Lydia - 16 Months

Lydia is over 16 months old already! We love our sweet girl and she has brought such joy to our lives. I have compiled a list of things about Lydia right now that I thought I'd share:)

Lydia signs a lot. Here are the signs she knows....

More

Please

Thank You

Milk

All Done

Diaper

Help

Bath

Her vocabulary is growing each day but here are her current words...

Uh-oh

Ball

Hi

Bye

Nigh-Nigh

Drink - says this for both water and milk

Bonk - when she hits her head on something

Thank You

Dog

Kitty

Cheese

Done

Sock

Baby

Up

Other Random things about Lydia right now...

-Lydia prefers to crawl. She loves to stand and push things. She'll let go and get excited that she's standing on her own and then fall over from giggling. She can hold on to your finger and walk and has taken 5 steps on her own.

-She loves to eat! The girl will eat just about anything you put before her.

-Loves to copy Evan

-Sleeps 11-12 hours each night and generally naps 1 1/2 to 2 hours during the day.

-Hugs and Kisses her baby dolls and bears (and us)

-Recently learned how to climb on the footstool and the couch

-Likes to look at books

-Capable of throwing a nice big fit when she doesn't get her way

-can stack blocks up to 3 high

-learning to use her silverware

-loves to take her socks off, but still gets excited about putting socks & shoes back on to go "bye"

-likes the idea of drawing with crayons or chalk but usually gets them taken away because she just wants to eat them

-loves to ride in the stroller

Recent Pictures....

Interviews with Evan

Two years ago, I did an interview with Evan. Today I asked him the same questions. Here are his answers at 2 years and then below that are his answer at 4 years old. I'm not sure if it was just his mood or what but apparently he answered in sentences better at 2 years old than at 4!

Interview with Evan, 2 years old.....

What is your name? Evan Jacob Searby

How old are you? I'm 2

When is your birthday? August 20 August I like chocolate cake on my birthday

Do you have a brother or sister? no

What do you like to play with? fireman, firetruck with a farmer in it

What is your favorite color? red

Who are some of your friends? I don't have friends, they went bye-bye

What is your favorite movie? Alabama Movie (????)

What is your favorite book? Carousel Book (???)

What do you want to be when you grow up? um, I don't know

What do you like to do at church? I like to play at the church

Which train is your favorite? This one (as he points to his wooden melissa & doug train)

Do you take naps? uh-huh I do Why? I don't know

What do you want for Christmas? I want some playdough

What is mommy getting for Christmas? I don't know what you're getting for Christmas, What are you getting? I think you're getting a present!

Do you know how much I love you? I don't know

Interview with Evan, 4 years old....

What is your name? Evan

How old are you? 4

When is your birthday? August 24

Do you have a brother? no

What do you like to play with? my steam shovel

What is your favorite color? red

Who are some of your friends? Megan & Josiah

What is your favorite movie? Boz

What is your favorite book? Mike Mulligan

What do you want to be when you grow up? a policeman

What do you like to do at church? play

Do you take naps? yes Why? Because I'm tired.

What do you want for Christmas? Toy Story 4 (Maybe he knows something I don't?)

What is mommy getting for Christmas? What ARE you getting for Christmas? A new blanket?

Do you know how much I love you? You love me up to the moon and back. And I love you up to the farthest star and back.

Lydia - 9 Months

Lydia was 9 months old last week. She is 28 1/4 inches tall (75th percentile) and only weighs 16lbs 13 oz (20th percentile). I actually asked the nurse to re-weigh her because I was certain she weighed more than that!

Lydia is still such a super-sweet baby. She tends to be a mama's girl but loves to snuggle with her daddy and giggle at her brother. She is definitely more laid back than Evan and therefore figuring things out a lot later than he did. Here are some random notes from the past month...

*She became a great roller. She can roll to get whatever she has her eye on. According to Evan..."Me & Lydia are good rollers. We should have a rolling class. People who don't know how to roll could come and we would teach 'em."

*She's finally sitting up by herself. She still tends to tip backwards when she's wearing cloth diapers.

*Lydia got her bottom two teeth....3 months earlier than Evan got teeth! She's now working on popping the top two through.

*She loves the pool! Kicking is her favorite thing to do in the water. When she's not kicking, I can hold her in the snuggli and she'll fall asleep while we're still in the pool.

*She is easily entertained. She sat on my lap for a VBS meeting, playing with one toy for over an hour. Just today she sat in the stroller at the museum for over two hours.

