She's Walking!

Lydia took her first steps about a week before she was 8 months old and has been vastly improving since then.  Here we are a few weeks later and she is almost walking all by herself everywhere.  She is so determined to do it and will try it on her own any chance she gets.  When she falls she will pick herself right back up and try it again.  I now have a little shadow following me all over the place.  She is actually talking too but we haven't been able to capture that on video yet.  Her vocabulary is quite vast saying her one and only word of "Da da", but we are pretty sure that she knows it means Gregory because she will say it not only when we try to have her repeat it for us, but when Gregory comes home from school or work.  It's so sweet. 

Unfortunately Lydia is still sick.  I took her in a week ago for a bad ear infection and she finished her round of antibiotics yesterday, but you can tell she is still not feeling well.  She is still having trouble sleeping and it takes a lot to get her to eat her bottle.  Take all of that on top of a fussy baby and I can tell you I am not a happy mom.  I haven't had a moment to myself and am so tired of crying.  I called the Dr today but our pediatrician was not in the office today and the others were very booked up so we will have to wait until tomorrow morning.  I am very excited to get her better so I can get some sleep again.  I have started to not feel so well myself today and keep praying that I won't get as sick as Lydia or Gregory because mom's don't get a sick day.  So here are some pictures and a video of our sweet baby girl growing up!

While I was paying attention to something else today, she took full advantage of that which left me finding this.

 

I predicted that by Christmas she would be walking everywhere and it appears that my predictions might just be on track.  She is currently 8 1/2 months old.

 

These next two video's just make me laugh.  She is trying to run already and when she falls whether from running or a steady walk, she does a kind of jump.  It's like she knows that she is going go out so why not go out with a bang!  Every single time she falls, she pulls her feet out from under her.  It's so funny to watch.  She very rarely cries from falling, only when she is tired or upset and then falls.

 

I love my baby!  Both Gregory and I love her a lot.  But I have to say that she is a very difficult and challenging child.  Oh sure when there are other people around that play with her or get excited that she is there, she is all sweetness.  She knows how to manipulate already.  When it's just the 2 or 3 of us, it's a different story. Sometimes I look at other children that are so mellow and chill and wish that she was a little more relaxed.  She is already throwing screaming tantrums when we take something away from her she is not supposed to have.  Funny thing is that you can see in her eyes that she knows she is not supposed to play with those certain objects: ie: computer cords, TV cords, external hard drive, etc, but she will still throw a tantrum anyway.  She is very easily distracted when we are trying to feed her which makes every time we give her a bottle a fight.  She does well with solid food and I can only think that that is because she must think that she is a big girl now and doesn't need a bottle anymore.  I've tried the sippy cup with her formula and that doesn't work either.  All I can say is that I am very tired of having to try to entertain and battle with an 8 1/2 month old that thinks she is 4!  I am getting drained.  I barely have enough time to read my scriptures during her first nap because she refuses to sleep longer than 20-30 min.  At the end of the day I am exhausted which makes working out that much harder to do and getting ready in the morning can get interesting.  Perhaps when she gets a little older she will be able to play by herself better and I won't have to be by her side 24/7.  I do have to cut her some slack though.  She has been sick for 2 weeks which has also changed the dynamic of her temperament somewhat.  Hopefully this will all pass soon and that we will be able to survive her toddler stage as well.  Welcome to life as a mom I guess.