Category Archives: Lydia Grace

Potpourri

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Sunday is my “reflect back on the past week/mentally prepare for the week ahead” day.  This normally creates something of a potpourri effect in my brain on Sunday evening since I have so many different subjects rattling around in my head.  Here’s a bit of tonight’s jumble:

Some friends from church gave us a crib that they were no longer using.  This is definitely a good thing since I think we’ll need to transition Lydia from the bassinet to a crib fairly soon and I wasn’t feeling like Alethea was really ready to be loose in her room all night long.  However, when Alethea went to bed tonight she was accompanied by five puppies, two baby dolls, a kangaroo, three nuks, a pillow, two blankets and a wet wipe.  We might have to get her a big girl bed just to accommodate her growing collection of bedfellows.

Alethea likes to climb on her crib, but fortunately she hasn't learned how to climb out of it

Alethea likes to climb on her crib, but fortunately she hasn't learned how to climb out of it

Looking ahead over my calendar is a little daunting right now.  The next five weeks hold Easter, my sister’s birthday, Alethea’s birthday, Peter’s birthday, a trip to Philly for a wedding, Mother’s Day, my studio piano recital, a bridal shower and a smattering of church related meetings/events.  At the moment I am not feeling confident in my ability to accomplish everything that needs to happen for all of these events.  I should probably start a to-do list this week and begin getting stuff done.

Tonight I put Lydia down next to the window in Alethea’s room with the thought that Lydia might enjoy looking at the pretty colors of the beaded curtain.  I suppose it may cost me my mother of the year award when I admit that despite the fact that the curtain is both a choking and strangulation hazard (and came with a warning label saying it was for ages 13 and up), I was extremely pleased when Lydia kept reaching out for the ribbons, grabbing them in her chubby little fist and waving them around.  It’s so exciting to see her start to gain control of her hands and arms and you could tell she was having a blast exercising her new found skills.

Lydia and Mommy - A self portrait

I sure hope we have nice weather this week.  My neighbor and I have decided to start walking together because I need to lose a couple more pounds of baby weight and she is training for a breast cancer three-day walk.  It’s great to have someone to walk with because I have such a hard time getting my rear in gear when it comes to exercising on a regular basis and also because we don’t have a double stroller yet, so I can’t take the girls with me when I walk by myself.  (If anyone has a double stroller recommendation, please let me know!)

There’s a whole lot of other stuff in my brain right now, but none of it seems blog worthy, so I’ll end my post here.  Happy Sunday night!

Lydia’s Three Month Update

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Tuesday was Lydia’s three month birthday.  Happy birthday, Darling Girl!

This past month will go down in history as the month that Lydia woke up, because not only is she physically awake more than 4 hours a day, she is also so much more alert and interested in what is going on around her.  She loves to watch the world passing by, whatever that happens to be.  Don’t you dare put her looking over your shoulder to face the back of the chair or a wall unless you want her to tell you with a squawk that the view isn’t suiting her.  But put her in your lap or her bouncy seat and she’ll sit content to watch the whirlwind that is her sister tearing by at periodic intervals.

Speaking of her sister, Lydia thinks Alethea is the best.  Whenever Alethea stops by to talk to Lydia or show her a toy, Alethea is sure to receive many large smiles for her efforts.  Lydia also loves Daddy and is in general pleased with anyone who takes the time to talk to her.  However, her favorite person in the world is Mommy.  When Lydia is in a truly bad mood (which, granted, doesn’t happen all that often) she just wants her Mama.  She doesn’t want Daddy, or a nuk, or a bottle, or to go to bed or to look at toys, she wants Mom and she wants her now.  I find this both flattering and frustrating.  So nice to be needed, but I am worried this will lead to separation anxiety later on.

Lydia’s accomplishments this month include cooing at Mom and Dad (she seems to really think she’s having a conversation, so cute!), laughing when tickled, admiring herself in the mirror and holding her head up fairly well when on her stomach.  Oh, and I forgot, she apparently also learned to read…

There aren’t many things she dislikes, but saline drops in her nose, not being able to see what’s going on and “tummy time” are all sure ways to make her fuss.  Also giving her a nuk when she wants to nurse isn’t a good plan.  She’ll give you a look so indignant you’ll be positive it couldn’t be coming from a 3 month old, then she’ll spit the nuk out and holler at you.

