The Van Leeuwens: Our Last Week in Utah

I'm about five weeks behind now after all the craziness of moving, but I am working hard to get caught up! So here's what our last week in Utah was like:

Wednesday & Thursday (the 21st and 22nd), I organized and cleaned and made lists of what was going and what was not. Lydia practiced her rolling skills by rolling back to front a few times and then front to back once on Thursday. This little lady has crazy ab muscles, but very little upper body strength so it seems to be easier for her to do the back to front roll. On Wednesday she wasn't eating well so I gave her a bottle of pumped milk and she sucked on it hard enough that I didn't have to hold it for her. Silly goose.

On Friday I worked hard at packing and my sister Jess was there with her two boys.

Saturday I worked all day to finish the packing and organizing. Luckily my mom, dad, and Jess all helped watch Miss Lydia so I could get stuff done. Then in the evening my dad helped me load everything into his truck and we drove to Bryant's Uncle Neil's house where Al and Alison were at a party. We moved everything over to their car and Lydia and I went home with them. My love bug decided to stay up until eleven that night for no apparent reason, but she only woke up once so I was fine with it.

On Sunday Lydia practiced her sit ups, which is something new she just started doing. When she's laying on her back she will pull her head and shoulders up and forward in what looks like an attempt to sit up. Since she's obviously way too young to hold herself up like that, it ends in her slumping over sideways. She now does it pretty much every time she goes in the car seat, too, straining forward against the straps like she thinks she'll get somewhere. It's adorable, but I'm worried that soon she'll get frustrated and not like her car seat anymore. Hopefully not!

Sunday night Lydia and I headed over to my Aunt Brenda's house for a family get together and to say goodbye to everyone. Lydia was her usual charming self and smiled for everyone. We had a great time saying goodbye to my family and we will miss them so much! Side note: we had a baked potato bar and my nephew, Keagan, informed his mother that he didn't want to eat what she served him, he wanted to eat "something beautiful." When asked what beautiful thing he wanted to eat, we discovered that having chili on your baked potato is beautiful. I laughed pretty hard at that one.

After we left my family party we headed back to the Van Leeuwens' to say goodbye to McCall and Aubrey, who had driven up from Provo to spend a little time with us. They exclaimed over what a big girl she's become--pretty much all of her head control and standing abilities started during the last two weeks--and how much they would miss her. We will miss them, too!

I just remembered something I've been meaning to include on here. When Lydia gets put down for bed or naps or anything like that, she does this thing that I call mattress thumping. She's laying flat on her back and--with her eyes still closed--she brings her feet straight up in the air so her body is making a little "L" shape, then swings them down hard to thump against the mattress. I think this is her equivalent of shifting around to get comfortable. If we don't step in and hold her feet down or give her the binky or pat her, she keeps doing it until she wakes up.

Monday was a hectic day since it was our last in Utah. There was shopping and planning and packing and my friend Brooke came over with her two kids to give me back a burp cloth and hang out for a while. That night my last package of cloth diapers arrived at my parents' house and my dad had to bring them down. Al and Alison were kind enough to finish packing and weighing all the suitcases while I tried to put Lydia to bed early in preparation for our early morning. She refused to go to bed early, insisting on staying up until her normal bedtime. However, she slept straight through from then until we got up early the next morning so at least there was that. Photos from the week: