Top 3 (By Lydia) - Songs

On this edition of Top 3 I will be sharing Lydia's current favorite and most requested songs.

3. Old Mcdonald Had a Farm - Ella Fitzgerald



This is a super swingin version of the song. Lydia has always liked this song, but when I showed her this version from the cd "Jazz for Kids" that we got from the library, she dances and giggles to the fast pace. It is fun to watch her listen to this song. I should video tape it.

2. Liza Jane - The Wood Brothers

She first heard this song from the youtube video that I had been watching, then I got it in my head and was singing "Oh little Liza, little Liza Jane" all around the house. She picked up on it and also started singing it and started asking me to play the video and song for her.



1. The Muffin Man - Ella Fitzgerald

Another selection from Ella form the "Jazz for Kids" album. Ella is so great. This song was recorded in 1941 and my 2.5 old daughter not only loves the song, but sings along with it and asks me to play it all the time. It is hard to believe that this song was recorded when Lydia was negative 69 years old.

Bottom Line - I'm a good parent

Count to Ten

The Cost of Innocence

Take a look at this sweet girl.



A picture of innocence that could do no wrong, right? Sort of. She can do wrong, but she is still innocent.

A couple of weeks ago Lydia was in my room hanging out when she decided to pull over the cup of water I had on my bed stand. The cup was half full and poured all over her and all over a stack of papers I had in the shelf compartment. I thought what was all the water had hit until I realized that I had my MacBook under my bed. Wouldn't you know, water went all over it. I freaked out, grabbed Lydia and put her on the bed, then grabbed my MacBook and immediately got the water off of it and then mopped the water off the floor.

Meanwhile Lydia was crying because of my quick reactions. I told her that she should not pull cups down from places higher than her head. I did a quick check on the Mac, opened it up and it came up with no problems, so I a standard shut down just to be safe.

Later, I opened up my computer and hit the button to fire it up and nothing happened. I plugged it in and tried it again and nothing happened. The battery was showing fully charged but nothing was happening. My stomach turned as I recalled the cup incident. I could never be mad at this girl, even if she fried my computer, but the cost of her innocence was all I could think of all night.



Forward a couple days. Took it to Mac store, they sent it away to be looked at, and about three days later they called me. I was expecting this phone call, "Hey we found water in your computer, it will be about $800 to fix and you lost all of your files". Instead they said this, "Hey, come pick your computer up it has been fixed". I was shocked. I got there to pick it up and I signed off on the return with zero charge. I took it outside and opened it up to see what would happened, and all my files were there and everything looked great. Then I realized that I was right next to the mall fountain. So I had a PFO (personal freak out) and closed my computer and held it like a baby all the way to my truck. I got lucky.

Bottom Line - Never keep your laptop on the ground, and never keep your cups in reach of beautiful innocent toddlers.

Camping

Something about camping puts me in a deep state of relaxation. Just being at a campsite puts me in a trance. Throw in a campfire, some food, and spontaneous naps and I'm in heaven. Last weekend my parents (Mark and Lor) went camping at Winton Woods which is less than 10 minutes away from my house. Although we didn't stay the night, we went Friday night to hang out and then most of the day on Saturday. It was relaxing. It was Lydia's first ever camping experience and surprisingly she didn't try to run into the fire the whole time like I thought she might.

Friday night we had ribeye steaks, with grilled corn and the camping custom potato/carrot/onion/cheese all in one mix.



After dinner Friday night we went for a walk and Lydia got to walk Zoey.



Saturday during the day I tried to sneak in a nap in the pop up trailer. Then the fam joined me.



The dessert after Saturday's dinner was fantastic. Strawberries and blueberries cooked with croissants over the campfire. Wow, this stuff was amazing.



Bottom Line - Family + Outdoors - Stress = Camping. Camping = Relaxation

O.I.B.

The day after Zak and CC's wedding, the j-stegs along with l-steg took off on a 12 hour drive to Ocean Isle Beach for a 1 week tenure. This is the second year of participation for Lydia and I in this annual weekly event. This year there were 20 people all in one beach house.



Now that Lydia is mobile, she had a great time running in and around the water. She also got to run around with her second cousin Harper.







It was a nice relaxing trip and time with family. I'm looking forward to next year.

Bottom Line - Vacations always seem too short. It also seems that you need another week of vacation to recover from vacation.

A Gift For Lydia (Video)

When Lydia turned one my sister Kris and brother Zak said they had a special gift for Lydia. It was a song they had written together for Lydia's first birthday. Zak recorded the song, and put it to a video.





Bottom Line - Lydia's first word other than Dada or Momma was "dog" as the evidence shows in the video. The Real Bottom Line - We will never get a dog.

Walkin' with Lydia (Video)

I made this video for Lydia for her 1st birthday with a little editing guidance from Zak. The soundtrack is fitting, and it is fun to see the progress.



Bottom Line - Technology captures memories, you might as well utilize it.

Happy 1st Birthday Lydia!

It is hard to believe that one year ago today Lydia was born.




Bottom Line - Happy Birthday Lyd! I'm looking forward to many more.

11 months

Look who is 11 months old today. Last night she was running around the house looking for Easter eggs.






Bottom Line - Time flies when you are having fun.

Tuesday Night Jazz

It is no secret that I love Jazz music.
It is no secret that I love vinyl records.
It is no secret that I love my daughter Lydia.
It is no secret that I love spending Tuesday nights alone with Lydia.

