Random journaling 08

Just to warn you...  this whole blog is basically my journal and this post may bore you because it is mostly for my memory...

I absolutely love having Dave home.  He has one more interview in Texas this week and then is home for good.  By the end of this whole process he will have interviewed with 9 programs.  I think I have mentioned this in a previous post but for my own memory he will have interviewed in Rochester and Long Island (NY), Texas Tech and Texas A&M, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia, L.A., and Utah, so we will see.  We could be anywhere for the next 5 or 6 years, which is exciting but a little overwhelming.  I know this waiting for match day (the end of January) is really stressful for Dave.  He has another intense rotation the month of January at IMC in the shock trauma unit but then after that... things are smooth sailing for him and graduation is just around the corner.  I'm so proud of him!  He has worked so hard and has done so well.  I'm so blessed to have such a good husband.  I love him so much.  Our latest plan is to find out where we are going and then put our house up for sale so that we can hopefully sale it before June so that we are not having to pay 2 mortgages once residency starts.  It makes me sad to think that we will be moving out of our town home that we have been living in for the last 3 1/2 years.  I love that place.  It's the first place since we have been married that I call home.  We have had some really good times there with many memories that I will never forget.

Anyway, this pic was taken at Temple Square.  We took Lucy to see the lights last Sunday night and it was really fun to just go and be together as a family.  You can't really see the lights in this pic but you sure can see right down Lucy's throat, well you can't really see down her throat because her tonsils are so freakin' huge.  Poor girl!  She snores louder that my mom and dad put together and gags on just about everything she eats.  I took her to the Dr last summer to have them checked out and he said that they don't generally take tonsils out until she turns 3 or is atleast 30 lbs, which she will probably turn 3 before she weighs that much because she doesn't eat because of the darn things.  It will be nice to have them out, someday. Kids swimming in the hot tub on Thanksgiving.  She looks more and more like her dad everyday.  She is a total Ludlow!  I think she is pretty darn cute.
Lucy helped me decorate (and undecorate) the Christmas tree while Dave was out of town (he got home the night before Thanksgiving).  I was anxious to get the decorations up for some reason this year...  and I thought that it would be fun to suprise Dave when he got home from a long couple weeks away from home.  When we wake up in the morning Lucy takes me to the tree and says "lights mom" and gets excited every time I turn them on.  I love that she is talking more and understands when we talk.  She still loves movies "mobie" (especially Mermaid, Grinch, and Snowman lately) and loves reading books more and more now.  She mostly just liked to turn the pages but now she actually listens and knows what each book is about.  Her latest thing is that when we say it's time for a nap or bedtime she stalls and wants to eat...  Eat, mom, eat!, like she is all of a sudden hungry when she just ate lunch/dinner or had a snack.  By the way she loves Nemo fruit snacks, cookies, cheese sticks, cereal, frozen pancakes, yogurt, (e-gert), popsicles (she calls them pickles), popcorn or pretty much anything you put in a little cup.  I love when I try to kiss her or make her eat or whatever she says "Stop mom" or "Don't mom" and holds her hand out.  She also ends up in our bed mostly every night (she still pulls the 4 o'clock freak out and won't stay in her bed or ends up just falling asleep with us) and in the morning she will look over my shoulder and say "Boo" or "wake up" as she kisses my cheek.  It is so cute.  Then she decides if she wants pancakes or cereal for breakfast...  lately she has wanted to eat cheese for breakfast.  Funny!  She loves to have her tummy and back tickled and she will laugh and say "tickle"  as she squirms every which way.  I love it!  She gets cuter everyday.  When I tell her something she doesn't want to hear or ask her to do something that she doesn't want to do she closes her eyes and hopes that I will disappear and ignores me and then smiles when I bug her for ignoring her mom.  She is really good at saying no too.  She also loves to say "Dad/Mom watch!"  The other day it was cute but not so cute at the same time, we had just gotten home from Sonic and I seriously had had one sip of my cherry coke with lots of crushed ice (my favorite) and some how she got a hold of it and was drinking it, then all of a sudden I hear her say "Mom, watch" and so I looked at her to see what she was up to and she started blowing bubbles in my brand new drink.  She laughed and thought it was so funny and I didn't think it was funny but laughed anyway because it was so cute.  Needless to say, I handed the drink over to her because I have a hard time with the whole backwash deal, yes I gave her coke...  so what!  She also sings to random music in the car "Live your Life, ay ay ay ay...  or to cartoons like My friends Tiger and Pooh (one of my favorites!).  She is such a sweetheart.  I don't know what I would do without her.  She makes me really happy (and really mad sometimes) but mostly happy.  I have figured out this last few weeks that being a mom is all about trial and error, somethings work and some things don't and it is really hard to be strong sometimes.  I really wanted to get rid of her bink all together but after a few sleepless nights and day naps I gave in and gave her bink to her but explained that it was only for when she was going to sleep.  She has done really well without it during the day even though she has had some major freak outs when she wants it and I tell her no.  They are frustrating and no fun for either of us and I feel like such a bad mom for confusing her with the whole "broken" thing...  (hence the whole trial and error, I've definately learned a thing or two from this whole experience) if you keep reading through older posts you will know what I am talking about.  I'm hoping that once she is completely over having her bink during the day we can work on going without if for naps then eventually night time but right now I can't afford to lose anymore sleep and neither can she.  Maybe this approach will work better than the last, I hope!
I'm so excited for her to have a sister to play with.  She is very busy and it is going to be a long winter.  I think she gets a little bored just being at home with boring mom and dad so we try and make it important that we get her out to run around.  During the day we walk to the clubhouse to exercise and then we make our daily coke run and do errands, then we usually do something together at night when Dave gets home.  Dave has been so good to take her places at night when I am at work...  he took her to Cabela's one night, to the mall Christmas shopping, Del Taco and McDonalds to play, we have also been to Chick-fil-A, Carl's Jr, and other places to let her play on the playground and eat dinner.  We are in the process of finding a fun gymnastics class for her.  I think she would love it as long as she could see us there with her.  I love her so much!  She makes my heart smile and I know she makes Dave's heart smile as well.  She is such a huge blessing in my life!  I love you Luce!