Pictures from Lydia's sixth week

Here's the first pictures we got of Lydia smiling. I think she started smiling around 3-4 weeks though, if that's possible.

Grandma and Grandpa's visit

We didn't take many pictures from the visit with Martin's folks (they were taking a lot of pictures which I'm sure we'll get copies of) but here are the pictures we did take. During their visit, we went to the American Indian museum downtown.

The ladies taking a break....

Dylan and Grandma making cards:

Charlie and Jamie's birthday party

Laura H. had a combined birthday party for her two boys this year who turned 4 and 2 in January. The party was at Monkey Business which is an indoor playground/music fun place. Martin's parents stayed with Lydia and so we both got to go to the party with Dylan. He had a blast and really participated in the music program. Thanks Laura for a great time!

The Crib Tent

My brother recently blogged about how he thought swaddling babies was some form of child abuse. I think this was after he saw my facebook photo with Lydia in my arms all swaddled up. Well, he's probably going to call child and family services on us for this one....

It's a crib tent. If you were unlucky enough to hear me lament about Dylan's sleep issues, you know that since he turned two Dylan had been climbing out of his crib. We would keep taking him back to bed which sometimes went on for 2 hours before naps and one hour at bedtime. We struggled through that but once he continued this pattern after Lydia was born we knew we had to take some more drastic measures. Thus, the crib tent. Yes, I paid $70 (got it from Amazon) to cage my child and I think it was worth every penny. Dylan, as you can see, actually likes it, most of the time. There have been a few times where he has screamed about it but generally, as you can see above, he likes it. We talked it up - "oh wow, you get to sleep in a tent, Dylan!" which helped, I think. He calls for us when he's up from his nap and ready to "GET OUT" as he says. Interestingly, it's the Crib Tent II. Apparently, 2 year olds outsmarted the manufactures the first time and escaped from the Crib Tent I, hence the need for Crib Tent II.

The plan is to keep Dylan in the crib until we move this spring so he might only get 3 months use out of the crib tent but it was still worth it. We'll see what happens when he's in a twin mattress on the floor. I guess we'll put a gate at the door but if that doesn't work, I'm not beyond locking him in the room. As long as Justin doesn't call the authorties.

Pictures from Lydia's fifth week

Here's Lydia in her bouncy seat, which used to be Dylan's toddler chair, which used to be Dylan's bouncy seat. He has been okay about giving it up.

Lydia with Grandpa. Martin's folks came up for a long weekend to meet Lydia. I'll be posting some more pictures from their visit.

When Daddy has sound duty at church and has to be there at 7am, Mommy gets to dress the kids for church in whatever she wants. :) All Steelers gear, none of that Eagles stuff...:) Just kidding, I like the Eagles too. This was Super Bowl Sunday and only of one this family's teams was in the big game so we had to go with the black and gold.

Bend and Stretch, Reach for the Stars

Poll Results

Since I only got one comment I will give you the results based on verbal comments as well but the result is the same: she looks like Dylan. It's most noticable when she is sleeping (maybe they have different eyes). Here are two comparison pictures, first Dylan, and then Lydia:

Dylan definitely has longer eyelashes and I thought Lydia had chubbier cheeks but now looking back at Dylan's baby pics, I'm not so sure. And I thought Lydia's hair was darker than Dylan's was when he was first born but maybe not.

We've also heard "she's an Etner." And my sister thinks she looks like Martin's side of the family. These comments are interesting since the vote on who Dylan looks like, although close, did say he looked more like me. So how can Dylan look like me and Lydia like Martin but they both look alike? Hmmm.