Happy Halloween

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chaos theory

Lucy is ADORABLE.  And very active and curious.

(This look might be similar to the one on some of your faces when you see this next pic.)  Due to my sweet daughters curiosity and mobility, my house sometimes looks like this...

YIKES!

Is she worth a little chaos?

Yep.

hair HELP!

My Lucy has great hair.  Anyone who knows me knows that big hair is a huge (alas, unattainable, despite many hair products) dream of mine, and I'm so happy for Lucy that she has such beautiful hair!

But let's get down to the nitty gritty.  It's HARD to detangle and take care of!  It wasn't at first, but I'm at the point where I need help!  Tonight, we detangled and she cried pitifully and then angrily and I cried desperately and then chopped off some tangled curls.  It's true.  I have no idea how it will look when it dries.

I'll tell you what I do now and PLEASE give suggestions... methods, products, tranquilizers.  I'll take all advice under consideration.  If you don't want to comment it here, please email me at kristy.northcutt@gmail.com.

Okay, we wash and detangle once a week.  I spray down her hair, put her in a bumbo, put a snack on the tray, toys within reach, and Dora on TV.  I'm really trying to keep her happy!  Then I spray down her hair and put in TONS of conditioner.  I start working through it with my hands, finger detangling.  Usually when that's done, I go through it with a comb (this illicits many tears).  This takes a half-hour or so.  Then we take a bath.  Where there are many more tears.  This girl can't STAND water in her face.  She screams like I'm abusing her when I lean her back on a little foam wedge to rinse her hair (and I'm careful to have very shallow water (not near her face) AND to rinse it away from her face so she doesn't get wet).  Just the act of reclining in the tub is treason and when she's that upset, I'm upset, too! (So bath-time tips are appreciated as well).

During the week, I just use one a Just for Me (Walmart) hair conditioning lotion and spray conditioner, I kind of alternate.  But her hair felt really dry today, so I'm totally open for product suggestions, too.

It seems like a little thing, but it's SO hard to gear up to actually work on her hair because I know it hurts her and I hate that!  Poor thing--she's too young to be paying the price for her rockin' hair!  Thanks for listening and for ADVICE!

Happy 1st Birthday!

Happy Birthday Lucy!

Lucy Joy, I am SO blessed to know you as a 1 year old and to get to be your mama!  I have loved you well before I knew you, and spent ages looking at your pictures before I "met" you, and I loved you so much, even then.  Your twinkly smiling eyes and funny laugh are now a part of my world forever and I'm so thankful for that!  I'm thankful that you're here and that you're healthy--God has really taken care of us.  I'm thankful that you seem quite happy and that you make your family so very happy too!  

I think you're just about the most perfect one year old.  You're pulling up and feeling sassy about it.  You think it's funny when we make faces or silly sounds.  You're working at being independent, but you often reach up for mama to hold you.  You crawl around and get wherever you want to go, and you settle in for books.  You think doors are really cool.  You think rolls of toilet paper are handy snack dispensers.  You really like your clothes.  You and I snuggle when I tuck you in and I LOVE it--I hope you do too.  You and I sing together, and sometimes we dance.  (You're especially fond of a move known as booty-slappin').  You're really smart--you surprise me every day by interacting in some new way.  You're so curious.  You're so cheerful.  You're ever so sweet.  Every day is better because you're in it with me.  I thank God for my sweet Lucy!

Destruction of Flower--starring Lucy Northcutt, curious Birthday Girl

Foiling of Birthday Girl's plans to eat Flower Petals--starring Uncle John

Birthday Girl's Smiles in First Birthday Photot Shoot--courtesy of Uncle John  :)

Birthday Celebration

My sweet Lucy is turning 1 year old on Tuesday!  I've really enjoyed celebrating it... I think she has too!

Aunt Ann really outdid herself!  This was Lucy's cake with a duck, and all the little guests got a little duckie cake, too!  Adorable!  Lucy LOVES her duckies!

Lucy got the hang of digging in... but she took her time.  (And we both got pretty sticky!)

Lucy after cake--this is the first outfit I bought her.  August 2010, when I decided I was going to adopt, I bought this little dress, hardly daring to hope I'd have a little girl to wear it.  It fits Lucy perfectly now!  (And she's been home right at 6 months--in addition to the birthday celebration!)

Lucy got lots of goodies, and had some good friends who were kind enough to test drive them for her :)  What a handsome cowbow Cooper makes!

Surrounded by people who love us! 
I hope that's the impression she got of today!
I'm pretty sure she couldn't have missed it--it was pretty obvious!
Thanks friends and family!!  We're so thankful for you!

 Lucy had a great time with the balloons!  And the party didn't stop there.  Much later that evening, as we were cleaning up, John Walker said, "Hey, check out your baby!"
I snapped the video camera on to catch this:  (No baby was harmed in the making of this video :) )

                                                                          Seriously, how blessed am I?

exploration

Hi friends!  It's been a long time (I've been reminded) since I updated you on how we're doing.  So I wanted to share with you some of the pictures I just downloaded from my camera.  I think we can safely call this latest phase "exploration." 

 Lucy is speed-crawling--she is everywhere I go, which is SO cute.  I put her down and popped back to the car to bring something else in, and she was sitting about 4 inches in front of the front door when I came back in... she just wanted to see where I had gone!  She crawls through the house and gets into things.  And at my parent's house, she makes the journey down a hall, sharp left turn, past the door to "our" room there and straight to Uncle John's room.  She crawls on in, says hi and waves, and heads back out again.  The other day his door was closed, so she just pounded on it.  She KNEW he was in there and she WANTED to see him!

She is pulling up to standing now.  She stands at the coffee table and bangs her hands and gives a proud wiggle, like "check me out".  She's SO proud of herself (and she looks at each person around to see if they've noticed and are appropriately proud as well).

And, last night in the back yard, she stood by herself for a few seconds here and there.  When she did it she kind of froze, and slid her eyes to the side, like, "Can you believe this!?  (But I can't turn my head)".  It was precious.  She's such a sweet girl.

She found the kitchen... and the cabinets.

She found the drawers at Nana's house, too (she's mid-clap--I think she's proud of her accomplishment).

Tonight she wasn't quite ready to sleep, so she decided to read a bit.  Perusing the book selection (STANDING up!)

This little Spanish book is one of our favorites
 (about a clumsy cow whose antics save the day... wonder why I'd be in favor of a clumsy (if bovine) heroine?)

Please note that the clumsy cow heroine book was on the third shelf up (with a few books beside those boxes, where I put the non-board books so that she couldn't get them.)  And I looked over, and she was stretching past all the other books to get that one from the third shelf!  What determination my little explorer has! 

reading

Trying to get the camera  :)