Luci at 10 months

Luci has been blossoming into such a little person. She gets everywhere now and is quite a chatterbox. She can crawl at light-speed and is cruising all over the house. She stands on her own and has taken a few steps, but is too wobbly to be a walker yet. Still, nothing is safe from Luci anymore. Brooke is constantly getting frustrated and picking up her toys or food and moving them to a new location. Her new mantra is "Mommy, get Luci!" It's also funny to hear my words echoed back (sometimes) to me. I try to stay out of Luci and Brooke's little squabbles, but will interject "Hands to yourself" to Brooke if I see any pushing or (my favorite) pinching. So now, Brooke has started bossing "Hands to yourself!" at Luci now whenever Luci tries to get to close.
Because of our crazy year and all our moves, we're a month behind on Luci's checkups. Even though she'll be 10 months old next week, she won't be going to her 9 month check-up until mid-June. Luci is taking after Brooke in the size arena - both are on the small side for their age. From my own estimates, she's close to 18 lbs now and I have finally retired (most of) her 3-6 mo clothes. I had forgotten how confusing the size ranges of infant clothes can be. My girls just never match the age ranges of the clothes and I'm constantly checking labels for weights and lengths. Right now, the closet is just a big mix of 6-9 and 9-12 mo clothes and I put Luci in whatever I think looks cutest.

We headed to the beach over the weekend and had a great time. Two of our very good friends from our Texas days came with us: Uncle Mike and Uncle Jay. The trip was a huge success due to some smart thinking and serious planning by Matt. We had toys, food, water, fishing poles, towels, clothes and most importantly - the hunting blind which served as a little tent for Luci and Brooke to get out of the sun. Luci took a long snooze in the blind after happily consuming a good deal of sand.

In the Jungle. . .

From Sarasota Jungle Gardens

We started our summer vacation about 2 weeks ago after our first year as college professors. I took a week off to decompress and now we've started our summer schedule. The girls are at home with one of us most of the week and at school one day a week to keep it familiar to them. I think Brooke wants to go more often since she is always talking about her friends. That's just one of the many good signs we've had about the day care we've chosen for them.
We have a lot of fun and adventures planned over the next few months. We started off with a mommy/daddy getaway when Nana and Grumpy Waggett came to visit. Of course, we forgot the camera so you'll have to take my word for it. Next, we took the girls to Sarasota Jungle Gardens. It was a fun place to visit and Brooke didn't want to leave because she met a friend at the playground.

Here are some of the highlights from our first week off!