Libbie (the Magnificent) is SEVEN!

(So Libbie turned seven a while ago. Here's her late birthday interview taken on July 17, 2016 while visiting cousins out of state.)

Libbie smiling

Tato: How old are you?

Libbie: Seven

T: What is your favorite place in whole universe? 

L: Sky Zone because you can jump into the sky! It's a trampoline park. 

T: Are you sure that Sky Zone is a cooler place than the undiscovered moons of Saturn, which may have even less gravity than a trampoline park? 

L: Well, you can go to Sky Zone and jump on a trampoline so high that you can see the lost moons of Saturn!

T: That's a really good point. Well, what's your favorite time every year and why? 

L: 8:35, because 35 plus 35 is 70, and I'm seven and I love the number zero. 

T: I love the number zero too. Why do you like it? 

L: Because if there wasn't zero, you would only count 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..number after 9..11..and so on! 
T: Yeah, it sure would mix things up not to have a zero. Is there any other reason you like 8:35? 
L: Oh yeah, because 8 - 3 = 5 and 8 is also my favorite number. And I want to go to sleep at 8:35.

T: What's your favorite day every year and why? 

L: March 1 because it is my birthday!

T: What are the names of some of your friends? 

L: Lilah, Jasmine, Isaiah, Kate, Beelen (Matthew's sister)

T: What were the names of your first-grade teachers?

L: Señora Coll-Pons y Señora Riviera


T: What are some fond or clear memories from first-grade? 

L: When the basketball went on the roof! Oliver kicked all the soccer balls on top of the roof. The next day a different Spanish class next door got a different soccer ball. Also the last day of school. There was a party with a bounce house and games like bubblegum tag. Also when I was riding to school in Kindergarten, I was riding without my hands on my bike, and I fell and my finger was cut and we were right next to Stella's house, and she was still there luckily. She gave me a band-aid. The next day my finger bubbled. 

Libbie is the cutest chipmunk in the world (special FX filters may or may not have used in this photo!)

T: Wowza! What are some of the books you like? 

L: Matilda, Hugo, Wonderstruck, Jack and Annie or the Magic Tree House, and Percy Jackson.

T: What are some of your favorite songs--in general and on the violin? 

L: Sunshine, Dynamite, Firework, Once there was a Crocodile (that's a violin song), Allegro (that's also a violin), Skyler Sisters, and Take a Break. 

T: What are some of your favorite art projects to work on?

L: An Indian hat at my school and fixing my Lego monkey whose face fell off (well, I ripped it off! What? The head popped off, and then I just ripped off the head all the way).

T: What are some of your favorite activities? 

L: Climbing mountains such as the Y, playing with cousins such as Evie, Addie, Tope, Gabey, and Buster (who is a doggie), watching movies such as Korra and American Ninja, playing with toys such as legos, riding my bike, and climbing monkey bars.

T: Cool. What is a prime number and how many can you name? 

L: A prime number is a number that you can only divide by one and itself. 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13?, and 71... I just skipped a thousand! 

T: That's awesome. Do you think prime numbers are cool and why or why not? 

L: Yes, they are cool! I don't know why. They are cool because they are prime numbers. 

T: I agree with tautology. Will you tell me a story we have never heard before? 

L: Once there was a butterfly and that butterfly flew to a honeycomb, and in that honeycomb there were three bees, and those bees came out of the honeycomb. "Do you want to be my friend," asked the butterfly and the three bees said "yes." So those four friends flew to the biggest oak tree in the forest. On that oak tree there was a nest, and on that nest there was a bluebird, and that bluebird was protecting four eggs. "Can you play with us?" asked one bee. "I would love to, but I can't," said the mama bird sadly, "I need to take care of my eggs." So the four friends flew off happily ever after. The end. 

T: Thanks so much. That's an interesting story. 

L: Also known as crazy. 

T: Would you consider illustrating it or any other books? 

L: No.

T: Is there anything else you would like to add? 

L: Do I like school? 

T: Right. Do you like school? 

L: Maybe no-yes.

T: Care to elaborate or say more? 

L: "Maybe no-yes" means I don't know. I don't know if I like school. Sometimes it is bad, sometimes it is good! 

T: Anything else?
L: Goodbye! 

Libbie is eating her arm whole and is saying she is cuckoo! (All captions, minuses parentheses, by Libbie)

Happy Birthday Libbie!

Libbie was looking forward to her birthday several days before the actual day (March 1st). Once the presents were wrapped and I explained to her that in a few days she would get to open them and blow out candles on a cake, she was hooked. She kept repeating, with her eyes wide and a big smile, "My tur-day!'--every time she saw the presents, when anyone asked her how old she is, as she helped make the cake, etc. One time someone mentioned some else's birthday and she got really excited and chimed in with, "My tur-day!" She's been working hard on being able to hold up two fingers but can't quite do it on command yet, although she has done it on accident a few times and gotten really excited. When you ask her how old she is, she usually says five (just like her big brother Elliot says, even though he is four) but lately she has been saying either two or three, so we are getting closer at least.

