nine month taco

Wow, this past month has been a busy one for Miss Lydia! This is the month she became mobile and the entire family's lives have changed, including the cats'.

A few days into her ninth month we were playing on the floor when Lydia decided she'd really like to be closer to Hermione so she made an attempt. Success! The Husband, myself, and Lydia were pleased. The cats seemed worried.



And thus began my obsession with floor cleanliness. This can sometimes be difficult with the cats' penchant for barfing in hard-to-clean areas but I have been keeping up with it. It is either that or let Lydia find an errant cat claw to test for chewiness. Note to Lydia: NOT CHEWY.

A few days after the Wonderful World of Crawling opened up, we woke up one morning to find out that sometimes snow in the forecast does indeed mean snow on the ground. We had a beautiful Snowy Sunday and Mommy got a ton of pics.







Exactly a week after our Snowy Sunday it was a balmy 80 degrees when we headed to the Zoo with our friends to see all the animals. Lydia enjoyed being outside and watching all the people around her. One of the flamingos honked at her and she thought that was rather rude.



As Lydia crawled around and became more exploratory we began to realize that soft toys that just sit there don't seem to keep her interest as they once did. Now she wants her toys to DO something. One night The Husband pulled out a loud, obnoxious toy she got for Christmas -- her Aunt and Uncle picked it out because of said loudness -- and she was in heaven. We only finally stopped playing that night because she was about to fall flat asleep, much to her irritation.



It still was a sickly month -- there were two (I think) ear infections but now that it's warming up hopefully we'll all be healthier. Poor Lydia got so used to the antibiotic syringe she would just lay back and take her medicine, swallowing it back with a sour face. We are now antibiotic-free for a full five days and counting, and that can put a smile on anyone's face.



A wiggling, scooting Lydia has been the biggest, most sudden change in the household since the girlie actually arrived and we've all had to make adjustments. I actually clean the floor, The Husband is inventive with new things to amuse her plus ways to keep her away from ALL THE CORDS, Renton has had to widen his clearance pattern, and Hermione is getting used to letting herself be caught and/or poked in the eye. And just wait 'till she gets fast!

She is a girlie on the go. Below is the fruit of a lot of labor, so I hope you really really really like this picture.

I think that taco's so old it could get up and crawl away

eight month taco

Lydia turned eight months old last Monday. Now it's March, and you only have to say April, May, JUNE!!! and we've got a birthday comin'. Goodness.

For me, this past month has been a whirlwind. Everybody has just been so sick, including me. There was some serious downtime for each member of the family. Even Miss Lydia had to fight off both an ear infection and two crazy parents trying to stuff medicine down her throat. She's very good at the latter.

We changed her morning breakfast from bottle only to a mix of oatmeal and applesauce with a bit of milk to wash it all down afterwards. The first couple of days she looked at me like I was nuts but on the third day she was scarfing the oatmeal like a ravenous baby bird, though she still gets quite excited when the milk is offered up at the end. It's like a dessert. Bonus if she scores the spoon to play with once she's full.



Though not crawling yet, Lydia figured out her own way to be mobile: roll. Once she realized rolling actually got you somewhere new, rolling around seemed 'worth it.' The trick was to position herself in such a way so she would roll to what she wanted. This takes some strategy. It's like the knight piece in the game of chess.



Speaking of rolls, Lord, does this girl have 'em. All along her arms and especially her legs she is rolled like the Michelin man. Sometimes when she's chillin' with her toys on the floor I'll just massage those legs. She has such great skin. For a while I was wondering what the feeling of her skin reminded me of and one day it hit me -- warm pizza dough. Not that mix stuff; the handmade kind of dough that you lay to rise on the counter. There's a taughtness to it right before you roll or throw it out into a flat pizza shape. Wonderful.



Lydia finally had two new buddies show up in her life -- her bottom teeth. They peeked through the last week of January. At first she wasn't sure what to make of them. She would constantly push at them with her tongue as if to get them out of her way. She's used to them now and enjoys gnawing on hard stuff to see what damage she can do. The chair I'm sitting in now has little teeth scrape marks on one of the legs.



It was a very vocal month for Miss Lydia. She started off with the 'daa' sound and she was a big fan of that for quite some time. So was The Husband. After a few weeks she found 'baa' and 'maa' on the same day and from there she started mixing and matching like a mad chemist. Listening to her gabble in the car is much better than any radio station out there. Some of the best noises, though, are unintentional. For example, she can be a great snorer.



Now it's March, Spring's around the corner (though you wouldn't know it by looking out the window today), and hopefully some warmer weather will come in to dry out all this sickness that everyone's getting. I know Lydia's tired of wrestling with her crazy parents and their icky medicine syringes.

the taco's first snow

(eight month report coming soon; she's been a sick girlie)