Things she likes include eating, people smiling and talking to her, the globe mobile over her crib, sucking on her fist, and mirrors.  She also continues to enjoy sleeping and generally does a 5 to 6 hour stretch without eating during the night and takes two long naps during the day.

It’s hard to believe Lydia is already a quarter of a year old, but we are so enjoying watching her personality emerge and are looking forward to her next quarter year which we plan to spend playing in the yard and exploring the great outdoors.

Getting Dressed

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This morning I opened Alethea’s closet and asked her what she wanted to wear.  She said, “Poky-Dots!”  After examining her wardrobe we come up with a handful of polka dot options and she selected the green long-sleeved tee shirt (she must be looking forward to St. Patty’s Day).

Then we went to pick out something for Lydia to wear.  Right at the top of her drawer was a blue and brown polka dot sleeper.  I asked Alethea if Lydia should wear polka dots too.  She replied, “Poky-dots. Both. Match!”

I was fairly impressed by this since the concept of matching isn’t really something we’ve worked on with Alethea.

But maybe I should dress them alike more often because for one thing they looked really cute together…

And for another, I’m sure they will all too quickly reach the point where it’s not cool to be wearing matching outfits.  So sad…

Bathtime Smiles

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Lydia smiles a lot in the bathtub because she enjoys being splashed with warm water and she adores having her hair washed:

I smile after her bath is over because she looks so Biblical in her striped hooded towel:

Lydia’s Two Month Update

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Saturday was Lydia’s two month birthday.  Happy birthday, Baby Girl!

We went to the doctor yesterday morning and Lydia’s current stats are: height – 22.5 inches, weight – 13 lbs 15 oz, head circumference – 41 cm.  That puts her in the 57th percentile for height, the 98th for weight and the 92nd for head circumference.  She’s an adorably chubby baby!

Besides gaining several pounds, Lydia’s other achievements over this past month include learning to hold her head up and look around, getting her hand into her mouth whenever she’s not swaddled, and smiling at Mommy and Daddy, Alethea, the globes over her crib, and at nothing in particular.  Most of the time she’s a sweet, happy, easy baby.

Our biggest struggle this month has been bed time.  Lydia will go to sleep easily, on her own, for 90% of her daytime naps, but 6:00pm rolls around and suddenly we have a cranky baby who wants to be held constantly and won’t go to sleep.  If we’re lucky, we’ll get her to sleep in her bed by 8:00 or 9:00pm.  If it’s a particularly bad night, one of us will still be holding a wide awake baby when her late night feeding comes around at 10:30.  We’re a little mystified by this, but hope she’ll outgrow it soon.

Although we have a hard time getting her to sleep at bedtime, once she’s out after her late night feeding, she’s usually sound asleep until she wants to eat again at 4-5am.  A few times she’s made it until 6 or 7am and one night (after a particularly busy day when she didn’t get all her naps in) she actually slept until 9am, at which point I decided to go in and wake her up to feed her since she had been asleep for almost 10 hours!  Yay for a baby who sleeps at night!

Although Lydia still sleeps an average of 18 hours a day, she has increased her morning awake time to around 1 hour, which gives us more time to play after her feeding.  We enjoy talking together (she’s starting to coo back), smiling at each other, and occasionally I can even coax a little chuckle out of her.  She hasn’t full out laughed yet, but those little throaty noises are just as fun and always make my day so much brighter.

Lydia’s current favorite things include: eating, watching the globe mobile over her bed, being swaddled, looking at faces and staring at the ceiling fan in her room, which is what she is doing in the photo above.  (For a picture of big sister Alethea staring at the same ceiling fan at about the same age, click here.)

Although they are predicting another 3 to 5 inches snow tonight, we are holding fast to our hope that with a baby who eats and sleeps well, a summer full of delights is right around the corner.

February Photos

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Yesterday when I was writing Alethea’s update, I realized that I didn’t get the camera out nearly often enough this past month, so I pulled it out and snapped a few more photos for my ‘February 2011’ file.

