Girl Time!

Lately Lydia has been really into "girl time"- spending time with Mama doing grown-up things.  The other day we had an afternoon latte and popcorn party!

Lydia loved her peppermint steamed milk.

Preschool!

About three weeks ago the inevitable happened... Lydia stopped napping!  At almost 2 years on the dot, my little honey decided that she didn't need to nap anymore.  Instead of napping, she now jumps in her crib for 2 hours straight, singing and talking to herself.  Since that very sad and fateful day, Lydia has only been napping every other day, and not necessarily for the 2 blissful hours of peace that I used to enjoy.  I'm still dealing with the loss, but to ease our transition into nap-lessness I signed Lydia up for a one day a week preschool (technically they call it "Mother's Day Out") at a local church.  It's a very sweet program that Lydia's cousin also attends.  

Here is Lydia on her first day of preschool, last Wednesday.

She was so proud of her new lunch bag!  She wanted to carry it everywhere.

Preschool is from 9am to 2:30pm.  The kids all bring lunches and blankets/stuffed animals for nap time.  Apparently last week Lydia absolutely flipped out during nap time, but she did much better today.  She didn't sleep but rested quietly with her favorite sidekick Woof.  She LOVES going to preschool, and I'm enjoying a little bit of quiet to get a few things done around the house on Wednesdays.  That will all change, though, in about 9 days when Baby #2 is expected to make her debut!

Christmas at the Zoo

On Sunday afternoon we took Lydia to the zoo where there was a special Christmas event for children.  We met up beforehand with my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, Lydia's two cousins, and Lydia's great aunt.  We are all really enjoying living near family.  It's special to see how much Lydia loves her extended family... particularly her uncles.  Every uncle is known simply as "Uncle," and whenever we see an uncle, Lydia can't stop talking about it for days afterwards...

We started off in a party room with lots of snacks and cookies.  Lydia was VERY into the cookies and hot chocolate.  I'm embarrassed to say that I let her eat 3 incredibly large cookies.  She also liked snuggling up with her Uncle Daniel.

Lydia and her cousins were not fans of Santa Claus...

The kids wouldn't go near him!

Lydia and her cousin engaged in a not-so-covert operation to steal presents from under the tree.

After the kids were sufficiently sugared-up, we bundled up to tour the zoo and look at the lights.

We saw a walrus, polar bear, penguins, flamingoes and even a real reindeer!

We ended at the shark tank... where John actually touched the sharks!

Special thanks to Aunt Myrta for the lovely photos!

Packing Up the Apartment

Packing up our New York apartment was a ton of work.  WAY more work than I ever imagined.  Empty boxes were a great toy for Lydia.  

 But, the boxes only entertained Lydia for maybe 30 minutes each day.  After that, she got bored and wanted more action (that is to say, she started unpacking all the boxes I had already packed).

However, we struck gold when I took out all her old baby things.  Her baby gym provided hours and hours of entertainment!

Yes, Lydia's a little large for it, but she was amused (which means I had time to pack!).

Lydia also had a blast with her Snap-N-Go car seat stroller frame.  She loaded up all her animals and took them for a spin around the apartment!

Back on the Bandwagon!

After a long hiatus, I'm back on the blogging bandwagon!  There's a lot to catch up on: a move to Indianapolis and baby girl #2 due at Christmas.  I'll write a longer post later, but for now, here are a few photos.  

Nothing better than a little basket time with all the stuffed animals!

"Bible"

After months of living with a one word vocabulary ("Dada"), Lydia has finally made some verbal progress. Two weeks ago (with great encouragement from Dada), she finally chose to say "Mama."  Now, Lydia can also say "Bible."

A New Addition...#4!

Well, we've finally done it.  We've become a four stroller family!  I never thought that it would happen, but we broke down and bought an umbrella stroller to round out our fleet.  Our stroller fleet previously consisted of the infant car seat stroller frame (currently loaned out to some friends), our craigslist jogging stroller, and our "neighborhood stroller" (which has a large basket for groceries).  Yes, it's totally ridiculous that we have four strollers, but it's really not that uncommon in the city.

On subway trips, I've been taking Lydia in our front pack and then carrying the diaper bag on my back.  Now that she's 23lbs, I've been finding myself sweaty and exhausted after lugging her (and any purchases) around for a couple hours.  Our new umbrella stroller is just 8lbs and I can carry Lydia in it up and down the subway stairs.

I assembled the new stroller during Lydia's nap.  When she woke up, she was absolutely overcome with delight.  She insisted that I take her for a ride around the apartment.

And then she cried when I took her out of the stroller.

So far, we've really enjoyed the stroller.  It makes subway trips so much less tiring, and has made running errands much easier.  So, after writing this post, I just realized that we actually own five strollers!!  I completely forgot about the "Sit and Stroll" which is a toddler car seat on wheels that we use for travel.   This is ridiculous!

Peanut Butter Cracker Craziness

Yesterday I gave Lydia a new snack: peanut butter on Ritz crackers.  She loved it!

 First, she systematically licked all the peanut butter off the crackers.

During the peanut butter extraction process, most of the peanut butter ended up on her upper lip.

More please!

Yum!

Poor baby- just 12 hours after her peanut butter cracker snack, Lydia was battling the stomach flu.  She's still not feeling well and has barely eaten anything today.  Maybe I'll see if she's interested in some peanut butter crackers when she wakes up from her nap.  

Big Woof

Aunt Christy came over on Sunday and brought Lydia a very special gift...

A giant, fluffy stuffed dog!  Lydia loves him.  As soon as she saw the dog, she took off running!

Lydia smothered the dog (which we're now calling "Big Woof") with snuggles and kisses.

The face of pure delight!

Ever since Sunday, Lydia and Big Woof have been inseparable.

Every morning when I get her out of her crib, she barks ("arf arf") to indicate that she wants Big Woof to come out of the crib with her.