And so it begins...

We had a busy weekend at the Storm household - Grandpa Ken and Grandma Nola came to visit! Lucy has been having lots of fun playing with them. :) On Sunday we visited the Children's Museum - always a favorite!!

 

 

 

We went out for brunch and cut through the Capitol on our way back toward church.

 

 

I think that it was Lucy's first time in the Wisconsin Capitol. She was very curious about the rotunda, lots of great things to see and echo-y sounds to hear.

 

After Sunday afternoon naps, we got down to business and started our first steps of packing/cleaning/decluttering/donating stuff/throwing things away around the house. We are planning to put our house on the market this spring and we have lots to do! Ken and Nola have been a.w.e.s.o.m.e. They have been helping us clean, boxing things up, doing house repairs, and keeping an eye on Lucy. We have a big task ahead of us but, someday when we move into a new place, it will all be worth it!! :)

 

Here are our boxes of books - all packed up and ready to head to a storage unit.

 

 

 

Lucy and grandma made sure that her books found a new home on the bookshelf in the office.

 

 

Dan and I started cleaning out the basement. Ugh. Let's just say that it is one of those projects that is going to get worse before it gets better. Our basement has been a dumping ground recently for all of our old baby things, dog stuff, all things hunting, everything that we are intending to toss/give to St. Vincent de Paul's. Um...right now you can barely walk down there! Yikes! Here is a before picture:

 

Hopefully I will have a nice after picture to share with all of you in a few weeks.

 

What types of treasures are we finding to donate? Well, don't be jealous, but here are some of the items that we are parting with at the Storm household:

 

A Santa Fe quesadilla maker.

This small appliance was used for some pretty fabulous late night quesadilla creations...

 

The game of Life - circa 1988.

I don't think that I have played this game for at least 15 years but somehow I managed to store it in our basement for quite some time.... :)

 

 

15 Month Appointment

Lucy had her 15 month well child visit a few days ago. Here is the latest and greatest on our growing girl!

 

First, the stats:

Weight: 22 lbs - 58th Percentile

Height: 31.2 inches - 60th Percentile

Head Circumference: 18.9 inches - 93rd Percentile

 

We talked about lots of things...

Lucy is meeting and exceeding all of the 15 month milestones - she knows and can point to lots of body parts, she says lots of words and is making some awesome animal noises, and she is running all over the place.

Lucy had an eczema recheck. Despite the dry winter air, Lucy's skin is looking good for the most part - however, she has some nasty cracked skin behind her left ear that just won't heal up with our usual prescription cream. Dr. Rainwater wrote us a script for a stronger steroid cream for that ear - hopefully it will do the trick!

Lucy also got 3 shots but she only has 1 immunization left for her 18 month appointment and then we are done with her baby/early childhood vaccinations! Yay!

 

Finally, the primary topic of conversation at all of our doctor's visits, Lucy's eating habits and texture aversion! :) We have made some great progress - Lucy is finally really interested in self-feeding! She is eating all kinds of smooth things - yogurts, purees, crunchy things - crackers, toast, limited steamed veggies like sweet potatoes and cooked carrots, and scrambled eggs. Lucy's top 2 teeth came in around 14 months and, now that she has 4 chompers and counting, she seems more willing to munch on things. Dr. Rainwater said that Lucy has exceeded her expectations for where she thought her eating skills would be at 15 months. One area to watch is that Lucy is still not feeding herself any fruits and very limited veggies - we think that this still might be a texture thing, fruits might feel/taste a little too slimy to her. Who knows! In the meantime we are giving her fruit and veggie smoothies. Lucy is definitely still a kid that needs to see something 15 to 20 times before she will try it so we are working to be persistent about surrounding her with all types of foods. Her new daycare has been really wonderful about presenting her with new food options too. We are very thrilled with Lucy's recent progress in feeding!

 

Here are some sweet pictures of Lucy spinning the office chair around as were waiting for her providers. Guess what - Dr. Rainwater is having a baby in April so she won't be in the office for Lucy's 18 month appointment. When she left she reminded me that the next time she will see us will be when she meets our newborn this summer! Wow!!

 

Weekend Update

Just a couple of quick photos from the weekend!

 

Lucy and I spent lots of time (and money!) at Babies R Us on Saturday afternoon. We were busy buying baby gifts for little Peter and we ended up finding fun things for Lucy too! :)

 

 

On Saturday night we went to a party at the Dreyer household. So fun! What a blast from the past - lots of people from my Fresno days! :) There were lots of kids in attendance and tons of toys. Lucy had a great time. She love, love, loved this ball pit. Here she is hanging out with Ryan. Super cute.

 

MIA

Laundry time at the Storm household! :)

 

I have a little pile of orphan socks that hangs out in the bottom of Lucy's basket - when I collect her clothes from the dryer I am always hoping to find their matches. No such luck - this pile continues to grow! Somehow we have 10 or 12 baby socks that are missing in action. Maybe they have been eaten by our washing machine or dryer!?! Weird.

 

Lots to Love!

Big news this week from the Storm household! We have a new nephew - little Peter Anthony was born on Monday evening. We are so excited! Congratulations to Kevin, Katie, and big sister Anna! We are so happy for all of you. Lucy can't wait to meet her new little cousin. :)  We are looking forward to a trip to South Dakota at Easter time to meet this little guy. Yay!

 

 

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day! Lucy was spoiled with packages from both sets of grandparents and Uncle Austin/Aunt Mallory.  Thanks for the fun clothes, books, and treats everyone!

 

 

We opened cards together and read books. (Side note: Check out Lucy's fingers in this picture. When we read her book - 8 Little Monkeys, she follows along and shakes her little finger of blame with the line, 'Mama called the Doctor and the Doctor said, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" It is super cute. Not sure who or what she was scolding in this case.)

