Loquacious Lucy

Just a few short weeks ago, Lucy had mastered only a dozen words. Now, she is a virtual vocabulary master. Yesterday, I said, "Thank you," to her and she responded, "Welcome," clear as day. She can sing, "Happy Birthday," and she loves to recite, "Nose, eyes, ears, toes, belly button" as she jabs you playfully on each body part. She says, "All done," when she has finished her meals. (Yes, Aunt Amy aka the Grammar Police, we know it should be "all finished." Over Christmas, you can drill her with "finished" like any good Godmother would.)

The most fun part of seeing Lucy become so chatty is that now she and Mary can really play together. Mary loves to engage her with dolls or animals, and Lucy can participate fully in the fun.

The downside of being Loquacious Lu? She stays up past bedtime jabbering in her crib to her big sis, trying to elicit replies!

Mary-isms

Miss Mary loves to chat (wonder where she gets that from?). One of her new phrases is, "Mom, can you do me a FAVORITE?" This is, of course, followed by a request to hang up her painting or fix her a snack or some other little task.

We crack up every time she says it. Thank God for little kids to help us laugh-- even during tough days.

Thankfulness

Happy Turkey Day to one and all!

This year we have a lot to be thankful for-- the support of our family and friends has been overwhelming to us during Megan's recovery process. The meals, the phone calls, the lifts to appointments, the encouragement and the prayers are all indicators that we are truly blessed. How did we get so lucky to be surrounded by all of you? Thank you!

We celebrated the day with Jack and Will (& their parents) and Aunt Suzanne. A delicious turkey, Grandma's stuffing, gooey sweet potatoes, and of course, Curtis' famous cointreau cranberries. It doesn't get any better! Oh, and handprints of Mary and Lucy adorned the turkey nametags for our party...so much fun!

Ice Arm and CJ

Nicknames abound in our house right now. Megan had her shoulder surgery on Oct. 18 (ouch!) and came home from the hospital with a giant sling and an ice compression device that circulated cold water to her shoulder for hours at a time. Hence, the nickname, Ice Arm, courtesy of Ryan. Fortunately, PT (which stands for Pure Torture) is helping her regain some mobility. Unforunately, the Ice Arm is now defunct since it was costing $175/week to rent and had to be returned. Now, Megan's nickname is IPH (In the Poor House).

Two weeks later, Curtis packed the whole family into the car and brought invalid Megan and the girls to the Buck house so that he could go elk hunting with his father, uncles, and cousins. His hunting moniker is "CJ" for obvious reasons. In this photo, he is standing in front of Red Baron's Jeep. A special trip for he and his dad, and we are so glad he was able to go this year after a two-year hiatus.

May I please have some candy?

We've really been pressing manners in our house lately. So, when we asked Mary what she should say when she knocks on doors for Halloween, her response was, "May I please have some candy?"





Fortunately, Mary's friend Jack showed her the ropes on Halloween evening. Even Lucy seemed to understand that knocking at each door resulted in treats! She ran from house to house at lightning speed!

Late Adopters

We were the last people on earth (okay, maybe just in California) to get a DVD player. Same goes for cell phones, caller ID, and the like. My iPod has less than 20 listening hours under it's belt. What can I say? Even Grandma & Papa have a DVR before we do!

In any case, better late than never, right? We finally have a blog-- so you can read about our crazy and wild tales, but most of all, so that we can record them for posterity since we aren't doing such a good job maintaining baby books or photo albums or anything else these days.

Enjoy!