The Beatys in Bolivia: Happy 4 Months, Lydia!

Our littlest, with a name that means "traveler", became a true traveler by the time she was 4 months!

I made a valiant effort to post this while on the trip, but I would get a good internet connection…and not have Jake’s memory card to get more pictures off of Lydia. Or it wasn’t a good connection. Or we’d get to a hotel very late. And be so tired! Or everyone would go to sleep and I couldn’t type.

But since it’s better late than never….

Our happy, happy baby!

Pictures made by the elephant before we left, one week before she actually turned 4 months.

August 9

At this point, even before turning 4 months, Miss Chubby-Chubs weighed 16 1/2 pounds (7 1/2 kilos), which means she's more than doubled her birth weight! That's a month sooner than Sophia did (and she weighed much less at birth) - so exciting! Tough on the arms, but exciting nonetheless. :)

After being lost since our move a year ago, we finally discovered the baby scale packing up for the next move!

The boys love Lydia, especially her fat rolls and cheery demeanor!

When she turned 3 months, we were in the deepest part of Bolivia winter. I had to squeeze her in this 3 month sized outfit for warmth!

She wore the bear hat until her head was just too big:

It was too cold for her to wear this outfit before outgrowing it, but I put her in it, remembering when Sophia wore it (a gift from a friend who visited Bolivia):

In her "fat pants", because they don't squeeze her like the rest... :)

In her pretty pink dress...

...with big sis, after church

...and skype chatting with Grandpa & Grandma B in Washington!

She LOVES her baths, kicking and splashing! I love how soundly she sleeps the next 12-14 hours (minus feeds) after them. :)

She already fills up the tub!!

On July 31, Jake and I had to take a day trip to Santa Cruz (another Bolivian city) for some paperwork. We needed to apply for Paraguayan visas for our trip, and went ahead and applied for an emergency passport for Lydia from the US Consulate. (After nearly 3 months post-application, we still didn't have her passport due to a shortage.)

And so, Lydia flew for the first time! Same as Sophia, a short 35 minute jaunt was her first flight. Perfect!

Sophia and Lydia did great!

Falling asleep on Mama in the Mei Tai

In the lobby of the US Consulate before going through security. We've now been in the US Embassy in La Paz, the former and current consulate set-up in Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz's consulate multiple times...

Our little cutie-patootie, waiting at the Paraguay Embassy in Santa Cruz.

Sophia and Lydia, enjoying the green grass under the Paraguayan flag

On the way back to Coch, Lydia attacking my snack box (which actually had nothing to do with TGIF, ha!)

Brother Joel put a Bolivian "aguayo" on Lydia's back (there's a little baby doll there)

In the Italian dress Sophia used several times! Lydia only fit in it once. (Guess who added the Nikes?!)

Mama and Baby

Wearing her "sweet as" shirt that was once Sophia's, from our kiwi midwife

Enjoying meeting Tia Savannah, who brought this sweet red, white, and blue dress from the US of A!

(blogger switching the picture, ugh...)

Such a cheery, happy, content baby!!!

I’ve mentioned before what I love so much about Lydia—how well she eats, sleeps, and grows big and strong!—but this month, I kept thinking about this: She’s such a sunny, happy, GOOD-NATURED baby! Just what our family needed!!

Lydia with Senora Lydia, the Godly mother of 5 I met at church many years ago

Even Jake, who is rarely impressed by baby antics, comments on how high Lydia holds her head up and how strong she is getting. I got out the camera too late to capture it this time, as she borrowed Sophia's crib for a bit.

She seems to have yet to get overstimulated. It's a rare thing for her to cry inconsolably. Two different evenings between 3 and 4 months, we gave her Hyland's colic tablets (homeopathic) and she IMMEDIATELY quieted and went to sleep and that was that. Uh...WOW! Jake asks how something so effective can be legal, ha!!

Happy Bolivia Day, August 6!!

She rarely falls asleep unswaddled, but Daddy rocked her to sleep this day while I was busy and I couldn't resist a picture

And then, on August 10, we embarked on our South American Road Trip ADVENTURE, and our days were lived out in the car:

Sophia and Lydia, hanging out on the floor of the car (yeah for matching dresses!!)

This was how we "swaddled" for naps in hot, humid weather!

One positive of the hot weather days was getting to dress the babies lightly and see their skin!

The family at the Butterfly Park in Santa Cruz - this is how Lydia rolled, napping in the Mei Tai and leaving the stroller for Sophia!

Chilling in the pool after watching butterflies, birds, turtles, a sloth.... So much fun!

Miss Blue Eyes in her sundress!

Happy to hang out in the stroller and chew her hands

At the Santa Cruz mission house we stayed at coming and going on our big road trip

Another car nap time picture. She was usually so sunny, even when woken by border crossings, police stops, insufferable heat, pot holes in the road...

And a few more pictures from our big travel day of August 16. How many times is one in THREE countries on ONE day, the very day one turns 4 months?! We traveled from Paraguay to Brazil to Argentina as the map gets crazy - TWO border crossings in one day!