Keeping up with the Big Sister

It's totally true when they say the 2nd one grows up quicker. I can't believe how fast Lydia is growing up, I can hardly keep up with her and posting all that she is doing on my blog. She is almost 7months but when she turned exactly 6 months, to the day, she started crawling (Kate started crawling at 8 months). And by crawling I don't mean creeping which is what babies do pre-crawling that has been going on since before 4 months. So at 6 months I have this little crawler and just this week she has become really good at pulling herself up on furniture, her crib, really anything she can crawl to and stand up on. And just last night I saw her do a little 'cruising' before she crashed on the floor. I don't know if she'll be an early walker but I won't be surprised if she is. I need to get her 6months stats up here but I know she weighed in at 17lbs. I'll update this when I can with her stats. Here's a video (from Dec 2nd) of her crawling.

My Ballerina

Kate started ballet this week. I was hesitant for her to try this sport because she's never expressed an interest in ballet, and she is still pretty young for an "organized" class. But she surprised me, she did great. She followed the instructions of her ballet teacher, doing all the exercises. She was clearly the youngest ballerina in her class, but not the worst! One little girl was off in her own planet the entire time.

Dancing

She's doing her stretches with the rest of the class (she is all the way to the left, the girl all the way to the right was the little stinker in the class)

During the class
At the end of class she let me take a picture

This weekend we met up with some 'virtual friends' for dinner, I'm on a message board of October 2006 mom's and we all have really gotten to know each other really well over the years. This mom is from Georgia and is vising this week in our area because they are relocating here in a few months. It's fun to meet up with these mom's, I consider them all such good friends even though I haven't met most of them.

My cutie pie, is growing up so fast she is such a ray of sunshine

Halloweenie

For Halloween we ended up at our friends the Coleman's house for a Halloween party. We took the girls trick or treating around the neighborhood. Kate was just as cute as ever marching up to the door by herself while we stood on the sidewalk. She was so cute, thanking everyone for her treat, and if she saw a lollipop in the mix, she always asked nicely for it. She loves lollipops! Here are some pictures from our Halloween this year.

I love my bumble bee and flower

Brock worked very hard on this pumpkin

TUTU cute

It's fun to have girls, you can dress them up and do girlie things with them like these pictures. My friend gave me this idea.

Both girls were exactly 5 months when I took these.
Lydia

Kate

First Foods

At Lydia's 4 month appointment she got the go ahead to start solids. Normally a doctor would recommend starting solids at 6 months but she felt like Lydia was so strong and with it to go ahead if we wanted to. She's only had rice cereal and I try and give her a small bowl each night. She loves it and now when I'm holding her in one arm and making her cereal with my other hand she starts screetching and getting excited for food. She opens her mouth if she sees the spoon. Oh and don't eat in front of her, she gets so mad when you are eating and she isnt'. I forget she is just 5 months, I've caught myself a couple of times almost giving her a taste of my food. She does seem to be growing up faster then Kate did, but I think that happens when you start having more then one child. At her 4 month visit Lydia was just a delightful little thing and the doctore kept calling her spry! It was so cute. Then she got shots and it was all over. Just kidding she did wonderfully. Here is what Lydia weighed in at, I added kate's stats for comparison.
4 months
Kate
14lbs 110z
24 3/4" tall
16" head

Lydia
15lbs
25 1/4" tall
15 3/4" head

Some pictures of Lydia eating cereal for the first time. She didn't seem to like it at first, but a month later she is lovin it and can't get enough. I'm actually starting to feed her veggies, she ate squash for the first time last night and didn't like it at all. It took me 25 years to like squash so I really can't blame her!

Our Precious Lydia

On september 20th the same day Lydia turned 4 months, she was blessed in our church. It was a beautiful blessing. My mom made the blessing dress and Kate a matching dress for fun. I did get professional pictures taken of the girls that I need to put up here for you all to see. Here are a few pictures from her blessing day.

My Birthday Girl

On Saturday we celebrated Kate's 3rd birthday. I can hardly believe that she is 3 years old. She is such an amazing kid. Brock and I comment daily on how lucky we are to have 2 wonderful girls. Kate is special, she is very confident and independent, she does everything on her time frame but when she does it she does it well. She is also easy going as toddlers come. She really doesn't have any annoying traits (she does get whiny when she is tired but who doesn't). She is a great reminder to me to just enjoy life as it comes, nothing gets this kid down. My dad passed away on the same day she came into my life but 5 years earlier. She gives me a reason to never be sad on that day. She is a wonderful big sister and will be the kind of big sister that is friends with her little sister. She loves to share her toys with Lydia. And it's so cute when she tries to get Lydia to smile and when she does Kate says "oh she likes me". Oh if Kate only knew how much Lydia adores her. I feel honored and blessed to be a mother to both of my beautiful wonderful girls. Here are some pictures of the big day.

