Happy Fall!

 

I just wanted to post this sweet picture of Lucy wearing her froggy stocking cap! :)

Weekend at the Pumpkin Patch

We took our little pumpkin to the patch last weekend! It was so much fun. The weather was beautiful and Lucy had a great time touching squash and pumpkins, looking at goats, and choosing our family Jack-o-lantern.

 

Here is our baby with a baby squash!

 

 

Lucy loved seeing and pointing at the goats.

 

We had to back the stroller up because this goat really wanted to eat Lucy's toes.

By the way, thanks for the cute Halloween socks, Grandma Nola!

 

How tall this fall? We measured Lucy Bear's height.

 

We walked through the apple orchard together...

 

...Before we picked out our pumpkin!

 

What a wonderful afternoon! We love you Lucy Goose!

New Toy!

So I have had my lousy Blackberry for years and I have been eagerly anticipating the release of iphone 5 before upgrading my phone. Things got worse a few weeks ago when I managed to slam my Blackberry phone in the car door. :( The screen was cracked to pieces but the phone still managed to work! I continued to use my broken phone as I waited for the iphone that I ordered online to make its way from China to my hot little hands in Madison! Not being able to use text messaging or screen my calls for the 2 week waiting period was the worst! Now I have my sweet new iphone -  yay! And, what an upgrade - It was liking moving from a rowboat to a yacht!

 

Here are the before and after pictures:

Boo.

 

Yay!

Lucy is 11 months old

 Mama tried! :) Do you remember all of those sweet pictures of Lucy sitting next to her monthly update of age and weight? Well, we just can't get this kiddo to sit still anymore! Our Lucy Goose is 11 months old. We can hardly believe it! I just ordered her 1 year birthday invitations - time is definitely flying by. Our baby girl continues to grow - she weighs just over 21 pounds these days. (Just in case you can't read the upside down sign - haha!).

Here are some pictures of our little peanut:

 

 

Lucy's favorite things: putting stuff in boxes/drawers and pulling them out again, petting the dogs, reading her books (when we say - Turn the Page! she knows exactly what to do - it is super cute), she is getting really fast - she still crawls and pulls herself up on everything. Lucy cruises around our coffee table - the other day she stood up without holding on to anything for a few seconds! Watch out! :)

 

Here is a recent picture of Lucy playing with her Cheerios in her high chair. Thanks for the Halloween Cheerio book, Grandma Nola!!

Lucy is still just playing with her Cheerios and not eating them. :( We took her in for a feeding evaluation a few weeks ago with a speech pathologist because she is still really struggling with the transition from pureed to textured food. The therapist watched Lucy eat and gave us a bunch of suggestions on introducing more textures and table food into Lucy's feeding repertoire. Lucy never really put things in her mouth as she was growing and, because she missed out on that developmental milestone, she is behind in her oral motor skills. Right now she is eating more like a 7 month old than an 11 month old. We are working to get her to try new things  - we have all kinds of special tools - chewing toys, textured spoons, books to reference, etc.! Things are moving pretty slowly and I need to remind myself to be patient at times. It just seems so easy to think, Just take a bite! but, in reality, eating takes a lot of skills and some people need more time and extra help to get there. Our pediatrician keeps assuring us that Lucy will be eating solid foods by the time she gets to kindergarten. We'll keep you posted!

Evening at the dog park

It was a beautiful fall evening so we packed everyone up and headed to the dog park! As you would expect - the dogs had a great time. Lucy had a good time too! She just loves seeing other dogs. She gets so excited to see new pups. She squeals with delight and wants to pet all of them. It is super cute.

 

Lucy, Daniel, and Chief - Scouty was off running in the woods

  

 

Lucy took a late afternoon nap and when she woke up we were at the dog park. Yay!

This picture just radiates fall. :)

 

We were able to catch a spectacular sunset.

 

We just love our puppy-loving baby and our dogs!

Visit with friends!

Last weekend we spent time with our good friends Natalie and Andre! Natalie had a conference in Madison so we had dinner on Saturday night. We had not seen these two in ~5 years and it was awesome to remember old times and catch up! What fun!

