Lydia Abhors a Vacuum

Saturday, October 17, 2009


In her 14 months, Lydia has seen a lot of things, met a lot of people, and has generally liked most of it (her uncle Eric aside...she just does not like that poor guy). But there is one foe so fearsome, so menacing, that even our intrepid little explorer cowers in fear before it:

The Vacuum.

Ever since she was a youngling, Lydia has been terrified of our newfangled automatated cleaning apparatus. Any time we bring it out, she will seek out the nearest corner to shove herself into--guarded by her blanket, of course. She will there sit and watch the vacuum's every move--every move--until she is satisfied that it not coming to get her...THIS TIME.

That's the great secret of the Vacuum Watcher: Vigilance is the price of safety; complacency is the beginning of the end.

Unfortunately, this morning the Watcher forgot her credo and let her guard slip down. After all, she was playing safely in Mom and Dad's bedroom as they made the bed and straightened the place up. Nothing could get to her here. Little did she realize that she had entered the very lair of the dread enemy.

The realization struck suddenly as her parents left the room, calling after her to follow. She toddled boldly toward the door, and then she saw it, crouched in the corner, ready to strike at any second. The vacuum stared at her, and she at it. She realized she had been betrayed and was now at the mercy of her nemesis.

The only reaction left, obviously, was to freak right the heck out.

Frozen in her tracks, she screamed and stared down the adversary, knowing that if she broke eye contact it was all over. No amount of coaxing from her father could compromise her position. Even as he held her hands and walked her from the room, she kept her head turned to lock the opponent in her stare, screaming at it the whole time, certain that this was the only way to keep it at bay.

As any good warrior knows, the heat of battle can really drain you. And like most good warriors, Lydia needed several minutes of cuddling with Daddy and her blanket.

Walking and Feeding Herself

Sunday, October 4, 2009





Stacking cups and walking

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Well, it's official. Lydia took her first step last week. She was standing by the couch and just took a step away from it. Since then, she's been doing better and better. We practice several times a day. I will stand her up in the middle of the living room and sit a few feet away. Then I'll say "Can you walk?" and she'll take a few little steps. And by little I mean little. Like maybe a half inch each step. She sort of looks like those fainting goats, you know, the ones whose knees go stiff when they get nervous? I figure she'll learn to bend her knees as she practices a little more.

She's also been playing with her stacking cups lately. She has two in particular that she really likes. The problem is, they make her very frustrated. She tries to put one inside the other, but she'll do it backwards and the bigger one just doesn't fit. This makes her very angry and she'll usually throw one. I've tried explaining about big and little, etc, but she's not quite there yet. It's good to see her trying though!

Everything else

Thursday, September 10, 2009

This post is for everything else that happened in the last month or so.

First: Tyler had his first medical school interview. It was with Vanderbilt, which is the top ranked school we applied to. He felt like it went very well, and we already have 3 more scheduled over then next month or two. We both got a very good vibe from Vanderbilt (in Nashville, TN) and if it weren't more expensive than Baylor, we'd probably make it our number one choice.

Second: Soon after the family reunion, while Tyler was at Vanderbilt, Lydia and I went on a camping trip with our good friend Sis. Olive. She found a beautiful camping spot in the mountains, right next to a mountain stream. Unfortunately, Lydia hated camping. She refused to go to sleep, and then when she was asleep, I was worried about her being too cold (it was in the 40s that night). Then she woke up around 3 a.m. and just cried for about an hour until I finally let her sleep on the air mattress with me, both for comfort and warmth. This proved difficult, though, because I couldn't move for fear of waking her up. It was fun seeing my mom and sister, though, and I'm glad we went.

Third: Lydia's been crawling since right around her first birthday. Better late than never! About a week or two after that, she started pulling herself up to the couch, and a week after that she could stand all by herself. Now she can even stand up in the middle of the floor without holding on to anything! It's only a matter of time before she starts walking. I'm glad to see that she's catching up to where she's supposed to be. We were worried about her there for a little while.

