My Baby & Me

Almost every morning, we go outside to give Baby a walk in the stroller. Lydia makes sure she is seated properly, and then away we go. It freaks me out a little bit that Lydia has her baby, because she talks about her baby, and I think, "no, you're the baby!"

We went to the swing, and Lydia didn't want to swing herself at all! She just wanted to push Baby!

Lydia will take Baby everywhere, including the highchair, where sometimes she'll try to feed her. Baby gets her clothes washed too.

Good Morning!

Wake up, sleepyheads! Time to take your head off your pillow!

Have a good day! ~Lydia

Goats, Golf, & Pumpkins

One of the main attractions at Tanner's Orchard, besides the apples, is the goats. The cute goats have their own bridge that takes them up and over the walkway and down to the other side.

Lydia was startled at first to be so close to one goat.

But then you can see she smiled and even reached out to it. It was a really cold day on Thursday.

Eventually Lydia warmed up to the idea of getting out of the stroller and exploring the playground that had a mini golf course.
The weatherman said we'd get a "significant warm up" on Saturday, and we did. It was a very nice day to use our grill outside and go to the Morton Pumpkin Festival. Did you know that 80% of all canned pumpkin comes from Libby's in Morton, IL? Pumpkin ice cream was a hit. Yes, Lydia still likes to eat with her hands sometimes, in addition to a spoon, or "spoo," as Lydia seems to only be able to say the first sound of a word. The pumpkin chili was sold out; we will have to go earlier next year to find out what that tastes like.

Lydia pushing Kinsey

Boat ride with Great-Grandma Doris

Happily swinging with her "bae-bae"

Kisses with Kinsey, Grandma Jan, Grandpa Bruce

Miss Stubborn

Whee!

Ah, the slide. She loves going down the slide.


But she thinks she wants to go up it too. I tell her the slide is only for going down, but she keeps climbing up and getting frustrated because she slips down.
Here, the ramp is for going up. I demonstrate. But this is her quickly moving down. No, Lydia, the slide is for going down; the ramp is for going up. The other kids at the playground won't let you climb up the slide when they are sliding down. I try to guide her up. I reiterate simply. My butt nearly gets stuck demonstrating. But she absolutely will not stop trying to walk up the slide and will continue to refuse to climb the ramp. Ooh, this girl is stubborn.

last weekend of August

We had a wonderful weekend when Forrest, Melissa, Colin, & Rachel came to visit. We met at the Peoria Chiefs baseball game and made it through the 7th inning with getting scolded to stay off the stairs and fence only once by the safety police. On Saturday morning, Ben hauled us over to the Forrest Park Nature Center where we began our hike up, down, up, down, and up to Grand View Drive. While we all huffed and puffed, Lydia cruised along comfortably on Forrest's back for the first part; he said she was lighter than the air tanks he used to carry as a firefighter. Then Colin picked up the pack and serenaded Lydia with marching cadences. Oh, what good sports they are. Ben took Lydia for the way back, but in this picture, she's hiding behind Forrest.

We came back to the house to grill hamburgers, and then Lydia just about put herself to bed. That gave us girls some fun shopping time at Grand Prairie, and the guys a chance to play a few games of Scrabble.

In case you visited this site for a picture in which you can actually see Lydia... well, here's one from this morning...

another weekend report

"Hello?"

Lydia's always on the phone, either using our cells or anything that remotely resembles a phone.

Ben putting together a workbench for the garage.


Lydia got so excited whenever Dad drilled. She seems to like the drill sound like she likes the vacuum cleaner sound...a little weird?

Spending a little time with chalk and the sidewalk.