Lucy & Max's Blog

Love Bugs

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:03:35 -0800

I got really into Valentine's Day this year. I think it is such a fun holiday to celebrate with the kids because there are so many cute crafts and decorations. We invited some of our friends over for a little Valentine's play date, and we had a blast. It was a little chaotic, but in a really good way. I think all of the kids had fun, and I know us moms did. I think I may have to make this a tradition.

White Christmas

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:31:08 -0800

For the past couple of years, I really have been dreaming of a white Christmas, and I was so excited to be able to take my little family home! I love all the little traditions we still have from when I was growing up. We love going to Brian and Michelle's house on Christmas Eve with the Stringer family and all sitting around the tree and exchanging gifts. I loved waking up to snow outside on Christmas morning and sharing Lucy and Scarlett's excitement with my family. I loved having our extended family all together for Christmas dinner. There really is no place like home, and I didn't even mind the frigid temperatures. Of course, we missed our family that wasn't there, but we are sadl used to always missing someone.

The highlight of Christmas morning for Lucy was certainly Santa's delivery of her Barney doll. She has never been very into stuffed creatures, but she loves him! She talks to him and feeds him and puts him to sleep. I love spying on her to listen to the funny things she tells him. She was initially very excited by his teeth and the fact that she can kind of put things in his mouth. The only thing she ever specifically asked for was blue bubble gum. If Santa was smart, he would have spent $15 on Barney and the bubble gum and called it a day.

Scarlett was adorable to watch. Poor thing was sick the entire time we were gone, but she was still rather delightful. She loved pretty much everything she got, and was also a big fan of Barney. It really was amazing to just be a part of their Christmas day.

AZ Christmas

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:11:46 -0800

Since we were actually able to go to CO for Christmas this year, we celebrated at home before we left too. We woke up and acted like it was Christmas morning and opened all the nice gifts our out-of-town family sent as well as our big gift to the girls, a little retro kitchen. Lucy was way into it and we really had a good time. Thanks everyone!

A Day at the Park

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:05:07 -0800

I had a cute little birthday party planned for Scarlett at our house the evening after her birthday. Of course, Lucy had to break out in a rash that looked like it might be the chicken pox or something contagious and the party had to be canceled. Poor Scarlett. Since it was the week before Christmas, Steve was still finishing finals and starting a new job, and we were getting ready to go to CO, I was having an impossible time trying to figure out when to reschedule her party. So, I ended up just inviting the moms and babes to the park for cupcakes and juice boxes. It was really fun! It was low-key, low-maintenance, and the truth is that the kids probably had a better time playing on the playground and digging in the sand than they ever would have crammed into our house. I may just have to make this a tradition. Without Steve there, I didn't get as many pictures of all the kids as I would have liked, but here are a few of Scarlett inhaling a cupcake.

happy birthday, dear scarlett.

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:38:40 -0800

it is hard to believe that it has been a year since the first sweater palooza, one of the most significant nights of 2008. i remember clearly being dressed in my ugly Christmas sweater as my friends began timing my contractions and insisting that i leave the party. after 20 hours of labor and inevitably a c-section, i met her. scarlett was round and beautiful. my first thought was, "is that BIG baby really mine?" i am so indescribably happy that she is!

Scarlett has brought so much to our family. she is simply joyful, effortlessly funny, and impossible to resist. i love her more than i thought possible. i had worried there wasn't enough love to go around, but somehow she has been the catalyst that has caused my capacity to love to expand. i love her every bit as much as i love lucy, and i love lucy more because of her. she is a special little spirit and i don't know how i could possibly be worthy to call her my own.

some of my favorite scarlett-isms...

-her kisses. she has been giving them to me as long as i can remember. they are wet, and slobbery, and always a highlight of my day.

-her toddling. she has been walking for a couple months now and it is stinking cute. she gets a little tipsy when she is too excited and it is the best.

-her mischievous streak. if she knows i have caught her doing something naughty, she doesn't show remorse; she runs. the running is usually accompanied by shrieks and giggles and comes to a halt when she learns that hard way that she can't actually run through solid objects.

-her love of soft and cuddly things. she practically dives into her bed to go to sleep because her blanky and kitty cat are there. she also loves babies--real and dolls. just today, i had to leave the sunday school room with her because she was making a high-pitched "I want that!" squeal at a baby in the row behind us (the same noise she makes when she sees Grandma's cat).

-the way she looks up to lucy. i love it when they make each other laugh. i don't always know who laughs first, but the other one thinks the giggling is funny and they often end up laughing hysterically right in each others faces.

-her impressive vocabulary. i know you don't believe me, but i swear this baby talks. some words and phrases she says for sure are: hi daddy/sissy, go down, all done, more please, no, oh, mommy/mama/mom, kitty cat, happy, baby, milk, ok, kisses, open...

happy birthday to my sweet little baby. we are so happy you are ours.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:05:31 -0800

I LOVE Christmas! Seriously, I can't get enough of the decorations, Christmas tunes, shopping, the special feeling in the air...everything. We put up our tree and other decorations the day after Thanksgiving. Lucy loved helping. I just gave her a box of unbreakable ornaments and let her go to town on the bottom of the tree. For the rest of the day she kept sweetly telling me that she had fun with the decorations. I love seeing the excitement in her pretty blue eyes. Scarlett loves all the decorations too, but obviously doesn't understand any of it. I have been pleasantly surprised at how quickly the fascination with crawling under the tree has faded, but I thought it was cute while it lasted.

An Attitude of Gratitude (a couple days late)

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:52:14 -0800

We had a fun Thanksgiving this year with the Cook side of the family (even though I only got a few mediocre pictures), but we really missed the rest of our family. We have so much to be thankful for. It is way too easy to get caught up in what we are working towards, what we hope or plan to have, and what we don't have. I am guilty of this, but I am truly grateful for what I have.

I am thankful to be a mom to my 3 sweet babies. I love being a mom more than I can adequately express. I love spending every day with Lucy and Scarlett. I am thankful for the way they make me want to be a better person and how their happiness is contagious. I am grateful for miracles. I am thankful for Lucy's incredible progress and the therapist and doctors that help facilitate that. I am thankful for the gospel and for answered prayers. I am thankful for Steve. I am grateful for his intelligence and his diligence. I am thankful that he is such a loving and attentive daddy and that he works so hard to take care of us. I am grateful that we were born into supportive families, and given the opportunity to pursue educations at good schools. I am thankful for all that our parents, siblings, and extended family members do to support us and lift us up. I am thankful for my nice house, and that we always have the things we need and so much more. I am grateful that house is in a ward that feels like home. I am thankful for the incredible friends we have made here and how they have helped me through tough times. I am thankful for the friends I don't get to see nearly enough. I am thankful to be an American and for those who so bravely protect my freedoms. I am thankful for my savior and for the knowledge that there is more to our existence than this earthly life. I am thankful that families are forever.

11 months

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:55:09 -0800

I don't even want to type 11 months. I pretty much don't believe my little babe is that old. She continues to be just delightful every day of her sweet life. This past month she has become a serious walker. She walks all over the place and seems to be working on speed now. We call her "franken-baby" because she often toddles around with her little hands out in front of her. She talks now too. She tries to say lots of things in English and Swedish. It will be a not-so-lucky day for me when my little girls start having secret Swedish convos and I can't keep up. I love it.

Oh yeah, and her feet are too fat to shove into most of the shoes we have around here. Do I see specially made Berkenstalks in her future? I sure hope not.

The pictures are from a couple of weeks ago when I tried to round brush her hair into a little bob. Stay tuned for pictures of her upcoming first trip to the salon.

i LOVE halloween

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:55:35 -0800

Now that I have my own kids, I think the Halloween season is serious fun. It seemed like Halloween went on and on this year because we got the girls all dressed up 4 different times--for our ward party, FBC party, an activity night at the therapy clinic, and Halloween night. Lucy ended up loving her Tinkerbell costume, and she espeically loved wearing make-up. She looked so pretty. Scarlett was the cutest, jolliest little bumble bee I have ever seen.

When it was actually Halloween day, we made pumpkin flavored and shaped pancakes for breakfast, attempted to carve pumpkins (Lucy was just getting upset because she wanted to cut the pumpkin by herself with scissors), we then got dressed up to go visit GG and Papa. Afterwards we went to the Halloween party in Steve's parents' neighborhood, which was very fun. We topped the night off with some fabulous trick-or-treating with our friends, the Theurers. Lucy loved walking up to the houses, saying "trick ot treat,' and "thank you." She loved the candy too. I seriously underestimated the bargaining power of one M&M.

I can't wait to do it all again next year.

Fragile

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:22:39 -0700

We had a bit of a scare a few weeks ago. I was asleep on Lucy's floor by her bed, and I woke up to her dry heaving, shivering, and having a hard time focusing. We thought maybe she had the flu or was possibly having increased cranial pressure. I got dressed and drove her to Phoenix Children's Hospital. She was able to converse with me in the car, but right when we got to the hospital, she became unresponsive and started losing the color in her face and turning blue. As soon as they saw her in the ER, they were calling for doctors and nurses to come. They told me to lay her down and take off her dress. i was expecting her to freak out and cry, but she didn't. She was just lying there while they took blood, started an IV, and started her on oxygen (her O2 sats were in the 70s).

It turns out that she was having a seizure. It was terrifying. I was suprisingly calm because I knew that they needed her medical history, and I knew that I needed to focus and give them as much information as I could so they would know how to help her. They gave her medication to stop the seizure and she responded very well to just one dose. An MRI showed no increased pressure in her brain, and her EEG showed no epileptic activity. She did have a fever afterwards at the hospital, so we are hoping that was the trigger and this won't be something that happens very frequently, if ever again.

This seriously threw me off my game. It made me feel fragile, like this thing--these people--that I love so much can just break without warning. It was a rude reminder that we are not invincible, that in an instant it could all change or be taken away, that every moment with my sweet babies is truly a gift. You would think I would know this by now. I guess I have known this, but it is easier to operate under the assumption that there are countless tomorrows. The thought of something happening to her is just more than I can handle, and I can handle a lot. It is incredible how much I love my these tiny people. They somehow are part of me, and I imagine I would not exist without them.

So, in addition to vowing to be a better mom and live more in the moment, we have had to make some changes around here. We bought a video monitor for nap time, and one of us always sleeps with her at night. We haven't figured out an ideal sleeping solution yet (at the moment Steve is asleep on her floor like he is most nights), but we are making it work. I am terrified to leave her alone for more than a few minutes. Every time I walk back into a room, I think to myself, "Please don't be laying lifeless on the floor." Happy thought, huh?

So far we have not had another incident. We are so thankful for that. I know that the Lord is active in our lives and that he made sure I was in her room that morning. I feel certain that I would not have heard her if I hadn't been, and I would not have checked on her for hours. I am unbelievable grateful, and I sing "You Are My Sunshine" to the girls before bed as more of a plea now...please don't take my sunshine away.