Forth: Tyler celebrated his 25th birthday yesterday! He was sad because The Beatles remastered collection came out, as well as Beatles Rock Band, and he couldn't get them. Ah well, he's happy about his new rubber spatula and whisks! Also, I made him his best cake yet! Well, at least his prettiest.



Chandler Family Reunion

In the middle of August we had the opportunity to attend Tyler's family reunion on his mother's side. They rented a large house in Park City and we spent the week doing lots of fun activities. The first day we went to Seven Peaks Water Park. It just so happened that that day was our third anniversary. Yay for being married for 3 years! It also happened to be our best anniversary yet (our first we were in different states, and our second was only 2 weeks after Lydia was born). The next day we went to Snowbird and rode the alpine slides and ziplines and ski lifts. The day after that we went to a lake and rode on Jetskis. On the last day we took pictures. Needless to say, it was a very active and tiring week, but also a very fun one.

I was pretty concerned going in about how Lydia would do. She doesn't have the best track record with either strangers or significant changes to her schedule, but she did very well. She liked hanging out with all of her aunts and uncles, and even met her Uncle Michael for the first time.

As always, here are a few pictures of the experience (some are borrowed from Facebook. Thanks Courtney!):


The first one was taken on the way to the waterpark. It was cold where we were staying in Park City that morning.


Lydia was very very nervous at the waterpark. I think there was just too much noise and the water was too cold for her. After she "played" for a little in the water, I let her regroup in her stroller with her blanket and a towel over the stroller to make her own little room. She seemed grateful.






Lydia didn't much like family pictures.

Lydia's Birthday

Lydia turned 1 on August 5th. We had a nice little birthday party with just our family and our neighbors. She didn't really seem to get it, but enjoyed the attention and the cake just the same. I've had the videos posted on Youtube for a while, but here they are anyways, along with some never-before-seen pictures!









Mid-July

Monday, July 20, 2009

Well, Lydia has been progressing slowly but surely. Although not very good at it, she has her own sort of army crawl that is unique to her. It's probably the least efficient mode of transportation I can imagine, but it's a good start. She's also a pro at rolling over to get where she wants, so she's starting to get into things and I have to be careful about what I leave within reach. Last week, she learned to sit up from laying down and her life has changed. She's having so much fun rolling, sitting up, and rolling again that she's happy most of the day. She's even started sitting up in her crib! It was weird to see her sitting up when I came in to get her, but it's making her happy. Although she's behind transportationally speaking, she is progressing, which is good to see, because there were a few months there where she had sort of plateaued and I was starting to wonder if there was something wrong. It's been hard seeing all the kids 5 months younger than her crawl and Lydia just sitting there, but we are very excited to see her start to explore her world.

Here are few pictures of what we've been up to.

Last week was cow appreciation day at Chick-Fil-A, where if you dress up like a cow, they'd give you a free combo meal. It took some convincing on my part, but in the end, the promise of free food won Tyler over. He got into it. I dressed up and so did Lydia. Lydia got her first kids meal that day, although Mom and Dad ate most of it. She drank her whole juicebox after she finally learned to drink from a straw!



Last night, we had some friends over watching a movie when I heard a thump. Then I heard another thump, so I asked Tyler if he heard it to. He went to check on it and called me to come see. When I did, I peaked through Lydia's door, and to our suprise she was standing in her crib pulling everything off the top of the bookshelf within reach. She was so happy and just having a blast. This was about an hour after we put her to bed, so who knows how long she'd been at it. I was very excited for her, though, because she had never pulled herself up before.


Oh, we also posted a few little unimportant videos on youtube here.

Videos

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

I'm going to start just putting the best videos up here. When I've loaded all the others, I'll just put a little note on here with a link to them.


This first video was funny. I was sitting on the couch and sticking my tongue out at Lydia. Yes, I get bored sometimes here with her by myself. Anyways, after a bit, she just sort of stared at me for a little while, with no emotion on her face. I kept sticking out my tongue and saying "AHH" until all of a sudden, it made her cry. I have no idea what it was that made her cry. But, when I did it again, she cried again. This lasted for about 10 minutes, she won't do it anymore. I'm glad I caught it on tape.



