Lydia is 17 months!

This month Lydia has added a lot of words to her vocabulary. She has learned Papa, Banana (Nana), Purple, Cassie (Caca). She loves to play in the ball pit and with the Little Tykes Minivan in Grandma and Grandpa McKinney's basement. Lydia is still our good little eater!

Claire has learned more sight words and likes to point them out when she sees them. She loves to throw herself around and practice cart wheels, bridges, and handstands from what she learns in her tumbling class. Claire loves to watch all kinds of movies and bake/cook with Grandma Dalrymple.

 

 

 It has been hard to take the girls to the new house while it is under
construction since the girls loves to roll around in the dusty/dirty
floors and run/climb around on all the construction things.

 

The girls love to play dress up with their cousin Nora.

They are Daddy's little princesses!

 

 

Chad took the girls to the Zoo and it looks like
 they had a great time......

 

Lydia is now 16 months!

Our family had a very nice Christmas! It was full of toys for the girls!  We also had a share of heartbreak these past weeks. A dear friend of the family, Al Andresen, who was like our Grandfather passed away unexpectedly when he caught another burst of Pneumonia. A few days following that we made the really tough decision to put down our dog Joe who had been having a hard time with Arthritis and a few heart conditions. Joe would have been 13 in February and he was a great dog. We will hold his memories in our hearts! Claire has randomly came up to me and told me, "oh, we forgot to let Joe out" when she thinks of him. She has also asked me if we could get a cat or a yellow puppy. Thank goodness Lydia has been oblivious to the whole thing so I only have to field questions from Claire.

Lydia has been doing better trying to imitate sounds of words but has not really added any words to her vocabulary yet this month. She is a skilled climber! Her 2 favorite Christmas presents were her Bead Maze Toy and her Little People Princess Castle. Lydia loves to color and try to put together puzzles. She has occasionally said "hi" and "bye".

Lydia loves to copy her big Sister!

Getting ready to go outside and play in the first snowfall!

 

Ice skating at Conagra for Aunt Katie's Birthday.

We made a trip to the Zoo with The Waterman's

 on one of the nicer days this Winter.

Claire has learned a bunch of new stuff at Pre-K. She can now independently count to 100 and is getting really good at learning how to read and write new words every week. Over her winter break she discovered a really fun website to help her in phonics and reading, www.starfall.com. She still loves to watch her favorite movies, practice writing friends and family members names and putting together puzzles. She is able to do about a 48 piece puzzle by herself. She still loves going to her tumbling class and swimming lessons!

Lydia is 15 months!

Lydia is now 15 months old! She still weighed 19 lbs at her 15 month check up visit, which means she has not gained any weight since her first birthday. I am not sure how that happens since she eats everything in sight! We had to move her doctor visit up a few days because she was not feeling well. Now both girls are on the same antibiotic and hopefully Chad and I will not get sick. She just learned how to say, "Ho, Ho, Ho." Lydia loves to give kisses, brush her teeth, climb on the table and most of all have dance parties. For just learning how to walk she is a pretty good dancer!

We went to the Ramada tropics overnight in Des Moines

with Cara & Howie and all the kids

 

Claire has been doing really well in preschool and has started putting together her phonics sounds and learning sight words. The other day I was driving and I heard her spelling Mom and Dad from the back seat. She also knows the, of, and Lydia. I am not sure if she is starting to read or if she is a good guesser when I pause and try to let her finish a sentence or guess a word. She really likes the baby can read books. Claire just started a tumbling class this last month at Elite Cheer and seems to really like it. She is always throwing her self around perfecting her cartwheel, hand stands and forward rolls.
                                      

Claire with her cousin Nora

 

 

Aunt Cassie came out to help us take pictures and Claire had enough!

Santa pictures 2012! Poor Lydia about the third time seeing Santa she was all frowns but no tears.

Santa #1 at Bass Pro Shop

 

Claire did so good! She was reviewing her list with him....

 

Santa #2 at The Police Union Hall

 Lydia loved her present afterwards.

 Santa #3 at Centris

 

 



Claire is 4!

Claire turned 4 last week! We brought cupcakes to Preschool before her birthday to celebrate with her class. We also had a really fun birthday party out at the acreage! We rented her a bouncy house, took the kids on a hay rack ride to find pumpkins, and then decorated them. The kids even got a chance to walk through the Haunted Barn we made for the first time. Claire is really starting to mature. I have already started noticing her playing more contently for longer periods of time. Asking for things more politely. Having big girls conversations and questions all the time. We have started using her turning 4 as motivation to eat all her food at dinner time, stop pottying in her pull-ups at night and be a better listener. She loves swimming lessons and Preschool. Her biggest accomplishment this month is learning my cell phone number. She also keeps getting better at writing her full name! She weighed 35 lbs at the doctors office which makes her 52nd percentile for her weight and at 38.5 inches tall only 26th percentile for her height. She is getting bigger! Claire was a really cute pig for Halloween. This year we went to her Preschool's Fall Festival, and went trick or treating around Great Aunt Julie's office at West Telemarketing.

 

Lydia is almost 14 months and still eats everything in sight. She now loves to play with puzzles and has started trying to mock Claire and us at writing and coloring. She has also started to understand how to play with toys such as rings and shape sorters. Lydia has started to brush her teeth and has 6+ teeth. She had some issues with diaper rash this month and I think we got it under control now. When we took her into the doctor she weighed 19 lbs. Lydia was a really fun cow for Halloween and thank goodness because it was a warm costume and we really had some cold trick or treating events this year. She was a really good sport about wearing a costume this year!

13 Months going on 4......

Now that Lydia had started walking just after her first birthday, I like to say that she is 13 months going on 4 years old. She keeps up with Claire all day long. She is starting to sprout the tips pf her top incisor teeth. Some of her favorite foods are, peas, meat sticks, yogurt and crackers. I tried to teach her sign language but she always grunts and points to get what she wants. Lydia loves to climb, especially up stairs and on chairs. She starts up some more swimming lessons in a few weeks. One of the fun things that Claire has taught Lydia is how to have a dance party! We took Al Andresen and both girls to a new pumpkin patch in Avoca, NE called, Bloom Where you are Planted.

Claire is doing well in Preschool and loves to talk about words. She will ask: what does this word start with? How do you spell this person's name? She will start trying to spell words on signs and ask what word that is? Her Preschool Teacher, Miss Catherine, taught her a song to teach her how to spell our last name and she picked it up so quickly. She is such a know it all and will interrupt Chad and I when we try to spell our last name for other people, it makes me laugh. Claire is improving in her soccer and swimming lessons. Last week I went on a field trip with Claire's preschool class to Vala's Pumpkin Patch.

Lydia is one!

Lydia turned one last week and I can't believe how big she is! This month she started waving to everyone and Chad taught her to "give me a kiss". I tried teaching her to blow a kiss but I think that is confusing her. She loves to clap to the song, "If you're happy, and you know it." This month she sprouted the tips of her 2 front top teeth and her bottom teeth are fully in. She loves to unpack all my bags/boxes at the house for fun and play with Claire and in her kitchen. Claire really likes to carry her around and she is a good sport about it. Lydia is still taking 2 naps a day and is a really good sleeper and eater. Her bad gag reflex is getting a lot better and she enjoys meat sticks and raviolis and other random dinners. She has only taken a few independent steps and should be walking soon.
 

 Lydia's Birthday Pictures :

 

 

 

Lydia's Birthday Party:

 

 

Lydia is 11 months!

Poor Lydia she spent her 11 month birthday yesterday sick! She had temps of around 102 the whole day and I decided to take her to the doctor and they said she checked out ok and it must be something viral. This month she managed to sprout the tips of 2 bottom teeth. She is still pretty tiny, she weighed 17 lbs 3 oz at her doctors appointment and that is 6%. It can be hard to take Lydia out to the acreage because she is so squirmy and can't walk yet, but one of her favorite things to do is to ride passenger in Claire's Pink Power Wheels car. We went to Adventureland in July with our extended family and both girls had a blast. Lydia enjoyed the water park and the only ride that she could ride was the infant ocean. She just started to stand independently this month and I think next month she could be walking for her first birthday.....

Claire had a great time at Adventureland! This year she was finally tall enough to ride some rides. She enjoyed the kids water slides the best. I should know, I went on them with her over 20 times and so did Chad. She also rode the tea cups, hot air balloons, flying dragons, chuck wagon, sky wheel, saw mill splash and some other kiddie rides. This year she was too afraid to ride the Frog hopper ride. The next day she told me she wanted me to take her back to Adventureland and try to ride the Frog hopper ride because now she thought she was ready. It was a really hot trip!