A beautiful day!

It is near 60 degrees here today, which feel AMAZING after the cold weather and snow! Lucy has been dying to get out and play, and today was finally warm enough. It was windy, so we left her hood on, but she had a ball. She has now discovered how to climb up the ladder to the slide, something she couldn't do this fall. We spent quite a bit of time climbing up, sliding down, and starting the process again. She liked to look through her spy glass, especially at the dogs across the street. We went for a little walk up and down the driveway where she discovered rocks! She wasn't too happy when it was time to go back inside, but we had to get ready to go out to eat with the youth council tonight. (A change of clothes was necessary after our fun outside - after all, it wouldn't be fun if we didn't get a LITTLE muddy! :)

A few cute pictures

It has been a busy few weeks here at the Flack house. After all of the snow, Lucy developed a double ear infection, followed by a little stomach bug. (Thankfully, it wasn't the bad stomach bug that is going around everywhere!) Then this week was the first full week of school I have taught since before Christmas, thanks to workdays, holidays, and of course, snow. Not much has been going on, but I thought I'd share a few new photos of fun around the house with Lucy. She is so full of personality that there is never a dull moment here!

Lucy, dressing up like a flower

Lucy, as a princess

Sleepy girl, cuddled up with her Daddy

Lucy grabbed this off the door as we came in the house the other day. She kept walking around, looking through it, so of course I took a picture!

Chillin' in the kitchen. . . every time I look at this picture, I can't believe how much she looks like a little girl, not a baby!

How can you not help but smile at this face?

The other day, we washed Lucy's diaper bag. She needed something to take with her to the babysitter's, so Daddy put her things in this plastic container as a quick fix. Well, turns out it's the perfect size for Lucy to carry which she LOVES. . . I guess I ought to find her a little bookbag of her own to take with her.

Now, the author of the crazy feminist book Cinderella Ate My Daughter would probably disapprove of me allowing this, but I just think she's TOO cute!

Drumming

Growing so quickly (Literally!)

My tiny little girl is no longer so tiny! She has hit a little growth spurt over the past week. Last week, I noticed that her shoes were getting a little tight. On Saturday we went up to the Stride Right store in Asheville, and sure enough, she's gone from a 4 to a 4 1/2. So, of course, we had to buy new shoes. And then, as you watch her play and sit on the ground, her little pants seem to be shorter and shorter. . . yes, Lucy has shot up almost another inch to 33 inches! (It's hard to tell in the picture above, because she wouldn't stand still!!) All of her 12 month pants are now cute little highwaters. Her height now puts her in between the 50th and 75th percentile for her age but her weight is still 21 lbs, which makes her in the between the 5th and 10th percentile for weight. This now poses a clothing issue because all of the pants that will be long enough are too big in the waist.

I just can't believe she's getting so big! Where did that tiny baby go?? In fact, Michael was asked the other day if Lucy was tall for her age because this lady thought that Lucy was two! Oh well, as long as she is healthy and happy, she can grow as tall as she wants. Maybe one day when she goes to Fine Arts Day Camp, her camp counselors will call her "Gargantua" behind her back. (Ha ha, Carissa - this last little bit is just for you!)

Another snow day. . .

Well, today has been snow day number 3 for us here in the mountains. It was an optional teacher's workday but I got a phone call this morning from my principal who more or less encouraged us all to stay home and make the day up later. No problem for me - I had already decided to stay home! Lucy has had a cough/cold for the past few days so I thought another day at home would be good for her. Turns out that was a good idea . . .she has gone back and forth between feeling fine to acting pitiful all day. The picture above is from one of our happy times today - LUNCH! :) Lucy enjoyed a big girl sandwich for lunch today. She was so excited to get her toasted cheese sandwich that she wouldn't even share a bite with Baxter! She also has learned to drink from a straw and of course, this excites her because now she can drink from Mommy's Sonic cup too. :) Another high point was when we were playing earlier and she was making her animal sounds, which you can hear in my previous post. By dinner time though, she had enough. She has napped off and on throughout the day and run a low grade fever. Around 5:15, I put her up in her chair, fixed her pasta pickups and gave her those and an applesauce. I turned around to pick up a few things and when I turned back around, she was asleep in her chair, dinner untouched. I rocked her in the recliner for a while, thinking she would wake up from this nap, ready to eat, but after an hour, I laid her down in her bed. We'll see how she is in the morning - if she's still pitiful, we'll call the pediatrician. Fortunately, it is ANOTHER snow day tomorrow (optional teacher workday) so I may see if I can take that option.)

I have to say, that even with a little girl not feeling at her best, I have so enjoyed my snow days. I can't remember the last time that I had time at home with my family, with no where to be, nothing pressing that must be done, and no projects that have to be completed. My kitchen has been organized, my house is the cleanest it has been in a LONG time, I've cooked dinner every night, written some thank you notes and I have even IRONED clothes! And believe it or not, I have enjoyed it. Domesticity isn't so bad when your time is your own! And we've had lots of time together as a family. We've played with ALL of Lucy's toys, we've watched movies, we've made cookies - it's just been a fun week. So even though many people around here are getting stir crazy and worried about when we'll make this time up at school, I couldn't have asked for a better week - sick child and all.

Animal Sounds

People always tell me, "Make sure you video tape all the cute things your kids do because someday you'll want to remember them!" And I try, but often, we get so involved in what we're doing that we forget to pull out the video camera. So this evening while we were playing, I decided to tape Lucy making her animal sounds. She has been doing most of these for a while now, but they're so cute, even if they're not completely understandable, that I just have to have them on video. . . So I hope you will indulge me just a little with this post. :)

And as a side note, sorry about the quality of this video. My Kodak camera has definitely seen better days.. . maybe I ought to invest in a Flip camera . . .hmm. . . .

Vote for me!

Lucy has been selected as a finalist again for the Parent's Magazine, "Kid of the Week" contest. If she wins, she gets a check for $250. You can vote once a day per computer now through January 16th. We would appreciate every vote we can get! You can vote by clicking HERE.

Deja Vu??

Look familiar?? No, the picture at the top is not the same picture I posted at Christmas - it is a picture of our house today. We are snowed in with around 8 or 9 inches on top of the 2 inches that had fallen over the weekend! Most of the snow had fallen before we got up this morning but it has continued off and on throughout the day. . . . of course, the next amount of significant snowfall came right after we had shoveled the driveway! Oh well. . .

So since we had no school today and had nowhere to go, we've had some fun family time. We've also gotten some cleaning done which has been long overdue. Lucy has a little bit of a cough which seemed to be getting worse by this evening. Hopefully it will be nothing more than just a cough since it will be difficult to make it to the pediatrician's in the next few days.

There's no school tomorrow so we're looking forward to another day at home. While I hate to have to think of making up these days, it has been a blessing to have so much uninterrupted family time! :)