October

The month of October has been a blur. Of course it started out with lots of celebrating, followed by the chaos afterward of finding spots for and playing with the new toys and Lydia creating thank-you notes (followed by mommy writing and sending them).

We also enjoyed a gorgeous afternoon in the pumpkin patch.
Our annual mommy & Lydie photo on the horse

Toby got in on it too this year!

Tossing hay in hunt for the gourds

Daddy in the hay maze

Lydie too

"The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind..."

Toby found one!


So did Lydia

Finally, this is "the one"

Look at the face on this stinker!

I love how Tobias is just loungin'


Tobias thoroughly enjoyed and was quite adept at feeding the animals.



Unfortunately, the middle part of the month was plagued by illness in the Willson household. A few days after I had not been feeling “quite right”, the chills and aches began. This was followed by days fighting a massive headache, sinus congestion, and otherwise feeling wiped out and worthless. Four days into my illness when Tobias spiked a fever I immediately took him to the doctors. After his exam, our doc did the test for “Influenza A” aka “H1N1” aka “swine flu” which unfortunately came back positive. It was too late for me to get any medication, but Tobias was immediately started on Tamiflu (as were Mark and Lydia preventatively). Besides a few days of fussiness you would never even know the kid had the same thing I did. It was a miracle and a God-send (as were my husband and parents who cared for the children and our house during this terrible time for mommy). During the midst of our illness there was time for some silliness.





Thankfully I healed just in time to enjoy Lydia’s preschool field trip to the pumpkin farm.





The hayride was the highlight of the day but Lydie also had a blast running through the mini-hay maze

and going down the huge slides (she went all by herself after her initial ride with mommy).


On a gorgeous fall day in Caledonia...



... the kids and I made our way to cheer on daddy and our dear friends for the MTeC race.
While waiting for the racers to finish, Riley and Lydia made a little housing development.

Daddy's team, 2nd Inaugural, crossing the finish line after about 7 hours of racing. Whew!

Mark couldn't have been more thrilled to have completed the race.

As were his team members.

And Congrats to the "Bad News Bears" who placed FIRST in the Women's Division. You go, girls!


What an amazing October! (and Halloween photos are still to come...)

So… what’s up with Lydia?



Lydia has developed quite a few obsessions over the past month.
• Band-aids – she sticks them on every piece of furniture and her brother but REFUSES the mere thought of a band-aid being put on her (even if she really does need it).




• Footie PJs – her cousin lent her a pair of footie PJs and she quickly fell in love. Thankfully Great Aunt Vic & Uncle Eric got her a pair for her birthday so at least we could rotate. She refused to wear anything else to sleep (including naps).
Painting in her PJs

• Brushing her teeth


– she found that she is capable of putting the “training toothpaste” on herself and since then, there has been no turning back. She fusses if she “forgets” to brush her teeth before naps or before she leaves the house. Now she even has her brother roped into it. He’ll stand at the sink, arms outstretched for the toothbrush repeating, “Teet, teet” (for teeth) and then “Juice” for toothpaste (I think because it has a “fruity” flavor.)
…I suppose there could be worse things to be “obsessed” about.

Lydia challenges us and inspires us. Her pure faith is amazing. Today’s conversation:
Mommy: Daddy won’t be home for lunch today.
Lydia: Oh, that’s too bad. I miss daddy. Where is he going?
M: He has a special class at work.
L: Well, I want God to bring him back.
M: He will darling…
If we all lived our lives trusting that God was with us every moment and that He has the power to "bring daddy back" aka do anything!

So what’s Tobias up to?

Toby is really starting to mimic adult behavior. Besides brushing his teeth he also combs his hair (or should I say, “head”) when he gets ahold of a comb, puts the toy (and real) phones to his ear after he pushes the buttons, mops and sweeps the floor (what a helpful kid!) and carries Blooper around saying “shhh, shhhh”, then kissing her. This is ADORABLE to me.



Thankfully the climbing has died down. I think he’s focusing on other things, particularly his speed. He is getting quite fast – bordering on running. My dad has nicknamed him “John Wayne” for the way he swaggers around, but that name might not be appropriate for long! He’s even taking some steps backward at times.

I have finally succeeded at getting Tobias attached to a “lovey”. I kept holding a special blanket I bought for him close to his face during story time before bed then putting it in his crib with him. And… it worked! He also has had a monkey, frog, and green baby blanket in his crib and has started to love the frog (which he calls “duck”).

