Thanksgiving 09

Miss Lucia in her beautiful little dress! This special dress was a gift we received when Lucia was born from my mom's childhood best friend, Wema Fairheart (Slyter). Thank you Wema for this adorable dress! The timing was perfect to wear it for the holidays! (I'm sure you knew exactly how to figure out buying the appropriate size as an experienced mom of two adorably dressed girls!)

Our little family photo - with Miss Lucia much more interested in the deer standing literallly right outside the window!

Sitting in her highchair all ready for Turkey Dinner!

After dinner, Lucy needed a change of clothes - she smeared mashed potatoes all over the front of her dress! =) Once she was all clean again, she had fun coloring with Auntie Ally McBride! Thank you Auntie Ally for Lucia's pretty little Hanna outfit!

We are so blessed! A big thank you to my parents for hosting a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday at their perfect home! This year we enjoyed our turkey all together - the Amondson's (Neil, Susan & Mark), the Webster's (Randy, Christy & Lucy), the McBride's (Rob, Carol & Allyson), the Barker's (Craig, Cathy & Kyle) & Grandma Ruby with her boyfriend, Flores. Once we figured out our way taking the backroads to avoid a chaotic I-5, we had a great time with such fun company! Love you all!

These boots were made for walkin'

In our pre-baby days, we enjoyed a trip to the Caribbean with a day in Cancun, Mexico... Starting off the day in Cancun, I enjoyed a few margaritas & then headed out for some shopping... Needless to say, margaritas before shopping make for some interesting purchases & among those were these silly cowboy boots! I've owned them for 4 years & wore them once - now twice if you consider this photo op when Lucia wore them. Silly little girl! She loves shoes & is always trying on different pairs & carrying them around the house.

Discovering Crayons

Last week on a rainy day, we had exhausted our options of what to do & I was trying to keep my busy toddler from going stir-crazy... Luckily, we had a great time coloring together! I just love spending time with my sweet little Lucy, it's so much fun to watch her grow before my eyes!

Penelope Gita is growing up!

Ali, me, Lucia, Penelope & Rashmi

Penelope & Lucy playing at Lotus with spiral perm rods =)

Such a happy little girl!
Miss Penelope Gita Sutton is the daughter of my best friend, Rashmi & her husband Wade. Penelope & Lucy are exactly 8 months apart, making Penelope now 7 months old. Pen & her family live in DC but we are lucky enough that Rashmi's parents are still here in WA meaning they still come back for visits! I just love watching this beautiful little dream of a baby grow, it is such an amazing thing to watch your best friend be a Mom & see her life change before your eyes! We love you little Penelope!

Bathtime Fun!

On our last shopping trip, I found a bathtime crayon at PBKids... it's making for tons of fun!
Our little warrior absolutely loves the bath! Blowing bubbles, shooting hoops, coloring, swimming like a mermaid, kick, kick, kick... Oh the joys of being a toddler!

A Lucy Update - 14 months

Life is good!! God is good!!

We have so much to be thankful for! Lucia Grace is doing great, I'm sorry it's taken so long for a good update on her health, growth, development, etc. We have been busy busy busy since she's taken off walking & enjoying trips to the park, visits with cousins and anything where she can walk around exploring!

Here's the abreviated update --

We had our first bout of illness in late Sept/early Oct with what seemed like a viral bug but lasted so long it may have been the flu or a secondary infection of some kind... Lucy was the first to catch it, her illness started with 12 hours of pinkeye followed by a week of significant congestion, then about 3 days of low grade fever (100.4-100.9), and then a week or so of a productive (and worrysome) cough. Throughout this, Dr. Ricker tried different courses of treatment - starting with Keflex (an antibiotic) for 10 days (although we ended up cutting it short by a few days to switch meds). He chose Keflex because when Lucy has her quarterly throat swabs at the CF clinic, the only thing she's been positive for is Staph Aureus & they felt if she was congested it's most likely a build up of that bacteria so they treat it specifically. When that didn't make much positive impact (after a couple visits to Dr. Ricker's office), he changed her to Septra... unfortunately again, still not much of an impact. The positive thing after the first abx Keflex was that her follow up throat swab came back perfectly clear, so even though she was still sick with some bug, she did not have an further staph aureus. Once we were over 2 weeks into the bug & still with a nasty cough, Dr. Ricker placed Lucy on Prednisone for 4 days (15mg - a pretty big dose for a 24 lb kiddo). The first night on Prednisone was absolutely hillarious! Lucy was bouncing off the walls - completely revved up & ready to run! I wouldn't normally give that med in the evening, but that's when we received it from the pharmacy & I wanted to get it started. Luckily, after the completion of the steroid treatment, the productive cough subsided, Lucy's bit of weight loss slowed down & she began the road to recovery. She's done fabulously since then, picking right back up with her weight, sounding a ton better with just an occasional dry cough & her activity level is constantly increasing!

Lucy's favorite things these days include balls - any size, shape or color, her cousin Julia - she's absolutely fascinated by big kids, Thomas the Cat - her best bud, and her new Ladybug boots from Grandma A! She would much rather prefer being outside to in, she's been like this since she was about a week old. We recently hired a friend to continue the railing on our front porch so it functions like a giant playpen now with a safe outdoor place for Lucy to play - it's wonderful having a covered place for her to use riding/push toys & kick her soccerball around.

I've been lucky enough to work the absolute bare minimum over the past few months. The NICU has been unusually slow for a long time & as a result I've taken many days off as low census time. I am so thankful that we've been able to live frugally & make this work - I treasure this time with Miss Lucia. Randy is such a hard & dedicated worker. He has done a wonderful job managing & growing Sotto Voce, we look forward to this Christmas season & hope that retailers nationwide are able to grow amidst the tough economic times.

Best get back to my Lucy bug! Love & blessings to all!

Meeting Mr. Jordan Blake!

There's a new baby in town! My good friend and former coworker, Rachel Conte Blake, had her second baby a couple months ago & these are photos from Lucy & I finally meeting him! Rachel, Josh, Brandon (2 yrs) & Jordan (2 months) live up in Seattle. They have an adorable home & it is absolutely alive with fun now that they have 2 little boys - Lucy loved it! Lucy & Brandon had a great time playing with all of his new birthday toys - Happy late birthday B! I enjoyed a bit of snuggle time with this sweet little bundle, Jordan is an adorable little boy & I am so excited to watch him grow up! Thank you Rach for a fun afternoon! Love you guys!!

Prior to visiting the Blake's, we did a bit of shopping at U Village - these are photos from Lucy's time on the big toy... just before she crashed into the toy & had a giant egg on her forehead for about a week! Poor little Lucy! Now that she's walking all over the place, she's constantly bruised!

Lucy the Ladybug - Halloween 09

Costumes are so much fun! It was adorable this year to see Lucy in her little ladybug outfit! I think the little antennae were my favorite part. I took these photos the day before Halloween because I had the day off with Lucy. On the actual holiday, Randy spent the day with her & we met up later that afternoon at his parent's house for some fun with cousins Julia & Boen including a bit of trick-or-treating. Love to see how interactive Lucy has become with her cousins, it's very cute!