Growth Spurt

I officially hate growth spurts. So very much.  Lydia has been waking up twice a night again since last Tuesday night, which she hadn't been doing for a whole month.  Then last night she woke up three times to eat, which she has never done in the entirety of her life.  I know I have no right to complain because she's still a better sleeper than most babies, but I was loving her eight hour stretches of sleep so very much.  I think she's hitting a growth spurt because she's getting SO.  BIG.  She's also suddenly developed some pretty incredible head control out of nowhere.  I was getting worried about how weak her neck seemed because she would not hold her head up hardly ever.  But now she does it like a champ!  Here are the picture highlights of the week:

So.

Much.

Tummy Time.

She falls asleep while eating in the morning sometimes and I find it waaaaaaay too cute.

I clipped her fingernails after she did this to herself (I don't know if you can see it, but she's got red marks all over her poor tummy).  And I clipped two of them too short and they bled. Sad face.  She didn't seem upset at all, but I felt terrible.

Helping mom do the laundry!  Also, see how she's outgrown this outfit?  Had to retire it after that day!

 Going on a walk!

She loves her giraffe that her Aunt Katrina gave her!

She gets stuck in her toys sometimes. :)

She fell asleep while cuddling with her Aunt Nikki.

Nikki was having a rough time after a breakup this weekend, so Jess and I took her out shopping.

We tried on prom dresses and then we bought her two pairs of the cutest boots ever and some skinny jeans to go with them.  I didn't get a picture of the boots, but they were adorable and she NEEDED them.

The rest of the week has been spent cleaning and organizing and packing.  It's taking a long time because my love bug periodically distracts me, but by this time next week I'll be in Grenada!

Left Behind....Again

I realized I left out a few pictures/tidbits from earlier posts, so I'm including them here:

 Two days after she was born, one of the Van Leeuwens' neighbors came over to take pictures and snapped a few of Lydia.  So this is one of her REALLY newborn pictures.

 Lydia loved talking to her daddy on Skype while he was gone!

 Lydia's cute Christmas outfit!

 Daddy put his phone on the front-facing camera and Lydia loved looking at herself!

This is the picture I got from Bryant's sister Aubrey while they were out tubing and Lydia and I were cuddling.

 I thought this swimsuit would be a tankini.  But she has a long torso like her mommy, so...it's definitely a bikini.

And one more little tidbit I forgot to say before:  From about 6 weeks on, Lydia has not needed diaper changes during the night.  Occasionally she does, but 98% of the time, she goes from 9:30 pm to 8:00 am without getting her diaper wet or dirty at all.

Now, on to the last week.  The highlight (or should I say lowlight) was Bryant leaving yesterday morning.  Big sad face.  But we'll be following him in two weeks!

We spent Tuesday helping Lydia recover from her vaccines.  She ran a very low fever for part of the day, but she did much better with the baby Tylenol.  By the way, after getting Tylenol on Monday, she slept from 10 pm to 6:30 am!  This little lady loves her painkillers just like her momma, apparently.  In fact, I woke up at about 6:00 because it was the longest consecutive stretch of sleep I've had in months and my body didn't know what to do with itself.  Then I waited until she made a little grunting sound and grabbed her out of the crib and made her eat because I was starting to hurt.  She only ate for a few minutes before falling asleep again.  She's my favorite!

Wednesday through Friday we just lounged around, did some laundry and packed stuff up for Bryant to take to Grenada.  Oh, and did tons of tummy time!

 

Lydia LOVES it when I sing.  She smiles and laughs like crazy.  I'm not sure if she just really likes songs or if she is laughing at my attempts to sing. :)

Saturday we drove down to Bryant's parents' house for the weekend.  They are in New Zealand right now so we had the place to ourselves.  We made a chocolate cake, then went over to my grandpa's house to sell off some of the furniture we were storing there.  Afterward we headed to our friends', Brooke & Clayton, house for dinner and games.  They have an almost three year old daughter, Adi, and a son, Phillip, who is a month older than Lydia but was born premature so he's still a little guy.  He is so cute!  But it was the first time Lydia has been around a baby who was smaller than her and I couldn't get over how tiny he was!!  Clayton got sick while we were there and both babies were cranky, but it was still so much fun.  That night was the first time in three days that Lydia got to bed on time and she was soooooooo much happier after that.  The later that baby goes to bed the earlier she gets up and the crankier she is. 

She loves taking selfies!

Hanging out waiting for people to show up and buy things at grandpa's house.

She LOVES playing with daddy!

Sunday morning we got up and had a lazy morning as a family.  In the afternoon Bryant's sisters, Aubrey and McCall, and my sister, Jess, and her husband and two kids came over for dinner.  We played some more games, then ate dinner and everyone left but Aubrey, who was staying until Tuesday morning.

Monday we finished packing up some stuff for Bryant to take to Grenada--mostly wipes and clothes for Lydia.  We enjoyed our last few hours with each other before Bryant had to leave. 

Seriously, she really loves her daddy.

Tuesday morning Bryant and I got up at four, he got dressed and ready, I said goodbye and Aubrey drove him to the airport at about 4:30.  No crying this time, folks! I couldn't fall back asleep until almost 5, but Lydia slept straight through until 7:15!!  I was so excited.  I cleaned up, got Lydia all packed up in the car and drove to Ikea to meet up with Jess and her two boys, Keagan and Parker.  Everything is so cheap there!!  Afterward I stopped at Jess's house for a bit before coming back up to my parents' house.  Last night I put Lydia to bed at 9 in an attempt to move her schedule closer to Grenada time.  This resulted in her waking up twice during the night, which she hasn't done in about a month.  I'm not sure if it was the early bedtime, but I hope not.

