The adventurous life of Lucy Blue

Finally, some snow!

2012-01-16T18:06:00.009-05:00

Well, it had to happen at some time. We don't mind it really, just the bitter cold that accompanies it is a bit disturbing. Otherwise... Let it Snow!

After some coercing, we got the goose outside alone. She is not real big on doing things alone, but I can't go outside yet (pneumonia) and Tonya was having no part of it on a Sunday morning. She has a good time out there. Enjoy.

Video for Derren

2011-11-14T19:12:00.003-05:00

Derren is my sister Maria's beau. He gave her a gift the day before, and it inspired a song.

Fall Fun!

2011-10-27T14:12:00.003-04:00

We had so much fun at this farm! Too bad, she got a wicked cold the next day. :( Oh well, she is on the mend.

Colorado ! Beautiful and Fun!

2011-09-29T21:38:00.004-04:00

Busy Bees this summer!

2011-09-11T21:18:00.002-04:00

Handsome Uncle Bud and his three princesses!

Train Ride with 'great aunts', grandma and a crazy person in the window.

Girls night to American Idol Concert! It actually was a lot of fun!!!!

Chillin' with the boys!
Beautiful Wedding!

Silly grandpa!
Bonding Cousins :)

Free spray park I found too late in the summer!

Jaxon sandwich!

Saturday Morning Serenade

2011-08-14T15:32:00.002-04:00

She loves to sing, especially about her family.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Best Flower Girl Ever! :)

2011-08-08T21:53:00.001-04:00

Favorite Pics so far this summer!

2011-08-04T21:59:00.001-04:00

Nap time for the 'babies'.

Lunch time at convention.

Relax time for the kids. ;)

Beautiful Girl at a beautiful wedding!

She cracks me up. Ready to mow with daddy.

The MANY sides of Lucy Blue! luv her!

2011-07-28T19:57:00.004-04:00

Our Biker Chick!

Our Thrill seeker!

Our swimmer (she is really good!)

HAPPY HAPPY GIRL!

The Family Doctor!

Our Rock Star! We get new songs everyday!

Big Girl. First Day of Summer School!

If you are considering adoption...we highly recommend it. So much love and life in all little ones from no matter where they were born or who they were born from. When it is all said and done she is all ours and we are all hers! Almost 3 years together coming up. Luv our girl.

June was rough

2011-07-06T22:40:00.008-04:00

Ok. So things have been a little rough around here lately. First, it started with my stupid tonsillectomy on the 15th. I was doing everything right, taking in fluids, trying to eat, icing my throat. Until 3 days later, the 1% chance of bleeding came in to play. There we were in the ER. Scary stuff. Doctors had to do a procedure to stop the bleeding. Obviously, the wicked pain is gone but I thought it all would be gone by now. Still popping advil and having pain when I talk too much and just being.

The worst thing about the ER visit was that I was supposed to see my grandma that day. My parents were headed down to see her. She had a sudden illness that became untreatable and her timeline was short. I am so very sad that she could not see me with her eyes open. I gues that day was her best day. With the bleeding set back, the earliest I could get there was Tuesday. My dad drove me down. She knew I was there but could not open her eyes and could not talk. So very sad and it felt like I was in a movie. If you knew my grandma, you knew that she was full of life. She always wanted to be doing something and be included in everything. She did not like the thought of being 'old'. She was on a golf league, in a travel group and was self sufficient. We had a special bond. I miss her everyday and still can not believe she is not just a phone call away. Tonight, I was alone at home and thought, I should call grandma. I can still hear her voice say'Hiiii, my Tonnnnnyyy, I'm so glad you called.'

Now what am I supposed to do. We always spent a weekend at a concert each summer and then just the two of us would go out for breakfast and have some girl time. It has not all sunk in. My mom has been spending a lot of time at grandma's house with my aunts taking care of business that needs to be taken care of. I know she is grieving losing grandma and the house she was raised in with our awesome grandpa too. The house that we all pretty much grew up in. So many good memories and just the feeling of being there can not be replaced. The smells, the history, the comfort. My grandma valued her parents and grandparents and kept a lot of letters, paintings and home decorations from them. She saw how special keeping things in the family was. Their things were each special to her as they are now to her close family as well.

It doesn't matter that she was 'older' and lived along time, it still stinks so bad that she is not here anymore. She was such a great grandma to us and John too. She always flirted with him ;)

I loved her with all my heart and will miss her everyday. I know she is resting now and I will see her again. I will be sure to tell her that at her funeral we played Frank Sinatra' I did it my way', just like she always said she wanted.

If you are wondering about lucy, she is driving me crazy but she is still cute. She fell and wacked her head on the concrete sidewalk today, so that was fun. So far, she is still alive. It was scary though!! I have a pic of Lucy and her great grma that was just taken at the end of April. I took it with grma's camera and when we looked at her sd card it was on there. I will scan and post soon. I love the pic. Sigh.

The silly little one

2011-06-19T22:49:00.007-04:00

Lucy's surgery went well, but she keeps playing with her ear, i think it feels funny to her. i just hope that she does not have any lasting issues with her hearing.

Here are some shots of the lil goofball at her preschool picnic day out and at the park for celebration. she has been fun to hang out with. (mommy disclaimer: these are daddy's word as mommy is a mess from surgery. she is hoping and praying soon to feel better)

updates

2011-06-16T22:37:00.004-04:00

ok, so tonsillectomies are not fun. felt pain 6.5 out of 10 yesterday, starting at about 3 am and the rest of today the number much higher than that. don't feel much up to talking and I am so SICK of popsicles already. blahhh... double blahhh

lucy and john are taking good care of me. lucy's turn in the OR tomorrow when she gets her tubes out and ear drum patched. she is going to be SO MAD! poor babes. looks like daddy is on double duty with both of his girls.

looking back at some spring pics that make me smile. since my stomach is not well an nothin' else feels good either.

2011-06-02T22:18:00.004-04:00

The BIG news is the 10lb 4 ouncer that is the newest member of our family. Maddox! We LOVE YOU! look at those cheeks. and they are dimpled too!

Family Day on Monday! Went to do some gorge walking but Cold-flood stage water but fun anyway. We have been slow about blogging lately. Seems like we are so busy. Getting geared up for a busy month. Yes, it is MY turn for the tonsillectomy now. I am SO freaked. Mono did a number on our tonsils. Johns were kissing and mine are just torn up, literally. BIG Huge holes in them. hope you weren't eating dinner just then.

Just found out Lucy needs surgery to remove her tubes that have been in for 2 years! she will NOT be happy about that. poor kid.

Will post more pics soon. Lucy is such a big girl. The 'why' questions have reached an all time high now. WE ARE GOING INSANE!

Love is in the air!

