Pictures from the last 6 months

Fall 2009 - Dylan's birthday, our anniversary, swim lessons, big snow storm #1

Winter 2010 - Grandma's birthday, Christmas, Lydia's birthday, Baltimore Train Museum, big snow storms #2 and #3, Valentines' Day, and pigtails

Lydia at 15 months

Stats first: 21lbs 2.8 oz. (20th percentile) and 29 1/4 inches (20th percentile) and head circumference was in the 55th percentile. Compared to Dylan, she weighs more and is in a higher percentile for weight.

Words/signs: ma-ma, da-deee (used for both Martin and Dylan - this used to be ah-da), ba-na-na, shoes, cheese, bird (sign and word), [waves when you say bye-bye], [claps when you say yea], [smacks her lips when you say kiss], all done (sign and word), milk (sign), more (sign), eat (sign).

Lydia has been become more picky with food but we can still get some cooked baby carrots or peas in her every once in a while. She still loves fruit and instant oatmeal and pasta and yogurt and cheese!! Oh does she love her cheese. The first time I heard her say the word, I don't think I had even said the word, she just saw me cutting it and toddled over and said "cheese" clear as day and very loudly. We started giving her raisens recently. Mealtime has become really difficult with her though. She wants whatever I'm eating as soon as I sit down. She doesn't like sitting in her chair for very long at all. Sometimes if I give her a spoon she'll eat something that 5 seconds early she was refusing but because it's on a spoon, she'll eat it.

Lydia is a climber like her brother but I don't think she's as crazy as he was. She will sit in my lap and just look around. Or she will get down and get a stuffed animal and then want back up in my lap (love this!).

I thought girls were going to be easier in this regard but Lydia is just about as wiggly as her brother was for diaper changes. But she actually helps me dress her by sticking out her arms or lifting her legs. It's amazing. She's actually helpful!

I think she's going to be potty trained a lot sooner than Dylan. Actually, I saw her squatting in the bathtub yesterday and quickly picked her up an held her over the toilet just in time. Then I sat her on the toilet for a minute to make sure she was done. She seemed happy to be there.

Lydia has begun, to my amazement, to follow little instructions - like hug the bear, sit down, pick up the toy. It's so cute and so cool to see her comprehension. She knows some of her body parts - I think hair was the first one she got and now mouth, eyes, and nose. Speaking of hair, it's starting to get long and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. Ponytails and pigtails don't stay in very long.

Lydia loves to give kisses. Sometimes she puts both hands on your face and just plants one on you. It's so fun. Lots of people tell me how social she is. She's really engaging and doesn't wait for you to initiate interaction with her. She doesn't just respond to you, she initiates the interaction. She still smiles a lot.

Lydia loves animals. She squeals whenever she sees a cat or a dog. It's cute. She is starting to taking a liking to some of her stuffed animals too. With an animal, her thumb, and some sort of fabric to grab (mommy's shirt if no blanket is available), she is set.

Lydia is still a great sleeper and still takes two naps. If you don't let her take her morning nap she will try to take it anyway. She's pretty good at calming herself. She is still nursing at least twice a day sometimes more. The sessions are usually quick though and more often than not I'm putting her down to sleep when she's still awake.

Lydia had Roseola a few weeks ago. It's basically just a virus but apparently it's one of those where if you get it, you won't get it again. She had a high fever and then a rash after the fever was breaking. I stayed home from work one day with her. The doctor we saw that day didn't tell me that's what it was but when we went for her 15 month check up her regular doctor said that's must have been what it was.

Lydia at 12 months

So before she hits 15 months, I should tell you how Lydia has been growing and what she has been up to as a one-year old. At her 12 month doctors appointment, she weighed 17 lbs., 10.4 oz (5th percentile) and was 29 inches (50th percentile) tall. See here for Dylan comparison.

At about 12 months she got her first molar and now (almost 15 months) has four of them. That makes 12 teeth.

Lydia started STTN (finally) at about 12 and a half months. From about 4-5 months until then she had been waking up twice during the night. I think she just learned to soothe herself back to sleep. One night it took me a long time to get up to get her (both our doors were closed so I didn't hear her for a while) and by the time I got up, she was back to sleep. From there on, I just let her go back to sleep on her own and it worked. She started sleeping all the way through.

