Mini Reunion

Last week one of my dear college friends came in town from TN with her adorable boys (and husband) and we were able to get a mini reunion going with another college friend that has recently moved to Atlanta with her also adorable baby boy.

It's so fun to catch up on life and see everyone's little ones in person. Our conversations may have changed in the last 12 years since we first met (gasp... has it really been 12 years!?!?) We now cover topics on spit up and toddler antics, but always feel like we can pick up conversations right where we left off the last time we got together.

Lydia was having a blast playing with all these little boys. Can't believe she's the only girl with all these boys... So excited Betsy is having a girl soon to help even things out for future reunions!

We tried to get a few pictures of all the babies and mamas. Think we got a few good ones of most everyone looking at the camera. (Oh how my definition of a good picture has changed)

 Sweet Asher!

 Take 1 with Lydia not looking

Take 2 on the move

One with the mamas (and 1 papa)

Mama's and their babies

Might be our winner!

18 months and counting

How in the world has it been 18 months already? I cannot believe we are six short months from TWO! We went to the doctor last week to get the official weigh in and last shot until she's 4 (isn't that crazy?)

Our little peanut is growing up and moving up on the growth chart. I've even been told a few times that she's tall!!

Stats:
- 21lbs 13 oz (15%)
- 31in tall (31%)
- 18.25in head circumference (45%)

Our little girl is still our little social butterfly, greeting everyone with a wave and "Hey" whether it be someone she knows or a complete stranger. She's recently learned to blow kisses and just melts my heart to get a sweet kiss.

She's talking more and more and I just love her sweet voice. I tried to make a list for the doctor and came up with about 15 words, but now that list is no where to be found. But going to try and record the ones I remember here so I can remember.

- Baby (Her FAV)            - Nana (Banana)
- Sadie                              - Papa
- Dada                              - Onnie
- Mama                            - Duh (Done)
- Nose                              - Nigh Nigh
- Ball                                - No no no
- Blay (Blake)                   - Ey-ee (Ellie)
- Hi & Hey                       - Yay Yay!

I also feel like we are starting to have a true toddler on our hands complete with a few cries when things don't go her way, busy busy girl always on the go - climbing stairs, on the fire place hearth, walking and getting into EVERYTHING. Kyle just asked me the other day if this is normal! HAHA!

We are just loving having a little girl and watching her personality emerge more. She loves to pat and kiss on her baby dolls, feed them a bottle (which she samples as well) and requests they come with her to bed and asked for them again first thing in the morning.

Can't wait to see what the next 18 months bring! Happy year and a half birthday baby girl!!

Summer activities

Summer is suppose to be full of relaxing and taking it easy, but ours has been quite and adventure. I can't believe its almost September and I haven't blogged about our summer yet.

But I have a good excuse... and no I'm not pregnant! Kyle and I have been hard at work behind the scenes to open our own optometry practice this fall. We are getting so close to our GO date and its getting real.

In between meals, naps and playing with Lydia I've been helping with the LONG list of to do items to get our business opened up. So now that the cat's out of the bag, I'm going to blame my lack of blogging on this. It's sort of like having a job, but without the nice paycheck to go with it.... maybe one day!

But enough about work... here's a few summer highlights from our vacations and summer fun...

 Lydia's Baby Dedication in May

Father's Day

Swimming!

Beach trip to Perdido Key

 Loving cousin time at the beach

Annual family pictures at the beach

 Little golfing with Daddy

Falling off the blogging train

Wow! I've really fallen behind on blogging. I never even did a 15 month stats update for Lydia.

Poor Lydia has had 2 ear infections between Memorial Day and July 4th, but has bounced back.

She also has taken the plunge and let go to walk on her own in the past few weeks. She's so cautious and would prefer to hold on to a hand, furniture or crawl and not risk falling. She's getting braver every day. For some reason this mainly applies to walking. She's quite the daredevil when it comes to climbing - up stairs, the fireplace hearth, ottomans, etc...

She also is becoming my girly girl. She loves her baby dolls and is so entertaining watching her carry around anything she views as a purse and most recently her sunglasses. She likes to put them on her head like mommy - so cute!!

Here's our little mommy in action.

Lately...

Feel like I haven't had enough time for a full post lately, so I'll just list off the latest happenings:

1. My social butterfly says "hey" or "hi" to everyone we come in contact with and sort of comes out with a little southern accent already. She combines this with her little toothy grin and she can't be ignored. I end up talking to almost everyone we pass at the store - it's sort of hilarious! Tell me this happens to everyone!