A few notes about Libbie:

Some favorite snacks include cucumbers (either plain or with hummus or tahini), persimmons, pretzels of all shapes, bananas, bell peppers, and pretty much anything else she is offered.

She prefers to get herself dressed, although she usually needs help getting her shirt/dress over her head and then pulling her arms out of her sleeves when getting undressed.

She loves to push her stroller around, especially up and down stairs. If you so much as touch her stroller to help, she will calmly walk back to the bottom of the stairs and start over again.

She has a passion for hats and pockets, and uses them at every opportunity.

She started potty training herself a few months ago. Just like with the other kids, we let them walk around the house diaperless and after a few accidents, they start using the toilet. About a month ago, I got tired of buying diapers so I decided to start investing myself in taking her to the toilet when we were out and explained to her to not pee in her bed at night. She hasn't really worn a diaper since. She has been having accidents at night every once in awhile but overall she does a great job. She looks so cute with her little diaperless bum.

Things she says often: "yeah," "todah" ("thank you" in Hebrew), "tool" (short for "chatool," which is cat in Hebrew), "shosho" (which means "snuggle," which means, "hold me"), and anything Elliot asks her to say (which he loves to do often).

She loves to give hugs and kisses, and still loves to comfort people in distress.

To celebrate the actual day, Libbie chose "noonoos" (noodles) and broccoli for dinner so we went with the local "Wacky Mac" box as a treat.

Pretty wacky stuff

Libbie loved to open each present she got (thanks, grandparents, for the presents!). Here she is admiring a dress she just opened from Baba Marsha and Grandpa John

All the kids checking out the Lambert grandparents' gift-- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, with a CD of a reading by Ray Charles. Elli and Libbie equally loved this.

The kids all helped me make this cake for Libbie. The boys decided she would like a cat the best and she agreed, so we went with it. Not my best creation, but we had fun.

Waiting for the song to be over so she can blow out the candle. She enjoyed blowing it out all by herself, just as she had been planning.

Cheese!

"My tur-day dress! Baba. Tur-day! Wee!"

Miss Libbie

Libbie has probably changed the most since we left the USA. She has become a full-blown toddler, with lots of words and opinions.

Some things that Libbie says lately: "Hereago" as in, "Here you go" when handing you something. "Beep beep" to mean "Move out of the way!" or, when direct toward an inanimate object, "Move that thing out of the way!" Another of my favorites is the fact that whenever Ben is not the same room as her, she insists that he is sleeping. We often have the following conversation: 

Me: Where's Tato?

Libbie: Shhhhhh.

Me: Is Tato sleeping?

Libbie: *nod*

Me: Actually, Tato is at school.

Libbie: Uh-Oh.

Not sure why Ben being at school is an uh-oh, but she says it every time. When Ben was in Sweden and Germany for a week, Libbie insisted the whole time that he was sleeping. In her defense though, she was sleeping when he left, and then, to confuse her even more, when she finally did see him for the first time, he was actually sleeping. 

Whenever anyone in the house is sad, Libbie runs over to hug and kiss that person. One time when Aaron was having a tantrum, Libbie just calmly walked over, found an entrance through his flailing body, and just rested her arm around his neck, where he allowed her to gently pat him until he calmed down. It almost instantly soothes Aaron every time he is upset.

Sometimes she knows exactly what she wants, and figures out how to communicate it through few words and gestures. She loves to go for walks, but usually has some very specific ideas about how that walk should take place.

She loves her red hat. If I forget to put it on her before we leave, she says, "hah, hah!" and taps her head until I figure out what she means then go find her hat. If I can't find it, she is usually very understanding.

Here, she insisted on wearing this bag like a backpack for a walk around the block. She loves to walk down to the bus stop and get up and down from the bench. She likes to assign people seats, patting the place where the person is supposed to sit.

She loves to ride on these horses at the playground. She likes to get on, point to the other one for me to sit on, then rocks back and forth and somehow communicates to me that she wants me to say "giddy-up." I think she says something like, "dya, dya, dya" while rocking back and forth, then smiles and nods when I get the cue.

Sometimes she revels in excess...

Emerging from her nap with four stuffed toys to snuggle

Finishing off five cantaloupe slices

She brightens our life with her contagious smile, and rarely fails to charm the passersby with her blonde curly hair and brown eyes.

Libbie Anne

Happy Birthday Libbie! Today miss Libbie is one year old.

A few words about our little one year old...

She loves to play peek-a-boo. She started to play a few months ago but she would miss her eyes and cover her ears instead. It was pretty hilarious to see her sitting there, covering her ears, until the final moment when she would pull them away and smile with delight. Kind of anti-climactic since you were looking in her eyes the whole time, but so adorable. By now she has it down pretty well though. In fact, whenever she hears anyone ask, "Where's __________? She covers her eyes to play peek-a-boo.