Lydia started taking a few steps at 12 and a half months but really starting walking at 13 months, 1 week - the week we were stuck in the house because of the snow storm. I remember Dylan taking one step (at 10 months) and then running the next day it seemed. Lydia took the more cautious route.

Lydia enjoyed watching the snow fall from the sky but only tolerated being out in it for so long. Martin says she's not as much of an outdoor lover as Dylan but I'm going to give her some more time. I think now that she's walking she will enjoy it more.

At about 12 months, I noticed how engaging Lydia is. She initiates interaction with you. It's kinda hard to explain and maybe it's just because she's an easy second child and I often feel guilty for not paying more attention to her, but this really amazes me. Instead of crying for attention, she will just smile at you until you look at her and then smile even bigger. It's almost like she's trying to encourage me. Sometimes, when I'm holding her she will turn my face with her hands to make me look at her, smiling all the while.

She has really started to interact with her brother more. He has learned what makes her laugh and will entertain her. She has also started to make her opinions known when she wants something. She has been know to say things that sound like banana and Dylan and she says ma ma and da da. We are working on the signs again, but we didn't start as early or were as consistent as with Dylan so it might take her a little longer to get them.

on self-discipline

I'm reading the book Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges that describes the subtle sins we commit day after day without even thinking about them (impatience, judgementalism, frustration, etc.). Yesterday I read the chapter on self-control and today I realized how undisciplined I've become lately. I'm sure you've noticed this in how bad I've become about updating my blog. But it's worse than that. I have no self-control with respect to food, spending time on the computer or in front of the TV, or my wondering mind when I'm supposed to be concentrating on something else. And I've realized today that one of the reasons I've become so bad at self-control (and this is no means an excuse but rather a realization of my situation) is that I've had fewer and fewer opportunities to exhibit self-control, particularly with my time. And in those instances when I do, I've been failing at being disciplined. I was remembering this morning how I used to get up at 6am everyday and go to the gym before work. Now I'm not saying that I should try to follow that same schedule again or even that I have to have scheduled exercise in my daily dealings again but I feel like I need to practice discipline in some respect so that I will be disciplined in general. Then when I've faced with other temptations not to be disciplined, like in not indulging every desire of my taste buds, I will be more practiced. Bridges makes that point in the book and I know there have been times in my life when discipline in one area led to discipline in another. Maybe it will be discipline with food that will lead to more discipline with my time. I know that I can't do this on my own and that I'm completely dependent on the Holy Spirit to give me the power to make changes. If you have a minute, please pray to this end. Who knows, maybe the result will be more blog postings?

Chores

Lydia Update at 11 months!

Lydia is on her way to one. She is crawling more and faster and getting into more, but not nearly like Dylan did. That may have to do with the fact that when Dylan was crawling we were living in a 950 square foot condo and so there was more in the living room to get into. Lydia likes to crawl with one foot on the ground, her right. It's quite funny looking but she's gotten pretty proficient at it. Lydia can walk with assistance - while holding our hands or holding onto the push toy she received from Grandma and Grandpa as an early Christmas present. We expect her to walk soon.

Lydia is eating mostly all finger foods these days and she has four more teeth to help her. She does not like to be spoon fed - she would rather do it herself. This has been a common theme and thus she is proving herself to be quite independent. She can take a shirt off of her head once I get her arms out and she can get out of her straps on her car seat once I unbuckle them. Dylan is just learning these things. Her independence makes me a little nervous because I don't want to encourage the independence too much in our kids - I think we as individuals are too independent in today's society to our own detriment. Of course I want my kids to be able to do things for themselves but not to the point that they would refuse help. Dylan is independent in a much different way. He's adventurous and (what's opposite of cling-y?). That makes me nervous too. Dylan still wants us to do a lot of things for him, which at this age, he should be doing for himself. So basically, I want Dylan to dress himself but I don't want Lydia to think that she can dress herself. And I do wish Lydia would let us spoon feed her more so that we could get some cereal and apple sauce and the like into her but I have to admit, it is pretty nice to just sit some food in front of her and just let her go at it. We were spoon feeding Dylan until he was 2 and even now we still have to help him at least a few bites of food into his mouth before he's off again.

