fig tree freedom

guest blogger: Lydia
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A week or so ago, our bath tub wasn't draining so well, so I got to bathe in the kitchen sink.

This spray is so fun! Why doesn't the bath tub spout pour out water like this?

It snowed Thanksgiving morning. It then turned into sleet and then rain, but it still snowed nonetheless.


Even though it creates a mess and a headache - especially since I live in the city - I still love snow. It's so pretty while it's falling, and the world never seems so still and quiet as it does when snow is falling from the sky and piling up all around. I wonder if we'll have snow like this again this winter.

I found this months ago and thought it might be a fun thing to make and then bring out for birthdays.





It required more balloons than the tutorial suggested. (I used eight bags of 40 balloons, so there are 320 balloons on that wreath. I think the tutorial suggested 144. Apparently, that wasn't enough for my wreath, but I think the balloons in the tutorial were larger than mine.)

Lydia really enjoyed it. She'd crawl over to the door and want to be picked up so she could touch the balloons. I wonder what she will think when we bring it out for the next birthday.

I thought about doing "thankful" posts throughout the month leading up to Thanksgiving, but I thought I'd save it till a more boring month - like in the cold, dark days of winter after the holidays. =) However, it is Thanksgiving, and I am still loving that sign I posted last year. (I think it goes well with my "can't wait" avoidance theme. =) And I have just decided that I am going to buy it if it doesn't make its way to me for Christmas or my birthday since I've been ogling it for a year now. =)

This year, I have a million things for which to be thankful. Since most of you lovely readers are family and Nashville friends, let me introduce you to some people who have only recently come into my life but have so richly blessed me in the four months (or less) that we've known each other. Most of them have known each other for a few years now, but they have welcomed and invited me into their lives via our weekly groups (playgroup, home group, etc.) …

We hosted Lydia's birthday with family on Saturday. If you've ever been to our house, you know how ginormous it is. We did some rotating of shelves and relocation of tables to make way for the party. We even turned off the heat before the guests arrived in anticipation of the body heat factor. It was tight quarters but full of people who love Lydia. Lydia didn't always know what to think of all the people, but fortunately her cousin, Keiper, kept the atmosphere in the warm room light with his nearly constant and hysterical laughter.


Lydia opening presents . . .


. . . and playing with presents.


Then it was time for food - one of Lydia's favorites - pink vodka sauce (and salad and yummy bread fresh from Sarcone's Bakery around the corner). For dessert - cupcakes and dirt dessert.


Of course, it's difficult to eat with so many people spectating, so Lydia quit on her dessert to play at a favorite spot - her shelf of books and toys. Keiper liked it over there, too.


L…

I have not yet seen the movie Despicable Me, but my sister gets the biggest kick out of this clip. (She really likes the clip where it also shows in slow motion, too, but this one is shorter for you to watch.)


She has been trying to teach Lydia how to do the cheek slap, and Lydia is finally starting to pick it up.


Props to my sister-in-law, Lauren, for capturing the shot.

Take a quick browse through some facebook wall posts and statuses, and notice how many times “can’t wait” is stated. People “can’t wait” to see friends or meet new babies or attend an event. It’s a harmless phrase, right? Or is it?

In the summer of 2009 when Aaron was studying for BAR, and we were packing up our lives in Nashville, there was a period of ten days when we would be apart. Aaron would be driving the moving truck to Philadelphia, attending a cousin’s wedding, staying at a hotel in Philadelphia while taking the BAR, and moving into our new home. I would be staying with friends in Nashville, finishing up my job at Vanderbilt, and driving our car to Philadelphia. I was twenty-something weeks pregnant, and our third wedding anniversary was on the first day of the BAR exam. As we talked together about this upcoming season in our lives, we reflected frequently on our friend who would be serving abroad in the military. Surely, if he would be spending months apart from his wife, we…

We (Lydia and I) went to the park as per usual the other day. I brought the camera which worked well because, somehow, the park was deserted. We had the whole place to ourselves. Here is Lydia pre-injury.


Lydia was climbing the slide (hardly a slide - the slope is probably 15 degrees), and I thought I'd put down my camera and help her out.


While my intentions were good, the effects were bad. We didn't make it up the slide; I only succeeded in helping her face plant and bite her lip. At first I thought she had just smacked her face. Then I saw the blood. Bad mama.