Here we are at dinner on Saturday -

Natalie and Andre were able to meet Lucy for the first time! They got Lucy a sweet Corduroy book. She loved it. :)

Thanks for meeting up with us Natalie and Andre! You guys are the best! We are so happy that we were able to spend time with you.

Moving away from pumping

Well, we reached a new milestone at the Storm household - Lucy turned 11 months old this week and we bought our first container of formula! I have been pumping twice a day at work since Lucy was a tiny baby at daycare. For the past 11 months, she has been drinking breast milk and some formula here and there from samples I got from her doctor's office. I recently scaled back to once a day pumping sessions (YAY!) and, as a result, we needed to buy some formula at Target last week.

 

My goal is to stop pumping at work by the end of October and I can't wait!! My days of pumping for Lucy Bear are quickly coming to a close.  I will definitely have a celebratory post to let you know when I put my pump into storage. :)

 

Viking Days 2012

Lucy and I headed to South Dakota last weekend while Daniel and Scout spent some time in the woods hunting with friends. I was celebrating my 10 year college reunion (Wow! Time flies!!) at Augustana College. We traveled with our dear friend Melissa (also class of 2002) from Madison to Sioux Falls. Lucy was a trooper - she did a nice job snoozing while we drove across the upper midwest. We filled the Subaru with luggage, 2 dogs (Koda and Chief), 1 baby, and 2 Augustana grads.

Here is a picture of the incredible journey. Melissa drove, I entertained Lucy in back, Chief was buckled in to the front passenger seat, and Koda perched on the luggage in the way back!

On Friday we spent the day shopping with Grandma! So fun! Lucy had dinner with Kevin, Katie, and cousin Anna on Friday evening.

 

Mama was happy that Grandma and Grandpa could babysit Lucy so that she could attend her 10 year reunion.  Here is a photo of the Class of 2002 attendees! It was so great to catch up with old friends, there were people at the reunion I had not seen in years! Good times. :)

Blast from the past - here are friends from the class of 2002 5 year reunion in 2007! We missed you this year Jenni and Kim!

 

More pictures of friends from years gone by - we missed you too LPfei!!

 

 

On Saturday Grandma Sharon, Mama and Lucy went to the Vikings Day parade. It was chilly so we needed to bundle up Lucy like a little baby burrito!

Mom and I wore our matching Norwegian sweater coats! They were nice and warm.

Before the parade started, we spent some time on campus. I visited my old mailbox - 628 - and I proved that I could still open it!

 

The parade had some nice floats!

 

We experienced another 'first' for Lucy. She had her first D-list celebrity sighting!! Mary Hart (from Entertainment Tonight hosting fame) was in the parade since she graduated from Augustana in 1972.   

 On Saturday night, I spent some time catching up with old friends:

Melissa!

 

David!



 Angie, David, and yours Truly - All Government Majors!

 While Mama spent her evening out, Lucy thoroughly enjoyed her time with Grandma and Grandpa!
She loved, loved, loved, this riding toy.

 

 

Cuddling with Grandpa Glen

Thanks for the awesome weekend Augustana friends!! You guys are the best! A special shout out to Melissa -  thanks for being my co-pilot! :)
Great to see you Mom and Dad, Kevin, Katie, and Anna! We love you!

 

A lovely September weekend

Wow! We have been enjoying the beautiful fall weather. Last weekend Ken and Nola came to visit and we spent a lot of time outside. What fun!

Dan and Ken built a new gate in the backyard. Nola and I did some landscaping - we bought plants together (and went to some garage sales on the way back from the nursery!) and worked on the yard.

Here we are planting!

 

Lucy lounged around in her Pack N Play outside. Here she is drinking a sippy cup of water!

 

 

Daniel enjoying the autumn day!

 

 

Whenever Grandma Nola and Grandpa Ken visit they bring Lucy great treats - including books and clothes. :) Here they are reading a new Halloween book to Miss Lucille.

Thanks for visiting us, Mom and Dad Storm! We love you!