This morning in the car on the way to Grammy's house, I was singing the "ABC" song to Lydia. She liked it! (It's not the traditional alphabet song, but rather this sort of rocked-out version that Sesame Street does.) I sing to her in the car a lot - especially if we're in traffic and she's starting to "get all niggily" (as her Omi says). It distracts her and she laughs at me. Anything from "I've got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart" to "This is the day the Lord has made" and of course we sing our traditional ABC's and the song about Noah and the "arky arky". And sometimes I make up songs. But that's just between me and Lydia - no one else gets to hear those!

Thanks to her Daddy, Lydia has new shelves on her wall! They are so pretty and she loves them. Someone suggested that I post a few pictures of her room, because evidently I never have shown it in its entirely. And everyone loves a baby room, right? The theme is just spring. I wanted her room to be happy and sweet and something she could think was pretty too (unlike something really lacey and un-kid-like. So we have pretty flowers, little birdies and lots of happiness! At this point, none of her toys are really in here. They're all over the rest of the house! Maybe one day there will be a Barbie dream house or a play kitchen in here, but we're not quite there yet!

Well, everyone knows I love fall. I know I should be grateful we have this amazing 70 degree weather in November, but I do wish it was a little cooler and crisper outside for the season. On the other hand, Lydia has been able to spend a lot of time outside, which she loves! We have been to the park more and taken many walks outside together. She's so happy outside, and pretty disappointed when we go back inside!

She has been over her cold and her ear infection for about a week now. Yea!This wekend we had family in from out of town, and we also got to see Lydia's cousin Warner again! I'll post pictures of the festivities soon. Right now it's time to go put Lydia down for "night night". Tomorrow Daddy is working from home and keeping Lydia all day, so wish him luck! He never complains - he's a good Daddy and loves to be home with her when he can be.

Hello everyone! All's well, we just haven't been diligent to take a lot of pictures lately. Brief reports on Lydia: She's trying to get over a cold she's had off and on for 3 weeks! We went to an ENT doctor last week for her hearing screening and discovered she has an ear infection. Such a shame. We're grateful she hasn't exhibited a lot of pain. She's been congested, though, and probably a little uncomfortable in her head. She is of course on antibiotics for the ear infection and will be over it soon. For the most part she has been her usual happy self through it all. As for the hearing test, we are scheduled to go back in a few weeks for a re-do. It wasn't possible to accurately assess her hearing while she has cold symptoms and fluid in her ears.
In other Lydia news, we realized yesterday that she definitely has 2 more teeth breaking through on top, to the left and right of her front 4 teeth (would those be bicuspids or incisors? I don't remember what they're all called, nor do I remember how to spell their names.) These will give her a grand total of 14 teeth - my goodness!
This weekend Lydia's Daddy began to measure for and hang her new wall shelves for her room! One down, one to go (hopefully tomorrow). They are so pretty and Lydia and I can't wait to place pretty things onto them!
Also this weekend, Oliver was making our bed and discovered a new game which Lydia loved! Throw the pillows all around her! There's a video below. Note he actually hit her with the first one - whoops. She didn't seem to mind. More to come soon...promise.

This afternoon, we went to watch Daddy play flag football again! We watched all of the first game, which was enough to see him catch 2 long passes! Go Daddy! Lydia enjoyed walking up and down the sideline. Up, and back...Up, and back... She also enjoyed looking at the tiny little daisies in the grass! Another family had a great 2-seater folding chair, which Lydia reeeaaally wanted to try out for size. They were sweet and welcomed her to do that! So, I sat her down and she happily swung her legs for a few moments before her short attention span kicked in and she decided it was time to go walk back and forth some more.

Here is one of Daddy's catches on video! The videos on here are usually a little bit distorted and they're small, but hopefully you'll see him in the bottom left-hand corner! Lydia was trying to run away from me, so I wasn't even looking at the camera - just holding it out in front of me with one hand in case it was a good play, and trying to grab Lydia's hand with the other. We got lucky catching this! I was not successful in catching Lydia, however, so I had to very quickly end the shot.

This afternoon we went to the pumpkin patch up the street at Grace Avenue Methodist Church in Frisco. They do a great job every year. Hay rides, a hay maze, a pumpkin launch, bounce houses, and TONS of fun pumpkins of all sizes! Daddy, Mommy, Lydia, Omi, Grammy, Poppy, Aunt Kelly and cousin Liam came too! Lydia is so blessed to have her family nearby. She really enjoyed walking ever-so-independently through the hay, checking out all of the pumpkins. We bought 3 small pumpkins (Daddy-pumpkin, Mommy-pumpkin and Lydia-pumpkin) for the front of the house.

