On March 2, 2008, at 3:05 pm, our lives changed forever with the birth of our sweet daughter, Lydia. After 18 years together, Paul and I finally decided to take the plunge into parenthood. So now we share our life with our daughter.
Lydia started showing remorse a few weeks ago. It seems that 20 months might be early for this sort of thing. I’m not sure. If she accidentally hurts us, she pats us, looks sad, and says “saawy”. Or sometimes if she gets reprimanded, she looks down and looks sad. Interesting to see this sort of thing develop.
Our little one turned 20 months recently, and she’s changing EVERY day now. Yesterday she made big progress in showing her problem solving skills. Paul and Lydia were playing in our room, when Lydia asked Paul to help her on the bed. He said, “You can do it yourself, you don’t need my help.” So, she thought a bit, put her finger up by her face and said “dtoo, be back”. She went to the living room and promptly came back with her “dtoo” (stool) in her hand. She placed it by the bed, stepped on it, and got up on the bed! Amazing how she put all that together so easily. What a smarty pants!
In the last month she’s also made great strides in learning her alphabet. She’s very interested in letters and points them out on signs, on cars, on license plates, in the parking lot, at the park, etc. She knows about 12 of them (A, B, C, D, F, H, I, M, O, P, Q, Y, Z), and recites the alphabet with us. She’ll either repeat the letter we just said or she’ll say the following letter! Yes, the following letter! Amazing. She’s also learned to recognize certain words, like “mom”, “dad”, and “lydia”.
She’s talking much more now. She’ll comment on things and point things out. Some phrases and words she says are: “All done,” “Be back”, “bye bye”, “milk”, “mas”, “oatmeal”, “bed”, “bath”, “heavy”, “Enom” (Elmo), “keykey” (cookie, as in monster or the sweet), etc. There’s also the cute, sing-songy, high pitched “thea it is!” which melts your heart. And the sweetly toned “daaaaaadeee”, “baaaabyyyy”, “Eeeeenom”, when she’s looking for her dad, or her doll, or Elmo. She’s been putting a few words together for a few months now. She’s also very pleased when we understand what she’s saying and frustrated when we don’t.
I know everyone always says this, but it’s crazy how quickly they grow up!
Today is Lydia’s first day of preschool. I took her into her classroom, she asked to get down and immediately started playing. So, I left. I never expected what was next. I could hardly contain myself as I walked to the car. I didn’t think I’d cry, but I did. Don’t know why, but I did. I could hardly think this morning, too. I guess it’s cause our baby is growing up! I’m sure she’ll love school, so that makes it all better. 
It’s been some time since we’ve had an actual update about Lydia. So here it goes…
She’s now not only running but getting quite skilled at climbing stairs. She’s been working on this for a few months now. She still climbs using her hands, but now there’s speed. And, she’s working on going down, too. We still spot her, as she’s not an expert, but I’m guessing it won’t be long before she is.
Lydia is now a great climber. She climbs all over the playgrounds and now can climb on all the living room chairs and sofa.
Talking is something that she’s still working on. She loves to say “this” (which is more like “issss”) and point at things to ask what it is. Now she’s started pointing at things while in the car. She loves pointing out trucks. Man, she loves trucks. We always watch the garbage truck go by, and anything else, for that matter.
Other things she says are “yes” and “juice” (which sounds more like “jssss” or just “ssss”). She’ll say “ous” for outside. One day she said “mas”. Anything that ends in “s” is a favorite for her.
Lydia is getting good at communicating. She uses a combination of talking, pointing, grunting, waving, and nodding. She goes to her chair and nods (translation= I’m hungry). She points to her ipod and speakers and nods (translation= I want to listen to my music). She points to the chupi and nods (translation= I want the chupi) and so on and so forth. When she wants to go somewhere she points and says “isss” (this). If we follow her she’ll show us just what she wants. She waves when she’s ready to leave. She says “ssss” for juice when she’s thirsty.
She’s also learning to sing with Daddy. He sings “row, row, row your boat” and shakes the maracas book. And then Lydia says “ra, ra, ra” while shaking her hand. Cute.
Today I walked into the living room from the kitchen, and what do I find? Lydia standing in the middle of the living room chair (smiling from ear to ear). Apparently, she had climbed from her booster seat on the floor, to the footstool, over the arm of the chair, and into it. Ay ay ay. And she does this very quickly. I moved the footstool, but who knows what she’ll figure out next. Oh boy.
Here are a few snaps Paul got today.
Happy Birthday, Lydia!
Today Lydia is 1. At 3:05 pm she will be exactly one year old! What a difference a year makes. Last year, whew, was very different for us. And now Lydia is walking (practically running) and starting to talk.
We celebrated her birthday last Saturday with friends and family. I made her birthday cake, and Grandma Sandy and Abuelito helped us prepare for the party (shopping, decorating, cleaning, organizing, cooking, babysitting, whew!). Thanks to both of them for all their work!
Lydia had a ball! At first she was a bit overwhelmed by all the people, but once she got over that she LOVED it. She loved all the decorations and balloons (or as she says it “ba”). She especially loved opening the presents. She learned quickly how to remove the tissues, and the whole event was full of “oh”s and “wow”s from Lydia. She also LOVED her birthday cake, asking for more when she was done.
Everyone enjoyed the food and fun at the party, especially Lydia, so that made it even more special.
Happy birthday, sweetie! You’ve added so much richness and happiness to our lives. We feel so lucky to have you in our little family! We look forward to many more fun birthday celebrations! We love you! (Love, Mama and Daddy, aka “Ada”)
Click here to see even more pictures from Lydia’s birthday party. BTW, we’re working on editing videos from her party, so look for videos coming soon!
Lydia loves talking on the “phone”. She’ll pick up a phone, remote control, or similar toy/item, put it up to her shoulder and babble loudly. Funny, I didn’t think I used the phone that much, but apparently enough that she’s figured out how it works, kinda.
And, last week Lydia while playing pat-a-cake with Grandma Becky, Lydia paused the game, got down, picked out a book from the shelf, and brought it back to Grandma. It was her pat-a-cake book. Funny how she knew exactly which book she needed for the game. What a smarty pants!
Today Lydia started saying one of her kitty’s names, “Henri”, though her version sounds more like “on-ra” which is close to how we say it (the french pronunciation). I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that she also says “hi” and “hello”. Funny that most of her words start with “h”.
Lydia found a booster seat on the floor this weekend (one Grandma Becky brought up) and decided it was a good chair for her to sit in… it was just her size. She taught herself how to sit in it. She worked on it for about 10 minutes until she figured it out. She’s so proud of herself now. Every time she sits in the chair all by herself she sports a huge grin and pride just oozes from her being. She’s such a big girl now!
Here is our sweetie toddling around yesterday. She gets better and better every day.
Watch video of Lydia walking