Lucy Goes to the Zoo

For her birthday this year, Grandma Tory and Grandpa Dan bought us a membership to the Oregon Zoo.  Ben and I both love the zoo, and with a membership we can go when we are in Portland, and stay as long or as little as we'd like.  We went yesterday, as it was supposed to be dry and sunny.  It was cold, and almost snowing!  But we bundled Lucy up, as I was determined to get in to see Lily, the new baby elephant.  We got in just in time - we were the last group to see Lily yesterday!  I was giddy with excitement.  She is soooo cute!  Almost a month old and 375 pounds.  It was fun to see her running around and playing with all the stuff in her pen.

Lucy did great, even though it was pretty dang cold.  She could clearly see all the animals, and she was getting excited and waving and "talking" to them.  We saw the elephants, monkeys, polar bears, and penguins.  Next time we will spend some more time seeing more animals.  The penguins were very cute and Lucy had a blast standing up next  to the glass.  It was feeding time, so they were eating, playing, and swimming right where we were.

Here are some pictures from our day!

Baby Lily, hanging out with her mom Rose Tu

Family Picture - Lucy could barely sit still long enough to take it!

JOY

 

Merry Christmas!

We survived our 2nd Christmas!  Quite different this year than last.  Last year we were home with a 3 day old baby, trying to figure everything out.  This year, we have a 1 year old who is so interested in everything!

We stayed Christmas Eve at my moms with plans to go to church Christmas morning.  We got out of Church because mom ended up with an ear infection and needed to go into the ER for antibiotics.  Luckily we were in and out in a flash and she was feeling better by Christmas morning!

Lucy had fun going through her stockings (one from us and one from Grammie), and opening up a few gifts.  Her attention span is that of a goldfish, so just a few gifts was a good idea!

We came back home Christmas afternoon for dinner and family time with Ben's parents, Aunt Hanna and Uncle Brandon.

Now all of the decorations are packed up and put away until next year!

A Birthday Poem

For Lucy's first birthday celebration, Grandma Tory wrote Lucy (and Ben and I) the sweetest poem.  She read it at her party which was very, very special.  It is going straight into her baby book.  Here it is!

For Lucy's First Birthday

Blessed be the mind, that dreamed the day,
The blueprint of your life
Would begin to glow on earth,
Illuminating all the faces and voices
That would arrive to invite
Your soul to growth.

Praised be your father and mother,
Who loved you before you were,
And trusted to call you here
With no idea of who you would be
Sure in the unseen providence
That has chosen you three, to be a family.

Blessed be the grow in your parents relationship
As they stand united in their love for you
Encouraging your exploration,
Growth and delight in this world, new to you.

Blessed be those who are not with us
to witness the fledgling of Lucy
From beyond the skies and the stars
For all the days and years to come
Distance will never be able to cut them off
They are with you Lucy
By your side, whispering words of encouragement
hand on your shoulder -
Guiding your emerging spirit
With the wisdom only they know.
Your joyful guardians from the other side.

Today on this echoing day of your birth
We celebrate you Lucy
For all you have brought to us in this first year
And all your will bring to the world in years to come.

We are blessed by you little one.

Love, Grandma Tory

Happy Birthday Lucy!

Well, we survived Lucy's 1st birthday.  By the end of the day mom, dad, and Lucy were all asleep by 7:30pm.  We had a great morning at home, and in the afternoon had family over to Grammie Connie's for soup, cake, ice cream, and PRESENTS!  And oh my did Lucy get some great gifts.  From Auntie Nora she got a great little purple arm chair with her name embroidered on it.  It made a great backdrop for our pictures.  Grammie got her some new clothes and a stroller that she can walk and push along.  Uncle Jim and Aunt Sue got her the Tickle Monster book which we love!  Aunt Kay and Uncle Jack got her some new books, and brought some toys handed down from the Peterson Family.  Right now she is digging into a huge container of Duplo blocks that were cousin Brian's (who is now 18!), then Noah and Ethan's.  She also got this very cool chair/activity center that she loves talking to and sitting on.  Grandpa Dan and Grandma Tory got her some new toys and our family a membership to the Oregon Zoo!  Aunt Hanna and Uncle Brandon got her a Rody bouncy horse.  She has had fun trying to climb and bounce all over it the past couple of days!

