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!