Lucille Jane

There are so many things I want to remember about my Lucy at nine years old.  This girl is sweet, funny, emotional, sassy, obedient (with a dash of whine), and is always ready for a good time.

Lucy is still putting up with school and doesn't dread it as much as she has in the past.  She still hates Mondays.  She says Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are her least favorite days of the week because Brooklyn has Math Club those days and can't play after school.  She is a great student and always does well.  Jason still gives a candy bar for every 100% on spelling tests.  She rarely misses any.  I never have to bother her about doing her homework.  She doesn't enjoy doing it, but she always takes care of it on her own.

Lucy joined the Choir Club at her school.  They stay after every Monday for an hour and 15 minutes.  They get to sing a lot of karaoke (Lucy's specialty) and she always reports that she sang another "solo" during club.  She enjoys Taylor Swift, but still claims Sarah Barailles as her favorite singer.

Every Monday evening, Lucy now has piano lessons.  She really wanted to start up again.  We had this girl sign a contract, stating that she would practice without Mom and Dad having to nag.  Most of the time, she sticks to it.  But, on other days.....wow.  She pounds that piano and yells out the counting (as her teacher instructs her) and you would think she's being tortured.  She gets soooo angry sometimes when she is tired and just wants to "RELAX!".

Which leads me to the next thing I want to remember.  For the last couple years, Lucy has always apologized at night for the things done during the day.  She seriously never, ever misses.  She uses a blanket statement like, "Sorry for anything I did mean today".  We can hear her yell it to Graham and Benny across the hall, too.  Now that she has an iTouch, we get our nightly apologies via text.  They look like this:  "I love u mom.  Good night sorry if I was mean today or/and rood love u.  P.S. Can u tickle my back?"  Then, when I text back and say good night, she'll respond with, "P.S. if you can't tickel my back can u at least tuck me in".  Pretty funny, right?

This funny girl finally got the "bangs" she has been wanting for a long time.  I haven't taken a picture, yet.  She has been asking for months.  We cut a few swoopy bangs at the beginning of the year, but she wasn't satisfied.  We finally went for a trim and I let her go for it.  I love how they look on her!  She looks great!

Lucy girl lives for playing with Brooklyn.  She is always so mad when it doesn't work out.  Every day she asks and if the time allows it, they will play at our house or at hers.  No matter how many hours they are together, Lucy is never happy when the playdate ends.  Some things never change.  I remember picking her up from friends house when she was as little as 3 and she would throw huge tantrums because she wanted to stay and play.

This girl wants a pet sooo badly.  It comes up at least once a week and at least once a month it's an all out cry fest.  During these said rants, she'll go to her room and yell out her frustrations through the tears.  "I'm the only kid in my class without a pet!!"  "IT'S NOT FAIR!"  "Everyone wants a dog, but MOOOM says NO!"  and so on and so on.  It hasn't broken me down.....and it never will.

A couple months ago, Lucy decided that she wanted to start "going running".  Jason told her that he would go with on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, but she would have to set her alarm for 6:30 and come wake him up.  She has taken him up on it!  I'm so proud of her!  They go at least twice a week and they are up to 1.25 miles without stopping to walk.

Some of Lucy's favorites right now:

• Disney's Sonny with a Chance (love Netflix)
• Chicken Cordon Bleu (we bought a box of them from Sam's Club...ya' know, the frozen ones you stick in the oven.  She LOVES them.  
• Whoppers  (She chooses these every time for our weekly movie night)
• Still eats cereal every day for breakfast.  Usually Honey Bunches of Oats or Honey Nut Cheerios
• She still claims that "Harry and the Hendricksons" (Harry and the Hendersons) is her favorite movie.  We watched it once when Jason was deployed.  I was reminded of how much swearing is in it, so we haven't watched it since.  
• Chapstick.  Oh the drama we have over chapstick.  This girl has chronic trouble with severe dry lips.  She has a habit of licking them and wiping them on her shirt, so they get really bad sometimes.  So, when she loses her chapstick (which is a lot) you would think the girl was set on fire. There's been a couple times when she's come home from school and she didn't have her chapstick with her all day and she comes in frantic and acts like an addict that really needs a fix.  We all drop what we're doing and look for one of the numerous sticks we hope to have around the house.  We have a new deal.  If her chapstick gets lost before 10 days has past, the cost of the next one comes out of her allowance.  

I sure love this little girl of mine.  I constantly worry that I am too hard on her and expect too much.  Just like she tells me all the time, "It's hard to be the oldest!"  It really is.  I am learning how to do this and she's the first go around.  I feel so blessed to be her mother and I am proud of the young woman she is becoming.