Where did my baby girl go?

I don't know if it was the fact that Lydia turned one last week, or that she has just gone through some changes in the last few weeks, but we have quickly started to see her as much more of a toddler and much less of a baby. Just the way she does things much more independently and how she portrays her personality makes me realize that she is growing up way too fast! She will always be my little baby -- but only in a figurative, emotional type of way. Sigh.

Speaking of the birthday, we had a gorgeous day for celebrating. In fact we were able to spend the majority of her party time out in yard with friends and family. Lydia looked absolutely adorable in her party dress and she highly enjoyed the attention. Her first real taste of pure sugary sweet in her birthday cupcakes went well -- she enjoyed eating it, but she was certainly fairly calm about the whole deal and didn't even eat the whole cupcake that we gave to her. Overall the day was great and we were glad to share this special day with many friends and family.

Elizabeth's mom, Cynthia, came to stay with us before and after Lydia's birthday to get in some good quality time with her grandaughter. Lydia quickly got used to having Nana around as it wasn't but a day or so that she wanted to go to Nana over either Mommy or Daddy!

One of Lydia's new favorite things is to play peek-a-boo. We have played this with Lydia for a long time, but it used to be that Elizabeth or I would play the more active role in the game -- but recently Lydia has become more into doing the hiding. There are a couple of places that she has found that she can hide from view by ducking out of view. She will proceed to go 'up and down' several times and expecting her 'audience' to exlaim 'there you are!' It is great fun to see her come to a better understanding of her surroundings and the cause and effect of her actions.

We had Lydia's 12 month doctor's appointment and she has slowed down her growth some. She has consistently been in the 50 percentile for height and weight but this time she was in the 25 percentile. The doctor said this was nothing to worry about and that she is perfectly healthy. We were only slightly disappointed as this means that we cannot switch her to her new carseat until she reaches 20 pounds. We are hoping that the doctor's instructions to have her eating mostly "grown-up" food will help her to pack on the pounds.

We've unpacked the warmer Fall clothing for Lydia as the weather has turned colder in the past couple days. Some of her clothes from the Spring are getting new use as Lydia has not outgrown them yet. We hope that she will have a growth spurt soon as she has lots of cute warm clothes waiting for her.

Approaching 1

The past few weeks the realization has started to set in that we are about to be parents to a one-year old. We have sat down several times to look back at pictures of Lydia throughout her life and it is unbelievable the differences from the first few months to now. Even just the last month or so she has gone through a transformation -- mostly I think it is the hair that has started to get out of hand; especially in the morning or after a nap. The most unbelievable part of the year gone by is just the fact that it has been almost a year since our wonderful little Lydia was born -- on the other hand, it is hard to imagine life without her. Life is different every day - and every day Lydia brings absolute joy to our lives.

Lydia has certainly gotten familar with the way things work around our house - especially in the kitchen. Any sight of a yogurt container usually means that she will want nothing to do with any food except the yogurt she craves. Even the ding of the toaster oven cues her to know that there is some toast waiting for her - and boy does she like her toast. Sometimes she will squeel at hearing the ding of the toaster.

Our latest nickname for Lydia is the "stair monster." Ever since she learned to climb the stairs in our house - it is about the only thing she wants to do. As hard as we try to distract her with other activities, in never fails after about 5 or 10 minutes, she is going to be headed for the stairs. As of now we don't have a gate preventing her going upstairs (only one going down), so she has the ability to start up the stairs at any time (with us watching her of course). She has pretty well mastered the art of going up without any help and she is starting to get the hang of going down them (sliding down backwards on her belly). Although we get tired of following her up the stairs, we are glad that she is finding enjoyment in discovering her abilities.

In addition to climbing of stairs, Lydia has started to get a bit more adventurous when it comes to standing up. She has started to be able to stand all by herself for a few moments, and is cruising all around while holding onto the furniture. Unfortunately with this new means of adventure, comes a new means of getting hurt. Tonight Lydia had her first 'big boom'. While we were getting her bath ready, she decided she would stand up against the toilet and then slipped on the bath mat while trying to transition to the side of the tub. She ended up hitting her upper lip against the side of the tub and her new upper teeth cut the inside of her top lip. Amazingly she only cried for a short while and everything is just fine. She has a swollen upper lip that hopefully won't last too long. Probably scared us more than anything, but we better get ready for more of these that may come with this time in her development.

Lydia continues to learn to love playing in the water. Baths have become a fun time of playing with all the fun bath toys -- now if washing her hair didn't have to ruin the whole rest of her experience with bathtime! :) Today she also found a new love involving the water. We went to a nearby state park with a beach/swimming area and Lydia played in the sand for the very first time. Usually you put Lydia down and she is off crawling, but when we put her down on the beach in the wet sand, she just sat digging her fingers in the squishy sand. She loved throwing it off her fingers and splashing it back into the water. It was a great way to spend our Labor Day!