Lydia thinks Dylan is hilarious. They have a lot of fun together. She was cracking up at him hiding behind her high chair and peeking around at her. Besides laughing and smiling lots, Lydia is starting to babble more. She also says ma-ma, sometimes even when looking at (referring to) me. She says ah-da for "daddy," "dylan," and "all done." I think she does the signs for more and all done, usually just mimicking us. She and I have puckering up contests to see who can make the loudest pucker. I love those bonding moments that happen despite her not being able to talk. But soon we will have two little jatterboxes.

Lydia is still a pretty good napper in the sense that she's easy to get down to sleep. I wonder if kids are either easy to put down or easy to wake up. Lydia seems to have a harder time waking up and wants to nurse when she wakes up from her nap. Dylan was the opposite - he was hard to get to sleep and once he woke up, he was ready to go. Lydia will sleep, on a good day, for an hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. Even on a bad day she usually gets at least 2, half hour naps. She sleeps at night from about 7:30 to 6:30 but she wakes up about twice during the night still. Usually around 3 and then 5. I've tried feeding her before I go to bed at 10 and that seems to work sometimes. I've also tried not feeding her at 3 and that was hard getting her to go back to sleep but it worked until she got sick or we were traveling and then it was back to the drawing board. Maybe after her birthday we'll try again.

I've already started transitioning her to cow's milk. I wasn't pumping enough to give her 3 full bottles during the 3 days she's at daycare and I ran out of my stash back in October. So since she was gaining weight at a good pace and I new she was getting enough milk when she was with me (including those middle of the night feedings) I just started adding water to her bottles to make up the difference. Starting in December I started adding cow's milk and she has done fine with it. I figured if she was digesting all those finger food, she could handle the cow's milk. She'll get all cow's milk at day care starting after Christmas vacation and her birthday (which means I don't have to pump anymore!!!!!!!!!...!!!!)

Lydia is the only one in our family to get the H1N1 vaccine so far, due to availability. I think she already had H1N1 but they still recommended the vaccine. I'm hoping she will get her second dose when she goes in for her 1 year appointment on the 8th. Our pediatrician and my work have been getting the vaccine in drips and drabs. I'm not that worried about it to go to wait in line at the government center to get them so we're just waiting for our doctor to get them. Dylan and I received the seasonal flu shot this year - first time for both of us. My thinking is that now that there are four of us to pass things to each other, we need to take some more precautions. Lydia also received the seasonal flu shot but she still needs the second dose. So maybe by the time the height of the flu season gets here we will have all of our shots.

We enrolled the kids in 5-week swimming classes in November/December. Lydia was really clingy at first and sucked her thumb the whole time but is getting better. She's okay with it but it's thrilled. I just want the kids to keep up with their swimming so we don't have to start from ground zero every Memorial Day. I don't think we'll do another class in the spring though - we'll just take them to the indoor pool every so often. And the music class that we did last year is on one of my work days so we won't be doing that - but I talked to Mrs. Kathryn (she got married this year!) and she said that she is going to have a short 6 week class in May on Tuesdays that both Dylan and Lydia and participate in so we are going to look forward to that.

Dylan update

As you know if you've been around Dylan at all in the last two months, he had a birthday on October ('bachtober') 30th. (Yes, I'm a bad mommy blogger for not acknowledging it earlier.) This was his first birthday that he knew what was going on (presents, party, etc.). He even blew out his candles all by himself. We had a great day - opened presents, went to Cox Farm, napped, had dinner at IHOP cut short because Dylan wanted to go back home and play with his toys, and mommy played "Happy Birthday to You" on the piano. Dylan received so many birthday presents. I think his favorites are the scooter we got him and he cars from the Cars movie from my sister. On Halloween, we had a party for Dylan - only one friend could come because of illnesses in our family and others but it was still lots of fun for Dylan.

