What's New, Lucy Loo?

As I'm writing this, it is Ash Wednesday and I am in the middle of an all day fast. Because of this, I don't think it would be prudent of me to look at food photographs or talk recipes lest I faint from hunger so instead I'm going to write tiny little updates on each of the kids. And in case you were wondering about the title of this post, "Lucy Loo" is just one of many, many little nicknames we use for our youngest. I can always rely on her to let me know the scoop on her other two siblings, I just have to ask "What's New, Lucy Loo?" She's quite the tattle-tale. More on her later. Let's get the latest scoop on Matthew first.

Matthew

Matthew gets very involved in any and every holiday. I don't know any other little kid who, for example, goes around wishing everyone he sees a "Happy President's Day!" I think most people just accept their day off of school and happily sleep in. Not Matthew.

So, just like he is for every other holiday, Matthew was completely psyched about Valentine's Day and very eager to spread the love. He came home from school that day with a backpack full of various heart-shaped treats, cards, and notes. He willingly shared his loot with his sisters and then asked me if he could make some more valentines. Sure, I told him, but who would these ones be for? He then told me that he wanted to give them to some of our neighbors because they are all so nice to him. So, he sat down and made a personalized valentine for a few of our surrounding neighbors, including an old German Shepherd named Chloe who lives up the street. He then took Peyton out for a walk and delivered his valentines by placing them in the recipient's mailboxes. I thought it was cute.

Fast forward to yesterday and I was on the front lawn playing with Peyton, Emma, and Lucy when our next door neighbor Chuck came out to smoke a cigarette. Now, Chuck lives alone in the house next door to us. He has six kids and eight grandchildren, but they all live a few hours away. He smokes a lot and usually does so in the side doorway of his garage door which happens to face our house. My kids, being the friendly yet annoying little creatures they are, enjoy chatting with him while he is out and asking him all sorts of personal questions, including "Why do you put so much smoke in your body?" or, my personal favorite from Matthew, "Where's your wife?!"

Anyway, when Chuck came out for a smoke yesterday, Peyton bounded over to him for a good petting and Emma sprinted up close behind him and proceeded to enter his garage. I told you she was nosy. As I was dragging Emma away from the garage, Chuck asked me where Matthew was and I told him that he was in school. Then he said, "I've been keeping an eye out for him because I wanted to thank him for the valentine he left in my mailbox. I came home from work and found it and it was such a nice surprise. I can't tell you the last time someone actually thought of me on Valentine's Day. It meant a lot. Please tell him how much I appreciated it." It was so sweet. He was legitimately touched by Matthew's simple gesture and it made me so proud of my sweet little son.

I told Matthew about the encounter when I picked him up from school and he beamed with happiness. I'm thrilled that he is discovering how good it can feel to do something nice for someone else...

...of course, this happened the same day that I got a note home from school detailing how Matthew got into a fight with another student. Reality check. This is a kid who is sweet, caring, and compassionate but does have a bit of a devilish side. He usually loves school, but has been very reluctant to attend lately. I think it's because his studies are not coming as easy as they were at the beginning of the year and he is just "over it." Almost every morning, he tries to come up with some reason why he should stay home. Once I tell him no and ask him to get dressed, he's fine. However, I have been having a couple chats with the teacher about his "restlessness" during the school day. He's been having a hard time buckling down and focusing on his work. His grades are good, but he has just been acting out an inappropriate moments and I think there might be some type of friendship problem going on. I have been unable to extract any detailed information from him, but he has never been all that forthcoming. Rather than asking him directly, I'm better off just doing some type of activity with him and letting him talk to me about whatever he sees fit and almost always he will eventually tell me what's going on. So far though, not much has come up. Hopefully we get to the bottom of it soon!

EMMA

Emma is back to being her normal sweet yet mischievous self. Thankfully we have not had as many tantrums and other behavioral issues as we were for a couple months. She is excelling at her schoolwork and is showing remarkable penmanship despite being left-handed. Because she does so well socially and appears to be accepting academic instruction from me, Paul and I have decided not to send her to preschool next year. This decision has been very relieving for me because I am honestly not ready to let her go quite yet. I really do enjoy our time together and selfishly want another year of her being around all day, every day. We sent Matthew to preschool because he definitely needed some extra socialization to prepare him for Kindergarten as well as proper introduction to a classroom environment. While that proved to be an excellent decision for Matthew, Emma is a much different child and has not displayed the same needs as her older brother. I am confident that she will do just beautifully beginning school with Kindergarten. I'm pretty sure her little sister will be happy to have her around for another year as well.

