Lucy Holland: 9-10 months

Lucy-love. 

This month has been a crazy one. The last week before you turned 9 months, the Coronavirus came to the forefront of concern and things started shutting down. Already there had been some adjustments being made like the Church had said that they recommended people not travel from the around the world for general conference, but within just a couple of days, things went from casually concerned to extreme-shutdown. NBA suspended their season until further notice, March Madness (college basketball) canceled the NCAA tournament. Schools were shut down, churches are now being held at home, the Utah Governor issued progressively strong stay at home measures. Then the very day after you turned nine months we had an earthquake. (insert wide-eye emoji here)

 David has written thorough blog posts about this, but I just want to mention it because it's been a big part of our life and although you are tiny and will never remember this time- I want you to know that you lived through a historic time and that your family held together faithfully. We've mostly stayed home so it's been an extra good month for snuggling and you've started hitting some big milestones which has been fun and happy. 

You're such a sweet baby. I took these pictures on Easter and sent them to my mom and she messaged back, "Baby Lucy is a literal doll! Love, love, love!" You really are so lovely and happy and we love you so much. 

Stats: 

12 month clothes. Three teeth! (Two on top and one on bottom)

We got the results back from Lucy's genetic testing and had the diagnosis of Albinism confirmed. The lab tested for 23 genes associated with albinism and confirmed a diagnosis of Oculocutaneous Albinism Type 3 (OCA3). It doesn't change very much other than now we have a confirmed diagnosis to move forward with. 

Other things to remember: 

With the Earthquake and Covid-19 impacts, we've been sticking pretty close to home. We took a walk around the neighborhood and felt like we were escaped convicts, but still enjoyed the sunshine. We've been LOVING having your daddy working from home though. 

Lydia loves Lucy. 

Lucy loves Daddy. 

This month he started playing a game with her where he holds her tight up to his chest then tips her back until she's all the way upside-down. "Wheeeee!" Now anytime he's holding her, she throws her head back to tell him that she wants to play their game. (Which is all well and good until Lydia was holding her the other day and Lucy threw her weight back like that and they both almost fell over, thankfully I was right by them and caught them before they went down. Ha.) It's sweet that she and David have a special thing to do together. 

The biggest news of the month is that SHE IS CRAWLING! She started her foray into moving around by giving herself a good roll and then just kind of turning her body to get to something. It wasn't very effective but every once in a while I'd look over at her and think, "hey, how did she get over there?" But now she's got this cute little crawl that isn't quite an army crawl - but is still effective at getting her where she wants to go. She reaches out with her hands, grabs onto the carpet and uses her toes to push herself forward. I love it.

Speaking of her toes. She makes me laugh all of the time because she uses her feet like another set of hands. She often will explore things with her feet instead of her hands and you can just see her toes feeling things and sending information back to her little brain. Sometimes she'll put her feet on my face and you can tell she's feeling my face with her feet. It's a small thing, and it's hard to describe, but it makes me laugh and I love it. 

We drove to check out the new Saratoga Springs Temple building sight. 

We celebrated her first Easter! It was a different kind of Easter with very limited celebrations, but it was a good week of talking about our Savior (and eating Starburst Jelly Beans.) Lucy even got her share of Easter candy. Caleb was kind enough to share one of his Jellybeans with her. He popped it right in her mouth and when I tried to fish it out, she wouldn't let me get it and swallowed it before I could pull it out. She also took advantage of Austin being distraced during the day and crawled over to his Easter basket, pulled all his stuff out and sucked on multiple of his chocolate eggs wrapped in foil wrappers. She was covered in chocolate and so happy. We aren't used to her crawling yet and are going to have to learn to keep things away from her!  

Caleb loves Lucy. He takes good care of her and is constantly trying to help her with things. If she touches him, he breaks out into a huge grin "Lucy loves me!" One time I tried to give him an extra baby puff tp eat that she hadn't eaten and he held it in his hand for almost an hour saying "This is for Lucy. This is Lucy's." 

You can almost not see, but Austin (maybe Caleb? They both play this game) is hiding behind Lucy's pack and play and would keep popping up to surprise her which would make her giggle. 