On the 5th Dylan had his 3 year check up at the doctor. He did the eye exam for the first time. He saw all the pictures and did such a great job telling the nurse what he saw. He also got his blood pressure taken for the first time. The doctor said he looked great. Dylan weighed 28 lbs (with clothes and jacket on - 20th percentile) and was 35 and change inches tall (10th percentile). I asked the doctor about the fact that Dylan can not give a thumbs up. He confirmed that that was a little strange and recommended a pediatric orthopedic doctor. I was a little concerned because Dylan seemed to be having trouble dressing himself and I thought the thumb thing might have something to do with it. He seems to be doing okay now so I'm not sure if we'll take him to the specialist. He started giving thumbs up with some practice and is dressing himself with guidance.

One big thing that I've noticed in the few months leading up to Dylan turning three was how his imagination took off. Suddenly, everyday items like string were transformed into tow-cables, fishing poles, capes, etc. I noticed how Dylan was making so many connections in his world. One of his favorite phrases is "...just like..." as in they have a gold car just like we do, I have brown eyes, just like you do, they live in Virginia, just like we do. And he wants to know everything's name (as in everything is personified). We are walking down the street and Dylan wants to know "what's that dog's name, mommy?"

Dylan also has really good balance. It's amazing sometimes how he stands on one of us or on the backs of couches or other precarious places.

Dylan is still a small and picky eater. (Although he did eat pizza for the first time tonight!) He could eat raisens and cheerios all day long however. But they have to be in "nnuter bowl." Keeping him seated at the table is probably the most challenging part of the meal these days though. We have a few dinners lately when Dylan stayed seated until we were mostly done with our meal and we did get to have a 1 minute family worship time. After only a couple of those he memorized two Bible verses "A...softer turns a-way RAT!" (Proverbs 15:1) and "Children obey your parents."

Dylan has also been singing a lot lately. He's learned a few Thomas the Train songs and "Life is a Highway" from the Cars movie, and the Sesame Street theme song.

We've been trying to potty train Dylan for a few months now. It is very slow going. I started having him go naked and he would do okay with that but as soon as he had pants, with or without underpants or a pull-up, he would go in his pants. We could only practice that at home too. Bushra was trying to potty train Dylan at her house so we had to keep it up. He was doing okay there. He's getting better but still a lot of accidents. He now will ask to go even if he has pants or a pull up on. He can do it, which he has proven, so there is no going back, but it's just going soo slow and Mommy has had to clean up a lot of messes. Very humbling. Most of the accidents occur when he's busy playing. We have been giving him "nem nem ems," as an incentive but now only if he asks for it afterwards. Recently Dylan has proven that he can go on potties at other people's houses and at public potties. Not sure I'm going to stop buying pull ups yet though. We were at a cousin's house yesterday and I took him once on the potty and the second time he found the bathroom again by himself and somehow climbed on the toilet and went by himself. He comes out in the living room to proclaim "I did it!" - we all look at each and think, did what?! But then today he pooped in a pull up and peeped while outside wearing underpants.

Dylan is still napping on most days. The three hour naps are becoming more the exception than the rule though. I think he's averaging 1.5-2 hours these days. Still awesome. As long as we can get him to be still enough to fall asleep then he's good. He still takes a pacifier for sleeping. I've noticed that he grinds his teeth when the pacifier isn't there. I'm no longer in a rush to wean him off the pacifier. Maybe after potty training. Actually it will probably be easiest when he drops the afternoon nap. Unless the dentist tells me differently before then. Dylan went to the dentist for the first time in September. He did pretty good. They didn't get to do much but the dentist said he had good spacing between his teeth.

I've heard that the "3s" are worse than the "2s" especially if the "2s" weren't that bad for your kid. We're only a month in but I suspect that we'll end up deciding that the "3s" were worse. In a lot of instances, Dylan seems to want to do the opposite of what you want him to do these days. Counting to 5 seems to be working a little bit for me these days, even if I forget to threaten him with what happens after 5. He just doesn't like me counting. And sometimes when we tell him to do something when he doesn't want to, he tells us to "go to work, Mommy" or "go to work, Daddy." But as with most kids, especially 3 year olds, I've heard, he can switch and be really sweet too. He says I love you to us unprompted and gives hugs and kisses unprompted. He also asks us "howsz oour day, mommy?" (sometimes before breakfast!). And he loves family hugs! When we put him to bed we all go into his room and the four of us give each other one big hug!

