Mr. Christopher, 8 months and 7 months

Mr. Christopher is our across the street neighbor. He is a wonderful, thoughtful man who loves children. He brings us vegetables from his garden and has been known to show up with dinner on occasion. Mr. Christopher also goes on week long hunting adventures all over North America! One afternoon we had Josiah at our house and Mr. Christopher volunteered to take the kids on a golf cart ride. I am pretty sure they enjoyed it, but I do think they were glad to be back on the ground.


8 month old Levi...

Lydia and Josiah surviving the golf cart ride!

At 8 months Levi is about 19 pounds and 28 inches long. He still isn't babbling much, but he is a very happy baby and brings a lot of smiles to our house!!

Going back in time a bit...here is what Levi was doing at 7 months.

Standing

Smiling

Sitting like this. He always sits on his knees or in a catcher position.
Whatever works little man!

Flirting (one of his personal favs)

Listening to one of mommy's stories

Loving on mommy

Sticking his tongue out while he is concentrating

Putting everything in his mouth

No, that is not Levi. Yes, Lydia is still that bald. Oh, well...I love this picture!

Cute little feet...

...and sweet big hands!

We're back!! (WARNING: No pictures and minor bragging)

Every time I post I make some bad excuse about why it has been so long. I am not even going to try this time. For those of you dying to see pictures from our Holy Land Tour, I am going to try really hard to get some up this weekend. For those of you dying to see new pictures of Lydia and Levi, I am going to try to get those up this weekend as well. Here is a quick update:

We had well child check ups yesterday. Levi at 9 months is 29 1/2 inches long (85%) and 21 pounds (50%). He has been standing on his own for about 2 months and has started taking steps over the past 2 weeks. We are up to 4-6 steps at a time. He still isn't talking or babbling much. He can do it, he just prefers to be quiet. Yes, he gets this from me. He will say Mama, but I'm pretty sure he thinks it means Get me out of here, I want something and Pick me up. He will repeat Dada to us, but still isn't understanding who that is. He recognizes his name and can wave sometimes. It is so funny how different boys are from girls!! He is our happy happy baby, loves to cuddle and is always very excited to see us when he wakes up or when we get home. Levi is just a joy to be around...OH and he has just one tooth. One GINORMOUS, crooked tooth. It is the funniest thing. Pictures to come.

Lydia at 22 months is a whopping 35 1/2 inches tall (95%) and 29 pounds (80%). She is definitely going to tower over her mother, and could potentially be close to 6 feet tall. CRAZY! Anyhoo...Dr. O'neill confirmed what we already know about Lydia: she is VERY smart. She is saying 5-7 word sentences and will say 2-3 sentences at a time. She can count to ten (as long as you say the 4), and knows most of her colors most of the time. Dr. O'neill was impressed that she sat still and let him check her out, and that she followed all of his commands. She and I talked alot yesterday morning about going to the doctor and how she should act. I even explained that she was going to get a shot that would hurt. She asked if she could have a Nemo bandaid after, and I told her she could. How sweet! Our previous two visits to the doctor were MISERABLE! I fully expected the same, but she was amazingly great. She barely even cried at the shot and she knew it was coming. I was so proud of her.

Okay, enough bragging on the kids. Our favorite thing right now is watching the two of them play together. They love each other very much and love to hug/wrestle. Not ever sure exactly which of those two events is taking place...too hard to tell! Lydia calls Levi "brother" and tells him they are best friends. Nothing could be sweeter!

I am fully aware that most of you check this blog to find out about the kids, but I am really excited to tell everyone that I have started WORKING OUT! Finally! It is really hard because the only time I have to do it is after the kids go to bed, so I am not even home until 10:30-11 every night. BUT, it is going to be worth it. We are doing P90x and I really recommend it to anyone who needs a program. 25 pounds to lose. Hopefully I can do it in the 90 days of this program!

Random Events

Some of these "happenings" are from several months ago, but I wanted to get them in the blog anyway!!

Lydia's First Bubble Bath

Lydia absolutely LOVES bathtime!! I guess there are some kids who throw a fit about getting in and some who throw a fit about getting out. Lydia is much more likely to be in the latter group! Necon decided to add bubbles (and the "scary" duck bathtub) one night a while back. She LOVED it of course!!

Her Phantom of the Opera mask
Say CHEESE!!

Loves that water

"Rubber Ducky, You're the One..."

Bad mother of the year award

I'm sure everyone can imagine it is hard having two babies at home. I have said before I think having two barely a year apart is harder than having twins. This is mostly because Lydia is so mobile, but she still isn't aware of what can hurt her, etc. There are times when she is awake and I have/had to nurse, rock Levi to sleep, whatever and she just roams. We have tried the baby jails. When your 20 month old is almost 3 feet tall and has some weight to throw around, those just don't work. She can climb over them, crawl under them or, her personal favorite, mow them over like a bulldozer.

