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And then there was one

Luthien,

Okay, okay, it's been predicted by some for a long time.  But I'm finally ready.  Documentation of your life will from this day forward be combined with that of your brother Bastian, here.  Previous writings will still be available via blogger for awhile, but can be viewed in your very own hard copy journal, titled Letters to Luthien of course.

Love,
Mama

This little (wait big!) girl...

Started Preschool this week! With yours truly, her mama.

Luthien you amaze and challenge me every day, hour, and practically minute. You still scream before every nap and every night-time sleep and we practically have to think of a new trick to get you to actually go to sleep every night. Thanks for keeping me on my toes.

 That's all for now!

Aren't cameras wonderful?! Glad to have one again; even the most simple camera does the trick.

Love,

Mom

Quote for this week

Luthien,

Yesterday I was folding yet more laundry in my bedroom while talking with you and Bastian and trying to convince you to join in. The two of you went out to the family room where you started jumping from the windowsill (which is very high up since we live in a loft) down to the couch. This is something I let you do when I am there to supervise, just in case you get hurt obviously, but also because Bastian badly wants to join in and of course he can only do it with my help. So here is the conversation that happened once I heard what you were doing and heard Bastian whining, "Up, Bastian!!"

Mom (calling from bedroom): Luthien, please come back in my room with me!

Luthien: No mom, let me jump down to the couch!

M: No Luthien, you need to come where I am and bring Bastian because I can't watch you out there right now, and you're making Bastian jealous!

L: Mom, I need you to stop telling me what I can't do!

M: What did you just say?

Mom can't believe her ears so she walks out to the family room, only to find Luthien rolling around on the ground.

L: Mom, you're stressing me right now.

Love,

Mama

Quote

It is so amazing to listen to you talk these days. You are becoming so grown up and you love every minute of it. Sometimes I can't figure out where you get the stuff you are saying, it's hilarious. A few days ago I was in the bathroom dealing with some laundry while you and your brother were jumping on your bed in the next room over, and this is the conversation I overheard:

B: Fall!

L: Yeah, let's fall down together!

(both jump and fall onto the bed)

B: babbling, I think he was saying "go"

L: Did you say love?

B: Uh-huh

L: (in a high-pitched, "baby talk" voice) No, no silly Bastian, we're falling down, mommy and daddy fall in love

B: Oh

I'm so happy you clarified this for Bastian; I'm pretty sure he thought you guys were falling in love :)

And by the way, thank you for playing soooo much better with your brother beginning just this past week. I have felt so guilty taking 30 minutes or so at a time to get things done around the house, but you two have been having so much fun together. I think it's a good thing for all of us.

Love,

Mama

Alive

Well we're still alive and well my Luthien, just caught up in summer. I love that summer is something that can be enjoyed, looked forward to, and full of outdoor activity rather than dreaded! We have been busy here, going to the beach multiple times per week, enjoying the summer's bounty of fresh local produce that our dear Daddy is harvesting, visiting New England farms and museums, and berry picking. We're pretty sure you love Massachusetts as much as we do. Things have gotten a little stressful as we are preparing for year 2 of law school for Dad, I am preparing to do some more formal education at home with you, and you have been helping me (sometimes not with much enthusiasm) preserve all the wonderful produce we are blessed with! On top of all this it feels as though we have been house-sitting all summer. There are definitely some perks to this, and the current home we are staying at you never want to leave, but mommy and daddy are definitely ready to be done, and can't wait to feel a little more organized in the confines of our own home.

I have to say that of all your stages, this age of 3 is the most difficult by far. We are having a hard time knowing how best to provide you with the loving discipline you need in order to understand boundaries, right from wrong, etc. Sleeping has been very hard lately too. I really hope getting back to our home will help this as well. Your memory and ability to re-tell stories amazes me, as well as your love for insects and creatures of all kind. Your ability to learn the alphabet (visual recognition of the letters) and sounds is slow going- there are about 5 letters you can recognize independently and sounds are prompted, but we will be working on this, hopefully in a fun and creative way soon!