She's Got Skills

It is amazing the things that we take for granted and realize that we actually had to learn how to do them. Even more amazing is the fact that children pick up on things so fast, without much in terms of intentional instruction. For instance, over the past few weeks she is starting to master the 'skills' of clapping and waving 'bye-bye'. If you think about them, the ideas of clapping and waving goodbye are quite arbitrary -- how is that placing our hands together ever became a sign of approval? Over the past few weeks, Lydia has certainly started to pick up on the 'context' behind waving and clapping - today in Church Lydia knew enough to start clapping when she heard others clapping -- she couldn't even see people clapping as she and I were in another room at that time. And waving, we no longer have to 'prompt' Lydia to make the action of saying 'bye-bye' -- she is getting to the point at which you say the words 'bye-bye' - she will start waving. She is one amazing little creature!

It has also been fun to see Lydia make the transition from baby food to real food, and start enjoying eating most foods now. She used to be such a picky eater and meal times would be more frustrating than anything. Well, she has definitely come along way -- all she used to eat was avacodo -- now she eats everything from Kale to Pasta. She even ate some garbanzo beans from my plate tonight, how fun!

It is hard to believe that is already August and summer is winding down. Fortunately we have been able to get outdoors alot with Lydia this summer. She loves to sit and feel the grass with her hands. We have also gotten to the pool several times and Lydia has become more and more fond of being in the water -- she is even starting to "let go" a little more and exploring more on her own. Probably the most fun that we have had outside this summer is going on family bike rides. We bought a infant bike trailer to pull behind one of our bikes and Lydia loves being it! Not once has she cried while being in it and she is almost always looking back and forth to see the scenery as she passes by it.

Mobile

A few weeks ago I started utilizing a nifty little mobile device called a BlackBerry for work. When I got the device, I had dreams of being always on top of tasks, emails, and my calendar; and never tied to my desk or PC. Well, 3 weeks in and I would say that it has started to help me to be better connected (like it or not) and I am keeping track of tasks better. Has it changed my world? Well maybe not quite yet.

I mention the BlackBerry only for reasons of talking about another "mobile" thing in my life. That's right -- Lydia is on the move. An this has definitely changed all of our lives in significant ways. Gone are the days of setting Lydia down to play and being able to go about other tasks for any amount of time. Set her down and 9 times out of ten she is gone - crawling off to the kitchen, off to find new territory that she is unfamiliar with. I have found my self saying "no" more in the last 3 weeks than in the rest of Lydia's life. We are slowly figuring out what needs to be locked up or moved and remembering not to set things on the floor where they can be gotten to.

Where has the time gone....another month and half gone by without a posting. I am going to try a new approach regarding this blog....short and simple. I think that I have struggled to write because I felt overwhelmed by the idea of having to write something significant and interesting. Well, new mind-set here I come.

For sake of catching up from last month and half - here are some highlights:

• Lydia and Daddy have a few days of "quality time" while Elizabeth gone on trip to Nebraska
• Trip to Rapid City for Dakotas United Methodist Annual Conference - Lydia had a great trip out, but the trip back was a little rough
• Trip to North Carolina to see Nana and Papa (and extended Turkington Family) - Lydia starts crawling in Chicago airport.

Spring - Finally!

Ok - so first of all, it has been way too long (over two months) since I have put out a blog posting...so I will have to do some catching up on Lydia happenings. I will start with the most recent stuff though...

Spring for most people starts in March -- well not for us in Fargo; we got to spend the end of March fighting floods and getting more snow in the midst of it. Daffodils? Tulips? They don't exist in Fargo! Our large cottonwood is just starting to get green on it and the grass is just getting green now.

Now that the tempuratures have been nicer, we have already started to get enjoy introducing Lydia to the wonders of outside. First of all, Lydia loves to swing! We have gone to the park twice now and she loved the swing both times! It is great to see her smile and laugh at us as she sways toward our beaming faces. I can't wait until they day that she says "push me daddy!"

Stroller rides outside have become a regular occurance too, Lydia seems to love looking around and observing the world around her. We certainly are enjoying getting outside more and more and are looking forward to the rest of spring and summer.

Just tonight we also found out that Lydia is very fond of dogs -- well at least our neighbors little dog, Dixie. While sitting outside visiting tonight, Dixie jumped up toward Lydia and Lydia responded with a squeel of delight! From then on she kept on squeeling and giggling when Dixie came near and her blue eyes continued to follow the little dog wherever she went. We are glad that we are able to expose her to a kind creature at a young age....but no, we are NOT getting a dog!

Other things happening...

