Finally Four

Lydia's been waiting for her birthday to arrive for quite some time. Ever since Christmas she has asked weekly if it's her birthday. Lucky for her, the day finally arrived. And it was a great day.

To start off we went and visited Dad at work, since the kids have never seen his new work before. They were spoiled with lots of treats and thought the world's largest lava lamps were pretty cool. 

Then we met up with my friend Brittany for lunch and let all our little munchkins play at the McDonalds play-place for hours while we gabbed. Lydia has been BEGGING to go to McDonalds to play and eat, but I hate going and sitting by myself. Luckily, Brittany was in the same situation and we were able to turn something dreaded into something fun!

Next was naps, and then the requested birthday dinner of mac & cheese and peas and then, of course, presents and cake!

Lydia requested Rainbow Chip cake and she picked out star sprinkles to go on top. Ever since she picked out the cake and toppings, she has been itching to make it and eat it!

You can probably tell by her face, but she was terrified of the fire at first.

But she overcame it real fast and blew out all the candles by herself, although Ammon was trying to help in the background.

This year Lydia requested barbies and an i-pad for her birthday. HA! An i-pad. That still cracks me up.

She did get one of her wishes, though, as she unwrapped her Cinderella Barbie.

She was pretty excited about ALL her presents. Although, she requested to play with her new Cinderella game from Grandma Becky first, and basically tore open the box to get to it...

I love that last picture of her, she's so beautiful. And all things girl. As she was putting on her socks this morning this was our conversation:

Lydia: I gotta put my ballet slippers on.
Me: Socks are ballet slippers now, huh?
Lydia: I'm a princess and all princesses wear ballet slippers. Well, except for Cinderella because she likes glass slippers.

I just love her imagination. She lives in her own world half the time and it's adorable. She also picks up on so many things, I'm constantly amazed. The other day I was letting her help me make pancakes and she said, "Lets stir together all the ingredients." And I looked at her in amazement and asked, "How do you know that word: ingredients?" She replied in a tone of impatience, "Sid the Science Kid."..."Oh, sorry." She has to keep track of the days and what's coming up in the week, asks what time it is constantly (although I have no idea why since the numbers are meaningless to her right now), and loves her family and friends so, so, so, SO much. And her sleep. She complains if I have to get her up early (which means seven-thirty, seriously girl, most kids are up and at it way before seven-thirty) "Uuuughh! I don't want to wake up early; I just want to sleep in!!"

I can't believe she's this big already. So far, I've always been excited to watch her grow and develop, and haven't really felt any sadness at her getting older and bigger. This birthday hit me hard, however, and I realize she's going to grow further and further from me from here on out. She's developing her own mind, and her own thoughts, and wants more independence (like when she groaned in exasperation when she found out I was substituting her primary class. Really, you're embarrassed by me already?). She's going to go to school in a year! Who's going to play with Ammon all day? He's going to miss her! I'm going to miss her! How can I watch her, and laugh at what she says all day long when she's gone from me? It's exciting to see her grow, but the sadness is finally hitting me. A part of growing means growing away from me and into her own self. I'm not ready yet.

But besides that sadness, I always have loved seeing her develop and achieve more and more and this year's interview shows some of that. If you want to compare with last year's birthday interview, find it here. Some of the answers are the same, and some are not. Happy Birthday Baby Girl, I love you!

Lydia's 4-Year Birthday Interview

1. What's your favorite song? Sleeping Beauty's "I Walked With You Once Upon a Dream" But I don't know the end of it.
2. What's your favorite thing to do with Mom? Play games with her.
3. What's your favorite thing to do with Dad? Play tag.
4. What's your favorite day of the week? Church Day, because I can wear dresses.
5. How old are you? Four
6. Who is your best friend? Kayleen
7. What's your favorite thing to do?  Play with Ammon
8. What's your favorite color? Purple
9. What's your favorite food? Pizza
10. What do you like to do with your family? Play games
11. What's your favorite toy? My princess computer
12. What do you want to be when you grow up? A mom
13. What makes you happy? Ammon when he does funny things.
14. What makes you sad? When someone hits or bites me.
15. What's your favorite show to watch? Tiger's Neighborhood (never heard of this show...ever...or know when she would have watched it)
16. What's your favorite book? Princess books
17. What do you like to learn about? Jesus
18. Where do you like to go? To dance class
19. What's the best part of your birthday? Cake
20. What's your favorite treat? M&M's
21. If you could meet someone famous who would it be? Rapunzel
22. What's your favorite movie? Beauty and the Beast
23. What's your favorite game to play? Tag
24. What sports do you like? Soccer and basketball
25. What do you like to wear? Dresses and Tutus
26. Who's your favorite princess? Tinkerbell. Well she's a fairy AND a princess...and she spins...and flies. What are boy fairies called? (Which I had no answer for)