For the first 9 months of Lydia's life, she either despised her baths, or tolerated them cautiously. However, once she discovered the joys of splashing, she has loved them. This is a very standard bathtime with Lydia. I usually have to use a towel as a shield against all the water.


I also posted one more here, but it's not a big deal, just Lydia swinging in her swing.

MCAT Score

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Well, it finally came. Tyler's MCAT score... the score that determines the next several years of our lives. The score that says whether you get in to medical school, or don't. It came yesterday.

We knew it would be coming by 3:00 p.m. yesterday, because the website said so, but we chatted while Tyler was at work, and periodically refreshed the screen to see if there was any news. At 11:30, I refreshed it and there it was.

First, a little about the MCAT. The MCAT is divided into 4 sections, Biological Science, Physical Science, Verbal Reasoning, and Essay. The first three are scored out of 15, and the Essay is scored on a scale of J-T. An average score for medical school is a 30 (or 10 in each section) with an essay of O, a 30O. A good score is a 33P, and the average score for people admitted to Harvard Medical School is a 37Q. Our number 1 choice is Baylor Medical School, and their average is a 34.5Q, so we were shooting for a 35, if possible, although we'd be happy with a 33.

When Tyler finished taking the MCAT, he told me he was sure that he had tanked it. "It's probably in the high 20s," he said. To be fair, after a few days, he calmed down and admitted that he had no idea how well he'd done. I knew he'd done well, because he always does well on standardized tests and he's brilliant, so I had faith.

The night before the scores posted, Tyler couldn't sleep. He felt nauseous and was generally antsy. Well, turns out all his worries were for nothing because he got a...


37R!!!!

That's right, a score that is slightly higher than Harvard. That puts him in the 98th percentile, which is amazing. This basically means that Tyler is the man and that he is for sure getting into medical school. It means that we don't really need to worry for the next 6 months as we hear back from medical schools, because he is so competitive. It means he can probably get in to whichever school we decide is best for our family. It means Tyler's awesome.

So there you go, congratulate him, he deserves it. He worked hard and it paid off. Good for him!

Learning to Color

Thursday, June 25, 2009

I read somewhere that babies should be able to start learning how to color, on a very elementary level, somewhere around Lydia's age. I've also been dying to use all the neat Crayola stuff I got for free with my coupons, as well as the different coloring books I've amassed from different companies(There are some really weird ones, but I figure Lydia won't care for a while).

When we started showing her, for some reason, she was completely insulted by the idea of us coloring. It doesn't show very well in the movie, but she would get mad at me any time I tried to color. As soon as I'd stop, she'd be fine. This movie takes place a little after it, and as I'm behind the camera, it doesn't really show up.

Picture and Videos for No Particular Reason

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Per Grandma's request, here's a bunch of pictures and videos of our Lyddie. Nothing important, just little things.







I especially like how she's sitting in this video. I think her feet are cute.

MCAT and Guitar playing

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Last Thursday, Tyler took the MCAT. I thought I would semi-document it:






This was where we did some last minute "cramming" outside the place where the test was. Lydia enjoyed playing in the grass... and attempting to eat it.


Lydia also liked eating at Tucanos, where we went the next day to celebrate the test being over with.

And on an unrelated note:

Lydia found the controller to Guitar Hero and Tyler was so excited, he made me take a picture.

Medical School

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Well, the MCAT has finally come and gone. Tyler doesn't feel like he did great on it, but we'll see. I think he did better than he thinks, and am confident he will get into medical school somewhere. We turn in his application to medical schools on Tuesday, which means we've now picked the medical schools he's applying to. I made this handy-dandy little map to show where we may go!


View Medical Schools in a larger map

Wish us luck!

Lydia Wants to Play Too!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009



Today Tyler had a little trouble surfing the internet while holding Lydia. Gone are the days of holding her in our laps and checking our email at the same time. Sorry for the blurriness. She was moving pretty fast.





Lydia Taking a Drink

Monday, May 11, 2009

Lydia surprised us yesterday when she grabbed Tyler's cup and started drinking out of it like she knew what she was doing. She seemed pretty proud of herself.

