Living, Loving, Learning

Lucy has started being very interactive this week. She started cooing back at me, as in response. She has also started putting a little weight on those chicken thighs of hers. She is soooo much sturdier than Griffin was at this age. She is also sporting a most impressive Mohawk these days...I have all kinds of hair do-hickeys for her but I just love her natural 'do!

We have FRIENDS...YEAH! It took us a little while to start to make friends in Kentucky and then once we started to, we had Lucy and everything took a back seat for a little while. For the last few weeks though, we have been having weekly playdates at the park with some new friends. This is the lovely, 6 year old, Sophia. And the adorable, almost 3, Emma. They love to "hunt" squirrels - trying to lure them in by making mud pies, pretend they are lost in the woods and go down the "big" slide. Their Mama, Kim, taught us all how to get the drop of honey out of a honeysuckle blossom. Griffin has gone straight from the car to the bathtub after every outing to the park with his girlfriends, covered in dirt and often with banged up knees, always asking when we will see Sophia and Emma again.

On Sunday we headed up to the much anticipated, Dinosaur World ! It was an almost 2 hour drive, but so worth it for our dinosaur aficionado. This was the last part of his birthday celebration and I am so glad we went through the effort to do it. They had a fossil museum, an area where Griffin played palaeontologist and dug for fossils (they ended up in Zed's cage!), a cave to watch a dinosaur movie, a great playground and the trail of dinos ! Lucy, as always, was a great girl, totally up for the adventure. The trail was Griff's favorite part, he loved looking at the dinosaurs, running to the next one, and telling the fellow trekkers what they were looking at, what food they ate and explaining their distinguishing features. In short, he was really geeking out!

I promised some family members that I would document Griffin's birthday well and post lots of photos. Soooo....for those that are not founding members of the G3 fan club, you may want to skip this post. :) Of course, he woke up in a great mood and came bounding into my bedroom crooning, "Is there any room for me?" The first thing he wanted to do was have some snuggles with his baby sister and she was happy to oblige him. Then he was ready for breakfast, his choice of course: scrambled eggs, OJ and many many sausage pinwheels (I had made them earlier in the week and frozen them in anticipation of this request.) He spent the morning playing with his Mr. Potato Head (he still loves that Auntie Kelly!) and watched a couple Nick Jr. shows. Then we packed it up and headed to the "pizza parlour" (Pizza Hut) so he could eat all the pizza toppings he possibly could and I didn't make him eat any crust! Our sweet new friends Kim and Emma met us there. We had such a g...

Griffin was helping me make some sweets over the weekend...boy, did he enjoy it!!! I still can't believe my little guy turns 4 tomorrow! He is such a funny kid, so full of curiosity. He is challenging, but in a good way...like I know he won't get pushed around and will always question the powers that be. He loves to be the center of EVERYBODYS attention, never afraid to do his newest animal impression or act out a scene for strangers. He doesn't discriminate, he is friendly, he loves to talk to everyone who crosses his path...always with questions. He is sensitive, it bothers him more if we are upset when he disobeys than being put in time-out. He is loud and clumsy. He is incredibly active and has amazing stamina for a boy his age but he is SLOW...slow to act/react, a slow runner, a slow talker. He loves to pretend he is an animal, or that his stuffed animals are his "baby" and he parents them. He loves to be outside. He loves to mimic anything Bruce and I are do...

WOOHOOO....I get to go vote for my man Obama today. It is going to be a GREAT day.

The Moms got me hooked on this tasty little beverage. Since I am breastfeeding and am looking at still another 9 months or so ahead of me before I can enjoy an alcoholic drink on a regular basis, finding tasty non-alcoholic drinks is a challenge. All day long I am a simple water with lemon girly (or a guiltily consumed Diet Coke midday), but come on....how boring is that!! Once and a while it is nice to switch it up. Regular ice tea is popular down here but it is too bitter for me and I definitly don't need the sugar in sweet tea. Anyways, I mention this Snapple Diet Green Tea because it is so darn hard to find. The only place down here that carries it, very irregularly, is Kroger...which I hate to shop at (I've bought bad meat there twice now and Bruce bought rancid milk there recently!) So, I figure, if we pass the tip and get more people hooked maybe it will be more widely available. I love the light crisp flavor and the pretty almost green color...and the fact that it is s...

