5 months old

On Christmas Day little Lydia turned 5 months old! It seems like this time has just flown by! I love fall and all the holidays it brings (and of course football season), but I am ready for things to slow down!

Things she is doing:

-rolling over both ways

-laughing often and always with the sweetest gummy smile

-sleeping from 7pm- 7am and taking 2 naps (10-12 and 2-4) a day...praise God!!

-watching her brothers EVERY move!!

-grasping at and holding on to toys

-finding and playing with her feet and clasping her hands together

-loving praise baby and baby Einstein type movies (we watched our first one today and she was mesmerized!)

She is such a joy and I fall more in love with her each day. Her personality is pretty much the same as it has been; very laid back, very smiley and easygoing. Jeff says she is nearly to his "favorite" baby age of 6-9 months. He loves how babies are a little more stable physically at that point, and so do I. We have also started solids in the last week or so. At her 5 month appt. we hadn't done so because I just wasn't ready for her to stop nursing and I was afraid that when she started solids she wouldn't want to nurse anymore. My pediatrician said that was fine but by her 6 month appt. she would be twisting my arm about solids...since that is only 3 weeks away I decided I better get started! Also Lydia has pretty much weaned herself at this point and it was before we started solids. She just wasn't interested in nursing and became super distracted. This would cause her to lose latch and have to re-latch and before you knew it one feeding was 30 minutes...needless to say that left us both frustrated and Anderson unsupervised at times (Kidding...sort of). So I just decided it was time, actually I guess she kind of decided for me. I miss it, but I am proud of myself for sticking with it for over 5 months and I look forward to new stages and ways to enjoy her. Here are some photos of her first solid feeding. Anderson even got in on the action. He really loves interacting with her now that she is showing some personality.

I am ready for some groceries!

Ok, so far I am liking it...

hmmm...not so yummy...

Mom- don't want to hurt your feelings, but I am about to spit this nasty stuff out!!

Ok, yeah, I am officially not digging this rice cereal stuff!!

Anderson, did they make you eat this yucky stuff??

We have been struggling with schedules and two kids though. Church is the hardest part of our week. Our church doesn't offer an early service yet (hopefully our campus will be getting our own building very soon and will be able to have two services then) Read more about our church here. Church of the Highlands was recently recognized as the fastest growing church in the nation! Anyway, the 11:15 service is right in the middle of Lydia's nap. We have tried to take her anyway, but one time she slept there okay in the nursery and one time she just didn't do very well with it and it kind of made the whole day miserable because she was over-tired. So, those of you with multiple children out there....how do you do it? I am so open to suggestions at this point!! We considered splitting up and having Jeff and I alternate Sundays staying home with her while the other one takes Anderson and attends church, but we'd really like to go together.

Another big deal around here these days is that we have organized pretty much every square inch of our house. We started right after Christmas while Jeff had a little time off and basically attacked one room at a time! Between being pregnant and sick and taking care of a two year old and then having a baby, we feel like we just now have our head above water! With our busy lives I knew we needed to have things more organized in order to keep the clutter to a minimum since we don't have much time to clean up all the time with two small children. It took 3 days to clean out the downstairs. We went through every drawer, every cabinet, craft closet, etc and were brutal in our decisions to throw things away...something especially difficult for my packrat...I mean "sentimental" husband. After that we moved on to the upstairs and playroom which took another couple of days. I can't tell you how nice it is to have everything clean and organized. I am really enjoying my days now instead of thinking in the back of my head about what all needs to be done or organized. Today I cleaned out both kids closets to make consignment piles for their clothes. I have been holding on to Anderson's things for a while because we weren't sure until March if we would need them for another boy. Now that we have a girl and a boy our family is complete, and I know it is ok to let go of some things!