2011-04-24T21:17:00.003-04:00

We are all getting excited to see family very soon! Uncle 'Bud' and Aunt 'Em' are getting married in September! The two families will merge for the very first time this weekend. Looking forward to it! Bud may be shaking in his boots ;) Doesn't hurt that Aunt Jackie, Penny and Gwen will be here too!!!! Lots of girl power in the house.

:) Hope no hair pulling this time around. Not from me silly. Lucy of course. She has come along way since Penny was last here. Thank Goodness!!!

I love this face!

2011-04-09T21:34:00.000-04:00

Self Portrait
Incognito!
So pretty!

Seriously. why do we live in NY??

2011-03-26T21:37:00.002-04:00

Get on a plane and visit California.......or...............

when life hands you 20 degrees at the end of March.......eat a snowball!!!!

Things 4 yr old do to pass the time when cabin fever sets in.

2011-03-18T20:19:00.004-04:00

Her 'great' Aunt Jeanie sent her her very own package. She was very excited to see all the pretty dresses and stuffed toys and jewelery. BIG THUMBS UP! Thank you. :)

Shopping at the pretend Wegmans.

Thanks for the cupcake mix Aunt Cathy!!!

Lucy wrote her name and mine (MOM) too, all by herself!!

At the Strong Museum. This was the best part for Lucy!

Running laps around the couch...for a very...long time!

Pics that make me smile!!!! :) Love our Lucy.

2011-03-09T21:13:00.005-05:00

Finally warm enough to sled!

2011-03-04T19:14:00.005-05:00

Although this was a great time, I am sooooo done with WINTER! Lucy had a blast on the sled. She laughed all the way down the hill. She wanted to go from the top of the hill all by herself. Wish she had a helmet on because it was fast and bumpy! Good Times.s.

Feb- Super Busy! Let's go March..

2011-02-21T20:17:00.002-05:00

After Lucy's 1st Hockey Game. She kept calling it a soccer game. She was so excited to go even though she had no idea what it was. ;)

This was her helping me with dinner. Running away with the pot. Always in her 'high heels' whenever possible.

1 st Gymnastics class for 2011. Look at those long legs!!

Trip to California - with the girls. Miss them all! xoxoxox

One night, Lucy fell asleep sitting up as I brushed her hair. Then helping daddy snow blow for a minute during one of our snow storms. Soon to be added...her 1st sledding day!!

Denver Pics! Blue Skies Foreva'...

2011-01-30T20:44:00.006-05:00

Daddy went to Denver to work so we only had lunch with him a few times. This is what we did the rest of the time........

Downtown Denver at night!
16th Street-Lucy jamming to some music.
Snow capped mts. & BLUE SKIES!!!
Sunset view from hotel room.
Rodeo-4th Row. Camera died though

RED ROCKS!!
She wanted pic with the cowboys on the steps of the Capital.

Lucy appreciating his music, she shared her leaf!

The Denver Zoo was amazing!!! Too many pics to post.

dancing with a ballerina

2011-01-04T19:26:00.002-05:00

Pretty in Pink-Then and Now!

2010-12-30T20:54:00.001-05:00

Our Baby turned 4 a little bit ago. She is acting so grown up. She is such a hoot and SO affectionate.

She will always say to us 'I love you, you are my best friend.' Super Duper sweet. She squeals with delight when she is excited about something. Loves her babies and takes such good care of them.

She is loving preschool and just 'hanging out' (as she says) with the two of us. She still LOVES visitors to the house, I do not think that will change since she is so social.

The endless 'WHY??' question has not slowed down at all. She just needs to hear the answer again and again and will look right at your eyes and face when you are explaining something to her. Will post more pics soon. :)

Cooking at Home with Lucy Blue

2010-12-13T21:52:00.001-05:00

You gotta love this little bean

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Just do it

2010-12-13T21:34:00.003-05:00

We are buying everything online thru ebates. Got our check tonight - you go to the site, click on the link for any of the stores and buy using ebates as an intermediary and get cash back.

so, if you didnt know about them, go there from this link and get some starter cash. its totally free.
http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=KC6Q6swh8Vfc6z6PrhhiuA%3D%3D

Little Spelling Bee

2010-11-14T10:43:00.001-05:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Loving Indian Summer at the Zoo!

2010-11-13T20:13:00.003-05:00

Aahhh... sunshine

2010-11-10T14:33:00.004-05:00

It is beautiful today - lots of sun and warm air. It started a bit foggy, but that does not matter if you're staying home. I am home sick today, Tonya has the day off, and Lucy is down for her much needed afternoon nap. She didn't sleep well last night - we noticed that when she has school and day care back to back (no nap on those days), she does not have good sleep that night. She is not the kid who 'if you keep her up longer, she sleeps longer at night'. She sleeps less, and in turn, so do we.

Anyway - some new shots from early morning

Welcome to the family Guinevere Skye!

2010-11-07T20:26:00.004-05:00

She is just a few hours old in these pics. We can't wait to meet you and squeeze your cheeks. Congratulations Jackie Doug and Big Sister Penny! ( You will like being one eventually ;)

Fun Fall Day

2010-10-27T20:01:00.001-04:00

'Riding the T-Rex'
Sledding in the leaves

Goats Galore!

We love fall! Especially when it feels like summer :)

Our new neighbor...Mr. coyote.

2010-10-25T18:33:00.005-04:00

vacation pics!

2010-10-20T14:18:00.004-04:00

I love this picture!

2010-10-17T20:55:00.000-04:00

more pictures of vacation to follow.

October updates...

2010-10-07T21:16:00.002-04:00

In the blink of an eye, she is growing up.
Great report from Open House at Preschool. They all say how sweet she is
and gentle with the kids in the class. Imagine that?!?!? Especially if they have a special
need of some sort. She really wants to mother them. Her PT said she is further along
with her gross motor skills than kids entering Kindergarten. She can skip every other leg! So proud of her determination. She went from a delay to above average. That's our girl.

She is benefiting soo much from her new Speech Therapist and OT. She loves both
of them and I really see a difference from the boring ones she had last year. Her OT already
has her on a sensory diet and her aide says that she has been letting Lucy sit alone at circle time and she is doing good. so cute.

Notice the pic above of her singing to her great grandma. She loves the guitar still and she really likes to rock out on it. A little nervous about that from a 3 yr old! Such a performer though. She also is obsessed with wearing makeup. Which I do not get because I hardly ever wear it. The pic shows her with a face full of lipstick. She even wants to blow dry her hair and use product!
We are so toasted when she is a teenager.

Anyways, just a little update. She is doing great besides a cold that turned into needing a nebulizer treatment last week and inhaler for a week. Hopefully it is not asthma. Breathing things freak me out and of course they always happen at 1:30 in the morning. uggh. I keep watching her like a hawk and count her breathing to make sure it is within normal range. The dr never should have told me the number, now I am obsessed with it.

Last week through today!

