Meat Sauce and Gymnastics...

Weird?!? You wonder how those things go together? Meet our little Lucy at 11 1/2 months!

I made Johnny Marzetti the other night for dinner and let Lucy try some. It was a HIT! She loved the meat sauce and said "mmmm...mmmm" with every bite.


She even ate the pasta! (I was happy about this because she has refused pasta at every other attempt I've made.)


"How big is Lucy?"

SOOOO BIG! :)


And now for the gymnastics...(I had to think long and hard for a nice word to describe her newest trick!)

"Awww...look how cute she is sitting in her chair!" [Humor me and admit you just thought that?]

Don't let this little smile and wave fool you...


Because seconds later you she will dive head first, in a forward roll, out of the chair, onto the carpet in hysterics.

She will quickly look around to see who saw her "sweet trick."

"Gosh Mom, you don't find this funny?"

"You know Dad thought it was pretty cool!"

"HAHAH!" Let the fun begin with an adventurous almost 1 year old!

[Check out that front tooth!!! See the second one peeking through, too?]

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

Denny and I just made yet another difficult decision for Lucy. Choosing the right childcare for Lucy has been a very difficult and challenging experience for us. This is no surprise though, as I can remember e-mailing prospective caretakers last November before Lucy was even born! We wanted Lucy to be safe, loved, able to nap, not getting sick, mentally stimulated, read to, etc, etc....basically we were looking for the closest thing to being with Mom and Dad that we could find.

Lucy started at Little Village Academy in August of 2010 when I returned to work. We were very happy with this daycare and especially her teachers. Debbie and Melissa loved Lucy so much and she was always happy to see them(and the other babies.) She ate well, played, and was safe there. They took good care of her each day and she developed a close bond with them. But on the other hand, she napped horribly because there was too much going on(some days she took a 20 minute nap the entire 8 HOUR DAY!) and she got sick WAY TOO MUCH for our liking. If it wasn't a running nose, then it was a cough. If it wasn't a cough, it was a stomach bug.

Lucy with Ms. Debbie and Ms. Melissa on her last day! :(


The final straw occurred over Christmas break for me. Lucy had a bad cold that turned into an ear infection. She was prescribed amoxicillin to fight the ear infection. Days later she was having explosive diarrhea and not acting herself. Mother's instinct told me this wasn't right and I called the doctor. After another day, she was off the meds but still feeling bad. We weren't able to travel to Toledo for the holidays until a day later than planned and Lucy wasn't herself all Christmas break. Not sleeping well, not eating at ALL, and she just wanted to be held! She barely was able to play with her new toys and family! I vividly remember the pit in my stomach those days. Something just didn't feel right. Christmas night I told Denny I wanted to start looking for other care and he supported my plan.

Let the fun begin....e-mails, facebook messages, texts, craiglist, and many phone calls later we had setup interviews with two women in Granville. I was looking for a stay-at-home mom with another child currently at home for Lucy to play with, in a safe-loving home. Both women we interviewed were GREAT and we ended up choosing Megan. She is a mother of a third grade boy, Trevor (he is in the classroom next to mine!) and a three-year-old girl, Aubrey (whom Lucy adores!) They are the most down-to-earth, kind, and loving family.

This week was Lucy's first week with Megan and I am feeling great about it. She is adjusting well and even took a 3+ hour nap one day, is eating well, LOVING Aubrey, and doing great! Megan takes notes for me each day about Lucy's day and is always eager to share tales of their day together when I pick her up!

I'm really happy with our decision despite all the work that went into it, but I know this isn't the first, or last, tough decision we will make for Lucy.


*Side Note: Lucy did her first signing tonight during dinner! She signed "more" when asking for more yogurt! We've done this sign with her for months and months and this is the first time she has done it. Before she would just wiggle and kick her legs when she wanted more-haha! But tonight she tapped her right pointer finger on her left fingers, signing "more!" I think I screamed as my heart melted...and then I gave her MORE :) GO LUCY!

Party Planning!

Lucy's big BIRTHDAY PARTY is just around the corner! While I'm not ready to admit it yet, our baby is turning ONE!

