Sheesh, April was busy!

That's it! I need to make an effort to catch up a little bit. My posterity are counting on me...a guilt trip does wonders for my productivity.

So there is a lot to talk about.

Sam's sleeping habits. Well, let's just sum it up. Sam is a very finicky sleeper. Those ears infections just kind messed with his sleeping habits. When we first moved into our current home he was all over the place. He would wake up once, then three times, then once again. It was exhausting. I blame most of it on his teething, which is always easy to do. He currently has 5 teeth, two more on the way. Teething stinks, my friends!

That being said we are finally on a more consistent schedule. He goes to bed at 7 pm, then wakes up when he hears me move. That's right, as soon as I move out of my bed, he started growling from the other room. That is currently somewhere in the 5 am hour. So we deal with it.

Sidenote: Yes, he growls, because he is boy. If you knew Lucy when she was his age she talked like a high-pitched fairy. Sam sounds like a boy, through and through. 


Lucy's dancing and singing. Well Lucy really is quite the little mover. After the Disney world trip we learned that she had some pretty awesome moves, mostly due to her doing a potty dance for weeks on end. That is another story for another time.  And that is exactly how she describes them to us and other people. "Mom, look at my moves," she says. Let's just say there is an awful lot of hip movement going on. If I could upload a video, I would. But blogger is being silly and won't let me. Just picture a little prancing, hip waving girl. It is awesome to watch. Plus, since she has seen Frozen she now sings the ballad "Let it go!" It is her song. "Reindeer are better than people." is Jimmy's song, and "Summer," is my song. Lucy requires that we sing the duet when that comes on as well. She is funny like that.

On a related note, I signed Lucy up for dance classes through the rec department. The class is called Creative Dance, which I am sure will be perfect for such a free spirited dancer, such as Lucy. You better bet I will have my camera for those classes. It will be quite entertaining.

Gretchen and Chris' wedding extravaganza (and Lucy gets terribly sick!), and Easter, and talking in church, and... In the middle of April my youngest sister Gretchen got herself hitched to another mathy nerd Chris. It was a lovely affair. The wedding took place at the Temple in Boston in the late morning. Lucy and Sam went to play with their aunts and uncles while we were inside. Once we got outside, we realized it was freezing! Lucy had a coat on, but no tights. Thankfully she runs around like crazy, but I still think she was quite frozen by the end of the pictures. Sam was miserable. He only wanted to be held by me, and he also required being bundled in his blanket. There were a few times my aunt and uncle took him screaming so that I could be in the pictures. I am sure Brandon got some really classy pictures of Sam looking very unhappy.

Chris and Gretchen however, were super happy, as was very apparent from their grins.

 

Happy couple!

 

After the Temple we headed back to Nelson. Most of the decorating was already done. We had arrived in the Nelson the night before and helped a little. And by helped I mean we had our kids play with each other. That's right Ange, Roland, Liam and Landon were around too! We missed them so much it was great to have them around.

But back to the wedding day. We went back to Nelson, sat around for a bit and then went up to the reception which was being held at Apple Hill. Nice venue for sure. We ate pie. Yes, it was themed as pies for PI (nerdy math majors!). We enjoyed the sunset and then we went back to our house. We figured our drive to NY was closer from our house anyways.

 

Peder wanted to hold Sam so bad -- Sam wasn't having it!

Poul, Danielle and Liam.

This is the best picture we got of the cousin. They all like to move a lot!

Jojo, the baby whisperer!

Gretchen and Lucy!

 

Then next day we woke up, dressed in normal attire and headed over to a friend's house from church for an Easter egg hunt. It was a lot of fun. They had eggs for all the kids, and one of the moms with a child Sam's age even brought eggs filled with baby-type goodies. Everyone was happy, even though we were all tired.

