Happy Birthday to my spunky monkey!

My baby isn’t so much of a baby anymore…  

I’m reminiscing a little, by looking through some of my favorite pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

These past four years have been the most energetic of my life but I wouldn’t want it any other way! She bring SO MUCH JOY to my life. In trying to determine the best adjective for her, I could only think of the word spunky. When I looked at the definition, courageous and determined, I am most certain this describes her best! Happy Birthday to my spunky Lay Lay. You have brought SO MUCH FUN to our lives. I feel so blessed that I was choosen to be your mama!

 

Doesn’t seem possible…

My first thought is that I’m not old enough to have a 3^rd grader, not that having one means you are old but it seems like yesterday she was looked like this...

 

Now she is this…

 

WOW! Watch out 3^rd grade, here comes my sweet Lydia!

She started school last week. She starts changing classes this year. Her homeroom teacher will teach 3 subjects and another teacher will teach 2. She was really nervous about having a man teacher. His class is right beside her class last year and she said that she knew he was mean because last year she could hear his voice through the walls!! But after meeting him last week, she admitted that he is “very nice and really funny”. She was really excited that a lot of her girl friends are in her class but kind of sad that not many of her boy friends…um, what?!! I was shocked to hear her say that and when she seen the look on my face, she tried to cover a little and said “not boyfriends, just boy… friends”! I chose not to mention this to her daddy! I’m sure she will have a great year. She has already come home telling us about the 7 continents and singing songs about Nouns and Pronouns. I’m thinking this might be the year where I have to Google a couple of things to help her with her homework!  

 

Sneaky (Sleepy) Layton

Years ago, this started happening…

 

Lydia would get up, in the middle of the night, and get into Layton's crib with her. It was sweet but I was scared that someone was going to get hurt, so at 15 months old, Layton moved into Lydia’s bed with her. They had plenty of room and both were super happy. And to be honest, it melted my heart seeing my girls cuddled up together at night!

So for 3 years, they have been sleeping together. Then about 6 months ago, Lydia started asking when Layton was going to start sleep in her own bed.  :(  So, we explained to Layton that she was going to have to start sleeping in her own bedroom. This did not go well! Layton has never really LOVED her room. Until recently she wouldn’t even play in there by herself. Sadly, that night we made her get in her bed by herself. She cried a LOT. After about 5 minutes, Lydia (crying herself!) came to us and said she wanted her back in her bed, that she couldn’t stand to hear her cry. So, back to Lydia’s bed she went!  

So over the course of the past several months, I have been talking to Layton about her room. Things have gotten much better. She is excited about her room and she has started playing in there a lot more. Three weeks ago she was helping me clean house. While we were cleaning, I rearranged my living room and she asked if we could rearrange her room too. Of course, I said yes. After we were done, she was so happy with how it was all arranged and said she was going to start sleeping in her bed. Sure enough, that night she slept in her bed all night!  She is doing ok, not great but not horrible! Some mornings, I find this… Lydia in Layton’s bed!

 

Some mornings, I find her in Lydia’s bed and some nights she comes and gets in bed with us! Most mornings I find toys, babies, etc. in bed with her. This means that after I tuck her in, she gets back up and plays. Some nights, we see her crawling through the hallway, on all fours, trying to sneak into another room. I do believe that she will get better with time, so I try not to fuss at her too much! But last night, we found this…

 

We put the girls to bed last night around 8:30. At 10:00, Lydia came into our room laughing. Lydia originally came our way to talk to us but when she got to our room, she found her little sister asleep on the floor by our back door, which is right outside our bedroom. I guess she was going to sneak into our room but got sleepy in the process! Poor thing, however I am proud to say that after I put her back to bed, she stayed in her bed all night!

Necklace with special powers...

I love this picture! Layton is bursting with happiness and Reece looks scared! 

You see this little girl’s necklace? It has special powers… it helps her talk to Reece. She has worn it for almost a week now, without taking it off and has had regular conversations with Reece. I am amazed at her imagination (a little worried, just kidding) and very happy for Reece because of all the attention she has gotten recently! To my surprise, Reece sings a LOT. Every once in a while, I will ask Layton what Reece has been saying and 99% of the time, she answers in song! Also, surprisingly she sings hip hop songs…who knew?

I love this little girls imagination. It grows more and more every day!

Laundry queen

Every once in a while, I tell Lydia to do the laundry on her own. She really enjoys laundry (NOT) but as I have told her, she might as well grunt & get over it! Laundry is something that we all have to do no matter how much we like dislike it. A few weeks ago, I told Lydia to do the laundry. When the washer went off Layton almost tripped Lydia to get to it. She wanted to do the laundry too! Lydia did not fight her on this! When I looked into the laundry room to see them at work, I saw this…

 

 

True definition of teamwork! Layton got into the washer, handed Lydia the clothes and Lydia put them into the dryer! I was amazed that Layton had it figured out beforehand. Apparently, she had thought about it. I tried VERY hard not to think about Layton's dirty feet on the clean clothes, instead I took advantage of the help!  

 

Layton has become my little laundry queen. I am a huge procrastinator with the laundry, always have been. I will wash & dry quickly but then let the clothes sit there for a few days without folding & putting up. I would rather do anything else in the world, other than laundry. This is a bad thing because my husband is the exact same way! He, like me, will wash & dry but that's it! Recently as soon as Layton hears the dryer ding, she's on me to go with her to get them out, fold them, put them up! And amazingly, I have  kept my laundry up! How is it that I can fixed two dinners in one night, vacuum the house, clean out car, etc all in one night and feel like I haven't accomplished much but when my laundry is all done feel like Superwoman?!