Lydia absolutely adores her cousin Kate. She talks about her every day and whenever Kate arrives for a visit Lydia practically squirms with delight. It is cute to see. Generally Lydia is very gentle with Kate, but sometimes her "play" gets a little too rough and she has to have some stern reminders about being loving and gentle. She also loves Kate's baby toys and wants to grab them away from Kate at any given moment....and then when she gives them back she sometimes tosses them or shoves them in Kate's face. Thankfully Kate has never been hurt and now that she likes to grab hair - she can inflict a little of her own type of pain on cousin Lydia!
We ventured to the Zoo last week and I think Lydia enjoyed that. She loves animals (in books and on dvds) and thus knows a lot of them by name and sight, but it was kind of hard to point some of them out when they were so far away. It was hard to tell how much she enjoyed the trip while we were there, but during the days following our trip she did ask several times if we could go to the Zoo again. (Yesterday for fun I asked her what she wanted to do that day. Her response - "go to beach" and "go to zoo"!)
The petting zoo was a nice opportunity to get up close to some of the animals. Lydia was tentative at first, but she did get close enough to touch a couple of the goats and sheep...while clutching Liz's hand!
Thankfully there were many helping hands on our trip to the Zoo because she did not want to be in the stroller very long at all! She loves strollers and talks about them every time she sees ours in the garage or anyone using one when we go out. However, she wants to push Pup in the stroller -- not ride in it herself! (The same is true of other baby paraphernalia -- infant carseat, swing, bouncy seat, exersaucer -- in her mind these are things to be used for Kate.... and Pup, of course!)
Lydia is getting very good at recognizing her colors. At first she always answered "yewoh" or "boo" regardless of the color. Now she can recognize red, green, blue, yellow, orange, pink, purple, black, brown and white. As I was dressing her the other morning she pointed out my attire "Mommy wear boo shirt and back pants!" She was particularly delighted when I grabbed her blue shirt and said "I wear boo shirt like Mommy!". And speaking of clothes, she has recently become enamored with dresses and skirts - to her they are all the same. She asks to wear a dress more than one time during the day and always notices if I happen to have on a skirt. Unfortunately none of her play clothes are dresses so she is stuck with shorts! (Sundays are beginning to stand out as special days for all the wrong reasons - she gets to wear her special bracelet AND a dress!!)
Today as she was playing with some sidewalk chalk on the patio in the back, it began to rain. (Thank the Lord - we needed it even if only for 10 minutes!) We went to the front where we could sit outside and watch and still be under the covered porch area. She was totally fascinated and delighted. I guess this was the first time where we have actually been outside when it was raining. There was some very loud thunder ("under" as she was calling it) and although she was startled she didn't get too scared. I took the opportunity to talk about how God sends us the rain from up in the sky and how he makes the thunder very loud and that we need the rain for the trees and grass etc. etc.
Seeing her interest made me realize that I should talk to her more about God's creation and that I should seek out opportunities to do so. Sometimes I feel like I am lapsing into "boring" or "lazy Mommy" mode where I don't take advantage of chances to teach her or to capture her attention and point out new things to her. Even in her play time at home I think I am too often caught up in my own "to-do" lists rather than being available to play with her and stimulate her mind. Personally I find it difficult at times to balance getting things done around the house or accomplishing "my" daily tasks with being available to play with and teach and share in my child's new discoveries.
Ok -enough time spent blogging. Time to get some things done while she is napping!
4 comments:
Finding that balance in the day is difficult for me too. I know I miss many opportunities b/c I'm too tired or want to do something for myself. I'm trying to learn to slow down and stop...many of my tasks can wait until later, well, maybe not the laundry so much, but you know what I mean.
I really see you in that first picture of Lydia.
Well, you would be a better mom than I if you could learn how to balance so early on. I often felt I was just barely keeping up with the needded chores. The main thing was to maintain sanity. With four kids born in less than five years, I am often amazed at how they turned out. Surely, God's grace was at work overtime!
Not to detract from the importance of finding your balance as a mother, but I love the pictures of Lydia at the zoo. The cautious curiosity is priceless.
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