She's Almost One... Updates on Lyddie Bug!

Lydia at the Inner Harbor watching boats

BIG NEWS of the day... Lydia is getting a new tooth! Finally to match her cute two little bottom teeth (which personally I think are VERY cute by themselves) she's getting a little top tooth right up front. She's growing so fast it seems now. She recently napped an unusually long nap and one morning recently she slept in... until probably 8:30. It was unbelievable. I can't believe she's going to be ONE this weekend. Where did that year go??? A lot has happened this past year actually so I can kinda track it... but I can only presume that with each child the time seems to "fly by" even quicker. It's hard to keep up with all the changes with each kid! But we sure do love it.

Let's see what else is new with Lydia... she is in 18-24 month clothing, and is crawling as fast as you can walk, and pulls up on everything and can sometimes stand by herself "balancing" without holding on to anything. She isn't walking by herself YET but can walk while pushing along the toy bin or a laundry basket. Personally, I wouldn't mind if she waited a few more MONTHS before walking ;) ha ha. She's getting so tall that tonight I was setting the kitchen table and I caught her reaching up and pulling the bag of rolls off the edge! sneaky girl! She was really hungry ;)
She has a few words, but mostly very baby sounding that WE really know because we hear them so often and see that they are associated with the same thing:
"HI!!!" and waving along with it are her favorites (she is a social butterfly, waves to almost everyone and makes random strangers days I'm sure)

"DA DA" for Dad... "NA NA" for banana and one of my personal favorites:
"NAYNEN" or "MAYNEN" or "NUHNEN" (varieties there-of!) for "AMEN" when we pray at meals. And she folds her hands with it too. Oh... oh my, so sweet :)

She also makes a "WHU WHUU" sound for "woof woof"- dog, and tries other sounds, sometimes getting "EEEEE! EEE!" for "Monkey" among others. She LOVES to read about animals and hear their sounds- she smiles and laughs.

Her hair is finally long enough for pig tails, something she's finally stopped crying when I do! ha ha. (see above picture- although hard to tell in that picture!) I'm just crazy about this baby girl, and it seems like each new week brings something new to love.

Josiah is majorly into LEGO's now and we're loving it as much as he does. Sometimes he'll sit there for an hour (or MORE) and just play LEGOs. It's basically a dream come true, and he's very imaginative with what he builds too! It's so neat to watch him becoming this little boy with his own interests and personality. As I type, Lydia is happily reading a book and Josiah playing LEGOs... which explains my ability to type.

So I guess you can thank them for the update :)

Oh my... bedtime fussiness just hit- until next time! :)

Crochet Dress

I'd love to take credit for making something as beautiful as this crochet dress... but I honestly can't! We found this gorgeous dress at the little street of shops near Nana's house and couldn't resist. (It was a remarkably good price for something that could've been so expensive since it was hand made) I put Lydia in the dress for a photo-op the other day. Although it's tricky right now because she can't crawl in it, when she is cruising and walking more it'll be perfect! I'm hoping for some good pictures around winter time in this. And what a great heirloom!
Unfortunately, most of my pictures the flash wasn't working, so I guess I had bad lighting. But... you can still picture her in this dress, with good lighting and a professional photographer, good expensive camera, ... haha... just stunning! There's a few good ones- mostly posted here- that the flash did work on. I might just have to take her in to a photo studio for this one! ;)

Lydia's First Spaghetti

Well... it's just one of those childhood photo opportunities that is ever-so-cute, the first spaghetti mess! I made spaghetti last night for dinner and cut it into teeeeeeny tiny pieces for Miss Lydia. Daddy came home and said, "She's eating THIS??" I told him I just wanted to let her try a couple bites. She's very interested in everything we are eating these days and does a great job mashing soft fruits with her gums, but she also has only two tiny teeth up front so we still try to be careful with solids. WELL... She devoured the entire bowl! She LOVED it and did great with it! We both can't really believe how fast she is growing into a toddler... it's unbelievable. ENJOY! :)

Howdy Cowboy

WELL... It's official! My brother is moving to TEXAS in a month (within his company) for a new and exciting job. I'm so happy for them! Of course at the same time I wish they would move CLOSER to me and not so much FARTHER away! ...What will I do without two of my BEST friends and TWO of my gorgeous goddaughters to love and squeeze!? I guess I'll have to be sending lots of fun care packages to spoil them rotten. Well... off to plan a road trip to Texas in the near future... ha ha. :) Congrats to you bro, we'll miss you but are very proud!

What's that? You thought I said healthy? Nahh...

The kids have colds again. Well, Josiah is just a little "sniffly" while Lydia has a nasty cold. I have to keep wiping her nose every two minutes. Ew.
But, other than that, a cold is a cold, hopefully they won't last too long or turn into ear infections or anything!

I know I haven't updated in forever... although it's not for lack of trying. I was trying to upload a video to share, but it still takes forever and then won't work. What a bummer. Anyway, it was cute... maybe I'll load it to youtube.

Quick kid update- Josiah is TOTALLY INTO LEGOS and is doing amazing things with the tiny building blocks. It is definitely in the plans to attain more sets of LEGOS! I think he spent about 3 hours total working on LEGO creations yesterday, and I swear I didn't make him! I actually wanted to get him outside, so I offered for him to play in the sandbox while I made dinner. He was very excited so he happily said yes of course, then after about ten minutes came dashing back in.

*sigh* He was eaten... alive... yet again... by mosquitoes. This poor boy already has marks and scabs from about 10 bites on his legs, and then he plays in the sand box for 10 minutes and comes back in with (I kid you not) another 10 on EACH leg (I stopped counting after that) one HUGE one on EACH elbow, and one on his face! AHHH!! I hate these BUGS!! And bug spray doesn't even touch them! or anything! The poor kid wants to play outside but he's scared of the bug bites now! It's miserable. He reacts so strongly to them that I have to keep a benadryl anti-itch cream handy for him. It's just such a bummer. stupid bugs! Anyone have any suggestions!?? Besides putting him in a bubble? :)

Lydia is... picking up small things off the carpet. Gotta go! Will update again soon - with pictures!

Love and Blessings!

The girl's got HATtitude!

Too cute not to share. Here's Lydia sporting her new fall hat I made...

Quick Health Update...

Just wanted to update that both kids are healthy and well right now, no more colds and no more ear infections- even finished off the new antibiotics- yay! Thanks for your prayers for them and for a speedy recovery.

This weekend we're looking forward to PARTYING with my brother in celebration of his birthday as well as his graduating with his Master's degree- WELL DONE big bro! We're very proud. And happy to help him eat some yummy food and birthday cake :)

I did find the camera- but haven't had a spare second to upload pictures so I promise to get around to that SOON!

After this weekend things should finally die down... a little. :)
More to come. God bless!