Default VIP

I had the honors of being Jack's Very Important Person at school today.  Even if it was only by default, I was beyond touched that in the end he chose me.

His original choice was Lucy.  Which I find just as touching.  However, the logistics were challenging. VIP Day started at 7:45 am.  Lucy isn't even awake then, much less dressed and fed.  I explained this quandary to Jack and in his sweet big brother heart that excuse just wasn't jiving with him.  In his own words he explained he had chosen Maggie last year and this year he wanted Lucy.  No way around it.

I started to cave {but not out loud}.  I imagined Lucy rummaging through the room, causing a stir, being totally exhausted by noon and then...I imagined Jack's joy.  Okay, just maybe we can make this work.

But before I could mutter the words out loud I got the saving email.  The VIP committee requested that siblings not be chosen due to crowd control.  I read the email to Jack, his face fell, and by default  I became his new VIP.

I suggested we give someone else a chance to visit his room, since I am always in there.  I suggested Daddy, grandparents, neighbors, friends, but it was me that he wanted.  I can't say that I wasn't flattered.  My heart smiled a mile wide.  It feels good to be so loved.

So this morning I made an amazing accomplishment in that I got Jack ready and off to school and I followed close behind him dressed, with make up on,  and arrived on time ready to be a Very Important Person in Jack's life.

We started the event with a delish breakfast of doughnuts, bagels and juice.  We sat at his table, talked, read his journal, and enjoyed each others company.  I could see through his smile how happy he was that I was there by his side {sigh}.

Then each child introduced their VIP.  I know I'm his mommy, but can I just brag on this boy for a moment?  He did an awesome introduction, remembered everything he was supposed to say, and was very fluid in doing so.  I was mighty impressed with his public speaking skills and confidence.  Kudos to my boy!

His introduction included my name, my age, which he stated as 34 {I'll take it}, and my job.  I think he nailed my job right on the head..."my mommy's job is to cook dinner, play with me, and drive".  And then he followed it up with his favorite memory of me..."when we hug".  I almost had to pick my melting heart up off the floor.

Hugs are Jack and my go to when either one of us is having a tough time.  They work magically.

Being the default VIP certainly had it's perks.  I can't imagine any better way to start my day than with my very own VIP.

I love you monkey!  Thank you for loving me back with every ounce of your being {it shows}!

And please check out Jack's precious tee.  He had to dress up as his favorite Dr Seuss character {with all of our snow days events have started overlapping}.  Anyway we made this shirt with four pockets and put Wockets in them....There's a Wocket In My Pocket...so fun!

I Love Lucy: 18 Months

Lucy is 18 months old.  Officially a year and a half.  I held on to that 17 months as long as the calendar would let me.  It's a struggle to let go of those baby months and fully emerge myself into the toddler years.  And for more reasons than the obvious.

The obvious being she is my last.  Every first for her is a last for me.  I'm usually trying to wrap my mind around adding to our family when one of my littles hits this milestone.  This time, it's just not so.  We are done.  It looks like Lu will be our last baby.  And I am trying to soak up every minute of it absolutely every chance I get.

But the other struggle is while Lucy is becoming an independent toddler, well...she is becoming an  independent toddler.  While it is helpful in so many ways, it is also challenging in others.  Lucy has found new ways to assert herself, new ways to feed her ever hungry curiosity, and new ways to grow physically and mentally.  It is amazing to watch this personality, that is so unlike her siblings,  to bud and blossom.  

Lucy is busy, fun loving, almost always happy, curious, friendly, beautiful, loving, and the life of the family.  If I had to guess, I would say in 15 years, she may be voted "class clown".  She certainly keeps a smile on our faces and eats up every minute of it.

I think it only fair that I cut to the chase and get to what puts that smile there...

Eat

Lucy is still a great eater.  I have found her first two meals of the day are pretty heavy and by evening she tapers it off to almost nothing.