We love you,
Mama

This Many

My little Lu-Lee;
It seems everyone is asking how old you are, or how old you are turning these days (appropriate, given today is your big day). No matter how many times I tell you to say "three" instead of just holding up your fingers, and even though you can say the number perfectly (even the /th/!) you still prefer the finger/"this many" method. This makes things especially difficult when talking to family over the phone! Just one of the many things I am loving about you these days.

Tonight I told you the story of when you were born. You had a bit of a difficult beginning and sure made your Mama and Daddy very tired for the first 6 + months, but it has all been well worth it. You are our bright, pensive, observant, dreamer, animal-loving girl, and you are only getting more fun and interesting to be around by the day.

You FINALLY (on your own time table, not mine) are recognizing letters and saying the names and sounds independently. You love to make letters in the sand on the beach especially! Yesterday at the beach you FINALLY went into the water and played and splashed around for a long time. You continue to love stories, and especially the conflict. You are always asking to hear about the "naughty guy" or part over and over again. I also meant to tell you a little while ago that you started eating raw greens (lettuce, etc.) which I was very excited about, but that isn't really happening anymore. Although, you are still a really good eater and if I bribe you with even the smallest of treats you will pretty much eat anything (I'm talking 2 chocolate chips, now 3 because you had your birthday :)

We have had family in town and are having lots of fun adventures for your birthday, including staying over at your friend Dot's house for 3 weeks and milking their goat Oma. Sadly I still have a broken camera, but here are a few shots from Aunt Maria's phone while they were visiting the last few days:

You with cousin Georges waiting for the 4th of July parade to start. You weren't really that excited about it ahead of time, but once it started you both went nuts! It was so cute to see your faces light up as each new person/vehicle/float passed by (mostly for candy, but still cute).


Enjoying fresh caught/cooked lobster (and making the lobsters kiss). You of course ate TONS of lobster since we had a delicious butter sauce made by Dad.


Holding hands on the Cliff Walk of Newport....a perfect day! And no, I am not pregnant, and yes, Kim if you read this I am wearing a shirt of yours!!


Family left for Brooklyn today, Dad went to work and we were sort of back in the swing of things, with the exception of being at Dot's house. I needed you to stand and entertain Bastian for a few minutes while I did something in the afternoon, and all of the sudden I hear him start crying. I quickly ran to pick him up and asked what happened, and you said "Bastian was bugging me so I smacked his cheek." I had to hold back my laughter while implementing some sort of discipline for this. I love your honesty (how long will this last?!) and I love (and worry a bit!) how you talk exactly like me.

Happy Birthday my sweet girl Luthien!
Love,
Mama

Spring and Easter

Well, as usual I waited much too long to caption these pictures, so here is the short version: you are growing up so fast! You are almost 3 and turning into more of an independent, sassy little girl. I will share more on recent happenings sooner than later, but in the past few months you have been really into families. When left to play on your own you walk around the house and find a family of five of your many tiny animals. You then go around talking about the "mommy shark, the daddy shark, the Bastian shark, and the Lu Lu shark" (or whatever animal you have chosen for the next little while, until another animal sparks your interest and you switch up the family. You don't usually call yourself Lu Lu except with your little animal families, and another thing worthy to note is that many times the animal might not actually be whatever you're saying it is. I love that you are getting more imaginative! Also in the past few months you have LOVED being told stories. You are always asking us to make up stories about your families, or animals in general; so much that I have a hard time doing it, but I am getting better at this. As you are getting older I see more and more how this being a mom (and especially a stay-at-home mom) is such a learning experience for me, and I am so grateful for it.

On to the pictures...