One of the things about Emma that I have always been proud of is her love for organization. Ever since she was super little, Emma enjoyed sorting or stacking items. She loved sorting the books on her bookshelf by height. She loved stacking blocks of similar style. She likes to organize her toys by color. She loves putting things away in the containers that they belong. When I ask her to clean up her room, she usually does an excellent job of putting everything away exactly where it belongs.

Which is why it is incredibly baffling when she gets in these moods when suddenly the most simple tasks appear insurmountable to her. The other day, Paul was miffed at her because she kept bringing down toys from her room and leaving them scattered about the couches in the living room. After repeatedly telling her to put the toys away, he finally threatened that he would throw away all her favorite toys if she did not comply.

"But Daddy! I'm too tired to clean up!" Emma complained, prostrating herself on the floor in feigned exhaustion.
"Fine Emma! Tell me what all your favorite toys are and I am going to get a garbage bag and throw them away!" Paul threatened, reaching under the sink for a garbage bag.

So what does Emma do? She agrees to the punishment and then proceeds to list off all of Matthew's toys. What a diabolical little thing!

Yes, I got the girls matching Beatles shirts for Valentine's Day.
They say "P.S. I Love You" on the bottom.
They will thank me someday.

LUCY

Lucy has just been too much fun. I absolutely love this age! She certainly has a mind of her own, but is still fairly complacent to go along with whatever is happening throughout our day. Think about it from her perspective, she is playing happily with toys when I decide it's time to run errands. She gets scooped up, buckled into her seat, and then carried from place to place just happy as can be. She is great company because she is talking so much and loves to point out things she sees as we are out and about. Love her, love this phase! Here is a rundown on Lucy's current likes and dislikes.

Favorite Books: Llama Llama Red Pajama, Peanut Butter & Cupcake, or Baby's First Words (called "Sassy" by Lucy)

Favorite Food: Toasted Coconut Greek Yogurt, anything chocolate, and Fruit Snacks

Favorite Color: Pink

Favorite Animal: A pig, for reasons beyond my comprehension.

Favorite article of Clothing: Her fleece nightgown with printed snowmen (Lucy refers to it as "my snowman"). She almost always throws a fit when I am getting her dressed for the day because she hates taking it off.

Favorite Forbidden Activity: Raiding Mom's desk or cosmetic bag

Favorite Allowed Activity: Going down the slides at the park, taking long walks outside, reading books

Least Favorite Activity: Getting her hair brushed. You would think she was being tortured.

Most Dangerous Activity: She climbs EVERYTHING. Paul has had several tiny heart attacks from discovering her perched atop a not-so-safe location she recently scaled.

Most Annoying Tendency: She loves to squeeze my cheeks together with both of her fat little hands whenever I'm holding her in public. She especially likes to do this during church while I'm praying and it is so annoying!

Favorite Prank: She loves to sneak up behind Matthew or Emma and snatch whatever they are playing with away and then run off, hugging the object close to her while yelling: "Mine!" She does it just to make them mad and it is definitely effective.

Favorite Place: Most definitely, without a doubt, Lucy's favorite spot is the park! Any park! As long as there are slides!

Favorite Phrases: There are quite a few, so I will do these in a bulleted list.

• Whenever someone coughs or sneezes, she cocks her head to the side and asks "Okay?" And won't quit asking until the ailing individual affirms that he or she is in fact doing just fine.
• She refers to her socks as "See Socks"
• She melts my heart each and every time she snuggles in close and says: "I luv loo!"
• She refers to Matthew as "Watchoo".
• She loves to tattle on Emma by running up to me while pointing back at her sister saying, "Wook! Emma doing!" She also tattles on the puppy. 
• Speaking of the puppy, Lucy loves to order him around. She can be heard commanding him to sit, stay, and lay down, followed by an enthusiastic "bood boy!"
• Every time she makes a new discovery or is legitimately surprised, she says: "Oh My!" You can hear her say this no less than 100x each day. It's so precious.
• She still loves to lift up her shirt and point out her "Bee Butt" (belly button).

This is the face of a little girl who is more than a little excited to be back at the park thanks
to all this warm weather we've been having!!

That's what's current with the kids. What's new with you?