We've been exclusively cosleeping, so her sitting in her pack and play while the kids play with her is basically the only time she's been in it for the past month. Even for her naps I will lay with her in my bed until she falls asleep then sneak out (which sounds awful, but has actually been really peaceful). The other day she didn't fall asleep right away after I snuck out and when I came back to check on her she had rolled and was right on the edge of the bed. EEK! But she was SO sweet looking I had to take a picture. We were much more careful after that and are SO close to having the storage room stuff cleared out of the nursery so she can go into her crib! 

Da-da-da-DAAAA! We've been working SO hard on our storage room. Lucy has been there every step of the way. Most of the time we have been working on it at night after the kids go to sleep, but Lucy's schedule is that she's up with us at that time and doesn't go to sleep until later so she just hangs out with us while we work (in complete honesty, sometimes she just cries while we work which is hard but she HAS to get into a crib so we HAVE to work when we can.) She helped us lay carpet and she's SO excited about the shelves. Ha, she was actually the least excited to be sitting on the shelf getting pictures taken, but doesn't she look darling?? Next up, moving all of the stuff we've been storing in her nursery down to these shelves! She's ready for a crib and her crib is close to ready for her!!! 

Lucy-love. What a month. But you've been the all-star champ through it all. I'm already in denial about you turning one, but I can't really complain too much - because you've taken the milestones nice and slow. (Except about the teeth - you've gotten teeth so much earlier than your siblings and nursing is much trickier with teeth!) 

We love you! 

Easter

We are so grateful for the opportunity to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of the Savior. 

We started our celebration by having a "passover" dinner on Thursday to remind us of the Last Supper.

The kids love doing easter egg hunts each year and loved having an easter egg hung outside and inside. With the pandemic this year, Shantel and also also went to a few neighbors/friends and set out easter eggs for an easter egg hunt for them (Shantel and the kids sanitized their hands before touching the eggs). They would place all the eggs, ring the doorbell and run away. 

On Saturday night we had the kids collect rocks from the grass and put them in their baskets and put them inside of this little table to represent going into the tomb. Then that night we took the baskets out of the table and filled them with a few treats and books. Then when the kids went to get there baskets we told them that the rocks represent the sin, trials and troubles we face in the world and talked about how Jesus Christ and his power save us from these. 

A couple of Easter family pictures. 

Finally, on Monday Shantel and the kids did Easter egg decorating. 

Thoughts from the Worldwide Fast

President Nelson invited us to participate in a worldwide fast on good Friday to fast that we can receive help with the coronavirus. It is the second worldwide fast we have participated in for this. As part of this, we invited people from all across the world to participate.

I am grateful for the opportunity to fast for God's help. It is a good reminder that we must truly seek God's help and if we desire it, we will put the effort into that seeking.

During the week, one verse that I came across was in 1st Nephi chapter 8. It  read.

5 And it came to pass that I saw a ^aman, and he was dressed in a white ^brobe; and he came and stood before me.

6 And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow him.

7 And it came to pass that as I followed him I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste.

8 And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have ^amercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.

9 And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious ^afield.

10 And it came to pass that I beheld a ^atree, whose ^bfruit was desirable to make one ^chappy.

I love this story because Christ appears and asks Lehi to follow him. Lehi listens, he does what he should do and then finds himself in a dark and dreary waste. We must remember that ending up in a dark and dreary waste is because we are following Christ. In order to follow him, you have to go through that. Those are trials because of our own sins, because of others sins and just because the world is a challenging place. The way to Christ and our Heavenly Father is not around those things, it is through them. Once he finds himself there, he learns that he must pray for the tender mercy of Christ. We must each learn that we need Christ's mercy always. We must learn to be humble. Then his prayer is answered and he sees the way forward, he sees the tree. But, even then, the path is not easy. However, the fruit is worth it. 

These are challenges times because they are filled with uncertainty, and sometimes not knowing, is the worst part. I know that we need to rely on the Mercy of Christ who is mighty to save. We must rely on him and be diligent in coming to him in fasting and prayer. The answers may not always come quickly, but he is there listening and will be there in the. moment we need him.