As I have mentioned before, I am terrible at putting away laundry. We always have clean clothes but I am ashamed at how long they sit in baskets. I just don't have a lot of patience for, or get distracted by, things like this (and would rather be spending our chore time in the kitchen):

We have this gorgeous little farm near Dad's school in Dartmouth that is amazingly green, well tended to, has a swingset, and sells tiny toy animals in the little farm store. It is everything I pictured when imagining moving to New England....

And here you are on said swingset with one of your favorite friends, Noah. You two play so well together, it's adorable to hear you giggle with him.

I love these "Not a..." books by Antoinette Portis. Here you are as not a box, but a robot :) You had a blast one evening turning your box into all different things.

Another green spring day (Easter) at the park by our local zoo.

I made an asparagus and leek tart with puff pastry as part of our dinner and finally convinced you to play with your own dough instead of the pastry dough. We got these great cookie cutters from a friend that you love to play with...

Just after Easter, at the daffodil fields...

That day you finally decided you would slide down a slide! You had been very afraid of slides until this point. You quickly worked your way up to bigger slides but after a few falls on your bum have decided to stick to the little ones again.

I love pictures like this because of course we were trying to get a "better" shot. But this is a much more accurate portrayal of my life: a babe on my hip and another clinging to my legs...I can't imagine the chaos with even more little ones but that day will certainly come :)

Love,

Mama

Arizona

My little Lu-Lee,

I will explain these pictures very soon, so sorry to have been neglecting your journal. I love you, and if you remember I wrote A LOT to you in your first year of life, just like I have been with your baby Bastian's blog/journal.

05/28/11- Here I am to update, and it will be a quick one because I want to start telling you about more recent happenings, but let me just explain these pictures from our AZ trip....

We took you to the New England Aquarium in Boston and spent the day there with Daddy before we left for Phoenix. You went crazy for the seals outside (which you are standing in front of), and as usual loved the animal statues as much as the actual animals. Your favorite part was watching the divers feed the sharks, and you couldn't stop talking about the stingray's"scary eyes" and the eels.

I knew I had to have my camera ready for your reactions when you and Amelie first reunited. It definitely was sweet.

We never had the chance to go to the Scottsdale Music Museum before, so one day we went with Nana, Stefa, Amelie, and Atreyu...

We were delighted to find your display, from France:

With Bastian, about to crush you at one of our parties at Nana/Grandad's house:

You don't really look like yourself here, but I think you look so chubby-faced and adorable! I think the tank top dress also makes your arms look thicker, I love it!

I noticed when the cousins gathered that you became very observant, less participatory and interactive. I was worried at first, but Dad helped me realize the whole thing was probably pretty overwhelming. Here you are watching Amelie while doing your "crazies." I don't think I have explained this here yet, but will have to save it for another time...

We ventured down to Tucson to visit Grandpa Ed/Grandma Sue, Grammy, and your Great Aunt Dee Dee. You loved being able to walk everywhere since at that time it was so cold in Mass. Here you were telling me about the tall mountains :)

And riding together...

We had a delicious crab dinner one evening which you gobbled up- you loved holding the legs and of course dipping in lots of butter (your favorite)

At the zoo with Ellie... you two were very affectionate with eachother!

And back up in Phoenix...we went hiking up the little mountain/hill behind Grandad's house and I was surprised that you climbed the whole thing by yourself, and went back down too!

And of course there were lots of playdates to be had...here you are with Hannah:

And Beckam:

And finally, sweet goodbyes with Ami (who decided to wear my boots):

It was a great trip but we were glad to come home.

*I just was interrupted while writing this to your crying...I found you out in the hall (which never happens) and asked what you were doing there. Apparently there are lobsters in your bed. When I checked, I did discover that your water cup that you were clinging to when falling asleep had spilled all over the sheets. Love that imagination. And love you-

Mama

Look Mama, and a new haircut

"Look Mama" is all I hear these days. Anything and everything you do you want me to see, and if Dad is around we both have to see. You seem to be quite the performer already. Another thing you say a lot is "Mama, I want to run with you." We think this is a round-about way of expressing that you need or want more attention from us, so whenever you say it I always feel bad. I seem to also hear a lot, "play with me mama!" which also makes me feel like a terrible mother, but then I remember that I play with you ALL DAY LONG, and a few moments of free play is a good thing for you. You still tell me to "stop talking" if I have an adult conversation for more than a few minutes. We are trying to teach you more patience with this but not sure how/when to go about it- parenting gets more challenging and interesting by the day!

About a month ago, I finally cut your hair! I told myself I wouldn't, that we would wait and let your bangs grow out and see how long your hair would grow, but I finally gave in and chopped it into a little pixie. Once I did, it seemed like you had a personality shift and came out of your shell more. Although Dad is skeptical of haircuts on you, even he loves it- I think we all were relieved to have your bangs out of your eyes for a change.

If I haven't told you already, you LOVE to sing. You sing all day long, both original and popular songs. You are getting better at carrying a tune, and it amazes me how you can remember 2 or 3 different verses of lyrics, plus the chorus. You sing lots of church songs, and continue to love singing Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer. Lately you've started to tell us to sing one song while you start singing a totally different song. All of the sudden you say, "I can't sing that one mommy!" and you crack up and we explain that it's hard to have two different songs going on at once! Also, you started saying "Look Mommy," (big surprise) and then attempting to sing a song without moving your mouth at all. Sometimes I'll watch you as you make these little discoveries; the look on your face as you figure out you can do something or learn a new skill is priceless.

Now for a few pictures. You still love ocean animals, and we are dying to have the time and money to take you to one of the great aquariums in the area. So far we've been sticking to the New Bedford Ocean Explorium, which is still a fun place, just on a smaller scale. They are currently adding a touch tank with small sharks, but for now you are always excited to look at Nemo/Dori, a great tank with seahorses, jellyfish, and other fish and shellfish local to the area. Here you are at the touch tank about to touch a crab and a seastar (pre haircut).

They also have an adorable area to play and a craft area- look at the jellyfish we made together!

Another hair shot, before the cut! Your favorite thing to do lately is gather a grouping of your small animals together and put them in a bag, then dump them out and find a new bag or box to carry them around in, and so on. There is definitely an art to how you select the animals and when to switch bags. You still like lining the animals up, but you don't do it as often- you much prefer the bag activity, and of course you still try to hold as many in your hand as possible and get frustrated when there are just too many to hold all at once.

We had a fun day up in Boston a few weeks ago where you got a few really tiny animals. You are sporting your new cut here, but it's somewhat hard to see. You can see those tiny animals though :) Keeping track of them is a nightmare, and we've had to call our favorite maintenance man Domingos to recover one at one point, but we've managed to keep a few around since the trip!

Here you are playing with your bro, and bossing him around I can tell. You have just begun to get a bit bossy with him, and also talking in a high-pitched baby talk voice to him. Dad doesn't like it because you sound too grown up!

A classic "look at me mommy" shot:

Your new hair, from the side. I was kind of proud of myself because I am TERRIBLE at makeup, hair and anything like that. I can't even style my own hair, and now I am cutting our entire family's hair- crazy! I do get anxiety over the fact that I have to cut it again soon!

You and I made Dad a little book for his birthday in February. We had a great evening, and the weekend prior went out on our first real date since we've been in Massachusetts. You played at your friend, Dot's house and didn't miss us at all it seemed- it was good for everyone I think!

More examples of your "Look at me" attitude these days :)

It find it impossible to get good shots with your brother, but here are a few attempts:

And a few more from a photo shoot with Dad (you can always tell which pictures are his and which are mine)....

That's all for now Luthien. I am so looking forward to going to Arizona with you. You are so excited to see all of your family and old friends. I will try to keep up better with your blog so I have better things to say. You are still my sweet baby girl even when you tell me to look at you a thousand times a day!

Love,

Mama