For her birthday cake we made a small cake with applesauce instead of sugar.  And instead of frosting I frosted it with plain yogurt - which is one of her favorite foods.  It was funny to watch her eat it. She went straight for the yogurt, tried the cake, and then threw it on the ground!  My mother was a little bit annoyed with my choice in cake and frosting, but come on, do babies NEED that much sugar?  Lord knows I could use a little less sugar in my diet! :)

Here are some pics from the day.  We are so very lucky to have this happy girl in our lives.

Hanging out in her new chair in her special birthday shirt!

Yummy cake!

So tired.

Back home, taking a ride on Rody!

Just hanging out with one of her new toys!

Kindermusik = FUN!!!

This weekend Tory and I took a little road trip up to Monroe, WA just outside of Seattle to stay with cousin Beth, celebrate the holidays, do some crafting, and most of all HAVE FUN!  I was just starting to feel better from my bout with strep throat and wasn't sure if we'd still be going.  I am so glad we did.  The weekend was fast and fun and we are all exhausted but it was totally worth it.

Beth is a Kindermusik teacher.  She, along with her business partners-in-crime, own and operate many Kindermusik studios throughout the Seattle area.  See her website here:  www.studio3music.com  She also has a really cool blog: www.studio3music.com/blog

Saturday morning we got the chance to attend a Kindermusik class in Redmond, WA.  Beth wasn't teaching, but Miss Anna was and we had a blast!  Miss Beth was like a celebrity.  She knew all the kids and parents and they all loved her.  Lucy loves music, so doing this class with her and Beth and Tory was so much fun.  She loved all of the songs, and laughed and giggled the entire time.  Some of the highlights for Lucy were the songs with the scarves.  She loved the feeling of the scarf moving across her face.  During one of the songs we made a line and all got the chance to run through the scarves.  Lucy had this look of pure joy on the face when we ran through, which Tory captured on camera.  Her face also lit up when Miss Anna dumped out a bag of 20 soft bouncy balls.  She was going for them all!  And at the end we sang Jingle Bells and took a sleigh ride!  These "sleighs" were simply laundry baskets with a rope, that provide endless options for singing and having fun.  Lucy actually cried when we put the "sleigh" away.  I have a great video of the sleigh ride, but after 30 minutes I gave up on trying to download it.

Thank you Beth, for letting us coming experience Kindermusik with you.  It was incredible.  We can't wait to come up again.

Shake Your Scarf!

Lucy, listening to Miss Anna.

The sleigh.  Probably the coolest thing ever in Lucy's opinion!

Thanksgiving

As an adult, Thanksgiving has quickly become my most favorite holiday of the year.  I am so happy that I am now a part of the "Brownsmead Thanksgiving" tradition.  Eating together as a community at the grange is the best way to do Thanksgiving.  We only prepare one or two dishes, and get to choose from about 30 different dishes with 50 of our closest family and friends!  

This year was very special because it was Lucy's first Thanksgiving.  We started the day at Grammie Connie's for brunch.  I unfortunately, had a migraine, so I was not much fun and not too thankful.  As usual, my mom stuffed us full of food and sent us home with more food to enjoy all weekend.  

Aunt Hanna and Uncle Brandon were in town and they came to the rescue and helped watch Lucy so Ben could cook up our mashed potatoes and I could lay down and keep the migraine at bay.  After laying in bed for over 3 hours, I finally got up just in time to head out for dinner.

Dinner at the grange was fabulous.  There were some new dishes this year that were so yummy.  My favorites were Jan Johnson's pumpkin casserole, and the sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top.  So bad for you, but sooooo good!  We ended up with lots of leftover mashed potatoes and not much else, but we do have a turkey in the freezer that we'll cook for ourselves sometime this month.  

Catching Up

Where did I go????  I'm not sure, but I am here now!

It is my goal to update the blog at least once per month.  I even put the address on our Christmas letter, so I guess I will have to live up to my end of the deal.

Lucy is now 11 months old.  She crawls, pulls herself up, talks, yells, and has 6 teeth.  She is not walking *yet* but my guess is that she will be sometime around her 1st birthday.  For now the crawling is just fine with us!

