Lucy Day 2011

Today we celebrate the second anniversary of bringing our lovely Lucy home from the hospital. It was the day Lucy was reunited with her sweet Sage and we began to find our way as a family. Looking back at all our adventures and the thousands of moments of delight in the past two years, it is evident that the original Lucy Day was one of the best days of my life. So today in recognition of that wonderful day two years ago, we are celebrating Lucy and all those things about her that makes our hearts smile.

Lucy, I love your tenacity. You know what you want, you tell us in unequivocal terms what that is, you don't let go of that idea and will do whatever you can do to make it happen. You are so clever in how you achieve what you want. Insisting that we "cuddle! CUDDLE!" just like your command that we "share!" is virtually foolproof. I am simply unable to resist the opportunity to have you snuggle in tight. Whatever your objective, your clarity of purpose served you well when your sole goal was to grow bigger and stronger and it will continue to serve you the rest of your life.

I love how you share with us your rapidly expanding world - proudly identifying owls, [wood]peckers and airplanes you hear outside and leading us through page after page in book after book of the stories and things that you know. Each identification is accompanied by a knowing nod and a look of pride....even when you're not quite right. Don't worry, sweetie, we'll get those colors figured out soon. But in the meantime, I appreciate how open you are to gentle correction without it interfering with that pride a bit.

I love your loyalty and tenderness to Sage. You are quick to give unprompted kisses and deliver sippy cups and lovies when your sister needs them. You ask for her when you're apart and are silly and sweet when together. The peels of laughter that score our daily lives are the foundations of a friendship that has the potential to be deeper and closer than most of us "onesies" will ever know.

I love the leaps and bounds you've made physically. With the help of First Steps, you've gone from being cautious to confident and joyful in your physicality. We rejoice every time you beat your sister running across the driveway and marvel at your daredevil climbs on the playground. I am bemused by your rendition of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" in which you stand on my legs and do fully body strokes. Your insistence to "climb!" up my body and your delight in hanging upside down anytime you can also have their charms.

Each day with you, Lucy, is an affirmation that miracles really do happen and that we were blessed with a whopper of one. When I think back to when you were so little and so sick, I could not count on a future in which you climb onto rocking chairs to mount your rocking giraffe or in which you would play back a favorite story to me page by page. And yet here you are doing those things and so many, many more. With the help of gifted specialists and therapists, a sister who challenges you daily, a daddy who loves you so fiercely that his entire life's mission is to put meat on your bones, grandparents who gently tutor as they read book after book after book after book to you, and an entire community of people who prayed for you, here you are exceeding our dreams in just being so very normal and so very delightfully you.

Happy Lucy Day to my Lucy-Goosey-Pudding-Pop, aka Lucy-Lu.