::::

Lucy's room has a window in it that looks out into our sunroom.  It has shutters and they usually stay closed so the room stays nice and cool.  But when I've put her down for a nap, I will tip the shutters a bit and check on her.  It's such a wecome sight to see her sleeping peacefully, as she's had a long history of sleep struggles.  The sleeping has been so so much better lately thank goodness.



But--she's smart and savvy, and if she's awake at all she will see me check in.  Even if I'm super sneaky and silent she will notice me.  She's a little stinker.  A cute one.  Anyway, I thought it would be fun to see how it looked to peek in and see her all happy and cuddly and sleepy.  She's hugging Pooh Bear of course.




And this is so goofy, but this bottle of hair oil that I have is her favorite thing in my room.  She will go into the bathroom, get under the sink and find it, and then carry it around.  She likes to take the cap off and put it back on.  She's so funny.



The little dress she's wearing in this picture was given to us by Grandma & Grandpa Jeffrey when Lucy was just tiny.  I remember thinking there was no way it would ever fit her.  How could it!  It ws like 3 times her size.  But of course, time moved on the way it always does and now it fits her just right.  It's so cute too.

And to end off this weird and kind of random post, I like what I did with my eyes this day.  This was sometime in July.
I'm not feeling as serious as I look, and I know that the back thing is a nice background.  Oh well, it's real I guess!

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This just reminds me of Goldilocks and the three bears. Except in this case Goldilocks is one of the bears.

Look at all ouf their goofy little feet.

Look at that messy old pantry. I can never keep the light off or the door closed--I think it's the bears' fault.

Look at the pacifier lying in a nest of crumbs under Lucy-Bear's chair.  This is another thing that I can't quite beat.  There are always crumbs, various toys and other items under her chair.

Lucy loves this chair because she really likes to be one of the big kids, and when she's eating up at the bar like them she thinks she's just the same as them.

Those goofballs, when they're not fighting over legos at breakfast, they're the best.  The best bears anybody could ask for.

::movie night::

I don't even remember what day this was, or what movie the kids were watching.  It's so adorable though.  A long time ago I started doing "movie nights" with Max, if Kris was out of town or someting.  We'd get a fun movie, make a treat, make a snuggly nest, and enjoy.



We continued on the tradition with Sandy.  In fact, if you asked him, a movie night might be the activity at the very top of his favorite things to do list.



And now Lucy is ushered into the fun.  I thought it was the cutest thing that the boys set up a little spot for her too--Max letting her using his Kermit pillow.  She lay there for a really long time too.



It just melts the mama heart, right?

::more CA fun::

So after we had breakfast we went back to the hotel for some naps by way of a quick Target trip to pick up some necessities and a couple of snorkels for the boys.

Lucy actually did nap a little which was nice, and Kris went out to catch a few quick waves.  It was pretty cool and cloudy all morning but the sun came out as soon as Kris got back.  After he was back we headed out to walk to lunch.  One of our favorite things about this part of San Diego is that we can walk a lot of places.  It's super fun.



Miss Lou was super patient and relaxed about riding in the stroller.  We had fish tacos at Rubios and then walked over to Sandy's favorite ice cream sandwich place, the Baked Bear.



How I love that little Lucy in the big hat!



The boys love the ice cream sandwiches.  You pick what kind of cookies go on the top and bottom of the sandwich and what kind of ice cream goes inside.  The boys usually pick something rather gross.



Kris and I shared a sandwich with Lucy and she was very pleased about it.



After that we went out to the bay--the hotel room we stayed in opened right out to the bay so we just went downstairs and set up so the boys could swim and play.  There was a lot of snorkeling, a lot of digging in the sand and mud and a lot of goofing around.



Sandy in the snorkeling getup was hilarious.





This was the first time Lucy ever walked in the sand, and she was very unsure of herself at first.  Not scared to be put down like Sandy was when he was 1, but she thought it was pretty weird.







The bay is so fun for the little guys because it has a nice slow slope down into the water, there are hardly any waves, but there is still nice sand to play in and the water is fresh enough.



Lucy was having a blast playing.  Max was out noodling around like usual, he's basically a fish where things like that are concerned.



Sandy alternated between swimming and floating and digging and all that fun stuff.



It was a great fun day, and we all kind of felt like little Lucy there at the end, big smiles all full of ice cream and sunshine.

::having some fun::

It looked like there was one little chance for us to get away as a family before the summer gets really crazy at work. Summers are always crazy because kids are off school and parents want to get the dang kids teeth fixed, but this summer is a little more crazy because one of our associates leaves mid June and Kelly won't be done with his residency and here ready to work until July 6th! So Kris and our other associate will be doing the work of 3 docs for a couple of weeks there.

Anyway, that can get really exhausting and se we wanted to get away and try to recharge before things get too crazy. So off we went to our go-to quick trip location--San Diego. Sandy's place, as he calls it. (He was overheard in the car yesterday talking about someplace called "Daddy-eggo" and "Lucy-eggo". I'm not sure he quite gets that this place really isn't named for him.)

We got in late on Thursday night after a long day of work, trip prep and Max's school moving up ceremony. Everybody was really tired and crashed into bed after some tears and complaints. After that everybody slept pretty well, UNTIL morning.

Morning, when everybody popped awake at 6AM, raring to go. Oy, oy.

Kris and I decided it was better off just to get up and roll with it than kick against the pricks and we headed out super early to get breakfast in downtown San Diego.

I think it was just barely seven by the time we got out there. Sandy was dazzled by the downtown buildings and he said that it looked like Danville (the city in Phineas and Ferb) or Tokyo. Is he a small town guy or what?

