Happy Birthday, Lydia!

I'll put more pictures into the next post which will describe more of what we did to celebrate Lydia's birthday and her Princess Birthday Party that will be happening on Saturday. But I just had to get her 3 year letter up before I waited for all of that to happen :).

Dear Lydia,

Happy Birthday! Are you really 3 years old?! Time has flown by! And you have certainly grown! You are a beautiful, strong, opinionated, and compassionate young lady. A born leader. And yet you are still my sweet little angel. You still love to cuddle up with me and watch a movie or read a book. I sure hope that this continues forever!

This year has brought so many wonderful things, and also some challenging. You are finally through the "terrible two's" and it shows. You've never had the throw yourself on the floor type of tantrums. And for that I am grateful. But during the times that you were incredibly moody and stubborn, we had our fair share of time outs.

A wonderful accomplishment from this year is that you are fully potty trained! We have taken several long road trips now and you can last for a long time in the car and give us ample warning when we need to make a quick break.

However, one of your more amazing accomplishments is that you have both the 1st and 2nd Articles of Faith memorized! And you are well on your way to learning the 3rd. You are so incredibly smart! I am constantly amazed at the things that you remember! (Though, sometimes this bites me back later!) Today we went to your dentist appointment and you asked if they had bunny glasses (you got some at your last appointment). I thought that you had long forgotten about them because I threw them away almost as quickly as you got them, but apparently I was wrong.

This year you have also started attending a Joy School with several of the other kids at church. This is one of the highlights of your week! You are so proud to put on your backpack, take your lunch and leave home for a few hours! I'm also surprised that you love having school at our house when its our turn! This may have some credit due to the fact that when its at your house then you get to lead the Pledge of Allegience and do the weather chart.

You are also a great big sister! You love taking care of Hannah and playing with her. I love watching y'all interact together. However, I am also reminded that with the fun of having a sister comes the sibling rivalry. One day during nap time I could hear you yelling at Hannah. Upon inquiry, I saw Hannah sitting in her crib smiling at you. You, however, were incredibly angry and yelled, "She won't stop looking at me!!!" It was very hard for me to suppress my laughter. Most of the time though, you love it when Hannah plays with you. If I put Hannah into her crib and you are in your bed, Hannah immediately crawls over to play with you. She truly admires you and looks up to everything you do. I know that y'alls friendship is only in the beginning stages and I'm excited to see it grow.

Lydia, I love so many things about you! I can hardly begin to describe it. Your favorite color is pink, you love everything princess (particularly Cinderella), you love getting your hair done every morning (complete with hair bow), you dress yourself every morning (and actually match pretty well most the time), recently your favorite toy is the doll house you got for your birthday, but you also love playing with your kitchen (you constantly cook me delicious dishes!), your wood dolls, play doh and your babies. Your best friends are Miyah and Callie. Unfortunately Callie has moved to Ohio and Florida in the last 9 months and your haven't been able to see her. However, no matter how I try to tell you that you can have more than just those 2 friends, you are very insistent. You will not betray their friendship. Sigh. You had a blast staying at all of the "holy tales" (hotels) on our long road trip the last couple of months. You are still very attached to your "Pooh" cuddly. You don't like using pillows. You dance whenever you hear music. You get a high pitched voice whenever you play with your barbies. You made your barbies pretend to go to church yesterday. So cute! Your favorite food is macaroni and cheese and chocolate. You still beg for your sippy of milk both morning and night. You love cuddling up to a good book. You give the best hugs and kisses. You have already turned into a back seat driver (you yell at me to stop when the red light is still 1/4 mile ahead of us! Maybe I shouldn't have taught you that red means stop.) You love exercising with me. I take you in the jogger most of the way and then let you run with me the last block. You are pretty fast! You love going to "Chik a flay" (Chick fil a: probably because they have great play places). Every morning you come into my room to wake me up by telling me that the sun is awake (as if that is a good excuse for you to be awake too) and then proceed to Daddy's side of the bed to give him his "Sleeping Beauty kiss". You are incredibly ticklish most everywhere. You identify cereal by the character on the box and not the name of it, even if it is no longer in the box (Cheerios is the "bee cereal" even if it's not Honey Nut, Fruit Loops is the "bird cereal", etc.). You enjoy watching Dr. Who and Fineas and Ferb with Daddy. Daddy caught you singing "I love you, Dr. Who" the other day. This made him very proud (though didn't quite please me). You love helping me with whatever I'm doing, whether it is cleaning, cooking, making something, or just hanging out. You get so excited for me or Daddy to play with you with your toys. And I love playing with you too and watching you grow.

I love you, sweet girl. I could go on forever describing things that you like and do. But, I think that the most important thing is that you know how much I love and treasure these sweet moments with you. You are the reason I push through the hard days and can smile even when times seem bad. You are my sunshine! Keep shining on sweet girl!

Love,
Momma