9 Months!

Well let me start by saying we had a rough go at getting pictures this month!  This kid is WAY to mobile and interested in EVERYTHING to be bothered with cooperating for pictures.  She has been on the go all over our new house.  It also helps that Rylee has now come back to live with us and she really enjoys chasing her furry sister around!  And no, I don't have any pictures of the two of them together yet because it hard enough to get one of them still in a picture much less two!  I'll continue working on that.

In other news, we are all settled in to the house...except for the whole closing and it actually being ours part.  That is taking longer than we hoped mainly because everyone else is "so busy it's taking longer than usual".  I have mentioned I hate having to wait on other people's timing. 

School is about to be in full swing for me.  I started back with new (to the district) teacher training yesterday and by the end of today my head is swimming with information!  My room is mostly done and when I finished I will post pictures as some of you have been asking for them.  Same goes for the house-after I get some pictures up on the walls and such (which I'm not supposed to do until after we close per the current owners request).  If you haven't heard by now I will be teaching 2nd grade math and social studies.  It's looking that the demographics of my students will be similar to what I am used to but that's about it.  The planning, the number of grade level teachers, the paperwork mess all seem to be quite different.  As cliche as it sounds I am excited but nervous!

Anyway, back to the one you are all here for anyway...LYDIA!

• She is standing on her own!  She has not taken any steps by herself yet but she will stand and stoop all on her own without holding on to anything.

• She has about 99% mastered the sippy cup!  She still gets herself a little choked up sometimes, and sometimes forgets she's supposed to actually swallow the water but she caught on pretty quick!

•  She went to her first rodeo this month!  She loved watching the horses at the beginning but soon got distracted by the people watching...I can't imagine who she gets that from ;)

• In addition to her "dadadada" and "nananana" and "babababa" she has finally started "mamamama"!
• She likes to turn the pages for me when we read books.
• She is becoming quite the daddy's girl.  He is starting to learn what it is like to not be able to go to the bathroom without her crying :)
• We have started a few sign language signs with her.  We've really only done "eat" (which she caught on to REALLY fast- I KNOW who she got that from), "more", "water" and we just started "please".  "Eat" and "water" look very much the same which is also much like she is doing an native american indian call.  "More" just looks like clapping for now.
• Probably the biggest adjustment she is going through is that she started with a babysitter this month.  We have some friends here in town that have a little girl a couple months younger than Little Miss.  It just so happened that her babysitter had a spot open up and so far it is working out great!  Well I say that but Lydia might disagree with me.  It's been a little hard on her getting used to staying with someone new but she's making progress.  We are to the point now where she will start crying when we walk in the door because she knows I'm going to leave but she also reaches out for the babysitter to take her.  It has taken her a while to be comfortable enough to take a nap and even longer for her to decide it's ok to eat lunch over there but it's getting better.  The babysitter has 5 kids of her own and they are all super well behaved and LOVE the little girls so I know she is in good hands. 

Here are a few more pics from this month:

Umm...excuse me, I am not appliance trash!

Helping Papa put up the blinds in her room

First bite of popsicle!