Lovely Surprises

The Yost Family is celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas on the same day this year because Charlie's sister's family is here from Chicago and won't be around in Dec. So in preparation for our early Christmas, Lydia needed to make something for her cousin Hana. We decided that painting those clear ornaments by shaking a pom-pom covered in paint inside would be suitable for her age. She was doing really well until we were trying to get pictures of the process and accidentally called the ornament a ball. Immediately Lydia, who loves bouncy balls, threw it at the floor anticipating a bounce. Instead the ornament/ball hit the floor rolled and then shattered. Oops!! I guess Hana will be short one ornament.

On Monday after a full day of playing, lots of reading, and visiting the "boys", my two little cousins from Belgium, Lydia and I were sitting at the table and out of no where she bit my hand. I was so surprised and it actually hurt a lot!! Not completely sure I like the suggestion of some to bite her back, but time outs don't typically work for other situations either. We will have to see if this becomes a frequent occurrence or not.

This morning was the biggest and funniest surprise of all... I walked into Lydia's room this morning to find that she had taken her Pjs off as well as her diaper which she was holding up in the air for me to take. I take it as a sign that the diaper was a little too wet for her liking! :)

Baby Update - Went today for prenatal appt. to discuss with doctor about next step. She is confident that the baby's due date is accurate and that there is no reason to believe I will go into pre-term labor. This being said right now we are thinking that the wisest choice is to wait until the scheduled c-section on Dec. 30th.

Here is the surprise from the baby's stand point - While talking to the hospital admissions nurse she informed me that all children under 5 years of age are NOT allowed in the hospital and 5-16 year olds are only allowed if they are siblings. What a bummer - under the current rules Lydia won't see her bro. or sis. until they are 3 days old!!!

Have a great Thanksgiving!!!

Needing a Positive Outlook

"Are you going to take the picture or what?"

After a morning of hearing "No, no, no" while getting ready for the day, at the library, joining Gma for lunch at GAC, and everywhere in between; I decided the best thing to do during Lydia's nap was blog about the adorable and humorous things that she does in hopes of brightening my mood. Here it goes...

• Great Auntie Bridget gave her a little barn and farm animal set which she loves playing with, but the best part is that the door to the barn pops off all the time and whenever it does she says "Oh No" in the cutest voice. We then put it back on for her and promptly she takes it off and says "Oh No" again. This activity busied and entertained Aunt Betsy last week while she was watching Lydia.
• I noticed last week that when we are brushing our teeth Lydia will stand in the doorway leaning against it with one foot propped on the other so she is only standing on one leg. At first I just noticed it while brushing teeth, but now she is doing it all the time. She could be called Miss Flamingo with her talent of balancing on one foot.
• We had our first day of ECFE in St.Charles which has parent separation time, something new for us. I sat her down for snack with the other kids expecting tears or sadness, but got no such thing. She loved her class time and I also enjoyed meeting some new moms. What a BIG girl!!
• At ECFE we are able to check out toy bags so this time a took a chef dress up bag. Last night I put it on her for the first time, which she didn't like at first because she kept giving it to me to wear, but in the end she loved it. It was a great addition to her already great imagination using the play dished, pots, and water pitcher. Seeing her pretend to drink her juice is the cutest thing!!




• Our little girl is growing up before our eyes because one of her new things is telling us when she needs a diaper change. She grabs the front of her diaper and sniffs which is pretty cute :) Not sure where she learned this technique, but it cracks us up.
• Lydia is a true farm girl at heart because she loves wearing her barn boots especially in the house, but she is now saying "cow" all the time. I don't know if it is because Charlie works with cows and we talk about this when he is at work or if it is something that all kids go through because our niece and god daughter both had cow fetishes, either way it's pretty cute when she tilts her head inquisitively at you and says "cow?"

Okay I'm feeling more positive now and maybe some of you reading this are too!!

God's Got the Whole World in His Hands...

But especially the Yost family. The past couple of weeks he has been trying to help me to understand that things are in his hands and that no matter how much control I try to take in my life he is the navigational beacon. We found out two weeks ago that an ultrasound was showing the baby could possibly have water on the brain. After scheduling an appointment for a level 2 ultrasound at a facility in Rochester, my mom thankfully told me to inquire about if insurance would cover the procedure which then lead us to re-scheduling at a different hospital in the Twin Cities. The week and a half wait drove me to craziness thinking that my belly was getting smaller or that the baby wasn't moving enough, but yesterday morning finally arrived and we had a great ultrasound. The technition was really comforting as she talked us through things. She checked fluid pockets, the heart, diaphram, ventricles in the brain and the size of the baby. The technition and doctor both concluded that the ventricles in the brain show no signs of water on the brain, but the baby does have a rather large head. I figure big head means big brain; hence we will have a very intelligent child :) The large head measurements are causing the doctor to suspect that we may be a week or two further along than the current due date of Jan. 5th. As many know we are scheduled for a c-section on Dec. 30th which will be during my 39th week, but if the doctor is correct I could go into labor before the scheduled c-section. Another reason God is demonstrating to me that planning things doesn't always make life more simple.


