Fun-Filled Fall weekend (for mom and dad)

A couple weekends ago, our family had a fun-filled fall weekend planned. Saturday evening, we went with some friends to Niederman Family Farm. I anticipated wonderful pictures that we would cherish forever as part of Lydia's first pumpkin patch experience. While we did get pictures of Lydia's first pumpkin patch experience, they were not what I had envisioned. Here's Lydia - cold, hungry, tired, and uninterested in waiting for the hay ride to the pumpkin patch.

Here's Lydia again, sucking her thumb for comfort after crying all the way to the pumpkin patch.

We did not get a pumpkin. We just got out of there as quickly as possible.

On Sunday, we went with our neighbors to the Cincinnati Zoo for HallZOOween. Once again, I was anticipating wonderful pictures of Lydia's first trip to the zoo, thinking they would be exceptionally adorable since she would be dressed up in her monkey halloween costume. My dream of framable pictures quickly began to fade when Lydia refused to nap before we left for the zoo. Here we are comforting Lydia and convincing her to let go of her thumb as she was trying to put herself to sleep so that we could try to have a Kodak moment.

It kind of worked. This is definitely the best photo from the weekend.

Here is Lydia in her monkey costume, with a real monkey (ok, it's a gorilla) in the background.

This is Lydia with our neighbors' daughter, who is dressed up as Yoda from Star Wars. Lydia had just woken up from a restless nap that was not nearly long enough.
If Lydia could talk, I don't know how she would describe the weekend. But, Josh and I had fun experiencing fall-time firsts with our little Lydia, even if she was fussy.

Swinging

During Lydia's almost six months of life, she has greatly enjoyed her infant swing at home. However, until this month, it didn't dawn on me to let her try a playground swing, because in my mind, of course she's not old enough yet. Alas, our little girl is growing up, and while at the park with some of our friends, my friend Laura suggested I put Lydia in the swing with her son, Sawyer. Surprised by the thought that she was big enough for such a venture, I quickly decided it sounded like fun and plopped her in the swing. As you can see, she loved it!

Parky's Farm

One afternoon in early October, Lydia and I decided to soak up as much of the warm fall weather that we could. So, we went to...

While there, we saw...

Lydia looked at the animals quite intently.

We had a wonderful afternoon together!

Another day at the park

Back when the weather was still warm, Lydia and I met Harper and Elise for a picnic at Glenwood Gardens park. Lydia is so adorable in sun bonnets. This is the one that Harper's mom and grandma got for Lydia before she was even born.

Here I am trying to make Lydia smile. As you can see, Lydia is unamused. However, Harper thinks I'm hilarious.

Finally, a smile from Lydia! But now Harper's not smiling. I'm convinced they somehow communicate and work out a plan so that they don't smile at the same time. After many pictures, I eventually out-smart these 5-month-old geniuses and catch them both grinning.
Then Harper tries to roll over, bumps into Lydia...
...and starts trying to suck on her arm. I can't say that I blame him ~ she is super sweet! Luckily, Elise is there to save Lydia, since I'm just watching, laughing, and taking pictures.

A visit with Grandma

Lydia's Great-Grandma Carol came to visit a few weekends ago. We had a fabulous weekend, which made me wish we didn't live 3 hours away from each other.

Turtle Creek Flea Market

Wow - time has been flying by! I know it's cliche, but the older I get, the more I understand why people say it all the time, and thus, have created this cliche.

On another note, way back in September, we took Lydia to Turtle Creek Flea Market for the first time. While Lydia's mom and Grandma Lori did some selling, Lydia hung out with the Stegman guys.

As you can see from the photos, hanging out with the boys is both fun and exhausting

Also, Lydia would like to take this opportunity to say "Happy Birthday Grandpa Mark!" Mom forgot her camera the day of Grandpa's birthday celebration - way to go mom! So, Lydia wanted to give Grandpa a shout-out next to the picture of them together at turtle creek.