2. Its official - I have a little mommy in the making. She has really taken interest in her dolls lately and squishes loves on them, shrieks talks to them and gives them an enthusiastic greeting when she sees them. Think we have a girly girl on our hands already.

3. I always kidded that my metabolism would stop working when I turned 30, but now the joke is on me! Can I blame the baby over a year later?

4. Confession - Because of #3 above, I did a 10 minute glutes workout on my On Demand and couldn't walk for DAYS!

5. Counting down to some much needed beach time!! Thinking it won't quite be as relaxing as last year when Lydia would just lay under the tent all day, but that's what grandparents are for, right? :)

"Say-Say"

Should I be offended that my child says our dog's name more often than mine? The only name she might say more frequently is "da-da", but really I don't mind. She sounds so darn cute, I just get a kick out of listening to her.

It actually took me a while to realize "Say-Say" was Sadie. I finally got it one day when I was outside watering and had Lydia in her wagon. The dog was running around all crazy and every time she would run by the wagon, Lydia would point and yell, "Say-Say".

I think Sadie gets a kick out of it too and loves all the attention. She also is very patient with Lydia when she wants to pat her and doesn't run away like she usually does with the cousins. But she also has her own form of revenge -- licking!

Should have known one of her favorite words would be that of her beloved "Say-Say"! Best Friends for life!!

A Year Ago Today...

We were finally able to bring our daughter home!!

It was Easter Sunday and nearly every day that week we were hopeful that THAT would be the day, but something always prevented us from getting the OK from the doctors... usually having to do with Lydia eating her bottle fast enough and without any breathing issues.

We went to an outdoor Easter service at the church we attended before moving south and that was extremely close to the hospital. From there we raced over to the hospital in hopes of hearing the magic words. The nurse thought she was ready and had us watch the required car seat video - which is boring anyways, but we could hardly stand it as we waited for the Doctor. to do his rounds.

That afternoon we finally got clearance to go home with our darling baby girl! Can't you just see the excitement on my face??!!

I remember when we got home, we gave her a bottle for the first time without all the fancy machines - with only an apnea monitor to tell us if something was REALLY  wrong. We were both so scared something would go wrong, but we made it through the first day and the round the clock feeds somehow.

My little 5 lb cutie is now almost 19 lbs, on the verge of walking, climbs on anything and everything (if given the chance), pats the dog sweetly, talks non-stop -- sometimes real words, but mostly just babble, has the cutest little toothy grin and has a touch of sass!

Happy Homecoming Little Girl! We love you very much!!!

Easter 2012

I love celebrating Easter every year, but its even more dear to my heart since getting to bring our precious Lydia home on Easter 2011. Althought not the same day each year, it will always be a special memory for us.

We celebrated Easter this year with my family at First Baptist Woodstock and then afterwards with a cookout and egg hunt at my sister's house.

What a difference a year can make! Here is Lydia on the day we brought her home - Easter Sunday, April 24th, 2011 at 9 weeks and then her at 13 months this year on Easter Sunday, April 8th 2012.

14lbs and 4 teeth later, the only thing that has stayed the same is the amount of hair on her head! Maybe by next Easter we'll have some longer locks.

We had a blast hanging out with family and cousins. Lydia seemed excited to hunt eggs - even though she's not walking independently quite yet.

All Dressed Up:

Egg Hunt Time:



Cousin Photo shoot

While we were in FL for Kyle's birthday, we took the opportunity to have a little photo shoot in the cute matching outfits Bella got for Lydia and Noah. I took about 100 shots and tried to narrow down to some of my favorites.

PS - I'm loving the collage feature on Picasa so I can do a photo bomb without all the scrolling and looks pretty cute too, if I do say so myself.

THREE- OH!!

We are finally done with family birthdays...phew!! The year starts off with a bang... my birthday in January, Lydia's in February and Kyle's in March. My birthday was easy! All I had to do was show up and be surprised and eat cake, but the last two took more planning on my part.

After we finished the 1st birthday extravangza for Lydia, I started planning Kyle's 30th birthday surprise. My original plan was to surprise him and take him on a trip, but things didn't go quite as planned.

Kyle's birthday was in the middle of the week and I wanted to surprise him with a trip to see his family as well as do a fun activity that weekend. I had come up with the idea of going to a golf tournament that was taking place in his home town the same weekend as his birthday. Win-Win for seeing family and fun activity.

I ended up caving and telling him ahead of time due to work issues that came up and didn't want to purchase airfare, tickets, etc... if it wasn't going to work out. So, I was a little bummed it wasn't a total surprise, but at least he didn't have to plan anything!