Lydia's is very SLOWLY progressing into the world of eating solids. She has yet to really love anything but rice cereal -- and there is no telling if she is going to eat well or not at any given meal. When she does eat really well it seems to help her sleep better, so hopefully we can get the eating going more consistently before too long. The few nights of sleeping until 6:30 am have been a wonderful change for Elizabeth especially.

The other major happening is Lydia's continual strengthening in the legs. She is very interested in standing up with the support of daddy/mommy or by pulling herself up by a piece of furniture. She still has little/no progress on crawling, so both Elizabeth and I are thinking that crawling may be a skipped step in the whole mobility process. The gates will be going up soon!!

Sniffles, Stomach Bugs, and Sitting too

Poor Lydia has had her fair share of illness in the past few weeks. She has just gotten through her second cold and now she is just getting through her second time with the stomach flu in two weeks! Her colds certainly break your heart, because she can't breath when she's laying down and can't sleep very well whening sitting/laying more upright. I guess it just goes with the territory of being and infant -- just wish the communication thing was little easier so that she could tell us what is bothering her and we can assure her that she is going to be alright.

Even with all the sickness, Lydia has certainly continued to excel and flourish! She smiling and laughing so often now. Probably the best part of being a parent is knowing that you are one of the few that can invoke those smiles and laughter almost on command. It won't be long before the beginnings of "stranger anxiety" set in and we will not only be the only ones to make her laugh, but maybe the only ones she wants to be with. I actually think that we have done a fairly good job of letting others care for her, so hopefully she will skip by the stranger axiety all together.

A couple of weeks ago we decided that Lydia was strong enough that we might start putting her in her highchair to sit at the table with us at meals. Even though she isn't yet eating solids, it is great to have her "share a meal" with us. She loves to sit tall in her chair and play with the toys on her highchair tray. Hard to imagine it will less than a month before we actually start giving her the first solid foods.

All of that sitting in her high chair must have peaked her interest in seeing the world from a different point of view. It was late last week that Lydia started to be able to sit pretty well with only the boppy pillow to support her from tipping over. Nana was visiting last week and early this week and decided that Lydia needed a good toy for playing with while sitting - well it was a good motivator because she started sitting all by herself the very same night that she got her new stack of rings.

Watching Lydia sit up is so entertaining! She has such a look of excitement and wonder while sitting -- and of course being on the watch for her tipping over keeps us on our toes as well. I am a little bit scared to think that the next major milestones all include Lydia's ability to move of her own volition. Well, I guess we will just have to start thinking about transforming of our house -- otherwise known as "baby proofing" and keep on soaking in every little moment that we can.

Everyday Changes

Our little Lydia is very quickly becoming a little person all her own. She has quickly made great strides in her development and personality. Over the past week she has nearly mastered the art of rolling from her front to back; and even once this week she rolled back to front. Hard to think that scooting and crawling won't be that far away -- she is already utilizing her ability to roll back and forth in order to move short distances!

She has also developed her intentionality when it comes to using her hands. When she isn't busy sucking on both her hands, she is eagerly using them to play with hanging toys, pull at both Elizabeth and my shirt when we are holding her; and most recently pulling one foot or another to her mouth in order see what her feet taste like!! She certainly doesn't lack in her ability to entertain herself and is constantly exploring the world before her.

Smiles and giggles come much easier now and she is certainly more than happy to greet Elizabeth with smiles when she arrives at home. In fact, just the other day I was at home with Lydia for a few hours and didn't get a single smile, but the moment Lydia saw her mother walk in the door she was all smiles! It is wonderful to witness the strong bond that has developed between mother and daughter and I feel truly blessed to be invited to participate in that sacred circle of love.

For me, my favorite time has started to become bedtime when I get the privilege of reading Lydia a book before sleep. It amazing to see how attentive that Lydia is to books already and has even now started to try turning the pages herself (or at least grabbing for them). It was wonderful to get many new books as Christmas gifts. Probably her favorite books at this time are two 'first-word' picture books from her Uncle Mike -- she is very much enthralled by the large pictures of animals and other objects.

I am certainly glad to be mostly through the most stressful time in my professional life thus-far. My 7 month, very high-profile project is nearing completion and my work hours have cut back considerably. There was one day this week where some issues came up and I ended up having to work a longer day that I wanted, but it I very much enjoy having more time with Lydia - especially when I get the privilege to pick her up from daycare. She is now at daycare at NDSU for around 6-hours a day and it is working out great! We don't think that we could have found a better arrangement.

We were thankful for a visit from Grandpa and Grandma (Lee) this past weekend. Grandma was almost as good as Elizabeth in getting Lydia to giggle and Grandpa enjoyed pushing Lydia around the mall in her stroller. We are also looking forward to a visit from Nana next month and hope to make some trips to see other family soon.