She adores her sister.

The title of the post might say it all, but as they say a picture is worth a thousand words ... here are 11,000 words that explain it all ...

Okay, 11,000 plus a few ... not too long ago Lydia was going through a phase where she would not let anyone feed her with a spoon ... anyone other than Eden that is. When we wanted to feed her some cereal and veggies, it was Eden to the rescue. Lydia just opened her mouth and let Eden scoop and conquer. Amazing.

9 month stats

We went in for Lydia's 9 month check today. As we knew, she's a perfect little thing ...

• 15 pounds
• 25 1/4  inches tall
• 17 1/4 inches head circumference

She's a bit smaller than her sister was at this point in height and weight, but her head is just about the same size -- perhaps another brilliant baby or a future newscaster :). While she's at the bottom of the growth chart, she has been following the bottom of the growth chart since she was born. So, she's growing along just fine -- her cute little fat rolls are a good sign.

At her 6 month check, her doctor said she could easily make it 8 hours at night without nursing. So, I kept going to her if she really woke up, especially early in the morning. She gave us enough 8 and 9 hour stretches that we thought she was really going to just do  the sleeping-through-the-night thing on her own. But, with getting sick over the holidays and other setbacks, we're back to not knowing how long she'll sleep each night. Today, the doc said she could easily go 10 to 12 hours without eating (and that I was being a great mother to her and giving her everything she needed and that mostly nursing was doing great) -- Sleep Camp starts tonight. Wish us luck!

Car Review: The Sienna

So, we've been thinking of new cars lately. We are, however, taking it slow. We have two great cars - and the best part is that we have no car payment! It's hard to go back to that, but it is inevitable. Not only do our cars have a combined 297,000 miles on them but we are pressed for room especially on long trips when Ashley ends up sitting between two car seats in the Corolla.

So, first up on the list - a Toyota Sienna. We took the Corolla in for new tires since we'll keep it as our second car, so we borrowed this van for the day on Saturday. We went through a drive through and looked the person in the eyes - strange. Then we drove it on the interstate - very quiet! After a drive through a suburbia neighborhood next to campus, we visited Mike the Tiger and had a walk around campus to see how it was to take out and put back in the stroller.

The first improvement is that you can put a child in a carseat without bending over and putting your back at risk (we've both had several days of not being able to move well due to back pain we are attributing to the infant car seat - and perhaps a little of the 30's).

Improvement #2 - Eden can get in and out by herself, and she would have a choice between the "front' and the "back" (second and third row). She got a kick out of sitting in the way back. We told her that we would not be able to hand her things if she sat way back there. Her response? "You can throw it."

Improvement #3: More storage. Now, we can get a surprising amount of stuff in the trunk of our Corolla. Seriously, more than you might think. But, with the seats down in this one, I think we could pack our entire house.

And, I think that is why this will ultimately not work ... TOO big, perhaps. Ashley said it felt like a cargo van and that the dash was too large making her feel 4 feet tall. So, the next on the list is the Honda Pilot and other third row SUVs. Updates to come!

Sienna Saturday

Although we won't be purchasing a Sienna, we at least got some good pics ...

The house for sale in suburbia we went to see (we'll also be in the market for a new house, though not for another year).

Fake Mike ...

Real Mike ...

Lydia's first time to see real Mike and to ride fake Mike.

The new rather strange statue of Shaq near the P-Mac.

Where to go on Saturday's in fall to meet up with 90,000 of your closest friends.

When we got back home, we cleaned up in preparation for a visit from Grace - Eden's 10 year old friend. To say that Eden loves Grace would be an understatment. Since Grace left, Grace not being here has been Eden's "low" of every day - at the end of our day we talk about our highs and lows. While the high changes based on the day, the low has consistently been "Grace not being here."

Grace is great, and we are so lucky she is so great to give up part of her weekend to hang out with Eden. Seriously, what 10 year old asks to go hang out with a 3.5 year old? So awesome and sweet.

9 month update

On February 3rd, Lydia turned 9 months old. She is quite happy about that.

One of her favorite things to do, still, is pppttttptptptptpt - and she is getting quite good at it!

She also LOOOOOOOOOVES her sister. Seriously. When Eden is in the room, Lydia's face lights up. When Eden leaves the room, Lydia often starts crying. Lydia laughs at Eden even when Eden isn't being that funny. Such a great thing to observe.

Recently, she learned to drink from a sippy cup. Although she needs a bit of help getting it at the right angle (if not, she just sucks lots of air), she is quite good at picking it up, getting it to her mouth, holding on, and getting something out.

She is also getting better at pulling herself up. She now is standing in her crib every morning when I go in.

And she can even pull up on your pants to ask to be picked up.

The new position is looking at me while I cook - and I like to think of it as baby jail.

(And, no, I am not sure how that right sock came off, but my guess is that she took it off to put it in her mouth.)

We'll be going to the doctor this week and will post updated stats. Things that are new:

• She is eating more and more solid foods and had her first "meal" of red beans and rice the other night.
• She is, for some reason, no longer drinking from a bottle consistently. She likes to play with it, sure, but when it comes to drinking she will take a few sips then act like she forgot what to do. Thankfully, Marie and Dolores can still get her to take a bottle most days at PDO.
• She is still not sleeping all the way through the night every night, but we have had a few long stretches - slow and steady.
• She is crawling all over the house and will follow voices - it is to the point where if you leave the room for more than 10 seconds, when you come back she is in a completely different place.
• She is really wanting to stand up and thinks she wants to walk. Perhaps a walker is in her future.
• She will finally let us put a bib on her without it coming off immediately.
• A while back, Ashley stopped using the "itz-been" to time nursing. Itz been sitting on Lydia's side table as a clock for awhile. Although Lydia is still only getting about 1 bottle a few days a week, we're sure it may start to increase.
• The word from L's PDO teachers is that "she's a good baby." When Ashley asked what babies do to be good babies, they said, "She smiles a lot. She doesn't scream a lot, and she does what she's supposed to do."

[Editor's Note: Since the summer, I have really been trying to pick the best picture out of similar ones and not posting so many pictures. As you can see, I'm not doing such a good job of that some days :) ]