After the egg hunt we drove directly to NY. In NY was when Lucy was starting to appear sick. But that did not stop her for getting her groove on right as we arrived. This reception had amazing latin food. Empenadas, plantains, rice and beans etc... I have quite a love affair with rice and beans. I am pretty sure I want that to be my last meal here on earth. I digress. The reception was quite lovely. We ate, we talked. It was a lot of fun. But, by the end Lucy was extremely sluggish and only wanted to be held. Thank goodness she let Ange hold her. Ange didn't have a her children with her. What a saint she is!

We drove back that night and all went to bed exhausted.

The next day was Easter. Jimmy and I were speaking in church, and I was giving a lesson in Relief society. Because we were speaking Jimmy's parents and grandma came down. It was just what we needed. Besides being a little tired, we couldn't have managed giving talks without them. Grandpa Coop took Sam and Lucy was thoroughly entertained by her grandmas. And the talks went well.

After the talks, we decided Lucy was too sick for nursery, so she Grandpa Coop, Sam and Jimmy went home. The grandmas stayed with me, for moral support. I gave my lesson and then we went home.

Because we had wanted to have a proper Easter, Jimmy prepared a leg of lamb in the crockpot. Karen brought some other goodies and we enjoyed a relaxed meal after church. Sadly, Lucy was so sick at this point that she didn't want to eat. Gasp! Lucy not eating is a big deal. We let he rest on the couch and finished dinner. Once everything was finished and everyone left, we breathed a little bit and went to bed. What a weekend!

Unfortunately, Lucy was sick most of the next week. We think it was just a virus, but it sure did wipe her out. Jimmy and Sam got it a little and I miraculously avoided it. That my friends is a miracle!

Okay, well that was a big chunk of stuff. Let me revise my list a little bit based on the biggest events.

Boston Marathon - marathon training
My new job
Sibling visitors
Lucy's birthday
Mother's day/my birthday

I also think there might be a random picture post coming up. I am sure you are just tingling with excitement...

May has arrived...yes, I know it is almost over!

So it is May. May is a busy month for us. We have mother's day, and two birthdays and it is extra busy this year because one of Jimmy's cousins is also getting married at the end of the month. It will be fun.

So we have made sure to make May even more busy by playing with a lot of our friends and being outside as much as humanly possible. Yes, I think spring (maybe even summer) are finally here!

So let's review one of the prior events to May, just so I am caught up a bit.

At the beginning of April Grandma Marie gave me a call and said that we should go out and get a bear from Build-a-bear for Lucy and Sam. Lucy is a fan of stuffed animals, and Sam likes to cuddle things so we happily obliged. We went to the Natick mall, which is HUGE by the way. We arrived a little early, but luckily snuck in right before the Girl scout troop. I didn't know you could make stuffed animals for Girl Scouts? Maybe it would have kept me interested longer if we had done that in my troop. I digress.

When you get inside basically you go in a line around the store. You pick a shell of a bear (or whatever animal) and then you stuff it, cloth it, and finally name it. Lucy, of course, picked some of the most crazy wild animals, but as we continued to move along the bins we all finally agreed on a monkey. She really like monkeys. Sam got a bear, per Jimmy's request. He likes bears.

Then we stuffed it, which involved giving it a heart (or two or three) and giving it "life." After we pick some clothes. Jimmy really wanted the Jedi suit for Sam's bear, and I thought it was cute, so we went with it. Lucy looked at all the princess stuff, then wanted a tutu, and finally decided on a Sophia the First outfit. She wanted to name her monkey, Sophia the First, but we decided on Sophia the Monkey, Sophie for short. Sam's bear was name Old Bear Kenobi.

We printed off their birth certificates and we were off. I took some cute picks of the kids with their stuffed animals. It was fun. We then went to Grandma and Grandpa Coop's for general conference. We all know how productive conference is with kids. Needless to say I am reading all the talks right now. I hardly remembered 2 or 3 from the actual weekend.

catchup

Welp, I am even more behind. I guess it is hard to stay up to date when life is going on, huh?! And we are going to have a busy summer too, but I will get to that later. Let's try to fill in some blanks, shall we.