Poor baby with a fat lip.

guest blogger: Lydia

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Yesterday was my birthday! Since we always hang out with Daddy in the mornings, we celebrated first thing in the morning. They stuck a candle in my egg. Isn't that strange?


Daddy helped me open my gifts.



I love to play with the doll's eyelashes.


I also like to touch the decorations that are way up high.


I can show you that I am one with my fingers, but I get shy whenever Mama tries to take a picture of it.

Since it was a wet and dreary day, we couldn't play at the park. We snuck out of the house when it wasn't raining, and Mama let me hold this sample cup of coffee . . .


. . . until I started to eat the cup.


I am one!

Happy birthday, baby girl.

Lydia enjoying dinner with her daddy.


He is so funny.


Telling stories about the day.


"There's something on your nose, Daddy."

guest blogger: Lydia

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Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!


Just kidding! It's not Santa; it's me, Lydia. The yogurt beard can be confusing. Mama is encouraging me to practice eating with a spoon, but I'm so much faster with my hands.


Better yet, I just pick up the bowl and slurp!


Here I am in action. Eating yogurt by myself is so fun!

Last Friday my mom had early dismissal from school, so we joined her for making applesauce. Nothing special to the recipe - just mushed up apples - no sugar added. Lydia woke up from her nap just in time to sample the first batch - which was still warm. Yum!


I severely underestimated Lydia's ability to plow through applesauce. We may have to make some more.

Lydia loves to sort the mail.


She's figuring it out just in time for Christmas card season.

It's early for me to be discussing Christmas, but the drop off for Operation Christmas Child is next week! November 15-22, so you still have plenty of time to shop to pack your box. =)

If you've never packed a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child, it's really simple; here's how. It is one of my favorite shopping trips to the dollar store or big box discount store. In past years, Aaron and I packed boxes together with the hopes of one day having each of our kids pack one every year for a child the same age and gender. Last year, Lydia arrived on the drop off week, so this was the first year for Lydia to pack her box. She is obviously too young to pick things out, but we tested each item out with the expert in the back of the shopping cart. She loved the monkey and chatted to him the entire trip. Hopefully a 2 to 4-year-old girl finds him (or her) equally entertaining.


Yes, that is a dress-up princess tutu. Even if I am not crazy about pink and ruffles, what little girl …

Is it Monday already? Weekends go so (too) fast.

Last week, on an unseasonably warm Wednesday, Lydia and I headed out to the 'burbs for another babysitting rendezvous with our nephew and cousin, Keiper. Uncle Derek was there, too. While Lydia was busy enjoying a post-nap snack of Cheerios, Keiper was intently watching her.



Lydia excitedly crawled toward him. As she did so, she flipped over her container of Cheerios, sending them flying. One of them landed right in Keiper's lips. (Blurry photo because we were laughing so hard.)


Keiper didn't even notice. He didn't try to eat it or touch it. He just kept watching Lydia. The Cheerio soggified there and landed on the floor with him being none the wiser. Later, Lydia tried to feed him the ball. He was much more interested in the ball than the Cheerio.


Lydia loves playing with Keiper. Wish I had captured her face in this picture.


It looked pretty much like this.


It will be fun to see them together more frequently with the upcoming holidays.

I made this Outrageous Garlic Soup (printable recipe here at the Tasty Kitchen) on Tuesday. This was the twelve cloves of garlic ready for the soup.


That's a lot of garlic. (No vampires around here - just cockroaches. But that's another story which will hopefully have a happy ending when the exterminator comes later this morning - a happy ending for me, not the cockroaches.)

I shouldn't talk about bugs and food in the same blog post.

Anyway, the soup was delicious. It was even better as leftovers last night. You should make it. Even Lydia liked it . . . but she eats everything. False. She eats everything except honey and shellfish and nuts she could choke on.

You don't even have to put cheese on at the end. I forgot, and the soup was still delicious.

Oops. No blog post today. Here's a picture of Lydia to make up for it. =)

Last Tuesday, on Aaron's birthday, I put Lydia's hair in pigtails for the first time.


I've since bought more appropriately sized hair bands to handle her fine little girl hair, but, seriously, the cuteness of the pigtails kills me.


Apologies for the bad lighting and poor photographing at six-thirty in the morning. Lydia was apparently too busy drinking from the blue circle to pay attention to me and look at the camera.