*Lydia has finally decided that food is not so bad after all. After 2 months of force-feeding her, I think there are a few things she's decided she likes: bananas, oatmeal, and green beans. I continue to try new things with her and she continues to close her mouth and look away...or just slap the spoon out of my hand.

*She is learning to take milk from her sippy cup and is doing much better than she was a month ago. She never took a bottle so we went straight to the sippy cup.

*Peek-a-boo is one of her favorite games, especially if its with Evan

*She started clapping.

*If you take something away from her, she now gets mad and you have to re-direct her. She's also started taking toys away from Evan which he doesn't appreciate.

*Evan really loves her and wants to give her hugs and kisses quite often. He also likes to help feed her and is fascinated by her poop. He usually asks what color it is.

(I'll try to add some pictures later;)

Packaging Pillow

Today Evan was trying to pop an air-filled packaging pillow (see example photo below). He first tried to use his hands. When that didn't work he tried his knees. Standing on it didn't work either, nor did jumping on it.

What next? He tried his head!

Before I could stop him, he smacked his forehead on the plastic which really meant smacking it square on the floor. He came up crying and asking for his ice pack.

I really had a hard time not laughing.

Some Notes about Evan

Evan is such a fun 3 year old! His favorite thing to do is pretend. You could give the kid a cardboard box and he would soon be a robot, a sea creature, or even a super hero. I wish I could just sit with a pen all day and write down everything that comes out of his mouth. I'd be sure to run out of ink before the end of the day:)

Some of his favorite toys right now include construction trucks, fire trucks, Matchbox/Hot Wheel cars, & of course his dress-up clothes. He's learning to play games like Dominoes, Uno, Crazy 8's, Memory, & Go Fish.

Evan loves to sing....mostly his own made-up songs. He is great with rhymes so his songs end up including a ton of made-up words that rhyme with whatever he's singing about. When you ask him what a word means, he'll make up a definition. One of his favorite songs right now is Wibbly Wobbly Woo. He likes it when we sing the beginning and he gets to fill in the end. When we're riding in the car he generally asks to listen to "Big Rock Candy Mountain" (Lisa Loeb version). Otherwise, if we're in the car, I have to be careful what is on the radio because he'll repeat it!

Evan is still a picky eater. He likes his food separated on his plate and usually throws a fit if things touch each other. The kid won't eat pizza very well but yet he'll eat a handful of mushrooms out of the can! Today I cut up chicken nuggets (that he wouldn't eat yesterday!) & put them on a toothpick and called them chicken-kabobs and he thought they were wonderful. I really think its all about the mood and not necessarily the taste.

Evan is still napping every afternoon. I am thankful for the 1 1/2 - 2 hours of silence each day!

We've been playing outside a TON lately. Its been beautiful. This morning was even cool enough for jeans and long-sleeves. Evan tried golfing....he got a little angry when he couldn't hit the ball very far. He started hitting the ground with his club just like Happy Gilmore. I couldn't help but laugh a little:)

We also got out the sidewalk chalk. This is Evan's jellyfish that he drew...

And here is his "Non-tentacled sea creature that you can pet".....

And here is Evan getting eaten by the shark that he drew...

What a fun kid! We sure love him:)

A Loud Toucan, 2 Worms, and some Squid

After nap yesterday Evan said....

"Mom, I just couldn't sleep. There's a toucan outside making a lot of noise."

While playing outside this morning, Evan found two worms. He named them "Wormy" & "Squirmy." Very appropriate.

During snack time today...

"Hey mom, do you want to try one of my magic pretzels? When you eat them they turn into squid!"

Porch Make-Over

Joel's parents came for a visit a couple weekends ago. Joel and his mom had a great time giving our porch a much-needed make-over! Thank you Linda for your hard work and for donating the treasures that you found:)

Here is what one side of the porch looked like. It always seemed to be over-taken with toys...

Now we have an awesome table to eat on! Joel and Linda found an old sewing machine base at a garage sale then picked up the round, tiled, top at a thrift store.....

I wanted to keep the chairs with the red cushions so Joel painted the metal brown and they look SO much better...

The other side of the porch had a random table and chairs just barely big enough to eat a meal on...

We left the green chair but added a new rug and trunk. The trunk contains all the toys but can be used for a footstool or add a tray and you have a place to set your drink....

Its the perfect time to use the porch! The weather has been beautiful and we've been trying to eat all of our meals out there.