Changes

Ben and I were reminiscing the other day and it came up that this fall is the first time in the nearly 5 years of our marriage that I am home every evening when Ben gets home. When we were first married, I was in the middle of pursuing my Masters degree. Concerts and rehearsals kept me out late in the evenings. When I wrapped that up, I began teaching for a music academy. I taught there three days a week and on my earliest evenings I arrived home by about 6 or so...the other days it was after 8pm. I even kept this somewhat crazy schedule for Lydia's first year. She took to it as well as I can imagine. She has always loved going bye-bye and she became quite close with the two women who kept her in the nursery. (In fact, the other day we were heading toward that area and going the same route we used to take every week and she suddenly said, "Mom, we're goin' to see Miss Carmen at the nursery?" I was stunned that she remembered our driving route and touched once again by the fact that she misses Miss Carmen and Miss Cindy and the kids she played with.) Anyway, I ended that crazy schedule and we are enjoying a more normalized evening routine. It has been good for us.
I took about 2 months off of gigging when Lauren was born and since I started back in September, our quartet has had a wedding, or two, every weekend. Actually last weekend was our first "free" weekend. We'll start back the first weekend in November and keep up the pace through Christmas. I enjoy gigging and have to thank Ben for sacrificing a large portion of his Saturdays to watch the girls and enable me to do this. (This reminds me of how I used to avoid using the word "gig" when I was first getting into this. I thought it sounded so stupid and I preferred to call it a "job." Obviously my peers rubbed off on me and now I use the term with the best of them!)

My baby is three months old today. It really wasn't that long ago that she was born but it wouldn't seem like our family without her. She is an active baby and likes to be held. This means Mommy wears the baby bjorn for a portion of every day. (I could benefit greatly from weekly visits to a masseuse and a chiropractor!) She is rolling over -from tummy to back - nearly every day. This accomplishment has translated into middle of the night feedings again because she wakes up distressed. She hates her carseat and loves her bouncy seat. She enjoys the little toys that hang off of that seat and she will just GRIN at the bird that is attached.

Lydia continues to make us laugh. She can be quite the little ham and after you laugh once she will continue doing whatever it was to try to keep you laughing. She is (finally) really enjoying being read to. She has always liked books, but never had the patience to hear the story. She likes her "special books" (the books I will not leave in her room). Favorite stories include "If You Give A Pig A Pancake," (and others in that series), Curious George, and Olivia. She has a great memory, but she is very stubborn and resists memorizing anything we think is profitable...i.e. short Bible verses, Children's Catechism etc. She likes to sing and I can finally recognize a melody in there somewhere. Too bad it is always the same melody --Come Thou Fount! She will put any words, including nonsense, to that tune. She loves her little sister and it is sweet to see Lauren's face light up when Lydia talks to her. Even though I am constantly reminding Lydia to be gentle, she still has occasional bursts of wildness that have resulted in near miss accidents. Last week I took something from the kitchen out to the fridge in the garage. I was out and back inside in under 5 seconds. When I looked over to the girls, Lydia had picked Lauren up (she was propped on the boppy on the couch) and was standing next to the couch holding her in a bear hug with a proud grin on her face. In the milisecond it to me to react, I ditched my first thought and instinct-- raising my voice - or saying anything at all -- and raced to her side to grab Lauren. To say my heart was pounding does not even describe how I felt!
That's all for now!