Social Butterflies!

Here's Lucy with her new friend, Abby. Abby lives in the house across the grass, and is only one month younger than Lucy. The two of them get along pretty well most of the time, except when there's a toy or ball that both of them want at the same time. (The typical toddler dilemma!)

Abby has two cats: a kitten named Bumper, and an adult cat named Slope. The two girls are constantly chasing after Bumper, who constantly forgets that if they catch him, it means being squeezed a little too tightly, and sometimes getting his tail stepped on by accident.

It's fun to watch these two girls play together...there's lots of holding hands and taking turns down the slide, interspersed one or the other yelling "Mine!" every now and then.

Our Grown-Up Girl!

Lucy has been getting a little better about letting me comb her hair. As long as I can distract her with something, I can even manage some pigtails, like the ones she has in this photo. We went outside so I could take her picture, but it was so chilly and windy that I took this quickly and we rushed back inside. Lucy was very concerned about her hair blowing all over. She kept putting her hands on top of her head and saying something that sounded like "hat".

It's amazing to me how grown up Lucy looks. She has lost that "baby" look, and is more and more the "little girl" everyday. She wants to do everything by herself. It is hard for me to let her be so independent, especially with food. It's not that I don't want her to learn to feed herself, it's just that I don't like cleaning up after she feeds herself.

Lucy's vocabulary is also growing by leaps and bounds. On Saturday night, she said, "I want drink." She can also ask for a few of the foods she likes to eat, but usually, she just skips the asking and goes and gets whatever she wants. We read a lot together, and her favorite book right now is "Ella" (Cinderella). There are still many things she says that we don't understand, but she's very patient, and is training us well.

Lucy Update (photo to come!)

I was planning to get a picture of Lucy at the football game on Friday night. We got all the way to the stadium, and I realized that I left the camera at home. So no picture for now. (But one will be posted soon!)
Lucy talks a lot (that's no surprise), and we are starting to understand more of what she is saying. Her favorite movie? "Shek" (Shrek 2) She loves "snah" (fruit snacks). And she especially loves to "sing" (swing) at the park. She's also learning more and more names.
It's so fun to watch her grow!

More soon. I promise.

You are what you eat!

Since we've been here, we've been inundated with fruit. I'll admit, I bought some apples at the Farmer's Market a couple of weeks ago. But after that, the fruit's just fallen in our laps. One of the other teachers brought in a box of apples from her tree at home, and David brought home a few of those, and then the bishop dropped by the other night with a box filled with apples, peaches, nectarines and pears (and a cucumber!).

Lucy took a whole apple for herself, and actually ate most of it on her own. She was a sticky mess when it was all over, but she loved it.

Someone told me recently that a person can't live here and go hungry. Another person mentioned their disappointment at the end of the summer because it means they have to go back to buying their produce at the store. What a great place to live (and eat!).

Below is a picture we took of Lucy at the Seattle Temple when we were there a couple of weeks ago with the whole Ellis clan. It's very similar to a picture David has of himself when he was little.

Well, that's about it for now. I'm planning to take some pictures of our new digs, and I'll get them posted here soon.