2010-09-08T21:18:00.003-04:00

Making Dinner for Daddy.

Hi Ducky- How are you?

Cheese!

Mia and Lucy feeding the fish! What a fun day. She rode a horse for her first time and LOVED it! Hope to post pics from the video of that soon.

She wanted to be a 'worker man' picking apples in the backyard.

Lucy's view of the crazy mommy and daddy.

First Day of Preschool!!! Two thumbs way up. She cried a ton when we got there though. uggh. She had a good first day after the tears.

8-18-2008

2010-08-15T21:33:00.003-04:00

So we had a Full weekend. Except it was just the two of us because Lucy was at her nonna and papa's since Friday. I think we both decided as 'free' as we were the last couple of days, we missed her SO MUCH! Next time maybe just one night away and not two.

We had fun at Sheryl Crow concert Fri night, especially when we got to go down to the very first row for the encore songs!! so fun. She is a tiny, beautiful lady up close!!

Lucy is talk talk talking like crazy!! For any families out there that have children not talking or not talking well at all, what everyone says is true. One day they just start talking and then do not stop. She really started to improve around May and then just the last month or two she is so understandable and saying all kinds of things. We are even in the 'why' stage. As annoying as that can be every five seconds it is awesome coming from her!! :)

Her last week of speech therapy summer school is coming up and she will miss it for sure. It has been fun for me too because I get to watch her behind a two way mirror. I love spying on her.

She is getting so tall and acts so grown up. I wish sometimes to be able to hold that chubby little baby again but love being able to ask her questions and listen to the answers she comes up with. She is so funny.

We love her to pieces. We are coming up on our two year gotcha day moment. Although we have been a couple for 16years and married for 13 it seems like she had been here for most of that even though it has been just 2 years. Don't get me wrong I remember the days where we could just sleep in and travel and shop and sleep some more but she just fits with us and we love being her parents.

All three of us are starting to figure each other out. It's amazing how much you learn about life being a mom and dad. Like how much your own mom and dad did for you over all these years and still do!!

So much more to say about our Lucy goose but my hands hurt and I have to type all day tomorrow so that's it for now!!!

Sunday Snapshots

2010-08-01T17:11:00.002-04:00

Trying to look innocent !

Trying to pose like a super model.............

Will the real Lucy please stand up!

Trying to escape the camera.............

Sneak Peek of our family pics!

2010-07-20T22:03:00.001-04:00

Good "clean" fun

2010-07-12T22:14:00.011-04:00

Since the last post, I feel that we have done so much - like all other weekends of ours are a bore in comparison.
Ton found a great fruit farm near the lake - and the first week of July was a perfect week for cherries and blueberries. It was very hot, but Lucy was a trooper - sweating and helping us gather the fruit into baskets. Oh yeah, we got pics for that.

it was time for some ice cream

We had 4 family members live with us for this past week, it was their vacation and they wanted to chill with some fam. On the agenda? Lots of swimming, a local arts festival, a blues music and rib grilling festival, lots of eating out with a side of more food. Here are some pics:

She did not want the family to go - she gave some big hugs

and sang 'I love you...

... you love me'

How in the world did she get so big so fast?

2010-06-23T21:44:00.000-04:00

The Gumby Twins

2010-06-22T18:05:00.000-04:00

Sensory Disorder and Institutionalized beginnings

2010-06-21T10:13:00.004-04:00

'Children who have been adopted are at increased risk for sensory problems, with those adopted from overseas orphanages at significantly higher risk. The conditions in these orphanages vary greatly, but all too often facilities have limited resources, poor nutrition, lack of sensory stimulation, and limited social interactions that can lead to developmental delays, medical problems, emotional difficulties, and yes-sensory issues. Many children placed in overseas orphanages may have been born prematurely or with low birth weight to begin with. So it's a double whammy to be predisposed to problems and then be placed in an institutional environment. What's more, the biological mother may have been malnourished and had limited or no access to prenatal care. So much-but certainly not all-depends on prenatal factors, birth, and environment.

Sensory problems make adjusting to a new family and a new culture even harder. Katie lived in a Chinese orphanage for eight months, where she had limited sensory experiences: a monotonous daily routine, and rarely being held, rocked, cuddled, feeling different clothing, being carried around in someone's arms or moving in a stroller or car, rarely being outdoors, being bottled propped, and looking at the same bare walls and toys month after month.

She certainly wasn't used to being hugged and smothered with kisses by her adoring new parents, getting bounced on someone's lap, being pushed around the park on a sunny day looking at animals at the petting zoo with the sound of a fire truck in the background and lots of people laughing and talking and brightly colored toys dangling from her stroller. Her brain and body never had that kind of exposure, and she hadn't yet built the neural connections for that kind of thing. '

Out of proportion reactions: over or undersensitivity to touch, sounds, sights,
movement, tastes, or smells

• Bothered by particular clothing fabrics, labels, waistbands, etc.
• Avoids or excessively craves intense movement — slides, swings, bouncing, jumping
• Gets dizzy easily-or never at all
• Seems clumsy or careless
• Often “tunes out” or “acts up”
• Poor attention and focus
• Uncomfortable in group settings
• Very high or very low pain threshold
* Easily distracted
* Social and/or emotional problems
* Activity level that is unusually high or unusually low
* Physical clumsiness or apparent carelessness
* Impulsive, lacking in self control
* Difficulty making transitions from one situation to another
* Inability to unwind or calm self
* Poor self concept
* Delays in speech, language, or motor skills

***It makes me sad to know that Lucy falls into this situation. She was not held or played with and hardly given any food to eat for 20 months of her little life. Add to that a painful surgery in China that probably left her in a hospital crib for days with no one to soothe her scared little self.

I guess I am angry today because of too many eye rolls from parents on a playground or people giving me advice on how to parent that have not had to deal with a child that with as many strikes against them as Lucy has. She can not be parented the same way as a child that has been loved and held and played with since being born. She is impulsive and busy and has some hard times with kids her own size. She is also funny and sweet and loves to sing and dance.

It also makes me sad that many family and friends have not taken the time to really get to know her. I am constantly disappointed at the lack of people that take time out of their schedule to just play with her or visit her. She gets so excited to see her family and friends and I feel sad that she has been neglected time and again.

Since I am her momma, the one person in this world that has promised to love her the most, I will make sure that she overcomes her harsh beginnings. It is not easy but we will get there, hopefully.

A few days in the life....Randomness..

2010-06-16T20:41:00.001-04:00

...So beautiful and happy playing with her mommy and daddy.
...Walked up to some people who were fishing and took over..
.... they were nice enough to let her pet the fish!!
...the only one enjoying the pool is this stinkin' duck
... Lucy's crumb size cookie balls. funny. :)

Keeping it clean

2010-06-13T08:35:00.003-04:00

Our insistence in a clean mouth is paying off - she is a brushing machine

Fun in the Partial Sun

2010-06-06T23:16:00.007-04:00

We made the most of the break in rain today

Last year at the gym compared with this year!

