.

And I also caught Lucy sashaying around before heading to church on Father's Day...

We went to lunch with Jay's family for our first celebration.

Then we headed to Berwyn to see Papa for a bit before their big show.  They had tickets to see Steve Martin and Martin Short!  Mommy is jealous.

We then ended up in the city just the 3 of us for dinner, followed of course by...gelato :)

Shopping for Daddy

I took Lucy back to the Old Orchard mall to shop for part of Daddy's Father's Day gift.  We ended up back at the fountain.  She loves it!

Hopefully here is a better shot of her shirt.  I bought this when she was itty bitty, thinking it would look like my Lucy walking Roxy.  Funny how true that is now.

The Field Museum

It was sort of on a whim over the weekend that we ended up at the Field Museum.  It was Lucy's first trip.  We saw the Whale exhibit along with some of the permanent exhibits.  We made sure to let Aunt Hilary know we got to take Lucy to where she works!

It was pretty fun for her I think.  She just loved all the people there!  She would go up to other children and try to interact.  It was really sweet.  She also found this statue of an alligator where she spent a good 5 minutes or so just trying to sit on it.  Very cute.

These information labels were right at Lucy's level.  I think she appreciated it because she didn't want to leave.  She kept holding on to these signs as if they were her own books, and cried when we tried to get her to move on to see something else.

Somonauk

A day spent with family in Somonauk, IL.

It was gorgeous weather out by the lake!  We celebrated our cousin's wedding at their reception lunch and Lucy had a go at exploring the grounds of the Lodge.

Lolo and Lola!

And some other cuties...

Cousin Emilio

Cousin Maebry

We ended the night by meeting the newest member of Jay's extended family, Miss Phoebe Darla...

Melt my heart!  She's like a miniature version of my Roxy.  She had the personality to match too.  The world's SWEETEST dog.  Puppy kisses on the nose are the best :)