Thankful Hearts

As we look back over the past 2 years or so since we first thought about becoming parents, we're filled with gratitude that God has given us a baby and child to raise. It's such a gift and great responsibility, and our lives will never be the same.

Our small group leader gave me a little book of meditations for new moms, and the reading for today was beautiful:

" How can I repay the Lord
for all his goodness to me?
I wil lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord.
I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people."

Psalm 116:12-14

Lydia's baby dedication will be on June 17th, for all who are interested in attending! It will be at our church, just a few minutes away, with a lunch back here at our house.

Smiles

New this week: responsive smiling! Lydia has started to give us little grins when we play with her! The best times are when she's naked on the changing table - she loves it and will dole out smiles most when she's free as a bird in her birthday suit...

She also decided this week to go on a nursing strike - she'd take a bottle fine, but refused to nurse. So...after a night of bottlefeeding, pumping, and trying to calm a hungry crying baby, she determined it was too hard on us and started nursing again, which was fantastic. Still trying to figure out what it was, but it might have something to do with the curried rice and chicken we had for dinner - great, we have a picky eater! ;)

Overall, things are going well here at the Baer house. We're learning lots each day and the more we learn, the more we realize we know nothing at all! I guess that's the way with parenting - we're thankful for grace each day.

With the Horvath cousins

All the Horvath grandgirlies in one shot!
Poor Ellie had her tonsils out a few days earlier and wasn't feeling well for this shot, so she gets a special separate shot uploaded from when she WAS feeling good the day before! Funny story: When we got to Seth and Mary's, the girls oohed and aahed over their new cousin, then Ellie looked at me and politely asked "where's the other baby?". We explained that we only had one baby, and she was disappointed - Mary explained that since her cousin recently had twins, the girls now think that they come in twos.

Proud grandparents

Here's Lydia with Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Steve when they came out to visit, and with Grandma and Grandpa Baer when we were down in Kentucky over Easter.

Heavyweight

Lydia has officially passed the 10lb mark - at her doctor's appointment over the weekend she weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs 4 oz. She now comes complete with rolls on her little legs and arms. It's funny how her fingers and toes seem a lot stubbier and shorter now that they have some meat on them! They looked so long and skinny when she was first born. She continues to be a great little baby, though she doesn't like napping on a schedule during the day. We tried the babywise every three hour schedule, and for feeding and sleeping through the night it works like a charm - she's sleeping from 10:30 through to 4:30AM, so we're happy...but for napping, it doesn't work as well for her. She likes to be up for a continuous 3 hours and then konk out after her next meal. We're trying to be flexible, yet have some sort of structure so things will transition smoothly once I head back to work.

Lydia survived her first babysitting experience! We had purchased tickets for a concert last fall, and had a babysitter lined up for about as long - I felt like a piece of me was missing, but it was good for us to get out for a bit without her. Babysitter reported that she was fine, though she tooted quite a bit for a princess. ;) I think she takes after her dad.

Baby Photos

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all!
We had a really great visit down to KY to first let Lydia meet Grandma and Grandpa Baer, then up to Louisville to spend a night with Seth and Mary and the girls. Lydia did great in the car - we had to stop quite a bit on the way back, but it was well worth it and she was a trooper!

Kentucky was cold! Our Easter photos don't display our little girlie's Easter dress very well since we had to bundle up to avoid the 30 something degree air. In April! Go figure!

Lydia loved meeting her grandparents and really had a great time with them. We went through baby pictures of Sam and compared them against the photos that my parents brought out when they visited, of me when I was a baby - we'll let you be the judge of who you think she looks most like, but we think you'll quickly arrive at the same conclusion we did!