Today Lydia and I met up with Lydia’s Aunt Katie and cousin Warner for a some fun at Grapevine Mills mall! There is a big carousel there, and boy was Lydia eager to ride it! Here she is waiting behind the entrance.

Warner arrived and the 2 kiddos said hello to one another (in their own special way).

They rode side-by-side on their horses. They had the whole carousel to themselves! Here’s sweet Warner saying “Giddy-up horsey!”

This was the best picture I could get of Lydia on her horse. Of course I was holding her on her horse, so I didn’t really have a free hand to take many pictures.

A quick video… Lydia cried at first when I put her on the horse, but as soon as it started moving she was fine. She remembered that she likes it!

After the carousel ride we did little shopping. In one store, Aunt Katie went to the fitting room to try something on, so Lydia “read” a book to Warner while he waited for his Mommy.

In the Gymboree outlet store, Lydia consulted with Warner about which clothes he thought might look cute on her.

To which Warner replied, “Sorry, but I’m a boy, Lydia! I don’t have an interest in ruffles and flowers!”

Then we went to a very special place for lunch. Rainforest Cafe! It was a perfect choice for the kids. Big gorillas, monkeys, leopards and elephants… Giant aquariums, waterfalls, and butterflies. Every 5-10 minutes or so, all of the animals would go crazy at one time – especially the monkeys. The kids certainly had enough entertainment in there. Lydia would have had more fun if I let her walk around and check everything out, but I knew I’d never get her back after that! (And pregnant Mommy was hungry!)

All in all, we had a fun play date with Katie and Warner. On August 11th Warner will turn 1 year old! And a few days later, Lydia gets to go to his birthday party!

We had our Ultrasound today and saw that Baby #2 is doing great! Developing perfectly and right on schedule! Praise the Lord! We also found out the gender of the baby...

Lydia is going to have a little sister!! Yay!

Here we are waiting for our appointment, talking about whether we think it will be a boy or a girl, and what fun each one would be!

Cute little profile shots of Lydia's sister:

Her foot:

Pretty soon I'll have to change Lydia's blog to reflect both girls, but I'll give Lydia a little more time to enjoy the spotlight...!

On Saturday morning Lydia met up with her friend Gracie for some fun at the park! They played on the playground first, but then...they got to go get wet! There is a new splash park at Frisco Commons (where we had Lydia's 2nd birthday party), and boy did Lydia love it!!

The girls had a snack first, while we waited for the water to start.

Lydia walked the perimeter of the splash area a few times before actually jumping in - just checking things out! (I forgot to bring my camera, but thankfully Gracie's Mommy caught a few of Lydia's water fun!)

She gently reached out to a few fountains, and quickly decided - this is FUN!!!! And got right into it! She LOVED it.

Lydia was SOAKED at the end. Sitting in little pools of water, standing under waterfalls, splashing water... And at one point she got a little too close to the big buckets of water that fall over when they fill up! Yes, by the end she was soaked to the skin, but had a blast.

And here's our little wet bow-heads after the fun, having some more juice and snacks. They don't know it yet, but they're very good friends! (well their Mommies have been friends since the 6th grade, so it's their destiny whether they know it or not!)

Happy belated 4th of July!

We did something a little untraditional for America’s birthday this year… we went to Canada!  Oliver’s parents met and married in Montreal, and they have a home about 40 minutes north of there.  Oliver’s Uncle Jack and Aunt Merielle live there, too.  We left on July 2nd and returned on July 11th.  Mike, Katie, and Warner, Oliver, me and Lydia, and Omi and Opa.  We had a great time and made lots of good memories, despite the record-breaking high temperatures!  (And sadly, there is no AC in most homes up there, so we were BAKING and sweaty most of the time.)  Still, the scenery was lovely and I know Lydia had a good time.  I’ll let her tell you more about her trip.

Hello everybody!  I’m back!  Did you miss me?  I went to another country for the first time!  (They speak French there and everything!)  Let me tell you a little bit about the fun we had…

Here are 2 pictures of me and my cousin Warner on the first morning.  Aren’t we cute?