2010-05-27T08:40:00.005-04:00

I miss that chubby little girl. I can hear her squealing when she runs right now. We love the older L too though! She is so funny and sweet and full of energy!!! All the instructors say how strong she is but we already knew that ;)

Lucy is so happy the sun has been shining! :)

2010-05-20T21:11:00.000-04:00

Girlie girls

2010-05-16T23:14:00.005-04:00

Look at these two -

some times it is too much fun raising these two little girls

surgery = not as fun as it sounds

2010-05-11T23:40:00.003-04:00

having gone thru none of these before, surgery stinks. it has been 49 hours since i last ate, and i do not see eating anywhere in the immediate future. i cannot open my mouth wide enough to get a spoon in anyway. feel like i have a mouth full of cotton balls, like shattered glass cotton balls.

but i do love the optimism of my surgeon. 'oh, you talk all day for a living? yeah, take a couple days for yourself, but you'll be fine.' seriously, if your throat is bugging you a little, maybe it would be better to take those useless tonsils out..... dont do it.

i guess my analysis is a little premature, but if i cannot talk, eat, or swallow anything but cold water soon, i may go raving mad. just a heads up. oh, and if i dont lose a bunch of weight after this, dont even get in my way.

bright side, tonya is a champ - she is staying home with me this week to make sure i am alright. she is the best.

May Vacation!

2010-05-08T14:23:00.003-04:00

Pics of Lucy while John was mowing the lawn,

So vacation is definitely over! It is FReezing and cloudy here today, left the 80's yesterday :( We went just us this time on vacation and had a Great Time! Little sunburn but so much fun.

Scooter rental in Key West, Atlantis Resort with Dolphin Swim in Bahamas and John had fun exploring the abundant marine life in Coco Kay. Miami was fun too! Hot but fun. We missed Lucy a ton. She was so happy to see us at the airport as you can see by her reaction above.

Already thinking about the next get away. We just need to get through the next 'adventure'. John is having a tonsillectomy on Monday - ugggh! He will be hurting for a while. Poor guy.

At least we have some happy place memories to think about. Getting pics developed of the beautiful water and tourist spots we went too.

Crazy Cute

2010-04-25T21:04:00.003-04:00

So Lucy has been here 20 months. The same amount of time she spent in the orphanage. She continues to become more attached and secure with our family life. She has had several full laughs lately with no noise just because she is laughing so hard. Those are the best. She loves to have both of us with her and loves for us to hold her in a circle and sing 'Family, Family, Mommy Daddy and Lucy'- over and over again.

She is our singer in the family. Especially Do Re Mi from the Sound of Music. She sings the whole tune. She prefers standing on the coffee table and having an audience. She really works the crowd. We have of course tried to capture this on video but she prefers to not be recorded, little stinker. One of these days. Her voice is so cute though, like a little munchkin.

She had the week off from her speech classroom so we went to the zoo and park and played outside (weather permitting). School tomorrow. She is excited about it. We are working with the teachers and therapists on some issues she has been having over the last few months. Being too rough with the other kids. She has been known to pull hair, push and swat or scratch. It is really hard to get her to stop acting this way with kids her own size. She typically does not do it to be mean, just to see a reaction. We have been trying to work with the 'experts' and more and more it seems like these are sensory issues-related to being institutionalized in those early years. She relates to people differently because of not being held or nurtured as an infant and really wants to show that she is in charge. She had to fight for food and attention so these feelings must still come up inside.

In lighter news, she is growing so tall!! She says 'I love you' with no prompting and gives great hugs and kisses. She is very compassionate to older people or even people with 'ouchies'. Today at the store she went over to an elderly lady in a wheelchair and said hi and wanted to hold her hand. So sweet.

We have to play doctor all the time, although she prefers to be called 'Nurse Lucy'. Giving shots is her favorite thing. I looked over the other day and she was coming at me with a garden glove to give me a 'pinchy'. She also loves to put us in time out for 3 minutes. She gets all bent over, points her finger and tells us not to move. It is hard not to crack a smile.

She is super funny and kissable. We just love her little three year old self.

The ONE spring day last week.

2010-04-18T21:54:00.003-04:00

She looks like a bobble head. I love it.

Her teeth crack us up. Such a love bug.

Fun spring days.

2010-04-08T19:51:00.002-04:00

Memorial Night- So pretty!

Great Grandma's 'old' farm.She would have climbed right in to the mess if we let her!! No fear in this little girl.

Feeding grass to the cows!

Laughing after they licked both her and her mommy's hands! SLIMEY!!

A nice shot of her face after she licked a rock.

Meeting Time-Her favorite Time

2010-03-14T22:14:00.001-04:00

Happy to be seeing her friends soon! Especially with a pretty dress on. She kept asking 'Do you like my dress mamma/daddy?'

Isn't she lovely?

2010-03-06T20:13:00.001-05:00

Lucy thought that the over a foot of snow that we got a week ago was so funny!

She loves to help daddy work even if that means laying on him.

She looks so grown up in this picture.

Playdough- So much fun!

2010-03-02T20:48:00.001-05:00

Can you tell which smiley face Lucy did?

Lucy Blue- Miss Independent

2010-02-15T18:00:00.004-05:00

Lots of fun for Lucy Blue. She made new friends at Aunt Maria's super bowl party.
She got to see her Uncle 'Bud', Aunt Emily and Grandma and Grandpa tooo!
Lucy is now officially changing everyday. She is talking soo much. Some of her words are clear enough for people to understand, but we get most of what she is saying. Her speech therapist at school tells me that Lucy has new words for her everyday. We see that too! I love the development that has taken place since starting her school in November. She loves it too. She gets all dressed in the morning and squeals when we get ready to go. Her teacher tells me how bright Lucy is and that she has completed tasks that other 5 yr olds in class needed help with. Proud parents I tell ya. ;)

She is progressing nicely with her potty training too. Just digging right in and putting on the big girl undies has done the trick, M&M treats don't hurt either. She gets soo proud when she is dry after her nap or when she goes at a store. It is really cute. She is super ambitious about it now. In fact, Saturday while visiting Lowes, she ran off, of course, and her daddy found her sitting proudly on a display toilet, pants/undies to her ankles saying 'I go potty daddy'. gulp, thank goodness we caught her in time.

She loves Loves to sing and listen to music and watch people singing. Her fav is 'Do re Mi' from sound of music. over and over again. Super cute though. She also likes to continuously ask "What doing Mommy". Happy she is finally talking so much but agghh the non stop questions are crazy.

She can also draw a decent smiley face. She adds the eyes nose mouth and then laughs as she squiggles on crazy hair. We are still working hard on colors and letters. She knows her shapes and counts to 11. If we go higher than that she gets annoyed.

