Lydia: 18 Months

Lydia Anne Stock is a toddler.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, no longer a baby, but a bona fide little walking-talking-following instructions toddler. It's amazing really. We finally got to the doctor for our 18-month check-up for Lydia's latest "stats".
Drumroll, please....

Height: 33 inches
Weight: 21.5 pounds
Body: Healthy
Cuteness: Off the charts!

Her feet have seemingly hit a growth spurt and she jumped to size 4 basically overnight. Her verbal ability is above-average. (Wonder who she got that from) But her "climbing ability" is taking longer to develop...which I am not too disappointed about. She loves her family and friends, ice cream, cheese, fruit of any kind, oatmeal, eggs, any animal (including insects), pushing the cart, her tunnel, helping clean, coloring, singing, and reading her Bible.

Happy "Half" Birthday

On July 16th, we celebrated Lydia's half birthday. Yep, she has passed the 18th month mark. Here is a video to capture this fun day! The video is a little longer than normal (around 9 minutes). The first part is us singing and the second part is reminding Lydia what she can do at this point in her life. We love her! Happy "Half" Birthday little girl!

Speaking Lyd-ish

Our little girl is getting quite verbal. I understand just about everything she says, but of course I spend all day with her. So for those of you wanting to communicate with Lydia, here's a quick dictionary of words that may not sound so clear.

"plsss": please
"na naa": thank you (you can tell by the intonation...really)
"nappp": i'm sleepy
"tup"/"dinp": cup/drink
"munlk": milk
"DeeDeed": David (Uncle or two-year-old friend)
"sarah...meow": i miss Aunt Sarah, and her cats
"Halle...ZZZack": hey mom, let's go see the Carden family
"nanma": Grandma (Brian's mom)
"nammy": Nana (Mandy's mom)
"poop": well, that's pretty clear
"Daddy...See?": is Daddy around? I'd like to see him.
"Helro": phone
"apple": any fruit
"up": pick me up OR put me down
"zoom": car
"talk": chalk
"tolor?": Can I please color with my crayons?
"Dod": God (as in "Lydia, who made you?" "Dod.")

New words coming every day. Love it!

Pure Cuteness!

It is hard not to post these kinds of picture when we get them! Thanks Christina for the snapshot!

Moments with Mommy: Walking!

Learning Your Name

Lion-Yo-yo-Duck-Ice cream-Airplane

Strawberry-Train-Octopus-Car-Keys

Bull Riding

The Stock girls know how to have fun! There is a party all morning and night. Today, the party includes a wild, bucking bronco, mommy, and a nerves of steel bull rider, Lydia. They say that riding is a risky sport and has been called "the most dangerous eight seconds in sports":

The ride begins... Lydia is holding on tight. She wants to make it the full eight second!

The bull is throwing her best stuff at Lydia! She is staying cool!

Hold on! Only a few more seconds!

This is too much fun!

Lydia, world famous bull rider, has done it again! And the prize... a mommy kiss!

Cabin Vacation: Video Part 3

She has risen!

Cabin Vacation: Video Part 2

(There is a little extra blank space on the end... sorry)

Cabin Vacation: Video Part 1

Recent February Pictures

February has been a good month for the Stocks. In Georgia, the weather has been fantastic and we have been taking advantage of it. We have learned one BIG thing about Lydia this month: She loves the outside as you can see from the first pictures! Here are some snapshots of this month:

Lydia's favorite place to stand! She watches for birds, cars and everything else!

After work on Friday, while mommy is making dinner, daddy and Lydia are outside discovering God's creation. We are looking at birds in this picture... a Lydia favorite!

This was Lydia's first "outside" play day with mommy and daddy. You can't see it in the photo but she having fun kicking a little ball.

When Lydia is inside, she loves to read books!

Eating and having fun are what I like to do!!!!!

I am ready to go outside again!

