Lydia hits the big 15-monther next week, if you can believe it. She's way past toddling now, she's practically running sometimes. She is going light-speed through time; I can't keep up mentally, physically, or with clothes that fit. Thank goodness for Grandma!
Over the past few weeks, Lydia is starting to find her voice can shape syllables, and syllables can maybe sometimes sorta refer to objects among us. When prompted, she can say "burr" (bird), "baaah" (ball), "fffff!" (off), and "daaah!" (anything positive, like 'on,' 'daddy,' or 'yay'). Now The Husband and I are REALLY having to watch our language. I completely failed at this during a round of Super Mario Bros 3 yesterday. I forget how frustrating that game is. Give me the Wii and multiple save points any day.
She is still my morning girl, always has been since she was a itty bitty thing. Once the sun is up she is ready to play and you're guaranteed giggles and some good pictures. As the evening wears on she is more apt to be ornery, especially if a nap was interrupted.
It's just nutty that a year ago Miss Lydia was three months old and we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of her cousin. Now we are just eagerly awaiting Miss Elizabeth's first birthday party. It shall be a wondrous hoot.
Earlier today Lydia reached out for my hand. I gave it to her and then she proceeded to lead me around the house. Having never done this before, she didn't seem to have an end goal in mind. I suppose she just felt ready to lead me around the same way I have led her from one room to the next. Someday Lydia will see how she has led me to so many places already.
Once when The Husband and I were just parents to two cats my mom told me when I had kids I was never going to take pictures of them because I would be too worn out from taking so many pictures of the kitties.
"Oh please," I replied back, "I'll take so many pictures of my kids you'll be able to make a flip book movie of their entire childhood."
I'm proud to say I was right. I have a camera in Lydia's face more often than I probably should. But seriously . . . how can I resist this?
A few weekends ago Lydia took the big plunge and started walking. We were at her Aunt Lisa's and Uncle Ken's house when she started to take off -- she was waiting for the right audience.
She's very proud of herself and is getting better every day. It took her a few days to master the art of changing direction while walking. Now she's working on walking fast, a.k.a. running.
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Last weekend we took our walking child with us down to Auburn to visit her cousin and they had a blast together. They slept in the same room with Elizabeth in her crib and Lydia in a borrowed pack-n-play (Whoops! The one thing we forgot to pack!) and when they would wake up in the mornings they gabbled to each other until one of them got hungry enough to make a ruckus.
Despite there being a hundred toys on the floor, one girl would inevitably want what the other girl had. There were many fracases over THINGS that the other one HAD that they WANTED and LIFE IS NOT FAIR.
After a short scuffle or parent intervention, they would work it out.
We had the girls pouffed up in dresses on Sunday so we couldn't resist a little on-campus photo shoot. In hindsight, we made the mistake of doing this right before lunch, so there were some rumbly tummies. Lydia, who isn't very demanding about food until she sees it, was perfectly willing to ham it up for the camera,
. . . but Elizabeth knows when lunchtime is, and that time was now, and that camera does NOT look like a grilled cheese sandwich. So she cursed us.
We hightailed it off to Niffer's where Elizabeth quickly downed some milk and a baby food appetizer. Lydia chowed down on some chicken, some of The Husband's french fries, and a bit of the pasta from my pasta bowl. Elizabeth enjoyed a lemon slice because she's odd like that.
All too soon, we had to head back home, but Lydia and Elizabeth will be able to play together again soon -- Aunt Cathy's and Uncle Jason's birthday is coming up!
Yesterday when I went to pick up Lydia from daycare I was told she got an Oops Note that day that I had to sign. At first I thought it meant she got a boo-boo, but no . . . she gave other kids boo-boos. An Oops Note is a note that the parent has to sign when your sweet innocent daughter has BEEN BAD and has been BITING THE OTHER CHILDREN. Lydia is turning into The Biter.
In Lydia's defense, she is teething again and these unbearable chompers are bugging the stew out of her. She has been biting the others for a few days, long enough for the other kids to figure out that when she comes for them, they shove her own arm into her mouth and she ends up biting herself. This daycare is full of brilliant one year olds!
I told Lydia if this doesn't let up they're going to hang a sign around her neck as a warning to others: Warning -- Biter.
On July 4th the three of us were heading down to The Husband's parents' house for a 4th of July shin-dig. We were ready for copious amounts of food, swimming, and fun. As I watched the trees fly past the window, I heard the tell-tale sound of a pacifier clinking down the side of a car-seat as Lydia threw it out.
"Uh-oh," I thought. I waited for the fussing to begin.
"Uh-oh," said Lydia.
I looked at The Husband, and he looked at me. "Did she just say, 'Uh-oh?'" I asked.
"I think so. Maybe," he replied.
"Lydia, did you say, 'Uh-oh?'" I asked her.
