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!