Piggie Party!

 

One of the things I love about Lydia is how excited she gets about anything she's interested in.  Six months ago she decided that she wanted a house birthday cake. I'm not sure what brought that on, but we started looking for a cake that she'd approve of and she seemed pretty happy about it until the idea of a rainbow cake popped into her head.  This was before her cousin Simon's birthday and I'm convinced that her original design didn't look anything like the wonder Aunt Lizzie came up with.  We had drawn up some plans and she was really excited about all the pretty colors, but when she saw Simon's cake she fell in love with it and I knew I'd struggle to turn out an acceptable replica.  Good thing she suddenly wanted to be a pig farmer when she grew up because in planning out her life it is only natural that we get that started by celebrating her fourth birthday with pigs. Only natural.  It's also been decided that not only will she be a pig farmer, but Sophie will care for horses, Dad will take care of sheep and I'll be in charge of the cattle ranch.  Oh, and Mia will be watching over ducks.  She's thought of everything.  Again, why not start now?

I wish I could say that the day went super smoothly, but I created some hiccups that could have been avoided.  Note to self: don't make chicken pot pie on any future birthdays.  As far as the birthday girl was concerned, I think the day was a success and she was pretty oblivious to my stress level.  She got to play with Uncle Nate, fresh off his mission from the Netherlands, Aunt Abby, Uncle Derek and Aunt Jess that morning.  She also got to choose her bath color (pink, so appropriate) when I bathed her and Soph that afternoon.  And she started taking note that the birthday girl got to make more choices than perhaps she might get to make on any ordinary day.  She chose an episode of Sophia the First that she's rather fond of, much to Sophie's dismay.  Soph doesn't like trolls and this particular episode had several.  Being able to choose shouldn't be new to her, but when she heard "since you're the birthday girl, you get to choose what kind of fruit we get for lunch" her ears perked up and she chose to enjoy it!

Cake making and decorating went on for the better part of the day with Lydia helping here and there, and taste testing the pig cupcakes before the party started was essential. Partly I was worried that they were a baking disaster and partly Lydia had been incredibly patient in waiting to sample the pink marshmallows that would be used for the pig snouts and ears. Unfortunately, by the birthday girl's standards, the Pink Lemonade marshmallows were disgusting.  Bummer.  At least the cupcakes tasted yummy enough.  Even with the buttery buttery cream cheese frosting which was melting everywhere as Jon and I frosted them. Jon took over frosting the big pig cake while I decorated the cupcakes.  I love the textured look he came up with.  I also love that Sophie has called dibs on Aunt Cathy's cake pan for her giraffe birthday party next March.  Just in case you were wondering. Clearly birthdays are kind of a big deal at our house. :) 

Aunt Abby, Aunt Sarah and Milo arrived later that afternoon and the kids had a nail polish party.  Even Milo got into the action with his lovely painted toes.  We were able to enjoy dinner and had plenty of time to spare before guests started to arrive.  Aunt Amber lent her pig collection (something that Lydia has really enjoyed whenever she spends time with Aunt Amber and Uncle Isaac) to Lydia for the party and they really set the tone.  Besides loving the balloons, the girls each chose a favorite pig that became her buddy until the party really started.  We loved having so much family there to celebrate Lydia's special day.  Aunt Abby started spreading the word that it would be fun if everyone were to wear pink to this pig party, an idea she came up with when I told her the theme of the party.  I'll be honest, it was really fun to see all that pink!

When Lydia started opening her gifts it was pretty clear that she was not super excited about her new clothes (first gift opened) but after that I loved seeing the quiet excitement that is so characteristic of Lydia, especially around lots of people, radiate from her from that point on.  I loved the pig gifts from the Talbots, Stotts, and Isaac and Amber.  Lyds loves having her little collections and this pig family will be thoroughly enjoyed. When she opened Bolt from Grandma and Grandpa Frazier I thought she might raise that quiet excitement to a much more audible level, but she kept didn't and she really didn't let on just how thrilled she truly was.  I'd say the evening was a success with her blowing out her candle and playing in the backyard. 

I've loved her anticipation of this milestone.  Turning four meant that she really was becoming a big girl. She's been telling us for months that she'll no longer need to wear bibs.  She'll no longer need help when using the potty.  She's been very curious about how different she'll look when she's four as opposed to three. And though she hasn't outright stated it, apparently turning four meant that she is now in charge of changing Sophie's diapers...

