Lydia is ONE!!!

Happy FIRST Birthday to Lydia Kate! This girl is truly a joy. She fills our lives with lots of love, smiles, and snuggles. Before she was born, I couldn't picture what life would be like with another child. And while it has definitely been an adjustment, I cannot imagine our family without her! I hope she's always as happy and friendly as she is today. We love our Baby Girl!

At 12 Months, Lydia...

• Weighs about 18 lbs 12 oz (32nd percentile) It seems like she hasn't gained much weight since her last appointment, but she's eating well and still on the growth curve, so the pediatrician isn't concerned.
• Measures about 30.75 inches long (93rd percentile!!!)
• Wears size 3 diapers and 12 - 18 month clothing
• Took her first steps on Nov. 8!!! She has been standing up unassisted for a few weeks, and finally ventured out to take a few steps in the hallway near the laundry room. She's done it a few more times since! After taking steps she is so proud of herself.
• Still does her spider-monkey crawl as her main mode of transportation.
• Has 9 teeth. She cut her first molar (bottom, left) on Nov. 7th. I think the other three are not far behind. Teething has really messed up her sleep. She's made so much progress, but she must really be in pain, because she's back to waking constantly through the night. However, she's still napping and putting herself to sleep initially, so not all is lost. I really think she'll go back to sleeping better after the other molars break through. I haven't slept in a year, so what's a few more weeks, right?
• Loves to dance! Anytime she hears music, whether from tv, a toy, or Jacob, she starts dancing! She also loves wear shoes, eat, drag purses and bags around and rock her baby dolls.
• Continues to be a little chatterbox. She says muh (more), ga-ga/ga-guh (Jacob), Mama and Mommy, Dada and Daddy, yeah, no, nigh-nigh, ba-ba (bottle), and Papa.
• Loves to point as another means of communication. Her favorite thing to do is point at food and say "muh" and nod her head for extra emphasis!
• Finally has enough hair for a teeny-tiny hair clip!
• Continues to love being around people. She waves at every stranger we pass in public! I love watching people smile when they look at her. She is a happy girl!

Here's to many more Happy Birthdays, Sweet Girl!

Mommy's Girl

Its been a LONG couple of weeks for Mommy! Not only has Lydia cut another molar (bottom, right - more on that later!), but she's also been sick since her birthday. She's had so much snot that even if she can go to sleep, she doesn't stay that way. If I leave her to cry, then she just gets even more snotty, so I've just been letting her sleep propped up with me. Thankfully, once she's settled more upright, she's been sleeping through the night. She's even been making it until wake-up (7am) without wanting to eat. Up until now she's been wanting milk around 5 am and then going back to sleep. She's a Mommy's Girl to begin with, but add teething pain, over-tiredness, and illness and she pretty much wants to be physically attached to me at all times.

When she isn't insisting to be within half an inch of my face, she's been finding other fun things to do, such as getting her hands on Jacob's sucker...

And pulling all the Kleenexes out of their box and taking a humidifier apart while I was dealing with a poop-tastrophe (thanks, Jacob) in the bathroom.

She had her 12 month well-baby check 2 Thursdays ago. The good news is she got a great health report. The bad news is she had a bad reaction to the flu vaccine, which was very scary. She woke up during the night shaking uncontrollably. It lasted for the longest 10 minutes ever. Our peditrician checked with the Vaccine Registry, and learned that that shaking has been a commonly reported side effect with this year's vaccine. I'm not sure we'll take her to get the booster next month.

I have been desperate to get out of the house and have some adult company, so a couple of Fridays ago we went out to eat with Meme and Daddy. Jacob didn't nap that afternoon and fell asleep on the way home. I can probably count on one hand the number of times he's fallen asleep in the car, so I had to document it! :)

And to finish out last week, I finally tackled a HUGE project I've been thinking about doing for a while now. The kids have so many toys! In some ways they've taken over our house, so I decided to do a huge purge/organization overhaul of every toy and book in our house.

First I gathered all the toys and books in the living room. I went through each item and decided whether or not to toss it, donate it, or keep it.

Then I took all the "keeps" and organized them by likeness. After that was done, I sorted the toys into 4 separate bins. Each bin has a few items from each category.