Peek-a-boo

Saturday, May 9, 2009

You can notice that when I don't say, "Where's Lydia?" she starts grunting at me until I do. It's like I didn't do my part and she couldn't lower it until I did.

Lyddie says Momma

Monday, May 4, 2009

Roll the Ball

At the tulip festival. She mostly liked the grass.


I liked her face in this one. She's all grubby, but it's adorable.


Lydia can play roll-the-ball!

Some more random stuff

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Well, Finals are over for both me and Tyler. It's good to be done and have a week before Tyler starts studying for the MCAT. I'm excited to be able to stay home with Lydia full time again. She's becoming more fun as she gets older.

Lately we've been reading the Little House on the Prairie books together (by together I mean I read them out loud while Lydia plays with her blocks-and by playing with her blocks I mean eats them.) Anyways, reading them and a few other factors recently inspired me to make my own homemade cottage cheese! You can read about it on my other blog here.

Here are a few videos and pictures for your viewing pleasure:


Lydia hasn't even attempted to crawl and hates being on her tummy. I'm pretty sure it's going to be a while until she learns. In the meantime, I've been trying to help her learn to stand up, because if she won't crawl, maybe she'll walk early. Today she finally understood that you should hold on to something to keep standing up!


This is very typical of how she sleeps. No matter where we put her in her crib, by the time we go in to check on her, her head is squished in the corner and the blanket it all sorts of tangled around her.



Several videos and pictures

Friday, April 17, 2009

Here are some pictures of Lydia in her Easter dress. She was adorable, minus being wet down the whole front of it thanks to drool. Ah well, that's the Lyddie we know and love.




We recently learned that Lydia can sit on the little bench on this toy. She really enjoys it for pretty long periods of time. Below is a video of her playing with it too. Ah, the joys of repetitive noise.


Some Videos

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

These videos are nothing important, mostly just videos of Lydia playing around.





March Madness

Monday, March 23, 2009

No, this post isn't about basketball. It's just a regular post with pictures of Lydia. She's getting bigger and more skilled with life all the time. She can now sit up for as long as she wants and usually won't fall over on accident (Although sometimes she does, and when it's at church on the hard gym floor it's not a fun thing for mom). She also talks all day long and won't stop. Again, at church it's not much fun when she won't stop babbling all through the 3 hour block. But it's cute and endearing. When I apologized to the guy in front of us in Sunday school, he said not to worry, it warms his heart.

Anyways, here are some pictures for your viewing enjoyment.

In case you were wondering, yes, those are Lydia's pants pulled up to her neck with her arms stuck inside. This trick was brought to you courtesy of Dad.



Lydia tried for almost 10 strait minutes with all her might to play on the computer. Sometimes if I'm chatting with Tyler, I'll let her chat too (hit/eat the keyboard. The latter is discouraged). She's recently started to take a special interest in it and this day she wouldn't give up.



Just happily sitting in the rocking chair. Lydia learned at a young age what the camera was, and now it's very difficult to get candid pictures. She was just calmly sitting there with her arm on the armrest, but when she saw the camera, she smiled really big.



This last one was taken when I had to move a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer. I just put her in the hamper and then I realized that with the white onsie she had on, she was camouflaged. She also really didn't mind being covered by laundry in the hamper, either.

Some stuff for the Grandparents

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Here are a few pictures we took of Lydia within the last few days. I have a few videos, but for some reason I haven't been able to load them for the last month. I'll keep working on it, but until then, these pictures will have to do.

This first one is one I took this afternoon. She was very sad until I gave her the afgan, and immediately calmed down and just sat in the rocking chair.


A few minutes later, though, I looked over at her and she was asleep. It was pretty cute.


This last one was of Lydia playing with The Cat in the Hat that her aunt gave her.

Valentines and Other Stuff

Saturday, February 14, 2009

So today Tyler and I made and decorated Valentines cookies. The cookies didn't turn out very well, and neither did the frosting. We didn't have much to work with, but we did try. Here are the results.

This first picture was mine. I tried to make mine look the best they could... which isn't that good.



