New life, New City

OK, so everyone is harping on me because its been forever since my last post...nine months to be exact... so here goes nothing. Boy how our world has been turned upside down in the past few months. Adam got a new position with Accenture working for NASA, so we packed up our life in Birmingham and moved to Huntsville. We have been here officially a week and a half. Lydia seems to like her new home. We are renting an apartment that's practically the same size as our home was in Birmingham. Lydia has her own play room and her bedroom in the apartment is much bigger than hers at our past house, so I think she approves! I enjoy living in Huntsville too. Its beautiful here! There is so much to do, but I miss my friends terribly. Lydia misses her friends at school too. She still talks about her friends and teachers and calls them by name, especially when I read books to her or count with her. Lydia is 18 months now and talking more than ever (cant imagine who she gets that from). She counted to 10 all by herself yesterday!! It was amazing! She's also bilingual,speaking Arabic often. I hope to start working again part time in August, so I know she will be excited to start going to school again. I promise to be diligent in my blogging efforts to keep everyone updated on our new life. I will also post some pictures of the new apartment once we get it in tip top shape. That's all for now...off to unpack the last few boxes..

The Madi family in front of our house in Pelham the day we moved to Huntsville

Lydia at 9 months

Where in the world has the time gone? Is it possible that my little baby girl is already nine months old? I look at her every single day in amazement. Lydia has finally taken off and is crawling everywhere! It took her a while to figure out that her knees work to her advantage :) She is her mother's child...talking non stop (if someone would just invent a baby translator already). Her favorite word..daddy. From the time she wakes up, until the time she goes to bed she says "daddy" and looks around until she finds him, and if she doesn't see him, she will call him until he answers. Naturally, in response, Adam melts into a puddle of lovey goo. She already has him wrapped around her tiny little finger. Some of her other favorite words: Mama (yay, finally I get some recognition!), hi, bye-bye, thank you (dank doo), la la (my sister Lauren) and no no no (yes they learn this one early on!). Her 9 month check up went really well. She passed her developmental evaluation with flying colors. She weighed 17 lbs, 2 1/2 oz, only in the 25th percentile for weight (she's a little doodlebug), and was 28 inches long, the 50th percentile for her age. She has started finger foods and LOVES to eat. Some of her favorite foods: FIGS (she screams for more once she's gobbled them all up), squash, homemade chicken meat balls, baby pancakes with peaches and mashed bananas, bananas, cantaloupe, goldfish crackers, yogurt melts, and puffs! I have created quite the little foodie and I am enjoying trying new recipes for her. I know it sounds cheesy, but being a mommy really is the best job in the world. Hearing "mama" on the baby monitor in the morning is the best alarm clock in the world, and seeing her sweet toothless gummy smile 24 hours a day is absolutely irreplaceable.

Long time, no blog

So apparently I suck at blogging. My sincere apologies for the lack of blog posts for the past, oh... I don't know, 6 months. But in my defense I have a pretty wonderful excuse. I love being a mom! From the time I wake up to the time I go to bed my life is consumed with all things Lydia, and I wouldn't have it any other way! I cant believe how much she has grown! My sweet little baby is on her way to being a big girl. These days she's full of tricks: rolling around (everywhere!), sitting up, saying "mama" and "baba" (that's what she calls Adam, which is Arabic for daddy), starting to scoot/crawl (she goes backwards instead of forwards), and eating finger foods. She is now one week shy of 8 months old. I know everyone says it, but it really is true, they grow up too fast! I'm learning to treasure every moment with her and I'm so thankful to have a loving husband who works extra hard so that I don't have to miss a single one :) .

My growing girl

I apologize for being so neglectful in my blog updates. Lydia is growing so so fast! She is two months old already! I can't believe it! We had a great first Christmas as a family. Her eyes were fixed on the Christmas tree and the bright colored wrapping paper. I helped her open her presents and showed her what Santa left for her. Im pretty sure she was excited, she cooed and drooled a little. Its so cool to start our own family traditions. Here she is with her stocking.. dont you love the enthusiasm in her sweet little face?

Everyday is a new adventure for her. You can see the little wheels turning in her head as she explores the world around her. She LOVES her tummy time mat. She tries her best to talk to the little rotating animals and she kicks her feet like crazy! She is constantly doing something new. Tonight she laughed for the very first time! I was getting her ready for her bath and starting blowing raspberries on her tummy and she got tickled! She let out the cutest laugh I have ever heard! I almost cried! Being a mama is such an incredible feeling. I am so thankful for such an amazing blessing. Lydia Adalene has stolen my heart :)

Free Christmas Cards? No way!

