Lucy 19-20 Months

Dear Lucy, You're at such a fun age right now. Your humor is starting to come out full force, you're opinionated, and you are starting to understand that words have meanings. It's a great age to be and we are glad to be here with you. 

Stats: Very little hair. Starting to love shoes (size 4-5). Favorite outfit is her pink velvet romper. 

Some details about her: 

-Super opinionated about her clothes. She has her favorite clothes and pajamas and if there is the possibility that she COULD wear one of those she demands to wear them. Gratefully, if I tell her that something is dirty or in the washer, she's fairly able to understand and pick something else. I usually pick 2-3 outfits and "present them for her consideration" before getting her dressed. She's 20 months. It's ridiculous but also endearing. 

-She think's she is a big kid and I'm honestly surprised at the thing she understands and is able to do, so maybe she IS more of a big kid than I am giving her credit for. The other day I was helping Caleb in the half-bath on our main level and was going to need to go upstairs to get him some new pants to change into. Without me saying anything to her (I might have told him that we were going to need new pants) she recognized this, crawled all the way up the stairs, and brought down some new pants for Caleb to change into. Because he needed them. I was shocked! 

-She LOVES to bounce on the trampoline in the front room. She's starting to get really good and can jump pretty high for a 20 month old. She love to jump with the other kids and they jump REALLY high, but she takes the chaos like a champ. 

It has been fun to watch her and Caleb's relationship really start developing. He loves her. She still ranges mostly between tolerating his attention and NOT wanting his attention- but more and more she's engaging with him and wanting to play with him. They play with balls, trucks, blocks, and other toys.

Also, Caleb doesn't always know how to stay in his own space and he doesn't always know when to stop bugging - and sometimes that ends with Lucy biting him to make him go away. See that bite mark on his cheek? Eek. 

-She bites. She also gets very very angry and will reach out and squeeze whatever/whoever is upsetting her as an expression of that anger. We are working on "being soft" but I also want to teach her how to deal with her emotions effectively and that is important to me. I wish I knew better how to handle these harder things as a mom so that I could be sure to do the best thing for her future. 

-We read scriptures, a lot. Melt my heart to see her holding a mini copy of the Doctrine and Covenants during family scripture study in the morning. 

-She's the perfect size for sitting in fun toys. This reminds me that I should go clear out my cabinet in the kitchen because this is the age when all my kids have loved climbing in there. 

-Her opening a note and a treat from her primary/nursery teachers. Covid is strange. But we are blessed to have Primary Teachers that are continually reaching out and trying to stay connected. Lucy, you're growing up in a pandemic. You're mostly sheltered from it, but you've had some crazy things happen in your little life. 

-Did I mention she's opinionated? She's also hungry all the time. And when she's hungry, she'll just go to the fridge and get what she wants and bring it to me to open. 

Sometimes there is something that she will do that will just tickle my funny bone (and then you get 10 pictures of it). We were cleaning up after dinner while Lucy was finishing up some blue jello and I looked over and she was just chillin' with her leg up on the table. She looked so content and happy and cool. 

Snugglin' with the big kids on the couch. 

Did I mention she think's she's a big kid? We were prepping for a Valentine activity so I was drilling holes through paper plates (to thread yarn through) and Lucy insisted on helping me. She knew exactly what she wanted to do and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would say that I feel confident using most power tools and I've always been glad that my dad helped me and taught me things like that. I hope my children grow up with confidence and ability in that area, too. (although I don't usually start so young).  

Oh Lucy darling. We love you. We love to be with you and we love to watch you grow. On this valentine's month, we are grateful that you are our littlest valentine. 

My Valentines

My Valentines:

Lydia- 

{notes on her door from mom and dad}

I love your sense of humor and the way you make me laugh. 

You are kind to your siblings and you help me so much. 

I love to hear about the things that are important to you. I like to hear your thoughts. 

I love you. I love to hear you play the piano. I love spending time with you reading books and playing catch or playing outside. You are sweet, cheerful, and full of joy. 

Austin-

{notes on his door from mom and dad}

I love to snuggle you and hear you say "You're important to me, too." 

I like to play games with you. Sometimes I win, sometimes you win, but I always enjoy being with you. 

I love when you come to snuggle with us every morning. I love playing games with you. You are kind and friendly and bring joy to our family. 

Caleb-

{notes on his door from mom and dad}

I love to tell you stories of "you and I going on an adventure".

I love the way you express yourself. Especially when you show how full your tummy is. 

I love when you come visit me at "work" and talk to me about your day. You are a great hummer.

Lucy-

{notes on her door from mom and dad}

I love when you hug me and lay your head on my shoulder. 

I love that you learned how to say "cookie" and that you love chocolate. 

I love your bright smile and hearing you say "again" when I do something you like. 