OOhhhhh...accessories. This is a whole new world that wasn't available for Griffin. Thanks, Chanley!

This is the image I wake up to looming over the bed most mornings. Griffin is really adjusting well to having his sister around. If fact, more often these days we have to help him back off a little and give her a bit of space. I thought I would mention a few of his most heard remarks these days. " I want to keep her for all the days...and name her Lucy!" " Sunshine is my best dog Mama ever." " Is she awake or asleep?" (shouted within 2 feet of Lucy) " Is there room for me?" (every morning as he scoots into the middle of our bed, of course the answer is always YES) " She woke up all by HERSELF" (usually told to me while I am in the shower)

Wow, that was the best Mama's day yet!! The best part was, all day I felt really loved and appreciated by my family. It ended up raining all day so there was no woods for us, but we did head to the state park anyways. They have an awesome restaurant there that sits on the edge of a cliff overlooking a twisty lake and we had a really nice lunch there. Both our kids were PERFECT all day, it was really lovely and unexpected. Here is a family photo for y'all. Bruce asked the oldest man in the place to take the photo and I don't think he had ever used a digital camera before. Lucy was yawning in the pic, but neither of us felt like asking him to take another. :) I hope all you other Mamas had a relaxing, loving day! We are doing good work here sisters, let's keep it up!

Ok, so this video is so so corny. But here is the thing, this is why we LOVE living here. The people really do love this town. They are welcoming and friendly and fun. And for those of you who haven't been down here yet, you can get a glimpse of our little village. And...the love of Griffin's life, Miss Angel, the children's librarian, is in the scenes in the library. I am writing this as Bruce and Griffin prepare my favorite breakfast (chocolate chip pancakes) for my Mother's Day Breakfast. I am listening to the awesome soundtrack to Juno that Bruce just gave me. Later we will head out to the state park for a hike in the woods and then come home to wrap up the day with a fruit pizza and a family movie night. Ahhhh, the perfect day for this Mama.

I have to say it again. I am so thankful for this child. It has been amazing, mothering her for the past 6 weeks (plus 9 mos. in utero!) This experience has been unique and totally different then my first 6 weeks with Griffin. I think the biggest difference is experience. That experience has given me the confidence to trust my instincts , that I didn't have with Griffin. I also read a book called " The happiest baby on the block" by Dr. Harvey Karp , that has totally affirmed my instincts. He talks about the 4th trimester, that babies behave and should be treated more like fetuses for their first 3 months of life. I couldn't agree more. I nurse Lucy on demand, in fact she barely whimpers before we are on her, attending to her needs. I hold her as much as humanly possible (the Dr. points out how babies are held 24 hrs. a day in the womb so even 17 hrs. outside is a lot less for them.) and she sleeps in between Bruce and I. I use the Maya wrap to mimic the womb sensati...

Last Sunday we headed up to the Evansville Zoo. It was in the low 70's, sunny...a perfect day. Lucy slept the whole time we were there and Griffin loved having all his parents attention. He also caught the attention of the amazingly friendly and accessible giraffes.

We had a GREAT weekend. It finally felt like the Gast family was getting back to normal life...except with a one sweet addition. Griffin kicked the ball 3 times at his game on Saturday! We were so proud of him. The coach kind of paired him up with our team's "ringer" Philip. Philip is the only kid as tall as Griffin on the team and he definitly knows how to play soccer. Griffin followed Philip and that brought him near the ball. We had not even gotten in the car before he was telling us he wanted to play more. We are so happy he is enjoying it and even starting to get the hang of it. And the Cracker Jack's are 3-0! That is my Maya wrap in the picture (thanks Mom and Dikke!). Lucy LOVES it (even though it looks like she is hanging on for dear life in the picture, she was actually sound alseep). She pretty much falls asleep instantly when I put her in it. We use it on our daily walks with Griffin and Sunshine, to the soccer field, around the house, in stores...in f...