We went to this delicious breakfast place that we had gone to a few years ago when Sandy was just teency and we were staying over in that area for the AAPD conference. We saw somebody order German pancakes there and they looked amazing so we needed to try them ourselves.  Plus, they opened at like 6:30 or 7, so it was our perfect option.
The boys were "cold" because we were seated outside (and Sandy had refused to wear his jacket of course) so they got to start out with hot chocolate. Most of Sandy's hot chocolate ended up in his saucer and his chin/nose/lap.

This next photo series cracked me up. I was going to say, mostly because of Lucy, but no--it's both of them.
She's a smart little sneaky girl, and yes.  She definitely got a spoonful of chocolate.  The kids loved the breakfast, it was really delicious.  Kris had a huge apple pancake thing that was about as big as his head and he said it was amazing.

Alright, this is all for now but I've got more to say tomorrow.  Lots more fun to report on.

::lucy likes to help me work::

Don't worry, I'm still alive!  I didn't die or anything. I just can't seem to keep up with everything, and blogging can go by the wayside, especially if I get behind and try to catch up.
And really we can blame it all on Lucy. Now she's toddling around and isn't satisfied just to hang out anymore. She wants to DO things, and SEE things and not to sleep to much.

Anyway, she does like to help me work. Well, like might be a strong word. She is required to help me work, and from time to time she tolerates it.

Here she is "helping me" try to have a small meeting at the St Francis office.  She figured out how to use the adding machine and added many many receipts worth of numbers up until she decided it was way boring and just wanted to leave.



She loves to draw way more than the boys ever did.  In fact both boys hated it when they were little.  Lucy loves pens so much.  She wants to hold every pen I'm holding and always tries to draw.  Yesterday she was drawing on my work while she was in my lap (see below), and she also drew all over her arms, my arms, her chin and my face.  She kept sneak attacking me with the pen and getting me on the face, and then when I told her "Not the face! Not the face!" her lower lip would stick out and she would cry like her heart was broken.



This is not the same day, but it could be.  Now she's sick of the lap and just wants to get DOWN.



What a helper, huh?  No wonder I have so much time left over to blog!

::::

Tonight Sandy was having a total melt down flip out in bed. At bedtime.  When he was supposed to be asleep. It was a serious major meltdown that included screaming and kicking and death screams.

I was just done with it.  Sandy has been experimenting with all sorts of different "behaviors" lately and by bedtime I'm all worn out.

What happened?  Well first I told him he wouldn't be having a sleepover with one of his little girl friends at school.  That was so mean.  Then later on he had an "injury" on his finger and "needed" a bandaid.  Against my better judgement I stepped into his bathroom and grabbed him a bandage.  His box of Star Wars bandaids was empty and so I grabbed something else.  I had a feeling of inpending doom when I saw the empty box......and rightly so.  When he realized that minions from Despicable Me were surrounding his finger rather than Yoda or Luke, he lost it.  Truly lost his mind.

I left.  I was done like I said earlier.  I went and found Dad and told him it was his turn for some of the fun.

While I was finding Kris though, Max snuck into the room.  He was sure he knew what to do in order to fix the problem.  I saw him darting around the house, finding things and doing things.  I didn't think he could fix anything, figured he could only make things worse, but I was wrong.  He fixed it.  He made Sandy a Star Wars bandaid.  See the above photo.  It's complete with a little bandage cushion made with a tissue.

When it was wrapped around Sandy's finger Kris said that Sandy looked at it and with a shuddery breath said, "It's SO CUTE!!"

When I went in to give the crazy guy one last kiss, he told me "I'm so proud of my brother!"

Even though these guys fight a lot, they are great brothers.  And Max's drawings are SO CUTE.  Good job Max, saving the day.  I can always use the help!

::this week::

This week there was obviously not enough time for blog posting.  But lots of things happened.  

Mostly people were sick though, and it was sad.  We were supposed to go on a fun weekend trip to CA, but Sandy had been sick the weekend before and then Lucy and Max both started throwing up mid-week so we had to cancel our fun.  Nobody threw up at Target this week though which was better than the week before.  Sandy may not ever be allowed back in the women's bathroom at Target again after that episode.

But lots of other things happened.  The kids were cute.  Some flowers bloomed that had never bloomed in the yard before, which was pretty exciting.



Here is the requisite Lucy and Mom shot.  She doesn't hold still much these days.



Poor miss Lucy got the pukes on Tuesday night and thew up all night long, it was a long night for both of us.  Luckily in the morning she felt better and there were no more pukes.  But she had to do some pretty good napping to catch up.  Me too.  Here she is in my bed.



A little pre-bedtime Donald Duck for Sandy.  Bedtimes are the best and yet sometimes the hardest part of the day.



Lucy got a new chair that attached to the counter so she could sit with the boys.  She loves it.  Now we have even more mess to deal with on the counter. It's so fun to see her interacting with the boys, when they're not fighting over toys that is.



Here's Lucy not eating.  That's the thing she mostly does when she's in her chair--not eat.  She only likes processed packaged food these days.



The most exciting thing that happened this week was WALKING!  Lucy has been taking steps here and there and walking between Kris and I--diving into our arms at both ends--but not really walking.  Well, this week one afternoon you could see a switch flip in her head and suddenly she was a walking kid.  She decided crawling was for babies and she was big.  And off she went.



Yes it's pretty much the cutest thing ever and she is SO proud of herself.











A walking baby angel!









Poor tired baby.  I seriously can't even imagine how much work it would be to learn to walk. It must be completely physically exhausting!



On Friday we went to do some fun things in ABQ, but Kris wasn't feeling good at all, poor thing.  We still had dinner and a little shopping, but sadly it was just a sick week.  Poor us.  I missed church both Sundays attached to this week for sick kids.

But so many great things happened too.  We're just lucky to be together and to get to take care of each other.