Here is a recent picture:

Baby Food Adventures

Lucy has recently become quite the chow hound and LOVES to eat in her high chair.  At first she would take a few bites just to please me, and now when I put her in her chair to eat she squeals and screams between bites.  Yesterday she grabbed the spoon away from me and proceeded to put the food in her mouth all by herself.  I have been wanting to make my own baby food and have a little here and there, but this weekend I finally did a few big batches thanks to Debbie for giving me an awesome baby food cookbook, and my Uncle Jim and Aunt Sue for giving me the "Ninja" Blender system for my birthday!

Not only is making your own baby food better for baby, it is also considerably cheaper.  I was given some baby food, so hadn't bought any until last week.  I had lots of fun picking out different kinds and then realized that even on sale, the $10 worth of food that I bought was going to last about a week.

So instead of buying baby food at Safeway this weekend, I loaded up on some great produce.  We also bought some at a local farm/fruit stand in Clatskanie.  Here is a quick re-cap of what I made followed by pictures:

The first thing I made with my new blender was split peas with zucchini.  I got the idea for the split peas from the cookbook that Debbie gave me called "The Everything Organic Cooking for Baby and Toddler Book".  I cooked one cup of split peas on the stove, and steamed 2 small zucchini.  The split peas came from the bulk bin from our local co-op and I am certain that one cup costs 50 cents or less.  The zucchini was 50 cents because it was in the "less than perfect" bin - meaning that it had 2 small scrapes on the side.  So I ended up with two ice cube trays of food!  I freeze it, then pop it out and put it in ziplock freezer bags.

Later in the day I decided to just keep on cooking.  So I made a sweet potato, and pureed that with some fresh kale and carrots.  The sweet potato was from Safeway ($1) and the kale came Grandpa and Grandma's garden, and the carrots were from my garden!  Again, I got one ice cub tray of food that I froze and then put in freezer bags.

This morning I noticed that we had some hash brown potato patties in the freezer that needed to be used.  I think for the whole pack they were $2, but this pack had 3 left...so not really any money to me.  I cooked them, and then steamed some cauliflower that I picked up at the farm stand for $1.50 and some more of my fresh carrots.  I blended it together and at the last minuted added a couple of tablespoons of nutritional yeast.  I get this yeast from our co-op and love the flavor.  In my baby cookbook I found this blurb about it (I often have family and friends ask me what it is, and I have no answer except "AWESOME!"  I love it on salads, roasted veggies, popcorn, and kale).  "Nutritional Yeast is an inactive yeast that is grown on molasses.  It is used as a flavoring agent and as a nutritional supplement as it proves protein and B vitamins.  Some nutritional yeast is enriched with vitamin B12, a vitamin often lacking in the diets of vegetarians.  Do not confuse this yeast with active yeast however!"

And finally I just finished my last baby food adventure of the weekend.  I used a recipe from my new book for Quinoa and Peaches.  I am new to quinoa but like the flavor and the cookbook has this to say about it "Quinoa has been grown in South America for more than 6,000 years.  The incas revered quinoa as the "mother of all grains" due to its unique nutritional properties.  It has a good amount of balanced protein and is high in fiber, phosphorous, magnesium and iron."  I cooked the quinoa and put it in the Ninja with peach puree that I canned last summer and a fresh mango that was $1.00 at Safeway.  It made almost a full tray of baby food and it cost just under $2 for the entire batch!

Please share with me your favorite food combos that you have made...or maybe a combo that you think Lucy would like?!?!

OK enough already...here are some pictures from our food adventures!

Pureed split peas and zucchini in my new Ninja!

To the ice cube tray

This thing is AWESOME.  Get yourself one.  Thank me later!

Chopped fresh, yummy, dark green Italian kale.

Finished product: sweet potato, kale, and carrot.

Another finished product: potato, cauliflower, carrot and nutritional yeast.

And finally, quinoa with peach and mango.

Family Reunion

Last week we made our first "big trip" to Green Valley Lake, CA for the Sutherland Family Reunion!  It was a blast and Green Valley Lake was a great place to spend a few days.  The flight was from Portland to Ontario, CA and was a quick 2 hours.  Lucy did awesome both ways.  Tory and I were quite the sight in the airport with Lucy, jogging stroller, ergo, 2 suitcases, and a diaper bag, but we somehow managed to keep it all together and not lose anything!

