Life with Lydia

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Need I say more?

Along with baby always comes more stuff. And in our “modern” society there seems to be lots of stuff the one MUST have for successfully bringing up a child. Well, that’s what they tell us (they being the stores and manufacturers). I agree, we do need some stuff, but not all of it. We’re hoping to keep our baby stuff under control. Here’s an interesting article on the battle with baby-stuff clutter.

BTW, I bought the book by Peter Walsh (my fav guy from TLC). I’ll tell you what I think of it in a future post.

Our little sweetie is 8 weeks today! Happy 8th week, Lydia!

She’s grown so much in so many ways. She seems much older than 8 weeks. This week we’ve heard a few giggles here and there. And yesterday she found her hands! More changes… she’s also gotten super squirmy and has great control over her eyes now. She looked over at Paul yesterday as soon as he walked up to her. Of course she continues to grow well. She’s up to 14 lbs and 23.75 inches long.

Last night Lydia met Tia Ruth and Joaquin (who’d just flown in from Ecuador) and Fabricio and Kelly. Actually, they are the first relatives from the Ecuadorian side of the family that she meets. We had a great time, and they enjoyed meeting Lydia. Paul made fabulous appetizers and dinner (breads, artichoke dip, hummus, lasagna, wilted spinach salad), and then we all feasted on Kelly’s delicious pineapple cake for dessert.

We had another nice visit with Grandma Becky this week. Lydia had a few more adventures. Lydia enjoyed sitting outside while Becky and I worked. And, we went to IKEA and The Container Store. She especially loved IKEA. I guess she IS our daughter.

Yesterday Lydia found her hands. She brings them to her mouth to suck her fist or fingers. She’s also holding onto things now. I’m sure it’s exciting for her to have better control over her hands. Yay Lydia!

Shh… So, here’s my secret. We have the house laptop set up in Lydia’s room by the glider. Since we spend so many hours here during the day (and night), we needed something to do while waiting for her to go to sleep or finish eating. Laptop was the answer. This is my window to the outside world (so I don’t go cuckoo from being mostly home-bound). Plus when we “share screen”, I can use the iMac downstairs from right here! (Now if I could only figure out how to do housework from this chair…)

I’m getting more and more brave each day about going out with Lydia. Today we visited everybody at work. We saw Steve, Sara, Sylvia, and, of course, daddy. It was great to see everyone at Synaxis, and everyone was happy to see Lydia.

Lydia was a trooper. She did well at work and had a good ride home. She prefers the car in motion rather than stopped waiting at the light. When we’re stopped we do a maneuver… hit the brake and let go, hit the brake and let go, and etc. People must think I’m nuts, but the rocking helps soothe Lydia. Whatever it takes. We’ll visit again now that we’ve had such a successful first visit. Woohoo!

Yesterday we took Lydia out for her first shopping trip. It’s funny that an errand can be something to REALLY look forward to. Being at home all day sure changes one’s perspective about what “treats” are. We went to Best Buy and to Office Depot. It was great to get out and go to a store. We were a bit nervous about the whole situation. Would she scream unconsolably at the store and make everyone turn around and stare? Would we turn into THOSE PEOPLE? Well, I’m happy to report that at the store she got only a little fussy. She did great. And, thank goodness for the chupy (Spanish for binkie). It kept her quiet until she went to sleep in her stroller. Yay. With one success behind us I feel confident about having another. What excitement shall we have next?!