Libbie loves to watch and play with her brothers. She joins in their dancing and attempts to do cartwheels after they do (usually by doing a downward dog yoga position then shaking her booty a few times).

We started noticing a couple of months ago that she was trying to fold her arms for family prayer. Now she folds them all the way and says, "Ah!" at the end, joining us in an "Amen."

She loves to give hugs and kisses, often leaning in to somebody to share the love. If you ask her to say goodnight to people, she smacks her lips in a kissing motion and waves goodbye. Whenever she notices Ben and I kiss, she comes over (or dives in, if one of us is holding her) and joins in. She will sometimes even grab my face and turn it towards her so she can smooch on the lips.

She often picks up my hand and shows me what she wants me to do with it, whether it is to open a water bottle, a container of toys, or an article of clothing. She will also do this to me face-- move it in the direction she wants me to look. Often she'll do this when she's nursing and she wants me to look at her-- just puts her hand on my chin and points my face down to her. When I try to look away, she moves me right back. Sometimes she moves me to be looking away from her too.

When she does something exciting like stand or dance or give high fives, she applauds herself.

Her brothers take good care of her, and she adores them. When they are home and she wakes up from a nap, they barge into her room and say, "There's no monsters Libbie!"

Here are a few pictures of her from the last year.

Crawling

Libbie has been scooting/worming herself around for awhile now, but this week she started crawling on hands on knees. It's pretty adorable. Here are a few snapshots of her crawling. I have a video but I need to edit it because it took her awhile to actually get going.

Six Months Old

Libbie had her six month check up this past week. Her doctor always does a good job of giving us her stats on a little piece of paper. I'm not one to keep little pieces of paper around so I usually just throw them away but this one keeps turning up so I decided I might as well copy the stats over, just in case someone is interested, now or in some future time.

Height: 27.75 (97th Percentile)
Weight: 17 lbs. 8 oz. (75th Percentile)
Head Circumference: 45 cm (96th Percentile)

I was a little concerned at the fact that her weight percentile has been going steadily down but the doc said that it's typical of breastfed babies. So no problem I guess.

Anyway, here is our darling...

This is her no-lip face. It's her default expression. She even tries her best to maintain the illusion that she has no lips when she laughs sometimes. It's very cute.

Just a cute smile

And, of course, with the six month birthday comes solid* food!

Aaron was extremely excited to give Libbie food. He has been asking for months about when we can start her on various foods. When the morning finally came to start the transition to solids, I mixed up some rice cereal and showed it to Aaron. A minute or so later, I was talking with my parents when out of the corner of my eye I saw Aaron feeding Libbie. I kind of jumped up a little, running over to her rescue, but she was completely unphased. She gobbled the whole bowl down as if it was old news. I guess she was ready.

*"solid" as in, slightly thicker than milk... a highly misleading term

Kisses

In the park today, Grandpa LeeR kissed Libbie on the cheek...


Then she turned her head and gave him a big smack on his cheek. It was very deliberate; there was no doubt that she meant to do it. All in attendance agreed. Unfortunately I was at the wrong angle to really get it, but you can sort of see it in this picture.

On another note, Libbie giggled today for the first time. Not surprisingly, it was after someone said "poo-poo." She's been learning from her brothers very well.

Thumb Sucking

Libbie has been really into her thumb lately. Every once in awhiel she gets other parts of her fist in there as well, but most often she sucks on her thumb. A few times now she has put herself to sleep from sucking her thumb. Now I can't decide whether to keep swaddling her at night or not. Should I encourage thumb sucking? I'm not sure why, but Elliot takes her thumb out of her mouth every time he notices it. He says, "Libbie sucking his thumb." (He hasn't quite gotten used to female pronouns yet.)

Soothed to sleep on the couch

Libbie rolled over today, from her stomach to her back.

She kind of rocks herself like this before she rolls. Sometimes the rocking results in an actual roll, but usually not. I love the look of concentration on her face in this one.

Smiley Girl

It turns out that the camera works, sort of. There's no lens cover at all (I ripped off the black things, as shown in the picture on the previous post.) and the area around the lens is pretty beat up. Now when you turn the camera off, it beeps and shows the message, "Lens error. Restart camera."

I'm not sure how long we'll be able to take pictures, but I grabbed the opportunity to snap some of our little Libbie smiling. She has been very smiley lately, so it was easy to get her to smile for the camera.

Not smiling, but still a cute picture

Blessing Day

Today was Libbie's blessing day. It was a special day, full of family.
After the blessing, Ben sat down with Libbie and she looked up at him and gave him a huge smile.


The star of the show, miss Libbie.
My mom made this dress for me when I was blessed.



Ben's mom Marsha has been visiting this week! Here she is with the boys and Libbie.


The five of us

Aaron sat willingly through the pictures because he got to hold Libbie. He adores her.

My mom showed up just before church as a surprise! We were totally shocked. It was awesome.

Sisters Kori, Kami, Kourtney with our mom Karen.
And of course little Libbie in the center.