Saturday, May 30, 2015

Things That Lucy Loves At (almost) 14 Months

We have a plethora of toys and activities to keep our little one busy all day long.  Lucy has a few favorites that we keep going back to, so I thought I would share.



Lucy loves her doll.  'Lucy Doll' was a gift from Grandma, and slowly it has become a favorite.  She has a magnetic bottle and mouth - Lucy loves to feed her.  She is really drawn to baby dolls when we are out as well.  I think it is so sweet to see her mothering a baby doll when she is still just a baby herself.




Taking things out and putting them in.  Lucy could do this all day long.  Gavin and try to make this activity more focused by giving her items to sort, etc.  She loves moving buttons or wooden beads between bowls.  She loves to sort fruit from one basket to another.  She likes tossing bean bags into a basket.


Stacking.  The night we came back from our trip to Turkey and Italy, Lucy marched into the apartment and within minutes found this previously ignored stacker.  It is now a favorite!  She hasn't grasped the concept of stacking rings by size, but she loves putting them on, then taking them off and doing it all over again!


I recently got another stacking toy - a threading set that came with some wooden poles to stack.  Rather than large rings, it comes with smaller wooden beads (a perfect size for Lucy to hold).  This has become a favorite activity as well!


Hammering.  We bought this ball hammering set when Lucy was about 8 months and it was an instant hit!  She was getting pretty good at it around 10 moths, and is a pro these days!  She is so cute chasing after the balls when they come out and going wild hammering them in!



Shape sorting.  The wooden one is a bit tricky, so after she gets in the squares and circles, she usually gives up, slides the door off and just puts the rest in!  Very creative!  The Hello Kitty sorter has always piqued Lucy's interest (I got it when she was really young, so she has seen it around the house for ages, plus it plays music and makes fun sounds) but it wasn't until recently that she could actually PLAY with it.  She is quite good at getting the shapes in but usually needs a little help figuring out which shape goes where.



A few days ago Lucy figured out how to nest these stacking cups on her own and now she LOVES doing it on her own.  She is pretty cute trying to put each one into each other, and redoing the ones that don't fit perfectly.  I plan to get her a set of larger stacking blocks when we are in the States this summer, I think she will really enjoy them!


Playing in her kitchen.  Lucy is really into the kitchen set up I made.  She bangs the pots and pans around and plays with all the felt food I made.  She likes to pull apart the velcro wooden fruit and stick as much stuff as she can into the blender... it's all very cute!



Dress Up.  I have a basket of fabric, scarves and ties in the living room that has become a favorite.  Lucy always has something around her neck or over her head!  Funny enough, this basket is Ms. Hanh's FAVORITE thing to play with when she is watching Lucy.  They have so many games they play with all the fabric!  It is so much fun to watch!


Ball through the hole.  This is a favorite game!  We push pompoms through the hole in the stool and lift up the stool to find the pompoms.  Seriously the most entertaining activity for Lucy ever!  We also have a ball through the tube version (poster tube and plastic ball) that is equally as entertaining!


Head phones.  We got these noise cancelers for Lucy, intending to use them some day at a concert of music festival.  Turns out Lucy LOVES putting them on and wandering through the house.  We also use them when she helps me make smoothies in the kitchen - our blender is so LOUD!

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

A Day in the Life: Lucy at 13.5 Months

6am: Lucy was up this morning bright and early!  Usually we are sleeping in until about 7, but not today!  Lucky us ;)


Lucy is bouncing off the walls from the get go.


6:30am: After I get some coffee in me, we head out!


We go to the market every other day or so to pick up fruit and get breakfast.  Today we got a massive watermelon, a few mangos, two bunches of bananas, sticky rice for me and Lucy and rice porridge for Gavin.




7am: Back at home.  Lucy busies herself in her kitchen while I get breakfast together.


Breakfast!  Sticky rice with boiled peanuts, watermelon, strawberries, and a small banana.  Don't be fooled, only about 5% of this was actually eaten!  Lucy's favorite thing to do with this breakfast is to dig through the rice and just eat the peanuts out.




After breakfast and a shower, it is time to PLAY!!!


We play together for a while, then she gets busy with her ball and crawling around and I get a chance to check emails and fold some laundry.


9am: Ms Hanh, our twice a week helper is here!  She plays with Lucy while I finish getting ready for the day.


9:30: An shows up and we get ready to go!  I ALWAYS have SOMETHING planned each day, either in the morning or afternoon.  We have to get out of the house at least once a day, ideally to meet up with other moms and babies, but errands work as well.  Today my friend An and I took Lucy to a new International Kindergarden near our house to take a tour and find out about the curriculum.  Unfortunately, they don't offer a half-day program like I am looking for, but Lucy did have fun playing on the play equipment with the other children and visiting the classrooms.

11am: Lucy is exhausted and we head home, she falls asleep the minute we get in the taxi!  I get her into bed by 11:15 and she sleeps until 1:30.  I use this new LOOONG afternoon nap to catch up with Gavin (who has finally woken up) and eat a little lunch.  Then I get back to some projects I am working on.




1:30: Rise and shine little Goose!  Lucy wakes up HUNGRY as she missed lunch.  I make a quarter of a toasted bagel, one half topped with cream cheese and the other with avocado, some strawberries and a banana.  And some fresh squeezed OJ.


After lunch it is back to PLAY!  Lucy and I check out her stuffed animals for a while and read some stories.


Then she was back to her kitchen.

Around 3pm Dad came home from his workshop.  Wahoo!

3:30: My Lazada package came!  I order a new threading set for Lucy.  We broke it out and got to work on it.   Lucy really enjoyed picking out each piece from a 'mystery can' I made the other day and stacking it onto the pole.





Boy was it HOT out today.  I gave Lucy a popsicle as a snack and she ate it outside.  We were all sweating so much within minutes!  So we broke out the pool to cool off in!  Plus we squeezed some more OJ for a refreshing drink!



Post pool cheese snack!


After the pool I never was able to get a diaper back on!

5pm: Dinner!  I made a snack plate of rice crackers, cheese, avocado, olives, celery, and dried fruit.  We ate it on the floor in the living room with the AC blasting.  Lucy pranced around the living room naked while shoving as much cheese and avocado in her mouth as possible.  What a cutie!

5:30: Dad is off to work and we are on our final countdown!  We hang up some laundry and clean up the house between games.

6:30: BATH TIME!  After her bath these days, Lucy really enjoys playing with the faucet and playing with the water.  She is in the tub doing so until nearly 7.

7pm: Lucy is out of the tub!  Dried off, teeth brushed, lotion on, PJs on, and in bed!  We had an easy bed time and she was out before 7:20.

Just another day in the life with GOOSE!







Friday, May 15, 2015

La Perfetta Geometria del Cielo Blu (The Perfect Geometry of a Blue Sky)












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La Perfetta Geometria del Cielo Blu 
(The Perfect Geometry of a Blue Sky)  

Bologna + Misano Adriatico
Italia
April 2015