video of toy and tongue

Here's a new "Lydeo" that I took today. She's apparently not interested enough in the toy to try to grab for it, but she really does like it. And then towards the end, when she sticks her tongue out and just leaves it out, she's been doing that new trick the past few days. It cracks me up because she'll even turn her head to look at something else and her tongue will just still be all dangling like that



Speaking of videos, the last 10 days or so I've been showing her the Starter video in the Your Baby Can Read series. My mother in law got us that video a few months ago but it sat unopened for a while. Then one day I decided to pop it in and read the parents' section first and was amazed. The creator's 9 month old daughter was reading words off of flashcards. Like he'd show her the card that said hair and she'd reach up and play with her hair. Then he'd show her bellybutton and she'd lift up her shirt and poke at her belly button. The video also had a section where other children were reading too, at a pre-school age. I'm definitely not expecting her to be reading by such and such a date, but she loves watching it so far, and there are songs and activities (clap, find your eyes, hold your arms up, etc.) in the video. I have to help her do pretty much every activity right now but maybe in the future she'll start doing them as soon as the word pops up onto the screen. :)

My tie-dyed diaper business will hopefully still have an opening date of next month. Right now I'm in the middle of tying up all the diapers into their various patterns. It's going slowly. When hubby and I dyed DD's personal stash, we dyed 48 total diapers. But for my initial offering, I have 36 smalls and 54 regulars that need to be tied. So far I have almost all of the smalls tied but none of the regulars. I won't be able to do anything next week so I'm really trying to get it all done this week and get "preview" pictures posted on my store site.

Next week I'll be helping out my mother in law. She is having surgery tomorrow and will need a LOT of assistance for quite a while. My father in law is taking off the rest of the week but has to go back on Monday, so I said I'd come down and help her out when he goes back. I hope the surgery goes well for her.

get in shape, girl

I'm wondering if any of the ladies on here remember that fitness series from the early '80s. Each set came with a cassette that led you through the workout, a poster showing the moves, and a piece of workout gear. I think I had one that had leg warmers and another one that had a ribbon-on-a-stick. Like this one here. That was my favorite thing ever.

But anyway. I am now going to be a "girl getting in shape" again, because yesterday hubby and I joined a local fitness center. I really think this will be helpful to both of us. I haven't really been able to stick to an exercise in the recent past b/c I've gotten quickly bored. But just from the brief view of the gym yesterday, I really think I'm going to like it a lot. It has a ton of variety and some of the weight machines are VERY user-friendly. Inexperienced me needs a lot of user-friendliness. I'm going to call later today to try to schedule time w/ a personal trainer to get my burning questions answered.

As for Lydia, she is doing fine. :) When it's time to eat, she's now started anticipating it. (She's still just nursing). As soon as it's in sight, she will look at it and reach for it. And last night while I was trying to get her to sleep, she popped off and was smiling and gurgling to her food source. It was so cute and sweet.

six months old

Wow, where is this time going? I feel like I just had her yesterday. I need to get some 6 month pictures taken and post them. Maybe I'll go do that on Wednesday. As for her new skills now that she's so "old", she now does..... nothing. lol. She has gotten better at rolling from front to back now and doesn't look like she's falling down anymore. But still no teeth, still no sitting up, still no solid foods yet. I did take the first step to solids yesterday though and actually brought some into the house. :P We decided to go with oatmeal cereal instead of rice since I've heard rice can be constipating.

I had a FABULOUS time in Indiana. It was so nice to hang out with my friend and her hubby, parents, and 2-year-old. It was so cute watching the little girl interact with Lydia. I kept telling people that Lydia would have made such a great second baby, since she was so patient with what the other little girl kept doing to her. She even emptied out her little round laundry basket and put it upside down on top of Lydia. lol. Oh and Lydia LOVED their golden retriever. She kept smiling and laughing and having a good old time. And apparently this dog will "nudge" the 2-year-old every so often, and the dog did this to Lydia at one point but wasn't used to nudging such a small baby... and rolled Lydia right over with her nose.

While we were there, we went to some of the cutest little kids' stores. I got her a new toy that I'll post a picture of once she's awake. She LOVES it. When we left that store, she cried when I put her in her carseat. I gave her the new toy and she was SO happy and was playing with it and "tasting" it and talking to it. Then we got to our next stop and I had to take the toy away to get her out of the seat, and she got mad again. We also went to Babies'R'Us since there isn't one anywhere near where we live, and I got her a tiny swimsuit. :D All of the other stores we looked at had swimsuits but they started at 12 months. BRU is the only place that has swimsuits in her size. I tried it on her last night and it is SO cute. :) I'll have to post a picture of that, too, later. So far her daddy doesn't know about the swimsuit. He's off on Wednesday but has an eye appointment so I'm planning on getting both of us ready for swimming while he's at his appointment then surprising him when he comes home. I can't wait, he is going to love it.

The drive wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I planned 2 stops and took them, and she hardly cried at all on the way up there. But the drive back home seemed like it was twice as long. :P We made it OK though. Now at the end of this month I'll visit my mother in law for a few days to help her out post-surgery, then for most of July I should be here. Then I added a trip in early August for a wedding (another 8-10 hour drive), and in later August I'll visit my sister in law and my family on the same trip, and then after that I think I'll rest for a few months. Or years. lol