Lydia and Star Wars love

Don't let this sweet little innocent face deceive you. She's not just into ponies and princesses. But we already know that, don't we? She's always been intrigued by the bad guys in any given story. Maleficent was probably the first scary character that really caught her attention. And now this little lady is intensely fascinated with Star Wars. It started just before Christmas when Star Wars The Force Awakens came out in theaters. The girls gave Jon a few Star Wars stories that became bedtime stories and then she started asking Jon to tell her Star Wars stories every time we were riding in the car long enough to hear a story. We used to tell mission stories, stories from our childhood and injury stories, (or the girls would tell us a story they made up) and we'd take turns telling them. The girls would request to hear the cobra story or when Jon got hurt on his mission playing basketball. These were quickly replaced with requests for how Anakin turned to the Dark Side, or what happened to Yoda. She said she knew that he died but she needed to know in which episode and how. And she'd ask "which episode did Darth Vader die in? Was it Return of the Jedi? Or The Empire Strikes Back?" Also, Jon found some Star Wars toys that he'd had when he was younger. A Darth Vader and Storm Trooper head full of tiny Star Wars characters that the girls thought were really cool. They really enjoyed opening them up and holding the Chewy or Han Solo or Leia.

I'm not sure if her interest started at home or at school, but she'd come home from school full of Star Wars talk. It seemed to be all the kids wanted to talk about. She told us that she was telling her classmates about Boba Fett and how he's real in Star Wars, but not in real life. She said that the other kids didn't believe her. One day their teacher gave them Star Wars crackers for snack time and the kids were yelling to each other, "don't eat Princess Leia!" I'm sure that's not all they talk about, but it sure sounds like it! And I'm quite confident when I say that she knows EVERYONE from Star Wars. She could jump in a discussion with the biggest Star Wars nerds out there. And keep up with them. Did I mention that she also knows the names of the planes and planets? Yah... She does. One of the books referred to Vespin as Cloud City. When I read that to her she said, "not Cloud City! Vespin!" And then let me know that Lando lived there. Duh Mom!

And it's not just Lyds. Soph surprised me and Uncle Tophe one day when she said, "I can't remember his name but the man who was frozen in carbonite...Who is he?" and then assigning us to planets another day. "You live on Tatooine, and you and you!" I've heard her say "I love Princess Leia, and Queen Amadala and Rey." Even though she's also confessed to thinking Star Wars is disgusting.

Both girls love pushing all the buttons on one of the Christmas books they gave to Jon. I actually really got a kick out of watching them take turns pushing the buttons and discussing what they knew about the movies. Jon's mom made this great Star Wars blanket for him when he was little that he still has. Lyds always asked to be wrapped up in it for movie night. And bedtime books went from Corduroy, Pinkalicious and Dr. Seuss stories to A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. It's all been really fun. Even her Darth Vader breathing attempts are fairly convincing. Unfortunately there's a downside to all this Star Wars business. Nightmares. So, to help her out Jon packed up all the books, the toys and even the blanket. We decided it might be best for everyone if we took a break from the goodness that is Star Wars. At least for a little while.

Aside from Star Wars there are some things I don't want to forget about what Lydia is like right now anytime soon. She always brings a stowaway in her backpack to school each day. And each day it's a different stowaway. Her teacher loves her. She says she's the calm in the storm of active boys she gets to teach. And she also thinks of her as a bit of an old soul. Something I've never really considered before now, but can definitely see. And I love it. She's great at explaining things simply to Sophie, but sounds so grown up doing it. Sometimes she requests that I do her hair certain ways. Often it's a ponytail. Sometimes it's a braid. A few weeks ago she asked for a pointy up. I had no idea what that was, so she explained to  me that it was a ponytail with two elastics around it so that the hair stuck up a bit more than if there was just one. The elastics sit side by side, not around each other. I did my best and when I asked her where the idea for that came from she told me that it was from an illustration she'd seen in one of the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books Isaac and Amber gave us for Christmas. Her writing is impressive. She's figuring out how to spell things by sounding them out and her reading s coming along little by little. She loves being outside and working with her dad, and she often thanks Heavenly Father for our prayer chart.

She still knows who she's going to marry. Gabe. That hasn't changed, but there's a boy in her class (Cody) who has confessed to both Lydia and his mother that he loves her. He plans to take her on her first date when they turn 16. I think it's adorable.

She excitedly tells us about school. She loves her primary teachers (one of them is Cody's dad) and animatedly tells us the stories they tell her at church. She requests a dessert after each meal. She has different play sets. Her collection of dogs has become a play set. Her farm and farm toys have become a play set. I believe she even has a dinosaur play set. They studied dinosaurs last week at school and she rounded up a bunch of little dinosaurs we brought home from Thanksgiving Point a few years ago. 

She's also an artist and made this day and night picture. One side was colored to look like daytime and the other side like nighttime. Each morning she makes sure that the daytime picture is showing and right before we read scriptures and pray she turns the paper around so that we get to enjoy her illustration of the night. Love.

 

Also, we're thrilled that as of today she will officially be in Spanish Immersion starting in July when Kindergarten starts. She's so excited! We're all excited! And I'm especially excited for her to learn actual Spanish. She's told me some foreign sounding words that she claims are Spanish and then tells me their translations. Between you and me, they aren't really Spanish. I love her enthusiasm and look forward to more adventures with little miss Lydia.