Maxson Central

Such an unoriginal title for such a big month!  Our precious little girl is growing sooo fast.  She has come through chicken pox relatively unscathed (there are several little marks, but they’ll fade in time) and it seems like she is less a baby every day.  Poor Lydia had a rough few days.  As can be seen in the pics, she was covered from head to toe with pox and she also battled a fever over that first weekend in December.  She hardly ate, just nursed and slept most of the time.  We gave her oatmeal baths and tylenol/ibuprofen to try to keep her comfortable.  And she slept snuggled up with us.  But by the beginning of the week, her fever broke and she was scabbing over nicely.  Quite a 10-Month birthday present 🙂

 We are very thankful that she scabbed over in time to go on our long-anticipated trip to Columbus.  The pediatrician told me she was good to go as long as all the spots were scabby…which they were by Wednesday.  We left VERY early on Friday and she did so well in the airport and on the plane.  (FYI-we had a great flying experience with Skybus.  No extras, but comfy seats, good basic service, and sooo cheap…what more do you need?!)  It was so great to spend time with Kevin and Ronda and their precious Kaden.  The kids were so cute together and it was such a blessing, and answer to prayer, to see them playing with each other.  Matt and I really enjoyed taking Lydia up to see Great-Grandma Prather.  She came down with shingles right after Thanksgiving and thought she wouldn’t be able to see Lydia.  Doesn’t God do amazing things??  I’m not overjoyed that Lydia had chicken pox at barely 10 months, but they’re over with and she got to spend time with my grandma.  She even got her first Christmas card and presents!  We were also blessed to attend the last year of the Living Christmas Tree at our old church.  The music and message were simple and timeless and so well done.  On Sunday, we were privileged to share a little bit about our time in Serbia and how we hope God will use our little family there in the next couple of years.  We also heard an encouraging message from an awesome missions speaker.  It is so cool to hear what God is doing around the world.  And our girl was phenomenal on the plane coming home.  She hadn’t slept well during our visit, but she was still so happy and sweet…just jabbering up a storm and playing on the plane.  We have tons of pics to share!

On a side note, Lydia went on a baby food strike as she started to feel better.  She was nursing/eating a little, and feeding herself bananas and “puffies”, but that was about it.  So when we got to Columbus, we started giving her some of the fruits and things Kaden (13 months) was eating.  Ronda even gave her Cheerios for the first time!  And she did great…I guess she just wanted to be a big girl and do it herself 🙂  It took a little time for Mommy to catch up, but Lydia is doing so well.  She sits in her chair and finger feeds herself.  It’s too cute how she picks things up between her index finger and thumb and then ends up with her whole hand in her mouth.  (By the way, one of her favortie games is “pointy” where she sticks out her pointer finger and tries to get yours 🙂  She loves fruit and Cheerios (to the point of kicking her feet  when she hears them rattling in the box), as well as Graduates turkey stew and beenie weenies.  She has also been drinking soy formula from her sippy cup (and she no longer uses one with handles…I guess it’s too baby-ish) and she even took her first soy bottle this morning.  I’m working on getting her weaned by the time she turns one, and by the looks of things, she’ll make the transition a lot easier than I will.

Lydia crawls so well, just gets way up on her hands and knees and goes wherever she wants, and she pulls up on anything and everything.  Her walker is her favorite and she runs around the house in it.  That girl can go!  She has these cute little “kilroy” moments in her pack and play.  She’s just barely tall enough to grasp the top and pull up, so when she does, all I can see are her eyes and nose and little fingers.   It’s too funny and I’m doing my best to get a picture.  She’s trying to cruise and can stand on her own for a few seconds if you help her get balanced.  And she keeps lunging toward stuff like she thinks she can walk already.  And she is so nosy, anything in her reach is fair game.  Unfortunately, she is getting a little mommy attached (which isn’t all that shocking since we’re alone together pretty much all day every day), but she still seems to be doing relatively well around other people.  So we’ll just be praying for her to have an adaptable spirit and a cheerful attitude in the face of new people and places.

 She babbles away and sometimes I think she really means that “mama” or “dada”, but nothing definitive yet.  Her listening is improving and she responds to verbal cues like “good girl” or “no/stop”.  It’s so exciting to watch her grow in so many ways.  She’s still pretty slight physically, but she’s meeting all the appropriate benchmarks and it’s just awesome to see her little mind in action, figuring things out and developing such a neat, unique little personality.  Even with some wild nights sleep-wise (colds, chicken pox, travel, teeth), she continues to be a happy, thriving little girl.  I’m looking forward to more restful nights ahead, but regardless, we are so blessed and we are so excited to share with Lydia the true meaning of Christmas as we look forward to special times with family during her first Christmas season.

Luke 2:11,14 (KJV)