So, don't talk about Lucie. You actually want to know what's going on with us as well? Huh, this feels kinda weird... Well, things stay busy around here, and thankfully we are all doing well. Do you ever look back at a certain time in your life and think, how was I able to do all of that, I had so much going on? Whether it was studying plus working, sometimes multiple jobs, etc... It feels like one day we will look back on this time and think the same thing because at times we are juggling so many things at once. We go from one day to the next and before you know it, a month has gone by since our last post. Lucie has 10-12 therapy sessions a week, ranging from 1-3 per day. On several weeknights she has a session as soon as Drea walks in the door from work as well. It's a lot. It can feel draining. But still a lot of what we have going on is really enjoyable, even leisurely. Now that Rob is coaching more on Friday nights and Saturday mornings, we even try to have a "family night" during the week where we put our phones on airplane mode and just hang out without an agenda. We have to intentionally make the time for those moments, or before you know it another week will go by filled with 100 to-do's on our list.
At the 85th Street Entrance to Central Park
Since the weather was starting to get nicer (notice the past tense, it was rainy all last week, thankfully it's sunny again... finally), we took advantage and spent a lot of time in the many parks around us.
On the swings for the first time ever - at the playground at the 97th Street Entrance to Central Park
Having fun!
The weekends have been filled with getting to see friends, spending lots of time outdoors and having a date night every now and then. Lucie loves getting to go to the park and really enjoys the swings as you can tell. See, Lucie is just naturally what the conversation gravitates towards. We'll try harder, lol.
A few weekends ago, we got to have a date night. (Thank you Greg and Madeline for watching Lucie!) We decided to adventure away from the Upper East Side (UES as we refer to it) which was nice and helped us feel like we were young and adventuresome ;).
Date night at Javelina's for some authentic Queso
On Friday nights, Rob has been coaching youth football teams at a local youth sports facility and Saturday mornings he's been coaching private football sessions through his business, Huddle Up NYC. Saturday evenings and Sundays have become prime time to spend with others and thankfully in the last month or so, we've also had really special times getting to hang out with friends that we haven't had the chance to see in a while.
Lunch with James, Teena and their sweetie, Anaya
Lunch with Judy, Antwan, Lucas, and The Ethan! See Lucie in the carrier facing forward? She's definitely trying to kick The Ethan... but also, it took us almost 5 months to realize that you're supposed to adjust the carrier a certain way when you put a baby in it facing forward! So up until like two days after this picture was taken, poor Lucie's legs were flattened out super awkwardly! Yay, rookie parents!
Us with the Eiden Family all the way from Scranton, PA. (Side note - Lucie sitting facing forward, MUCH more comfortably!)
During the week, if Rob has private sessions through Huddle Up, Lucie gets to hang out with friends and their kiddos. It's so cool to watch her get to have the chance to interact with other kids and learn new ways to play. At the end of the work day, we have loved meeting up at the park that is right next to our subway stop when Drea is on her way home.
Lucie and Luke!
Lucie at home - "Dad, you finally put new batteries in my tractor! YAYYYYY!"
At the playground, just taking it all in.
Watching the big kids run around and waiting for Mama to meet up after work.
Roman, Viv & the Goose.
We have also begun to realize we can't even blink for a second if we're on Lucie watch. She is officially walking, crawls incredibly quickly and she has a great disappearing act. She has pretty much discovered how to teleport herself from one room to the other... or so it would seem. As much as she keeps us on our toes and has us follow her back and forth throughout the apartment, we can't help but think, "THANK. YOU. LORD that Lucie is able to move around, thank you that she's so curious and playful... now make her sit still for two seconds!" ;)
Playing catch with Bess - Go Dolphins!
In front of Cafe Lalo on the Upper West Side
Inside New York City Hall after one of Drea's client calls. The architecture was so detailed. The picture doesn't do it justice, but had to share anyway.
DELICIOUS strawberry shortcake by our talented friend, Erin, celebrating Brett's birthday.
Starting to get warmer. Rob, Uncle Scottie and Lucie enjoying some sun.
Drea babysitting Elle, who's thinking, "Hey, you're not my mommy..." So thankful for our friends who have partnered up with us on a babysitting rotation so that we can swap out watching each other's kiddos and make time for date nights with our spouses.
Lucie is continuing to do well with her therapy sessions. At this time in Lucie's development it seems like she is really responding the most to Physical Therapy & Occupational Therapy. We can tell that she catches on quicker when it comes to displaying results that these sessions focus on, like her walking, standing, balancing, climbing stairs, crawling (oh so fast), and watching objects fly from her hands as she gets to what she's looking for. She's growing a lot in Special Instruction Therapy and Speech/ Feeding Therapy as well. Although we can see progress, it tends to be at a slower pace since these are focussed on very fine skills. OT helps bridge the gap in a lot of ways and as we've mentioned, the whole team collaborates with each other a lot, so they all tend to touch on each other's disciplines to give Lucie the best care possible. Lucie Pie hasn't been weighed lately but she is getting a nice little "Buddha Belly" as her Nutritionalist calls it... not too sure if it brings good luck, but it's still fun to tickle it :D.
Rainy Day? No Problem, let's just turn over a table, put chairs in a row and create an obstacle course to climb over and under!
Lucie's finally pulling her weight! Helping Dada empty the dishwasher.
Drea got to meet up with coworkers to say farewell to one who is moving to LA. This was her first group of coworkers from almost seven years ago when she first started at JPMC and would commute to Jersey City.
WE LOOOOVE when Miami people come to visit NYC. Hanging with Peggy for lunch last week. (Congrats to Jim and New World on the wins in the Essentially Ellington competition!)
On top of our regularly scheduled programming, our anniversary is at the beginning of May so we enlisted babysitters (thanks Scott & Katie) to hang out with Lucie on a Saturday night and went out to eat at Freeman's, a "hidden" restaurant on the Lower East Side. After dinner we wandered around to find a place to get dessert and came across the back entrance to the Crosby Street Hotel bar in SoHo where we shared a banana split! So good!
In the alley that leads to the entrance of Freeman's. Blue Steel poses at their finest!
See that string of lights at the end of the alley? That's the entrance to the restaurant.
A closer look! I spy Robby :)
The next day was Mother's Day. It came up quickly, right? Well, halfway through our anniversary dinner we rememberd that we still didn't have cards to send to our mommas, so on the way to get dessert we fixed that by stopping at a card store. And now... two days later, we still haven't sent them. We love you Moms! We'll send them out as soon as we get stamps!
Sweet chalkboard note from Lucie & Dada.
After church on Sunday, Lucie played with her friends and wandered around the auditorium. For weeks she's held on to a chair and just watched them run and skip all over the auditorium. This week they each grabbed one of her hands and happily played with her. We got choked up watching them, it was the sweetest.
On the way home from church, enjoying the sunshine and warm weather.
Being silly at Roman's!
Thanks for reading this long overdue post. We love getting to share through this blog, it's as much to keep you posted about what's going on, (hi, Moms), as it is to have a "journal" to look back on for us. We'll try to post more often.
Love, Los Hicksons