Corinne and Daddy go on a date

Lydia has struck us with her strength. At just days old, she was lifting her head and even turning to look behind her. She occasionally wobbled but not as much as we remembered most newborns would. She seems to come out with the strength of a four month old. She also liked to bounce her legs so early that she seemed to almost jump out of our arms several times over.

Recently as she crossed the one month mark, she is more alert than ever and seems to be fixating on our faces and sounds around her. She is a little colicky in the evenings. Generally, right after Corinne goes down, Lydia perks up and cries for a few hours. We do our best to console her, but about 10pm, she gives up and sleeps. We could not be more thankful that she sleeps at night….no, not through the night. But after she awakes to be fed, she falls right back asleep which mommy is grateful for. Here’s a pic of Corinne helping at bath time.

Corinne has picked up some of mommy’s phrases like “that sounds like a plan!” and “that sounds like a deal!” Right around Lydia’s birth mommy and Corinne made almost daily trips to Target to pick up random nesting items and groceries mommy’s pregnant brain would wake up remembering in the middle of the night or in the middle of meetings at work. As a result, whenever I ask Corinne where she wants to go, lately she’ll either say “shopping” or “to Target!”

Corinne has also recently become fascinated with Mommy’s job. We made several trips back to the office after work with Corinne to pick up random things I’d forgotten right before Lydia was born. And now she will often talk about wanting to go see the “soodents” in the “kasswoom.” This is another place she will often mentions she wants to go when asked.

When Lydia cries, Corinne will tell her “it’s okay, Lydia” and will even sing it to her at the piano. She is very concerned when she starts crying. She also has been recently putting Lydia’s diapers on all of her dolls and then throwing them away when they have peepee or poopoo.

I (ruthie) am realizing staying at home and working full time are both equally hard and both have significant rewards for both moms and kids. For now, despite the sleep deprivation, I am enjoying this precious time with our girls.

Josh is back in school starting his last rotation at a great hospital. He is enjoying it and looking forward to a paycheck this summer. I can’t believe two years of this are almost over. We cant wait to celebrate.

That’s it for now. We’ll keep you posted.

Say Goodbye to the belly! The night before our baby arrived, we took some pictures of mama’s belly getting a big smiley face drawn by daddy and Corinne.

The next day, mommy and daddy get ready to become mommy and daddy again.

After a few hours of contractions and a few pushes later, Baby Lydia came into the world. 7 pounds, 6 ounces, 19.5 inches and with the sweetest face, she came into the world..

We couldn’t have had all of these great pics without grandma Cici.

Corinne has proven herself a loving and tender big sister…the pictures don’t lie. Ever since our first ride home in the hospital, Corinne wants to hold Lydia’s hand.

Lydia has proven herself quite a trooper. First, we saw at delivery that Lydia’s cord was tied in a true knot, something which could have been…well, we just won’t go there. Then, a few days after delivery, Christmas eve to be exact, we had to keep her in a tanning bed like contraption to get her jaundice under control. (I think she handled it better than mommy and daddy did.)

At two weeks, Lydia developed RSV and conquered it after a few weeks of a nasty cough and congestion. A few days after that, she fell off the kitchen table through an unfortunate course of events and faired pretty well after a few sad tiny baby tears and several calls to the pediatrician. (We feel like excellent parents by the way.)

Once home, after already capturing Lydia’s arrival, she got to have her hand at some amazing pictures of sweet Lydia’s first days. Below are the amazing talent of Cici (www.photographybycorene.com) and the sweetness and newness of Lydia.

So, now our family is a foursome and we are so happy to have Lydia. She is strong and sweet and completely different from Corinne and yet definitely a Kested. We are so lucky to have her.