So, its Lydia's first Christmas, which means this is the first year we can send out a true family Christmas card! It comes just in time for Lydia's one month birthday. My fabulous friend and next door neighbor, Sarah, has so generously offered to take some Christmas/One month photos of Lydia this weekend, and I can't wait! I have decided to use http://www.shutterfly.com for the cards, which is the same website I recently used for Lydia's adorable birth announcements. Lucky for me, I was browsing their website and noticed that they are giving away 50 Christmas cards for FREE! This is why I LOVE Shutterfly! They are always offering great deals like free extra prints, free shipping, and now FREE Christmas cards. How many times did I just say free? Can you tell that I'm super excited?! When you have a newborn, every penny you can save really helps out, especially around the holidays. So after looking through Shutterfly's incredible selection of holiday photo cards, I found three particular designs I really love. They are:

Sweet Stocking Christmas Card - I like this one because it has room for four different photos. This means more room to show off sweet Lydia's Christmas pictures!

Get Glowing Christmas Card - I like this one because its simple and modern. Plus I think the dotted Christmas tree is adorable!

Bright Blooming Tree Christmas Card- I like this one because it also has room for more than one photo. It also has the traditional red and green Christmas tree, but a not so traditional chocolate background. Too cute!

So...which one to choose? After much deliberation, I think I'm going to go with the....

Bright Blooming Tree! This card is too cute to pass up and it gives me three different photo options, and since I'm horrible at making decisions, I can choose more than one picture.

If you are shopping around for Christmas Cards be sure to check out Shutterfly's great products. Here are a few of them:

Christmas photo cards: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

Holiday cards: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

and even...

Calendars (these make great Christmas gifts!) http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

A big thank-you to Shutterfly for all of the great holiday deals! If you want to take advantage of their 50 free holiday card give away simply click here and follow their easy steps!

Lydia Adalene

Wow..whew..what a crazy four weeks its been! My beautiful Lydia Adalene Madi was born on November 3, 2010 at 12:56 pm. I must say it was a very easy labor. God is good! (the epidural also helped quite a bit!) After six hours of labor my gorgeous black haired girl made her grand entrance. She weighed 6 lbs 15 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. I am so in love with her! She can be a handful, but what newborn isn't? All day long I find myself staring at her and kissing those little round cheeks. She looks so much like Adam, its ridiculous! Lucky for her, he's a good looking guy. In two short days she will be a month old. Wow, how time flies! I'm finally getting used to this motherhood thing...I think. She's sleeping better through the night and we have switched over to bottle feeding, which she's done really well with. All in all she's one awesome kid. I'm all smiles..and a few dark circles under the eyes. :)

Reflection

So, tomorrow is the big day! I will be induced bright and early in the morning at 5am. I woke up this morning feeling nauseated.. I'm a mixed bag of emotions. I am so excited because I can't wait to meet my daughter for the first time, but I'm also anxious and scared because I want everything to go smoothly and for her to have a safe and healthy delivery. I'm also very reflective today. It's been a quiet, rainy day that has allowed me ample time to think. I am overcome with thankfulness for the Lord's blessings. This time last year, in the month of October, Adam and I miscarried our first baby. It was one of those numbing moments for us. Overcome with loss, sorrow, deep hurt, emptiness, I found myself asking the Lord "What's next?" I remember praying to God and saying "Lord, I have nothing to say." and that was truly my heart. I was for once in my life at a loss for words. I didn't understand why this horrible thing had happened to us, and honestly I wasn't angry, I was just empty. I was so hurt and I couldn't even find the words to pray. It took a lot of healing, many nights of crying myself to sleep, and a lot of prayers from the faithful believers that are my friends and family, until finally I was ok again. Today I thought about the baby that I lost and I allowed myself a few minutes to cry. I cried because I still grieve my baby, but also I cried because I am overwhelmed at the Lord's goodness. Last year we lost a baby. This year God is giving us another one. Wow. How great is our God? It just blows me away. Most of the time I can't see the big picture. I don't understand why things happen they way that they do, but one thing is for certain, the Lord never leaves us nor forsakes us. He is forever faithful.

'I sing for joy at the works of Your hands.." - Psalm 92:4