 

 

We got some great books in the mail from the grandparents! This one had puppies/kittens that Lucy could pet. Lucy l-o-v-e-s books with different textures.

 

 

This one has become a recent favorite at the Storm household, a lift the flap book looking for our sweetie pie!

 

 

Daniel celebrated Valentine with a dental appointment in the morning. His dental hygentist gave him a pink carnation for coming to visit! Guess what, he regifted it to me! How romantic! :) Lucy loved it. She smelled it all night and ended up breaking it apart in her hot little hands.

 

 

Daniel made a delicious dinner for the 2 of us! Pasta!

 

 

And Dessert! It.was.awesome.

 Finally, a picture of Lucy sporting her Valentine's pjs with hearts and pigs! What a little sweetheart!

 

Lots of love to everyone!!

Valentines, Yoga, and Childrens Museum

We had a busy weekend at the Storm Household! In addition to the sledding party (previously blogged about) we put together Valentine packages for the cousins, went to family yoga at the local library, and met up with friends for brunch and playtime at the Children's Museum. Mama and Lucy even managed to sneak in a long Sunday afternoon nap!

 

On Saturday morning we put together Valentine's packages for all the Hoekman cousins! We are sending lots of love to South Dakota along with these treats:

 

 

Lucy helped decorate the cards with lots of stickers. :)

 

Mama and Lucy attended a Family Yoga class at the library. I was worried that it might be a disaster (Lucy running all of the place) but I figured that we had a good escape route--we could always make a quick exit and just go look at the books. It was actually an awesome experience - Lucy was captivated by the other kids and all of yoga moves. She even did a a little downward dog by herself. :) She was so excited and made all kinds of funny shrieks/other happy noises as we read stories, sang songs, and did our stretches. Love it! 

 

On Sunday we met up with the Nye family to go out for brunch and visit the Childrens museum. Thank you for the membership, Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Glen!! Lucy has not been the museum as a completely mobile little toddler before so it was a whole new experience! She had such a great time running around.

 

Lucy climbed around with her Dad.

 

She played with some baby chick puppets.

 

Lucy was a pro at the shape sorter!

 

And she played really nicely with her friend Charlotte.

 

What a fun weekend! So much fun spending time with our baby girl!

Sledding

We took Lucy sledding for the first time on Saturday afternoon! Yay for winter fun! Some friends of ours hosted a sledding party - they have a nice hill in their backyard. :)

 

Lucy was able to catch up with old friends. Here is our bundled up little peanut with her buddy Sophia. Aren't they cute?

 

Lucy also played with MacKenzie. MacKenzie is able to walk but not in her snow gear. :)

 

Lucy went down the hill a few times with both mama and dad. She loved it and giggled the first few times but didn't like it toward the end...

 

 

 

We had a great time - there was a lot of good snow and the temperature was just right for some sledding - not too cold from the kiddos to be out!

Lucy has some big news!

 

Lucy has some big news to share!

 

 

She is going to be a big sister!! Yep, we have another baby Storm on the way! :) This was a big surprise for our family but we are excited for another little peanut to join our household. Mama and baby are doing well, we just passed the 12 week mark and our little guy or gal is growing exactly like we would expect. Yay!

 

Baby Storm is due on August 20. We can't wait to have a baby around the house again.

Lucy is going to be a fantastic big sister!

 

Lots of love from the Storm family!

Lucy's 1st Day

Lucy started at her new day care on Monday morning! She was sad when mama dropped her off but she warmed up to her new friends and teachers right away.

 

Here are some pictures from her first day. She loved their little kitchen sink and cupboards.

 

 

She also checked out the mirror - she likes to give herself kisses in mirrors these days. :)

 

We got a great report - Lucy took a nap in her little cot, she shared crayons during coloring time, she tried some crackers and hummus for snack, she loved playing with all of the new toys and meeting new friends.

Super Bowl Sunday

We had our friends Jason and Greta over to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday. I wasn't super excited about the game, Dan had to remind me which teams were playing in it on Saturday, but it actually turned out to be a pretty entertaining evening! Good game, good friends, and good food. We had a build your own nachos bar at the Storm household and it was awesome! I was looking forward to nachos all week and was not disappointed. :)

 

While mama worked on the nacho prep, Lucy crawled on top of her personal jungle gym AKA Chief.

 

 

 

 

Here it is!! Nacho glory.

 

Daniel's plate of Nacho goodness.

 

Happy Super Bowl everyone!

Weekend Guest

Our house was full of dogs this weekend! We watched our friend Melissa's pup Koda over the weekend while she was in South Dakota. Lucy loved having an extra dog around the house and Koda was spoiled with a toddler throwing food on the floor. 

 

Lucy can now say the word Chief, (we still can't quite say Scout), and, when prompted, she can make a dog noise - Arf, Arf!

 

 

Our dog friends - Koda, Scout, and Chief

9 to 5 for 365!

It has been 1 year since this mama went back to work! Can you believe that our sweet little 12 week old has grown into this awesome 64 week old toddler? Wow!

 

 

I am no longer pumping all of the time (yay!), I don't cry at work everyday (which was definitely happening last February), and we have our little routine down where Mama drops off in the morning, Lucy enjoys her days playing with the kids at daycare, and Daddy picks her up in the evenings. I do like being at work - it is nice to have adult conversation, it feels good to complete projects, and we do need things that a job provides like health insurance and money for our mortgage. That being said, I will admit that I daydream about quitting everything and just staying at home with Lucy pretty much every day but that is just not in the picture right now. So I am treasuring my nights and weekends with our baby girl and I am considering myself very lucky to have good childcare and such a supportive husband. Love you Lucy!!