For mom...and all the other Lydia fans

So, my (Mandy's) mom is in Afghanistan. That's right. My 50-something, knitting, Grandmother-of-Lydia mom is strapping on body armor everyday to walk from her apartment in Kabul (surrounded by guards with big guns) to the "Green Zone" where she works on the military's human resources stuff for 12-18 hours a day. She will be there (and a few other middle-eastern countries) for about 6 weeks. Needless to say, this isn't a glamorous vacation. I can't imagine what "war-torn" really looks like, but I suppose it's not very fun to walk around in.

Anyways, we miss her. And I know she misses us (especially Lydia). So, here we are posting this video of Lydia just having fun on a Tuesday afternoon...dancing, crawling, waving bye-bye, etc. Hope this brings a little light to a dark place, mom.

"I need some PICTURES!"

This is what I think our blog is saying to us and I fully agree so here are some pictures from January:

For New Year's, we went down to Vidalia, Georgia, home of the famous sweet onions, to spend with the Martin family. Here Lydia and Shaylee are playing together.

Home with Mommy. There is never a dull moment. Lydia is taking a voyage in the laundry basket.

"This is where I hang out all day, playing with my toys."

Happy Birthday, Lydia. Papa and Nana gave Lydia a Clemson captain's chair. Lydia is now ready to open presents! She is so cutie!

Lydia is opening presents with Violet's help. "This is nice wrapping paper."

Lydia in her adorable Sunday dress playing with Grandma's yellow school bus.

"Snow-of-the-Decade" Snow Storm Pictures:

Thanksgiving: Lydia

This was Lydia's first Thanksgiving. In fact, this was her first major family holiday (sorry love, I don't consider Groundhog's day as a major holiday). Holidays are always more eventful than normal vacations. The stays are a little longer. It is a more lively around the house and this Thanksgiving was no different. Except it is was different in that Lydia was there. For Mandy and I, going to family holidays are no longer coming as individuals or even as a couple, but as a family. What a great blessing to be thankful for to the Lord. Furthermore, having a baby around wherever you go makes things different.

One of the best "different" parts of this past Thanksgiving was watching Grandma and Aunt Kelly play, adore, and smile with Lydia. It was neat to see my sister warm up and become closer to Lydia more and more and laugh with her.

However, there is one confession which I will make on Lydia's behalf. She missed her first Thanksgiving feast. Well, kind of. Lydia needed to take a nap right about the blessing and toast. Actually, it was a great blessing for daddy and mommy as we were able to enjoy the feast and conversation with our family unhindered. For those who might be disappointed with Lydia's Thanksgiving siesta, I want to inform you that she did wake up at the tail end of the feast and ate some mashed potatoes and squash. Here are a couple of snapshots of Lydia's meal:

Daddy's getting Lydia ready for the Feast -

Lydia thinking, "Look at all this food... why did I take a nap?" -

The Effects of Being A Pumpkin

The Cutest Pumpkin Ever

Lydia was a pumpkin for Halloween. She, in our opinion is cute in anything, but here she is a little orange gourd. She didn't like getting dressed up much...if you look closely you can see a tear. But all in all trick-or-treating went well. Daddy carried her from door to door in our friends' subdivision (we went with a big group of toddlers, babies and parents). Lydia graciously donated all her candy to Mommy and Daddy. We, in return, gave her green beans and yogurt. Apparently she found this fair.

MORE PICTURES: Family Photo, Trick or Treat, Pumpkin Photo Shoot #'s 7, 2, 5, 6

Lydia: Nine Months

3/4 of a year "on the outside"! Since she was born a few weeks early, Lydia has now been in the world as we know it for as much time as she was inside Mommy. Kinda weird to think about, but amazing how God is growing her.

We went to the pediatrician this week for a flu shot, a really long questionnaire on her skills and a weight and height check. Our little gal is weighing in at 17 lbs 7 ounces...which was way off our guesses (more like 20!). She has also grown 2 inches since our 6 month appointment, so she is now 26 inches long. She is consistently in the lower percentiles for weight and upper for height. Although she may not look tall and skinny now, that's what the stats say... it seems she may take after her Daddy in this as well!

