She takes her eating seriously

Lucy prefers to feed herself, which means that mealtimes frequently end up looking like this:

Never one to waste food (we do live in Eugene, after all), if Lucy doesn't have space for it in her mouth then she makes sure it finds a nice home somewhere else on her face.

It's hard work, but somebaby has to do it. Lucy feels she's up for the task.

And in other news, my dining room table has turned into a veritable garden. With nowhere else to put my plants, they usually end up sitting on our table until it's sunny enough to put them outside. That's Thyme and Oregano in front, sunflowers from Rachel in the middle, and Basil in the back. I love the colors of summer!

Girls' Weekend

Lydia, Rachel and Hope came to visit us this past weekend and we had a blast showing them around Eugene. We went to the usual spots: 5th street market, shopping, Trader Joes, plus we got to try out a few new places which is always fun. We went to the Wandering Goat coffee shop for the first time which had amazing coffee, and we went for a walk down to the beautiful Rose Gardens (how did I not know those were there??). Plus we went out to eat at Belly restaurant (DELICIOUS) and on our last night Joel kindly stayed at home with the sleeping kiddos while us girls went out to The Rabbit for drinks and then over to Market of Choice for dessert. I was too busy having a ball with the girls to take many pictures, but here are a few....

Lydia wandering around Market of Choice



and Rachel:



Pretty Rachel out on the town:



Hope hiding behind her own Nikon

The four of us at the Rabbit:

Lydia and I:

Rachel and Hope:

We also spent a fair bit of time at our apartment hanging out with the babies. Here's Hope's kiddo, Brody (isn't he a cutie?):

Brody and Lucy had a hard time sharing. If one of them had a bottle (or a paci or a toy) then the other would work hard to take it from them. There were quite a few tug of war sessions which were hilarious to watch.

Brody got a rice cracker which Lucy succeeded in yanking away from him. Naturally it crumbled all over the floor and the two of them had at it trying to get as much of it off the floor and into their mouths as possible.

I miss those girls already, but it was so much fun getting to catch up and show them Eugene!

Unrequited Love

Whiskey never had much interest in Lucy. But now that our baby crawls, kitty's attitude toward her has gone from vague disinterest to utter loathing.

When Lucy sees Whiskey, her first response is to squeal in delight. If she's in my arms, she starts kicking her legs and flapping her arms in an attempt to project herself onto Whiskey. If Lucy's on the floor, she makes a beeline for the cat.

Her petting is not gentle. It also doesn't help that the most coveted portion of kitty kitty is her whiskers. Whiskey rues the day God made her whiskers so irresistible to infant fingers.

So now the only time that Whiskey lets Lucy within three feet of her is when a wall of glass separates them. Even then, she likes to pretend like Lucy isn't there.

Lucy starts off with a wave. Usually in the grocery store this attracts anyone in the near vicinity to her like a magnet. But with Whiskey? Nothing.

Then Lucy crawls up to Whiskey and taps on the glass. Kitty kitty? Whiskey pretends there is something infinitely interesting on the floor.

Lastly Lucy pulls out all the stops. She gets up onto her knees. It's a big accomplishment for her and one that usually evokes oohs and aahs from her audience.

But Whiskey will have none of it. Maybe she thinks that if she ignores the problem then it will just disappear. Maybe she's plotting a great revenge (probably not). Maybe she's just bitter. Will we ever know? Probably not.

Hysterical Laughter

Lucy loves to laugh at me. I guess I do a lot of silly things throughout the day that she finds comical. But for some reason tonight I was particularly hysterical. Here she is laughing at my crazy dance moves (which, to spare you all, I did not include in the video).

Thing One and Thing Two

Take a close look at that first picture. See that white speck on her bottom gum?? Yep, that's tooth number one! (If you look even closer you can see the very beginnings of tooth number two to the left of number one).



Lucy is pretty proud of herself. She's also proud of the fact that she figured out how to rest her head on her highchair.

5 minute makeover

When I was in Moscow a few weeks ago I picked up this painting at the Salvation Army for 50 cents.



It's a replica of an 18th century painting by Canaletto. And it was so cheap that I just had to grab it. When I got home I went to our nearby Goodwill (it's actually titled a Goodwill Superstore, and for good reason, the place is MASSIVE) and found this framed painting.

Sorry, my computer refused to rotate the picture. The artwork is kinda dated, but the frame was perfect, and it was a mere $6.99.




So I brought it home, took out the old artwork, popped in my Canaletto painting, sanded the edges to make it more shabby chic (and remove some ugly yellow paint stains), and voila!

We now have a new piece of artwork for our bedroom. And I had just the wall to put it on.

Gotta love $7.50 art!

(PS- I'm pretty sure that painting was once in a calendar or art book or something because the back of it had a whole spiel about the author. Just goes to show you can make art from pretty much anything!)

4 Years

Today marks four years of marriage to the love of my life, Joel. Four crazy, incredible, blessed years. We've come so far together and I can't wait to see what lies ahead. Here's to forty more.

Astoria

Okay we're almost completely caught up with pictures and posts of where we've been this past month! After Lucy and my fun trip to Moscow we flew to Portland where Joel picked us up and we drove to the seaside town of Astoria. Joel had an audit in a neighboring town and Moss Adams kindly put us up at the Hotel Elliott in downtown Astoria. Can I just say, if you're visiting Astoria you have to stay there? It was plush. Everything was fabulous: from the warming floor tiles in the bathroom (oh, and the jacuzzi bathtub) to the cushy robes and slippers, the massive tv in the bedroom (which I watched a fair bit of while Lucy napped during the day) and a yummy complimentary breakfast.

During the days Joel headed off to work and Lucy and I wandered around downtown Astoria and had a great time browsing stores, walking along the wharf, and trying out different restaurants.











Okay I have to jump in here and say that the restaurant below (yes it's a walk-up fish and chips stand), was INCREDIBLE. It may even have beat steelhead brewery with their fish and chips (and it certainly was a good deal less expensive). It was a pretty long line to get my food but oh so worth it. They only serve one thing, but they serve it well.



The Hotel Elliott had a cute little rooftop garden that I took these next two pictures from:




Lucy was a trooper in the stroller while I walked around town:




The rooftop garden:

Lucy Crawls

Look out world, our baby is crawling!

Moscow in May

Lucy and I took a trip up to Moscow a few weeks ago to see my parents and sister and nephew. Despite a rather nasty (but thankfully quick) round of the stomach flu, we had a fantastic time. Unfortunately I didn't think to bring my camera's battery charger so I only have a few pictures from the first few days we were there. But it was SO much fun to see my family again!

David's impish smile:

Papa and Nana:

This, I believe, is called cousins learning to share:

Lucy had a great time with Nana and Papa's toys:

My beautiful sister and the cute nephew:

David got some fabulous early birthday presents!

Some of which Lucy enjoyed as well:

I miss this cute face (and exclamations of "Nini!" whenever I walked in the room):

Joint feeding times: