Lydia is 10 months!

10 months has just flown by and it is shocking that I am now planning her 1st Birthday. Lydia started walking behind her push toys this last month and should be walking soon! I really feel like she has grown up quick in the last month. She know says a variety of sounds like dada, gaga, yaya, baba and babbles. Lydia is very easy to entertain and loves to just crawl around the floor and explore. I wish she would stop exploring the dog food and water though. I found Lydia with a mouth full of dog food the other day. She has been doing better at eating some solid foods like puffs, crackers, and she loves ice cream! She still has no teeth! I am thinking one might sprout up in the next month because she chews on her fingers a lot. We took the girls to great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City the day after the 4th of July. I think it was a fun way to beat the heat this Summer. Claire has started to like riding her pink Cadillac Power Wheels car. Claire went to St Roberts Vacation Bible School at the end of June and loved it. She still randomly will be singing the songs from there. Lydia laughs at her Big Sister Claire a lot for the strangest reasons. This morning Claire was throwing herself at a chair and bouncing off of it to make Lydia laugh and it worked. They have their own language and jokes sometimes.

Lydia laughs at the strangest things!

Claire, I don't think you will pass for 10 months.

Nice try!

Lydia is 9 months

 At her 9 month Doctors visit Lydia weighed 17 1bs 1.5 oz (20%) and was 28 inches tall (67%). She started crawling at about 8.5 months and pulling herself up onto things shortly after that. Lydia just started crawling up stairs today, I caught her when she was about five stairs up trying to keep up with Claire. Lydia started her first mommy and me swimming lesson this month and did amazing! She did not cry once and I was able to dunk her underwater 4 times. She is such a trooper she puts up with a lot of sibling rivalry from Claire and is easy to go along with wherever my crazy schedule takes her. She does not like 3rd foods and still has a horrible gag reflex when I try to have her sample solid foods. She does best with yogurt melts. Her first sounds have been ma-ma!

 

She had enough of this sticker!

Claire just signed up for another session of swimming lessons and loves to show off her back float and how she can swim underwater. She loves going out to "help" Chad at the acreage and play with the neighbors grandson Payton. She has so much energy and asks all the time to go out on bike rides. Her new thing this week is to push strollers with me around the neighborhood. She pushes her dolls and I push Lydia. She was a little sad and confused when we sold our house this month and kept asking us to go home. I think she finally gets it and we drive by the old house all the time and make her say bye to it. Claire will ask us multiple times in the day, "What are we going to wake up for?" Meaning what are we going to do tomorrow. This is usually followed by," and then what?" I have to sometimes tell her I do not have the whole day planned out and I don't know. For the most part she tries to share with Lydia and still loves to eat all Lydia's baby foods and rice cereal. She had a really hard time the other day when she had to watch Lydia and I swim. She sat behind the glass with Dad just bawling. She later told me, "I wanted to come in and teach Lydia how to swim too." Claire is great at catching Lydia a few times so that she would not fall off of things and toys and loves to carry her around. I know it is hard to be the big sister sometimes.....

We went to the zoo a few weeks ago with my friend Merry and her 2 daughters:

Claire and Liana holding hands walking

The whole group in the desert. Girl Power!

Lydia is 8 months

Lydia is so close to crawling! She is starting to eat 3rd foods in baby food but still won't eat smaller bits of solid food. Over the last week she has just started pulling herself up on toys. She joined the gym daycare with me this month and has been doing a little better with separation anxiety. But still no teeth! :)

 They are really good friends! Lydia loves to go on

 bike rides and walks with her big sister.

 I started playing with the photo editing features more in these pictures.

 

Claire

Claire has a funny infatuation with gum and speed bumps. She has been getting more conifdent in playing soccer. She likes to spend time out at the acreage playing with her cousin Nora and "helping" Daddy in the afternoons.

Claire loves to ride in Daddy's Jeep!

Claire and Nora playing at the acreage:

Claire's handwriting

Claire has been working really hard on how to write her name. Here are a few samples from Jan and April this year. Now we are working on her writing and spelling Dalrymple. Wish her luck..... :)

This is how claire wrote her name in Jan 2012

                                      This is a sample of Claire writing her name in April 2012

Lydia is 7 months

Lydia is now 7 months old and smiles all the time although has some stranger anxiety still. She has been sitting independently for almost a month and just started scooting backwards when playing on her tummy. She is so curious that she grabs and gets into everything within reach. She has been eating meat baby foods since last month. I just tried to give her some puffs today but she gaged and then threw up, so I will wait a few more weeks before trying it again. Lydia is such a good eater and has really started to favor more solid foods like baby food and rice cereal than her milk. She tried yogurt for the first time this month. She also started screaming and screeching last week and really discovering more of her voice this month. She really watches and studies what her older sister Claire and our dog Joe do. Sometimes Claire and Lydia will go back and forth talking and playing in their own language. Claire can get rough when they play but Lydia still takes it and laughs. Claire is a great big sister and still stops what she is doing to help give Lydia toys or her pacifier. She will also try to diagnose Lydia's crys for me and tell me "I think she wants her pacifier", or "maybe Lydia is hungry," and my favorite " I think she misses Grandma McKinney." I just stopped swaddling Lydia for bedtime a few weeks ago and it has been hard for her and me to get to sleep because now she plays a lot in her crib.

Lydia on Easter

Claire holding Lydia at a baby shower

Lydia is now 6 Months!

Lydia turned 6 months on March 7th. At her doctors appointment she weighed 14 lbs 11 oz (24 %) and was 25.75 inches tall (51%). She is now sitting by herself for longer periods of time, rolling over consistantly and starting to figure out how to crawl. She loves her big Sister Claire! They play together a lot. Lydia even just loves it when Claire talks to her or says her name over and over. Since the weather has been so nice we have started going on bike rides and taking Lydia in a stroller or baby carrier. Lydia has had a lot of stranger anxiety this last month and I also think she has started teething. She can now stand by herself for a little bit while holding onto something.

Sister Pictures:

Claire and Lydia playing in her crib

Claire is reading to Lydia

Grandma Louise took all the grandkids to 

get some updated pictures taken

Cousin Pictures: