They are so sweet to each other...

...especially when one of them is holding a bag of goldfish.

All Better

Bella's ear tube surgery went very well. She did seem to be in more pain immediately after the surgery this time. She was crying and crying saying her ears hurt. Finally, they gave her some stronger pain medication, but it wasn't until we got home that she stopped crying. She was begging us to put in her ear drops. She normally hates them, but she must have thought they would help her pain (even though they aren't for pain). So we finally did the ear drops, and that seemed to do the trick. Actually, she never cried or complained once the whole day after that. Lucy came over and gave her a hug, or "guck" as she calls it, and that helped cheer Bella up too.

Seems Like Yesterday...

Since Bella wasn't blogged about until she was 2, I thought it would be fun to look back at her when she was Lucy's age (14 months). She had more teeth and more, darker hair, and she was a little bit shorter than Lucy. Our pediatrician joked that Lucy is WNBA height. Where she gets her height is a bit of a mystery! I do see a resemblance in the two girls, but I'm surprised when people think they look "exactly" alike.

In the last picture she was smelling the flowers my mom brought her after she got her first set of ear tubes. Tomorrow, she goes in for set number THREE! Please keep her in your prayers, as we think it will be a little harder on her this time. She will know what is going on a lot more than she did the previous two times since she is older.

Splash Park Fun

Sleeping Beauty

There is something so beautiful about kids when they are sleeping. Of course, as a mother, it usually means a bit of a break, but I'm not even talking about that aspect of it. I went in to Bella's room to wake her up from a nap. She is in the in-between stages of needing a nap and not needing one. On the days she does take one, it is late, and we usually have to wake her up so bedtime isn't entirely ruined. I just couldn't help but take her picture because she looked so sweet.

Good Girl

Lucy is 14 months old now, and has been saying lots of new words lately. She really tries to repeat whatever we say. A couple of new ones within the last week or two were "up" and "hot." It's so cute, because she emphasizes the last letter so much..."up" is "uuPPPAH!" and "hot" is "aaaaTTTT!"

A couple of other things about Lucy at this age...she loves to wash her hands and brush her teeth. Maybe it's because she likes to be clean, but I suspect it has something more to do with being able to do just like big sister. Also, she loves to play "Ring Around the Rosey," and has finally grasped the concept of falling down on purpose. You'll get dizzy fast if you ever start this with her, because she won't want to stop!

However, "good girl," is, by far, what Lucy says more than any other word/phrase. She says it probably 100 times a day- at least.

Where did she get this? Well, whenever Lucy goes stomping her super fast baby walk up to our big Weimaraner, Riley, we say "Good girl Riley, be gentle." We just want to make sure Riley doesn't see Lucy as a threat, even if Lucy is trying to grab her tail or give her a hefty "pat" on the head.

So, Lucy has picked up on saying "good girl," and EVERY dog we see, whether it be a real dog, a picture of a dog, a stuffed animal dog, etc, is a "GOOD GIRL." In fact, we were in a store yesterday that had a huge blow up rhinosaurus (not sure who would need one, but anyway), and even that classified as a "good girl" to her.

4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July with Momo and Papa, Grandma B and my brother's family. We ate dinner together and then went to watch a wonderful fireworks show.

Jack and Bella had a great time decorating brownie stars.I helped Lucy with one, but this seemed like a better idea to her...

Everyone enjoyed homemade ice cream, and Lucy even got to use her own spoon (note: a few days earlier, she had her first major fall- off of a curb- and skinned up her sweet little face).

After dinner, we went to watch fireworks. Jack and Bella were thrilled that we got to ride on a shuttle bus to get there.

Bella was not so thrilled that I wanted to take pictures. This is her grumpy, "I don't want to smile for any pictures" pout.

So I just took pictures while she wasn't looking. Here she is crowning Momo with her glow necklace.

And her she is blowing bubbles.

Lucy was little Miss Social at the fireworks display. She kept walking around to other people's blankets!

She was so proud of herself when she managed to get away from us!

She did slow down for a minute while chewing on her glow necklace.

Oh good, Bella did smile for the camera at least once!

And then the show began...the look on their faces was the best part for us!

The only word to describe Lucy's face in reaction to her first fireworks show is AMAZED. Really, I think we were watching Bella and Lucy's faces more than the fireworks.
The fireworks were what finally made Lucy sit still. In fact, she wouldn't leave Papa's lap! She thought she would try to catch those fireworks!

And I think she thought she did!