A Beautiful Mind

I’m on a roll with the movie titles. So, her 18th month birthday came and went with little fanfare. Poor Lucye. We planned to make a cake—even bought the fixings, but that never happened. She did get a few gifts however. She always does in these kinds of movies.

That was a Sunday. On Thursday, she had her doctor’s visit for the shots. She has a record of “difficult” visits, and in fact, I think they have marked her file (hee hee).
This time, she did pretty good. No vomiting on the doctor, no screaming (until the shots), and she was quite, well…"energetic" if you will. When the doctor attempted to exam her (Lucye had other ideas), the doc stated “Well, she certainly has a mind of her own.”

Robert decided that visit was much like a Seinfeld episode. What, exactly, did she mean by that comment? She probably examines 20 babies a day. It was reminiscent of the doctor calling both the ugly baby and Elaine “breathtaking.” Was her comment good or bad? Above is a picture of her. You be the judge…

The Crying Game

Ever see this movie from the 80’s about the Irish Republican Army? If so, you are probably asking yourself what on earth this has to do with a picture of Lucye…Nothing…I just liked the title because it was also the title of our life for about a week or so. We finally “did it”…the modified cry out. This picture was taken just a few days before her 18 month doctor visit at the Christian church Pumpkin Patch on Spalding (our annual trip to the Berry Patch Farms didn’t happen because it rained the night before and we didn’t want to get out there in the mud).

Anyway, the doc convinced me that I needed a life after dark (enter your own vampire comment here), and my entire nights shouldn’t be spent rocking the baby to sleep and being her crutch and "soother" all night long either. So we did it. And, amazingly enough…it worked! My family will be thrilled. Cruel as it may sound, it only took a few really tough nights of her crying herself to sleep in the beginning. Now, she goes down in an instant, and I’m free! Why didn’t I do this before? Well, I have no regrets…I loved holding her every night (ok, maybe my back wasn’t so thrilled) and rocking her in the glider until she was fast asleep, and I just wasn’t ready to let go of my precious baby I guess. What do I do with my newly acquired hours you might ask? Sleep, of course!

KissTrips Trip

10-4-08 Somewhere off West Sandtown Road, Parts Unknown

Matthew double-clicks the Internet Explorer button while setting down his sippy cup. He finds the Favorites menu and selects Lucye.net. “It must be here…we must have made the blog,” he mutters under his stinky formula breath. Addie laughs at him in the background. Kate yells “HA! After the way you treated Lucye this weekend, I bet she never writes about you.” Matthew throws a Cheerio at her and says “Ahhh, what do you know about women, Kate? They love it when you ignore them.”
And so it goes….If you haven’t already guessed, we visited the Kisselburgs at their home this past weekend. After driving for more than 30 minutes on the interstate, Lucye decided to take a nap as we got off at their exit, of course. So we toured their subdivision so she could have a 30-minute nap before the fun started. Us late?
We were so excited to see their new Southern mansion and we weren’t disappointed. Quite the stately manor! And a yard our Anna-dog would envy, so it was a good thing she didn’t make the trip with us.
The KissTrips were awake and ready to play. We toured the house and let the tots play—that means Lucye attempted to kiss all the “babies” (they are 14 months) and got only a little push back on occasion. She also fell in love with a penguin figurine. Go figure. And the shoes came off, as usual. The KissTrips found them for her though, and I heard one say “Keds are my favorite flavor” between bites.
Then we strolled the neighborhood. A neighbor attacked Scott (they always do in these kinds of movies) and solicited help moving a dresser in their house. Since the wife was 9 months preggers, we understood. And clearly, Scott has nothing but free time these days with only a full-time job and three little ones. Seriously, he was happy to help. But I didn’t hear Robert offering…hmmmm. Think he was too busy trying to stop Isabel (the neighbor’s little girl) from touching Lucye. Izzy told us she had an eye infection or some such. These things freak us out, as you might imagine. We couldn’t think clearly.
Back at the house, we had to say good-bye after Lucye decided to step on the cat’s tail. This was after she hugged it. She hugs everything soft. Hear that Matthew? Your day will come. That is if you aren’t running in the opposite direction!

Baby Lucye Stuns World: One of Ours?

