Lucy Update

It has been way too long since we've updated on this sweet girl! 

Lucy will be 8 months old tomorrow and you wouldn't believe how much she has grown. I'd like to do a recap and it will not be quick. We are behind! 

5 months was probably her most smiley age. We can't get enough of these smiles!

She started eating solids at 4 months. We had planned to wait until 6 months again but her sleeping was (and still kind of is) so dreadful. We feel like there was a little bit of improvement, but not much. She sure loves eating food though, especially oatmeal! She's doing great with baby food and is learning to feed herself. She loves rice, potatos, and cheerios. She grew out of the bumbo pretty quick - in these pictures she is 5 months on the left and 6 months on the right. She is so messy, so much more than Gavin ever was!

5 months was also kind of full of mood swings, seen here in pictures 12 and 13,

 Lucy hasn't stopped moving since the very first kick from inside :-) She wasn't crawling at 5 months but she could basically get anywhere she wanted to go by rolling, scooting, and her own version of the army crawl. She loves the blinds and is magnetically drawn to cords. She will always go straight for a cord!

At 6 months, first of all, she was adorable!

 And second, she succesfully assumed the crawling postition! She started rocking back and forth nervously and would lunge herself forward. You could just see her mind working, she wanted to crawl so badly! This also lasted about 2 weeks...

And then she took off!

She gets herself stuck..often (especially when going for the cords)

 She does her little stinkbug when she's mad :-) This reminds me so much of Gavin's "downward dog" pose, I just love seeing their similarities! Look how cute they are -

And then, when we're lucky, she'll stop and strike a pose!

7 months has been so much fun! Almost everytime she would smile it would turn into this big cheesy grin, it was so cute but so short lived. I'm glad we caught it! See the progression as she gets happier and happier...

We've tried a couple of new hairstyles (now that it's growing back in a little)

She is so beautiful!

Lucy is so active and does not want to be left behind. Even before she could actually sit up she started to pull herself up to her knees. 

About two weeks ago she finally started to confidently sit up. It is the cutest thing to see her just sitting there. Sitting has also made her a better crawler, she doesn't get stuck quite as often.

 About two weeks ago she accidentally pulled herself up to standing. She is now a pro!

We got another picture of Lucy that reminded me exactly of one we got of Gavin as a baby. They are both 7 months too which I love!

We love our sweet Lucy Lu. She is silly, smart, beautiful, and sweet. Her excitement for her morning bottle is so cute. She is becoming more talkative every day. Her little "words" are "ma ma ma ma" "da da da da da" and "ya ya ya ya ya." I don't believe she's actually saying mom and dad and if she's anything like Gavin, she won't until 18 months or so :-) Gavin loves to listen to her jabber and always laughs when she does. He is constantly trying to get her to say "Ga Ga Ga" for Gavin. She hasn't yet, but I'm sure she will soon. 

Lucy adores Gavin. She follows him everywhere and will start to cry when he leaves the room (although lots of times he will turn off the light and close the door, that might be why she cries too). 

Lucy still isn't the greatest sleeper. We had one glorious week of her sleeping from 8pm to 9:30am. Sadly though she's back to waking up at least twice during the night. We're not sure exactly why, she almost never needs a bottle. She just starts to cry. It's frustrating and we hope she'll grow out of it soon. Her naps are great! She usually naps from about 12:30 to around 4 and will take a small little snooze again around 5. Bedtime is 8 and she does really well! Now if she would only sleep through the night..

Lucy will always let you know she's there. She's become a little more quiet in the last couple of months, (not all the time, sometimes she really loud) especially when compared to her first 4 months of life. But even when she is happily and quietly playing in her high chair, carseat, or just on the floor, she makes her little cooing noise. It is so cute. It's just a little "hmm hmm hmm" but you will know she's there. Gavin calls her a "pidgeon and a goat" and it makes us laugh because she really does sound like that! Her smiles are just a little bit reserved. If a stranger, or even me and Blair sometimes, try to get her to smile she will give a little grin and then proceed to bury her face in whatever is nearby. It's adorable but also a little sad because when you can catch it, she has the most adorable smile!

If her smiles are reserved then her laughs are very rare. She'll give a polite little laugh more often, but her real, deep, adorable belly laugh only comes on rare occasions. Gavin can get them and Blair can too, but only at very specific times. I wish she would do it more because it is seriously infectious. We all start laughing when she does! This is back in July - Lucy was 5 months. Since then we haven't gotten a great video of her laugh but it is even cuter now!

Lucy has had two teeth for 3 months now. They both came in at 4 1/2 to 5 months and we really expected she would have at least one more by now. Nope. She is adorable with her two little teeth and you get a clear shot of them when she smiles big -

She doesn't care for bum changes and she outright dislikes getting her clothes changed! She has become quite the escape artist, she even takes the diaper with her -

There are times when she is just too cute for words, and others when she very much needs a nap! Even her cry is cute, at least to us :-) Her whole face and body seem to cry when she cries, but they also smile when she smiles. She has beautiful blue eyes and very chubby thighs. She is learning to use her hands very well and it's fun to see her improve with that each day. She has had issues with stranger danger in the past and that has, thankfully, improved a lot in the last little while. When Lucy gets cranky and wants to be held she will plop herself at our feet, she will move when we move, and will fuss until she gets picked up. It works every time! Lucy has almost completely stopped falling asleep on us, and the times when she snuggles are few and far between. We cherish them because when she does decide to snuggle there is nothing better! Her favorite people are Gavin and Blair, she lights up every single  time she see's them, always. Her favorite baby food, besides the plain oatmeal, is green beans. She is very much attached to her binky (sigh). She loves being in the car, thank goodness! She actually gets a little bit excited when she see's her carseat coming out, it is so cute! We love watching her interact with her cousins. She is the oldest of the four babies who came within three months of eachother, and when she is around them it's kind of like she forgets she's a baby. They're all babies, but all the sudden she is very grown up :-)

 Here are three of the four babies and the cousin who is about a year older than them all. It is so much fun!

It's hard to think how close she is to being a year old, the time has gone by so fast. We love this sweet girl so much! We are so grateful to have her in our family!