Minnesota Girls

Congratulations to Becky and Jonathan!!!

Almost two months ago, I blogged about some friends who were trying to adopt a baby, and since then, several of you have asked for updates on their family. Today, I am happy to share the news that Becky and Jonathan are going to be parents!! They found out on Tuesday that their son(!!!!) is due today!!! See Becky's blog entry here.

Congratulations, Becky and Jonathan!! Your journey to parenthood has been inspiring. Robin and I both wish you all of the best!

Safe and Sound

Lydia, my mom and I arrived safely in Forest Lake after driving from Austin. We left Thursday morning and arrived Friday night.

Robin and I are pretty good road-trippers if I say so myself, and often times we end up opting to drive home rather than fly so that we have a car while here. This makes it much easier to get around Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as drive to Madison. This paired with airfare prices that are only getting more expensive meant hitting the road.

We took our time, and everything went well. One of us sat in the back with Lydia the whole time, we packed a crate with books and toys, and listened to music. Somehow, we managed to drive across the country with zero meltdowns from Lydia. She is a trooper; I am so proud of her.

Currently, I have no way of uploading photos from my camera, but I am eager to post about the 4th (3rd?) of July parade I went to this morning, meeting Drew Q. for the first time and spending some time with his wonderful parents, and just how much Grandma and Grandpa H. love their granddaughter. Until then, I will try to take iPhone pictures to post and my little Top Five list will have to hold you over!

Top Five Most Important Things to Bring Along on a Roadtrip with a Toddler

5.) Book on tape for naptime. My choice for this ride was Eating Animals by Jonathan Safron Foer.
4.) Cooler of delicious protein-filled snacks for all. This limited our mealtime stops. (See #3) This included cheese, peanut butter, nuts and trail mix, and whole milk for Lydia.
3.) A bib and solid-ish foods. We did lots of car eating so that stops could be limited to diaper changes and running around.
2.) Pacifier or food with which to pacify. We threw all rules on pacifier time and portion control to the wind. A non-crying baby = a happy mama.
1.) As many books as possible. Seriously, we brought 20. Why? Because "Oh, the wonderful sounds Mr. Brown can do..." is a lot to take on round 20 or 30 when cooped up in a car with nowhere to go.

The Apple of Uncle Markus's Eye

My brother is unabashedly in love with his niece. He is in grad school in Las Vegas, but he has managed to develop a relationship with Lydia via Skype and the occasional visit to Austin.

I am a bit in awe of the fact that Lydia knows how to Skype. She stands and interacts with the person on the screen; today she played peek-a-boo with Markus and would point to her tummy when he asked her to, etc.

I knew that their Skype-relationship was legit when Markus managed to get her to stop crying through the computer. She went from tears to laughter in under a minute--pretty impressive without a computer, and factor in the distance and you've got a winner. He sealed the deal when Lydia became fussy on another occasion, and he said, "I think she has a poopy diaper." He was right. Markus identified the dirty diaper from Las Vegas before Robin or I did. Pretty impressive!

Uncle Markus loves Lydia, and Lydia loves Uncle Markus!

Messmaker

Mealtime has become an increasingly messy event in our house. Lydia likes to feed herself, but her spoon and fork skills are mediocre at best. As a result, she ends up going for strategies like this:



We talked to the pediatrician about ways to redirect this behavior, and she advised us to just let Lydia go at it, though she agreed that after Lydia, for example, smears all of her milk on the counter, we should not refill her cup, and the same goes for her food after it is all on the floor. The mess is not pleasant, but I feel like it's part of Lydia's learning process in becoming an independent eater. For now, we will have to be okay with mealtime looking like this:

Class Clown

Lydia has developed a sense of humor. She will laugh at things that she thinks are funny, and she will try to do things to make us laugh. Here she is, fooling around at the dinner table. Note how serious her face is while she has the washcloth on her head and how she laughs when she pulls it off!

Further Proof

Here is Lydia doing her party trick!