Lucy's Spring

Playing Outside

Lucy is really into baseball. She wants to play (or at least bat for a few minutes) almost every time she goes outside.

She also likes to throw dirt from her dust pile.

First trip to the zoo
Lucy wasn't interested in the animals, but she found other things to enjoy. She cried when we left and repeatedly ask to return to the zoo. She has since informed us that she's going to the zoo to see animals when we've gotten in the car.

The Zoo Map

The Playgrounds

An African Drum

Gaming
She has tried Candy Land and a few other games. Recently, she's been excited about some German preschool games that Matt and I have picked up through the years. She wants to play them every night before bed.

Reading game instructions like Daddy does

Playing her own version of Pandabo

Games are fun!

Some of her new skills & other developments
She has counted up to eighteen. Fourteen and fifteen are sometimes slurred or omitted. She counts all the time. I've wondered if it's becoming a comfort mechanism for her.

She tried a different, less buoyant flotation device in the pool and liked it. She had to kick more and work harder to keep the water out of her face, but she did very well. She started blowing bubbles to keep the water out of her mouth, exactly what swimmers do.

She has some new phrases. She likes to tell people to sit next to her or come with her. She likes to talk about things that are the same or requests that things happen at the same time. She also keeps saying "three and a half" while gesturing with her hands, but I'm not sure she knows what it means. She talks about things happening every day or all night, even if they don't occur then. She used the word "first" when listing a sequence of events. She's big into talking about how to do things: how to get ready to swim or how to change a poopy diaper.

She is discovering manners! For a few weeks, she's been saying "sorry." She says "sorry, mommy" about things that she shouldn't feel sorry about. It sometimes sounds really pitiful, as if I'm going to beat her if she doesn't constantly apologize. And she doesn't always apologize for things that she should apologize for, such as pinching me. But it's a start. And then a week ago she spontaneously said "please." She asked for a sip of an Icee, and Matt didn't respond immediately, so she asked again with a "please" and immediately got Icee. The reinforcement worked because she has said it again since then. And she threw in a thank you the other day. For several days in a row, when I got her out of her booster seat after breakfast, she threw her arms around me and said, "Thank you, mommy." I nearly cried the first time she said it. I told Matt that I think I've been waiting since her conception to hear her say that. Pregnancy and infancy are demanding and thankless times. It gets better when the child can show interest in you and even better when they show affection, but appreciation is fantastic!  She's saying "please" and "thank you" more and more all the time. Yesterday she said "thank you" to a waiter who brought something to our table. She's talking politely to strangers! And later that day she said, "Me drink Coke, please." (It sounded more like "me drink cold pee," so it took me a second to figure out what she said. When I told her we didn't have any Coke, she said, "Me drink orange ice, please." Politeness twice in a row even when disappointed that her first request was not granted! We find this very exciting.

She is also saying her name now. She said it a time or two around Christmas, but we haven't been able to get her to say it more. Last week, Matt was looking for something to watch on TV, and Lucy saw an image of Last Week Tonight and said "John Oliver," the host's name. We knew she liked the theme song, but we didn't know she knew the host's name. So Matt used that as a teachable moment to let her know that her last name was Oliver, too. She seemed a little dubious, but she said "Lucy Oliver" a few times. Next, she started calling the Little People figure that represents her "Lucy." And a few days later, she said "Knock, knock." (There were knock-knock jokes on an episode of Martha Speaks.) I said, "Who's there?" And she said "Lucy!" It sounds more like Yoo-See, but she said it. It was no joke. She has already improved her pronunciation. I think she even told a man at Kroger asked her name a few days ago. The next step is to get her to introduce herself or answer with her name when someone asks.

I asked her the other day where baby Emmie was, and she tapped my knee and said, "Your leg." Well, at least she was getting the idea that Emmie is inside me. Since then she was sitting next to me on the couch when Emmie started kicking and I started rubbing my belly. Lucy said, "Mama, no rub baby Emmie!" I said, "Do you want to rub her?" "NO!" "Well, she wants to be rubbed, so I'm going to rub her" was my response. It was a first indication of some possible jealousy, but it also showed she's figured out where Emmie is.

The pediatrician told us to expect some regression with a new baby coming. Lucy currently likes to be cradled like a baby, which we are happy to do when we cuddle with her. Last week she tried to get me to feed her from a sports bottle as if it were a baby bottle. I resisted that. She's already rediscovered pacifiers and bottle nipples as chew toys. I've finally gotten the nursery rearranged and the cradle into the room. Lucy finds it fascinating and disturbing at the same time. I found her in the cradle one morning. She hasn't done that again. She likes to rock the cradle, and she's getting better at doing it gently.

She still talks about baby Emmie and how they're going to play "sock ball" (soccer) together. She knows that the Winnie the Pooh diapers are for baby Emmie, not for her, which she is happy about because she's still an Elmo diaper girl. We've had to go back to "dog diapers" (Huggies) sometimes because we ran out of Elmo diapers. I bought some more for bedtime because they really are more absorbent, but during the day she wears whatever else we have. We just don't tell her that we're putting something else on her. She has seen a different diaper on herself once or twice and protested, but she didn't throw the same kind of fit that she used to. And we've moved Lucy's car seat from the middle of the back seat to one side so that Emmie's seat can go in the middle. I asked Lucy if she would like for Emmie to sit next to her in the blue car and got an enthusiastic YES! Overall, she's pro-Emmie.

However, she's anti-potty right now. We're not pushing it. I'm hoping that not caring about the Elmo diapers as much means that she'll be able to let go of them as part of her identity and go ahead and potty train in the nearish future. I did get her a couple of pairs of training pants that have a wetness barrier built in. They don't provide complete protection against accidents, but they would buy us a little time if the she catches herself before flooding the training pants. I also got a washable cover for her car seat so that we don't have to take the car seat apart to wash it every time she has an accident.

In general, Lucy is in a delightful phase right now. She is learning and imaginative and thoughtful and becoming polite. She has off times that are not as delightful, but those are the exception.