Sunday Afternoon Wrestling

Everybody loves to "fight Daddy"!

 

Christmas Tree Hunt Part 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lydia at 9.5 Months

(Don't worry, Abby--I won't leave you behind! Your post will come soon.)



Lydia is still our "big" girl, at a little over a pound heavier than Abby. She weighs around 19.75 lbs these days, and she's in the 86th percentile for height. We hope they don't catch up with Josiah, but the girls are definitely taller than he was at this age! It may look like we have triplets one day . . .

Lydia is clearly understanding more words--and even saying some! She has said "bye-bye" in the past, though she doesn't say it regularly. She does say "hi" regularly, usually with a wave of her hand. Last week she said "all done" quite clearly several different times. She says "Mama" and "Dada" to refer to us sometimes, though she won't always do it on demand. She only says "Mama" when she's upset enough to show some urgency or desperation. Along with her verbal words, Lydia also signs "more" and "all done."

Yesterday (December 9th) Lydia took her first steps! I've seen her thinking about taking a step here or there at times, but this time she really did it--she took off from the rocking chair in Josiah's room and headed toward me, and she toddled two steps before she fell with a big smile on her face. Since then she's tried several more times, and maybe taken a step here or there, but typically fallen quickly.

Lydia now has two bottom teeth and loves to feed herself. Both girls enjoy finger-food--especially green peas and black beans! Tonight they ate a passel of spaghetti and cucumbers. It's nice to be mostly beyond the pureeing stage. I can usually feed them out of a portion of our meal, and I'm looking forward when they can fully join in eating our food!

Christmas Tree Hunt Part 1

In keeping with our tradition, we trekked out to the Kaibab forest this past weekend to cut down a Christmas tree. This year's icy fog was new, though--we've never encountered this sort of weather around Flagstaff before. Between low visibility and cranky, cold babies, we decided to keep our search short, so we took a tree that was a little taller and scrawnier than in past years. But it has a nice shape, and it looks quite pretty in our living room with lights strung around it. We have yet to decorate it, though Josiah has hung three ornaments (and broken a couple others in the process). All three kids love looking at it, and the girls like to stroke the needles and try to eat the twigs that fall underneath it. 


Foggy Kaibab
 
Josiah was thrilled with all the snow in the forest and loved tramping along with everyone. Daddy promised he could help cut down the tree, so he was eager to do that. But mostly he just loved the adventure--and eating snow.

Family picture--notice Abby and Josiah with hands in the mouth
 

Improvement--one hand out, and at least Abby is smiling
 

I think Josiah was eating snow
 

Lydia disgruntled with the bundling
 

Daddy and Abby
 
Rather than purchase new winter gear for the girls, we just bundled them up in some of Josiah's old stuff. Lydia fit his coat from two years ago pretty well, and Abby was stuck with a too-big jacket that at least covered her hands and kept her pretty warm. Abby fit a snowsuit that never worked seasonally for Josiah. Neither looked too girly, but oh well! They're cute anyway.

The explorer
 

Isn't he the cutest?! 
 

Notice the group of us across the road--it was really foggy! We couldn't spot good trees from afar
 

Uncle D and Josiah

I have more pictures of the trip to Kaibab and the tree we found, so I'll try to post those soon! 

Snow

For weeks Josiah had talked about seeing snow at Pa and Grandma's house in Flagstaff, so even though there were only a few icy patches left, he was thrilled with it when we got there! (He did get to see a lot more later when he visited Cowboy and when we went out to the Kaibab forest to cut down a Christmas tree.) Josiah made the most out of the snow in Grandma and Pa's yard and on the trails across the street--he made snowballs, ate it, and made a "bebe" snowman (about three inches tall).


Hiding behind the bushes

Jer, Justin, and Daniel took Josiah on the trails in the forest across from Grandma and Pa's house while the rest of us were cooking on Thursday. We didn't have a lot of winter gear for Josiah, but I did find some boots at a consignment shop--they got good use during this trip! We layered up the clothes, and he wore a pair of too-big gloves Grandma found in her stash. Apparently the gloves didn't stay on long, though, and the guys kept asking if he was cold. He'd staunchly deny it every time. Finally, when they were headed back, he admitted his frozen, red hands were cold! He just didn't want to give up a moment of play in the snow.

 

Thanks, Great-grandma and Great-grandpa for the thick sweatshirt!

Uncle Justin and Josiah

"Eat snow!"

 

I like the progressive shots here--Justin takes aim . . .

. . . and throws!

. . . And now Josiah gets ready to throw a snowball at Justin.

Josiah loved making and throwing snowballs. He doesn't have great aim yet, though. After every attempt he'd say, "That didn't work!"

Climbing in the forest

Josiah keeps adding new words to his vocabulary, expanding his command of sentence structure, and making us smile with his use of language. When we got in the car to come home on Sunday, Josiah climbed into the driver's seat and exclaimed, "What in the world?!" I'm not sure from whom he heard that one!

Cowboy!

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Flagstaff, and Grandma planned to take Josiah horseback-riding on Friday. Josiah visited Cowboy (the horse pictured) before, but he was a little nervous around such a big animal. Afterwards he talked about him often, and both his rocking horse and his play plastic horse are named "Cowboy." This time around, though, Josiah was just thrilled to see Cowboy--and ride him! He took a stately ride around the corrall with Grandma first, and then he informed her, "'Siah like ride fast!" So they trotted, much to his delight. He also got to ride all by himself, with Daddy and Grandma close at hand. Anyway, I'll get on with the pictures . . .



Uncle Justin helps Josiah brush Cowboy 

Daddy and Josiah patting Cowboy's nose

Ready to ride

All by himself!

Grandma and Josiah

 

Anna the pregnant horsewoman :)

Daddy and cheesy Josiah

Grandparents and grandson

I stayed home with the girls, who were recovering from being sick and needed to rest. Josiah was so excited to tell me about his adventure when he returned!