Put them all together and it is what I call "Tuesday Night Jazz"

Jess has the Beth Moore class on Tuesday nights, therefore I get to stay home with Lydia all by myself. Every Tuesday we usually put on a jazz record and hang out. I am educating her in the ways of the jazz standards. Miles Davis, Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, Eric Dolphy, Duke Ellington, and many more jazz records that I own on vinyl. It is perfect hang out music.

When Lydia is ready for bed I put her to sleep to the greatest jazz recording of all time: Miles Davis' Kind of Blue on cd in her little boombox. I've decided that she is going to be a great jazz pianist when she grows up.



Bottom Line - Gotta start them early and often on jazz music.

Lydia Jam

Tonight Lydia and I had our first jam session





Bottom Line - Music is a language

Dark to Dark

Am I suffering from seasonal depression? Nope, I just can't stand that it is dark when I go to work in the morning, and it is dark when I leave work to come home in the evening. The only daylight I see is when I go out for lunch and on weekends, and lately those times have been cloudy and raining.

I find the light I need when I get home from these two beautiful individuals.



Bottom Line - Don't let darkness bring you down. Light can be found in other places than the sky.

Lydie and Me

Lydie and Me like to take long walks on the beach at sunset.



Bottom Line - Life is so short. Enjoy meaningful moments while you can

Wind beneath her hair and her wings

Lydia went to the beach for the first time and experienced the ocean breeze for the first time. At first it was in her hair as shown below.



She did not seem happy even though we kept her in the shade at all times. Then she got wind beneath her wings and decided to fly. She even rared her arms back like a super hero.



Bottom Line - If the wind is blowing through your hair, move into position to have the wind beneath your wings so you can fly.

Smiles

Lately Lydia has began smiling on purpose. We usually have to prompt it at this point, but when it happens, it is amazing. The doctor told us that babies start smiling at about 4 weeks, and she is 4 weeks old as of yesterday. The first month has been wonderful with her. Lots of laughs, and way too much fun. I don't believe anyone who sighs negatively when they hear that I have a new born and they usually say "I bet you don't sleep anymore" and "The first 2 months are the worst". Truth is I wouldn't trade this time with my daughter for anything. My wife and I are enjoying every second of it. Sure it can be difficult at some points, but that makes us a stronger family. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a dad. It has been nothing but exciting and rewarding since day one, and I know that it will get better and better as time moves forward. I will be getting more smile pictures from Lydia soon. You can also check out my wife's blog which is now up and running and appropriately named www.lydianicole.blogspot.com. Make sure you read her entry entitled "Husband of the Year" wink wink.

Bottom Line - The first time she smiled at just me, it changed my life.

Lydia Extravaganza

She slept so well at the hospital



I wish we could have taken the clear bed box home with us




Close up



She can yawn like a champ



Smile attempt



Just after birth in the labor and delivery room



Wide awake during the night


Bottom Line - Lydia is the 2nd most beautiful woman on the planet. (My wife still holds the number 1 spot)

Natural Woman

It was Saturday night April 26th and the minor contractions were still 5 minutes apart. We managed to still somehow get rest even though the anxiety had been non-stop all day. The next morning at 7:37AM I was informed that the pain in her last contraction was so bad that she had to stop moving and she could not talk. It was time to me to get cleaned up and put on my labor coaching clothes. We called the doctor after the intense contractions reached the 5 minutes apart mark. The doctor encouraged us to stay home as long as possible. Since this was our first child, we were informed that it would be several hours of labor.

At this point Jessie was doing great. She was working through each one, and using the inbetween time to get things ready to go to the hospital. Then they got worse and there was less and less time inbetween the contractions. It was time to get focused and pull out the playbook and get ready for the game of our lives. We took a short walk around the neighborhood and then moved into the house to start going through the contractions in the various positions that we learned in the classes that we had previously taken. They were strong and intense, but my wife remained very focused and disciplined and at around 11:00AM we decided to go to the hospital because she thought her water had broken. By this time she was completely unaware of what was going on around her and not coming back to earth until this baby was born. I loaded up the car and got her in the passenger seat after covering it in a trash bag and we went to the hospital.

We got to the hospital at 11:30 and the contractions were still at a high level and now only 2-3 minutes apart. She got checked into Triage to get checked out. I could not stand this part because this is where they stuck me in the waiting room and I had to wait while they quizzed my wife, who was in labor, to see if I am an abusive husband or if I would ever harm a child. So 20 minutes later I was finally cleared to go back and be with her. I found out that her water had broken and that she was 4cm dialated.

We finally were moved to our labor and delivery room by 1PM where she finally got to stand back up and get back into her zone. We used several positions in the room as the contractions increased. We had some Enya music going and I would constantly watch the monitors telling her when the contractions were coming and when they were going away. Then by 3PM she was 8cm dialated and ready to start pushing.

If you have not picked it up by now, my wife was going through all of the pain and contractions completely un-medicated or more plainly stated, having a natural birth. Only 5% of births in the USA are un-medicated. She pushed for about an hour and then at 4:02PM on Sunday April 27th, 2008, Lydia Nicole Stegman was born of a natural birth.

My wife was amazing. She remained focused the whole time and never gave in to the pain. It was obviously the hardest thing that she had ever done in her life and I was right there with her every step of the way. Teamwork played a huge part of our success. I am so proud of her. The pictures below was taken literally minutes after birth. She looks so amazing and she looks so natural with our daughter in her arms.





Bottom Line - God gave us a miracle, Jessie delivered her naturally.

Flippity Flippinstein

I'm proud of Lydia. She flipped and now she is head down, no procedure needed. Let the countdown begin.

Bottom Line - God can move mountains and little babies.

Current Dilema

Bottom Line - Gotta get this baby turned the right way.