I'm so glad we are finally both 30, so he can stop giving me a hard time about it!!

Here are some of the pics from his birthday morning. I got him the grown up gift of sports coats... haha! Nothing says old man like a sports coat, but seriously, he needs these so BADLY!

 

 Kyle's fav - cookie cake!

  

 

 Opening the Sports Coat

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 My girlie showing off her new teeth
(Excuse the blurriness. She's always too busy to sit still these days)

 Here is a little collage from Kyle's party at his parents house.

We had a fantastic time celebrating Kyle's birthday with friends and family. Also glad we survived our first plane ride with a baby. She did great and was amazed by everything to look at along the way.

As she grows... Month 12

Think this is my last birthday related post for all those (mom) who are awaiting her birthday blogs with anticipation. A few days after her birthday we headed off to the doctor for her 12 mo well visit, so I have official stats this time.

The Dr overall assessment is she's the size of a 9 month old, but like a 12-15 mo. developmentally. That truly warms this preemie mama's heart! It would be fantastic for her to be at 9 month developmental level, but to even exceed that and hear she's on track for her actual age is just AMAZING!! He said this when talking about her "words" so I know we're going to have a talker on our hands before we know it.

12 Month (9.5 mo.) Stats:

• 17 lbs (ok so she was 16 lbs 15 oz at the Dr, but weighed 17 lbs 4 oz on our home scale) 2%
• 27 inches (3%)
• 17.25% Head circumference (16%)

This girl has a big head! The funny thing to me is her head size hasn't changed much she she was discharged from the hospital and I guess what they say is true - preemie's heads grow faster than the rest of their bodies. Poor girl still has TINY feet!

Activities/Interests

• Crawling is still her favorite activity because it can get her to what she really wants to do:
• Play in the dog food
• Eat the dog food
• Play in the dog's water
• Pull out lamp cords, computer cords...really any sort of cord
• She's also really been working on her words. While most still comes out gibberish, sometimes she'll sit and have a whole conversation where she's practicing different sounds. Her favorite words are:
• Dada (by FAR)
• Baba - sometimes also comes out like ball, but not sure
• Mama (usually only get this one when she's upset)
• Whoa
• Wow
• She has pulled up a few times in the past month on shorter things -- the dishwasher, a storage ottoman, inside a box, but hasn't been able to pull up on taller things quite yet. Just this past week she has been trying to pull up on our legs, but don't try and help her - she doesn't like that!
• A few weeks ago I had a box in the den (aren't I a fun mom to give her boxes to play with?? haha) and she kept pushing it out and then shuffling her feet up to it. So she got a walker from my parents for her birthday; which she loves, but the wheels move too fast for her, so she ends up in some yoga like stretch before letting go.
• Speaking of yoga, I am starting to think babies were the real originators of it. Lydia loves to stick her hiney up in the air and do a downward dog pose. It's quite hilarious. Think she's trying to stand up, but doesn't know to do after straightening her legs.
• Lastly, food continues to be one of her favorite pasttimes. I'm starting to get sick of buying purees, but still is the best way for her to get all her nutrients. She loves finger foods and being able to feed herself, but really only likes to feed herself puffs, meat, beans, grilled cheese, pasta and yogurt bites. She spits out small pieces of fruit and veggies, so I guess the purees are here to stay for awhile.

Here are her 12 month shots with Mr Bear! She is celebrating with her hot pink tutu!

Just had to add this outtake of what happens when she pushes the walker too far out

Lydia's First Year Video

As part of Lydia's first birthday festivities, we put together a video slideshow of her first year to share at the party. I'm not going to lie, you'll probably cry. You should have seen me trying to put together the video -- looking back at her first months of life in the NICU and then coupling that with emo music... lets just say there were several times I had to take a break and have a good cry.

Even when we played it at the party, I was a teary mess and I was the one person who knew what was coming next.

She is truly a miracle and is such a blessing from God. Reflecting back on Lydia's first year, you realize just how fragile life really is and how all you can do is rest in knowing God will take care of your little girl.

I found the first song we used in the slide show from a friends blog, who had a child born with a heart defect and needed open heart surgery. Matt Hammitt wrote "All of Me" as well as many other songs on his "Every Falling Tear" CD when his son was also born with a heart defect. While Lydia never had to undergo any surgeries, the fear and uncertainty he shares in his songs lines up pretty well with our experience in the NICU and all the questions and unknowns we faced.

The second song, "Safe and Sound" by Matthew West is a sweet song about bringing your baby home and just love the lyrics with this one as well. I was familiar with some of Matthew West's other songs on the radio, but had never heard this one before. It really is so sweet!

