10 months

Miss Lydia, baby girl, you're 10 months old now, wow!  Let's see, what have you been up to this month.....

She's getting faster and faster, crawling around the house, can crawl up the stairs now, chasing after her brother most of the time :)  Oh, that brother, she just adores him and he loves to make her laugh!  Lydia is pulling herself up on everything to stand, just now starting to walk along furniture a little bit, and even lets go and stands for second or two.  Her favorite toy right now would have to be the kitchen up in the loft.  She loves to open/close the cupboards and play with all the food.  She'll play by herself for quite some time in the loft.  Lydia is so content with being outside, whether we're going for a walk in the stroller, wagon, or Burley, or just sitting and playing on the picnic blanket.  No new words that I can think of this month, just a lot more babbling in general.  

There are now 9 teeth in that little mouth - that 9th one seemed to be a tough one, poor thing.  It's the weirdest thing, she skipped a few spaces and it's way in the back?!  Still wearing size 3 diapers and in 9 and 12 month clothing.  Nighttime sleeping is still the same, 12-13 hours, but those naps haven't been the best for me lately, and I don't really know why?  This too, shall pass, right?  She's starting to get a little picky in the food department already.  Some days she'll pick off her peas, carrots, most vegetables I guess, and drop them off the edge of her high chair.  She's too little to be doing this!  She'll still eat them if they're pureed, so that's ok, I guess.  The girl loves her meat, any kind, she'll eat it!  I'd say her favorite foods right now would be chicken, raspberries, bananas, bread, and Cheerios!  My breastfeeding will be coming to an end soon.  Once again, I'm glad I didn't have to make the decision when to stop, but the well is running dry.  I've got oodles of milk stored up in the freezer, which I've been digging into now, and this should last for a while.  She still gets 4 helpings of milk each day - it's a combo of nursing, sippy cup, and bottle.

Crazy to think that 1-year-old milestone is just around the corner! 

one broken wing

Well, it's official.....there's a fracture :(  We went back to the doctor last week.  I told her I was hoping "it was nothing."  They took another x-ray, and the doctor said, "I'm sorry, it's not nothing, it's definitely something."  Henry has a small fracture on his left lateral condyle, and he'll be in this flashy blue striped cast for the next 4 weeks.  The good news is that the doctor said the new bone healing has lined up beautifully over the first week of immobilization, so he should be good as new in a month.  He was pretty sad at first that we had to cancel swimming lessons and soccer, but otherwise he has not been complaining at all, which I'm super impressed about, considering that his summer pretty much came to an abrupt end (no more beach and bike rides).  He's learned to love bubbles and sidewalk chalk  :)

 Don't you love looking at x-rays, acting like you know what you're looking at, ha?!

 The guy who put his cast on was fabulous!  When he brought in all the color choices, Henry didn't even look through them and picked blue right away.  

Then he made it extra special with the stripes :)  

We're almost 1 week into it and there aren't any areas that are bugging his skin and we've managed to keep it dry, yeah!

weekend in WI

We headed east last weekend to WI to visit Kathryn & Matthias in Delafield.  It really was a vacation for me, with all the fine dining those two had spoiled us with - thanks! 

Here are just a few pics from one of our visits to Imagination Station.....

Check out that concentration :)

Who says you need TWO good arms to play on the monkey bars?!

summer

Here are a few more photos from this summer's fun.....

We've taken a few bike rides in the Burley to the beach and splash pad!

We all got to go to the All Star Celebrity Softball Game at Target Field.  Here's Henry and his lady friend cheering on 'Panic at the Disco,' who were performing before the game. 

If Lydia is anything like her brother, she'll definitely be a 'Future Whopper Sandwich Eater!'  This was taken on one of our many road trips this summer, right after Lydia started saying "Hi" to everybody.  

Date night out on the water - kayaking.  

We are definitely loving our picnic lunches outside this summer.  I forgot utensils on this trip to the park, oops.  

Henry wanted to practice his smile for school pictures, as he knows that school will be here before we know it!

Poor Henry made his 2nd trip to the ER last week.  We were at a neighbors house for National Night Out and the kids were all playing on a hill in the backyard.  Nobody saw what actually happened, but it sounds like Henry fell down the grassy hill and landed funny on his arm.  He was holding his left arm quite tight and crying pretty hard, so we knew that it was something a little more than his usual bump or bruise.  The next morning, he still wouldn't use his left arm, so I took him in for an x-ray.  The x-ray did not show an obvious fracture, however there was an area of fluid in his elbow that they said they had to assume there was a fracture underneath.  He's in a hard splint and sling for a week, then we'll head back to children's orthopedic doctor to get it checked out again.

Unfortunately, no biking or scootering or swimming this week.  Henry's had to settle for a Burley walk every morning instead of his usual bike rides poor guy :(  (He served himself and Lydia corn on the cob before this walk, apparently).  

NoDak

The Darcy family came to visit us a couple weeks ago from California.  85 degrees here felt fabulous to them, as they were used to 110 degrees!  We had a couple very nice days for the kiddos to play outside.  Riley taught Henry about adding "a half" onto the end of his age, so now he's definitely 4 1/2, and gets mad when I tell people otherwise :)

We spent a majority of our time out in the backyard with bubbles, sprinklers, the kiddie pool, the water table, and lots of snacks.  Next year, Lydia will be running with the big kids!

Frozen movie date :)

We all traveled to NoDak for the weekend.  Grandma & Papa got a couple rooms at the Gladstone for us, so the kids got to go swimming and have a pizza party!  

We headed out to Bismarck for a day, stopped to visit Great Grandma.....

.....and had an Olin/Yantzer family get-together at a park in the afternoon.  I got to visit with relatives that I haven't seen in years!

Love this picture of the two of them :)  Thanks for the cool hats, Auntie Jackie!

Cousins - Riley, Jack, Henry, & Lydia

Go Stingers!

T-ball has come to an end for the summer.  It was a great activity for Henry - his first team sport.  He had a lot of fun and we'll definitely be back for more next summer.  There was a "medal ceremony" after the last game.  He is sooooooo proud of his medal, has shown ALL the neighbors, wears it out in public (even told the check-out lady at Target about it).  It's too stinkin' cute to see how happy he is when he wears it.  He said all day, "It's MY lucky day.  I got a medal!"  

Blake & Henry (he's wearing his stickers from the doctor's visit earlier that morning)

Here they are - GO STINGERS!

Up next this fall.....soccer!

4 year check-up

Henry had his 4 year check-up with Dr. Sakkal this week (Yep, so maybe I'm a month and a half late, I forgot, oops).  Oh, how we love Dr. Sakkal.  He just has the BEST bedside manner with kiddos.  Here are his growth stats.....

Height: 41 1/4" (75th %ile) - he grew more than average in the past year 

Weight: 35# (50th %ile) - he gained less than average in the past year

BP: 92/54

Vision and hearing checks were great, no concerns there.  

He did have to get 2 shots, ouch!  He was pumping himself up, saying "I can be brave, I can do it!" over and over again!