We went to this restaurant for lunch that Omi calls “the blue house.”  It has a real name, but I don’t know what it is.  They serve “steamies” and lots of french fries.  Yucky!  I don’t like hot dogs and french fries!  Mommy and Daddy think I might be the only kid in the world that doesn’t like that.

We went to church on Sunday.  I was such a good girl and almost quiet the whole time, except for a little humming and singing – I just couldn’t help it!  I love to sing!  I went forward for communion with Mommy and Daddy.  I didn’t have any wine or bread, but I did receive a blessing!

There were lots of pretty flowers outside of the church.  I LOVE flowers and I always have to stop and check them out when I see them!  I am very gentle when I touch flowers.

Me and Omi being silly before church.

There’s a cute little town nearby called St. Sauveur.  We walked around there a few times, ate dinner there, and even stopped for ice cream once!  Here is a picture of my Opa pushing me and Warner in the stroller. 

I love to be outside!  I love it, love it, love it!  So when I got a chance to frolic on a big grassy lawn in St. Sauveur, I had so much fun! 

I’m starting to really like my cousin Warner.  I like to touch him (I’m always very gentle) and sometimes I inspect him to see if we look alike.

My Uncle Mike is silly!

There is a lake in front of Omi and Opa’s house, so sometimes I got to go for walks outside!  Warner brought his double off-road stroller so that we could share.  Since he’s still little and I’m a big girl now, I go to ride in the front and Warner had to sit in the smaller seat in the back. 

Warner always falls asleep during our walks and misses all of the fun!

Warner and I made up a game where he tries to “get me.”  Although he can walk a little, he can’t run like I can!  I’m fast!  After a little while I decided to let him “get me”.  He would tickle me and I thought that was pretty funny. 

Mommy and I have played the “I’m gonna get you” game for a long time, and I really like it.  But unlike Warner, she’s fast and always gets me even when I’m running!

I got to go to a pet store.  Mommy and Daddy and Opa kept saying something about puppies and more fish and giant birds in the back of the store, but I couldn’t tear myself away from the big fish tank at the front of the store!  I LOVE fish!  There were guinea pigs at the front, too.  They were sort of interesting (but not nearly as fun as Grammy and Poppy’s cat).

Here’s a picture of Mommy and me at an Italian restaurant one night.  I was VERY squirmy that night!  I colored with my crayons, I read a couple of books and I watched some of my Little Einsteins DVD.  After awhile I was SO squirmy (and “super whiney” as my Mommy says) that Daddy took me outside for a walk.  After that we all walked down to an ice cream place.  Mommy and Daddy offered some to me because I’ve never had ice cream, but I didn’t want to try it.  Mommy and Daddy say I’m going through an extremely picky phase.  I only like about 5 things, and refuse everything else.

Uncle Jack has a tennis court in his backyard!  So Mommy and Daddy played tennis 3 times.  Uncle Jack and Opa played with them too.

One of the coolest things I did while I was in Canada was when Daddy took me swimming in lake!  Mommy kept saying how impressed she was that I was so brave in the dark water I had never seen before.  I wasn’t nervous at all!  I loved it!  Plus, my Daddy was there with me, so I felt safe.  At one point a Mother duck and her babies swam by us.  So neat!

 

Although Mommy brought swimming diapers with us to Canada, for whatever reason she didn’t bother with it for my quick dip in the lake.  See how big and bloated my diaper became??  I took half of the lake with me!  Mommy and Daddy laughed so hard about this.

This is Omi and Opa’s house where we stayed.  I slept in a room upstairs by Mommy and Daddy.

This is on our flight home.  I sat in my own seat in my car seat most of the time, but after awhile I needed a break.  We had to get up at 4:15 that morning to get ready to leave for the airport, so I was VERY tired.  I fell asleep around 8:00 AM, just before our flight took off, and slept for 30 minutes.  But that was all until we got home to our house at 1:00 pm.  I could barely keep my little eyes open.  I was so happy to see my house and all of my other toys!  I wasn’t sure if we were ever coming back!

There is probably so much more that I could tell you about our trip, but I want to go and play now.  Oh, did you know that I started going to speech therapy so I can learn to talk more?  I’ll tell you all about it in my next blog entry.  Or maybe I’ll let Mommy tell you about that.  I’m very busy with my toys.  Bye-bye for now!  Love, Lydia