For Valentines Day, Aunt Jenna came in clutch by watching the kids on Friday night so David and I could go out on a Valentines dinner. She kept them overnight so that I could go to Stake Baptisms and David could work. The kids made valentines, pink cinnamon rolls, and had a massive amount of fun. We had decided to go to The Charleston in Draper, and happened to run into our good friends Colin and Cassie Delahunty and ended up sitting at the same table together. It was so fun catching up and they surprised us by paying for the entire meal for us. It was extremely generous and very kind. We finished our date by making a stop at the temple (it's been a whole year since we've been able to attend the temple now) and then starting to plan our summer/fall family vacation. 

 

Sunday morning, we let the kids open their valentines from each other/the Haderlies and gave them a small gift of our own to celebrate "We Love to be a Family Day". (We gave them notebooks to write down when and how they feel the Holy Ghost, to go along with our study of the Revelations found in the Doctrine and Covenants this year, plus some new pencils/pens, a can of playdoh and a chocolate.)

Then we had a Family Valentine Dinner with cookies from Sister Perkins for dessert. (My kids are seriously spoiled to have so many amazing treats from our good friend Amy Perkins.) 

Plus a surprise porch visit from the Renchers who came bearing fresh-baked bread and handmade cards. They are the best. 

It was a...

Happy Valentines Day. 

Caleb - Not a Broken Arm

 So here's the story: The kids were playing downstairs with their Haderlie cousins when I head Caleb start crying. I am usually pretty good at telling the "I fell down but will be fine" cry from the "I fell and I am REALLY hurt" cry. It was definitely leaning toward the latter, he was really hurt.  (He had been climbing on the chaise lounge in the basement and he fell off right onto his hand/wrist.) 

Of course, it was right at 5:00 on a Friday when this happened. I think I looked at the clock and it read 5:04 or something. I didn't want to rush him to the ER if it wasn't broken so I just snuggled him on the couch and decided to keep an eye on him. For the rest of the day he was really tender with his arm and mostly laid on the couch or a blanket making sure not to put any pressure on it. 

The next day though he was back to using it fairly normally. Occasionally he'd mention that it still hurt, so I was watching him closely. 

Saturday, he took another BIG fall. He fell and hit his lip, giving him the biggest fat lip I've ever seen.

I watched for signs of a concussion, gave him some ice and watched it. (Poor guy, he was having a rough weekend.) 

Sunday night when I was helping him get into his jammies, I grabbed his arm to help guide it through the sleeve and he started sobbing. He basically cried himself to sleep because I had hurt his arm so badly. I felt horribly even though I hadn't been rough with his arm - just a normal pull-through of a sleeve.

Monday morning he woke up with a fever and I felt like that was the final straw. Three strikes and all that 1-hurt arm, 2-fat lip, 3-fever. I called our pediatrician as soon as they opened and scheduled an appointment to take Caleb in to see them. Because of Covid, and because Caleb had a fever, we couldn't go to our normal office we had to go to one of the offices they have converted to care for sick kids who have fevers or other Covid symptoms. Also, of course, we had to wear masks the whole time we were there. (It doesn't look weird now, we've gotten so used to it - but I thought I would mention some of the weird things that Covid has normalized. I'm hopeful that someday we will look back at these pictures and think that it's strange to be wearing a mask again. 

The doctor looked at his arm, twisted it several times and agreed that he thought it was probably broken (or at least fractured). He scrounged up some arm splint supplies (they are used to treating colds and flus, etc.. rather than being fully stocked with physical care items due to the Covid separation of their clinics.  Caleb thought it was pretty cool. Then he sent us down to the X-ray center of the Mountain Point Hospital to get an X-ray. 

Caleb did a great job and was happy and cheerful with everyone that he met.   We were chatting with the technician who was preparing our paperwork for the x-ray and ended up talking about baby names with her. Caleb was telling her all about his sibling's names and she had mentioned her daughter's names. Caleb was talking about Lucy and without guile, he said "Lucy is the name of a mom in the Book of Mormon, do you know the Book of Mormon?" (We've recently been reading the Doctrine and Covenants and talking about how Joseph Smith's mom is also named Lucy.) I wish I had taken his lead and said something about how much we love the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants and been able to pull an extra copy from my bag to give to her because she seemed like she wasn't sure exactly what he was talking about. I didn't, I just smoothed over the conversation - but I was so proud of Caleb and his love for the Book of Mormon and willingness to share. It makes me want to be better at sharing with that same guileless manner. 

And now for the end result: The X-rays. We got the exrays and went home and a few hours later they called and told us that his arm was NOT broken. Just tender. I can't regret going in, because it could have easily been broken - but I am very grateful that we didn't have to return for a full cast! 

Caleb is a champ. He is also daring and energetic. I'm sure that we have broken bones in his future, but until then, we will keep his bones all in one piece, thank you very much.