As our kids continue to distinguish themselves from each other in terms of talents and personality, one word that always comes up with Ms. Lucy is that she’s whimsical (and has a refined sense of potty humor as well). Here she is, just being Lucy:
So - Lucy has officially entered the world of being “4″ - and although Grace has a list of things she thinks Lucy ought to do now that she’s 4 (like taking showers instead of baths), it feels as though our little girl has been easing into 4 ever since she turned 2.
As is the tradition in the Fuchster home, she woke up to her favorite breakfast cereal (she prefers an assortment of small, travel-sized boxes), had a balloon tied to her chair and her presents were all around her. Lucy really likes being fancy so she got several things that help her meet that goal - and she’ll even have a chance to go to the ballet with just her mother next month (and wear all her fancy stuff - she’s very excited!).
Here’s the birthday girl (with her morning birthday balloon):
And here she is with Grace (who is being extra nice to Lucy ever since she saw that Lucy was getting a few presents):
The day also involved a small pizza party with a few friends and her cousin - although it’s less about the pizza and more about playing games, winning tickets and earning prizes (at this particular place, we’ve learned that there’s always one machine that’s not working and spitting out way more tickets than your 1 quarter should have enabled - yet even with the nearly 1000 tickets that we generally get, we almost always come away with the equivalent of 75 cents in prizes!) BUT, the entertainment value is priceless…I guess.
Anyway, here they are at Lucy’s pizza party:
And here’s Grace and her friend Sanjay showing off a particularly successful ticket gathering endeavor:
In our never ending quest to prove the “age appropriateness” overlords incorrect, Santa got Will a bouncer/jumper for Christmas which he loves. Of course, better parents would have noticed that it will only be suitable for him when he’s practically a teenager and would have understood that the one tragedy that occurred in this thing in Malaysia in the earlier part of this decade in which the parent incorrectly latched it to a strut of a bridge and had the child swinging over a ravine, means that all of us should suffer from the ridiculous recommendations on what age of children may “safely” use certain products.
(Funny despite all of this excess of caution - aka fear of lawsuits - we still let people drive a car; and that’s actually a skill that appears to be lacking just about everywhere - especially when there’s even a millimeter of precipitation).
BUT anyway… he loves it. He may hate pacifiers and bottles (his school has resorted to feeding him through a sippy cup) but somehow, you can put him in this thing, he’ll suck on the padded bar and look content in his favorite hat for quite a bit of time - (we need to figure out a way to inject his milk into that padded bar!).
And since he’s looking cool in his hat, bouncing around, making talking noises, and even doing a few 360s, his sisters get a little riled up just watching him:
Since Will has been constantly rubbing his head (thanks to the wonders of eczema), each day shows him with a little less hair than the day before (kind of like being a guy in your 30’s; or Will’s Uncle Mike in his 20’s; or Will’s Grandpa R in his teens). Fortunately, on the day of his baptism, he had his Aunt Mary (and godmother) there to warm up his head before the pouring of the water:
With a freshly warmed head, here’s Will getting ready to have the water poured on his head:
Here he is with his godparents Eric (cousin) and Mary (Aunt):
We think this image captures the excitement a 4 and 5 year old experience during an hour mass followed by a 1/2 hour baptism:
And in the category of “photos that make you want to join that fun party” here’s one for the ages:
To rub it in a bit, we’re including an image of the cake that Will is too young to eat:
So here we go documenting the Christmas that Will is too young to remember, but the girls are old enough that they’ll remember it forever. Santa knows that Will doesn’t last very long in his crib at night, so it was a useful place to put his presents:
Hats were in this year:
As luck would have it, Santa lost his reindeer somewhere in our neighborhood - so after opening presents and having a nice relaxing morning, the girls and Will heard a loud “ho ho ho” at the door - and when they answered it, there was Santa. He thought his reindeer were hiding on our roof and wanted to see if he could come in through the front door of our house and then climb onto the roof to get them and head home to the North Pole after a long evening. Although he was anxious to get home, he took the time to stop for a picture:
The “king of fun” or “Mr. excitement” as we sometimes call him (without a hint of sarcasm) occasionally stops and pauses for a photo:
An impromptu visit by Unkich gave the kids a chance to spend time with one of their “great” uncles and show him around their new City (or in Will’s case ONLY City).
Lucy did her part by showing him an outdoor sculpture park - nothing quite brings in the holiday season like a pose before a large severed head:
Posing in front of a rock wall seemed a little less morbid:
Unkich picked a good weekend to visit - the Fuchster dad hosted a cheese tasting at Grace’s school, there apparently was a square dance in town, and Grace even had her annual piano recital. Here she is playing “Hush Little Baby” (and kind of rocking to the music a bit):
Lucy did her part to play it cool during the recital (saying she’s not really interested in piano and prefers harmonica):
Also, and for the first time since Sept. 20, we took a full family photo (which, of course, had us looking far from our best):
Two traits that have emerged that make you one of the Fuchster kids: you must love to swing and you must love to climb. We will only be supportive of one of these two traits later in life… but for now they both seem ok. Will proved that he wasn’t accidentally switched at the nursery by showing off his love of swinging (ok, that and the fact that he looks exactly like Grace when she was a baby). Here he is a little stunned, and a little amused:
His sisters are no amateurs in this regard:
As for the climbing, Will still has a long way to go. But his sisters not only revel in climbing the highest possible thing wherever we go (and giving all the other parents a heart attack). We also think they’re quite photogenic:
Will did enjoy watching his sisters though - one might even say they make him smile; while at other times he looked very serious, like he didn’t approve. We call these “The Many Faces of Will:”
And here’s a rarity, the Fuchster dad getting in a photo:
We spent the morning prepping for Christmas pictures - so what we eventually mail out will be some grouping of what you see below. We’ve had some requests for more pictures of Will with his eyes open - so we added one. We think the ones of the girls make them look a lot older than they really are - and in some respects, they are wise beyond their years (Grace and Lucy figured out how a baby actually gets out of a mom’s tummy today - a little tidbit of information we’ve been avoiding discussing but they figured it out… and I’m sure it only gets worse).
Looks like Grace’s desire to actually be Little Orphan Annie was a huge hit - she loved walking around the neighborhood as everyone said “Hello Annie” (special thanks to Grace’s grandma for making an amazing costume that received such high acclaim from the neighbors). Lucy loved being a butterfly and Will liked sleeping in a mummy shirt (and the kids’ mom enjoyed dressing up as an extremely tired mom who is sleeping in one minute intervals as her son nurses perpetually). We were also joined by the kids’ cousin Alex sporting his finest James T. Kirk costume. We took a bunch of photos, but here are a few preliminary ones:
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