The perils of nature

Lucy and I went on a little nature walk this morning, and along the way we picked up a snail shell that looked like it had recently lost its snail. As in we looked inside of it and it was empty, and the shell was cracked, so it had somehow met a very sad end.

So we brought it inside (Lucy's request) and set it on the table to admire while we ate lunch (during which time it continued to be dead). Then it was nap time and I put Lucy down and spent a healthy hour stripping wallpaper out of our downstairs bathroom. When I finished I went back into the kitchen to find this.

I'll be honest, it gave me the creeps, partially because that's MY water glass, but more so because when you think something's dead, you don't expect it to head towards a water source when your back is turned. Perhaps I shall suggest to Lucy that we name it Lazarus when she wakes up. 

Speaking of Lucy, here's a couple baby child shots. The first is what a typical post-spaghetti face looks like:

Probably due to the fact that Lucy *always* chooses meals as the prime time to play peek-a-boo. Crazy child.

And then we have story time with dada, one of Lucy's favorite activities. She's currently obsessed with the cat in the hat, which I can almost repeat from memory now. 

East Coast Cousin Time

(Anyone catch the title pun? Yes, we're a bit jet-lagged right now)

Lucy, Mom and I just got back from a fabulous trip to Princeton, NJ to visit family. My brother-in-law Davey is getting his doctorate at Princeton and my sister Kate just had her second son, William.

With a newborn, 1 year old and 2 year old in the mix, we intentionally had zero expectations for doing anything while we were there, which made the week really relaxing and enjoyable. We spent most of our days hanging out watching the kiddos play, taking small trips into the town and campus, and eating lots of wonderful food.

I also took about a thousand pictures.

For me, one of the best parts of the trip was watching Lucy bond with her cousin David. Here's some of the fun they had together.

Naturally, a good portion of their time together they spent playing in the dirt, which resulted in some very dirty faces:

Then there was bedtime story-reading with Davey:

And pool time when the weather hit 85 degrees.

Princeton campus has the cutest children's library, complete with a tree-house that was just the perfect size for them:

They loved exploring the campus together

And when Lucy got tired David pushed her in the stroller

Of course, one of the biggest reasons we flew to Princeton was to see the newest little cousin. And while he couldn't take part in the older cousin's adventures, Lucy did enjoy meeting "baby Wi" and handing his mom his pacifier.

Will spent a good portion of the visit doing this:

And occasionally we even got a smile out of him! I love those newborn grins!

Dancing and Muffins

Lucy decided to skip naptime today in favor of dancing. She's learning some pretty impressive moves! You may want to skip the first 20 seconds in which Lucy attempts an exercise in futility.

In other completely unrelated news, I've been on a bit of a muffin baking spree. I love making something that's quick, healthy, and fun for Lucy to snack on. Obviously not all muffins are healthy, but that's why I've been working on finding recipes that have less fat, more whole wheat, plus extra special ingredients like flaxseed. Today Lu and I are baking up a batch of these muffins. A few weeks ago I decided to try making up my own recipe, and they turned out delicious!

2/3c. Sugar

1/4 c. flaxseed

2 c. whole wheat flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1 (6 or 8 oz) container strawberry yogurt

3/4 c. fat free milk

2 T canola oil

1 t. vanilla

1 egg, beaten

some strawberries. I actually can't remember how many I used. Maybe 4?

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix flour, sugar, flaxseed, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Make a well. Combine yogurt and next 5 ingredients Add to flour well, stir just until moist.

Spoon into 12 muffin cups, sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes.

We've Moved!

There is a perfectly good reason for my internet silence, over the past few weeks we've been on a grand adventure trying to move into our new house! The adventure part was that we had to move out of our old place before we could move into our new one. So we stayed with some very gracious friends, and while we were there, on my birthday to be exact, it snowed! It's not all that unusual to have a bit of snow here and there in Eugene, but it usually never sticks, and it certainly never accumulates the way it did that day!

Lucy had a grand time (for about 10 minutes) and since I had packed any snow clothing away that I might have had, we used our friend's grandkids' clothing. We think she looks a bit like the Michelin tire man.

Isn't she cute?

I will post pictures of our new place at some point. We bought a foreclosure at a great price, and consequently there is loads of remodeling we want to do. Horrible wallpaper that needs to go, walls that need tearing down, ugly fixtures that need replacing, etc! But we're very excited to do all that stuff, and post our progress as we go!

And the rain rain rain came down down down

Yep, it's definitely spring in Eugene. But nothing brightens up those rainy days quite like a posh, polka-dot raincoat (thanks Grandma Sunny and Grandpa Howard!).

And we mustn't forget our wellies, perfect for tromping through the sodden grass

Lucy has kept very busy "gardening" in our back yard when it's not too rainy:

And, if I'm really good, she'll pause for a moment so I can capture those bright, blue eyes:

February Adventures

Felis catus stalks the wild leaf

Blue hinge on a grey day:

Searching for our next adventure (prey?):

Galoshes galumphing:

Aha! A graveyard of hazelnut shells.

How many can our little hands hold?

Voodoo magic

Perhaps watching The Princess and the Frog with Lucy was a bad idea. She's been acting awfully weird recently.... I mean, just look at this face.

And I'm pretty sure she was trying to use some voodoo magic on dada here. Perhaps in an effort to get more milk? Or at least, some clothing.

Either way it was enough to send this cat up a tree.

Mad Skillz

Someone in our family recently discovered a new skill:

And I thought my child couldn't get any cuter.

Now that she knows how to look between her legs, she takes every opportunity to stick that adorable derriere skyward. I just keep my camera handy at all times because if I leave her alone for two seconds, this is what I find when I return:

So much fun being a baby!

Things we are grateful for:

Baby pushing a basket around her room filled with an irritated but stubborn cat.

Backyard adventures on a sunny day in February

These eyes:

Laughter and squeals as she's thrown up in the air:

Holiday Cheer

One of Lucy's favorite things to do is sit in my lap or dada's lap and look at books. She has to be in control of the page turning and how long is spent examining each page, of course. She'll stare for a while in silence at a page and then point with one chubby finger at something on the page and exclaim "AH?" which we interpret as, "What is that?" Then we give her the word: "cat" or "banana" or "house." She takes a while to digest this word before moving on to another object on the page. "AH?"



For Christmas Joel and I got her this rocking horse:

It sings and rocks and she is slowly learning to love it. We decided to give it to her early since we're driving to Santa Cruz for Christmas this year and there's no way that was coming in the car with us.

I think she looks pretty adorable on it. Especially in her little girly outfit. So cute!