GOTHAM CITY -

With the family still reeling from accusations of a possible (but not probable) botched BNA test, news today out of Roswell, GA, once again sheds doubts on Baby Lucye’s parental makeup.
Although Baby Lucye has been babbling and butchering the English language for months, her first clear and concise word was spoken today. According to sources, the word was “Batman” was uttered to the dismay of her parents somewhere around the breakfast hour.
FOX News was the first to cover the story in Atlanta, with local Emory University’s leading Psychiatrist, Homer Bell, contributing to the story. “This is the first case of SHFS (SuperHero Fixation Syndrome) I’ve seen since a 4 year-old boy from Blairsville said ‘Shazam’ in 1972. I wonder how many TVs Baby Lucye’s family owns. Clearly, this is a case of media saturation.”
As usual, Lucye’s mother dismissed the conclusion as ridiculous. “Baby Lucye has never seen Batman on TV, in the movies, or in comic books. Yes, Batman is on the cover of all her Cheerios boxes –there’s a free toy inside, you know. But what does that prove? Anybody who runs in the Peachtree Road Race can get their picture on the box. This is ludicrous.”
While Lucye’s mother was denying an over saturation of the comic book hero, word came from Nashville, TN, that childhood friend Clay Scott had been spotted with Lucye’s father at a North Point movie theater in Alpharetta, GA, on Labor Day weekend. When questioned about the movie they saw, Robert replied: “I won’t live a lie. I did see the new Batman movie with Clay in September. I have no regrets. It was excellent. And, I’d go again if I had the chance. Now get that camera out of my face.”
With Lucye’s genetic makeup once again in the spotlight, Commissioner Gordon was forced to call several men in for questioning. However, the main suspect, Bruce Wayne, is still at large.

BNA Results Published

Roswell, GA --August 2nd 2008

It official! Lucye now knows who her mother is. Lucye's biological father has long been accepted (from Lucye's physical appearance) and widely known. But this new test now proves without a doubt who her mother is. In a taste test conducted at her residence, Lucye passed the BNA test (Broccolini Nod of Approval) with flying colors on Saturday evening with Mom, Dad and Anna all in attendance. Mom was just beaming when Lucye smiled and said "ummm" quite loudly after her first chunk of the garlic-soaked broccoli. She moved on to pasta pieces later in the meal.

Of course critics are stating the results are inconclusive. "Oh please. I heard Audrey didn't even use Parmesan Cheese in this farce of a recipe. She had nothing but a 6-cheese blend from Kroger on hand. It's a joke! And what about the multi-grain pasta? And the fat-free half n' half she used on her so-called diet? I demand another BNA test. Anyone who believes this test is clearly a family member." Sadly, the debate may live on for years unless the American Academy of Pediatrics changes their recommendations for the Krystal test. Currently, they recommend age 40 or over.

Lunch with Great-Grandparents from Ohio

Well, we have had so many adventures and things happen since the last blog, it will take a few entries to keep you up to date. Where to begin I don't know. We'll have to write up separate blogs for Lucye's visit with Jessica Patrice Burdett, in May, I think. And then the beach trip to Savannah, and then her play date this past weekend with Hady Pickard. So much to do, so little time to blog.

On the 4th of July, we had the honor of having lunch with her Great-grandmother Kitty and Great-grandfather Art in Commerce, GA (they live in Ohio and came to GA for Art's grandson's wedding). We went to Applebee's and Lucye did very well at the restaurant.

Highlights of the lunch (in no particular order):

• Jewelry - a gift for Lucye of 2 pieces of heirloom antique jewelry originally from Kitty's mother (including a locket with old photos)
• Baby - seeing a very, very large baby
• Dog - A new brown, very soft dog stuffed dog for Lucye
• Bear - A teddy bear pillow for Lucye's room
• Cane - Lucye was thrilled to play with Art's cane
• Photos - Lucye's gift to them (pink gingham 5x7 photo album, complete with the Baby Lucye glamour shots)

It was quite warm that day so we didn't last long in the parking lot. Even the car had to be cooled down before putting the tot back in for the long drive ahead. Welcome to Georgia!

Bathing Beauty

We had a swim suit trying on event today in preparation for our big trip and I hope to have a lot of the pictures in the May folder soon. She is so darn cute.....Enjoy this one...