My two Valentines

I spent last weekend enjoying my two favorite people in honor of Valentine's Day.
Derek and I also celebrated our engagement anniversary (five years!) on Feb. 14, so it's a noteworthy weekend for us on two fronts.
We kept it really low key this year, which was nice. Lydia and I spent Saturday together while Derek helped at his parent's flower shop. On Sunday we had a Valentine's Day brunch at our house. On Monday we kept up with our annual tradition of enjoying the Parade of Homes. Mom and Brian came with us to the Parade. We were all amazed at how well Lydia did. We were in and out of the car all day long and she just took it all in stride. She looked so cute in her harness on Derek's chest. Her presence there also drew a number of comments from people on how cute she is... and how big. The latter sparked a commentary from me on my work blog discussing why it is people feel compelled to point out things like that. If you're interested, you can read that here.
It was a full day of family fun!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our waffles and strawberry brunch.

Ready for the Parade of Homes.

Family Home Evening

I have to be honest, we're not the best about family home evening right now. Although Derek and I have always tried to avoid scheduling anything outside of family time on Monday night whenever possible, we don't always have something structured planned. Most of the time it's family dinner (which happens nearly every night anyway) then playing on the floor with Lydia (also a regular occurrence at our place.)
But last week our friends, the Cottams, invited us to dinner at a local kid-friendly place called Pirate Island Pizza for a family home evening outing. The interior of this restaurant is so elaborate -- like a Disney ride or something -- which kept Lydia fascinated and looking around while we enjoyed visiting with our friends. We had a great time.

A pirate's life for me!

Arrrgghh Matey! Shiver me timbers!

Lydia "talking" with her pal, Gabe.

The family home evening ended (as many of our evenings do) with story time with Mom.

Also on Feb. 8 we took Lydia in for her 6 month check-up. She is healthy and growing up to be quite a big girl. They say most babies will double their birth weight (9 pounds 1 ounce) by 4-6 months and she's definitely done that.

Here's her stats:
Height: 26 3/4 inches (85 percentile)
Weight: 19 pounds (94 percentile)

You don't get cheeks this great without some pounds :)

Half a year already?

Six months have passed and every day I love this little girl even more than I did on her birth day. Her personality is really blossoming and she is the highlight of Derek's and my
days. Here's just a few of the things happening in her life to date:

* Two teeth -- front bottom, broke through on Jan. 21. So far they are impossible to photograph.
* Rolling all over the place! Her record is six in a row, though it would be more if walls and furniture didn't get in her way.
* Does pretty well with rice cereal. Fitting it into the "working mom" schedule is a challenge but we're getting it down.
* Squeals and "sings" all the time. She's also developed a fake cough-type sound that I think she's quickly learning gets our attention.
* Loves music. She is often mesmerized when I sing to her and she loves to join in on vocals when Derek or I play the piano for her.
* Loves her dad! Derek is almost guaranteed to get a big smile when he walks in the room and she is fascinated by his facial hair.
* Knows when Mom and Dad are gone. While Derek and I were tending to my health needs, Lydia seemed to know everything was not normal. And when we came home from the hospital the squealing, giggling greeting we received still brings tears to my eyes.

Derek and I have kind of been the Lydia paparazzi lately. I tried to narrow it down to my favorites for her half-birthday but I was unsuccessful at narrowing.

Playtime with Mom

"Flying Baby!"
She stiffens her legs out like that and stays in a plank for longer than I thought babies could do at this age.

Watching Mom and Dad get ready for the day.

Everything goes in her mouth these days.

If she's on the ground, there's a good chance she's rolling.

Cousin Kate is so funny!

Ready for church with Daddy. (Derek took her on his own last week and survived all three meetings and an extra priesthood meeting after the block while I stayed home recuperating. What a champion!)

Buddha belly!

Chewing on her toes -- something she loves lately.