Handy Manny

So not that anyone could replace Mickey and Donald...but Lydia has added a new love, Handy Manny. She carried her "tool" around at Braylon's party. Notice I have never mentioned anything about Minnie, Daisy, Kelly, or any females...
Here she is playing with Daddy's stinky toes.
Then showing off her beautiful toes...the one is still very purple but still hanging on ...
Here is a our mommy and me photo for the week..Lydia getting to pet an actual tweet-tweet. She was soooo excited. She gave him kisses and everything.
and I had show off this cute picture of all of Braylons farm animals..I mean his friends.
So last evening I went to visit a friend who has a 3 month old little boy..and Lydia was excited to see a little baby. So she was pointing to his eyes, nose, mouth, ears and such and then out of nowhere my precious daughter pinched this poor baby's face so hard it scratched him and a tiny bit of blood came out...I was HORRIFIED. She was not mad at him. She said "ouchie" and kinda smiled. What do you do? I think she thought it was a game or funny. It does not help my friend Kim is a new mom..she did take it gracefully...I figured she would kick us out the door! I am sure it is not the last time my daughter will do something to embarrass me...what have you all done to stop the pinching? I have instructed all babysitter to not say ouch or even blink she she pinches them..any other advice?

Three Rivers Coal Festival Parade

Here are pictures from Thursday evening. Fairmont has a festival that used to be called the Coal Festival and is now called the Three Rivers Coal Festival. The festival is not all the great anymore or so I hear..we actually did not make it down but the parade was great! Here are the famous Clydesdale Horses They were so pretty and very big!
We were excited to see the Mountaineers there!



I don't know what happened to my picture of the Wiener Mobile....I guess it did not upload. There also was a bunch of characters that were walking around and guess who was there....Mickey and Minnie Mouse. I did not get a picture because I was so excited to see Lydia's face. It took her a minute to realize who it was...I am sure she is used to seeing him in cartoon form on the TV but the look on her face when she realized who it was...it was just priceless.

Another cool thing happened last night. We were sitting around the table eating dinner and out of the blue Lydia started counting her crackers. She said 2, 3, 4, 6, 7. We both stopped eating and just stared at her. I have never really worked on her counting per se. I know that my dad will say her numbers with her...but the fact that she connected those numbers that her and Poppi say means to count out things...We got her to do it again and she did ended up adding 9 and 10. I am so proud of her.

I think what got her started was she saw a birthday invite on the table that had Elmo on it. She wanted to hold it and then she said "2" and the number two was on the invite...then we sat her down to dinner and she spouted out all those numbers. She still refuses to say 1. When you ask her how old she is, she will say 2. I know as a women that will not last long..no one wants to add a year to their birthday..especially when the current age ends with a 9...why are those zero birthdays soooo hard!

Morning pick me ups..

When Lydia is especially upset in the mornings...naturally I get upset. It is not every morning thankfully but some mornings when she is not fully awake when she sees me getting ready to leave..she gets really upset. The key is when she sees me pick up my bag..she will sign and say work and then start bawling all while saying "byyyyyyyeeee, byyyyyyeeee" It is heartbreaking. Nonni got a little taste of it this weekend. Lydia did not want her to leave the other day and did the same thing to her. So anyway, knowing that mommy guilt is in high gear, Mark will send little funny pictures of her on my cell phone. Well let me say that he used to. We just found out that sending pictures is not the same as texting and they have been charging us .25 for each one..so I guess he will have to go back to emailing me pictures. So here are a few of my cheer me up pictures.

We had a pretty fun weekend although we have zero pictures to show for it. We took the camera everywhere we went but was just having too much fun to remember to take it out. Saturday Lydia went to Braylon's third birthday part and I went to my future sister in laws bridal shower. I think we do have a few pictures from the birthday party..I will have to post those later. Sunday we went to Wendy and Bryce's for a cook out. Lydia had fun showing off her bubble blowing skills with the bubbles that Wendy bought for her. Then later that evening Miranda, Andrew and Braylon came over to make smores with the fire in our fire pit. It was a great evening to hang out on the porch and play in the yard. Monday we did a bunch of yard work. Mark finished planting his veggie garden and I pulled up some weird plant that was growing wildly in the front of my house. I have been wanting to transplant a rose bush from my grandmothers property to my house. So now I have a place to put it! I am sooo sore today though. After all the yard work, we went down to my parents house for food, drink and horseshoes..again no pictues of that but we had a fun relaxing time. Lydia ended up just spending the night b/c it was so late when we were going to leave and we still had to take Uncle Ouch (Vince) home to Morgantown. Dad was going to babysit the next day anyway so it just made sence.

