Happy Birthday, Omi!!
We love you!
XOXO, Lydia and Molly

Just sharing because it's cute.... Who doesn't love a bath picture?

Yesterday Molly went to the Doctor for her 15 month check-up.  She received 2 shots (boo-hoo!) but otherwise it was a great check-up.  She has grown an inch and gained a pound since her last visit at 12 months old.  Her stats:  26.4 lbs (90th percentile), Height 32" (90th percentile) and her head is 18.5" (75th percentile).  And just under the wire, the day before her check-up with the Doc, she decided to finally give this a try:


That was later in the day, after a little bit of practice.  Over the last couple of days she has proven to be very steady.  Probably because she's been cruising around furniture since September!  She was more than ready to do this..she just needed to give it a try.  And she likes it.  She always looks so proud of herself when she walks. 
In other Molly news, she really loves shoes.  ("shuss" is one of her new words, actually.)  She generally likes to put them in her mouth, but she also likes to try to put them on, and always wants to wear some if Lydia is wearing hers.  This morning I caught her trying to put Lydia's flip flops on. 

It was "Kindness Week" at Lydia's school this week, and the school counselor dressed up like "Captain Kindness" every day, sharing various lessons about being kind with the kids.  Today the kids were invited to dress up as superheroes.  At the last minute (because I forgot about it), I came up with a costume for Lydia, consisting of rain boots, a blanket with safety pins and ribbon (for the cape), a belt and hat.  So here she is... Super Lydia! 

We've been home for 2 hours and she's still dressed up.  She doesn't want to be de-heroed just yet.

Yesterday we returned to the dentist to check up on her loose tooth.  The dentist doesn't see any need to pull it.  There hasn't been any bleeding or infection, and it doesn't bother her, so it might be healing back together at this point.  And if it doesn't (because it's still pretty loose), the dentist expects that it will simply fall out on its own.  So, we'll see.  We're so grateful it didn't become infected or need to be pulled. 

Last night Lydia's class performed at the PTA meeting.  I haven't sorted through those pictures and videos, yet, but I'll share them soon.

Molly has taken an interest in baby dolls! It's the cutest thing. Lydia models the "Mommy" thing for her quite a bit, but it's so fun to see Molly play pretend already! This afternoon, I "caught" her holding a baby doll and trying to put a blanket on it, all the while saying "baby! baby!" (sort of... her version of "baby" is only recognizable to me. To others, it's more like "dah-duh!") Then, she proceeded to feed a bottle to the baby. Totally unassisted - I didn't influence this at all, and Lydia wasn't even around! She did this for about 15 minutes. Molly is a little Mommy already. Awwwww.......

Here she's trying to put the baby into the carrier.

And feeding the baby.

I really should draft a post with updates on Molly's development. She's amazing. She copies everything, and talks a lot. I've lost track of how many words she has. And her personality is SO precious. She can also be really sensitive and will cry at the drop of a hat about little things. She has 2 levels: super joyful and super heart-broken!

Lydia had her 4 year well-visit at the Pediatrician this week, and we're so proud of how well she handled it. The 4 year check-up is notorious for being a tough one, because it's time to check just about everything, it involves vaccines, and they're at an age where they inexplicably have intuition that doctors and dentists are bad. But having said all of that, Lydia really did well. She had a few moments of panic, but overall cooperated well for all of the tests, and we lived through the shots and the blood work. Phew! We deserve stickers that say "I survived the 4 year-old check-up!" Unfortunately her legs were really sore that evening, and into the next day (they administer the vaccines in the thighs) and she didn't feel well the next day. But we're almost past it. Here are a couple of pictures of her band-aids. This was around the time her legs became sore and she was feeling sort of puny.

The next day she wasn't feeling so hot, and just wanted to watch videos in our bed. She fell asleep pretty quickly.

Lydia's birthday party last weekend sure was fun! Here are a couple of other birthday-related pics. We made birthday chocolate chip cookies together! They were yummy.

