Crawling, Pulling Up, Standing, Climbing - OH MY!

That's right, Lydia is crawling.  She started on Tuesday, May 17th and by Saturday, May 21st she was pulling herself up.  This past weekend she started climbing up on things and jumping up and down.  This all means we have our work cut out for us here.  She is getting so fast and we try to watch her and keep up with her the best we can.
Of course she always crawls towards Harley's water, our dirty shoes, the fireplace stone or something that just isn't sturdy...really?  really?  Not sure how she knows to go towards those things and not all her fun toys that are right in front of her.  Here we go...

This all happened in less than 30 seconds...

 We put her in the basket, she crawled out...

 After crawling towards Harley (Harley saw trouble coming, so she moved)...

 She went to sit next to her Daddy's feet while he read the morning paper and drank his coffee...

 Then she crawled back over to the stone fireplace, reached up and got on her knees...

 Lydia pulled herself up to a standing position and began jumping up and down, looking back to make sure I was watching her have fun.

Later that afternoon in the same day (Memorial Day):

 She crawled over to her bouncy chair...

 And proceeded to climb on top of it to get on the couch...

 Her face shows the realization that I'm telling her no and after taking the cute picture, I got her down and moved the chair away.

Here she is after crawling across the room to climb on top of Harley.  Can you see how excited Harley looks ("please get this baby off of me"), her facial expression is opposite of Lydia's, who thinks it is the funniest thing.

Family Portraits - sneak peak

We took some family portraits 2 weeks ago and the amazing photographer put a sneak peak of about 6 pictures on her blog.  Check them out!
I absolutely LOVE them and can't wait to see all of them soon.
If we get 25 comments, we get a free 5x7, so feel free to comment!

http://erincarlylephotographyblog.com/

I highly recommend Erin's photography for your family portraits.  She was great working with us and a 6 month old and dog...very patient.

Enjoy!

Weekend Fun at the Pool

We took Lydia to the pool for the first time this past weekend and she loved it!  It was like a huge bathtub to her.  She splashed and splashed and had a blast.

Swimming with Daddy:

Drying off with Mommy:

Check out my new ride

It's used, but gets good gas mileage on the sidewalks.
She loves this pink car and always has her hands on the wheel, like a good driver when it's in motion.  When I stop pushing her she kicks her feet to get going again.  And the horn makes her laugh and laugh.
She just loves it.
This weekend was a weather perfect weekend with sunny non-humid days with a little breeze.  We spent a lot of time outside and it was great.  We are trying to take advantage of these days before the typical Houston summer weather begins.

Her new dress from Daddy

Blair went to Hilton Head for a boys weekend last weekend and got Lydia this adorable dress.  She loved it and she even spent all day Saturday in it while we went shopping and to lunch...no clothing changes needed.

Lydia is Eating Solids

Lydia is finally eating solids.  We started her off with real bananas smashed up, then went to sweet potatoes, then green beans and now apples.  She loves them all and is such a good eater.
The first pictures below are of me feeding her in the morning and then the last pictures are of Blair feeding her in the evening.  Can you tell which feeder (Mommy or Daddy) is the cleanest?

Mommy feeding Lydia:

Daddy feeding Lydia: (she gets a bottle after eating the solids)

We went to a party last weekend and Lydia was the youngest baby, but also the heaviest - Ha ha!  I love me some BIG baby!  She weighs about 20.5 lbs and is 6 months and 1 week today.

Big News...Job-Wise

My last day at El Paso Corp. is this Wednesday, May 4th. I'm happy to say that I've resigned and will start working as a contractor in compensation. I start my first contract job starts on May 16th at TPC Group working on a project to build a pay structure for the company. I'm really excited about this great opportunity for my career. It's a pretty major project and will also suffice as credits to keep my certification in Compensation (CCP) and HR (PHR). I'll be working with a former colleague, so I already know his work ethic. I'll be working 3-4 days a week and their offices are literally 5 minutes from the house. Being a contractor means I have freedom to be an individual contributor and challenge myself, which is always good when you want to grow your profession.
It's been a future goal of mine to go off on my own and become a consultant and I am really pleased that this opportunity was presented to me and I can start building my career in this direction earlier than I had dreamed.
I'm hoping to work with other companies in the future as a consultant working on special projects and helping companies increase their compensation and human resource knowledge.
Wish me luck in this new endeavour!