ANYWAY, I had given Levi a bath and was laying him down. When I got finished I couldn't find Lydia anywhere. She wouldn't answer me. I couldn't hear her playing or talking. She can not only open the doors, but unlock the dead bolt so I was looking outside. Finally I went in our bathroom and here is what I saw.

Apparently I left all the water in Levi's tub. I was immediately thinking of all the PSA's, parent education literature, nursing safety lectures that all say repeatedly, "Your child can drown in less than one inch of water." Luckily she didn't. She was merely in the tub, fully clothed, sucking on the dirty washcloth from Levi's bath. Gross!!

This is what happens when you get in a full bathtub with a SUPER absorbant diaper on!! Too funny...she didn't even care!

Mini Mommy

Lydia has turned into the cutest little mommy. She loves to play with her baby doll. She rocks her, changes her diaper, feeds her, puts her to sleep. Whatever Lydia has determined her baby needs. She will lay the baby on the ground and wave her hand over the baby and say "Shooie, baby. Yucky diaper. Then "change" her diaper. One night she got into the bottle drawer in the kitchen and improv'ed a bottle. She got one of the skinny breast pump bottles and found a nipple that would fit exactly over the top. No little attachment peice needed! She climbed up on the couch and started feeding her baby and singing her songs.

Big Girl Breakfast

Lydia LOVES to eat cereal. "Ro-ro's" (cheerios) are her fav. A couple of months ago we decided to let her sit at the bar (no hi chair or booster) and have a bowl with milk actually in it. Yes. We live life on the edge at the Warrior house. She thought she was so grown up!

Once she got the hang of it, she wanted Necon to come sit by her. She is patting on the other barstool saying "Come sit Daddy."

Of course he did...

Telling a "Lydia story". Lots of hand motions. Few intelligible words.

Must have been funny

If you look closely you can see her little curl. We are not getting our hopes up, but she may actually not be bald her whole life!

First Major Boo-Boo

Our ottoman has this HUGE nice cushion on the top. Just under the cushioned section is the wooden box the cushion sits on. The brilliant men who thought up this design didn't find it neccessary to pad the corners of the wooden box. I guess they figured the large top cushion would be enough. It isn't.

She kept saying "Bonk Head"

She was such a trooper through the whole thing. I know it must have hurt pretty bad, but after the initial tear-fest, she was really interested in how to take care of it. So sweet...

Fun in Brother's Crib

Lydia LOVES to play in Levi's crib. Since he thinks she hung the moon, he likes it when she gets in there after his nap. About 2 weeks ago Lydia and I went it to get him and he was standing up in there!! In a four week period he started sitting up in a stable fashion, crawling and now pulling up. He can make his way around the furniture while pulled up, and he has started standing for short periods of time (10 seconds or less.) He also tries to take a step or two, but lands on his face every time. We are really encouraging this walking behavior because I will be heart broken if he starts taking steps while we are in the Holy Lands and we miss it!! Whew...got a little of topic. Kids playing in the crib...

Our big man standing

Call me crazy, but I think he started posing...

For some reason Lydia really wanted her picture taken with the penguin

Date night with Tia

Last week Lydia had a special night. She went out with Tia to Texas Roadhouse. Lydia had a blast, and I know Tia enjoyed seeing what a big girl Lydia is. It was really fun for us to watch her go out without us and know she was having such a fun night. THANKS TIA!!

Our Big News...

...Levi is mobile!! What...were you expecting some other kind of news? As if we ever have anything exciting to announce in the Warrior house! Any-hoo...Levi has been crawling for quite a while now. 3 weeks and 3 days to be exact. Saturday he started pulling up on various peices of furniture and/or people. He has now figured out it works better when he picks something stationary. He turned 7 months old on Sunday. We are officially weaned, a fact I am positive hurts my feelings much worse than his. He is sleeping well through the night. Not quite up to Lydia's 12 hour marathons, but we are grateful for the 10 hours he does manage. He does wake up around 5am to eat, but is usually pretty good to go back to sleep. Levi has begun the babbling. He LOVES his mommy...and he really loves to give kisses. They are the sweetest thing. He grabs your face with both hands and then "goes in" really slow just staring in your eyes the whole time! Mister Romance already...too sweet! Still no teeth, but he is enjoying his baby food. He loves all the fruits; it is much harder to get him to eat the vegetables!! No stats since we are horrible parents and never go to the DR, but he is quickly growing out of his 9 month clothes. Long and lean like his daddy...