Not the best picture, but we were having fun in Ikea!

This morning we went out and bought a little chair for her.  She's still getting used to it, but she's adorable in it!  This progression of pictures pretty much sums it up:
 

Two weeks until beaches and sun!

The Nugget's Second Month

I promise that I will be posting more often than once a month very soon, but I have been very busy with Bryant being home.  I plan to write during her naps (she's taking one right now), but with him here we spend her naptime together most of the time.  This post will be another quick recap of the past month, but I think starting next week I will be posting every week.  First, two quick things from her first month that I forgot about:

• The pee.  Heavens above, the pee.  When she was about 4-5 weeks old, she had a wet diaper.  I laid her down on the changing pad, got her all cleaned up and put on her clothes, then slid my hands under her back to pick her up and she was wet.  Not only was she wet, but there was a little puddle on her changing pad.  And I hadn't put the diaper on wrong.  Nope, this girl just pees so very much that the diapers can't handle it.  She soaked through the diaper, her onesie, and her pants in about five seconds flat.  Also, she did that just after I had changed her out of a very wet diaper.  She has also peed through her pajamas and sheets more than once.
• She got newborn pictures taken!  I took her when she was six days old, and I love the way the pictures turned out!  Here are a few favorites:

 This is the face she makes every time I put her in her carseat. :)

I was standing there talking to her in this one.  She's a sweetie pie!!

I made these sandals!

Alright, now I will pick up with month #2!

• First, and most importantly, Bryant came home!!  I surprised him by renting a hotel room in Salt Lake for his first two nights so he could get to know his little lady.  I had actually done this back in August when we thought he would not be here for her birth, but it was still a lot of fun!  He came home on the evening of Dec. 14th and we went out to lunch the next day at the Red Iguana before heading over to see the lights on Temple Square that night.  The next morning we packed up and headed down to the Van Leeuwens' to spend a few days there.

The day (just before Bryant got back) that she peed through 2 outfits by noon.

I discovered she liked tummy time more when I let her watch America's Next Top Model while I packed.

She was Minnie Mouse at church the day Bryant got back!

Yay!  Daddy is home!!

Out to lunch!

I attempted to take so many pictures on my phone, but I had to turn the flash off to try to capture the lights on Temple Square and apparently my hands are too shaky for such an endeavor.

 It was too cold for us to want to uncover the little girl (plus she was asleep), but then she woke up and so we stopped on the way to the car and took a quick picture next to one tree that wasn't even on Temple Square. :)

 

 Tummy time with Daddy is the best!!

 She loved playing under Grandma's Christmas tree!!

• We headed up to the Gotbergs' after that and spent a whole week, culminating in Christmas morning.  We spent all our time there playing with family and just hanging out.  Here are some pictures and highlights:

Bath time is the best!

Go Cougars!

She just can't get enough of Christmas trees!

 We did the Nativity on Christmas Eve and my nephew, Keagan, was supposed to be a sheep.  He wanted to wear the sheep "hat," but refused to put on the big fluffy sheep costume.  He did, however, decide that he needed a shepherd's crook in order to be a real sheep.

We were Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.  

She was happy on Christmas morning, especially while Daddy was playing with her.

Daddy got a Superman robe and wore it all Christmas morning while he opened Lydia's presents for her (which she loved).

• After we ate breakfast, we headed back down to Bryant's parents' house to spend about a week with them.  We had another round of present opening after a "breakfast" lunch complete with wassail (one of my favorites).  Later that week we also went up to Midway for two days.  Here are more pictures and highlights:

Grandma Van Leeuwen got her a cute stocking!

 My sister-in-law, Amanda, is pretty much amazing.  She made homemade wrapping paper and I had to take pictures because it was too incredible and cute!

I mean, seriously, who can do things like that?!

Too much fun on Christmas meant that baby girl kept falling asleep when she was supposed to be eating.

 

While we were opening presents I put this bag on Milo's head.  I thought he would freak out, but instead he climbed inside and curled up. It was pretty cute!

 She's just such a cute Minnie Mouse I couldn't help dressing her up again!

 Bryant's extended family did the Nativity and Lydia was Baby Jesus again.  Grandpa was so nervous about her being held by Bryant's young cousin that he jumped up the second it ended to rescue her.  So sweet!

 She loves playing with daddy!

 She didn't sleep well the first night up in Midway, so we spent a few hours snuggling while everyone else went tubing at Soldier Hollow.

 We decided to take a little walk outside in the snow with our love bug.  I love that Bryant looks like a baby-wearing super hero in this picture.

Cutie!

 Snuggling with mom...

 and dad...

 

 and Auntie McCall!

• On Saturday we had Lydia's baby blessing.  I bore my testimony and cried and Bryant did a fantastic job with her blessing.  It was a very happy day!

•  After the blessing, it was back up to my parents' house.  We're going to spend the week here before Bryant heads back to Grenada.  Sad face.  Here's what we've done so far:

Going on a walk!

And bundling up because it's cold outside.  Isn't her Hungry Caterpillar quilt cute?  Her Aunt Amanda made it for her!

She loves sitting in the highchair while mom and dad play card games with family.

Learning to stand with daddy!

She's getting so big!!  I love it and hate it all at the same time.

 Yesterday was her two month check up.  This is her being happily ignorant of the pain that would be happening soon.  Curse you, vaccines!  But not really, vaccines are great.  But we found out she's in the 95th percentile for height, 75th percentile for weight, and only 38th percentile for head size.  She got her daddy's head and I'm pretty sure she got her height from both of us.

 
And that's it!  I will post again in a week, and this time I really really will because Bryant won't be here and I can post during naps again.