And last Friday night she got to go on another overnight to Denison, TX with Omi and Opa! And that means...she got to go swimming with Opa at the hotel! He bought her some water wings to try, and she loved them. She could practically swim on her own.

I've been meaning to tell you all that 2 weeks ago Lydia tripped and fell at home, and basically face-planted onto our tile floor. It was scary. Her entire mouth was bloody and it wouldn't stop, so initially it was difficult to identify where she was injured. To make a long story short, she knocked one of her front teeth loose. It was very loose, and very tender for several days. It would bleed at the drop of a hat, and it wasn't too pretty to look at! She also had a fat lower lip. She would smile at us, and it looked like someone has just punched her in the mouth. Poor little thing. The day following the injury, we took her to the dentist, and the x-rays showed that the tooth is fractured above the gum line. There is a chance that the tooth will fuse back into place, because she's little and that's what teeth do. Or, if the blood line and nerves were severed, the tooth will have to be pulled. They can't determine that from an x-ray, so the dentist decided to give it a couple of weeks to see if it begins to heal. Oliver and I have been praying that it will heal back together and that she won't have to go through the trauma of a tooth pull at such a young age. Thank goodness it's a baby tooth, but we would rather she not lose it sooner than is normal. So, tomorrow we return to the dentist for the 2 week follow-up visit, and I'm looking forward to the report. It definitely seems a lot better/tighter, but the tooth is still sitting lower than the ones beside it. The bleeding stopped several days ago, so it seems like it's healing. We'll let you know! In this picture below you can see the tooth a bit. It's the front tooth on your left.

So I guess that's all for now!

Today Lydia had a tennis party for her 4th birthday! Despite cloudy skies and strong wind, the weather held out, the temperature was good, and we had a great time!! Lydia had a lot of friends there. Her 4 cousins, a couple of school friends, a couple of friends from her Kindermusik class, and family friends as well.

She didn't play very much tennis today...but she had a blast running around with her friends and family.

A big thank you to Grammy, Poppy and Stefani for coming early to help decorate and set things up. Grammy's decorations and party favors were awesome. Thank you to Omi for the yummy pinwheel sandwiches. They were a big hit!

Aunt Kelly and Benny-Ben. (Benjamin just turned one and also started walking, so he's quite a super star himself these days!)

Gracie (4 1/2) Liam (5), and Lydia (4).


Opa was all dressed up for a meeting at work, but that didn't stop him from getting out there on the courts!

Lydia's friend Noah (from school) came too! She was happy.



Cousin Miles and Oliver.


My tennis ball cupcakes turned out a little pea-green instead of yellow-lime green...but I heard they tasted good, so it doesn't matter!
The cupcakes may have been Lydia's favorite thing about the party. She had TWO of them! She and Liam enjoyed their party snacks together on the bleachers.



V.I.P.s, Grammy and Omi hanging out taking turns caring for grandbabies.


"Fairy Godmother" Stefani, as we lovingly call her.


Uncle Mike, Miles and Warner.

Miles, looking very much like an athlete.


Molly had her own little picnic on the tennis court.


There were tennis balls and whiffle balls. Grammy painted the white whiffle balls so they would be more festive! How neat is that?


Cute little Juliette was full of joy and had a great time!


Miss Gracie practiced a lot at home before coming to Lydia's tennis party. And it paid off, because she hit the ball several times and had great form! (She has a lot to live up to because her Mommy was on the tennis team throughout middle school and high school.)


Lydia, showing off her pink racket to Poppy.



More friends having fun! George and his brother Charlie are friends from Kindermusik class.

And Oliver showing off his juggling skills for the kids. Liam, Erica (a sweet friend from school) and Lydia.

Video:

Happy 4th Birthday to my baby!!! Lydia, we love you SO much! You are such a blessing to our hearts, and we thank God for your life every day. He has BIG plans for your life, Lydia! The last year was filled with major milestones in your life, and we are so proud of you! Age four is going to be a lot of FUN, Lyds! We can't wait to watch you continue to learn and grow and play and love. You are such a special kid, and we are SOOOOOO HAPPY that we get to be your parents!!! XOXO!