Tobes is definitely trying to make his needs known through words and gestures. As we strolled down the dairy aisle in the grocery store, Toby spotted yogurt (a favorite). He immediately went into his chest rubbing sign for “please” and repeated in a desperate voice, “Peeze, peeze”. How can you resist that cuteness? Well, it’s kind of tough to feed a kid yogurt in the grocery store so we sped to the checkout before he spotted something else he wanted. His language certainly still needs an interpreter most of the time. For example, he kept saying, “kook, kook” in the car last night and I said to Mark, “Please hand him that Pooh book.” He also uses the word “doggie” for pretty much every animal, except duck (the only other animal name he says). G-pa taught him to say “poop” (obviously G-pa has cleaned a few of these in the past couple weeks) and “baby” as he looks at photos of Rachel on their fridge. One of the cutest little words is when he gets his fingers going and says, “tickle, tickle”. When he sees steam he says “hot” and then attempts to blow it to cool it off. He calls cookies, “gook kook”. Along the lines of food, he calls any utensil, “boon” (spoon). And he keeps surprising me with the words he knows. When daddy came home yesterday, Tobias grabbed his silly rain hat and said, “hat”.

Toby still gets sad when he’s not at home without a family member, but he is improving. According to Ms. Amy at MDO (by the way, she taught him her name and he says it quite well!) and Nicki in the church nursery he’s crying less so that’s a plus. And he and Lydia stayed with a babysitter at our house one evening and both did great – meaning no sad Tobias!

Tobias is such a character

– still a flirt, still a stinker, still our precious boy, still completely loved.

Lydia's 3rd Birthday!

My beautiful Birthday Girl!

Lydia certainly celebrated her 3rd birthday in style. It all started during our beach bash with our family. Since her birthday was the following weekend, and we were all together, we decided to celebrate. Aunt M took us out for pizza and Lydia relished in the cupcakes that she and Gabby helped to prepare. (Special thanks to Aunt Laura who remembered to bring cupcake pans and sprinkles!)


The following Thursday she came home from preschool with a crown and a card and declared, “I’m the birthday girl!” and really hasn’t stopped saying it since.

That same day a special present from Gramma and Granpapa arrived.


On her big day she requested waffles for breakfast. After devouring them and much pleading I allowed her to lick the pan. Now, I think waffle batter is kinda gross but obviously Lydia thinks differently.


Mimi & Gpa took the kids for a walk.

And later brought Lydia a cash register.



Before nap Great Aunt Vickie and Great Uncle Eric brought Lydia some special presents

Of course the highlight was the big box the presents came in. Aunt Vic would sing her "birthday girl" song and Lydia would jump out of the box when it was over. Hilarious.


Uncle John & Aunt Leslie had a gathering of friends for turkey dinner that happened to occur on Lydia's birthday. They had a cake and sang for her. She felt so special. :)




At our weekly family dinner on Monday, Mimi & G-pa gave the birthday girl cupcakes (which you can see, she decorated with M&Ms)


She also received her long-awaited camera. It was a challenge at first, but she quickly figured out how to take pictures (and some pretty good ones, at that!) and frequently gets it out at home for some photo shoots. The cutest thing was that she set the camera up on the chair, and said, “Ok, guys, get together for a picture.” You can tell she’s done some “timer” shots in her days…



After lots of cupcakes, special treats, candles, singing, presents, and joy I think we may finally be finished celebrating Lydia’s 3rd Birthday.

Here are some Lydia-isms
• She’s currently OBSESSED with brushing her teeth. She’s getting quite independent at it. It’s getting a bit ridiculous at times – we can’t leave the house without brushing her teeth.
• Naming her poos. Sometimes when peering into the toilet after a BM it’s “Look! There’s a mommy and a daddy and a little girl and a baby” Today it was, “It’s a squirrel tail.” Why couldn’t she describe normal things like clouds?
• [Christian Radio station talking about sponsoring a child with Compassion International while on our way to preschool.]
L: Mommy, they are talking about God!
M: Yes, they are saying how much God loves children.
L: Well, God loves Tobias and God loves me.
M: Yes he sure does!
L: [exclaiming, looking to the sky] We love you God! We love you sooooo much!!!
• Expanding her play/pretend world. “Blooper” is mentioned every day, multiple times a day. Blooper, her doll, has a family, goes on adventures, and likes certain things (like broccoli and cookies). It’s almost as if Lydia expresses her feelings through the life of her doll/imaginary friend. Before she would just talk ABOUT Blooper but now she actually talks TO her imaginary friends. The other day she was directing “Oliver” around.
• Random quote: “I have boobs, if you care.”
• Woke up with a stuffy nose and said, “Mommy, my nose is blowy.”
• Lydia’s future…
o L: “Mommy, do you know what I want to be when I grow up?”
M: No, Lydia, What do you want to be when you grow up?
L: I want to be a shepherd.
• Really starting to organize her world sequentially. This evening when I put her to bed she said. “So mommy, when I wake up then I will get out of bed and shout for you. And we will go downstairs and eat waffles. Then I will come back upstairs and brush my teeth. Then I will play with my camera. Does that sound good to you?”

We sure do love you, Lydie Lew! :)