The most incredible thing about Lucy's eating habits though, is that she will try nearly anything.  And then completely surprise you with what she likes or wants "moh" {more} of.  Some of the more random foods include...sushi, burritos, egg salad, tuna salad, caesar salad, ranch dressing, and tomatoes.  I think she may be the "mikey" of the family.  I'm always trying to persuade the other two to try something new because "Lucy likes it".  They've quickly realized, Lucy likes just about anything.  My trick lost its novelty quickly.

Other than that, Lucy likes the staple kid foods.  Her favorites are bananas, cheese, peanut butter sandwiches, apples, grapes, crackers, pretzel fish, raspberries, watermelon, popsicles, dried fruit, and strawberries.  I'm pretty sure she would live off of those veggie/fruit squeezie pouches if I let her.  They are great to get her veggies in, because if you noticed up above, there were no veggies listed.  But, a girl can't live off squeezie pouches alone so we try to limit it to 1-2 per day.

She is now eating her regular three full meals plus two snack times.  We've added a morning snack with a bit of diluted juice because....you guessed it, Lucy has finally dropped her morning nap!

And that seems like a nice segway to...

Sleep

Lucy is still a great 12-13 hour night time sleeper.  I usually put her down right around 7:30 pm and go get her smiling face around 8:00 am.  Her bedtime ritual still consists of bath, book, and pjs.  And then we tack on a little lovey dovey snuggle time in there {because she is my last and all}.  Not much has changed there.

However, the big change has come with her naps.  I am happy {I think I'm happy anyway} to report Lucy has dropped her morning nap.  We teeter tottered with it for over a month and just when I would think she was ready to nix it she would start falling asleep again.  It was a painful few weeks.

But, somewhere in the middle of her 18th month we finally said goodbye to that a.m. snooze for good.  The biggest challenge has been getting Lucy to realize that her afternoon nap should therefore be longer.  We've had some evenings with a very overtired and fussy toddler due to not enough nap time.  I'm hoping she gets the hang of this one nap a day thing in the upcoming month.  This mama is getting worn out.

And while it has been an adjustment for all of us, it has happily lent itself to more activity time with Lucy!

Activity

Now for where my Lu is really budding.

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times...Lucy is busy.  Her busy in many ways remind me of Jack as a toddler, but she has upped the anti.  This girl is into everything.  My Lucy is a curious little critter. Add that she wants to do everything her bigs are doing and I am slap worn out putting my house back together behind her.

If there is a cabinet, she opens it.  If there is a toy box, she's in it. If there is a drawer, she's pulled everything out of it. If there are shoes in the closet, she's got them out. If there are books on the shelf she's pulled all of them down.  If there is garbage in the trash can, she's rooting through it.  You get the idea.  I'm sure you are tired just reading that {so imagine how I feel come days end}.

I know I'm her mama and all, but I have to attribute some of this curiosity and busyness to intelligence.  Lucy amazes me daily with what she can figure out and understand.  She can set the dinner table, put her shoes away, grab her coat, and practically make her own snack.  Yes, it all looks like a toddler's doings, but I can't help but be in awe of her independence.

She has an innate desire to be as big as her siblings.  And in so many ways it has served me well.  In others, it has scared the living begezzus out of me.  She is definitely not as cautious as the other two were.  I have to keep a close eye on her because if I don't she may plunge off a diving board or try to take off down the road on a bicycle.  Seriously.  But, it's all relative.  She's probably just a normal ol' toddler trying new things and I am comparing her to her over cautious siblings.  Time will tell.

Lucy's lovely little lips are busy too.  I bet you never would have guessed.  Now this I can handle though.  She loves to talk, babble, squeal, laugh and make just about any sound to get our attention.  It's pretty stinking cute {that is, unless she's mad}.  Her vocabulary is pretty impressive for an 18 month old.  Some of her words include ball, bye bye, ish {fish}, lala {elmo}, mama, dada, Jah {Jack}, Mah {Maggie}, GG, ammy {Grammy}, am-ma {Grandma}, woof woof {dog}, boo {her lovey}, moh {more}, nack {snack}, oohk {book}, bubbles, bah {bath}, fuh {flower}, up {cup}, baybeee {baby}, hi, up, nigh nigh, sit, chayr {chair}, yea {yes}, no, bow, shooz {shoes}, hat, booo {blue} and I'm pretty sure there are more.  {bare with me it's late tonight.}

Because this gal of mine likes to be on the move, I make a gallant effort to steer her energy in the right direction.  We still attend music class and gym class once a week.  I'm not sure which she likes more.  All I can tell is that she adores both.

