Bubble Bath!

Lydia's first bubble bath. Enough said!

More Splash Pad Pics!

When we first arrived, Lydia was a little unsure. She has done the ocean, and a regular swimming pool, but this was different. Older kids were running and yelling and water was coming out of EVERYTHING!

It didn't take long for Lydia to decide to get her feet wet and after that, everything was wet....including mommy, the towel, and the diaper bag. Oh well!

At the Splash Park

It's a rare post when I get to include a picture of myself with Lydia. We went to a birthday party at a neat public park that had all these water sprinklers for the kids to play with. We both got pretty good and wet. I got a few pictures of Lydia playing in the water, but even that was hard without getting the camera wet. Thanks to facebook and another party guest who was also taking pictures, I have a shot of both of us.

Shoes!

Everyday, I come home from school and immediately take off my too high, high heels and rest my tired toes. Lydia has become very interested in my shoes lately, trying to put them on her feet and, if that fails, carrying them around in her hands. I might find one shoe in the living room and the other, who knows, I might not find it at all. I suppose the only solution is to keep my shoes on my feet until Lydia is safely in her bed. I suppose that means rethinking the high heels....or Lydia's bedtime!

Liddy and Daddy in Indiana

Here is a pic of Lydia and PJ on our trip last month to Indiana. We stopped at a train museum/restaurant for lunch and stent a few minutes checking out the trains in the yard. School is keeping me pretty busy right now, so it may be a little while before I have new picutres up. Sorry!

Butter-mock pancakes

Due to Lydia's dairy allergy, baked goods can be tricky. So far, the brands she can eat have lots of chemicals instead of real ingredients like butter and milk, moon pies for example have not a speck of real milk, butter, or chocolate! I don't want her eating that junk all the time, so I am trying to get creatively cooking. Her daycare feeds the kids pancakes sometimes, and I can't find a pre-made pancake that is dairy free. (Lot's of chemicals, no real milk or butter, but whey keeps popping up in the ingredients.) My favorite pancake recipe calls for buttermilk and I was worried that soy just wouldn't give the same thickness to the batter. My sister gave me a great book a few years ago, The Food Lover's Companion, which features a food substitution guide. Who knew 1 cup of milk and a tablespoon of lemon juice will thicken to the consistency of buttermilk. I gave it a try with the soy milk and it looked and tasted OK. The pancakes are a really good dairy free option for Lydia at daycare.

An amplified blast from the past

I took this picture around Christmas 08 and intended to use it for a thank you photo card for my cousin (who isn't really a blood relative.... and I only mention that because our kids are so cute together, if they ever fall in love... I CAN NOT have spent decades writ ting about how they are related, so here it is in bold print THEY ARE NOT RELATED...) Sarah who bought this sweet ballerina Kitty outfit for Lydia. I never got around to printing the pictures and time marched on so I think i never go around to thanking pseudo-cousin Sarah (ooops, Thank you semi-relative Sarah!) SO now I find myself going back to amp up old pictures with photo shop. I love tweeking the colors so it all pops and is a little more technicolor. Ugh, its like my pictures are now crack addicts and the non-crack filled world just can't compare! I must be stopped before I re-work and then re-print every picture in Lydia's baby book! I go back to school next week. I suppose that will slow the memory tweeking substantially.