Her bestest friends gave her a PIANO!!! We are excited to look into lessons, for all us actually. I also want to get her in dancing. She has moves and if she just keeps watching us dance she will lose some of that ability.

Lucy is super naughty at times and constantly testing everything and everyone. Despite this, her laugh is longer and hearty, her hugs are tighter every day and she is acts so secure from just 6 months ago.

I have so many thank you cards to write to people and feel bad that we never sent any updated pics to her orphanage and the adoption agency. When she is anywhere near me and I start to read or write something she throws a fuss and tried to pull everything away from me. esp. the computer. Talking on the phone is just as hard. She really craves constant adult attention. Trying to find away to overcome this.

Ok well, more updated pics to come. You can see how tall and grown up she is now. I seriously can not wait until she is like 8 but get all mushy when I look at pics of her from last year, so I am trying to enjoy her crazy 3's!! PS..please ignore the typos -to tired to fix them.

2010-01-28T19:43:00.001-05:00

'I SKATING MOMMA'

2010-01-18T08:56:00.001-05:00

So we had a playdate with our friends at 4:00. We were there but no one showed up. WE WERE AT THE WRONG PLACE! What a bummer.... We did have fun though and Lucy had a ball. More pics to come. :)

What a difference a year makes!!!

2010-01-10T20:47:00.003-05:00

Look at this little peanut last year. 2008

Lucy is such a big girl now.!!!!!!

Some favorite pics from last week

2009-12-28T21:02:00.004-05:00

Yes, this was daddy's idea and Yes, that is a bandaid on her pants

She is such a good hider

Musical Lucy!! Loves to sing and play guitar

OOHH So cold

Driving cousing Mccoy and Elmo and Cookie Monster

Daddy's Girl

'Sun, Gwasses, Oosey'

Lucy's view

Look at her hair!

Jammin' with the speakers

Favorite pics from this week

2009-12-13T21:00:00.002-05:00

Daddy is a wimp- taking the pic from inside the cozy warm house.
Lucy loves her bike and has started to ride it Annie Oakley style.

Lucy is a big 'helper' in the kitchen. Here she is stirring ricotta for our lasagna!
Pudding face!

Travel Days

2009-12-02T16:24:00.003-05:00

Italy 2007
His family initiated me as the bride. I walked through the village with this traditional Italian Outfit on.

Closer to Home : Lilac Festival 2006

Clearwater Beach- 2006

So much fun.

Vegas Red Rocks-Beautiful!

Wishing I could go back to each and every place!

Rain Rain Go Away

2009-12-01T05:08:00.001-05:00

Wishing I was still on this cruise!

Big Hugs

2009-11-24T23:01:00.002-05:00

Sometimes things in life are not what they seem... However, some things are positively true and undeniable.

For instance, how much I (momma) love my little girl. She loves her school and really loves elmo too. She is into Lego's and Play dough too. It is nice to reflect on these little things that make her so happy. Momma and Daddy make her happy too!

More updates, soon! ( I figure if I say it, it may happen ;)

Big Changes for Lucy

2009-11-09T18:51:00.004-05:00

Day after surgery

10 days after surgery and pasta

Ok, so we have not fallen off the face of the earth but just have been sooo bizzy.

First and foremost, no hiccups. Seems like a combination of valium and other muscle relaxers did the trick for John, poor guy! 10 days is a long time.

Lucy's surgery went as well as we hoped for. The operation for her cleft lip revision was about 3 hrs. We both cried and cried when we saw our beautiful little girl for the first time in recovery. It was so hard to see her all stitched, swollen and oozy. It took about 3 days before I could really talk about it without getting emotional. I still have a hard time. I look at her a lot and I truly miss my little girls face. I fell in love with her big smile and full lips and now she looks SO different to me. beautiful, of course but I am having a harder time than her daddy is with it.

We now have to try and massage the area as much as we can, which is a joke. She will not even let me clean her nose. John has much more success at it then I do!

It was a rough patch there but we had a lot of support from family making trips to the hospitals for both Lucy AND John! Thank goodness we are past that.

She started her first day at her 'preschool' today! She will attend Mon-Fri each morning for 2.5 hrs. It is run through the Rochester Hearing and Speech program. We REALLY hope this will allow her to pick up new speech habits and start talking much more! I do have to say I miss her speech therapist a bunch and can see where she has gotten a bit lazy with trying some of her sounds. She will be receiving therapy there in class. We shall see. She made it through the first day with out being in too much trouble for being naughty with the other kids so that is GOOD!

Here are some pics from our last month or so.

our new situation

2009-10-24T11:26:00.002-04:00

just to keep everyone in the loop, lucy had her upper lip surgery on thursday - this was to repair the work done in china and to connect the two muscles into one - the surgery went well, she is home recovering, but we are sad. she is so swollen and it hurts to see her like this. we cannot even tell what she will really look like 'in the end' - but we are nervous for her. she had such a cute, beautiful little smile, we loved her little fat lip - yes, we know it had to be done, but its tough to think of that when she is all stitched up and bleeding. poor lil bugger. i am not sure we even want to show any photos of her right now.

not to be selfish, but i had to steal some of her thunder.. i have had hiccups for 7 days now. day and night, every 6 seconds. they went from being funny to suicidal. at times, i feel like i am losing my mind here. they hurt. to no end hurt. i spent the night in the ER onthursday, so we brought lucy home and i went to the hospital in her place. got some meds, but they are still here. i have moments of calm, no hiccups. i think of the days and times i wasted when i didnt have them. like relecting back on my life from my deathbed or something. i am telling you, they are driving me crazy.

so yeah, good times in the house of bevacqua.

trip pics

2009-10-17T10:07:00.012-04:00

packing our bags -

waiting for the Disney tram - exciting day ahead!

we gotta go...

We have been to Disney!

2009-10-12T10:21:00.006-04:00

Look at this kid!! No fear, Olympic form.

The three girls (cousins). Penelope, Mia and LUCY

Minne was her favorite. So cute.

More pictures to follow.....

UGGHH!! Little Monster.

2009-09-15T17:39:00.003-04:00

Bad day. My headache is HUGE. My house is a mess. It looks like a beautiful day outside but I would not know.

Lucy has been very challenging for me, so much so I wish I was at work rather than home, like forever. I think it is 'funny' when people ask how my day off was because I am mentally and physically exhausted by nap time and today - NO NAP. I think I only broke down in tears 3 or 4 times today. Is it normal to feel your heartbeat in your fingertips?

Lucy is more than a handful for me. She will not sit and play or sit and watch a movie or let me sit. :( I think I need a full time helper because I literally feel like I am losing myself. I can not remember the last time I actually thought about something for more than 5 minutes.