These next ones are Tyler's. He didn't try at all. In fact, he tried to make them look crappy. The one on the bottom is called "diseased kidney."



Here is what the rest of them looked like.



Happy Valentine's Day!

New Blog

Thursday, February 12, 2009

I've started a new blog that is all about my couponing exploits. I figured that it wasn't really something I needed to talk about on our family blog, so I started this new one. My site is www.homemaker-in-progress.blogspot.com. This one is also a public blog, so no permissions are needed!

Battle of Wills

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Last night, Lydia and I had an intense battle of wills. Lately she's been incredibly clingy to me. She won't let me put her down without crying and wants to be held all the time. Well, I finally decided that it was time she learn that I'm not going to come pick her up every time she cries. I put her in her baby swing and she started to whine, but I ignored it. Then she started to cry, but I ignored it. Then she started to do her furious cry, and still I ignored it. Forty-five minutes later, she calmed down (still in her swing) and sucked on her fist. Whenever I looked over at her she was giving me the meanest look I've ever seen her give. I won though, and hopefully she learned something. I also hope that she doesn't realize how hard it was to let her cry for that long. She's a stubborn little six-month-old.

Lyddie's First Teeth

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Lydia's first two teeth finally broke through a couple of days ago after about a month of whining. We were hoping that her bad mood was just her teething, and it appears it was. She only got one day of respite, though, because now she's sick with a cold. Poor kid. I don't really have any pictures of them yet, because they aren't very tall and kind of hard to see, but when they grow a little more, I'll post a picture.

I Just Had to Brag

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Ok, so yesterday I went shopping and without the help of blogs or anything, got a few amazing deals:

Walgreens:
Lipstick: $10- $2 Coupon- $10 Rebate= $2 Moneymaker
Foundation: $10- $1 Coupon- $10 Rebate= $1 Moneymaker
Total: $3.00 Moneymaker

Alberson's:
Sippy Cup: $4.49- ($.75 Coupon Doubled= $1.50 Coupon)= $2.99
Baby Snack: $2.25- $.75 Coupon = $.1.50
Baby Juice: $2.29- ($.75 Coupon Doubled= $1.50 Coupon)= $.79
-$5.00 off Baby Supplies Store Coupon
Quaker Snacks: 2/$5- (2 $1.00 Coupons Doubled = $4.00 Coupon)= $1.00
Total:2.36

So, for the whole day, I bought $39.03 worth of stuff made 64 cents. I love couponing!

Just Catching Up

Thursday, January 22, 2009

The last few weeks have been some adventurous ones for us, mostly because of the start of the new semester. I'm taking a class and Tyler is taking several, which makes it fun for Lydia. I have class 3 days a week and have to bring Lydia up to campus and drop her off with Tyler and then pick her up an hour later after my class. This wouldn't be so bad, except that it's right during her nap time. She's been growing a ton and has now reached over 13 lbs! That still puts her below the 25th percentile, but it's definitely an improvement and she continues to gain at a good pace. Other than growth, she's been learning a lot. She likes to play with her hands and feet. She can successfully suck on her toes, which she usually attempts when I'm changing her diaper. She also recently learned how to make noises and yells all the time. Happy yells mostly, but it sounds like Tarzan. My least favorite thing that she's been doing lately is being really clingy to me. She won't let me put her down without crying and hardly lets anyone else hold her, even Tyler. This makes it difficult on both of us and I'm trying to figure out how often I need to pick her up when she does that. It's my first try at basic discipline and I'm already confused.

Classes for Tyler and I are going fine. Because I'm only taking the one, there's not a ton of homework that I have to do. I can usually knock it out in one day. Tyler, however, is constantly doing homework. Right now we're trying to come up with our game plan for applying to medical school, which we do this summer. It's already starting to be a stressful adventure and I can't wait for it to be over.

Other than that, I'm continuing with couponing and trying to keep my house clean. It seems like as soon as I get one room exactly how I want it, all the others get messy. I'm shooting for a 100% clean house by this weekend, but we'll see.


Here are a few pictures of Lydia I've taken in the last few weeks.