We are having a "small" family party to celebrate her big day next Sunday! Just counting the immediate family, we will have over 15 people joining us! I'm sure it will be a fun day.


The theme will be Olivia, red & black, and polka dots! I'm having a blast planning, cooking, baking, and decorating. "You know the party is over 2 weeks away?!" Denny kindly stated at dinner the other night! :) Yes, I know which means I better get going - haha!

Happy Birthday, Jon!

I hope you and Jenny and Jackson had a great weekend in Disney! We were all thinking of you today and wishing we were in Florida to celebrate.

What an exciting year this will be for you as you welcome a baby girl into your family!

Xoxo!

Snow Day Fun!

Lucy and I had a great snow day together! (Daddy too because he worked from home today.) We played, read books, walked everywhere, built towers with our blocks, and Lucy took 2 great naps in her crib!

I think Lucy's favorite game of the day was running down the hallway bringing me toys. I sat outside her room and she'd run, really you can't call it walking, to our room to grab a toy and run to bring it to me. The entire time she squealed in delight and she thought this was the best game EVER!


First came the duck...


Moments later it was the remote...


Sometimes she would forget to give it to me and would run back to the room with the same toy....here comes the duck, again!


"Anything on Daddy's bedside table I could run with?" (Seconds later she had his Kindle!)


Then she found the snow globe (in the bag of things I have yet to unpack from Christmas-ahhh)


She spent the next 30 minutes figuring out how to turn it on and off, on and off, on and off!


Lucy, I had a great Snow Day with you! I hope we have more to come in February :)

Exploring Food!

Over the past 4 months, Lucy has really enjoyed exploring new foods. She first loved baby food veggies(peas!), then preferred baby food fruits. At one point she refused to even let the veggies get hear her lips....a little attitude here for sure! She has NEVER eaten baby oatmeal or cereal of any kind. She had a minor obsession with Gerber Puffs(banana!) and now Cheerios trump those any day! She has thought MUM-MUMS were pretty amazing from day one. If she even sees the packaging she will begin to kick her legs until we get it into her hands. She will hum and say "MMMMM...MMMMM..." the entire time she eats them. She has also really gotten the hang of her sippy cup. She prefers water in it.

Her next love is BREAD....just like her Momma, she thinks it's pretty darn good. Enjoy this video of Lucy chowing on some bread in November!

eating from Frances Ehrmin on Vimeo.

(Password is Lucy)

This is also the time she learned to shake her head "NO!" :)


Our newest adventures with food this week include:
*trying ground beef for the first time and LOVING IT! It was mixed with tomato sauce from our dinner and she couldn't get enough.
*refusing every grilled cheese I made this week, even though it was a staple meal for the past 2 weeks.
*sucking on oranges until she's gotten ALL the juice out.
*chewing on apple chunks.
*transitioning from formula to whole milk! She had her first whole milk bottle this week and.....LOVED IT!
*she also has finished all the breastmilk I had stored in the freezer (yay, we know have room for food!)

This food post was sparked by cousin Anneliese! We are so proud of your noodle eating. Lucy wants to share food with you soon :)

11 1/2 Months Old and....

Lucy got her first top tooth!

This morning I peeked in Lucy's mouth when we were reading a book and sure enough her top, right tooth is peeking through! She doesn't like to let us look, but if you get a look it's about the cutest thing EVER!

11 Months Old!

Better late than never is our motto this month!

January 6, 2011 Lucy turned 11 months old


She is more active than ever and we can't take our eye off her for ONE SECOND!


She can go from sitting to standing all on her own now. She quickly puts her hand in front of herself, boosts herself up, and she's off!


Still a bit wobbly but she's also increasing speed....