Tomorrow on my 'day off'. OT Evaluation one hour 11 am- Speech Therapy 45 minutes 2:00- Mind u somehow my house has to be put back together by tonight for the visitors. Oh and our dishwasher is completely and officially dead. I guess I could do as my MIL told me to do' clean all your dishes right after you dirty them'. Now if that was not the cherry on top I don't know what is.

Poor me right? Well, I was just letting everyone know in case I did not awake in the morning due to exhaustion or a stroke of some sort. These would be the reasons. Bad Day.

just some new pics

2009-09-12T20:38:00.007-04:00

it has been some time since the last message went up here, so we thought we would just throw in some pics. no new stories to tell yet. on the warmer days, we have been bringing lucy to the playgrounds around here and took her biking along the Erie canal and fed some of the birds. she is making good effort to talk more, a couple of words together type talking.

One year montage

2009-08-22T17:03:00.002-04:00

Enjoy

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Some one year fun facts

2009-08-18T20:55:00.004-04:00

ok seriously, i do not remember much of what life / we were like before this little energy ball. i can hardly believe it has only been a year! i swear i have been staring at her for years and years.

so i had to do some research, but i found her original numbers from one year ago today. give or take a little. last year, she was 24.5 inches tall and weighed a mere 16 pounds. today, she is 35 inches tall and weighs 32 pounds. that means she grew 10.5 inches and gained 16 pounds in her one year with us.

tonya has a lil something to share soon, but here are some 'before' and 'after' shots of our lucy - happy 1 year to all of the families who traveled with us.

August 18, 2008 GOTCHA DAY

2009-08-18T09:36:00.002-04:00

Happy 1 year to us and our family of 3!!

More to come soon......

doesn't play well with others

2009-08-02T21:23:00.005-04:00

this may come across on a few of her report cards all too soon. its about time we brought everyone up to speed on the darker side of lucy blue, the mischievous, sly, mr. hyde lucy blue.

we had a few family members over a couple of weeks ago, my sisters, our nieces and lucys cousins. one of them, cute lil mccoy, seems to be the target of this darker side. they have this love/hate, brother/sister relationship. hugs and punches. well, lucy is a bit of a dare devil, jumping in the pool, no show of fear. mccoy is a bit more gun shy at times.

but dont get me wrong. if mccoy cries or is hurt, lucy is right there lending her affection. look at the picture here. he had fallen into the pool, hung on to the steps for dear life and was crying quite a bit. and there is our little helper, making sure he is alright. such a sweet kid.

.

really, how cute.

until i looked thru the photos taken just moments before the splash heard around the neighborhood.

yes, thats our little angel, with her foot on his back.

Picnic in the Park

2009-08-01T20:43:00.002-04:00

back in hometown Geneseo, a picnic in the park was held with i believe local musician playing someone's old time favorites - jimmy buffet, beach boys, van morrison, and the list goes on. not bad really. this was lucy's second concert, the first back at the animal fair a few posts ago. we were joined by g.grandma and uncle bud.
she was such a good kid, i thought for sure i would be chasing her down and wrestling to keep her from the stage. but she did what she does best - charm people into taking their teenage daughters away to play. she found two sets of families to control. no one really minds a super cute chinese kid taking over for a while.

so, here are some pics of the event. she is dancing in some of the pics, eating in others - two activites where she excels.

pool girl

2009-07-10T20:49:00.005-04:00

this little girl is going to be an olympic swimmer - she loves the water. which comes as no surprise, with her bath time antics. i am so glad that we have this pool, i loved it before but i cant wait to jump in it each night with her. we have such a good time in there. it has maintained a pretty steady 80 degrees for most of the past month so jumping in is not so shocking. unless your tonya, who would rather it be in the mid to upper 80's. she has not been in much, but lucy and i make it a night time routine.

here are some shots from earlier this evening...

our 4th

2009-07-05T21:12:00.010-04:00

when you start with a little girl saying 'knock knock' while knocking on the wall at 6am, the day can only get better. she is so alive and ready to go when she wakes up- so cute, but early.

we decided beforehand that the best way to spend this day together was to spend more money than we made this week - we went to the outlets. huge sales there on holidays. lucy was spent after three hours, so we went for a ride to put her to sleep. it worked, but we drove thru some funny towns and streets to kill an hour. as soon as the car would stop, she would stir. how did she know??

once she was up, we were at a county fair near a town called Weedsport. the name and the long ride to nowhere all makes sense when you see these pics.

you know you crossed the county line when you see this type of sign

this was Jewel, she was the gem making the patties for bingo

and this was Lulu Belle, one of her 'wee-ones'

she liked the sheep, but wasn't too crazy about this goat that tried to leave with us

she loved the alpacas

not sure whats up with the 'v' in its side there, or who took it... but i am sure it was delicious

we had a good time - lucy enjoyed the animals, not wanting to leave, so we will have to hit up a few more of those this summer. just have to restock our Purell stash.

some pics for the long weekend

2009-07-04T08:41:00.004-04:00

Catching up with the blog. sort of.

2009-06-20T20:12:00.004-04:00

Playing in the sprinkler at Great Grandma's House with the big kids!

At great grandma's with cousin Mia. Mia is only 6 yrs old and look at those long legs!
At the park with Penny and Lucy and we kept encouraging them to 'HUG HUG' well then.....This happened!!! Needless to say, the short walk through the woods felt really long after this fall.
At my cousins graduation party with Jackie Bud me and Stevie. We are all brothers and sisters. We were posing our idea of an 'awkward family moment'. very funny....to us.

So these are just a few pics from when Aunt Jackie and Cousin Penelope were in town.

The weather was better then too. It has been so rainy. Anyways, Lucy has grown a whole inch since last month. She is going to be tall we think. We thought we were going to have a petite shy little all around Chinese girl yet she is strong, outgoing, and growing a TON.

Her new speech therapist has been working really hard with her and we already see improvements. She gets speech therapy three times a week and Occupational Therapy once a week. It is a lot of appointments to prepare for but worth it all if it will help Lucy. We think it is. The cutest thing she says now is 'knock, knock' to get in a room. We have been working on 'M' words with her and blowing. She is still full of energy and that is just part of who she is. People say ' oh she will keep you young', but actually she is making me old. SO TIRED! My mom has been helping out a lot since my mother n law is in Italy for a while and Mia has been sick and she seems to have more energy than me.

Do I always complain about that ? seems like it. oh well. it is 8:30 and time for bed. more posts to come!

The Wild Child and the Sweetheart

2009-06-12T20:00:00.003-04:00

Can you guess who the Wild one is???? :)

Well the time came and went SO QUICKLY! Here are some quick snapshots when Aunt Jackie and cousin Penelope saw Lucy for the first time in almost 9 months! WE ALL MISS AND LOVE THEM. They are back in California now. BOO HOO.

