A Decision

Well, there is nothing super exciting to report around here. May is right around the corner and that means summer-time is almost here. I only have 4 more weeks of teaching left at the Academy where I give violin lessons. This will be it for me since I have decided not to go back once baby Lauren is born. I did it with Lydia and we made it work. She was very adaptable to new situations and continues to love going to the nursery to play with the other kids and to see the two women who have been taking care of her since she was just 2 months old! It was a great situation to have childcare on-site in the church nursery. Also the two women who keep the teachers' kids are great. I trust them implicitly and never had a moment's worry about what was going on while I was teaching. Lydia has never been a "clingy" child or a mama's girl, so she took right to the situation. However, it was virtually impossible to have a set "schedule" with her because my hours were so different from day to day. We fit nursing and naptimes in between lessons....and those were some really long days! Looking back, I think it made nursing and sleeping through the night more difficult for both of us than it needed to be...and it didn't help my stress level either! Anyway, Ben and I decided that this schedule just was not the best choice for our family anymore. I'm hoping the opportunity to stay home more (let's see how that plays out!), especially at the beginning, will help the transition from 1 to 2 munchkins go a little more smoothly.
Part of me is a little sad to be leaving this behind. I've met some really wonderful families over the past six years and had some students that were really talented and were a joy to teach. Also, Lydia loves the social interaction she gets at the nursery. (She thinks the only time she "pways" (plays) is when she is there!! She says, "Go nursey and pway? See Ian, see Courtney"....proceeding to name all of the children she sees while there.) On the other hand, I'm looking forward to being at home more. I'll be able to devote more time and energy to being a wife and a mom - a better homemaker I hope.
I'll leave you with a few tidbits about Lydia. We take turns putting her to bed a night, but the "ritual" is usually the same - cuddling in the rocking chair, singing some songs and praying. She has recently started requesting her two favorite bed-time songs: "Jesus, da Bible" and "Great my Father." Translation: Jesus Loves Me and Great is Thy Faithfulness. It took me a couple of nights to figure out that last one, but we have it now! (I have grown up singing these hymns and yet I can barely make it through one verse with correct words. Even so I think I may mix up some phrases here and there. I "blame" it on the fact that I have been playing my violin in church for the past 15+ years, so I rarely get to sing songs. I could tell you the key almost any hymn appears in in our hymnal or play from memory the soprano, alto or tenor lines...but the words escape me. Kind of depressing!)
Lydia beat me to it and has decided she is done with her highchair. I know some people think they are space wasters, but I have truly enjoyed mine. I guess the highchair will go gather dust for some months before Lauren is ready for it.
Lydia loves shoes - particularly a pair of ballet slippers from Mema and her jellies. She doesn't understand why she can't wear the ballet slippers outside to play. She calls the jellies her "jelly shoes." They were cheap and don't give her blisters (unlike the water shoes we bought for the beach and pool time). I think we'll need to find something a bit more secure and durable for her summer play shoes though.
I brought out a few "new" books from the stash that I've hidden away. She used to be really rough on her books and I stopped letting her look at books during her nap-time after she totally ripped apart two board books! I'm more careful to try to monitor her with the books with regular paper pages and she seems to be doing pretty well. One of the books I pulled out is a collection of Curious George stories. She loves this book about " George, da monkey." (We used to refer to her as our curious "georgette" because she was always getting into something.)
We try to talk often about baby Lauren and how she is mommy's tummy. Lydia likes to pull up my shirt to look at my belly. Sometimes she says," Hi Wahren," or "How doin' Wahren?" Other times she will give a kiss to the baby. She does this by putting her lips on or very close to my belly and saying, "MUH" - a funny and fake kissing sound!
Well, those are my thoughts for now. =)

Easter pictures

As I was playing for another church's Easter worship service, Ben got Lydia dressed and ready for church that morning.
The family lunch was at our house. Here are the youngest girls (minus Kate B.) In our relatively small group we had two Kates, two Megans and two Matts!


Yesterday after her nap as I was approaching her room I heard Lydia saying, "Open it! Open it!". I thought she must have somehow sensed that I was right outside her door ready to come get her up. When I walked in she had her pants around her knees and was struggling trying to get her snap on her pants to "open".

Beach Vacation

Hello friends. I'm still here - it has just been very busy lately. I know the rest of you have busy lives as well, so I can't really use that as an excuse for not blogging. I have enjoyed reading all your posts, I just haven't gotten around to it myself. The longer I wait, the more there is to write so I'm jumping in now before I have no hope of getting caught up.

Lydia recently began noticing jewelry. She now has a few of her own "neckaces" that she dons daily.



We had a really nice time spending a few days in Hilton Head with Josh, Liz and Kate. The condo had great views to the ocean and the layout of bedrooms suited our needs perfectly. It was a relaxing time and as Liz has already noted, there are definite changes that accompany vacationing with little ones. Naptime and meal times were the things that really determined our schedule with Lydia.It just isn't possible to bask in the sun on the beach all day or be gone from your lodgings for hours on end, or to skip lunch or have a late dinner. We also didn't get in any long walks on the beach. As my father-in-law noted earlier this year, walking with a toddler is not so much about the destination as it is the journey. Once she got over her fear of the sand, water and waves, Lydia really enjoyed the beach and ocean. I was totally surprised that she was not interested at all interested in the shells or anything else that had washed up onto the beach.
Being pregnant also changed my MO a bit. I lathered myself with sunscreen every day (I even used Lydia's spf50 after I burned in a few spots the first day!!!) and I had to have a chair no matter whereI was stationed. No sunning on the beach towel for me! It was nice to get the chance to stretch out on my stomach again for the first time in a while. I dug a little hole in the sand and got cozy for a short time. We also bought a beach umbrella which I really wouldn't have considered except for Lydia... but as it turned out I probably used that shade way more than she did! It was so nice just to "get away" and have Ben around and spending time with us all day. We read more than is ever possible at home and made daily trips to the beach and the pool.

Any doubts as to where we had lunch on our way there?

That is another change in traveling with a young child. They need to get out of their carseats and let out some energy at regular intervals. We broke the trip into two segments by stopping for lunch after about 3 hours on the road. Then as hoped, she fell asleep for a good portion of the final leg of the trip and woke just as we were nearing Hilton Head. (I thought we were in trouble for sure when she had played with all of her little toys, already done some drawing and then started asking for lunch at 10:30!!)
She says "I get out?" when she wants to get out of the carseat. We heard that alot during the trip. Also "Here! da beach. We're here!" - we heard this for the first time the morning we left when we pulled into J and L's subdivision which is a 5 minute drive from our house!





Although I don't have any pictures of her pool play time, Lydia loved the pool. I'm confident she will thorougly enjoy Mema and Papa's new pool that was just finished.
Lydia loved going into J and L's room to "see Kate!". She also loved the doorknobs at the condo because they were that lever kind and she could open doors at will. No one was guaranteed any privacy unless the door was locked!She liked posing with Kate and wanted to hold her after a few shots. Of course when she is done, she practically shoves Kate aside and moves on to her other activities.

Riding on the luggage cart was lots of fun.

Sleeping with her faithful friend on the way home.

Ok this is enough for now =)