It seems like we have been gone for ages, but we are back from a trip to Florida and another to NC. I took down the Christmas this morning before starting a lengthy to-do list. I really need to vacuum before the Chinese New Year Parade on Sunday. After a sub-par January, I am treating that as a second chance for a new year.
This is Lucy wearing her backcack. That's what she calls it.
She befriended a little girl at the airport. She said, "You like my backcack?" as they held hands exiting the plane. That's when I was able to peg down what consonant she was subbing for the p. Tears soon followed as we parted ways at the bathroom. I realized we are facing countless broken hearts with this little girl. She hates goodbyes.
Here she is looking back at her new friend and her twin sister, while we waited to board the plane. She also told me this morning that she wanted to wear a dress like a girl.
It did not take long to go through the activities in her backpack. So over an hour into the flight, we broke out the iPad. Today was her first experience with headphones. Henry's headphones do something weird to my ears. But I didn't think that she would do well with the little bitty buds. Sometimes they squealed. At one point she had her true headphone moment. She started yelling over and over again that there was "a big giant" in reference to Jack and the Beanstalk on Super Why. I tried to shush her, but couldn't help laughing.
Once we landed, the lady across the aisle commented on what a great job Lucy did on the plane. I told her that I was very proud of her and asked Lucy if she was proud of herself. She said she was. This was by no means her first flight, but the first in ten months. In that time she has become a little girl. Today she turned 32 months.
Tomorrow we are headed off to Florida to celebrate Christmas with the Abuelos and Tio Tony. This will be Lucy's first flight in ten months. I'm certainly optimistic that it will be better than the last, during which we wrangled her on our lap for over two hours.
Three pouches of applesauce from Trader Joe's, two deflated air pillows aka trash bags and a pack of pacifier wipes that fortunately hadn't dried up.
Next I packed a notebook, a couple of Halloween puzzles, a hopping monster, colored pencils and suckers. I'm hoping most of these items will make it through both flights.
A couple of activity books involving stickers.
And two new items - "Chimpmunk's ABC" and Curious George magnetic set, which includes a beach scene. We have her bathing suit packed and ready. I hope we manage to dip her toes in the water. Although it may be a tad cool, along with her attitude.
I'll post some pictures of Lucy wearing her backpack tomorrow. I'm hoping it will serve as focusing her as maneuver through the airport. We are skipping the stroller this trip and sometimes just have her holding a cup helps her walk down the street. Who knows why.
So the holidays were not kind to me. I got a stomach virus on Christmas night and then strep throat on New Year's Day. At first I thought I had the regular flu until I took a peek at my throat. And I thought that it was better than the stomach flu. As long as I was sleeping....
We are participating in a Spanish tradition of eating twelve grapes at midnight - one for each month. Actually I'm holding my grapes in my hand until they loose a little of their chill. So happy to see you, 2012!
Happy New Year!!!
I am very excited about moving forward and feel great! I even purged my giant stash of magazines at home and at the studio. I am so proud. It was like a weight was lifted off of me. Granted I didn't manage to get the recycling in the studio to the trash room, but that can wait until Monday.
Happy 2012, Friends! I can't wait to explore what the new year has in store for us all. Many blessings.
Today we headed out to lunch after a lazy morning of opening more Christmas gifts. We dropped Daddy off at work and headed to Seventh Street Pizza in Capitol Hill. Unlike yesterday, Lucy did a great job eating her lunch and entertaining the little boy next to us.
After lunch, we hopped into "the ice cream shop" Pitango to split a treat. It took much convincing that we were getting a cup instead of a cone. But Lucy was pleased once we settled down with two spoons in our hands. She asked, "What's that name?" "Strawberry." "What's that name?" "Chocolate." "It make me happy."
This afternoon we were busy in Mom's kitchen when Mom mentioned the Wicked Witch of the West to Lucy. Until that moment, Lucy was playing all over the house. But that one little alliteration sent her looking for a lap. She came to me, but I had a needle in hand making necklaces out of pom-poms that had littered my back seat for the last month.
Mom assured her that she would not be seeing the Wicked Witch. But that was enough for Lucy to lose her steam. She marched upstairs and climbed in her bed. Next thing we knew, she was asleep. This has NEVER happened in her life. Maybe back in the summer of her birth. Maybe... While I was working on my craft project, Mom was preoccupied with her nap. Was she really asleep? How did she get in the bed? When did she wake her up? Then she said, "I know one thing. This will be on your blog."
Last Friday night, we went to Zoo Lights with Lucy's friend Ammanuel. This dancing panda was the first character she has ever seen and not tried to crawl into my ear. Either it was the Christmas disco music or the large plastic snow globe that kept the panda at a safe distance. Lucy actually danced and waved.
