Lydia Carol at Four!

Lydia is four years old now and I cannot believe it! She is a very confident, social, vibrant, passionate, energetic, loud, silly, brave, smart, daring and darling little girl. She has matured an incredible amount this year! I will have to admit that I am thrilled to be done with her third year. It was a year of much change for this sweet little package and she handled it as best a three year old could! First she had to adjust and transition to a tiny little apartment from a large home of our own, her momma was still in school and her daddy worked full time. Then she had to adjust to a new little brother, and a huge move across the country, into another new home. In addition to a new home, there were the adjustments to climate, living with Grandma and Grandpa, and leaving her friends. It was difficult for myself, a grown woman to handle, let alone a girl of her age and size. She is definitely more mature than her age gives her credit for.

Lydia is energetic. Some of her favorite things to do are run (even in the rain), dance, do jumping jacks (which she is very good at and very proud of), climb, jump, and do cartwheels.

Lydia has one of the most adorable smiles I have ever seen (..and she doesn't normally stick her tongue out when she smiles...). Some things that make her smile are treats, Miles, pretty dresses and shoes, learning letters, playing the piano (she recently learned Mary Had a Little Lamb), beautiful sunsets, and making friends.

She loves to learn, discover, and explore. She finds shiny, sparkly rocks wherever we go declaring they are quartz and if broken open they would be shiny shiny. One of her favorite things to do in the yard this past year was collect acorns. For some reason she was fascinated with them. When doing the laundry, I would often find acorns stashed in her pockets. Grandpa has been doing renovation work on the stairs and floors. Just the other day I emptied some of his wood shavings from Lydia's jewelry box. She claimed they were seashells.

Lydia is always looking for an opportunity to be silly and to get in a good laugh. She, like most kids, gets a kick out of the simplest things and has an adorable contagious giggle. My favorites of her silliness is when she is dancing around in her underwear usually before bath time. She is just so silly and cute that I don't know where she comes up with some of her ways. She is ticklish under her arms, on her collar bones, and on her thighs. 

I fear we may need to chain this girl down in the near future. She can be a WiLd one and she lives for a good time! In the car, she wants the music LOUD, and she cheers, dances and rocks out with her daddy to some good old Guster or Mumford and Sons or whatever Dad puts on over the speakers. She LOVES parties and will make a "party" out of almost anything. Today, we had a "real" picnic with some of her dishes from her play kitchen where I actually filled her teapot with water, used her little goblet cups and we actually had real fruit snacks on our plates. She was thrilled! (sometimes, I'm cool....haha) She told me before she went to bed that she wanted to that "15 more times!"

She is always commenting on the beauty around her. She'll say, "Oh! This is so beautiful!" or "This is AMAZING!" She appreciates the smells in the air and the clouds in the sky. She is a very observant little one and lives life to the fullest!

I just love her to pieces! She tells me often that she, "loves me twenty five six!" as if it is as big of love as she can think of. :) So, Lydia, I love you Twenty Five Seven!

We have started up again on trying to break the habit of thumb sucking. She has gone three nights now of falling asleep with no little lamb or sucking her thumb! Good job Lydia!