Factors Contributing to the Stickiness of the Floor in the Proximity of the Kitchen Table in a Vienna Home

{This posted is contributed to the Sweet November by our resident researcher}



Since the recent purchase of their new home, the adult population has noticed a significant increase in the stickiness of their kitchen, mostly in proximity of the kitchen table. 100% of the adult population polled, which coincided with the residents most likely to clean up the stickiness, agreed with this statement. Of note is that this population had previous lived in a condo where the only dining area was carpeted. This paper is offered to summarize the research and conclusions made to determine the factors contributing to the stickiness.

Data Collection and Analysis

There were two main means of collecting data employed here:

1) Floor observations
Over the 9 week study period, numerous floor observations were made. These were made by sampling the area with intervals as short as one day to as long as one week. These samplings generally coincided with cleanings of the floor and were frequently tied to 1) the quantity of sticky substances on the floor, 2) whether guests would be visiting and 3) how much motivation there was to clean the floor.

2) Meal observations – during and shortly after
A striking trend was noted over this period. During the first 7 weeks of the data collection, an overwhelming majority of the stickiness was attributed to oatmeal and raisins. At this point, the observers began to cross-reference the food types found on the floor with the diners’ menu selections. Over this period, one diner (Dylan) was observed to have chosen oatmeal with raisins nearly every day with minor exceptions given to Saturdays when eggs or pancakes were eaten.

The following graphic shows the stickiness composition over the period:





However, during the next few weeks of observation, the addition of another child at meal time had significant affect. Cheerios began to show up on the floor in outstanding fashion. The following graphic shows the stickiness composition over the next period:

When these contributions are plotted over time, one can see a dramatic change in the contribution of each diner. Clearly, Lydia began to quickly contribute to the floor stickiness: Note that over this period, the quantity of sticky substances on the floor continued to increase. Dylan’s overall contribution did not decrease over this period, however the addition of Lydia’s substances brought his percentage down.

Conclusions

Factor #1: A rambunctious young boy


The energetic nature of this boy contributed significantly to the stickiness of the floor. The analysis of food particles and meal observations show this rambunctious boy as the largest contributor to floor stickiness. In fact, estimates place this factor as contributing 90-95% of all stickiness between 7/1/09 and 10/1/09. When asked for comment, he merely replied, “The floor is sticky!”

Factor #2: A less coordinated baby girl
The introduction of a child who is developing a pincher reflex and has little coordination is a significant contributor to floor stickiness. In a short while, she has managed to rival that of Dylan.

Mitigation Plan: As Dylan and Lydia have not demonstrated a willingness to change their menu selections, the only means of preventing the stickiness are:
· Continue to refine Dylan and Lydia’s coordination to ensure that 1) food gets to their mouths and 2) food stays in their mouths
· Just put a tarp on the floor

Pictures!

Sorry everyone for not posting pictures in a while. In order to catch you all up, here are the links to my pics on Picasa.

June 09 - Lydia and Daddy; Kathryn's shower

Summer 09 - including the kids with Daddy on Father's Day, some really cute ones of Lydia, Dylan in the new closet at the condo, my birthday, 4th of July, berry picking, Lydia starting solids, fun in the pool, Uncle Matt and family's visit, Brian's visit, the Gillespies' visit, and the church retreat

Our Trip to FL - Daytona first this time and then Panama City (see blog entry here)

Kings Dominion - Martin's company rents out the park for a day every Sept - we went for free; Dylan's best gal pal Anna's daddy also works for the same company so we all went together

Fall 09 - Saladas' visit and Dylan's crazy hair

Camping - at Loft Mountain in Shenandoah National Park with the Vanes and the Burks

Peas Porridge Hot, Peas Porridge Cold, Peas Porridge in my Mouth, 9 months old

This is the little ditty we sang to Lydz (her nickname) this weekend. Green veggies are not the fav but they go down easier than pureed meat. Cheerios, on the other hand, are all the rage with Lydia these days. She still only has 4 teeth so there's a lot of sucking involved in eating them but she loves them. She just recently got the pincher grasp so we've been trying to give her more table food in tiny pieces. She even ate some mixed veggies. Dylan NEVER did that. Lydia loves to eat bananas and apples from her little mesh bag thing.

