Holiday Fun

More and more, Lucy has been unveiling her personality to us. One thing to note is she is very happy and giggly. And more often than not, her giggles turn to squeals. Sometimes I wonder how our dog's ears handle it when it is already too high-pitched for us humans.

Another thing is she has gotten to be very clingy to her mommy. It's usually not a problem except for when I go to mutual on Wednesdays, or when its daddy's turn to put her to bed, or when I'm trying to practice the piano for church, or when I'm cooking in the kitchen, or when my arms are full, or...okay you get it. But who can complain about being loved too much. Better enjoy it while it lasts, or so I am told.

She also has a thing for books. Reading time is her favorite thing at bedtime. We let her pick the book and she seems to know what she wants read to her. Oftentimes during the day, she'll be content to just sit down and turn the pages, whether they have pictures or not.

These days, she watches tv with us and will pretend to laugh whenever we find something funny. Sometimes it will just be because it's a sitcom and people are laughing on the show.

She's grown a liking to climbing on things. Usually not a good thing on our step ladder to have her climbing after me so that I can't get back down without worrying about knocking her over. But she seems to have pretty good balance most of the time.

Pretending to talk on the phone is one of her favorite things to imitate. But she doesn't deal with the fake phones. Nothing but the real deal for her, which is what we usually try to keep away from her.

Another thing is she has a knack for laying on top of things, sometimes in bizarre positions that don't look very comfortable. Usually, it involves a dog. Observe the following examples.

Sometimes it seems she's intent on making the subject uncomfortable based on the positions she chooses.

Among some of her other abilities, she is able to sign for food and milk, as well as wave bye bye and night night. She folds her arms for prayer, but she likes to laugh when the prayer ends, usually when we're in group gatherings. But she is very good at it when it's just us. 

Now I think I'll mention the last few holidays we celebrated. For thanksgiving we played games and went to the jelly belly factory the day after.

 There were a lot of images made up of thousands of jelly beans.

Then at the beginning of December we went to see the Oakland temple lights go on and also attended a musical performance at the same location.

Then we decorated our tree by applying fake snow (laundry detergent and water).

We won't talk about Santa at the ward party. The picture says enough.

Christmas morning, daddy made us a yummy breakfast.

We had a small pile of presents to open, but only one took up Lucy's attention. I had picked out a cone for stacking. Turns out it was perfect for her. She still has fun with it.

We were glad to hold Christmas for the first time in our home since purchasing our house. However, after a while, it got to be too quiet. I was glad to head over to the in-laws where there was more noise. We also talked to David's brother on the phone who is serving a mission in Alabama.

For New Year's Eve, David fulfilled his promise to the youth for keeping their commitments in his class by making them dinner, specifically Chinese. The fact that it was done on New Year's Eve was their choice. We made tons of food and ended up with lots of leftovers. I think we were expecting teenage kids to have appetites the same as the missionaries we usually eat with on Sundays. Nevertheless the house was filled and full of noise. We played games and it was such a great way to celebrate the new year. I had a lot of fun and would love to do it again, but we'll see what happens.

So that leaves the present. Like everyone else, we've made resolutions to make things better and we are doing very well on those.

 We're pretty happy.