Arizona Trip

1 week

4 planes

4 airports

a bag full of earplugs

2 blowouts on the plane

2 runny and stuffy noses

1 anemic Daddy

2 family dinners

1 Easter Egg hunt

1 trip to the temple

2 trips to Costa Vida

3 trips to In-and-Out Burger

2 trips to the swimming pool

7 nights staying up way past bedtime

7 days of wearing flip flops and shorts

2 Grandparents

7 Uncles

7 Aunts

27 Cousins

1 exhausted family

3 people, happy to be home!

(While I brought my camera, I didn't actually pull it out until Wednesday unfortunately!)

We headed down to Arizona to see some of my family for a week.  Lucy did great on the planes and we didn't have to pull out our economy size bag of earplugs for all of the passengers.  We left bright and early (3:30am) Friday morning.  That first day she had little sleep, a cold, and a lot of people up in her grill so she was not the happiest baby on the block by the end of the day.  It was a rough night to say the least.  A few days before we left, Richard had gone to the doctor because of chronic fatigue and headaches.  He was sent home with a fever (he had a viral infection) and a few vials less of blood.  They called him on Friday once we got to AZ to tell him he had low iron.  So he was not his regular, peppy self.

   We were not quite used to it being 80 degrees outside since it snowed 6 inches just a few days before we left.  Lucy was not quite sure what to make of that golden orb radiating heat from the sky.  Or why she had on only a onesie instead of an undershirt, a long sleeve onesie, pants, and socks.  It was nice to see all of her chunk rolls on a regular basis :)

    Saturday morning we left her for the first time in the very capable hands or her cousin Ally while we went to the temple with my family.  My nephew, Mark, was going through the temple to receive his endowments to get ready for his mission to Chile in 6 weeks.  It was so great to be able to be apart of a family event again.  Missing special events is one of the hardest parts of not living close to my family.  I was nervous the entire time leaving Lucy because I knew that Ally was going to have to deal with a screaming baby!  But they and all of the other cousins survived for 4 hours.  Tegan later informed us that our baby was very loud.  Thanks Tegan.  
   We all met at Steve and Anne's for a family lunch and Easter egg hunt.  The cousins all lined up from youngest to oldest.  Ally, being the oldest cousin that actually participated, took Lucy for her turn as the youngest cousin.  Lucy got passed around to just about everyone and didn't fuss much, as long as I or Richard were in close proximity and sight.  That night, we put her to bed and then went out to dinner with Ben and Beth.  By this point I was beyond exhausted and started getting Lucy's cold.

   Sunday we went to church with Shelly and Robert.  We had a family dinner at their house with everyone again.  Monday, we finally stopped and rested.  We didn't go anywhere until that night.  Lucy took huge naps and so did we!  That night, we ate dinner with Steve and Anne's family and had family home evening.

Tuesday was another catch-up day.  Lucy took a 3 hour nap in the morning!  Then we took her swimming for about 20 minutes, which was the perfect amount of time for her.  It took a few minutes, but she warmed up to the water really quickly and with all that chunk so floated very well!  That night we ate dinner with Josh and Trish's family and spent so time with them. Wednesday was another relaxing day and that night we went to dinner with Lindsay and her kids.

 It was also a half day for Shelly's kids, so they got to spend even more time with Lucy!  Bryce and Tegan could not get enough of her.  They played with her every chance they got and loved holding her.  Every morning, Bryce was laying outside of our door waiting to see if Lucy was up.  One morning, he even peeked in a few times, and seeing that she was awake in her crib, came in and started whispering to her :)  Richard seemed to think that Bryce (who is a stick figure of a child and probably only weighs 50 lbs) could carry around a very wiggly and very strong 18 lb baby in a house that only has polished cement and tile for flooring.  And while he very nearly dropped her on her head there towards the end, he actually did okay for a few minutes.  The day before we left, Tegan told her mom that she only had 1 more day with Lucy and that it was very tragic.
Poor Lucy was very confused any time she saw my sister because half the time she thought it was me.  One morning Richard got up with her and took her downstairs so I could sleep for a little bit more.  He said that she was not too happy about it and kept looking around for me.  When my sister came down the stairs Lucy smiled and started to get happy, until she got closer and realized that it wasn't actually me.

By Thursday, Lu seemed to finally be adjusting to her schedule, of course!  We took her swimming again and it was a much quicker adjustment to the water.  She loved watching all of the kids playing in the pool.  She lasted about 30 minutes this time before she was done.  We spent all day hanging out with Shelly's family and got to see Tegan's 1st Grade program then out for ice cream afterward.

