Hodgepodge of the last two weeks

Let the summer of scraped knees begin!!! One of the many reasons I love a boy - it's an excuse to buy fun bandaids and actually use them :)  We have one week of school left (well, really two days) and I'm so ready for it.  Mostly because I want to hang out with these kiddos and mostly because on the last day we will be flying to Portland to meet the cousins!  So in the last week and a half, here's what we've been up to...

Last week Andy went out of town for 4 days (again) so I took a lovely (aka awkward) little snapshot of the whole family to send to him with a caption "We miss you daddy!"  I really missed having Andy's help and was freaking out a bit at times when everyone needed me at once.  What I failed to comprehend is that this will be my summer...  It's about to get real.  FUN but real.

 Jackman and Lucy Goose at school.  I told Jack to "jump for joy" because Daddy was coming home that day.  Here he is pre-jump.  I love how chill Lucy is.  Story of her life so far.  She truly is a very calm, sweet baby.  But then again, aren't all 2nd born children? :)

When Andy came home, he spent his whole Sunday building me my heart's desire - an upright planter like the one I saw at Bloom's Day!  Doesn't it look awesome??  I let Jack pick out the paint color - daring move but it turned out pretty great.  He also insisted on helping me "throw paint" on the sucker.  While his technique needs a little help, he was definitely a very fast worker.  I do love a good work ethic.

I decided to play dress up with the Goose on Sunday as well. Mom had brought me a box of my old dresses so here you have - Vintage Lucy!  She's almost outgrown a few of them (I'd like to thank the makers of Sam's Generic Formula for that) but we manage to make it fit. :) 

She's getting pretty good at doing the can-can dance.

She's also doing more tummy time lately.  It usually doesn't end well - hence the spit up.  But she is getting so good at holding her head up when we hold her.  I just think she considers tummy time amateur hour and refuses to participate. 

Another thing we've been trying this week - crying it out.  Notice all the little red lights are lit on the monitor.  That's how it's been for at least 2 hours every night.  Something happened to Lucy in the past couple weeks.  She used to fall asleep so well on her own at 7:30 but now she's wanting to be rocked and soothed and everything else until 9 pm.  So we've resorted to the CIO method.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I never had to do this with Jack.  He just went to sleep on his own.  We were SPOILED.  I get that.  But now that we are doing it with Lucy, I feel like I'm undergoing torture.  I hate hearing her scream and I worry about her but I know deep down it's for the best.  And it's for our sanity as well.  One major, huge, unbelieveable bonus is that while it does take forever for her to fall asleep lately - she will sleep until 6:30 every morning without waking.  As Andy said, I will take a difficult bedtime over waking up 3 times a night any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  

 And lastly, this week has started the preparations process.  This was the beginning of the list - it continued onto the next page by the time I was finished.  I'm so excited to be flying to Portland with Jack, Lucy, Baba, Gaga, and Widdi!  (I wish Andy could go but he has to study for level 2 exam of the CFA certification.)  We cannot wait to see John and Cristin and meet Parker and Teagan.  Yet I'm learning that the whole 'flying with little ones" thing is a daunting task.  And I also know I am about to become the person that everyone on the plane dreads.  People will see me coming and cringe.  I'm not gonna lie, it's a power trip. :)  I've never really been feared before so this opens up a whole new level of control for me.  I will be the one you don't want to sit next to.  The one you don't want in your row.  The one you avoid eye contact with.  It's gonna be awesome.  And let's be honest - I'm travelling with a lot of support AND I've got an adorable goofy red head and a sweet cooing infant - who wouldn't want to sit next to that??  No one?  oh....

Well let's just say, if you aren't on my plane you are missing out.  I mean, check out the preciousness.  Next post will be all about the cousins!!  Look out Portland here we come!