Tuesday, March 30, 2010

LUCCA!!!!!

Today was an interesting day with the little lady. We had a couple of "firsts" ... but not exactly milestones to brag about. She bit me with her new shiny teeth for the 1st time, on my pinky finger and hard enough for me to scream OUCH (!!!) and check for blood. Shockingly, my finger was still intact. I am teaching her the "Don't Bite Your Friends" (or your mom!) song from Yo Gabba Gabba promptly. She will know the song by tomorrow night. Promise.

She also had her 1st public tantrum/meltdown in a restaurant. This was awesome. The culprit = balloons. My sweet, precious, pretty lil thing turned into a mess of a baby for about 3 minutes, although it felt like an hour. A couple of kids walked into the restaurant holding balloons and Lucca wanted those balloons with every ounce of her being. Balloons are her second favorite thing, behind dogs. When she unfortunately realized those balloons weren't hers and that she was not getting one, she freaked. Freaked. Sobbing, tears, red face...all of it.

Lovely day.

I'm blogging these stories so they become a part of my Lucca book. I want to remember all the good times along with the bouts of CRAZY dayz we have along the way. Today, definitely a crazy day...and I'm off to pour a(nother) glass of wine...

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

I wish

I wish someone would have told me the second my baby turned ONE that she would immediately transform into a little girl...and would no longer be a BABY. This little toddler has been walking all around our home for about a week now. We don't know where this tall girl came from, we keep looking all around for little baby Lucca...


My big girl

Monday, March 22, 2010




Chalk another one up on the things I said I would never do when I was a mother, but ended up doing after all board. Today we played on a mall playground. ::Gasp:: And we loved it. Yes, the dirty, grimy, germ infested public play area that's usually full of way too many snotty and rambunctious children. I distinctly remember walking past this specific play area with my mom when I was pregnant and I told her "Lucca won't ever play in there..." HA. I'm not sure what I had against it, I just always think she's going to get sick the moment she leaves the play area. Not true, so I let her play....and she was a star!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Sonoma

One of our favorite places in Northern California is Sonoma. It just so happens we have family in town and the Savor Sonoma Wine Festival was taking place this weekend, so we took lucky little Lucca on her first wine country outing. We spent time at three different wineries and Lucca was on her best behavior. She loved being able to run around the beautifully landscaped lawns and dance to the live music. At Benziger Winery, we ran into a bunch of sheep which were probably the highlight of her day, followed closely by dancing with Papa to Chicago and Tom Petty songs.
BAA-BAA-BAA-BAA-BAA....




Thursday, March 18, 2010

Newest Battle Wound



Hurricane Lucca's latest bruise can be found smack dab in the center of her cheek. Every day, this girl gets a new war wound it seems. This time, the door frame of her bedroom jumped into Lucca's path and got her. It's a nice rosy shade of pink today, and I'm sure will be a pretty blueish purple shade tomorrow, to match the one she has on her forehead. It's always an adventure around here!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Life of the Party!

This girl knows how to have fun. I love that about her.

A prayer for Layla

I can't quite get over the story and life of sweet Layla Grace. If you haven't heard, she was a 2-year old girl who passed away this week from cancer. The story is just heartbreaking. www.laylagrace.org

If you could spare a moment of your day, I'd ask you to say a prayer for her family or leave a word of encouragement on her blog. I cannot even begin to fathom the pain they are facing as they try to move forward in this life without their baby girl.

I feel like I can't do much to help Layla's family, but what I can do is love my Lucca a little more, hug her a little tighter and hold her a little closer today.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Lucca's 1st Painting

On Sunday afternoon, Juli wanted to come over to paint with Lucca. To no surprise, Lucca preferred painting with her feet. She also preferred painting her jeans, the floor, mommy and the refrigerator. Good thing Daddy wasn't home ;)

I'm excited to try this activity again in a couple months. It's never too early to foster creativity!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Rainy Day in the Bay

You wouldn't know it by looking out at the gorgeous sunny day we are having today, but yesterday was a wet, rainy, cloudy day here in the Bay. I packed Lucca up and took her to the Bay Area Discovery Museum to have some indoor fun. Bonus: it was the 1st Wednesday of the Month = FREE DAY.

I set my germaphobic tendencies aside as I had to take off my shoes to enter the toddler play area, and let Lucca go to town. She loved it. She got bulldozed by about 10 four-year-olds, her hands banged on while playing the marimba with the big boys, and her feet stomped on at the bubble pedal station, but she had fun!

My musician

Watching the frogs blow bubbles ("bubba")

The museum experience was a good eye opener/learning lesson for me. Kids are crazy. Parents are crazier.

Dear God, I have three simple requests. Please don't let my toddler be the one throwing the drum at my face while pitching a major fit for no apparent reason. Please don't ever let me be the parent who loses my child BUT DOESN'T EVEN REALIZE THE CHILD WENT MISSING. Seriously, I had to return a 2-year old girl that I found OUTSIDE BY HERSELF to her absent-minded mother. And please don't let me judge horrible mothers, knowing we all have the potential to have challenging days.

Monday, March 1, 2010

An update on the Love Bug.

The 11-month update. Here we go! Lucca has many names these days, including Sweet Thing, Coco, Baby Doll, Pretty, LC, Dolly, Lu-Lu, Love Bug, Birdy, Lady...the list goes on and on. It's amazing she knows her name is Lucca :)

Movement She is always walking. Actually, running. Crawling is so last month. This girl is ON THE GO. She doesn't ever stop, unless we let her watch Yo Gabba Gabba before bedtime. DJ Lance Rock completely mesmerizes Lucca and she chills out entirely for 20 minutes watching this show. Except for when she is clapping, dancing and singing along to the songs, which is priceless.

Communication Lucca knows and responds to so much these days. She can communicate well, and she can process so much. Here are some of the phrases she recognizes and responds to:
  • let's go bye-bye
  • let's take a walk
  • time to eat
  • do you want some cheese? avocado? banana? (and boy, does she knows what she wants!)
  • go get a book
  • find your baby
  • take your baby for a walk
  • go get the ball
  • tubby-time (walks to the bathroom...she LOVES the bath)
  • throw your paci in your bed
  • take a drink
  • time to go night-night
Tricks She can lock/unlock the car doors. She holds my house keys until we get to the top of our front stairs and then gives them back to me because she knows I need them to open the front door. She (sadly) can change the channels on the TV. She knows what sounds a cow and dog make ["b(m)oooo" & "woof-woof"]. She has such a great sense of humor, loves to laugh and even fake laugh. This is hilarious.

Thankfully, she is very interested in finding little tiny [dangerous] things on the floor and handing them to us before putting them in her mouth. We can sweep, vacuum and dust all we want, but Lucca's little fingers find the most interesting things. Handing us everything she finds is a great phase :)

She can still spot a bird or dog miles away and let's the whole neighborhood know by squealing with excitement. We have made many friends because Lucca waves at Every. Single. Person. that walks by. She thinks she is training for Miss America. She calls every kid under the age of 10 a "Bay-beh". I try to tell her the SHE is indeed the baby, but she insists everyone else is the baybeh. Also, after a 4-month teething hiatus, she is finally growing her 2 front teeth. I didn't think she could be cuter, but she is proving me wrong.

She is a joy. So sweet, she'll give you a cavity, as her daddy tells her. She has stolen our hearts and our love grows deeper every day for this little gem of a person.