Lydia had her 9-month doctors appointment yesterday. She weighed 16 lbs 10.8 oz (20th percentile), was 27 inches long (30th percentile), and her head measurement was in the 50th percentile. She went up a lot since her last appointment and she weighs more than Dylan did at this age and is exactly the same height. I just moved Lydia into her 6-9 month clothes.

Lydia had been waking up twice per night pretty much since June. A few weeks ago I tried to "correct" this by not nursing her when she woke up the first time. I also would do a dream feed at 10pm before I went to bed. After a few rough nights of not going back to sleep after waking at 2am, I think we might have settled into a better schedule. She gets up around 4am and I feed her and she goes back to sleep until 6 or 6:30am. Dylan was in this schedule for a while back in the day and its fine with me for now. Lydia is a better napper than Dylan was but I think she sleeps a little less at night.

Lydia is crawling faster now but her crawling is much more a means to an end rather than the past time it was for Dylan. He was everywhere. I was just looking back at some pictures, and even in his crib in his sleep he was all over the place. So I'm hoping that this is an indication that Lydia won't be quite the crazy kid that Dylan is. I love my crazy kid but two of them would be really had to handle. Lydia does squirm when getting her diaper changed like Dylan did though.

Lydia is still a ridiculously happy baby. She didn't even cry when she got her shot yesterday. She puts up with way too much abuse from her brother too.

Thirteen Things for Thursday

I think I'm just Facebook deprived...can't FB at work and no time at home to be on computer...so these are probably more like my status updates for the last week or so.

1. One reason I'm not on the computer at home as much is that Martin has been watching his DVDs on the computer since we can't seem to play them on our TV and DVD player. The issue is that the power went out last week and now the TV is searching for a analog signal, which is needs to do a channel set-up, and not finding it. Without the channel set-up, we can't set the TV to the right channel for the DVD player. I'm feeling the pain of being technologically behind. Maybe we should just go ahead and get the HD TV we've been thinking about buying. I just hate spending so much money, thinking that I'll regret the purchase.
2. I did get a new phone though! I've had the same cell phone for 5 years! These things weren't made to last this long. The phone is starting to not hold a charge so I got a new one. Had to get the free one though. I'll still have to pay to have my numbers changed over though. Grrr.
3. I forgot to mention that we saw the shuttle launch while we were in FL. It was soo cool. We were 80 miles away and the shuttle was just a ball of fire in the sky but it was still sooo cool. We watched it all the way across the horizon in the night sky and even saw the boosters drop.
4. I really wish someone would explain double coupons to me. Do most stores only double coupons less than $1? My Safeway doesn't even advertize the fact that they double coupons so I wasn't figuring them into my price calculations. After experimenting with the Sunday coupons for the last 2 months, I think I'm going to use them on a more limited basis - only use coupons for $1 off (or $.50 with doubling) off 1 item or diaper or cereal coupons. Those are the only things that seem worth the time I'm taking cutting and organizing.
5. We got an offer on our condo and may have another offer coming in tonight! Seems as though a lot of first time homebuyers are making offers now to be able close before November 1st to get the tax credit. Sweet November - no more double mortgage payments for us!
6. I'm doing some initial calculations based on what I think we will get for the condo. I'm conducting an analysis to see if it would have been cheaper for us to rent the past 5 years than to buy. I think we're going to come up about even. At least we didn't lose money, and we received lots of intangible, unquantifiable benefits from owning the condo. For instance, I don't think we would have been able to rent as nice of a place, at least for what we would have been willing to pay in rent.
7. Wow, a lot of my 'things' are about money. Hmmm...
8. We tried giving Lydia meat yesterday - pureed chicken. She didn't like it. We'll try again. She's practicing picking up cheerios and putting them into her mouth. She's eaten one but mostly she just examines them.
9. In my research for this article that I'm writing at work, I found out that the name of first person to ever receive a federal deposit insurance payout was Mrs. Lydia Lobsiger. She received a check for $1,250 on July 3, 1934 when her bank, Fondulac State Bank in East Peoria, IL failed.
10. I had a coupon for a McCafe at McDonalds so I got one. I don't recommend it - at least the iced ones. It was 80 percent ice.
11. I also have a coupon for this music store near me - $5 off, no minimum purchase. I'm going to buy reeds for my clarinet and maybe start playing again with friends from church.
12. I just bought my dad a Father's Day gift last night. Only 3 months late. Pam, tell Justin not to worry - his birthday gift won't be that late.
13. Sunday we made our 3rd trip to an amusement park this summer - Kings Dominion for Martin's company picnic. Went to a wave pool there for the first time in years. Good times but I'm done with amusement parks for a while.

