She and I are outside a lot during the day, taking care of the plants and just playing. Nearly everyday she says, "Mama, I water plants. They thirsty." And so we give the plants a lot of water. Sometimes buckets full of water, sand, and rocks, which according to a 2 year old, are good nourishment for plants.
My parents have the best backyard, which I didn't really appreciate when I lived there. But now, it's wonderful to see her running through the soft grass, swinging in the tree swing, and just loving being outside.
We make the most of our backyard too, weeds and all. Backyard lunch picnics or reading picnics are something she requests a lot. The blanket never really lays flat because the grass is too long, but we just keep smoothing it out, righting our fallen over glasses, and get back to our picnic. :)
There used to be a little of this going on, to our delight. But, it's stopped now. We'll try again a little later and keep shelling out the diaper money in the meantime.
And family. We've seen so much of our family and we love it. Great Grandma Kathryn and Great Grandpa John and cousin Micall came for a visit, and Lucia got to know them a little better after looking warily at Grandpa for the first moments. Now she wants to look at pictures of "Grandpa John" all the time!
Nature walks. We take her wagon and some snacks and walk down by Minnehaha Creek to look for animals, throw rocks in the creek, and listen for birds. She loves it. The other day we took a nature walk with Nana around the Red Barn and Pleasant Lake.
Raspberry picking. We spent a recent Sunday morning picking juicy raspberries with our friends Mary & Emma. What a great day. It's so fun to pick your own food! Lucia got pretty good at picking the good ones, but they would usually end up in her mouth instead of our containers. I'm sure she ate a few bugs that day!
And finally, a self-portrait of Lucia and I after we found out that I'm pregnant with her sister/brother. This was before Mark got home from work, so we were the only two that knew, and I wanted to document the moment. Baby is due March 26th and Lucia tells us everyday, "I be a sister!" We're thrilled and blessed.