Then up bright and early to say our goodbyes and head to the airport.  On the first flight Daddy got to change the mother of all blowouts which was so bad it actually got on his shirt.  Something about changing elevation gets Lu a flowin'.  She managed to poop on all 4 plane rides, two resulting in blowouts for Richard to change.  She did great on both flights though.  And we finally made it home and I think Lucy was as happy as we were.  It was a great trip, but we are happy to be home.            

The Cut

I have had really long hair for a while, mainly due to a very traumatic short hair cut that I got just a few days before going to BYU to start college.  I shudder to think of it.  Honestly it wasn't that bad and I figured out how to do it, but there were lots of tears shed.   So I vowed never to go short again. And I have kept that promise for close to 10 years.

But having long hair isn't always great.  I don't do the best at taking care of my hair i.e. I use a brush when it is wet, I don't brush it if I don't have to.  I got huge knots in my hair and just yanked them out using a brush.  Not exactly pantene material.  And I always shed, like a ton.  But after having a baby 6 months ago, I never knew how much hair I could actually lose.  It just kept falling out.  

I have always wanted to donate my hair because I feel like my identity is so tied up in my hair that honestly I would cry a lot if I was challenged with losing it due to illness.  And not to toot my own horn, but I have really pretty hair, despite all of the damage that I cause it.  And honestly, it is really healthy because I don't use dye or a blowdryer or really anything because I never did my hair :)  So I wanted to be able to provide comfort to someone who might feel the same why I would by losing their hair.

But I always started getting the shakes anytime I thought of having short hair again.  I would always get up my courage to cut the 10 inches, but then back out.  Well I finally did it.  I figured if it was all falling out, and if Lucy was going to pull it, and get her little fingers wrapped up in all the hair all over the floor, it would be better short and could be of use to someone else.

So I went after she had gone to bed, walked in and told them I was donating.  No backing out.  They had to divide my hair into two ponytails because it was too thick to cut just one.  So they chopped it off and I felt about 10 lbs lighter afterward.  I mailed my two, 10 inch pony tails off to the Pantene wig program.  And done. And don't mind the somewhat scary pictures!

Before

After

Four and Five Months

Fourth Month Stats:
Weight: 15.6 lbs
Height: 25.1/4 inches
Head Circumference: 16 1/4 inches

No five month stats because no Dr. appt.  Needless to say, she is still a chunk-monster.

Lucy's Loves:

• Her Feet.  Anytime she can see them she grabs them.
• Laughing at her parents
• Jumping in the Jumperoo
• Being naked.  As soon as the diaper is off, she wiggles her little bootie and smiles because she is free.  
• Putting everything into her mouth, especially her fingers, our fingers, our faces, etc.
• Talking, singing and wiggling
• Blowing raspberries
• Looking in the bathroom mirror and playing in the empty sink
• Changing the pitch of her voice.  She will squint up her face and let out a high, banshee screech.
• Being held out so she can see the world
• Getting thrown into the air
• Rolling around on the floor
• Practicing sitting up
• Getting tickled, kissed, and smooshed
• "Eating" rice cereal, although we are still working on the basics of eating
• Watching tv anytime it is on.  She will crane around while laying on the floor to look at it if it is on.
• Her Mom and Dad.  Already getting clingy and separation anxiety sometimes.  We never know when she will be okay with someone else and when she will want
• Eating.  She takes it very seriously.  Once I sit down with her to feed her, she starts to hyperventilate and cry not understanding why it the food is not coming as soon as we sit.
• Grabbing anything she can, including Mommy's hair

Not Her Favorite:

• Getting a diaper change after waking up, but before being fed.  She does not like to postpone her meals at all.
• Having a diaper put back on her.  As mentioned above she loves being naked.  She will push off of us and wiggle away, or roll over to get out of a new diaper.
• Waking up before she is done sleeping.  This is especially difficult when she wakes up during a sleep transition and won't go back to sleep so we just end up with a crazy cranky baby!
• Taking a nap after Daddy comes home from work.  Once he is home she thinks it is party time!
• Not having her Mom or Dad in sight
• Pacifiers.  She will only kind of play with them now or use it only if we are holding her to go to sleep (like at church).  Otherwise she will take one or two sucks and then projectile spit it.
• Tummy Time.  Still not a huge fan.
• Being held like a baby to go to sleep.  She will arch her back and scream and cry until you either hold her up or lay her in her crib.  This makes Sunday naps during church rather difficult these days.