Best Friends!

This picture cracks me up, so I just had to share it. I love how their expressions are exactly the same!! :) These two love each other . . .well, maybe it's more of Lucy loving Baxter and Baxter tolerating Lucy, but still. . . they are awfully cute together.

As for a Flack house update, we have been busy here. Lucy is growing and changing all the time. She walks so well now and loves to go EVERYWHERE. She walks from her room, to Mom and Dad's room to the living room into the den and back around all day long. She is rarely still, except for when she wants you to read a book. (Or if she is napping!) She is starting to communicate more every day; she says "nana" for banana (Which she says quite often!) and on Sunday she said "Saa-ee" when she saw Mrs. Sandy in the nursery. (I think that made Sandy's whole week!) Today when I picked her up from the babysitter's house, she was playing with her friend and called after him, "Ja!" (His name is Jack.) While she still has a limited vocabulary, she is extremely smart and understands almost all verbal directions you give her. Of course, you can tell she understands the directions, but always following through with them is a different story. . . . Oh, and she can also bend over and pick up objects now while standing. She is changing so much day by day that it's hard to keep up! I'm looking forward to our upcoming fall break so that we can have more play time!

Michael and I have been busy with work things. Michael has wrapped up his summer activities with the youth after trips up and down the east coast, movie nights, service projects around town, pool parties, and much more. Now it's time to move back into the fall schedule so he's been getting ready for that. . . things never seem to end when it comes to church activities. (Which I guess is a good thing!) I went in early August to Choral Fest with the music minister and organist from church. It was a fun but exhausting trip where we found lots of great music for this upcoming year. At school, our 2nd and 3rd graders are getting ready for their program this week. (Yikes!) And of course, we have had a LOT of staff development activities that have taken up time. I will look forward to "regular school" starting back so that our life can settle into a regular routine . . . or at least as regular as we can keep at the Flack house!

Kids are weird!

Having been around kids through babysitting, working at summer camps and teaching, you would think I wouldn't be surprised as a mom by odd things one might do. However, Lucy's fascination with a spoon this evening cannot be explained. She carried it EVERYWHERE. . . then was upset when she "misplaced" it. (In other words, Mommy put it in the dishwasher with the other dirty dishes.) Hope you enjoy these pictures of her evening adventure . . you can also look in the 14 month folder and see her first attempts at eating spaghetti. . .

Quite pleased with her spoon adventure . . . she hit it against everything!

She even took it with her when we went to play

Mommy, WHERE did my spoon go?

After we gave her one of HER spoons. . .

Her spoon fell out shortly after this because she started laughing! :)

Becoming Independent

Every day it amazes me how Lucy grows and changes. She's no longer a little baby who needs me to provide everything for her. She is becoming much more vocal and able to communicate her needs and wants. (Which lately has led to her many crying fits in the middle of the floor when her needs aren't immediately met! At what age do we learn patience?? :) Oh well, at least I am certainly learning more about patience each day!) Tonight at dinner, Lucy decided it was time to feed herself. Enjoy the photo "documentary" of our evening below!

Eating with Mommy
Hmm, I think I'll try this myself . . .

The most precious Carrot-covered face in the world

I like being able to do this myself!

Mommy, do you see me being a big girl?

MORE CARROTS!!

Fill my spoon up again, please!

Baxter enjoyed dinner time too. . .notice the carrots on Lucy's legs! :)

MMM, dinner was good!!

And this last picture, I couldn't resist because it's just so sweet. After dinner, we had a bath and then I set Lucy in her chair so that Mommy and Daddy could eat dinner. She was talking and playing with her toy remote, and then all of a sudden, the room got quiet. I looked over and here's what I saw . . . . . even after an evening of temper tantrums, this little face will get you every time!

Learning to express what we want. . . .

Lucy is learning to express what she wants to do. There aren't too many times where you have to wonder what she is thinking! For instance:

Here, Lucy is thinking, "I want to go into the other room but the door is closed."

Lucy is thinking, "Oh, I CAN open the door!!"

Now she is thinking: "I've got my baby - time to go back!"

"I've got to show baby what's outside!"

"Baby and I want to go outside!"

Look out world - here comes Lucy!

Here is a typical evening following Lucy around . . . the video is only about two minutes long, but you get the idea! :) Now that she can walk, she is EVERYWHERE! It's crazy, but so much fun!!