Muffins we made for the kids at daycare

On Saturday we had her party at 'Mygym' a kiddie play center, all the kids had such a great time and Kate got the royal treatment

Lydia is one that doesn't miss a beat, here she is looking onward probably wishing she could get down and roll around, her favorite thing to do!

The put Kate in a swing and let all the kids march around her

Kate's only request for her birthday for the last few months has been a cake with one red star and one blue star

Checking out her cake face


This is at her Nana's house, it's a tradition in my family to eat off the "you are special today" plate on your birthday. I also let her wear her halloween costume since it was her special day.

Visit to the Dentist

Kate had her first visit to the dentist yesterday. She did great she was the perfect little patient. She did a great job opening her mouth to get her teeth clean. They made it such a fun experience for her she asked to go back. She checked out with a clean bill of health. It was such a neat place that I'm thinking of asking if they will take care of my teeth! (And I was the crazy mom taking pictures of her kid at the dentist so I could blog about it)

Hangin in the waiting room, we named all the fish in this fish tank, it looks like a picture but it really is a fish tank

Kate picked out a Diego toothbrush (over a princess toothbrush?) and bubblegum toothtaste (yes that is what Kate calls it)

Kate got to pick out the flavor of toothtaste to have her teeth cleaned, she changed her mind a hundred times so I'm not sure what she ended up with

Here she is showing her what Mr. Tickles feels like on her finger, Mr. Tickles polished her teeth

She did such a great job opening her mouth and letting them do their thing, I was really proud of her, although we've been practicing at home with me being the dentist

This is Dr. Val, she is examining Kate's teeth

Kate got a token for being a great patient and she got to go to the Treasure Tower and pick out a toy, it was really hard to pick just one but she settled on a bouncy ball

Here she is with her teeth all clean, she got a balloon, bouncy ball and goody bag (Kate calls groceries) all for going to the dentist, things are SO different then when I was a kid

Chub in A Tub

Chub in a Tub, Tub of Love, Chubby Tubby, Love in a Tub, these are just some of Liddy's nicknames since our Tummy Tub arrived. I have to thank my sister, Emily for it, she got it from a friend of hers in the Netherlands. It's looks like a bucket or flower pot your baby sits in and is submersed with water. It's suppose to recreate the womb effect. It retails for $50 in US, expensive for a womb recreation! But Emily's friend got it for $16 in Europe where they are very popular.

Showing off the Tummy Tub

It really is like a flower pot

Lydia loves it, I love that she doesn't get cold like in other baths, it's hard to tell but there is a lot of room in there, you can even fit another baby in there. She will actually fit it better when she is a little older, right now I have to hang on to her.

The girls can still take baths together since it doesn't take up a lot of space in the bath tub.

Even Super Heros get Booboos

Kate has discovered the joys of costumes, how with just a quick change of wardrobe and you become someone new. We got this superhero costume from a friend and Kate has had so much fun running around in it. At one point the cape came undone and she came to me telling me "to fix my superpowers" I didn't realize I was capable of fixing superpowers.

Our little superhero was walking up the walkway to the house which is made out of stones that sorta jets out and she tripped and fell. I saw this coming someday. We bought the house pre-kids and these stone steps although very beautiful were stitches waiting to happen to anyone under 40".

This wound landed the supergirl in the ER, how's this for a family picture.

Luckily she didn't have to have stitches since they don't do stitches on toddlers faces, (because you would have to knock them out to do it) instead they glued her wound together. It looks bad now but someday we shouldn't even be able to see that anything happened. Her "sidewalk trophy" (as a coworker calls them) won't even be noticeable. She insisted on needing a band aid on her booboo so we put it next to it and immediately she said "that makes me feel better" whoever invented the band aid was a genius on so many levels.



Pre-accident we had fun taking pictures before church of the girls. Actually this is Kates first time holding Lydia, it was my idea and it didn't last long before she was done holding her. I love Lydia's pouty lips in this picture clearly she is saying "mom I've had enough" but I just can't get enough of her. I just love these girls!


Isn't Lydia the cutest thing in this frilly little dress?