Lastly, I had to end with something upbeat and happy -- especially since I have such an upbeat and happy little girl. Who doesn't love "Isn't She Lovely"?? Especially when its sung by the cast of Glee!!

Here is the video we made of our little girl's 1st year! Enjoy!

(Sorry its a little grainy on here for some reason, but hopefully it's not too bad to view)

BTW - this is my 100th post! What better way to celebrate than with memories of my baby's 1st year!

Sugar and Spice

Our sweet baby girl is ONE! I just can't get over it. Our little 2 lb miracle is now a speed-crawling, into everything (including the dog food), smiley, funny, giggling little girl!

We had a blast celebrating her first birthday with family and friends last Saturday. Lydia was quite the hostess greeting all her guests at the door with a HUGE smile and a little wave. She already has such a social personality. She doesn't get grumpy or anything in large groups - even if its past her nap time. She just turns on her mega watt smile and goes with the flow. Think we have a little social butterfly on our hands for sure.

Her party theme was SUGAR & SPICE (and everything nice) and we decided to have a sugar and sweets table with cupcakes, cookies, candies, and some pink lemonade. The Spice table held jalapeno poppers, buffalo chicken fingers, chips, salsa and cheese for dipping. We served what I like to call "Chicken Crack" to go with the Spicy/Mexican dinner theme. It's also VERY easy to prepare and quite yummy. You may remember it from when I blogged about it a few months ago - here.

 I went a little crazy with making decorations with the help of Pinterest of course! I made a few banners for her highchair and table displays. I also made a month by month banner (see fireplace pic above) which was a neat way to see her grow each month with her little pink bear.

After reviewing our pictures from the night, I realized I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I wanted of all the guests and festivities, so I'm hoping some of Lydia's aunties and grandmas captured more memories than I did.

Here are a few from her getting ready, greeting the guests, cake and of course her two grandpas (Papa and Poppy). Not sure why we didn't do the same with the grandmas. Probably because the papas were hovering around the food before the party started, waiting for me to tell them to dig in :) Guess I know where she gets her good appetite from, huh?!

Happy Birthday sweet Lydia! We are so blessed to be your parents and love getting to watch you grow and mature each day. You have brought so much joy into our lives and its hard to even remember what life was like before you were born. We love you so very much!


I still have a few more birthday posts coming, so stay tuned....

As she grows... month 11

Wow! So here we are! 1 month away from Lydia's FIRST birthday! I am still some what in denial that the year is quickly coming to an end. I am starting to plan her birthday extravaganza and can't wait to see her reaction to cake for the first time.

11 Month (8.5 mo.) Stats:

• Around 16.5/17 lbs (according to my own bathroom scale)

Activities/Interests

• CRAWLING! She is a busy girl these days as she explores every cord, electronic device or remote in sight. She has moved from army crawling to "standard" crawling and is getting faster by the day.
• She is working on pulling up, but will play happily in a standing position for a short time.
• Think we might also have a mini-phi mu in training as she now smiles any time the camera comes out. I see many "sorority poses" in our future.
• Eating continues to be one of her favorite activities and has started to eat small bites of table food. Some of her new favorites are:
• black or pinto beans
• corn... sometimes
• spaghetti with meat sauce
• She also will eat green veggies if mama didn't make them! I guess my home food processor can't get the green beans and peas fine enough to her liking, but does better on the store bought versions; which is fine with me!
• "Bababa" is one of her new favorite words and will babble to herself and us all day long. If she's done with dinner or wants more food, she will now shriek/scream quite loudly. This also goes if we take one of her favorites toys away; such as my phone. She's not shy to share her feelings.
• Sitting up on her own is also a new skill she mastered this month and now takes twice as long for her to fall asleep; since she HAS to sit up after I lay her down for a nap and then eventually lay down on her own. At least she's quiet and plays in her crib, but is funny to watch on the monitor. We lowered her mattress in case she masters her standing up skills in bed.
• Music class has now resumed after Christmas and New Years. After being out for about 3 weeks it seems Lydia has mastered her shaking skills with the instruments, but of course, still end up in her mouth by the end of the song. It has been fun watching her interact with the others in the class and develop new skills week after week.

Here is our monthly shot with Mr Bear:

Snazzy

So I was getting a little bored with my blog and wishing I had photoshop to make a cool design and header. This really is me just being jealous of my friend Greta's new blog header. So, after a little research, I came upon a lovely post from Blissfully Domestic that gives an overview of how to make your own blog post using Picasa.

