Life with Lydia

Lydia has found the eject button on the DVD player. The button does two things now. It opens the player and scares the heck out of Lydia. Poor baby. She cries unconsolably after that. Lots of hugging and a walk outside is about the only cure. I’m trying to teach her now that it’s nothing to be scared of, but I’m sure that will take a while. I guess this is one of the many phases she’ll be going through.

Last week Lydia watched President Obama’s historic inauguration along with the rest of the world. She played games, giggled, and did her usual during the event. We had everyone from Synaxis over, too, so we had a fun inauguration party.

Lydia heard that potatoes are good for the complexion, hair… just about anything, so she lathers it head to toe when she can. Here is our sweetie loving dinner tonight.

We played outside today since it’s been a nice day. Lydia walked around picking up leaves and discovering. Lydia loved it!

We went shopping at IKEA again today. Lydia loves browsing and is content discovering all at her height. We’re glad she doesn’t want to take things home yet.

Lydia now gives kisses, mostly to Charly and sometimes to us. She’s a sweetie.

Our little Lydia continues to amaze us in what she learns and understands.

She knows lots of words now. She understands them and can point at what they are if asked. She knows Charly, cat, Claude, Henri, baby Eugenio (her doll), block, open, close, attic, monkey, book, apple, banana, wave, hi, hello, bye, maisy book, light, floor, and ceiling. I’m sure there are some I’ve forgotten.

From time to time you’ll hear her say hello (”heddo” “henno” or the like) or repeat a word like cat (”at”) or several like yellow block (”ya ba”). She also loves yelling “aaaaaa” at the cats. We think it’s her immitation of Claude meowing loudly as he does all too often.

Lydia has learned to hug her stuffed animals. She holds them, twists, and says “mmmm”.

Lydia still loves music and dances a lot. She bops her head, moves her arms and now twists at the waist. She’ll be salsa dancing in no time!

She walks super well now. Rather quickly and with no assistance. She can turn mid walk and avoid obstacles. She slows down and is more cautious when she sees a change in flooring. Funny.

I think that’s it for now.

This weekend we went shopping with Lydia. On Saturday to Bed Bath and Beyond then to IKEA on Sunday. She loved both trips.

Lydia’s not a fan of the stroller so she walked the stores (part of the time, at least). She looked and acted like any other shopper, touching things with deep interest and inspecting all the goods. She was very gentle, taking little off the shelves.

She’s a very friendly, confident little person, and it’s obvious when we go places. One lady who saw her commented to her friend about Lydia, “She’s going to rule the world.”

Lydia loves her bears, Charly and Schroeder. Schroeder plays sweet, sweet music that she loves (thanks juju!). And she’s always felt a special kinship with Charly since Oliver and Britta gave him to her.

They both are part of her sleep ritual now. And any time she wakes she turns Schroeder on and plays with both bears. Sweet.

Each night we read to Lydia from her favorite book, the Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme book that she got from Grandma Becky for Christmas. She loves the rhymes and illustrations so much that she’s completely mesmerized by each page. And if it’s a sing-songy rhyme, she bops her head to it like it’s a song. Cute