New stats:
Bedtime: 7:30ish (We tried to push it back to 8:15 one evening this week and quickly realized that WASN'T a good idea!)
Wake Up Time: 5:00am!!! (Yes, she now wakes up an hour earlier, but just joins us in bed with a bottle, and falls back asleep with us. Not the best habit, but I ADORE the cuddle time and extra sleep with her!)
Bath: everyday at 7:00ish
Naps: 2-3x/day for a total of 2 hours/day (napping continues to not be so great...but we can always count on a good nap on the drive home from about 4:00-5:30pm)
Bottles:1 morning bottle, 3 x at school 5oz each., and 1 bottle before bed. She still loves her bottles!
Food: solids at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She continues with Stage 2 foods. Her favorites are Bananas, Apple, and Pears. She now REFUSES to eat baby food veggies. YoBaby yogurt is still a fav. - she likes the banana and blueberry flavors. She also loves finger foods like cheerios, puffs, rice mum-mums, and bread! New this month is GRILLED CHEESE! The first time she tired it was at lunch with cousin Ellie and she has loved it every since. She has it for dinner most nights. She also LOVES toast with cream cheese on top! (Yes, she continues the carb trend....but still will not eat pasta!)
Favorite Toys: She LOVES all her new toys from Christmas. She plays with the Fisher Price Musical Table everyday! She continues to love toys with strings and ones that make noise. She has WAY TOO many toys, so we have some in each room of the house and some even stored away for her birthday! I think she needs a big toy chest!?!
Firsts: walking, walking, walking...., she can stand up on her own now too. She is like a "sponge" right now. In just one day I taught her "How old is Lucy?" and she holds up one finger. And she also learned to wave this month! (videos coming!)

Lucy's hair continues to grow and I can even get a bow in it now!


Lucy still has just 2 bottom teeth but her top two are getting ready and 2 more on the bottom are beginning to peek through!







Lucy Josephine, it is hard to believe you are almost 1 year old! It seems like yesterday you joined our family. We love everything about you and can't wait to celebrate yet another month with you!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

This past weekend we traveled to Perrysburg to celebrate Grandpa Gary's birthday! Lucy enjoyed spending time with her family and was quite the charmer at dinner!

Lucy loves her Grandpa!

Grace also joined in the fun!


We all enjoyed a great meal together at The Real Seafood on the docks.



Then back to the Ehrmin's for cake and ice cream!


Unfortunately, Lucy had pooped out by this point and was sound asleep. Grace didn't want to miss out on the fun though!


"Happy Birthday, Grandpa!"


We wish you many, many, many more birthdays to come. We can't wait to celebrate with you!

Next year, Lucy says she wants to stay up and have some cake with you!

New Year's Eve!

This past weekend Julia, Craig, Ellie, and Anneliese ventured to Columbus to spend New Year Eve and day with us! We all enjoyed the time relaxing together.

We visited the fudge shop....obviously Ellie loved it!


I let her pick out "anything you want!" You won't be surprised to hear she picked out a candy bracelet with a large heart charm on it! ALL girl there....


Saturday was unbelievably warm for Ohio! It was almost 60 and we sat outside in German Village waiting for lunch. The warm sunshine and breeze felt amazing.

(Check out E enjoying her candy - lol!)

Lunch at Schmidt's was amazing!

(Lucy enjoyed her first "real" grilled cheese there.....she downed half of Ellie's lunch. Luckily Ellie didn't mind as she continued to enjoy her candy bracelet...ha!)

We had the most fun just letting the girls play! A and L are so close in age and enjoy each other. Ellie kept herself busy with all the new toys!


My favorite part of the weekend was A and L's first bath together. I'll let them narrate the experience.......

A - "Mom, look I'm taking a bath with Lucy!"
L - "Uh, what is SHE doing in MY bathtub?"


L - "And now you are going to wash my hair?"


A - "Where did that scream come from?"
L - scccreeech!


A - "I'm kinda digging this bath and washcloth!"
L - "Okay Mom, get me outta here!"


Oh girls, we can't wait for all the fun times(and baths) you will share together! We are so lucky to have each other!

And Off She Goes...

Just short of 11 months old and Lucy is officially walking everywhere. She is now finding this faster than crawling and thinks she is pretty hot stuff:)

Untitled from Frances Ehrmin on Vimeo.

I know I've said this 100 times...but, this is my favorite age yet! HA!