I am over joyed that the baby's development and health look good, but am confused about our next step. My doctor is willing to do an amniosentesis at 37 weeks to check for fetal lung development and then if developed deliver the baby via c-section before Christmas. Wow, we could be having a Christmas baby instead of New Year's baby. I have mixed feelings about deciding to go ahead with the procedure. Positives - not having to wonder if I will go into labor down in St. Charles instead of Mankato where we have the c-section scheduled, less pregnancy discomfort if delivering earlier, and having baby before holidays. Negatives running through my mind - Am I trying to plan things too much and make myself feel in control?

While I sit here writing the baby is making it's presense very obvious by the movement of my belly and pain in my back, but no matter how much discomfort it is still awe inspiring to think that the five pound baby is in there moving around and will soon be on the outside making our lives even more complete.

Lydia the baby lover is also becoming more aware of the baby which will be making her a big sister... My lap is getting smaller which is increasing her requests to "hold" as she puts it and asking for hugs and kisses. Speaking of kisses, she also gives the baby (my belly) kisses all day long. It is the sweetest thing!!! She is talking more and more each day saying things like "excuse you" when you burp or "help me" when trying to get her socks on. Lydia is also more friendly with Piper, Carissa's cat. We are staying in Pipestone for a couple nights and she has been calling Piper over to her, petting her, and asking about her through out the day. Once in a while she still turns on Piper and tells her "no" like when she is up on the coffee table or by one of her toys but it sure is cute. We have been spending our time out West coloring, painting, talking about hats and mittens as the weather has turned so bitterly cold compared to the beginning of the week when we were at the park with just a jacket and just enjoying time spent together. That is my greatest joy in staying home with Lydia and Charlie's job change because we are spending a ton of time together as a family which is so wonderful!!!

No pictures this week because all extra time is spent catching up on my scrapbooking:) I will see what we can upload next week. Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers for our family.

"Little Bunny Lydia..."

"Walking through the town. Getting lots of candy and wanting to eat it all."

We enjoyed the Halloween festivities for 3 days this year. Our fun started out in St.Peter as we visited friends and then went to a party in Lake Crystal with Malcolm and Thomas plus their mommies. It was fun seeing the three kids dressed up like a bunny, bee (Malcolm), and chicken(Thomas). Local businesses were there to hand out candy and then we tried to get a picture of the three rugrats together, but it wasn't too successful. There was too much to see and do for them to stay put for long. Friday night we joined cousin Kyla (lion) and Gma Linda in Nicollet for the ECFE party which had great crafts, face painting, fingernail polishing, cookie decorating, and other games. The girls seemed to enjoy it and us adults did too!! Then finally the big night... we visited some friends in Lewiston to show off our bunny. After all is said and done I think Lydia will still dress up in her costume, but it better be washed after all the activities. And pictures at Sears even went better then expected. We got some cute poises!!!

I have also been trying to do more projects with Lydia so Charlie helped us make ghost prints by painting her feet white and stamping them on black paper, making pumpkin palm prints, and letting her decorate a pumpkin with paint. As the picture documents she really enjoys painting :)

Updates on the House -

My parents came down two weekends ago to work on things and we got a ton done to make it feel more like home. We started by cleaning the carpet in the kitchen which is such an improvement, then we set up the crib, rearranged the living room, and emptied a couple boxes. Since then we have gotten pictures up on the walls, arranged the nursery and Lydia's room as well as worked a bit in our room. Having 15 doors just on the main level doesn't leave a lot of room for arranging things against the walls, so we are trying to be creative in our decorating.

New in Lydia's world -

She has been a little under the weather with a fever, but nothing flu like and we come away from the doctor's today with a negative strep test, so hopefully the virus will quickly run it's course and be gone.

Charlie and Jess -

Well we have simply been enjoying time together as we traveled out to Southwestern MN again for a couple days.

Baby #2 -

Does really seem like it's trying to claw it's way out. Hard to believe we only have 2 months to go!! Tons of movement; I like it except for in the middle of the night :) Enough to watch my belly move :0