So we decide to go to Target and Walmart in Morgantown. Vince wanted to look at some tables for my mom and I needed to pick up some stuff for a baby shower and we needed diapers. So going up the hill to Target...Mark gets a speeding ticket!! Let me tell you, we got lucky in the sence that we did not have the right insurance card in the car, I was not wearing my seatbelt and Mark was going 17 miles per hour over the speed limit....I guess the good thing about having two Fords..the cop did not realize that the insurance card was for Ruby not the Escape, never mentioned my seatbelt, and then knocked him down to 29 in a a 25....good thing he did all that work for the county during election time..he will need the extra dough to pay for the ticket!!

Funny Lydia moment, she calls both my brothers Uncle Mike..they do look alike but even when they stand right beside each other she will call them both Mike. But she also will say her name is Cecil if you ask her which is my mothers name. My aunt thought it would be funny to teach her that. So I guess she will take after me in that regard too, I am horrible at remember names. The only other thing she will call Vince is ouch b/c he says ouch when she pulls his fur...I mean chest hair. So he might just become Uncle Ouch.

Take me out to the ball game...

Here we are again at a Pirate game in May. I tried to link the old post like alot of you do but I could not figure it out. Here is a family shot...Mark and I did not think Anne was taking our picture, we thought she was just taking Lydia's picture.

This is kinda a weird shot but I thought she looked so happy. She loved having Anne holding her.
Here is another Mommy and Me shot...I won't count this one since we had the dressed up shot form earlier in the day.

I was trying to get a good shot of her teeth. She has so much fun at the game...

Week 7/Mothers Day

Lydia was not in the mood to watch all the boring speakers at my brothers graduation so we broke into the weight room and she loved playing with all the balls.

Here is a our week 7 shot and our official mothers day shot. I did not even dress up on mother's day so this was better than any shot we would have gotten on Sunday. My whole family did breakfast at IHOP. The we did a little shopping. We went home and then I went to yoga. One of the girls I do yoga with brought her husband and he and Mark play guitar and we made some dinner. Pretty nice and simple which is what I wanting know all the running I have to do in the next three weeks.

I do have to say, I think I look very old in this picture...I don't know if my mind is playing tricks with me knowing that I have a big birthday coming up later this year or what...I don't nessesarly mean old in a bad way....I just don't look "young"

Week 8

There is a week 7 photo..still hanging out on my camera...but I had Nonni take these yesterday..mainly because I thought Lydia's outfit was so darn cute..(thanks Kim) and then I remembered than I should jump in and take it with her for my Mommy and Me photo. So this was us on my parent porch. I dropped Lydia off to hang out with Poppi and Nonni so that I could go to my friends parents house and make baby shower favors.

Here is a health update. Lydia started running a fever on Wednesday night. Tylenol was really doing nothing so I had my mom and dad who just happened to be out in Walmart pick me up some Motrin. Thursday morning it was up to 103/104 (depends on if you believe the ear thermometers or you add a point to them) but I will say she was on fire! I stayed home with her on Thursday which was very stressful due to it me Westest and I was supposed to be testing children. Friday it was back down to 99 or so I did not make an appointment for her. But then she broke out in a rash. Saturday Mark, who brushes her teeth with a finger brush every morning, said he felt some bumps and teeth poking out. It is her two top molars. So she is skipping anymore bottom teeth (she currently has two) and skipping her eye/fang teeth and going for the molars. I still think she had some virus b/c I have never heard of a kid running that high of a fever for teeth....The rash is almost gone..it only comes back now when she gets a bath. So she is pretty much back to herself...

Voting

Here is Lydia voting. Her Nonni works in the court house and was teaching the poll workers how to set up and close the machines. Lydia loved using the touch screen and wanted to "help" mommy when I went to vote on Tuesday.

This is how we all felt on Saturday.. just kidding Mike. It was my youngest brothers college graduation. This will be a test to see if Mike reads this b/c I need a copy of the picture of the four of us we took after graduation..email it to me please.

Cool Dude

We went to Kathy and Dan's the other day and Lydia was running around with her "eyes" on. Her new trick is to put them on for real unlike wearing them on the top of her head like she used to, and running around the dining room table. Each time she makes it around the table she comes over to cheer...

15 Month Check up

Ok here are her stats.. 21lbs 9oz and 30 3/4 inches long...so she grew and 1 1/2 inches and gained 2 pounds in the last three months. The doctor said her toe was fine just keep putting neosporn (sp?) on it. So Mark went out and bought some right after the appointment. Wow what a difference. When I gave her a bath last night the toe looked 100% better than it did yesterday.
Here she is putting stuff around her neck...she loves wearing stuff around her neck. I think it is from the cord being wrapped around her neck for long during labor.

