Lucie's First Christmas

December 25, 2008 Part I - Lucie's First Christmas (Part II is Lucie's First Birthday - I'm having trouble with my camera card reader and haven't been able to download those pics yet).

Technically I guess this is not Lucie's first Christmas, as she was born on Christmas Day a year ago. But, this is her first full Christmas, and her first Christmas with me so I am counting it as her first Christmas. We had a really busy day. Santa came during the night and left Lucie some fun things in her stocking (a duck - quack quack, or as Lucie says "cack cack"), some books, a popcorn popper and some rubber blocks. We had a leisurely breakfast complete with eggs and bacon - yum! After breakfast we played with the things Santa brought, and then everyone opened their Christmas gifts, and then we played with all the gifts. Fun! Lucie almost never takes naps, unless she falls asleep in her car seat when we are going somewhere. Today Lucie took a 2 1/2 hour nap! I think she would have slept even longer than that, but we went into her room to check on her and then she woke up. I guess all this fun just wore her out. In the afternoon we took a long walk in the neighborhood and then started fixing Christmas dinner and Lucie's birthday party.

I'm one today!!! No more practicing - it's for real!

Yea!!!!

Christmas Week With Special Friends

December 23-24, 2008
Our Virginia friends stayed through Christmas, but I will do a separate post for Christmas Day. In the days before Christmas we had so much fun. We went to the Atlanta Aquarium. I tried to take pictures but I'm not good enough with my camera to get good pictures in that lighting. I wondered how Lucie would do, and she loved it. She waved at the fish in their tanks. I really do think she enjoyed herself. It has made me think about other things we could be doing, that I thought we needed to wait until she is a little older like Disney World ? - hee hee. We also took long walks through our neighborhood, drove around and looked at Christmas decorations and lights, ate Mexican (yum) and went to Christmas Eve service at our church. Lucie sat through the hour long service and did just beautifully - I was so proud of her, no Hulk this time but she did want one of the candles for herself. Lucie loves our Virginia friends and wants them to come back soon! They played and played. Lucie also said some new words - jungle, uh oh (sometimes when she accidently drops something but mostly when she intentionally throws it down), ho ho ho (but usually it is just ho, ho), papa, grandmommie (pronunciation still isn't great on this one, but you can tell it is what she is saying), and I know I must be forgetting something for sure as she continues to say and do new things constantly now. It is just so much fun.

Waiting For Friends From Virginia

December 22, 2008
Today we are waiting for our dear special friends who are driving down from Virginia to spend Christmas with us. While we are waiting, Lucie plays with a local friend.

Lucie Takes Her First Solo Steps!!

December 21, 2008

This morning we went to church and I was able to leave Lucie in the nursery for the first time so I could go to the church service. Hopefully this is a trend that will continue. This afternoon we had a nice long visit from our friends S and C and her son M. Lucie loved M! They played and played and M made Lucie do her belly laugh for quite some time. C taped the laughing - I've got to get a copy and will try to post it if I can. It is too funny. So, the big news is that during this visit Lucie walked for the first time. She did it several times - walking back and forth between M and me. She did it with confidence and of course we were all thrilled to see her take her first steps. It took me so by surprise that I did not get any pictures. (A side note from today, Dec 29th - I haven't been able to get her to repeat this. Not sure what she is waiting for :).

Big Trip to Atlanta

December 19, 2008
Today we took Grandmommie and Papa to the airport so we stayed in town and met our friends G and K for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Yumm!

A Thorough Check Up

December 18, 2008
Today I took Lucie back to the doctor as she has been running a fever off and on, and it seems to be higher than it should just from teething. Her ears are still red and we are worried that she is getting another ear infection. Our pediatrician says we might have to get ear tubes. We also drew blood to do a battery of tests. Boy was that fun. I was holding her body down, one nurse was holding her arm and the second nurse was drawing the blood. Of course Lucie was screaming through the whole process, which was drawn out because they had to get blood from several locations (arm, hand, foot - ugh). I was crying the whole time, but I was also talking to Lucie trying to get her to calm down. I asked her what the duck says and in the midst off her screaming she did the hand motion for the duck's quack. We both survived. Since then we've gotten results from all the tests and almost everything has come back negative or good, which is really awesome news. Her platelets are low and I'm not exactly sure what that means, but apparently it can happen when you are sick so I'm hoping it is because of the ear infections Lucie has had for so long. So, we have to go back for more blood in a few weeks. Not looking forward to that.

Busy Day

December 17, 2008
Today was a very busy day. We went to the Social Security Office to apply for Lucie's social security number. We will have to go through this process a second time after I get her name legally changed, but we had to go ahead and do it now for tax purposes. All I can say is I dread having to go through the process again. Then we dropped in on Grandmommie and Papa and had lunch with them. After we got back home our dear friend J came for a visit. She delivered a gift from another friend-you can see Lucie playing with her musical tower. She absolutely loves this toy. She stands at it and bounces with the music. I need to get a movie of it. Then my sister-in-law stopped by with dinner and to bring Christmas gifts for Lucie and me since she is heading out of town. Lucie is starting to get the hang of opening gifts now. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures this time.

Ride 'em Horsie !

December 16, 2008
This is the horse that Lucie was deathly afraid of last week.

More Exploring

December 15, 2008
Lucie continues to love the plantation shutters :) She has also found the stairs! I tried to teach her how to climb a couple of weeks ago but guess it was too soon. Today she decided she wanted to try them on her own. She does good about half way up, and then when she looks up she gets scared.