Her fine motor skills (grasping, moving things from hand to hand, figuring out how to get a toy out of something else, etc) are excellent. Verbally she's also got mad skilz! However, in the gross motor skills category (crawling, pulling up, etc) not so much. We are not worried, but must continue to refrain from holding her all the time. :/ Everything else checked out great...good heart, kidneys and lungs (she even screamed at the doctor to demonstrate).

We love love love her so much...and if you are reading this blog, I assume you do too. Keep praying for her to grow, learn and love the Lord Jesus Christ with her whole heart, soul, mind and strength.

Crazy Hair!

Most people, upon seeing Lydia, comment on one of two things: "Look at those blue eyes!" or "I love her crazy hair!".

We don't style, comb or really do anything with her hair. There's pretty much nothing you CAN do with it. Bows fall right out. Combing doesn't take. And really, we are not going to put product in our baby's hair. It starts to lay flat after a few days without a bath, but once we wash it...and especially after a nap it's back to it's awesome crazy self.

Here she is after a bath, nap, and oatmeal.

And just the "do"

Cute and crazy

Laughing along with me

Moments with Mom (Part 2)

Please excuse the rather long and semi-anti-climatic video, but we really do think every little thing she (that is Lydia) does is magic. Well, not really magic...but cute and worth spending five minutes watching her just have fun with a toy phone.

An Application for Dating My Daughter

A few weeks back, Lydia wrote a letter to her future husband. She was quite please with it and as I a dad who loves his daughter, I was thankful to see that she is beginning to think about these important matters even at such a young age. But, as a dad who loves his daughter, I saw the letter lacked in key areas. It wasn't as strong as it could have been. So, here is my application for dating/courting my daughter:

Application To Date My Daughter

1. Name_________________________ Date of Birth____________

2. Height _________ Weight________ IQ________ GPA________

3. Social Security # ______________ Driver’s licence #__________

4. Boy Scout Rank_____________________________________

5. Home Address_____________ City/State ____________ Zip____

6. Do you have one male and one female parent? ____________

If no, explain answer _________________________________

7. Number of years parents married ________________________

8. Do you own a van? _______ A truck with oversized tires?______ Do you have an earring, nose ring, or belly button ring? _______ Do you have a tattoo?_________ (if yes to any of #8, discontinue application and leave the premises)

9. In 50 words or less, what does LATE mean to you? ____________ ____________________________________________________.

10. In 50 words or less, what does “DON’T TOUCH MY DAUGHTER!” mean to you? __________________________________________________________.

11. Do you love Jesus? __________ Church you attend _______________ How often do you attend? ______________________

12. When is the best time to interview you father, mother, and pastor? Father ____________ Mother___________ Pastor__________

13. Answer by filling in the blank: please answer all questions freely, all answers are confidential (that means I won’t tell anyone ever — promise)

A. If I were shot, the last place I would want to be wounded is in the __________________

B. If I were beaten, the last bone I would want broken is my ____________

C. A woman’s place is in the _________________________

D. The one thing I hope this application doesn’t ask is________________________________________

E. When I first meet a girl, the thing I notice about her first is ______________

14. What do you want to be “if” you grow up? ________________

15. Are you willing to wear an electronic tracking device? _______

I swear all information supplied above is true and correct to the best of my knowledge under penalty of death, dismemberment, crucifixion, electrocution, Chinese water torture, and red hot pokers.

Signature ________________________

Thank-you for you interest. Please allow four to six years for processing. You will be contacted in writing if you are approved. Please do not try to call or write (since you probably can’t, and it would cause you injury). If your application is rejected, you will be notified by two gentlemen wearing white ties carrying violin cases.

(HT: Anyabwile)