She loves pointing to the stuff on the poster and saying what it is. I am telling you all, Baby Sign works. The Doctor and the nurses all commented on how advanced she was in her verbal skills. I am sure it helps also that she has to "talkers" that live with her.

Now for another scary mommy moment. Last night Mark was helping me put the Junior League Yard sale things into our garage. Lydia was hanging out pretending to eat rocks ( and more than likely really trying to eat a few). I hear a car coming up our hill so I look to see where Lydia was...um right beside the road!!! She was still in our driveway technically but one or two baby steps and she would have been in the road. Thankfully the car was coming up slowly (which does not happen often) and I was able to grab her...and it ended up being a guy I went to high school with. So I am sure that he has gone and told everyone what a horrible and irresponsible mother I am...Stuff just happens so quickly! She had been right beside us eating rocks!!!! I used to look at some of these stories I read about parents and think "how in the hell did they let that happen to their kid?"...they didn't , they just blinked!

Water Flowers

Here are Lydia and I helping dad water his flowers and plants. She was really cute with it and caught on really quickly what to do with the watering can.
Here she is watering the sunflowers that her Aunt Kathy got for her. Then I guess the rocks needed some water too!
I am not sure what is in the green planter...maybe a tomato plant? But what was cute was she went over to that planter by herself.
Well looking at that bare spot in our yard..it must have needed some water too!
Well I had intended to post about a big milestone that Lydia hit last night but as of this morning, she has hit two. Last night Lydia said a three word sentence. " bup me dada". Pick me up daddy...It was super cute and we both got to hear her. But this morning on a sad note, she had her first open wound. She was messing around with a box fan and it fell on her foot. I am not sure what part hit her toe but it cut her pretty badly. There was blood everywhere...We cleaned it as much as we could and put a band aid on it. Then the big mommy guilt starts. She wanted me to hold her and comfort her...but I had to get ready for work. ( I had jumped out of the shower when I heard her screaming) So I finally decided to go to work..half clean...no makeup and my hair not done with strict instructions to Poppi...if she bleeds through the bandaid to call me. There was a big chunk taken out and then there seemed to be a slice in it too. But with the blood, the pink polish and her screaming...it was kinda hard to assess the sitation. She has a doctors appointment tomorrow anyway for her 15 month check up (which made me feel better about leaving her)...so I am glad I got the pedicure shot when I did!

Mommy and me..Week 5 and 6

This is a picture of Lydia and i helping daddy with his flowers and gardens...I have some other really cute pictures of her watering the plants, I am going to post them tomorrow because they are on my laptop. Our week six is a non traditional post but it is something I have wanted to do since I knew I had a girl! Those who have known me for forever...you used to never see me without matching polish on my nails and toes...then various jobs made it impossible to keep polish on my nails but you will almost never see my toes without polish on them...even in the winter.
On Easter I put a very light color on Lydia's nails but Aunt Kathy was the only one who noticed. I wanted to put a nice pink on her but I did not have that color. The last time I bought polish it was when metallics were the rage...I have been spoiled since then and just went and got pedicures. So without further ado....

Mommy and Me Matching Pedicures

I did these myself and used Kim's highchair trick..while Lydia was busy snacking away on a yogurt...I did her nails. I finally remembered to buy some polish at my last Walmart excursion. I thought Mark would throw a fit (because he has every time I have talked about doing this) but he loved it. He has talked about her "cute toes" so much that now when you see her she will show you her toes and say "toes". He took videos of it to send his mom and I asked him to take this picture for the blog. I have been trying to be gender neutral on the toys I buy her and I have bought some blue, and even a boys tee shirt (the Mickey and Donald one) but let me tell you....I love doing hair, makeup and nails. You might now know it from how I look but I love doing other peoples. I have ALWAYS wanted to be a hairdresser. I have done nails and hair for many of my girlfriends weddings and some hair and makeup for West side's prom...this girl is in trouble. And don't think all my braiding of my Barbie's hair when to waste..I actually got a little rat tail braid in Lydia's hair the other day....

No picture

I do have pictures...they are just still sitting on my camera. I have two mommy and me pictures to make up for missing one last week. We have been having fun with Lydia. I know that you Mommys and Daddys understand. Just fun little things...like this morning. She saw me put my work bag on and out of the blue she signed and said "work" then said bye bye. I have not signed work for a long time b/c she seemed to get upset everytime I talked about going to work so I had just gone back to saying bye-bye. I was stunned. She is just so smart! She has just busting out words that I don't even know where she knows them from. Her appointment is Wednesday so we will have her offical weight and height. But I can tell she has gotten taller for sure!