At this age it is NOT easy to get perfect smiles on camera. Really parents should just forget portrait-style pictures altogether until the kids are older and just count on candid shots to truly capture the cute moments. Still, we had to try...

This morning Oliver, Lydia and I participated in the Komen Dallas Race for the Cure to support their vision of a world without breast cancer! The weather was perfect. (Amazing after a month of rain, huh?) Lydia was a trooper and we had a good time. THANK YOU to my wonderful family for their donations and support! Aunt Karen and Uncle Pete, Opa and Omi Barron, Mike, Katie and Warner Barron, and Grammy and Poppy Kreutz. You're awesome!

When we finished the Race, it was time for a diaper change, so we went inside Northpark Mall to Macy's. The line for the ladies' room was vey long with Race participants, but never fear - Daddy's here! He had the good idea to use a fitting room instead. Not only is there no line, but it's probably a lot cleaner too! To the good people at Macy's Northpark: Thank you for letting us change our daughter's diaper in your fitting room! I promise we used her changing pad, and we were very careful. Lydia helped clean your mirrors with her sweet spitty hands, so we feel we left the place better than when we arrived.

(Oh gosh, now I just remembered that I once nursed Lydia in a Macy's fitting room at Stonebriar Mall! Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures! And it's much cleaner than the restroom!)

Lydia is really into full-length mirrors. She loves the one in Omi's bathroom, the one against the wall at Grammy's and...the one in the Macy's fitting room!

Then we walked through the mall to get back to our car. There were pumpkins! Love that baby face.

Look at the beautiful autumn wreath Lydia's Grammy made for our front door! (Ok, so this post has nothing to do with Lydia, but I just had to show it off!)

Tomorrow we're going to the Komen Dallas Race, and then to a pumpkin patch, so stay tuned!

LYDIA IS 18 MONTHS OLD!! How did this happen!?

This weekend Lydia helped her Daddy cheer on his St. Louis Cardinals (not to a victory, unfortunately). It was chilly that day so we kept her warm jammies on underneath her Cardinals-gear. Cute.

By the way, that's the same hat she was wearing in this picture at 4 months old!

And in this one at 3 weeks old!

It finally fits! (I can't believe she was that small once)

Today she visited her Pediatrician for her check-up. She had only one shot this time - her last batch of the Hep vaccine. She's finished with vaccines until she is FOUR years old! This is GREAT news!!!!

Here are her stats:

She is the same weight she was at her 15 month appointment! It was a funny moment for Oliver and me, because we usually hear she has gained several pounds since the last visit - she's been growing like crazy since she came home from the hospital! So when they said her weight was the same, it was like the record stopped - "Really??!" It makes perfect sense, actually, because since 14 months she has been moving non-stop! Running and playing all the time. She's just more mobile and maybe hitting a little plateau, which was due. She's still at the 95% percentile! What a great 18 months - no ear infections, no flu, no reason to make any appointments for illness - not once. Such a healthy girl.

We discussed her communication skill development with the Doctor. We've decided to take her for some hearing and cognitive testing. No one is panicked that she isn't talking yet, but we want to go ahead and address anything that could be a challenge for her and start working on it now (if necessary). The first test will be a hearing test. Of course when she was born they screened her hearing at the hospital, and she passed with flying colors, but things could have changed or missed. About 85% of the time I'm convinced she has no trouble hearing and I can name all sorts of examples proving just that. Still, we want to do whatever the doctor recommends. He said he has kids come through all the time who are just taking their time and don't talk very much until they are 2 or 2 1/2 and it's not problem. But you do want to know they are understanding you and listening and learning. She shows us that in many ways, but also isn't quite hitting the mark where a few other benchmarks are concerned. Her Doctor is aware that she is learning german right now, too. We asked the direct question again - is this okay? Should we stop for awhile and be consistent with just english? Should we not have started this right away at birth? He said not to change a thing! He said it's good for her and just fine and to keep it up! We thought so, but just didn't want to make her life any harder if we shouldn't! Anyway, seriously we're not worried about any of this, but we will go and have the testing and just be sure she's on the right track. It's the best thing for her!

Congratulations on being a super healthy, happy, cute 1 1/2 year old Lydia! We love you so much and we're so proud of you!

Yesterday Lydia went to watch her Daddy play flag football!

We only stayed about 20 minutes because it was cold and Lydia already has a stuffy nose. Didn't want to push it. (It's just a little cold - no fever or flu around here!) Hopefully next week the weather will be better and we can watch both of Daddy's games.

"Daddy, I'm real sorry to hear that you scraped your face and elbow while diving for a pass... but I'M COLD! Take me home!" (But congrats on catching the long pass, Daddy!)