Lucy was so excited to celebrate her half birthday. She has been counting down for MONTHS. She was excited to go pick out her cake, to blow out her candle, and to share with her siblings.
Lucy is such a spunky, fun, opinionated, passionate girl. I am honestly shocked that more of these pictures don't have her in a princess dress because she wears princess dresses every single day and usually changes through them multiple times a day. (Note to self: Take pictures of her in her dresses! You will be sad if she grows out of this phase and you don't have any pictures because it's so common.)
Here are some things we love about Lucy right now:
-She is an "audible eater", meaning that when she enjoys her food she is vocal about it. It's hilarious to hear her "MMMMmmmmm"s as she eats something particularly delicious. It's not overly noticeable but every once in a while we all stop and watch her eat - oblivious to the fact that everyone is listening to her enjoy her food.
-She clicks her tongue like in the song from frozen when Anna is in front of the clock "tick-tock", but it's "click-click". It's darling when she does it while she's singing the song, but sometimes she just does it.
-She says "Just one more thing" when she's talking, especially when we are trying to leave at bedtime or are in the middle of somethings else and she wants to tell us about something.
-She LOVES music! She loves to listen to music, she loves to dance to music, she loves to sing songs. The only playlist that I have on my phone is titled "Lucy". She is really good at memorizing lyrics and she spends a good part of the day singing random songs under her breath as she is playing.
-She loves watching her "baby videos" which are movie compilations of all the videos taken when she was a baby, when she was 1, 2, etc... she has her favorite years to watch, but she loves watching any of them. Anytime a song comes on somewhere else and she recognizes it from her "baby videos" she lights up and is SO excited to hear "her" song.
-She is growing and developing so well and her eyesight seems pretty stable. At the end of school last year she had a functional eye exam and we took her to the ophthalmologist this fall. Both concur that she's doing well, but she will start needing more accommodations soon. It's a little scary to start moving into this new stage where she is bigger and will need her eyes for more and more things. But she's amazing and I just know that she's going to be okay. If it's hard work, then we will work hard. If it is slow, we will go slow. If she needs a push, we will be here support. Step #1 is getting her some glasses that she can wear every day to help give her even the smallest increase in focus.
-The biggest success of Lucy's last six months was her decision to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels. I did NOT push her to do this (I think I was a little nervous) but she asked if I would take off her training wheels so I immediately did. She's five, so this is a normal development milestone - but to me, to our family, this is HUGE. As she was riding down the street, I could just feel the memory so vividly: me holding my tiny 3 month old baby, hearing the doctors words echoing in my ears, "no treatment, no cure.... lowest end of the spectrum... blind... probably won't be able to drive or ride a bike." It just felt like such a miracle. We are far from the end of Lucy's road, and I know that there will be tricky things to navigate ahead - but this moment of watching her ride her bike down the street was such a beautiful gift.
-Lucy was a semifinalist in the Rock Paper Scissors Battle at our Ward Christmas Party. David and I were in charge of the party, so she was hanging out with some of our friends. They said that she just kept winning and winning and proudly taking the "Christmas dollars" and sliding them into her pocket in her jumper like a seasoned champion. She won a prize of a charcuterie board tray and she loves it so much. It was the perfect prize for her because she loves having tea parties and laying out a beautiful spread of food.
-She loves all of her cousins "The Cousin Crew", but I particularly love her and her cousin Juniper together. Just six weeks apart - these little girls look like twins. I have dozens of pictures of the two of them from behind because it just tickles my joy sensor to see them together.
-Lucy also loves her siblings and they ADORE HER. They each have a special relationship with her, mostly them doing whatever she asks them to do because she has us all wrapped around her finger. (Pictured below: Austin being a "table" for Lucy's snack because she wanted him to be her table.)
We've had a great six months filled with friends, adventures, and travel. Some favorites from the photos below:
-Lucy loved learning about the Taj Mahal when we studied India and points it out whenever we see pictures of it (which is more common that I would have thought) or whenever we see a building that looks even kind of similar.
-Lucy is a great little ranch hand and makes a darling cowgirl. However, we learned that she does NOT appreciate being covered in cow poop.
-We traveled to Nauvoo, stayed in the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City, stopped by Colorado Springs, AND a bonus visit to Canyonlands National Park. I worried that Lucy would be too young for this trip but she loved it. She especially loved Great Wolf Lodge and wants to go back again.
-We also traveled to Vernal, UT right before school started.
This has been such a fun age. Photos for proof:
Dearest Lucy - We love you!