Most recently we've added toddler story time at the library.  Oh my, my lovely Lu was beside herself with a room full of babies.  I think it is worth noting that my baby has a serious obsession with "baybeees".  It is absolutely darling to watch her infatuation.  She spends a lot of time around here looking at baby pictures, and lord knows we have plenty to look at.

When she's not looking at baby pictures here at the house I try all I can do to keep her productive as opposed to destructive.  If weather permits, she loves the trampoline and walks outside.  If we are indoors, of course she adores her baby dolls, puzzles, instruments, balls, reading, dancing, anything with Elmo, dressing up with Maggie, tackling Jack, and most often, chasing both of them around.

My all time favorite things are when she passes out hugs and kisses, initiates a game of chase, or continually repeats something that has made us all laugh {all the while with that precious smirk on her face}.

Lucy definitely keeps the party alive around here.  And I think it's fair to say, we all adore her for it.

Stats 

Lucy continues to grow!  I was thrilled when the doctor announced she was healthy {and intelligent} at her most recent well visit.  Here are her current stats:

Weight          25lbs 11oz          85th percentile
Height           32 1/2"               75th percentile

I'm still holding out hope that my girls will be taller than me....so far the stats are in my favor.

And that is my lovely Lu at a whopping year and a half old.  She does her best to wear me out and keep me young all at the same time.  I can't imagine a more fitting little personality for our family.

Lucy has a way of putting things into perspective...for me anyway.  She makes me laugh when I wouldn't have otherwise.  She loves on me just when I need it most.  And she intrigues all of us with her curiosity.

Lucy has brought an abundance of joy to this family and watching her emerge as a terrific toddler has only enhanced it.

We love you littlest Lu!  You will always be the cherry on top!

xoxo mommy

Great Wolf Lodge

We spent a long President's Day weekend at Great Wolf Lodge in North Carolina.  The timing couldn't have been better after being snowed in for nearly two weeks of the past month.  Of course, I had no idea this would be the case when I planned the trip back before Christmas.  But, I do love when things unexpectedly work out like that {and with 3, that rarely happens}.  It was the perfect cure for our brewing cabin fever.

The kids had the time of their life.  Seriously.  You would have thought we took them to Disney.  And in some ways it was a very scaled down Disney in the mountains...at a lodge.  I heard a lot of, "this is the best day of my life", "thank you for taking me here", and "when we come back....".  Needless to say, it was a raging success with all three of them.

The biggest attraction is most definitely the indoor water park.  It certainly felt a little odd to pack bathing suits in mid February, but the idea of getting wet in a warm pool was, oh so, exciting.  Naturally, that is the first part of the lodge we hit upon arrival.  This was quite possibly Jack's favorite part of the stay.  He got his money's worth riding giant slides and climbing through wet attractions.

The girl's enjoyed it as well.  But, as I suspected, Maggie wasn't too much of a dare devil.  She stayed nearby in the zero entrance kiddie area with Lucy.  And one would think that made for easy management on my end.  Not so...that Lucy is crazy.  She exhibited no fear of the water, which caused me great fear.  I can't wait to get that gal her infant survival swim lessons this spring.  I finally had to strap the littlest up in a life jacket and hope for the best.  Ironically, that gave her a whole new sense of security. And wouldn't you know, once robed in her life vest, that fearless Lucy was floating around and kicking as if she could swim.

Needless to say, I couldn't let Lu out of my sight for a minute.  And if you know Lucy, that is often easier said than done.

When we weren't soaking ourselves, we were enjoying the many other kid friendly features of the lodge.

We purchased the bigs each a Paw Pass which had a list of treats and activities to complete during their stay.  Besides the water park, I think they may have loved doing everything on their passes and most especially getting it marked off.  It definitely gave the vacation a sense of adventure and it saved us some money too.

