Sunday, May 10, 2015

Happy 3 years, Josiah!

Something about Josiah turning three sure makes me feel old. And makes me feel like my kids are growing up. Alas, watching them turn into little people has been a blessing and tons of fun. This little boy loves to laugh and loves to make people laugh, especially Lydia. He is also focused and furrows his brow when he is devoted to a project. I savor these days immensely and look forward to how the Lord might use these gifts and this personality he is developing!

Weight: 39 lbs (96%)
Height: 40 in (95%)
Diaper: size 5 and potty trained (should be a 6, but I'm cheap :))
Clothing: 3T/4T, shoe size 9.5

Likes: digging in the dirt, playing in the sand, climbing at the playground, cars, "monies", singing, making "crafts" (if it involves any combo of glue, stickers, scissors, or tape, it becomes a craft), frolicking with friends, family games

Dislikes: being out too many mornings in a row, going to sleep at bedtime, having his hair washed

Schedule: Josiah comes down with Sarah around 7:15am most mornings. He naps at 1pm most days, but I think we are seeing the very beginning of the inevitable end to nap time. When he doesn't nap, he isn't as content as Sarah to just play in his room, but I think that is because he feels like he is missing out. Once it is a little less regular I will talk to him about intentionally reading and playing, but right now I want him to be intentional about sleeping! A perk to not napping will be an easier time falling asleep at night. He and Sarah go to bed around 7pm and he has gotten in the habit of getting out of bed and playing if he doesn't fall to sleep right away. We are working to nip this habit!

Eating: He is a great eater and drinks way more water than Sarah does. Favorites are green peppers, mashed potatoes, PB&J, grapes, and string cheese. Really any fruit or cheese would make a list of favorites :) Like anyone in our family, he loves a treat!

Communication: He hasn't had a breakthrough phase in his speech lately, but he does very well. Josiah still has some swapped up sentence structure that we can't convince him to straighten out (but it is super cute and so genuine). He loves to sing and his favorite bedtime song since the Easter season is Christ is Risen by Matt Maher.

Potty Training: Josiah does really well and is very self sufficient. I still put a diaper on him at nap and bed time, but no longer when we are in the car or nursery. With all the water he drinks I suspect this may continue for a while!

Next appointment: May 10, 2016 at 9:30am

I told him Blue Dog had to stay on the stairs. He could work with that :) 

Puppets at the library

We are beginning to get glimpses of the special relationship Josiah and Lydia will have as peers. He is so good to her. While the rest of us parent her, Josiah is the one who plays with her (and occasionally is baffled by her) like a sibling.

He was at a really fun age for Christmas traditions this year

We made LOTS of pretzel rolo pecan bites and Josiah was all business when it came to helping unwrap the candy. I think they are unwrapping kisses in this picture, probably for peanut butter kiss cookies.

We visited Gillette stadium and the pro shop. Only in New England do you find (or need!) a football helmet toboggan :)

The train table at Barnes and Noble is probably Josiah's favorite adventure out and about.


He has gotten very into family games. Doesn't always have the attention span to finish them, but Jenga is usually pretty quick (though longer than you might expect!).

Helping mommy cook, aka playing with the magnets



He isn't going to miss a thing, especially if Dad is involved!

Backyard snow play

He asked me to take this picture when he finished the puzzle :)



We are trying at home haircuts for a while. This was the product of the first attempt!


Playing in the snow with the baby bath tub :) After so many blizzards one has to get a little creative!

While Dad was away he helped me make monkey bread. Yum!

Our slide on the side of the driveway. See the video at the end!

How thankful I am that they have one another.

We went to see the ice at Wellfleet down the Cape.

I was pretty positive he was going to fall in  :)

Practicing for Palm Sunday. He didn't end up singing, but he loved learning the songs.

When you wear a measuring tape around your neck you get to be a doctor

Palm Sunday practice with the big kids :)

Celebrating Dad and kicking off the birthday season


He helped me plant Easter flowers one evening right after the snow melted and I let him stay out and play in the garden dirt until bed time. He was enthralled!

He asked me to take this picture of the cross that he made :)

Sharing their sucker

Looking for herring

Water beads!



He was sliding down the bank on his backside, so I was quite surprised to watch him go head first through the camera as I videoed him. It had us both tickled!



Saturday, May 9, 2015

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.




Tuesday, April 14, 2015

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.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

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.