17 months old
Fri 05 Oct 2007
Lucy is a very fun girl to be around. Answering to the names of Lucinda, Lucy, Lulu, and Lu (but never Luce) she is like a sponge soaking up new information everyday. For instance yesterday we taught her to say ‘stop’ and she said it straight back! She is truly a joy to us and when she woke up crying last night Andrew and I argued over who was going to pick her up as we BOTH wanted to cuddle and comfort her! (I let Andrew cuddle her as he hadn’t seen her since he left for work in the morning) Here are some of the cool things she has learnt this month:
- Lucy did a farm jigsaw putting the animal pieces back into the right holes
- Lucy signs ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. She can put three signs together and say ‘more’ ‘food’ ‘please’
- She picks up specks of dirt, walks into the kitchen, opens the bin, throws in the dirt and then closes the bin
- She likes red wine but hates cream
- She gives kisses and blows them away
- She can colour in pictures with crayons (well she puts some squiggles on the page in the general direction of the picture!)
- Lucy is babbling quite a lot now and not just a home anymore
But the really awesome news this month is that Lucy was not sick! She did get a black eye when she fell over onto a windowsill but on the positive side there were no viruses in our house for a whole month!
Lucy can also pretend to be different animals! The two she has learnt so far are monkeys and elephants. Watch this video for a Lucy elephant!
Here are this month’s photos:
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New York (with Auntie Kat)
Always a curious girl Lulu was thrilled to be in the city riding in her pram as far forward as she could in order to take in as much as possible. Pointing at every dog we saw (there were many), craning her neck at skyscrapers and enjoying parks and museums. She particularly liked signing ‘lights’ around the city. One day we saw a police car stuck in traffic with its sirens on. Lucy saw the lights on the roof and signed ‘lights’. The policeman in the car thought she was waving to him so he waved back. Laughing, we all waved to him not letting him in on our little signer.
We visited lots of places including the NBC Store, MoMA, Hershey’s store, M&M’s store, Max Brenners and the Farmers Market in Union Square. However Lucy’s three favourite places were FAO Schwarz, The American Museum of Natural History and Central Park as detailed below.
FAO Schwarz. Have you seen the movie ‘Big’ where Tom Hanks plays chopsticks by jumping on an enormous piano in a toy store? This is the place. Lucy and Auntie Kat even had the chance to play on the piano! 3 floors of wall to wall toys so no imagination is required. We had a super fun time poking around the doll nursery, lego, games, soft animals and toddler books. Lucy got a sharpei dog called Fyodor! The highlight was dining at FAO Schweetz the in-house café stocked with lots of kid friendly menu items. Lucy had turkey and cheese ‘handwiches’ (sandwiches shaped as hands) whilst the rest of us had pleasant soups and sandwiches. But the really awesome part is dessert. Andrew and I (with a little help from Lu on the vanilla ice cream) had ‘The Volcano’. A solid chocolate volcano crater filled with ice cream, covered in whipped cream, surrounded by crushed oreos, waffle cones, m&ms and gummy bears. Then the waitress pours hot fudge sauce and hot butterscotch sauce over the volcano and erupts it open with a mini rake and knife. It was then served with extra sauces as well as warm marshmallow fluff.
Central Park. Central Park is a precious jewel in this big city and we walked here everyday. Lucy especially enjoyed the Hesksher playground complete with 4 different fountain areas for kids to get wet in. There were sandpits, swings, and slides. Auntie Kat took Lucy to the Central Park zoo where they saw polar bears, birds and monkeys. We also did a little bit of unsuccessful geocaching. We walked and walked, watched dogs and squirrels and just generally enjoyed being away from the noise of traffic.
American Museum of Natural History. This is a great museum for kids! We purchased tickets to the planetarium to see a star show called ‘Cosmic Collisions’. Lucy was pretty worried when the whole theatre went black but had a great time pointing at the ‘balls’ on the ceiling as planets went past. Lucy loved the dinosaur collection and ran around this room pointing and talking away. We could have stayed here all day but alas we had to make do with just a few hours.
Here are the NYC photos:
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Nanna and Grandpa visit
Having farewelled Auntie Kat in New York we arrived back in Wilmington to some new guests – Nanna and Grandpa. Lucy was a little wary at first but soon got to know her grandparents. She spent a lot of time with them playing in her swing and sandpit as well as reading books. We had a number of adventures together visiting the battleship USS North Carolina, Southport antique shops, Wrightsville beach and various restaurant locations around Wilmington.
Here are some photos:
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