8 months and kicks and giggles

Merry Christmas everyone! This little girl turned 8 months old today!

I absolutely love this age, because their personality is exploding. Lydia's definitely is. She has decided that bath time is great, after 8 months of not liking it.

She has decided to use her big eyes to her advantage. Lydia is very observant and aware. Also, she is adorable.

And she has beautiful hair, which is looking to be the same color as Emily and Nathalie's!

She also has AMAZING lashes. And adorable cheeks and a cute little button nose.

Lydia is quite the personality. She's feisty, still loves to be held, loves to eat real food and is definitely a mover and a shaker! She learned to crawl at 7 1/2 months and has been moving like CRAZY every since. Two days after learning to crawl, she started pulling herself up. She started crawling out of her cradle, so we moved her to a pack and play in our closet.

As you can see, this has created a few logistical problems. But we're figuring it out. We hadn't babyproofed this house! Lydia is starting to sleep longer at night. I admit to feeling more nervous about MCADD now, since she would sleep 8+ hours if I let her-- so all the night wakings depend on me responding to my alarm. I am worried that one night I won't wake up to it. I just pray every night to wake up to my alarm.

Here is her funny crawl. Because our house is mostly wood floors, with the exception of two bedrooms, Lydia has a funny crawl. She slips all over the place when wearing pants, so her crawl is one knee down, one foot up for traction. And she can move pretty fast using this method too! It doesn't seem to slow her down at all!

And just for kicks-- the other girls at 8 months.

Emily (above and below)

Charlotte (above and below)

Nan (above and below)

Personally I think she looks the most like Nathalie!

Kelsey and Dan Visit Skidaway Island

At Thanksgiving my sister Kelsey and her husband, Dan, came to visit. They recently moved to the DC area and we are SO excited to have them live only 8 hours away! They are our closest family now!

We went to Skidaway Island State Park which was BEAUTIFUL. The kids and Dan started playing with the dried palm tree branches, chasing each other and trying to "get" each other.

Emily especially loved this game. Dan is amazing with the kids.

Charlotte, of course, bonded with my sister who is also the third daughter!

Worn out!

We went out on a pier overlooking the river and it was so beautiful! Savannah definitely has its pretty spots.

Dan read the kids bedtime stories.

Nathalie decided it'd be fun to pretend the palm tree leaf was a broom for riding.

And apparently, Dan did too!

We took a hike through the state park. If you ever visit the South, this moss is beautiful and odd at the same time. It creates a very strange ambience in the forests. Pictures don't do it justice.

And we found a big tree which was perfect for climbing.

The pier.

And my sister took a panoramic view off the pier. Like I said, beautiful!

We had a GREAT time with them. We played, talked, stayed up way too late, and it was wonderful. We can't wait to visit them in DC!

Date Night

Emily is bridging the gap between little kid and big kid. She likes to bathe alone now, she likes to spend time alone reading or coloring in her room and she especially likes alone time with us. So the other day, I noticed that she was having a rough day and suggested that she and I go for a bike ride while Lydia took a nap.

We had a great time! We rode about a mile and a half (far for her!) and talked and talked.

It only took about 30 minutes, but it was the BEST 30 minutes of my week!

Savannah Children's Book Festival

 

Every November Savannah has a Children's Book Festival. It's a huge event and the library puts up 50-100 booths of food, activities, author signings, games, crafts, everything! Since we love the library, we went for the first time and had a great time! It was a huge deal. There were a TON of children there!

They had this awesome block building area. The kids spent a long time there! I took my four girls and two boys I was watching for a friend. Yes, 6 kids, 7 and under, by myself. Matt met me there with some friends about an hour into it, which made it a lot easier. But boys and girls alike had so much fun building with these big blocks!

This is what happens after 4 hours of fun.

And then this. She decided she was still tired when we got home.

More blocks!

Our scary story from this event was losing Nathalie. Before Matt and our friends got there, I was alone with the 6 kids and very vigilant. But when he got there I let my guard down. At one point, Nathalie had gone back to where Matt, older boy, and Emily were. I was with the younger boy and Charlotte, who said they had to go to the bathroom. Lydia was asleep in the carrier with me. I took the kids to the bathroom, and while I was gone, Nathalie decided she wanted to come back to me. So she left Matt's area and didn't tell him.

Of course, I wasn't there anymore. She got scared and a policeman saw her wandering around. He picked her up and put her in his golf cart as he drove around the festival (there were lots of policemen). When I got back from taking the kids to the bathroom, I asked Matt where Nathalie was. And when we realized she was gone, we panicked. There were probably 1000-1500 people at this event. Well, our friends and I started combing the event in ever-widening circles while Matt stayed with the other kids. But we didn't find her.

I got back to Matt after 5-10 minutes (it seemed like an hour) and she hadn't returned, so we switched and he started searching. A minute or two later I got a call from our friend saying she had found Nathalie with the policeman and was bringing her back. Apparently, Nan was the 8th child lost that day and because she was scared, Nan couldn't remember her phone number.

I cried when I saw her. And she cried when she saw me.

I am grateful, so grateful.

Important Princess Training

 

We spend a good deal of our days in princess clothes.

Fancy dresses are an essential part of raising girls, you know!

Oh man, I love this picture.

I have pretty much the cutest girls ever!

A friend gave us some even fancier dresses she had when she was a child!

Esmerelda!

Cinderella!

Jasmine!

Pocahontas!

Seriously, we dress up from the minute we're home from school until bedtime. Leotards, tutus, heels, jewelry, princess dresses, pirates, cowgirls-- you name it, we play it!

Girls are so fun.