thanksgiving weekend

we have much to be thankful for this year - a wonderful family, loyal friends, our health, a nice house, a slightly neurotic brown dog, jobs that don't bore us to tears (at least not on a regular basis) and an amazingly beautiful, smart and sweet daughter, our dear Luciana.

here are some photos from this year's thanksgiving weekend:

paging dr. luci...

luci told us a few times that her ear hurt, so i took her to the doctor monday afternoon and sure enough she had an ear infection. when we got home she was so inspired by her doctor's visit that she took out her fisher price doctor's kit and began examining George. the diagnosis - a 'boo boo on his wrist' - you can see the band-aid in the last picture, which according to luci is George in 'time out'.

only happy when it rains?

for a few months now luci has been going on and on about how she was going to put on her rain boots and her raincoat and then go get her umbrella. trouble was she didn't have any of those things. well on our ny trip, mimi bought the looch her own rain boots and matching raincoat and this last week she finally had a reason to wear them. and she loved it. she loved it so much that she threw a fit when i tried to get her to take off her raincoat at school. now even when it's sunny out, she asks if she can wear her rain clothes.

princess luci

Happy Halloween!

this was the 1st year the looch took part in the traditional halloween festivities. we did not intend for her to be a princess, but since in the past few weeks she's slept in a guest bed with princess sheets, watched Cinderella for the 1st time, and wore her cousin eme's princess dress, it was what she wanted. she really got into princess mode at the store while buying her costume - she kept pointing her magic wand at various items and declaring that she wanted them. not to worry, we allowed her to be a princess this one day, but we won't let it get to her head. looch had a great time going to houses up and down our block and getting treats. and she of course loved having some of her newly acquired loot for dessert this evening.

The Big Apple (with a Side of Beantown)

The fam has just returned from a 9 day excursion to the Northeast where we had a lovely week spending time with Mimi, Poppi, Lucey Dog and an assortment of family & friends. We were also treated to a rare cameo by Uncle Mark. As an added bonus, we made the trek to my favorite city, Boston, to visit with my dear friend Liz and her family (Abbie, Hannah and Jules).


we drove up to NY on my 33rd birthday - it was 10 hours 15 minutes of pure joy, but thankfully the Looch was extra fabulous in the car and when we got to NY we had a wonderful meal at Sergio's, the family's go-to Italian restaurant and then came back home for cupcakes.

i like this picture because it captures Luciana's Italian mannerisms

we went to the Oyster Bay Festival on Long Island - it was Luci's 1st time on rides. She absolutely loved it - they had to keep stopping the ride to let parents rescue their crying children, but Luci had the biggest grin on her face the entire time

feeding the goats at the Petting Zoo

chowing down on some roasted corn

Uncle Mark in from Geneva, got to spend some quality time with the Looch at the neighborhood park

when we got to Boston, we went to a small town fair where Luci happily got to go on more rides - she loved all of them and had fun with her ride partner, Abbie, who is only 3 weeks older than Luci.

one of my most favorite photos - Looch at the Make Way for the Ducklings statue in the Public Gardens. Luci sat on each duck in the interest of fairness.

the Goose Family, October 2010, the Public Gardens

Me and the Looch in the Public Gardens

Luci got talked into pretending to be a bee at the museum to give this guy something to do

Abbie & Luci by the dinosaur exhibit in the Boston Science Museum

playing in the leaves during our walk in Newton

making jack o'lanterns with Daddy & Poppi

'walking' back from the park near Mimi & Poppi's house

friends since 7th grade now with offspring included

Luci posing with her 2 designed exclusively by Looch jack o'lanterns (check out the spooky creature lurking in the background...)

Jack is one cool pooch who received extra special treatment in NY courtesy of Poppi

the Latest in Luci's World

• little Luci is no longer so little - at her 2 yr appointment, she weighed about 30 lbs and was 32 inches tall - 75th percentile for both
  

• she has finally given up the paci (she'd been using it at night to help her fall asleep) - this was a battle of epic proportions, but Kai invented a lovely little story about a baby chicken who needed the paci now that Luci is a big girl. after Luci 'gave' her paci to the baby chicken, the chicken reciprocated by giving Luci a bag filled with eggs, that Luci then got to decorate - convoluted, but it worked!

• she still falls asleep surrounded by her books - more often than not we find her passed out with a book open on her chest - her bedtime ritual begins around 7:30 when she gets a bath, puts on her pajamas, and has mommy or daddy read her a few stories - then the lights go out and she continues to 'read' and sing for another hour or so
  

• according to one of her teachers, little Luci has been spotted planting a kiss on her classmate, CJ - i'm not sure i can deal

• she's convinced that every day is her birthday - and requests birthday cake. i often hear her singing 'happy birthday dear me, but occasionally she'll switch it up and say 'dear mimi' or 'dear poppy' or whoever else has recently had a birthday
  

the mad piano player strikes again



she picked out this ensemble all by herself

Weekend at the River House

We celebrated Daddy turning 33 at Captain and Taty's River House this weekend. Everyone had a fantastic time kayaking, sailing, and eating birthday cake. Curious George also enjoyed himself - Luci pulled him all over the yard in her awesome new hand-made wagon.