Lucy's turning 4!

Lucy will be four years old on Saturday. Where has the time gone? Looking for photos for her class birthday celebration (just one from each year of her life), I am amazed at how much she's grown. How can that tiny baby in my arms be the little girl napping on the sofa?

Yet there she is; the pictures show her growing year by year: more teeth, hair a little longer; from lying down to sitting to standing to running. And today is just another snapshot, another moment in her life that I will look back on someday and wonder how she was ever so little. Time for me to get in the picture now.

Lucy and the grapefruit

She said she wanted the 'orange'. I explained that it wasn't an orange, but a grapefruit. 'Is it a lemon?' she asked--that's the known item, I suppose, that looks like an orange, but is the wrong color. Again, I explained that it was a grapefruit.

I really didn't think she'd like it. She watched with interest as I cut the sections so they could be scooped out with  a spoon. She listened as I explained that daddy liked sugar on his grapefruit, but I ate mine without. I was surprised that she wanted hers without sugar, and even more surprised that she really liked it. Sometimes she says she likes something, but doesn't want it just now. This seems to me a polite way of saying she doesn't actually like it. But she ate all the sections of the half grapefruit I prepared for her, and even wanted to try the juice.

It's hard to believe that she'll be four in less than two weeks. Seems like only a couple of weeks ago that I was writing 'Lucy doesn't crawl'; now she runs and jumps and plays on the playground. She uses phrases like 'pretty obvious' (thanks to the second Harry Potter movie) and loves to climb. And, apparently, she likes grapefruit. Who would have imagined?

The years ahead are sure to be full of surprises and fun as my baby grows into a big girl!

Double-cheese ziti with bacon

Yesterday, I made dinner. As you might have guessed, I made double-cheese ziti with bacon. I chose it out of the library from a cookbook called TASTE OF HOME: KID APPROVED COOKBOOK. It sounded like it would be good, so I sat down and picked five recipes that looked nice. I chose this one because it looked the best and thought my whole family could possibly like it.

(I liked it more than it looks like, my dad took a big piece of the top.)

I went back home and straight after lunch got to work. It took me almost three hours to make it but it was done at 5:08 and on the table ready for eating. After three hours, over $35 spent, only three (me, my mom and my dad) people liked it. My siblings (Iain, Anna and Lucy) didn't like it at all.

catchy tune

Last night, we attended the younger children's school dance. Despite insisting that he did not want to go, and would not dance, Iain enjoyed running around like mad with his friends. Lucy's favorite moments would have been riding (dancing) on my shoulders and being swung around in circles (while the dance floor was relatively empty.

We all know Anna likes dancing. And so she enjoyed herself...except that the music was pretty loud, and the dance floor was pretty crowded. As a result, we left pretty early. On the way back to the car, she told me she wanted that 'catchy tune.' For a minute, I didn't quite understand. Or, rather, I thought that she was saying 'catchy tune,' but couldn't believe that could be right.

'Catchy tune?' I repeated. 'Yes,' she replied, in that tone of voice that says, 'what else would I have been saying?' like it's blindingly obvious. Ok, which tune? 'Happy?' I asked, 'the song from Despicable Me?' Nope. She shook her head. 'Catchy tune,' she said again, 'boys in a train.' Boys in a train? Then it dawned on me. 'The Macarena?' I asked. Big smile. 'Yeessssss!'

Heaven help us.

Iain's mask

This photo is of my brother, who made a paper mask. I stuffed it on his head.

new author

I am inviting a new author to this blog: Thomas! His interest in sports has led me to create a blog for him, Thomas talks sports. Check out his first post, which predicts the outcome of the Arsenal-Tottenham game. (If that doesn't make sense to you, check it out anyway: you'll find out something about Premier League football [soccer] in the UK.)

I've no idea how he will contribute to this blog. That's up to him.

Christmas

Lucy even wore a dress for Mass on Christmas Eve.

Just after Santa finished...

Doesn't everyone have Roman soldiers peeking out of the top of their Christmas stocking?

Anna got the music player she wanted!

Thomas asked for a set of Notre Dame playing cards.

Little Miss Easy-to-please--delighted with presents in general.

...but who wouldn't want to be a princess?