Lydia and Simone

Robin's cousin Cory and his wife Rachael live about one mile from us in Austin. In August, they welcomed the beautiful Simone to their family. Even before Simone was an outside baby, we talked about setting up a baby swap so that we could get somewhat regular date nights without having to worry about scheduling a sitter, etc.

We finally got it up and started in January and since then, Lydia's love for cousin "Mone" has become quite apparent. VERY apparent. Lydia is obsessed with Simone. She gently touches her face, gets down on her eye level and smiles and giggles, and gives her toys to play with (and only sometimes gets jealous that Simone then actually plays with them). If we even mention that Simone is coming over or Lydia is going to Simone's house, we hear about it until Lydia sees her. "Mone's 'ouse? Mone? My 'ouse?" When Simone goes to bed here and Cory and Rachael pick her up after Lydia is asleep, the first thing Lydia does in the morning is run into our room to look into the Pack 'n' Play, in hopes of finding "Mone-ey" ready for more playtime.

During the past month or so, Simone has started responding to Lydia, too. She reaches for her face, smiles, and last night she played with Lydia's toes. It is so much fun to watch them become buddies!




(Note that Lydia is wearing her shorts over her pants. Her PJs were new, and she really wanted to wear the shorts, but we were worried she would get cold at night. This, my friends, is what compromise looks like!)