Life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long....

This was the theme song of our vacation and of really the last few weeks.

• Life is a highway and it keeps going even when you're on vacation and that helps describe how I feel now that we're back - lots to catch up with.
• The all night long part is also indicative our nights as Lydia continues to wake up at least twice at night. The 5-7am period is particularly difficult for sleep. (I'm trying white noise now and it seems to have helped a little but she's still getting up twice. I'm going to try not feeding her at night now.)
• Dylan has been singing this song because it's from the soundtrack of his favorite movie - Cars. While we were on the 800-mile stretch of highway from our house to Martin's parents' house, which bares the name of Dylan's favorite race car - #95, Lightening McQueen - we pretended we were in the scene of the movie where McQueen is trying to catch up to "Mac" after he falls out of his trailer. "Mac, Mac, wait up." Then we would catch up to the nearest tractor trailer and say "You're not Mac!" That entertained our little chatterbox for a good portion of the trip.
• We made it to FL in one day and with one speeding ticket. It was me driving. My first speeding ticket in almost 17 years (my first was when I was 16). We were listening to The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again and I guess I didn't realize how fast I was going. The very polite Southern police officer gave me a ticket (although he decrease the speed he clocked me at so I wouldn't get any points on my license) and told me to have a great day, but to slow down a bit.
• We didn't ride any waves in FL but we did go to the beach once and Dylan "went under" in the ocean, with me holding him. Lydia seemed to like the beach - she ate some sand and sat and splashed.
• Lydia started crawling while we were on vacation. She won't have to ride as much now - she can move on her own! She also cut another tooth on top and turned 8 months old!
• While we were visiting Martin's parents we took highway 4 over to Orlando and went to Sea World for 2 days. Dylan loved it. He still shouts "Shamu, Shamu" around the house. They had an Elmo show that Dylan and Lydia both enjoyed. Sea World was a great place to take the kids at this age. And they even had nursing mothers rooms where the moms get free bottled water! A+ for family friendly-ness!
• On our last full day in Daytona, Martin and I got to go on a date while the kids were napping. We went mini-golfing for the first time since Dylan was born and shopping and out for ice cream. Life is good.
• We then took highway 10 over to the panhandle to see my sister and her family. Dylan and Steven had a ball playing cars and monster trucks together and jumping on beds and into the pool. Dylan jumped into the pool with his swimmies and went under all my himself for the first time this summer. He and Steven also got to sit in one of Uncle Rob's helicopters!
• On Sunday, after visiting with my parents a little who had come to my sister's for a visit, we hopped back on the highway and headed home. This time we broke the return trip up into two days and stopped in Charleston, SC to visit a friend of Martin's from college for lunch.

Lydia is 7 months old!

Wow, 7 months. Here are some pictures of her in the last month.

Wedding Dance

I can only imagine how long their rehearsal was...:)

CNN article on how this "went viral."

Lydia Update

Lydia had her 6 month appointment on Friday. We were a few weeks late because I couldn't get an appointment earlier than that. She weighed 13 lbs 12 oz (10th percentile) and was 25 inches long (20th percentile). Her head circumference was in the 40th percentile. She's just barely beating her brother who weighed 13 lbs 11 oz at his 6 month checkup but she had an extra 3 weeks. See here and here for my blog entries about Dylan at the time.

Comments from the doctor: "she doesn't miss a beat, does she?" - in reference to her doing basically on cue all the things he was asking me if she does; "she's really active."

Lydia cut her first tooth on July 18th and her second one last weekend. There may be a third tooth on the way too.