Lydia is a joy.  I am so impressed with how fast she is!  And I tire watching her race from one end of our backyard to the other. Where does all her energy come from? She pretends to be Rainbow Dash from Ponies and flaps her wings at the same time. That's another thing I love about her.  Once she gets into character it's not easy to pull her back to reality.  She's determined to continue being a puppy, or a troll while Sophie is Sophia, or Pound Cake while Sophie is Pumpkin Cake, and I'm Pinkie Pie and should be chasing after them or Baby Snow White and Sophie is Princess Sleeping Beauty making food for Baby Snow White. She has a fabulous imagination and I love that about her!  She still loves books and I'd be lying if I didn't say that I love love love reading to her and Sophie before they go to sleep each night.  I did discover her imagination put to use in a way that gave me pause.  I'd fallen asleep a few weeks ago in the afternoon and when I woke up I was told not to go in the kitchen.  Unfortunately for Lydia it was laundry day and I needed to rotate the loads that had been going.  I explained this to her, walked into the kitchen and discovered a river flowing (not literally) from one end of the hardwood floor to the other.  She'd wanted to make a river for her duck Ralph.  So creative. So her.  She's a do it yourself kind of girl and yet so not okay!  The nice thing about her escapades that day is that we were compelled to clean a floor that had been needing a cleaning for days. She loves water and I'm so glad that it's summer because being outside and getting wet isn't a problem.

This little lady has one heck of a memory too.  She's been talking about her missing papa pig (one that she got for her second birthday) for ages.  He disappeared over a year ago.  And then there's her missing black dog.  Also disappeared about a year ago.  We're not sure we'll ever hear the end of that one.  Jon had a great idea to get her some little dogs for her birthday.  The hope was that they'd replace her little black dog and she'd be able to let him go.  She loves them (it nearly broke her heart to give one set to her classmates the day they celebrated her birthday at school.  She didn't know she'd get to keep her own set on her birthday) and has made little families out of them- the Dalmatians, the hot dog dogs, among others, but she still talks about the little black dog.  The other day she brought up the bad spirit at the Utah game while she had a baby sitter.  What?!  I was so confused.  Then I remembered the game that was around Halloween and how costumes were encouraged.  Someone dressed up as what appeared to be a Dementor.  She was an evil spirit.  I vaguely remember trying to explain that to her and that was her take away. Halloween was months ago!  This was the first time I remember her bringing that one up.

Recently my favorite thing with her is our conversations.  I'd been at Young Women's one night and the next day she started talking about Joseph Smith losing his leg.  Jon had started reading the Doctrine and Covenants with the girls the previous night and they'd learned about him getting the marrow cut out of his bone.  It's been interesting, again, to better understand her take on things.  She also talks about what it's going to be like to return to Heavenly Father and how she doesn't want to make Lucifer happy by making mistakes. When she grows up she's going to have a dog.  She can't wait to learn to drive.  She'll eventually grow to be too big to fit in our house or our car.  She wants to be a mommy and hopes that her kids like her cooking.  Love that!  Can't imagine why that's a concern for her. ;)
 
I know that Sophie being born totally rocked her world.  I love that though the two of them have their moments, they're also really cute when they play together and I love hearing their conversations.  Before Sophie could talk Lydia would try so hard to keep her happy and ask her questions she could answer.  Now that Sophie is a chatterbox she doesn't need to do that anymore and they really are sweet with each other.  For the most part anyway.  I think she really is excited about Mia and I hope that her excitement helps Sophie transition to being a big sis more easily than it was for her.  Sophie definitely goes off of Lydia's leads and we saw that the other day (more on that in another upcoming post) when we took them to Lagoon for the first time.  Both girls are talking about sharing things with Mia and Lydia talks about what she thinks her favorite color will be and who she's going to look like, her eye color and hair.

She suddenly seems so grown up to me.  She's gained this confidence that I think we all want in our kids.  She turns and makes sure she can see us if she isn't super close, but she no longer has to be by our sides.  We went to a park near our home and she was running around holding hands with two of her classmates from school.  Love that. I couldn't believe how fearless she was at Lagoon, or how eager she was to jump into the spraying water at splash pads.  The splash pads aren't so surprising with her love of water, but doing it on her own definitely is.  Oh.  And she has taken it upon herself to become my personal hairstylist.  She came up with this crazy awesome do the other day.  I regret not capturing it on camera. She loves to help me cook, but what I love more than almost anything is that when Jon asks Sophie if she wants to snuggle with him on movie night and she says no, Lydia always tells him that he can snuggle with her.  I love how sensitive and reassuring she is.  I know she prefers it when people are happy, but finding a way to help make things better is really impressive.  Like I said, so grown up!

We love our Lydia!  She was singing "I hope they call me on a mission" in the bathtub the other day.  And I hope they do call her on a mission one day!  She'd be fabulous!  "Whenever I think about Pioneers" is her primary song choice each night after we read scriptures.  She adds so much to our family and I love that about her!