Ms Lydia has her first ear infection.  Of course, if she's going to do something she's going to do it right with both ears infected, a cold AND an eye infection.  Thankfully, she seems to be dealing with it pretty well.  She doesn't seem to be in any pain, there is no fever and she's still her usual happy self.  We wouldn't have known about the ears except for the eye infection which sent us to the doctors this morning.  We've started her on anitbiotics which should start to work pretty much immediately.  Hopefully, it will all be cleared up within a few days.

Today was another day of "firsts" for Ms. Lydia Grace.  It was the first time she fell off the couch and the first time she dropped her whisk down the toilet.  Luckily, Dad was close by and saved the day and that steep step off the couch had a relatively soft landing (no damage done except to Mom's poor heart).  As for the whisk it was also rescued before the flushing commenced.  Apparently, those toilet lid locks are meant to keep kids from drowning in the toilet - it's every man, woman and whisk for himself when it comes to actually flushing things.  Who knew?!

Ms. Lydia Grace has reached another milestone.  Today she officially moved from the infant room at daycare to the Waddler room.  The infant room is generally from 7 weeks to 1 year old.  The Waddler room is from ages 1 to 2 years old.  In order to move up she had to hit a couple of milestones including eating all table food, drinking from a sippy cup and down to 1 nap per day.  We did a couple of trial runs last week which went well and today she made the official move.  So far, she seems to be doing pretty good with it all.  She's such a easy going baby (oh! Waddler) that she just sort of rolls with it all.  I did ask her teacher from her infant room to check in on her later today to see how she's doing.

Lydia Grace had her first birthday party and it was quite the success.  She was her usual cute, charming self and stole the hearts of everyone there - again.

Her birthday celebration actually started on Friday, January 9th with a small party at daycare.  We took 2 dozen mini cupcakes in for her friends, the teachers and parents and everyone had a good time.

Saturday was spent getting things together for the party and hanging out with Mimmie and Nana.  What a treat to have both grandmothers in town for the party!

The party on Sunday was a blast with good food, great friends, delicious cupcakes and new toys to rival the best stocked toy store.

There was some special excitement with the arrival of our soon-to-be Aunt Christy.  We are very excited that she has agreed to marry Uncle Kelley in 2010.  Maybe we'll even get to be a flower girl for the big event...

All in all things couldn't have gone better!  Next...Hawaii!

Lydia Grace started playing hide and seek today.  If you give her a blanket and ask, "where's Lydia?" she'll hold it up to her face and hide.  If you ask again, "where's Lydia?" she'll drop the blanket and wait for you to say boo.  We did this several times today until both of us were giggling.  Not only is it cute but it's amazing to see her learning and doing such complicated action.  It's amazing how fast she's growing!

I love the holidays and this year look forward to them with a special sense of excitement.  Not only do I have a wonderful husband and THREE beautiful children but my mother will be with us.  Of course, the highlight for me is experiencing the holidays with Lydia for the first time.  I know she won't remember them and in some ways this first holiday season is more for me then her but I will remember and I can only hope that these experiences will add to her sense of well being and love.

Last night was perhaps the official kick off to the holiday season.  We have a delightful specialty grocery store in our neightborhood that put on a holiday feast tasting for the neighborhood.  Local vendors were there handing out samples of their vairous holiday food.  In addition, the grocery store itself put on quite the spread with ham, turkey, stuffing, gravy, fish, prime rib, pumpkin pie, mouse, fruit...basically EVERYTHING you could think of for a holiday meal.  Not only was the food great (with perhaps the exception of the stuffing but then again, I'm a stuffing snob) but there was a definite festive feel in the air.  Everyone was warm and friendly and enjoying themselves. 

Lydia got to sample mashed potatos, stuffing and pumpkin pie all for the first time.  She loved it all!  She was also her sweet, charming self smiling at just about everyone.  It was a lot of fun and something I would enjoy making a holiday tradition.

Can't talk now, Lydia Grace is crawling and seems to know exactly what she shouldn't get into!

Ms. Lydia Grace is almost crawling and seems rather frustrated by her inability to take that last (or first) step.  She's spending more and more time moving around on her tummy and can get pretty much anywhere she wants to go.  I'm betting that she'll be crawling by this weekend.  I'll be sure to let you know as soon as she's up and running...there may even be video!