Lucy and Penny are 6 months apart and so different in personality they could be moons apart. We will explain more later with some pics of all of our activities last week. Just wanted to share pics with friends and family.

Busy weekend with our Yard Sale. SO much work. Many pictures to come. :)

Love the long weekends

2009-05-28T21:45:00.008-04:00

yes, we need more holidays that fall on Mondays - visual examples why:

Bike Rides

Family parties and pig roasts
not such a good weekend for this guy

and of course, time for gardening

and tree climbing

9 months today

2009-05-18T22:51:00.004-04:00

To all the families in our group who 9 months ago in the blistering heat and smog of China got their little ones - congratulations.

Lucy Updates

2009-05-17T09:28:00.003-04:00

Lucy is a big helper. She loves to be outside and follow us around everywhere. She was in charge of watering the flowers. She did a pretty good job!

She still gets so excited when someone comes to visit. Even if it is a repairman of some sort. She starts signing friend and has a big smile on her face. She has grown so tall. We both notice she reaches all the doorknobs now and I can just pick her up no bending really.

She is getting more and more affectionate. If you sneeze she will run a grab you tissue of some sort. If she sees a boo boo she wants to kiss it. Even if you burp or cough, she pats your chest and back. so cute. We hope that she will want to be a nurse when she grows up so she can take care of us! ;)

If you ask her for a kiss she will give you one but if anyone else is next to you, she will make you kiss them too! It is funny to see her make my mom kiss john!! right grandma?? ;)

Since her speech is not really progressing too much, our service coordinator for the Early Intervention program suggested a few things. First, we are switching her Speech Therapist over to one that has many years with CL/CP children. No one with this type of experience was available 6 months ago. We are also reducing her one hour to 2 half hour sessions per week. This was definitely a need because of her short attention span. However, I feel that her Occupational Therapist has made some improvement with her 'busy-ness'. Karen her OT, is helping me learn skills to use with her to help her not be so distracted and all over the place. So I feel good about the changes and hope that this will help her develop her speech- SOON!

We have been busy with our yard as you can see and have so many projects half done. That drives me crazy! I need to get alot of them done before the first week of June when my lil sister and niece Penelope come to visit from California. My mom is with them right now! having a good time I hope. :)

Anyways, on the health front we both are extremely fatigued still. Hope the sunshine and warm weather will help. Now if it would just STAY WARM!

ok, better go rescue john- he has been taking care of her all morning.

Too Too Long since last post

2009-05-09T20:38:00.005-04:00

Ok, so I just spent the last hour bugging my eyes out and cramping my hands 'finishing' a photo book. The site(artscow) does not auto save so as you can guess- my browser decided to flash a message that a problem occurred and it needed to shut down. All my work lost!!!! oh my goodness I am 'madder than a hornet' as my dad would say.

So instead of doing my work AGAIN, I wanted to post some new pics of our big girl. She is super sweet and naughty (with me) just as a 2 yr old should be. She is making more of an effort to use a voice but no clear words except: momma yaya(da da) gramma, 'ahh unn' (all done) ump (up) and still signs. We keep being told this is ok because she understands everything we say but we would like to see a big improvement soon to make us both feel better about it.

WARNING: SUPER CUTE PICTURES AHEAD!

The official leotard picture! First gymastics class.

Waiting for daddy to come home to take her to her 2nd class.

This is her face when 'I know I should not be on the table but decided to be anyway'

She loves to run!
Learning to kick her legs on the balance beam. This is her best routine.
I put this pic in for my lil sister. Lucy has developed a habit of putting the house phone in her shirt and we are dreading knowing where she learned this from. snoop snoop.

It is great to have a 2 yr old that likes to do the dishes.

Pasta and the case of the missing onesie..

2009-04-27T17:57:00.000-04:00

The many faces of Lucy

2009-04-22T19:04:00.002-04:00

This pic taken last week reminds me so much of her referral picture. Just her eyes and the non-expression on her face. I love it.
This daddy trying to show how long her hair is. She is obviously having a good time with it too!
Thank you to Emily for this beautiful dress. It fits her perfect and she signed 'beautiful' about herself when she looked in the mirror! In one hand the purse, the other a piece of mulch. That describes her perfectly.
She loves this smile- we do too!
This is what your hair looks like after you rub yogurt in it and then take a nap.

1,000 words for this?

2009-04-20T21:04:00.000-04:00

pictures for a friday

2009-04-17T08:04:00.000-04:00

Cuteness.....

The "Lucy Dance"

2009-04-09T21:12:00.001-04:00

Weekend fun

2009-04-06T22:06:00.005-04:00

so we had a bunch going on this wknd. sorry to jeremy and tracy, we really thought we might get together this past wknd, but we had tonya's mom's retirement dinner, and my parents anniversary dinner. 49 years married. thats crazy.
Oh, tonya got her hairs cut, she got the 'tyra collette' look (friday night lights)

both events went well, and we snapped a few shots to share.
sitting in lil Jax' rocker thing

on a lil hike
she L-o-v-e-s Dan
checking out the ants

like mother...
... like daughter
i am going to make an italian ot of her
gran-pa happy to see his lil girl

she has really grown lately

just kidding

Spring Fever

2009-04-02T19:37:00.004-04:00

Holy Cow! I am beat. Lucy is such a ball of non stop energy. She makes me get up and down and then pick her up and put her down and up the stairs and down the stairs.... you get the idea. She is on the move.

She had her second open gym class today and did great!. It was incredibly hot and smelled like a locker room in there so I was hanging on by a thread but held it together for the sake of the little 30 pounder. She would run and jump and climb...she became very distracted when the little babies that were there would fuss or cry. She really is a sweetie in that way.

The weather was so beautiful today.(wish it would stay that way!) We walked around the yard a bit. She wanted me to carry her mostly so that was a bummer because I kept trying to get her to run but she would rather run with me holding her. what a workout. She behaved really good the last few days so I am proud of her, I can tell she is trying to not swat as much.

Some more pics to share. Going to bed early tonight! yipeeeeee.
She loves her tent!
Just hanging with my peeps.
Wants to be like momma!
These were her babies for the day. She takes such good care of them.

Can you tell she loves WATER!!

We are back!

2009-03-29T21:00:00.006-04:00

Finally, we got our computer fixed. It has been dead for a couple of weeks. Thankfully, we did not lose any of our pics or videos.

Lucy has really changed in the last few weeks as well. She just seems to be so settled into home life with us. I think having her routines and her momma and yaya back in her life has made all the difference.

She is super funny and affectionate lately. We also think that her speech has improved. She tries hard to imitate sounds a lot more. Now when she wakes up she will play a bit but then stand up and yells 'MOMMA!', over and over again until we go in and get her. She has also been a bit different out and about. She quiets right down and has been a bit shy around other people. She won't ' perform' for us anymore in front of others. Her hair is really growing now too. So cute.

Lucy Blue had her first open gym class on Thursday. She did not tackle, hit or wrestle any kids to the ground so that was a relief for me. Her face lit right up and she ran and screeched with delight around the play area. Thankfully, her Aunt Cathy was there to assist with the running part because I was super tired that morning.

Friday, we met with the Craniofacial Team. A two hour appt that allows us to meet with the plastic surgeon, dentist, speech therapist, nurses etc. Lucy did really well considering.

Everything went well. We are now faced with the decision of when to schedule her lip repair surgery. Her muscles were never attached properly in China. We just want to do it when it is best for Lucy. Right now, I think we are leaning more toward the fall. They made it seem like her healing would not be much different a few months from now, and the extra time will allow us to get ourselves healthier too. We dread it though, because her sweet little face and lips are going to look different when it is over. Too sad to see her in such pain too. More discussions to follow, I am sure.

Anyway, we have some super cute pics with our new camera. Hope you like them!

mommy's do scary things
for their kids - creepy squirrel
making bird calls.

feeding the birds at Bird Song Trail

look at how much she has grown!

goofy kid

beautiful girl

super scary face

tisk tisk, feels like spring

2009-03-05T22:36:00.005-05:00

its a little sad, but when its sunny and in the 40's, it feels like spring. finally able to go out and play with the wee one without a coat. she is such an outdoors kid, i am real happy about that. just six months ago she did not want to touch grass.
here are some candids from our hours of outdoors fun today.

say 'Cheese-it'

2009-03-05T22:34:00.002-05:00

little nurse

2009-03-04T13:49:00.004-05:00

so cute today. john had to get some blood work done(again) and we went with him. when they took him back into the room, Lucy just had to follow to see what was going on. As john was getting his blood drawn, Lucy watched the whole thing and all on her own went over and grabbed her daddy's hand and held it while he was sitting there. I wish i had a pic of that because it was the sweetest thing EVER! she really has a good heart. maybe someday, she will be a nurse. she may need to be in order to take care of her parents!!

blueberry smoothie mustache.

little lucy who

2009-02-27T09:39:00.004-05:00

we have a new routine now, now that both of us have been home with her 24/7 for the past few weeks.
1. pick up from bed
2. drink warm milk
3. pull out the laptop and watch Horton Hears a Who, but only the scenes where Horton is on screen

she loves this movie, she is like her mom and loves elephants. every book better have an elephant in it, and every story has to involve an elephant.

Long night

2009-02-25T20:47:00.003-05:00

Lucy is having some sleeping trouble tonight. She is usually a great sleeper- 11 hrs or so but at times she will start crying in the night out of the blue. It is sort of a half sleep/ half awake cry that is different than any other cry she has. It is the saddest cry ever.

When we go in to comfort her, she will have tears streaming down her face and be shaking a bit. She will then just hold onto us for so long not wanting to feel the same sadness she just had either dreamed or remembered.

It happened early tonight, so I hope that means she will fall asleep again and have better thoughts until morning. Her Daddy is rocking her and hopefully that will make her feel secure again. Poor bubba.

6 Months!

2009-02-19T23:05:00.002-05:00

Six months with our Lucy Blue.

She loves her bath and always tries to drink the water.

When she walks she runs, full steam ahead like a little train. Her head is down and arms and legs are going crazy. We always talked about hearing sticky little feet running down the hall and
we have that now!

She is absolutely not afraid of the dark.

The orphanage stated that she was laid back, quiet and shy.
Instead she is social, curious, busy, nosey, and super affectionate.

She still sleeps from 7:30pm-7:00 am. We will cry if it ever gets shorter than that.

Lucy loves to see birds.

She is turning into quite and outside girl. She will cry when we try to bring her inside,
no matter how cold it is outside.

Her favorite word is mama. She can say milk, on, up, nana, banana, gramma, yaya(dadda), lala
(for elmo), mia(her cousins name). Her language is coming slowly and she does not cooperate too well with her speech therapist. She understands pretty much everything though.
She still uses her signs all the time.

Just like her mommy, she LOVES elephants and asks to see pictures of them all the time.

Just like her daddy, she LOVES cheese and bread and pasta.

She is super naughty at times and thinks she is sooooo funny when she is naughty. She has always tried to make us laugh. Even within the first minutes of being with her.

She is a daddy's girl all the way.

Since August she has grown from a size 6-9 mths to size 24 months! We started with a baby
and have a toddler for sure now!

She loves her family and friends from our congregation. She knows who they are right away.

Whenever a visitor leaves our house, she puckers her lips over and over again so they have to keep coming back inside to give her more kisses. She knows she is irresistable
when she does that!

She still does not watch much TV but she LOVES music and dancing.

She is partially potty trained and has been since China. She has a potty routine for the most part and as long as we keep up with it, dry diapers!

She loves to say prayers as a family, she asks for them all the time, especially before she eats.

She destroys everything. She loves to rip apart pop up books, cards, paper, mail- etc.

She is a girlie girl. Her daddy cuts and paints her nails. She always picks out the shiny shoes to wear and loves to look at herself in the mirror. She even strikes a pose. She carries BAGS around everywhere. Another bag lady in the family. ;)

We just love her to pieces and know she loves us. She likes us to be close to each other and her and sing ' Family, Family, Mommy Daddy and Lucy!'.

We are looking forward to a warm summer and know she is just going to LOVE the pool and being outside everyday. She will love cook outs with friends and get togethers with the family,
so will we!

So much to say about her so I probably
forgot some important things about her life so far but let the video do the talking!!

Thyphoid Mary

2009-02-19T10:23:00.002-05:00

The Dr appt yesterday was informative. He walked in the room and looked at us and said 'What is going on with you guys!'. We have the worse cases of mono he has seen. Me with my liver and fever and John with what he called 'dangerously swollen tonsils', high blood pressure and low grade fever. He started him on a steroid to attempt to reduce them from swelling anymore. He also required John to have more blood work( almost passed out on us).

So John also had his ultra sound this morning, swollen spleen. Not as big as mine though. I hold that record.

He has a follow up with the dr tomorrow. He will be checking out his throat again to see if the medicine is helping, so far it does not feel any different to him. Anyway, we are resting today- the nana or m-n law is here to help with Lucy. Lucy is also coughing and runny nose and stilll
GRuMPY!

Everyone thinks we have like the bird flu from China but all the drs feel too much time passed from our trip in August to when I got sick in December. Things happen. It was probably the girl at Wegmans that sneezed on me. Did you know once you get mono you can pass it along to other people for the rest of your life? It can stay in your system, go dormant and then not dormant at certain times in your saliva. So John and I better stay together forever because other people will not want to kiss us in the future!! ;)

Ok well off to close my eyes before Lucy is all ours again and she prys(sp?) them open.

ta ta