At night the kids dressed in their PJ's and had story time in the lobby by the clock tower.  And each night a Great Wolf Lodge character would make an appearance.

One of the Paw Pass activities was making a build a bear character.  Jack chose Wiley Wolf and Maggie chose Violet.  The kid's pushed the pedal and watched their animals get stuffed and then they dressed them.  Of course, Maggie chose a pink and purple suit complete with a bow and Jack chose the "adventuring" ensemble for his.

While Jack wanted to spend most of his time in the water park, Maggie wanted to spend most of her time in the Cub Club doing art.  Clay and I decided a little divide and conquer was in order, so I took the girls to do art.  Luckily there were a few toys that were perfect for Lucy while Maggie very thoroughly decorated her jewelry box, among other things.

My least favorite part, but a huge hit with the kids, was the arcade and game room.  The kids got 50 points each with their Paw Passes.  I thought we would never get through those points.  Thankfully we did and each kid walked away with prizes.

I almost sobbed when Daddy won this lime green zebra for Maggie.  Really?, we have to take that home?  And since then Maggie has not separated from "Zeba" {suppose to be like Simba, so I'm told}.  I'm talking every car ride, every meal, and of course, bed time too.

Jack opted for lots of candy.  Not much better, but at least its consumable.

There was no complaint about nap time or bed time either, because our rooms were way too cute.  And super spacious too. The kids had bunks that were designed to look like an adventure camp site complete with nature themed murals.  Jack was in heaven....this is totally his thing right now.

We spent one evening at the mini bowling alley before hitting the pizza parlor.  It was a first for all three kids.  It was perfectly designed with mini bowling balls and alleys.  It was an excellent intro to the game.

Lucy played her part well as the distractor.  I had to redirect her energy several times and keep her from tackling the pins at the end of the alley.  She keeps me on my toes, but thankfully keeps a smile on my face while she is doing it.

There were no shortage of sweet treats at the lodge either.  This ice cream treat was included on the kid's Paw Passes too.

It was by the evening of night two that I realized we hadn't taken one family picture.  I made the kids take a break from all the excitement for one picture in front of the clock tower in the lobby.  Those sweet things didn't mind a bit {even as worn out as we all were}.

On our last day, Maggie had a spa day, while Daddy entertained Jack and Lucy for a few.  The Scoops Salon is extremely adorable.  The whole service was an ice cream theme, complete with ice cream lotion and soaks.  Maggie chose strawberry flavor.  Add a pink robe and a princess crown and Maggie was a pampered gal.

To wrap up our visit, the bigs finished a game of MagiQuest {which was an incredibly cool game that included a magic wand and running through the hotel finding light up paintings, treasure chests, etc}, while littlest Lu entertained herself for a very long time with this balloon.  Between the balloon and chasing her big brother and sister through the halls, she was fully content.

Enough so, that she actually fell asleep on the way home!  Let me just tell you, if you had ever traveled with Lucy, you would know how purely amazing that actually is.

It was truly a great mini vacation.  The kids are already begging to go back.

And now you see why the rented camera was a must, {although it was a bust}.  I clearly had no clue how to adjust some things and with no manual and very busy kids I really didn't have the chance to sort it out.  So we got lots of green pictures and a few blurry ones.  I will be so happy to pick my camera up from the repair shop...the call cannot come soon enough.  So...I guess you'll have to make the trip yourself to see what color the lodge and all it's happenings actually are.

And now, we are off to try to resume our normal life.  I'm looking forward to no snow, getting back to school, and unpacking suitcases.  Yay, for a little normalcy around here.

Celebrating Valentine's Day

We can find any excuse to celebrate around here.  And Valentine's Day is no exception.  Most especially after being on lock down for three days.  

We heated this place up with some cookie baking {pre-camera fatality}.  While I've lost one baker to old age and 'legos are more entertaining', I've gained another in Lucy. This was her first Love Day baking session and let's just say, we loved having her in the mix.

