Some New Lucie-isms

Lucie has a way with words. She soaks up phrases and vocabulary, bringing them up later in her play. And with this facility for language comes a vivid imagination. Many of our dinners are spent listening to Lucie as she regales us with detailed and funny imaginary tales.

Recently she's been adding different voices to her stories for dramatic effect. Coincidentally, a few of the books we've picked up lately have had story lines where a mysterious voice calls from out of nowhere. Lucie thinks this is pretty funny, and sometimes scary, especially when Chris uses a deep, ominous voice while reading. She'll now do the same in her play. I'll hear her narrating a tale to stuffed animals and suddenly she'll switch to low, gruff tones to declare, "...and then a voice said, HELLO DOWN THERE!"

Lucie has had a bit of a cold lately, and is doing her best to fight off a sometimes stuffy/sometimes runny nose and hacking cough. At one of her low moments yesterday, she asked to skip lunch and go straight to bed for a nap instead. As she climbed up the stairs, I reminded her to take off her shoes. "But, Mommy" she said with a sniffle, "I really want to take off my nose."

Along with several imaginary friends, Lucie has created an imaginary land. This land is called Lucieland. To locate Lucieland, you need to drive just a little bit past Legoland. There you'll find a magical place where they only speak Lucie language. Lucie language is unlike any language I've ever heard. It's a combination of hand signals and noises, everything from tongue clicks to made-up words and grunts.

Though it's taking us a while to learn the native tongue, we're lucky to have an in-house translator to help us out on our first visit. I can't wait to go. Apparently in Lucieland there's an entire city devoted to ice cream. I wonder if they are accepting new residents?

Beach Kids

With beautiful temperatures outside and grandparents in town, we broke in Ryan and Lucie's new rash guards during an afternoon at the beach.

Each time we visit the beach, I'm amazed at how much confidence the kids are gaining in the ocean. Lucie spent much of the afternoon dancing in the waves, sometimes splashing high enough to soak the top of her head.

Ryan ran back and forth filling the hole that Grandpa made him with water, then rushing back to refill his bucket again just as the water soaked in. He didn't seem to mind the monotony of his work. As with so many things these little guys do, the effort or process is more than half the fun.

Goodbye Cribs

After much procrastination, we finally set up Lucie and Ryan's big kid beds. Though we've had the beds for over two months now, they hadn't made it from the garage into the house until this week.

The delay in set-up was partly because we've had a lot going on, but mainly because the thought of packing up cribs made us both a bit sad. In taking down Ryan's crib, Chris said he felt like he had just set it up (and to think that was back when we only needed one crib!). To me, it feels like just yesterday that I picked out bedding for our second crib to accommodate growing babies who no longer fit side by side. And now, suddenly we're done with both cribs? Just like that? Really?

But, clearly, it had to be done. Lucie and Ryan are definitely the "big kids" their new beds celebrate. Not just in size, but also in attitude and maturity. They were beyond ready for this.

And, boy have they celebrated! They adore their beds. Ryan is giddy over the fact that he has orange sheets and a fire engine on his quilt. Lucie loves having space to spread out Ella the elephant and her entourage of loved ones, while admiring her pink flowered quilt.

Whenever anyone has come over these past few days, L & R have raced to show them their room, with Ryan building up to the big surprise by declaring, "You may not believe this, but come see! Come see!"

He's right. I'm still not sure I believe it either, but I'm warming to it. I love to see how much pride and enjoyment they get from their beds. Though, I must admit, it may take me some time to fold up the old crib sheets. This parenting thing sure moves quick.

Hoppy Easter

We've been building up to Easter for weeks around here. With dying eggs, ducky and bunny art projects, Easter Bunny books galore, and tales of last year's adventures, there has been lots of anticipation.

Lucie and Ryan clearly remember all the details of last year's hunt. This is the first holiday where they've brought up memories of the previous year -- such fun! They love to recollect where the Easter Bunny (a.k.a. "EB") hid each egg on a treasure hunt to find the final prize, their treasure-laden baskets hidden in "THE DRYER!" (This is a tradition that stems from my Dad's wonderful rendition of "EB" each year when I was young.) For weeks, the talk has been about where EB will hide the baskets this year. Such pressure for a bunny!

Thankfully, this year did not disappoint. R & L hopped with glee when they found a note in the morning directing them to their first plastic egg clue. They couldn't believe that EB had managed to hide an egg in their dresser drawer, Daddy's closet, and the washing machine -- how could that have happened when we were all sleeping? This year, EB's final clue led to baskets in the front seat of the car. They loved it.

After another egg hunt in the backyard, we took an Easter nature walk. Ryan and Lucie skipped down the trail, stopping only to smell the flowers. The butterfly wings are a Saturday morning garage sale find (50 cents!) that have barely left Lucie's back all weekend.

Evolution of Art

I've been enjoying watching Ryan and Lucie's drawings evolve from random scribbles to actual forms and shapes. I was amazed by this little girl Lucie recently drew, complete with a face, eyes, mouth, hair, and body. I didn't realize she'd be able to do that sort of thing on her own yet. After a bit of thought, she came up with a title for this picture too. It was called "Girl Wearing the Perfect Dress Who Dove Into the Sea When She Turned Four Years Old". That's such a Lucie title, so detailed and sweet. I had to write it all down to keep up.

Ryan's pictures have become very detailed, filling up the entire board or page with lines, circles and other shapes. When he describes his creations, they sound like complex systems and machines with gears to switch, ladders to climb and buttons to push. He gave this picture two titles, "Submarine Underwater Picture" and "Submarine with a Light and Delight". I love the second title, as I know that submarines do cause this little boy such delight.