We were so busy at the reunion visiting, playing, and having fun that I didn't really take any pictures.  Lucy had lots of fun meeting her cousins.  Holden is just one day younger than Lucy...and about twice her size!

Family!

Enjoying the airplane ride!

Playing with dad.

Lucy and Holden, born less than 24 hours apart!

Ayla enjoying some time with Lucy.

Lucy checking out Holden while chilling in the wagon.

6 Months Old!

Wow -  Our baby Lucy Noelle is already 6 months old!  The school year is over and we are officially on Summer Vacation!  We plan on spending the summer swimming (which she LOVES), walking, spending as much time as possible outside and visiting friends!

Lucy has been enjoying baby food each evening, usually mixed with a little bit of oatmeal.  So far she has eaten everything but particularly liked sweet potatoes and squash.  We have also tried pears, bananas, raspberries mixed with pears, peas, peaches, and apple with blueberry.

She currently has a bottom tooth coming in, but other than that she is a very happy, easy going baby!  Here are some pictures for you to see just how cute she really is!

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

I must start this post by bragging about Ben just a little bit.  He really is the best dad ever.  I always knew he was going to be great because he has so many good qualities: Ben is patient (way more so than me!), kind, caring, helpful, and loves being a father.  Ben helps out in every way from diaper changes, bath time, giving bottles, and entertaining Lucy for hours on end.

For his first fathers day, we dropped off Lucy with the grandparents and headed to Portland for a day of fun.    Ben went golfing with some friends and then we went to see a comedian at Helium Comedy Club.  Helium was lots of fun and Nick Kroll was very funny.  We enjoyed a nice walk from the East Side back to our hotel downtown.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  Here are a few pictures from our weekend:

Walking back across the Hawthorn Bridge in Portland

A night downtown isn't complete without a drink at our favorite place, Baileys Taproom!

Lucy and Dad.  Twins????

Catching Up

Does anybody know where the first 6 months of 2012 went?!?!?  It has been flying by.

Lucy is now 5 months old and sits right at 15 pounds.  She laughs, rolls over (on occasion), and loves to stick her whole hand in her mouth.  We have been very busy lately with lots going on.  The most important recent happening was Aunt Hanna and Uncle Felix's wedding!  Lucy did great as the flower girl and like any good partier, passed out about 2 hours into the reception.

With just 2 short weeks of school left, I am excited to have some more time with her and to hopefully blog just a little bit more regularly!

Until then, here are some pictures:

She still loves bath time.

Sleeping after a hard day of playing!

4 Months Old

I can't believe that Lucy is already 4 months old!  We went in to see Dr. Nairn on Thursday for her 4 month check up.  She is doing great and growing like a week.  13 pounds and 25 inches long.  She is right about average for both her height and weight!

Lucy is a very happy baby and spends her days with Grandpa Dan and Akiko when I am at work.  She happily bounces back and forth and gives me a big smile when I pick her up at the end of the day which is a great reward after a long day of work!  

She is *thisclose* to rolling over and eats A LOT both breastmilk and bottle.  Her cheeks are getting bigger by the day.

Here are some recent pictures:

Hanging out in her bouncy chair swing!

Always happy to get her diaper changed.

On  the way to Akiko's house.

Hanging out at the doctors office at her 4 month check up.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I apologize for the lack of blog updates recently. I promise I haven't forgotten about you.

Lucy's day looks like this:

7:00am - Wake up, nurse

7:30 - Off to the babysitter

Eat, sleep, play, eat, play, sleep, eat, play, etc, etc.

7:00pm - Bath

7:30 - Eat and go to bed!

Mom's day looks like this:

5:30 - Up and in the shower

6:00 - Pump

7:00 - Get Lucy up and nurse and off to the sitter

7:30 - Teach

11:00 - Pump again and eat lunch as quickly as possible

11:30 - Teach

2:30 - Pump again

3:45 - Off to pick up Lucy

4:30 on - Nurse, nurse, try to eat dinner, nurse some more and get ready for the next day!

I am very lucky to have a great husband who helps out a ton in the evening. He cooks when Lucy is nursing, holds her so I can eat, and does the bath, bedtime bottle, and lots of other stuff in between!

She is a very happy baby and our days are very busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way.