9 Month Update

Little Lucy turned 9 months' old this week and she continues to be a happy little girl.  Her 9 month check-up is this week so I'll have some stats in a few days.  I'm anxious to know how much she weighs as she still seems like a peanut to me and doesn't have a huge appetite.  In fact, she hasn't finished a jar of baby food in weeks but thinks that I am trying to choke her whenever I give her the tiniest bite of "real" food.  The little basketball that she is holding in the photos below continues to be her prized possession and although she isn't crawling yet, she will scoot/turn/contort herself to be able to reach the basketball if it rolls outside of her reach. 

Lucy hasn't pulled herself up yet, but she thinks that she is pretty cool if we help her stand.  I think that she'll be really fun this summer in the pool because she is a splashing fool in her tub.  I've identified a surefire way to make her mad - take her out of the bathtub.  She does this holler thing and gives a little glare, but it is short-lived.  Lucy continues to love to watch Charlie, go for walks and look at books.  Overall, a big thumbs up from me, BJ and Charlie.

My parents came to visit us this weekend and the kids loved the extra attention.  I tried to take a few pictures before they left on Saturday afternoon and you can guess which spirited child was too hyper to take a picture.  Grandpa Bill brought Charlie his very own pack of gum (Charlie experienced his first piece of gum during the long car ride to Chicago and became a quick fan), which made him Charlie's friend for life.  I've been asked if he can have a piece of gum almost every waking hour in the last day.  BJ and I were able to head to a late movie on Friday night and we enjoyed some quality time with them again on Saturday morning.

 Lucy took a few minutes to warm up to Grandma and Grandpa, but once she did, the smiles were endless!  Please note Charlie's golf club on top of our refrigerator in the background below.  You can imagine that the golf club spends more time in "mommy jail" than it does in his hands.  The boy's energy and defiance is remarkable and would be funny to me if he was someone else's child.

 Yesterday was our 11th anniversary (side note, I can't believe that we were so young when we got married...what were we thinking?  Good thing that its worked out...so far) and we celebrated by taking the kids to a showing of Wreck-It-Ralph at Jack Trice Stadium.  The movie started at 7:00 and we had no idea how big the crowd would be.  The weather was perfect and Charlie had the best time.

 BJ took this picture from the stands as he was making his way to the one concession stand that was open.  We never did buy any snacks because the line was ridiculously long so Charlie and Lucy ended up sharing a baggie of Gerber Puffs because of the snack disappointment.  Despite having eaten supper before leaving for Ames, Charlie must have asked me 5 times if I had any other snacks in my bag and shock and dismay that I did not. 

 Other than the disbelief that we would not be eating any popcorn during the movie, we had a great time.

We hope that everyone had a great summer!