Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Seven Months

Lydia has reached the seven month mark!  The first time she sat up was January 7, and now she sits with confidence and plays great with her toys on her own. Yay!  She is such a joy to be around, unless she is tired.  It is easy to tell when it is time for her to go to bed because she gets very crabby and nothing seems to distract her.  Naps are still inconsistent, but they seem to be getting somewhat longer which is wonderful.  Her nights continue to be great with an average of about 12-13 hours straight, and a record of 15 hours!  She loves to eat, and so far has welcomed anything we try to feed her.  I often catch her staring longingly at the food we're eating... like soup or spaghetti.  It will be a little while until she's eating those things :)

This week and last week were unseasonable warm and got into the mid to upper 40's a few days.  We took advantage of those days and hauled the jogger out of the basement for a spin.  Lydia seemed to enjoy the fresh air, and I realized how much I've been missing our walks outside!  Can't wait for summer!

Dan has been busy at work and enjoys evenings home with his girls, unless we're at Bible study or youth group.  He's almost finished with a little shelf that will go up in the SE corner of the den for keys, bags, name badges, church Bible, etc.  Also, he's been spending some time re-vamping our budget on the computer.  Sounds boring, right?  Well the computer programmer in him loves it, and before I know it we've spent almost all of supper talking about it!  Well, maybe not that long :)  Friday morning basketball continues to be one of the highlights of his week, and Lydia and I always listen intently when he tells us about his amazing stats and number of dunks!  In all seriousness I am pretty amazed that he can play with (and often out-play) all these guys that played ball for years in high school and college. (And he will probably ask me to take this part off our blog once he reads it!)

Lately I've been enjoying reading, caring for Lydia, trying some new recipes, and working some short evening shifts in outpatient surgery and the PACU.  I absolutely love going back to work and seeing my dear coworkers and caring for patients.  My first calling is to be a wife and mom, but there is part of me that will always love being a nurse.  We've been making an effort to open up our home on Friday evenings to having guests over for supper.  This has been very delightful, and an added bonus is that we can put our sweet baby to bed when she starts to be more like a mad hornet ;)

Grandpa and Grandma VW are in Washington and have been there for almost a month helping with Tom and Karlene's family after Tom had heart surgery to repair a valve.  From what we hear he is having a great recovery (what an answer to prayer!), so Lydia thinks it's high time Opa and Oma come on home ;)

Rosy cheeks after a long nap.

Always discovering new body parts :)

Tipping over isn't so bad when I'm on a soft bed!

Every evening is a new masterpiece to the west.

This is daddy's doing... I just found this picture on the camera.

She loves tipping over her toy basket and pulling out its contents.

Morning hair is the best!

Can you count her rolls?

She loves bath time!


A sweet, wet baby.

One of my favorites :)

We're practicing reaching without tipping over.

I'm a Pella baby! (I'm sure glad I got this picture before lunch time when she got sweet potatoes everywhere!)

Monday, January 5, 2015

Christmas Fun

We spent some time with both of our families around Christmas, and enjoyed lots of yummy food, good conversation and special gifts.  It is good to be back home too as traveling with a little one can be quite exhausting.

The new year brings with it an opportunity for fresh starts, and for our family a few celebrations!  Dan's birthday was on the 1st, and our anniversary is today.  As we celebrate being married for two years, we looked back on the last year.  The main event was Lydia's birth.  She has changed our lives in tremendous ways, and it is hard to imagine our lives without her.  Having her in our family has added many challenges and a few limitations, but the joy she brings to our home surpasses the trials.

In this new year Dan and I want to be more intentional about displaying the biblical virtue of hospitality.  Now that we have a home of our own and a table that can seat more than four people, we want to make a conscious effort to be welcoming to those around us.  There are some risks involved with hospitality, and for me they have often become road blocks.  What if Lydia cries the whole time?  What if I overcook the meat?  What if the conversation doesn't flow well?  What if our company has a hard time finding our house?  These really are quite trivial things, so I plan to cast them aside in this new year!

 It was hard to choose what pictures to include from our eventful few weeks. Enjoy!

Trying some apple slices in her teether.  A baby mouth can only hold so much, Lydia!

Sweet smiles from her high chair.




She's a pretty heavy load for her cousin Dylan!

Loving the wrapping paper.

Auntie Sara checking out Lydia's toes!

Cuddles with Grandma Hanenburg!




Buddies

Bonding with Auntie Abby.

One of Lydia's favorite activities...

"Cousin" Avery!








She was not in the mood for that ball at the time, but she loves it now!

Playing with Grandma Hofland!

Checking out the shades with Auntie Carrie :)

Bonding with her Illinois Aunt.

Books from Tom and Karlene! Yay!

She loves her present from Opa and Oma!
Uncle Derek and Uncle John!

Spending some time with Great-grandma Hofland.

The newest addition to the Vander Wilt family: Lily!

All the great-grands at Opa and Oma's house!

Avery loves Oma's high chair.

Malachi wasn't feeling too good...

The cats drank all the water out of the heated water bowl, so this is the most logical thing to do after that :)

They pick the skinniest tree on the whole yard to play in...

Play time!

Lydia loves Oma's little chair :)
Avery and Lydia bonding.

... and playing.