Mama downloaded the pix in the reverse order...but I think you get the idea!
My 1st birthday was a spectacular event. There was cake and lots of friends and cake and presents and cake. Thanks Grandma for the cake!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Happy New Year of hope!
Lucy and Papa
Lucy and Austin
Lucy and Nate
Lucy waiting patiently for food
I share a few recent photos of Lucy as I reflect back on "A year with Lucy..."
After a year with Lucy, some things have become apparently clear while others are still a mystery.
So many milestones and so many more still to come. Lucy understanding “Lucy” is her name. Lucy smiling and giggling. Lucy rolling over for the first time as we were watching “Grease”. Lucy sitting up on her own and not falling over. Lucy crawling and crawling and crawling. Lucy saying, “Mama!” Lucy’s first runny nose – was it allergies, foot and mouth, some disease not yet discovered? Lucy’s first plane ride. Lucy eating solid foods, everything! Lucy’s first tooth, kinda. Lucy on a road trip. Lucy looking up at me with those big, curious brown eyes as if to say, “teach me more, mama.” All those little sounds she makes, words to her, cuteness to me. Lucy pulling herself up and looking at me with that big, proud grin. Lucy singing, “La la la.” Lucy getting into places she can’t get out of. OMG, this list would stretch longer than my breasts if I continued!
Perhaps, my happiest moments with Lucy (and it is a tie I have to admit) are just snuggling on the couch before her final evening bottle at bedtime. She is soft and cuddly and leans into me without a care in the world as if the day is slowly repeating itself in her head and she is proud by all she has accomplished and then suddenly tired by all she has accomplished.
The other happiest moments are sharing her with others. Lucy loves people. She loves to watch them. She loves when they watch her. And, I believe, she gets bored just watching me. I was called a baby hog as Lucy and I spend lots of time on our own. And it is not about me not wanting to share, but making sure those I am going to share her with are all in. I got over this apprehension slowly, still working on it, I guess. So, while I do not mind leaving her with family and friends, I do miss out on how she reacts to them. What she does when there is a different voice, a different set of hands picking her up.
I find myself just staring at Lucy to get her reactions when she is with others. Her joy is my joy. Funny, how it takes a little person to teach you about joy, huh? And I’m not just talking about a smile or a hug. I am talking about the absolutely, all out, bar the door kind of joy. The kind of joy where your mouth aches from all the smiling you’ve been doing. The kind of joy which flutters in your heart when you get her out of her crib and she sees you for the first time in 11 hours. The kind of joy which forces you to keep that hand behind her, just in case. The kind of joy where all the cares in the world slip away. Ya know what I mean?
2008 was a wild year…makes me not want to read anything but the travel section or book reviews in the newspaper. It scares me to think how the world has become such a chaotic mess, how the economy has fallen, how kids shoot their moms for making them do chores. Maybe I didn’t pay so close attention before Lucy, maybe a piece of me didn’t care so much. But now I have an added investment in life, a reason to care about global warming and the economy and the war in Iraq. And while I always strived to be a good person and love my neighbor, now I want my neighbor to love me back and show some respect and not run the water while they brush their teeth.
And in a year, I will have different worries, one hopes. And I think that is the point of this, HOPE. Hope in the future, what it will bring and how I can influence that hope on a small level. They say you need to start at home and for me that’s the easy part!
So many milestones and so many more still to come. Lucy understanding “Lucy” is her name. Lucy smiling and giggling. Lucy rolling over for the first time as we were watching “Grease”. Lucy sitting up on her own and not falling over. Lucy crawling and crawling and crawling. Lucy saying, “Mama!” Lucy’s first runny nose – was it allergies, foot and mouth, some disease not yet discovered? Lucy’s first plane ride. Lucy eating solid foods, everything! Lucy’s first tooth, kinda. Lucy on a road trip. Lucy looking up at me with those big, curious brown eyes as if to say, “teach me more, mama.” All those little sounds she makes, words to her, cuteness to me. Lucy pulling herself up and looking at me with that big, proud grin. Lucy singing, “La la la.” Lucy getting into places she can’t get out of. OMG, this list would stretch longer than my breasts if I continued!
Perhaps, my happiest moments with Lucy (and it is a tie I have to admit) are just snuggling on the couch before her final evening bottle at bedtime. She is soft and cuddly and leans into me without a care in the world as if the day is slowly repeating itself in her head and she is proud by all she has accomplished and then suddenly tired by all she has accomplished.
The other happiest moments are sharing her with others. Lucy loves people. She loves to watch them. She loves when they watch her. And, I believe, she gets bored just watching me. I was called a baby hog as Lucy and I spend lots of time on our own. And it is not about me not wanting to share, but making sure those I am going to share her with are all in. I got over this apprehension slowly, still working on it, I guess. So, while I do not mind leaving her with family and friends, I do miss out on how she reacts to them. What she does when there is a different voice, a different set of hands picking her up.
I find myself just staring at Lucy to get her reactions when she is with others. Her joy is my joy. Funny, how it takes a little person to teach you about joy, huh? And I’m not just talking about a smile or a hug. I am talking about the absolutely, all out, bar the door kind of joy. The kind of joy where your mouth aches from all the smiling you’ve been doing. The kind of joy which flutters in your heart when you get her out of her crib and she sees you for the first time in 11 hours. The kind of joy which forces you to keep that hand behind her, just in case. The kind of joy where all the cares in the world slip away. Ya know what I mean?
2008 was a wild year…makes me not want to read anything but the travel section or book reviews in the newspaper. It scares me to think how the world has become such a chaotic mess, how the economy has fallen, how kids shoot their moms for making them do chores. Maybe I didn’t pay so close attention before Lucy, maybe a piece of me didn’t care so much. But now I have an added investment in life, a reason to care about global warming and the economy and the war in Iraq. And while I always strived to be a good person and love my neighbor, now I want my neighbor to love me back and show some respect and not run the water while they brush their teeth.
And in a year, I will have different worries, one hopes. And I think that is the point of this, HOPE. Hope in the future, what it will bring and how I can influence that hope on a small level. They say you need to start at home and for me that’s the easy part!
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