Brunch and the Loudest, Littlest One

We took the kids into the city to meet some friends for brunch this weekend. It's been a few months since we've done this and every time we go, it gets a little easier. And of course, a little more ridiculous.

Here's Lucy giving her famous "thumbs up." She particularly enjoyed the house-made vanilla ice cream. She particularly did not enjoy staying in her high chair.

Serious vanilla ice cream FOCUS.



Speaking of Lucy. Oh, Lucy. She is exploding into quite the little character. Such a Big Personality in such a small little person. She talks non-stop. About anything and everything. And she is insistent. When she is ready to get down from her high chair: "I want down Mommy, I want down Mommy, I'm done Mommy, I'm all done Mommy, I'm done, I want to get down now Mommy"--all in a span of about 3.9 seconds.  She does not quit.

She's shockingly observant. The other day I was cleaning up after the seventeenth meal of the day and I muttered something about needing to sweep the kitchen floors. A minute later, who skips into the kitchen but a gleeful Lucy, dragging the broom and dust pan: "Here you go Mommy!"  Oh, she was proud. If she wasn't so incredibly HAPPY about everything, it might be more frustrating. But she just bounds through her little life with so much exuberance, that the mind numbing repetition is excused (it also helps to remember that she's, you know, two).

Before we left for brunch on Sunday morning, I stuffed a few trains and cars in my purse for Harry to play with during the meal and reached for something to occupy Lucy-realizing Lucy doesn't play with toys as much as she plays with other people. She is by far the most social creature I know.

She and Harry do play together more and more. As Harry's language is beginning to take off, I see little conversations between them. But she still, shall we say, dominates her big brother. One of her favorite games? Screaming as loud as she can, which almost always makes Harry cry. She does it during meals. She does it in the car. She does it in the wee hours of the morning as I race to get dressed before freeing them from their room. Yeah. The screaming has become a little bit of a problem. The other day in the car, Lucy actually made Leo cry. That's how loud and insistent she can be. She roars, really.

However. She is also unbelievably empathetic. She's the first to rush to your side if you bump your knee or fall off your bike. At night when we read books before bed and she folded up in my lap on the green shag carpet in the twins' room, she surveys my hands for scratches. "You OK, Mommy? You have a boo-boo?" And then she kisses my hand, squeezes it and tucks it under her tiny chin.

That is, when she deigns to call me Mommy. Somehow she got wind of my first name and, well, let's just say she's not afraid to use it.


Please pay no mind to the cameos by Spider-Man and the (almost always) topless six year old.


Don't be fooled by that innocent look.