First, let's talk a little bit about Millis. Millis is a town of about 8000 people, with a brand new library, a Roche Bros, a farm, and a fantastic park yards from our house. We visit the library at least once a week. Although it is normal for us to go a couple times. Friday is the day we go for story time, but they also have story times on two other days. It is fantastic. Lucy is thoroughly enjoying the singing and reading. She even sings the songs at home. I am a big fan.

We are also super fortunate to have a park minutes (walking) from our house. We go almost every day. We had a playdate the other day and my friend commented that it was pretty much like having our own playground, like it was "Lucy's park." It is true. She knows all the slides, swings and trails. And if she doesn't want to do something one day, she knows she can come back and try some other time. Sam isn't as much of a fan of the swings as Lucy, but he will do it for a little while. And he loves being outside, so it is a win-win when we go to the park.

Right behind the park is some conservation land with some splendid walking trails. We have frequented them often. Lucy likes to point our the trail signs, reading every letter individually. I appreciate her desire to hike and read. She also loves to through rocks in the stream. She is a real outsy type of girl.

Here are some pictures of the park. We love it!

 

We have had some interesting encounters at the park. Most of them innocent, and no one's fault. One of them was mostly due to Lucy's inability to keep her personal life to herself, but what almost three year old does that. It occurred when we were at the park with a bunch of slightly older kids (4-5 year olds). Lucy was climbing one of the ladders and announced to a little boy "I go poo poo!" That was it. And of course that little boy thought, well this little girl goes poo in her pants, what a silly little girl. He began spreading this information to all the little kids on the play ground and pretty soon Lucy was the girl that went poo poo and no one wanted to play with her. He even asked her if she was potty trained. Lucy was confused by the question and didn't really answer, so he assumed she went in her pants. It was heart breaking. But Lucy had no idea what was going on and played merrily.

 

Since then I have realized when the kids her age are normally at the park and we go at those times. Not that Lucy really cares about silly little boys spreading rumors about her. And honesty I really wasn't mad at the little boy. He didn't know any better. But I totally see how bullying happens, even in its most innocent forms.

 

Other than that Lucy, has also tried to hold hands with almost every person she sees, and that includes a 12 year old girl who was coming back from the trail. It was awkward, but the girl was a good sport about it.  Lucy is so cute, it is hard not to at least not give her a smile.

 

She was scared of the slides for a little while, but got over that quickly once she realized how fast she could go. Currently she is scared of the "big girl" swings because she biffed last week and her front teeth hit her front lip. It was bloody and sad. We went home after that. Thank goodness we are so close.

 

The farm that is in town, Tangerini's is awesome. I kind of stalked them online, and then I made out of the way trips passed the farm just to see where it was. They opened this last week. We went and got some ice cream, looked at their plants, and fed the goats and chickens. We are doing a CSA with them this year. I went to an orientation this week. It is going to be great! My mom has done CSAs for a while and I have always wanted to part of one. The difference between ours and other CSAs is that they let you do some pick up right in the barn, but they also have a U-pick option, which allows you to go out to the fields and get some of your own produce. I am so excited to take Lucy. It will be great for her to see where the food is coming from.

Part of the reason we are doing the CSA is to compensate for my lack of gardening skills. Two years ago I gardened at my parents, but wasn't really around for the harvest. And to be honest, I don't think it did that well. This year we are putting in a few plants of our own. I've had some plants growing inside for probably a month and I started some cold season plants in a little garden we have on the side of the house. I do not expect everything to do really well, I am still really new at this, but I hoping we can get a little more experience planting and harvesting. Although I did see a woodchuck peering over our landscape the other day. That does not bode well....

So that is Millis. We love it! We are excited for the summer, although it is going to be super busy. Bring on the nice weather.

Left to blog:
Build-a-bear
Sam's sleeping update
Lucy's dancing and singing
Boston Marathon
Gretchen and Chris' wedding weekend
Lucy gets real sick...
Sam's new teeth
My new job