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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Our "big girl"

Lydia is 2 ½ Years old

WHOA! Over the past few months Lydia has certainly developed from a “toddler” to a “little girl”… The primary turning point in this process was the day we “said goodbye to diapers.” During one of Mark’s 3-day weekends we did a “potty-training boot camp.” After lots of juice boxes, lots of wet pants, and lots of running to the potty, (and lots of stress and patience and perseverance on the part of mommy and daddy) she finally got it! Of course, we have “good” and “bad” days, but we have officially kissed diapers goodbye (good riddance!).

She also got her first real haircut (I know, it's about time!)


Lydia went to her first "big girl" birthday party: that of our dear friend, Riley, who turned 5. It was, obviously, a "princess" theme. All the girls had a blast and I simply couldn't believe my beautiful little girl among all these lovely big girls. They were so nice including her and making her feel special.


Quite a crew, huh? Can't believe our babies are now KIDS! [Ava, Riley, Luke, Owen, & Lydia]


Lydia has much more fun with mommy's photo shoots than Tobias does




St. Patty's self-portraits using "Photobooth" FUN!



Playing ball with daddy - you can see her intensity and energy in these photos. :)



Each day she seems to grasp in greater depth how the world works. For example, she’s into describing who is in her “family.” The members include “Mommy, Daddy, Toby, Guinness, and Blooper.” Yes, her doll, “Blooper” is a part of our family. Blooper has a life of her own (which is strikingly similar to the happenings in Lydia’s life). She takes a nap, goes to time out, eats lunch, pees on the potty (“Blooper does NOT pee in her underwear.”), gets spanked because she “didn’t listen”, plays with toys, goes to church. Blooper has feelings: she “likes” and “doesn’t like” many things, she gets sad and happy and tired. What a beautiful imagination our dear Lydia has. One day she explained to Mark, “I am mommy’s Blooper.” Quite insightful.

Her sense of time is developing too. Every morning she asks, “Where are we going today, mommy?” “Are we going to Bible study or school or church or exercise?” Then she’ll say, “I go to school on Mondays. Miss Chris will not be there. (Miss Chris only works on Wednesdays) but Miss Joy will be there.” When I pick her up from school she will recount the day, “Tillie was sick. We played with balls, we painted, I peed in the potty. Where are we going now, mommy? To the bank for a sticker?” (Don’t I wish every Mon & Wed I had money to deposit in the bank!) As you can tell, she thrives on the structure and experiences of her school days and loves those afternoons with mommy & Tobias.

Speaking of, Lydia is incredibly sweet with Tobias. When she first sees him in the morning, she declares, “We missed you, Tobias!” She even talks in the sing-songy “babytalk” voice which gets him every time. Now that he’s showing interest in grabbing things, we’re working on her not stealing them out of his hands – sharing on the most basic level. He has an eye for her cup and snack cups – as soon as he’s mobile I fear she will be fighting for her food.

When Lydia gets a cold, the first sign is watery eyes. As she was doing her morning potty time she said, “Mommy, my eyes are raining.”

Last week I was expressing frustration about forgetting an item I had planned to put on the grocery list. Seeing my distress, Lydia responded, “Mommy, wanna say a little prayer?” Of course!!! How beautiful that my 2 ½ year old daughter’s response to difficult situations is to turn to the Lord. And what a reminder that He is in every detail… So, we stopped our meal and prayed. Sure enough, moments later I remembered “plastic spoons”, put them on the list, and was able to show Lydia how God answers when we call on Him. Great is Thy faithfulness!

Lydia is totally into making up words. It’s hilarious to hear her “read” a Dr. Suess book (which has lots of made up words anyway) – it’s a comment about the picture on the page followed by rhyming jibberish.

Reading with daddy and Toby


One evening as Lydie and I were snuggled up reading a book, mid-sentence Lydia looked up at me and declared, “You’re a good mommy.” How sweet are these random affirmations – they make every trial, every frustration, every hour of missed sleep, every moment of overwhelming stress just melt away…

3 comments:

The Dortenzos said...

UMMMMM........nice post but you aged my child by a year--don't make her 6 yet OK love???? :)! 5 was hard enough!!!!

Tina said...

Love it! She is such a sweet little girl :) Cute that Tillee got a shot out ;-) I'm delighted to stumble across your blog :)

digital future said...

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