Lucy the talker!

Yep, that's right....Lucy is talking!  Who would have thought just a few weeks of in-home speech therapy (combined with a weekly 3 hour night class, a workbook, 2 dedicated parents and a loving big brother) could completely transform a little girl?!?  After learning some basic communication tools we could use with Lucy she just started saying so many wonderful words!

About a month ago Lucy was only saying "mama" and "uh-oh"  with lots of random babbling.  Now she is saying: hi, bye, mama, daddy, uh oh, doggie, cat, moo, ruff ruff, baa, roar, ooh ooh aah aah, ouch, up, all done, meow, quack quack, buzz (lightyear, of course), help and no (which is cute right now but probably won't be so cute in a few months). 

It's been really exciting to watch her learn, imitate and practice new sounds.  It's been encouraging to see the tools work, challenging to observe, wait and listen at times (or OWL for my SLP friends) and a lot of work.  But she's talking.  And it's great.  Really, really great. 

So here are some fun moments in the life of our favorite little girl during the past month. 

At almost 21 months she is truly one-of-a-kind. She is a rule follower, an organized neat freak (hmm..wonder where she got that from???), kind, loving, likes to test limits, a mix of super girly and ready to wrestle, sweet, cuddly and just the perfect compliment to our family.
We love you Lucy and couldn't be more proud of you this past month!

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fair time.

The opening weekend of the Puyallup  Washington State Fair we drove down to check it out.  Since Lucy can't really do rides yet we thought it'd be fun to just have a day with Carter and let Lucy spend some quality time with the grandparents.  So Matt's parents babysat and we headed to the fair!

First stop, of course, were scones.  Yum!

Carter liked the rides last year and LOVED them this year!  We just walked through Sillyville and he got to choose what to do....which was basically everything.

He was a little bummed on the parachute ride because another little boy and his mom sat next to him. Oops.

 He loved the swings!  And I was glad when it was over. 

 There was a new tractor section where kids could "drive" around a farm.  And surprisingly it wasn't too crowded and was free!

 Little chicks.  I think we have this same picture when Carter was only 9 months old (obviously with other baby chicks).

 Pettin' the sheep!

 And the big slide.  This was all of our favorite ride and he would have gone over and over again if it didn't mean climbing 500 stairs each time.

 While we were waiting for Matt to grab lunch we took a few selfies. I had such a fun day with just him.

 His not-so-healthy lunch.

 After over 5 hours, countless rides, lots of sugary treats and about 2.8 miles of walking we all had our fill of the fair.  I was so proud of how well Carter did.  There were never any whines, meltdowns or tantrums.  And he walked the entire time! Poor kid was exhausted and barely stayed awake as we put him in the car.  We can't wait for next year!

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just keep swimming.

 It has been an incredible summer.  We have so many warm, sunny days spent outside playing, running, biking, swinging and....swimming!  There is a great beach just 15 minutes from our house which the kids now love.  It has the perfect mix of nice, soft sand (as opposed to the normal rocky sand most of us are used to!) and a great kids swimming area.  Both kids run to the sand, take off their shoes, get their lifejackets on and take off into the water.  Even Lucy who usually is a bit timid of the water has ran in the last 2 times we went.

 We went back to Juanita beach over the weekend so Matt could see the kids swim and spent over 1.5 hours in the water.  Lucy's new puddle jumper is the perfect size for her and has given her so much confidence.  She now loves to back float and kick her little frog legs.

 Of course we spent some time playing in the sand too.

 And when it was time to go home the kids insisted they hold each other's hand.  Cutest sibling moment ever.

 The next day we pulled out the backyard pools and swam again.  Lucy is fearless in this pool, it's actually pretty funny.  Carter, being his normal 3 year old self, wanted to jump off the slide, slip onto his back and splash like crazy.  So, naturally, Lucy did the exact.same.thing. Only she weighs 23 pounds less and slides around a bit more but never once complained or whined when she face planted over and over again.  She just wiped the water off her face and did it again!

I'm soaking up every last sunny day until fall comes.  I just love this season!

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