The plan is to pull one bin out at a time. So the kids still have all the toys and books they love, but they're just not in every crevice of our house now. The idea is that getting a new bin out will be exciting and fun, because there will be "new" toys to play with and books to read. Right now it seems like so many of their books and toys get overlooked because there's just too much out at once. We'll see how it goes! Of course some things like the play kitchen, train table, and Legos will stay out all the time. I'm sure we'll have to adjust some things as we go, but I'm so excited about having less toy clutter covering the floors! I'm also looking forward to a faster clean up at the end of each day!

So yay for actually completing a project!

Birthday Celebrations!

We kicked off last week with the time change. I used to love "falling back" and gaining an extra hour to sleep in, but that is now just a distant memory. The kids were up and moving full steam ahead at 6 am! YAY for an extra hour to play with fun new birthday toys!

Scott and I decided we needed a treat for surviving the seemingly never-ending day, so we went out to lunch at Culvers. Lydia wore her new birthday outfit from Hattie and Laney. It is too cute! She's starting to follow Jacob's lead when it comes to smiling.

On Monday, Jacob had a dentist appointment. I was really dreading it, considering the amount of screaming, thrashing, and holding down that was involved last time. But by some miracle, it was a completely different experience this time. He was such a big, brave boy! He wore my broken sunglasses, and cracked up everyone we passed in the office. He said he didn't like the bright lights and needed something to cover his eyes...well, eye. He also immediately loved Mrs. Tracy, his hygienist. I've never seen him take to ANYBODY so quickly, much less a complete stranger. Its so nice to not be sweating, and slightly embarrassed, after leaving an appointment!

On Tuesday we headed to the polls to vote! Jacob was a big fan of the stickers.

For the record, I'm very against taking selfies, probably because I end up looking like this...

Scott and I were very disheartened by many of the election results, especially the presidential race. We sat in disbelief as we watched election coverage and state after state came in for Donald Trump. We just don't understand why so many would vote for such a dangerous, hate-filled man. I don't know what's worse: the fact that our nation's future leader brags about sexually assaulting women, makes fun of people with disabilities, and shows utter disrespect for religions and ethnicities outside the realm of white and Christian, or the fact that even after knowing all this, people STILL voted for him. Don't get me wrong. We're not Hillary fans. We felt she was FAR from being a good candidate either, but we also felt she was a million times safer than him. Having said all this, we've slowly accepted there is nothing that can be done about it now. We are committed to praying for our country and our president. We just hope he doesn't do too much permament damage during his time in office and hold out a tiny bit of hope that he can do some good.

Even Jacob was stressed out watching the election results!

On a cuter note, Jacob and Lydia are really into hugging these days!

Even though I woke up feeling very somber on Wednesday morning, I was determined to focus on the much brighter occasion - celebrating Lydia's first birthday! I made pancakes for breakfast and then we went to the Hendersonville Library for some play time fun. The other big news is that Lydia took her first steps the night before her birthday!!! The best part was that Scott got to see her do it, too! He doesn't really get to see many true firsts, so it was a very special moment!

Lydia loves the little chair Mama Dot sent her for her birthday! She has been taking over Jacob's for the last few weeks, so he was really excited about it, too. We also re-gifted the alligator walker that Jacob got for his first birthday from Mama Dot. It was a big hit, as well!

This might be my new favorite of these two!

On Friday night we continued the birthday celebrations, but for Mommy this time! Meme made me a delicious dinner of all my favorites, which included fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, black eye peas, Sister Shubert rolls, and chocolate cake. Yummy!!!

Then on Saturday I had a wonderfully relaxing spa day with my mom and Ryan. I told Scott the only thing I really wanted for my birthday was to have a quiet day to myself, so he stayed home with the kids. I enjoyed a massage and hanging out in the hot tubs! It was really nice to have a break from wiping bottoms and noses all day!

We finished out the weekend with my actual birthday on Sunday. It is tradition to go the Asiana Grand Buffet on our birthdays, and I was sad to miss last year. (I could have gone, but I didn't think it would be a kind move for my stomach having just given birth.) So we loaded up the whole circus this year and off we went. Jacob was a big fan of the ice cream machine, and Lydia loved the egg rolls and jello. I bribed them with ice cream to take a picture with me.

 32 is definitely off to a great start!