Tractor Square Dancing

Seen on YouTube:

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8.5 Month Update

Obviously, Lydia’s 8-month update is a little late.  She certainly keeps us on our toes and we were especially busy during the days around her 8-month birthday.  It’s a little tough to remember everything that’s happened in the last six weeks, but they’ve been wonderful weeks! 

She was allergy tested on September 11 and 25 as a follow-up to her reactive skin and the scratch tests revealed eggs, dogs, and milk to be problematic, with eggs and milk especially strong reactions.  She was a trooper through all the poking and prodding and we are coping with the limited diet.  I was eating eggs all along and dairy for about 6 weeks before her test with no problems, but I have mostly happily eliminated those foods from my diet per the allergist’s request.  If nothing else, I can do my part to keep from hypersensitizing her to those foods and we are praying that she will outgrow these allergies in the months to come.  Until then, I have found a vegan egg substitute for baking and I am very thankful for the variety of dairy alternatives on the market.  Rice Dream rice milk, Tofutti vanilla ice cream and “cheese” pizza, Pumpkin Spice Silk soy milk, soy ice cream sandwiches, soy butter…all of these items have turned out to be really good.  Soy cheese is pretty yucky, but I can live without cheese for now.  And FYI, the nurse wanted to get a weight on the 25th, so we sat her on the big people scale (where she sat like such a big girl) and she weighed 16 lbs.!!  I wish I’d had the camera 🙂 

 She has been getting up on her hands and knees for several weeks.  She’ll rock back and forth and has “scooched” forward a couple of times, but mostly she rolls all around to get where she wants to go.  We’ve opened a sleeping bag in the living room to pad the hardwood floors and she is all over that thing 🙂  We were in MD on Oct 9-10 and she tried to crawl for my parents, but she still hasn’t put it all together to move forward independently. Which is just as well…I’m not sure I’m ready for her to be any more mobile!

 For Matt’s 30th, we went to WV to visit Grandpa and Lydia made her first trip to Cabela’s.  She seemed to enjoy Wheeling and Kevin and Ronda drove over from Columbus to meet us for lunch.  It was great to hang out for a few hours and Lydia was super good all weekend.  She really made an impression on her great-grandpa and we have some great pics of the two of them!  She even rode one of the horses…with Daddy’s help, of course!!

The next week, she spent 3 days with Grandma and Grandpa Maxson while we went to a conference.  We were only a short distance out of town, but no kids were allowed.  I pumped every morning for 2 months to save up enough milk and she went through almost all of it.  I am so thankful to have had a pump loaned to me by a friend at church, but after those 2 months (plus trying to pump at the conference to maintain my supply) I will be more than happy never to see that thing again!  Lydia did very well taking bottles and eating her baby food and had lots of fun playing 🙂   And we were sooo happy to have her back when the conference was over!!

A few days later, the two of us made a quick trip to MD to see her other grandparents.  We shopped and visited, visited and shopped.  She played with Uncle Daniel and her “uncle daniel” toy.  We found a toy plane with a mechanic guy (age-appropriate, of course) at the Lego Store when she was just about a month old.  I brought it out a few weeks ago and she loves it!  We also talked to Matt on Skype after we figured out how to load it on Dad’s new laptop.  Our drive home down 95 South was forever long, even though we didn’t leave til 7pm. But we still managed to pull it all together to leave for WV the next afternoon.

On the way, we had an accident just outside Franklin, WV…halfway between Richmond and Berea.  It was our fault, but the other couple was so gracious and God so blessed us through the experience.  No one was hurt and their truck was fine.  They helped us get a motel room and a tow truck and it was really a joy to meet them.  So Lydia had her first car accident and motel stay on Oct. 11.  Dave and Judy drove over from Berea the next morning and helped us take everything out of our Mazda.  We enjoyed the rest of the weekend, especially the “farm” time.  She even got to help Grandpa roast weenies!  She had a different camo outfit for each day and got lots of compliments on her pink onesie/camo bibs ensemble when we took advantage of the beautiful weather and stopped at Seneca Rocks on the way home.  We’ll have pics of the car and Seneca Rocks posted someday.  Our poor car was totaled, but we weren’t really surprised given its age and high miles.  It’s a little sad because it was a good car and took us lots of places through the years…we’ll miss “zoom, zoom”-ing, but God has provided for our needs and we’re content to share the jeep for now, especially with Matt cycling to work some days.  USAA is a great insurance company and we’re so thankful for the ease and efficiency of our dealings with them.  But I can’t stress enough how thankful we are for God’s graciousness to us through this experience.  His hand of mercy and protection was very evident and He has shown us so much about His ways vs. our ways during this time.  And I’ve really enjoyed my conversations with the wife of the couple we hit…I hated to meet under those circumstances, but what a blessing it has been to share with her that night and on the phone the next week 🙂

Things have been relatively quiet since then.  On a side note, Lydia is favoring fruits, but overall eats well.  She eats 2-3 4 oz.(Stage 2) jars per day (plus nursing and a few sips of water from her sippy cup).  Her faves are Apples & Blueberries, Carrot/Apple/Mango, and Apples & Chicken.  She also really likes Pineapple Glazed Ham and continues to enjoy regular fruits and veggies.  She’s not so keen on some of the chicken combos and she’s started clamming up for some of the veggies, too, but we’ll get through it 🙂 

I’m sure there are things I’ve forgotten, but I’ll consult her first-year calendar (where I try to record everything) and include that information with the next update.  She has her 9-Month dr.visit on Nov. 13, so I’ve got some time to get organized before I write another post!  She’s getting “Soo Big” (as her grandparents would say as they hold her arms up) and I am so excited that God has allowed me the privilege of being Lydia’s Mommy.  I’m excited to see how God will grow our little girl, and us, in the next few weeks and I’ll do my best to share any interesting news in a timely manner!!