I'm pretty pleased with my creation and just had to share in case anyone else had the itch for a personalized blog header. It's still nothing like my friend Greta's, but I'm pretty pleased.

Now my hubby is begging me to transfrom his as well... hee hee...

Christmas Catch-up

Christmas was such a magical time for us this year. It was so fun watching Lydia eat enjoy the tree, lights and learn how to open presents. We had 4 different Christmases this year and by the end of Christmas week Lydia was a paper pro -- rip, eat, repeat... There were a few times I had to fish paper out of her mouth... silly girl!

Our first Christmas was with my parents the weekend before. We celebrated after church on Sunday, so everyone was in their Christmas best. The kids (and adults) had fun opening all their presents and getting to spend some time together.

Lydia and Ellie just love each other

Love that we finally got one of all the cousins looking at the camera!

One of Lydia's first wrapping paper experiences... notice in the mouth

Lydia's first chair from Sissy & Justin

Our 2nd Christmas took place at home before we left to spend Christmas weekend in Florida with Kyle's family. Since Lydia is too young to know anything about the magic of Christmas yet - we decided it would be easier to celebrate together as a family and not drag anything more than we needed down to FL.

I love the idea of doing 4 gifts -- Something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. We sort of did that by accident this year (except I didn't quite get the something to read...whoops).

We really were just planning on getting her 1 present since she doesn't know what is going on and knew the grandparents would have plenty for her to open. Her main present was the rocking ladybug below; which counts as something she wants.

I just fell in love with it and also liked it because it sort of has a seat in the back and the head is HUGE so she won't fall off. She also got socks (something to wear) and a sippy cup (something she needs) in her stocking, but we stopped taking pictures after she got her ladybug.

Waiting for Lydia to wake up

Our tree on our Christmas morning

Think she likes it

Our 3rd Christmas was more like a Christmas weekend celebration since we saw lots of family and had about 3 days of non-stop celebrating. It was a great time to introduce Lydia to some family in FL that hadn't met her yet as well as catching up with everyone.

When we arrived Friday night we had our 1st Christmas celebration with Kyle's parents and sister. Noah and Lydia had fun with Bella before everyone arrived.

 The next morning we went to Granny and PawPaw's house - Lydia's great-grandparents on Kyle's mom's side. This was their first time meeting Lydia. I'm sure Granny wouldn't be happy to see the pictures of her in curlers, but I just love them.

Meeting Granny

Four Generation - Lillian, Kim, Kyle and Lydia

Lydia and PawPaw

That night we went to Aunt Helen's for Christmas Eve with his mom's side of the family. We got all dressed up and had the cousins in some adorable coordinating outfits for the occasion.

 Our little family before leaving for the party

Cousins! We tried for a LONG time to get a picture of them together and this is the best we got. Lydia looks a little unsure, but Noah has the smile down

The Edwards Family with kids and grands

Christmas Day was spent at Keily's house with the Edwards family celebration. Surprisingly, there were still a few gifts to open!

Lydia's other FL great grandma - Grandma Dorothy

Lydia and Noah with their great-grandmas.

Lydia doesn't know how good she has it - she has 4 great-grandparents (3 in FL and 1 in SC) as well as 4 grandparents to love on her. 

Kyle with his nephew and daughter on the swings

We had such a great time visiting with everyone in FL and if you can't tell from the pictures (Kyle is in shorts) -- it was 80 the whole weekend. Quite a difference from the 50's we were experiencing in Atlanta.

Our 4th and final Christmas took place after Christmas when my Aunt and kids came down from SC to see everyone.

Going through my pictures, I realize I'm not quite so good at taking pictures of the adults that were present... sorry!!





My Aunt MADE a ducky stuffed animal for Lydia.

I keep telling her to open an etsy store!!

The next day we just hung out and Blake and Lydia had their first real play date. They are only 6 months apart, but now that Lydia is catching up with her milestones, she's more able to play with her cousin. They were so cute together!

Lydia stared Blake down until she got her own sippy cup...not that she could actually drink from it. She likes food/drinks and not afraid to show it!

Playing at the activity table together

Onnie and her grandbaby...see I did take one picture of an adult during this visit!

PHEW! Anyone still with me?? That is the end of our Christmas activities... Are you tired from reading all of that? We were tired from experiencing it all, but well worth the memories and time we got to spend with both sides of our family.

New Years weekend we pretty much crashed and caught up on our sleep (as much as possible with a baby in the house).

We are ready for the new year... this is year of the 30's for Kyle and I. Though he doesn't let me forget it (EVER) that I turn 30 first... little stinker!