Dave is 33!

We had a great day celebrating Dave's birth!

I'll let the pictures tell the story :)

Threes for Daddy!

We took Dave to Seafood Sams for dinner and celebrated with a lobster roll and lots of threes!

birthday kiss from Sarah

birthday kiss from Siah

giggles because even after many attempts they couldn't seem to kiss at the same time

which led to lots more kisses

Next year, Lydia! Here's to another great year with the love of our lives and rock of our family!

Dave ended the week by picking out a speaker and a project guitar.

Lydia surprises us again!

I love the ways Lydia surprises us! This afternoon she totally took me by surprise when she sat up on her own and I'm glad I had the phone/camera nearby.

I think I expected by Baby #3 to have it all down pat and I do think I am more relaxed. But what an unexpected joy it is to still really celebrate every "first" along the way! (Especially when she does things differently than the bigs!) And I never expected the joy of experiencing these milestones alongside Sarah and Josiah. They still cheer for Lydia when she rolls over! We pray they will be her, and each others, biggest cheerleaders throughout their lives.

These are the moves she had been using. She would push herself around to sitting on her bottom, but never picked both hands up. She would also rock on her knees and pike. Lydia's abs are pretty much ready for the next summer Olympics :)

And then, much to my surprise, this afternoon she just sat right up. I can remember Sarah knocking her head on the hard floor during this stage and with both big kids the wobbly time was a stage. Not with Lydia, it seems! I'll let the pictures show the progress.

It is such an amazing blessing to watch her grow! 

We are so thankful for the gift of each moment and milestone.

Happy 7 months, Lydia!

This has been a big month for the Lydster. We have cut a tooth (3/20), started waving, scoot to the point it could be called a crawl, can sit up on her own for a short spell, moved to a convertible car seat, and consistently eat solids. Big month indeed!

Weight: home scale says about 24 lbs

Diapers: size 4 and cloth
Clothing: 12, 18, and 24 month (depending on where it needs to fit!)

Likes: splashing, kisses, holding your face, laughing with the big kids, eating, grasping something she's been working hard to get to, sucking her thumb, being tickled under her arms, sitting at the table with the family (in the booster seat)
Dislikes: long morning naps

Schedule: Teething (and life) mean that flexibility is key! I thought we would be routinely to four feedings and two naps at this point, but we are not. We are happy though :)

7:00am Awake for the day!   Nurse
8:30-11am   Nap
11am   Nurse
1:00-3pm   Nap
3pm   Nurse
5:30-7pm   Nap
7pm   Nurse and solids
7:30 or 8pm   Back down for bed
9:30 or 10pm   Dream feed and down for the night!

Sleep: We dropped the dream feed for about a week. After the blissful week she started waking up during the night for a bonus feeding. Since I would rather feed her before bed than during the night, we added the dream feed back to the mix! Lydia is out of her infant car seat, so falling asleep on the go is somewhat less beneficial since we can't move her in the car seat.

Physically: Lydia has started as an army crawler. She is very intent on her goal and pulling herself around is a means to an end. A phone is one of her favorite objects to pull herself across a room to grab, but she has other favorites like trash cans and cabinet knobs. She can push herself into a sitting position with just her fingertips on the ground. One day soon she is going to have the strength to pop right on up! We realized about a week ago that we almost never give her opportunity to sit up on her own and were amazed how well she did when we gave it a go. She has learned to cluck with her tongue and sometimes waves! It is confirmed that we have another brown eyed beauty.

Food: We introduce rice and oat cereal to Lydia earlier this month and she was a huge fan. She eats really well from the spoon and starts sucking her thumb when she gets tired/full. More recently we introduced sweet potatoes and butternut squash and she was very impressed. She still nurses well and has plenty of meat on her bones.

Next appointment: Monday, June 8 at 8:30 am

A favorite photo from our trip to see the ice chunks. 

Bad photo. Good memory.
When we have Lydia with us at bedtime the kids love to read our story like this.

Trying cereal for the first time. A drastic improvement over peas, in Lydia's opinion.

"They came to get me!!!"

Enjoying our friend who came over to play.

First time sitting up in the cart! It was an extra fun treat on an already exciting Target run.

Sarah and I helped Lydia have a bow fashion show from our Target bounty.

He is a keeper :)

Just scooting and crawling and sitting and growing up.

Happy 6 months, Lydia!

Six months! It has been six months since Lydia was born! Half a year since I had a bit of back pain and sent Dave off to work. Half a year since we saw our baby girl on the ultrasound monitor sucking her knuckles. She has blossomed from our infant to our baby and we are enjoying every moment as she continues to grow from our baby into our little girl. But we're not ready for her to be a little girl just yet :) We still need our baby snuggles for the moment!

Weight: 21 lbs 9.5 oz (99%)
Height: 27.75 in (98%)
Head: 17 in (77%)

Diapers: size 4 and cloth
Clothing: 12 and 18 month (torso length is the issue)

Likes: blowing bubbles, jumping in the jumper, splashing in the bath, holding and chewing toys
Dislikes: Dave putting her to bed

Schedule: We continue to fluctuate between a 3 or 4 hour schedule throughout our day. I would say we most often end up with the 4 hour schedule, so that is what I'll share below. We have held onto each of her naps and the dream feed this month, but I predict they will both go in the next month or two.

7:00am Awake for the day!   Nurse
8:30-11am   Nap
11am   Nurse
1:00-3pm   Nap
3pm   Nurse
5:30-7pm   Nap
7pm   Nurse
7:30 or 8pm   Back down for bed
9:30 or 10pm   Dream feed and down for the night!

Sleep: Lydia continues to consistently sleep through the night- praise the Lord! We are all better for it. She often sleeps on her tummy now. We still put her down on her back, but she loves to flip. She also still loves both her thumb and paci. When we are out and about she doesn't nap so much anymore, but tends to make up for it when we get back to the comfort of home.

Physically: Lydia is all over any room she is in these days. Her method is a slow and steady combo of backwards crawling, rocking on her knees, rolling, and spinning. She has loved being in her jumper and has started sitting up when supported. Her hands seem to always be on the move and are ready to grab anything within reach and then put it in her mouth. Her mouth is not only chewing, but also making lots of sweet sounds. She loves to talk back to Sarah and Josiah now and especially enjoys using her voice when she is chewing on a toy.

Food: We gave Lydia her first bite of solids a couple of weeks ago and she was not a fan. To be fair, the introduction was somewhat ill timed, as her favorite trick at the time was buzzing her lips. So anytime the spoon went in she started buzzing and out went the peas. We look forward to trying again soon, maybe with the more traditional rice cereal this time :)

Next appointment: Monday, June 8 at 8:30 am

What's that noise?

Oh, just Lydia chewing on her seat.

She could write a novel with her eyebrows.

Sweet boy :)

It's jumper time!

I may not trust the camera, but I do love Daddy :)

Cheesy gals :) 

More peas?

No thank you!