It is amazing how quickly these first 6 months have gone. We have gone through quite a lot together and I am in awe of God’s design for families and how He created us (children and parents) with such a capacity to love, learn, and grow!
Lydia continues to be such a happy little thing. She is always sharing “smilies” and has also taken to freely giving raspberries 😉 She takes great pride in sticking out her tongue and blowing away.
She has completely mastered rolling from her back to her stomach, but only to the right! She teases us every now and then by leaning to the left, but never quite follows through. And once she makes it to her tummy, she is content to play for a bit before crying to be rescued. I guess she’s decided it’s easier to have someone else flip her back 🙂 As for the directional preference, friends have said it’s beacuse she’s a good conservative baby…and Matt’s so proud!
Lydia continues to thrive and explore. She’s very healthy and is working on mastering the whole spoon thing. She seems to enjoy her rice cereal, LOVES applesauce (she’s a Maxson!), and has tolerated green beans. In the next few weeks, she’ll get to taste sweet potatoes and pears…YUM!! And she gets to taste some of the finer things in life from time to time. Last week, Matt and I had Oreos and he gave he one to play with. She started licking and gumming it, and Matt took it away before it got too soggy and started to fall apart. Well, she was one unhappy little girl! She started wailing in protest and looking at us so pitifully as we ate our cookies. We’ll have to watch out for her sweet tooth, but she also gets to taste other things. She’s licked on chicken, lemon, cocktail sauce, french fries, and pineapple among other things. It’s important that she have a well-rounded palate 🙂
It is so much fun to watch her and play with her during this stage. She is VERY curious and loves to investigate everything. Food, toys, papers, mommy’s hair…it’s all fair game. She doesn’t want to hang out over my shoulder any more. She turns to face out and reaches for anything nearby. Lydia is sooo nosy lately, but it’s so funny and so neat to see. She’s always looking, touching, and tasting, and you can practically see the gears turning when those bright blue eyes get all wide and serious. She’s really working hard to make connections and figure everything out. Her little hands are constantly busy as she manipulates objects of all shapes and sizes…though she seems particularly fascinated with things like utensils, laundry, computer stuff, and the remotes (and, of course, her hands and feet). And if she gets bored with something (be it an object or her location) or you’re not paying enough attention to her, she starts doing this fake-y cough. It’s so cute to be there as she learns how to communicate in ways other than crying or fussing. She laughs, coos, squeals, and babbles up a storm these days. She’s never been too fussy or difficult, but she’s growing into such a sweet, well-adjusted little girl.
Lydia is just about to master sitting up. Once we get her situated, she’s able to balance herself a little bit longer every time. And the way she reaches for stuff when she’ on her tummy, it may not be all that long until she starts working on scooting and crawling. The one thing we’re really waiting on at this point is teeth. She’s been drooling and chewing on her hands for a couple of months (and she’s got the chapped cheeks to prove it), but nothing yet. I was a late teether, so we may be waiting a while longer, but that’s okay 🙂
To celebrate her 6-month birthday, Matt and I (along with his mom), took Lydia to Virginia Beach. She traveled very well and hardly fussed the whole day. We slathered her with sun screen and sat in the shade of a pop-up tent/canopy. The beach wasn’t all that busy and the breeze was so refreshing. She got to play with sand and Matt held her in the surf so she could get her legs splashed. She slept through getting rinsed off at the boardwalk shower and took another nap on my wet shoulder. I was pretty worried about the sand and salt water, but she seemed to enjoy the whole experience and Matt’s calmness is a wonderful balance to the “hyper mommy” that shows up occasionally. We’re ready to go back one day this fall!
I’ll be posting pictures of all our adventures soon 🙂