Another very pretty dress, this is probably one of my favorites

A VERY BUSY BEE

Thanks to hurricane Bill we were house bound on a Saturday. The rain made it a good excuse to catch up on some inside projects. While cleaning out the closests we came across a bee costume. It's a really cute costume that my neice Aidan wore a few years ago and passed along to us. As soon as Kate saw it she started taking off her PJ's to put it on. She called it a princess dress. It was so cute to see her get excited over this costume, it reminded me of myself when I was little. I loved dressing up in costumes. At one point she had to go to the bathroom which meant having to take the costume off and she just bursted in to tears not knowing what to do. I finally talked her into using the bathroom and we avoided an accident. Needless to say there was no talking her into taking it off to get the PJ's back on for bed time. The cutest things she did was chase mom and dad around saying buzzzzzzz. Guess what Kate is going to be for Halloweenm this year?

What's new with Lydia? She is inches away from fully rolling over from back to front. She prefers sleeping on her side so even when you lay her down she rolls on to her side pretty quick. She also takes her right hand and starts rubbing her fuzzy head, she usually takes her left hand and starts to eat it. I can't believe how grown up she is, already starting to develop these nasty little habits. It's cute though to see her personality unfold.

Tonight I had both girls in the bath tub, this is one of my favorite moments of the day with my girls. Lydia loves a bath so even if she is screaming she is immediately calmed by the bath. So tonight Lydia is in the tub watching her big sister, I always make a big deal of this to Kate so that Kate will realize how special it is to be a big sister. Well tonight Kate told me that she is going to "teach Lydia to soccer kick". I was surprised only because I've never even seen Kate do a soccer kick myself! Apparently I have a little Mia Hamm, maybe we'll sign her up for spring soccer.

Oh and as for rainy day food; Brock always laughs but when it rains I always request chinese take out.

Princess bumblebee

A very sleepy bee

A little bee bum

Fussy Shovel

When Lydia is fussy I call her a fussy bucket. Kate's name for her when she is being fussy is a fussy shovel. Sadly it took her a few times calling her that for me to get the association. I seriously was wondering why she was calling her a fussy shovel. Motherhood can do some serious damage to your brain. Kate is so cute with her sister, I've not seen any jealousy with her. In fact she tries to include her! For example when I tell Kate it's bath time she asks if "can Lydia take a bath with me!" She also shares her most prized possesion, her mama bear, with Lydia. It' s so cute to see the two girl together. Lydia loves watching her big sister. Lydia has been so entertained lately by watching anything or anybody as long as they are doing something. She must be a apart of whatever is going on. She is such a social butterfly. It's so cute to see her personality unfold.

I've had such a wonderful summer with my girls. I've really grown close to Kate and very attached to Lydia. Sadly this week I returned to work. I really miss my girls during the day and wonder what they are doing, if they are ok, if they miss me, if they are having fun. When I pick them up I always get a wonderful report and that Kate misses her dad....not me! What? Ok so maybe returning to work isn't as hard as I thought it would be on her. I hope to be home full time some day with my kids. Kate and her dad are buddies, in fact they go around calling each other big buddy and little buddy...Kate made that up. It's so cute to hear her say, "come on big buddy let's go water the garden"

Here are a few pictures of stuff we've been up to

This has filled our summer days with pure joy and bliss, it's a sand and water table. It's as messy as it sounds but Kate loves it. It occupies her for a long time so the mess has been worth it. I know some people fill it with small pebbles instead of water or sand, it doesn't really matter what you add kids love sensory exploration.

I love daddy daughter pictures, notice Lydia with her hands over her head, so cute. She also has been rubbing her fuzzy head lately and playing with her hands. I love watching her play with her hands I've got to get it on video. She is also starting to coo a lot the kind that almost sounds like a laugh.

I love her pouty lips! A lady a church commented that Lydia has the most perfect lips. I think so too

We went to a local amusement park, it was so fun to watch Kate have the time of her life, we love to spoil that kid, especially her dad

Lydia just chillen, the babies did great on our trip. She is napping here but don't be fooled she didn't nap long because that meant she was missing something...

We went with my sister and their two boys, one being the same age as Lydia and one a year younger then Kate. Kate was so cute that she insisted that her and Van ride this together, notice how all the other cars are empty, she also wanted the blue car


Again on the swings they had to sit next to each other. I love that Kate is surrounded by so many of her cousins. She told me the other day that "I'm a cousin" Cousins are a very important part of her life

What kinda parenting is this....Lydia was being a 'fussy shovel' so I set her outside which she loves, it quites her up immediately. Because I have a 100 things going on I just leave her out there and check on her every few minutes while I do my thing. She ended up falling asleep here but she was very content for a good 45 minutes before snoozing. She woke a few minutes later and I brought her back inside where she became a fussy shovel