"Uh-oh," she said. She continued her 'Uh-oh's' for the rest of the trip. Of course, she didn't do it when we prompted her upon arrival to The Husband's Parents', and I wasn't even sure of 'Uh-oh' counted as a word. It's more like an extremely mild curse. I wouldn't play it on a Scrabble board, you know?
I must confess out of all the words we say repeatedly around her, I'm surprised she picked up 'Uh-oh' first. That's a VERY GOOD THING.
Throughout this past week she has continued with her Uh-ohing. She definitely connects it with dropping stuff. She will drop -- or deliberately throw -- her toys/food/things that aren't hers to the floor and say, "Uh-oh!" On the way home from daycare she works on perfecting it: "Ah-oh . . . Uh-uh . . . Uh-ohhhh . . . UH-OHHH . . ."
Everyone says it's definitely a word, so even though Hasbro wouldn't accept it, I will officially declare 'Uh-oh' Lydia's First Word (tm).
Yesterday, Lydia turned one year old. An entire twelve months has flashed on by.
This last month was a doozie.
At the very end of May we lost my mother relatively unexpectedly, and it seems with each passing day I have a greater need of her. Not two months ago I was discussing with her my vague plans for Lydia's birthday party, and now that party is just a few days away; I cannot fathom that she won't be at the very event we talked about just a few weeks previous. I remember her voice just a year ago when I called to tell her Lydia had arrived; half excited, half admonishing (for catching her by surprise) -- it seems unnatural for her not to call this year and send birthday wishes. It feels so unfair to me that Lydia will never know her Nana -- I knew my mother's mother, so why can't Lydia know hers?
Lydia, bless her soul, was a trooper during all the multi-day functions that a funeral brings. She spent the first night away from us, staying with her Grandma and Papa, and she was a sweetie for them. As long as she has her snuggle blankie, she's good for a sleep just about anywhere.
Table foods continued to become more interesting to Lydia. She quickly switched to eating straight table foods -- she was eager to try anything!
Pretty soon, she started having trouble with looser stools, then straight-up diarrhea -- as in straight up the back! It became a daily occurrence for me to pick her up from daycare and find her in a completely different outfit from what she had on that morning. Sometimes she went through two outfits a day. Daycare clothes became commonplace. The doctor said to feed her more starches (the BRAT diet) but, alas, nothing seemed to stop her up.
Then her feet started peeling. Not like sunburn peeling, we're talking huge thick chunks of skin off the bottoms of her toes and heels. Good Lord, my baby is falling apart! The doctor said to moisturize and wait since her checkup appointment was around the corner. And the diarrhea raged on.
In desperation, I switched Lydia's milk from regular cow's milk to soymilk. She liked it and, the next day, a poo came forth that stayed within its bounds! More tamer poos continued and so far things are looking better. Her peeling feet are calming down as well. The doctor is thinking she could have developed a temporary intolerance to the lactose because of a virus (Hand, Foot, and Mouth, anyone?). I'm thinking Lydia can now shed off the stigma of being The Diarrhea Kid at daycare.
Throughout the month of Skin Shedding and Poo, Lydia became very adept at Walking With Assistance (tm), a pastime that my back is not very fond of. If you hold her hands, she can walk all over the place, and Lydia always makes sure she gets her money's worth. I've had a constant backache since this new endeavor began. Now I see why all new parents get so damn excited when their kid starts to walk -- their backs can now begin to recuperate.
In the teeth department, Lydia is now up to four -- her second top tooth finally decided to join the party. Most of the month she was an Itty Bitty Snaggletooth Girlie.
The night before Lydia's birthday, she had another first -- barfing. Technically, she's accidentally gagged herself and thrown up before when she was leaning to eat table foods but hadn't gotten down the chewing part yet, but that was nothing compared to this.
She had already gone down for the night but was fussing, but when I went in her room to give Lydia her pacifier, something didn't smell too good. When I turned on the light I saw she had barfed all in her crib. A mountain of grossness. The Husband and I got her out, cleaned her and the crib up, new pajamas and new sheets and back to bed. She pretty much slept through the whole thing.
Twenty minutes later The Husband hears her on the baby monitor and says, "She threw up again." We went back in there and sure enough there was more barf all in her crib and on her. This time she was wide awake and upset. We had not dealt with this before and I wasn't sure what was wrong. I just wanted to talk to my mother so bad. After we got Lydia cleaned up this time she was still wide awake and just wanted to be held -- I was happy to oblige with some snuggling.
Thankfully, she didn't throw up again and she was a most happy girlie for her first birthday. Something just got her tummy upset. Amazingly, we were also able to clean up and salvage her musical crib bear. It will live to play another day.
I didn't trust myself to take Lydia's one year portrait, so I got a real photographer for Lydia to ham up to. We actually did the photo shoot last Saturday and the pics are totally awesome. So here you go.
I know this is the longest monthly post ever, but I told you this past month was a doozie.