Alethea still won’t hold still for the camera, but at least she smiled:

She still won't hold still for the camera, but at least she smiled

Lydia smiles a lot now when she’s awake:

Daddy and Alethea did ‘cheers!’ and as you can see, it was really cute.  Unfortunately the camera didn’t flash, so it’s also a bit grainy:

Microfiber couch + dry winter air = static electricity in the hair:

It must be nice to be a baby.  It’s the only time in your life when you can have milk crusted to your face and still look completely adorable:

That’s it for this month.  Maybe in March we’ll get some outdoor photos without snow in them… winter can’t last forever!

This and That

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Lydia has slept from 11pm ’til 4am the past two nights.  I’m hoping it is her new schedule.  I could do without the 2am feeding if she’s up for it, but I’m trying to keep my expectations in check.  Still, I think Alethea was about six months old before she slept for 5 hours two nights in a row, so we’re way ahead of the curve.

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Alethea said her first four word sentence today.  I got her out of the crib in the morning and told her, “Let’s go wake up Lydia.  She needs to eat.”  So Alethea ran right to Lydia’s door, pushed it open and called out, “Wake up, baby Eee-ya!”

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Sometimes it’s hard to keep the attention of my young male piano students.  I think I might have stumbled on a new strategy though.  Last night I instructed one boy to cut his fingernails right away when he got home so he could have better hand position while he practices this week.

“Do you think you can do that?” I asked.

“I’ll try,” he responded weakly.

In a moment of brilliance, I quoted, “Do or do not.  There is no try.”

He stopped fidgeting on the bench and looked right at me.  “Hey, didn’t Yoda say that?”

After that I managed to get a promise from him that he would cut his nails.  I wonder what other Star Wars quotes I could apply to piano teaching… Hmmm…

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I know you’ll all think I’m crazy, but I’m pretty sure Lydia is getting a tooth.  Yes, she’s only a month old and it’s not even one of the front ones, but I’m almost positive there is a corner of a tooth poking through her gums on the lower left side.  Is there anything else that could make a small white dot in her mouth?

Lydia’s One Month Update

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Saturday was Lydia’s one month birthday!  Happy birthday, Baby Girl!

This past month has had some ups and downs, but overall I am amazed at how quickly and easily Lydia has fallen into a schedule of eating and sleeping.  Generally our days involve eating every three hours with about ten minutes of awake time following the feed and then Lydia goes back to sleep until her next feeding a couple hours later.  Of course, we’ve had bad days where the naps were a lot shorter, or didn’t happen at all, but mostly we’re able to keep the routine going.

Nights are also pretty routine with feedings at 2 and 5 a.m. most nights.  I do keep hoping Lydia will spontaneously decide to drop the 2 a.m. nursing session, but at least most nights she goes right back to sleep after eating, so I’m not complaining.

Because Lydia sleeps so much, we haven’t had a lot of time for developmental milestones.  We have noticed that her neck seems to be getting stronger (she can actually hold her head up briefly) and she doesn’t go cross-eyed as often as she used to.  She has also smiled at me a handful of times, but it doesn’t happen often enough for me to be certain that she’s doing it on purpose.

We have had some bad days this month that involved projectile spit-up or horrible gas, but I am slowly figuring out which foods I eat cause Lydia to have a bad reaction and am eliminating them from my diet.  So far at least it doesn’t appear that dairy is a major concern, so (Hallelujah!) I don’t think I have to give up all things milk like I did with Alethea.

So to sum up, Lydia’s first month involved a lot of sleeping, eating and pooping, as well as some moments of fussiness when spit-up and gas were involved.  However, she really is a super sweet little girl and we’re so pleased that she’s a part of our family!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

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Tonight I got out the camera to take a few pictures.  First order of business, get a shot of the girls together.  I got two photos.

Number one:

Number two:

While it would have been nice to get a sweet photo of them all happy and snuggled together on the couch, I’m actually a big fan of shot number two… it makes me laugh.  It looks like someone is threatening to throw things at them or something, doesn’t it?

I did get a super sweet three-weeks picture of Lydia:

While it’s hard to get Alethea to hold still for a posed picture, I do occasionally get a good candid shot, like this one of her doing a puzzle:

But my favorite photo of the evening, has to be this one:

Isn’t she the sweetest?!?!