Lucy is a quick learner.  Or possibly unaware that she is two and a half years younger than her big sis.  Because whatever Maggie does...Lucy must do too.  This is one of the reasons we've had no problem getting a bow in this little one's hair.

Lucy is absolutely enamored with her big sister.  Nothing like a little love on this day of, well, love.  And what makes it even sweeter?...this little hug was not prompted by anyone.  {sigh}

After all the mixing, rolling and cutting, it was time for the good stuff.  Decorating runs a close second to the girl's favorite part of baking.

But, if I had to guess, eating the sweet treats would take first.  Yum!

When Valentine's Day arrived my littles awoke to their "We Love" doors.  I could have gone on forever and ever but I maxed them at 6.  I just adore seeing their sweet faces when they hear all the things we love about them.

This was Jack's door...I find the "do not enter" sign ironically amusing.

Maggie's door....

And Lulu's door...

Beaming, as they should, the kids headed downstairs to find Valentine baskets waiting for each of them in the kitchen.  I don't have any pictures, {that was before my rented camera}, and they have been excitedly ripped into by this point.  But, as you can imagine, Maggie's was filled with lots of princess loot, Jack's with animal goodies, and Lucy's with a coveted Elmo toothbrush among other things.

The best part for me was their sincere gratitude and all the ooey gooey loving that followed it.

When the ice cleared, for the most part anyway, Maggie and I headed out for her only day of school this week.  But, not before we made a quick stop to drop off our broken camera and rent another.  Before you judge, we have big plans this weekend, and the iphone wasn't going to cut it.

It was a happy day at school, being Valentine Party Day and all.  I was one of the party mom's and let me just tell you, my Maggie was glued to me.  She truly adores me as I do her.  She even thanked me after the party for letting her sit with on me during the game and story.  Sweet girl.

Maggie enjoyed a red snack, heart art work, and a game of Valentine Bingo that I ran.  And wouldn't you know, Maggie's favorite part was the game.  See I told you she loved me.

{I tested out my newly rented camera {it's a beaut}, but I really have very little clue how to use it.}

So that wraps up our lovely day.  I am really looking forward to this weekend.  I couldn't have planned the timing better if I tried...this family of ours has got some serious cabin fever.

Until then...

xoxo and Happy Valentine's Day!

Ice Day

If you are in these parts, I hope you've all enjoyed your ice day or should I say, "days".  It looks like we have three solid days of school canceled, add a President's Day weekend holiday in there and my kids just might be crawling the walls before I know it.

My bag of tricks is running low.  I did, however, get them out yesterday while the roads allowed it.  Daddy handled shift one and took Jack to see The Lego Movie while the girls napped.  Then I followed that up with taking my princess Maggie to see Frozen {yes, again}.  It was the Sing Along version this time though.  {That's how I rationalized it anyway.} Maggie dressed the part...princess apparel and all.  By the time we left the theater the temperatures were most definitely frigid.

And that brings us to today...the real ice day.  We've been inside for the majority of our waking hours.  So far, so good.  Tomorrow {day 2} will be the test of how well my walls can withstand 3 cabin fevered kiddos {and more than likely, two parents as well}.

And speaking of walls, I managed to get three giant pictures of Lucy's walking session hung today on the office walls.  Love them.  It seems an ice day has productive perks.

And although, I did love seeing my new pictures up on display, my favorite part of the day was playing a game of Poppa's Pizza Topple with Rapunzel.  Who can say they did that in an ice storm?

To curb any restlessness that may have been on the horizon, Daddy organized an indoor game of baseball with Jack in the basement.  Yes, those french doors are still miraculously intact.

Post naps, the girl's decided to brave the elements and head outside for a bit.  I just didn't think I had it in me.  It was sleeting, after all.  So Daddy took them out and I grabbed the camera and hung at the cozy front door.

Except for...I dropped my camera on the mudroom tile floor and now it won't work.  I am beyond devastated {enough said}.  So these are from my iphone.

This may be all I've got for a few, unless I get to a repair shop pronto {which isn't looking like it's going to happen}.  We still have power though, so I suppose I'll go count my blessings.