We started cereal on July 4th and we've tried rice, oatmeal, and wheat so now we're moving on to veggies tonight. The doctor wasn't concerned about the weight because he says it's normal for breast-fed babies to level out a little at 6 months. He just said to give her 3 meals of solids a day and make sure she's getting 20 oz of milk. I'm confident that she's getting the 20 oz of milk (I wasn't with Dylan though) and now that we're onto veggies I think what I'd do is veggie OR cereal in the morning and then same for lunch and then cereal at dinner. Hopefully we can get some more food in her so she'll sleep better. I think she's getting up because she's hungry. I've given her some "dream feeds" at 10-11pm and then she makes it until 5am.

Lydia wore her first cloth diaper last week. I had put off cloth since we were so crowded in the condo and didn't have a good changing station set up for her and when I did try them she was soaking through them because the size that fit her wasn't big enough to sop up all the pee. The funny thing is now she's almost out of the second size diapers that I have and into the third size which is what Dylan still wears. The range on these ones are 13-25 lbs. So now I have to decide whether or not to 1) potty train Dylan, 2) move him to disposables, which makes sense because he uses less diapers than Lydia, 3) buy more cloth diapers in the third size or 4) buy more cloth diapers in the fourth size for Dylan. I might do some combo of these options. I also really wanted Lydia to wear a cloth diaper for her 6 month pictures - we did this diaper pic with Dylan that I wanted to recreate with Lydia. We tried to get them taken on Saturday but silly Mommy didn't think that trying to get a teething baby to take pictures 18 hours after her shots was a bad idea at first. We're going to try again next Saturday.

[Another side note about cloth diapers. I really like them for poop but not so much for pee. Maybe my wraps have just lost their ability to keep the wetness in so maybe I will buy more/different ones. I wish I had had Lydia in cloth though for a few blow outs that she had. We would have save a few cute outfits.]

Lydia likes being in the pool. We've had her in a number of times now. She's also really into holding and examining and chewing on one toy at a time. This also works with her hands when Mommy forgets to bring a toy for her. Maybe I haven't given her enough tummy time but she doesn't seem too intersting in moving around on the floor. She likes to sit and play. I like that. I need to get unpacked before I have to start baby-proofing again.

You want condo?

While we were dating, Martin and I went to Wendy's one night for a snack. After we pull up to the place to order we hear the voice from inside the little box say something we did not expect. In fact, something that we didn't even quite understand at first. "Youwancombo?" Huh? Was he speaking English? Later we figured out the voice was really trying to say, "Welcome to Wendy's, would you like to try one of our hot delicious combo meals today?" But somehow that got shortened into "youwancombo?" Perhaps the person was new and had not been trained in polite and articulate English. But then we have gotten the same greeting at different Wendy's at different times since then. It has become somewhat of a running joke between the two of us. So now as we put our condo on the market, we have a question for you... "youwancondo?"

Please feel free to forward the link to anyone you know who may be looking to buy a 2 bedroom condo in the Washington DC metro area.

Pictures

Some pictures to enjoy (including Lydia's first time to the pool) while we're busy moving.

Six months old

Lydia is six months old today. This pictures are from about a month ago though since I didn't have time to download the most recent ones from the camera before the move. Today is moving day so it will be an exciting half birthday for Lydia.

Lydia has just started sitting up by herself for long enough for me to say she's sitting up. She loves sitting up because she can hold toys better and see more of what's going on.

Lydia continues to be the smiliest, happiest baby! She is so pleasant and hardly ever cries.

The last few nights she has been getting up a lot (twice per night). I'm wondering if its the excitement of the move, etc. Maybe when we start rice cereal this week that will help her sleep.

Her doctors appointment isn't until the 24th so no stats for now. I'm going to try to schedule her six-month photo shoot soon.

How appropriate...

that this article was published on my 33rd birthday. You know you're old when baseball players your age are past their prime.

Trying to get all the May pictures up before July is here...

Dylan saw me writing on the calendar we have hanging on our wall and wanted to "write on the wall" too. Thankfully I had hung one of his drawings up there too. He did go off the paper but we are painting the whole place before we move so it wasn't a big deal.

Here we are at the Nationals game. I bought Martin tickets for his birthday but the game wasn't until May 17th. Phillies won so Martin was happy.

Here's Dylan at his friend Anna's 3rd birthday. This was the best picture I got unfortunately. We had a great time at the party and really hung out there the whole day. Thanks Anna (and Jessie and Bob!).