Lydia ~ 31 Months

Lydia's thirty-first month was busy, as are most of ours, it seems! We traveled to see her cousins, Savannah, Karolina and Marshall and her Uncle Paul and Aunt BJ in Rocky Mount. Aunt BJ had a beautiful surprise for Lydia - a new, handpainted learning table! Lydia loves to do "learning time," and now we have an official table! She loves to sit here and work on her letters, numbers, matching games, lacing cards, and coloring! Lydia continues to do really well with her memorization and recognition of letters and has begun to point them out to us! We are continually amazed to watch her learn. While visiting our family, we also attended a minor league baseball game and Lydia had a lot of fun with that (except for trying to be coaxed to sit with the mascot - a large catfish!)

Lydia is a happy, healthy and energetic little girl and we are so blessed by her! She is almost always a "sweet girl" as she calls herself and we try to remember to encourage her when she usu her manners (which we have been working on for a while) and obeys Daddy and Mommy quickly because obey (as she will tell you) means "right now." We are seeking to raise her in a way that pleases the Lord, because we know that not only is that what God desires, but it is also what is best for her!

Carolina Mudcats Minor League Baseball Game

Playing with Daddy...

Her new favorite thing to do - silly faces!

Coloring!

Lydia ~ 30 Months

Lydia ~ 30 Months

First Haircut!!

Washing the car with Daddy!

Loving the swing!

Beautiful Little Girl....

Thirty Months sounds like a strange way to explain the age of a child, but when doing a monthly update, it's the only way! Since one of the most special times for us was the celebration of Easter, and there is a separate post for that, I will just touch on some of the other things Lydia has enjoyed this month.

We have had a few days of unusually warm (for this time of year) weather, and Lydia was able to help Daddy wash the car. Since she LOVES to play in any kind of water, this was a special treat, rather than the chore it will most likely one day be! We were also able to make an early trip to the park, which is not usual in April! Since the "firsts" are getting much more scarce, the older Lydia gets, we did have one this month - FIRST HAIRCUT! I do realize that she is 2 1/2, but we have never cut her hair ... Mrs. Leah at our church cut Lydia's hair and sitting in Mommy's lap and a lollipop made her first haircut a total success! In addition, our little girl has mastered recognition of all of the upper case alphabet letters and numbers 1 - 10! We are so proud of her! As always, we are thankful that the Lord has allowed us the privilege of being Lydia's parents!

Celebrating Our Risen Lord ~ 2010

We trust that you had a Happy Easter! What a beautiful day and another opportunity to thank the Lord for His Sacrifice and for the promise of Life!
Lydia filling her Easter basket with eggs...

Coloring Eggs...

Enjoying the beautiful flowers with Daddy!

Blowing bubbles on the porch with Mommy!

Running to share a flower she had just picked!

Lydia ~ 29 Months

Wow! What a busy month! Lydia's 27th month began with a much needed get-away trip to Myrtle Beach for a few days. We were joined by PawPaw and Nana Anthony. We had a relaxing few days, although it was still pretty cool at the beach.
Daddy and Mommy also attended a marriage conference in Greensboro, NC, which meant a visit to PawPaw and Nana's for Lydia! She seemed to have a great time - especially with their new "train" table! Lydia is enthralled with "Thomas the Tank", so she has a blast with that!
Lydia's 29th month ended with her cousin Brittany's seventh birthday party. It was at an indoor fun house and Lydia had a blast on the slide and with the bowling game. The three story obstacle course ... well, not so much ... Mommy had to go to the rescue! :)
Lydia continues to learn and grow and has almost completely mastered her alphabet letter recognition. We are also working on memorizing Colossians 3:20, as we are trying to implement biblical obedience with our discipline. Lydia can spell her name (most of the time), and continues to enjoy coloring, books and a new activity (to us) - watercolors!! She has had a blast with that, and wants to carry her clean paint brush all over our home! We are thankful for our family and that God has allowed us to be parents to this amazing little girl!

Blowing bubbles on the beach with PawPaw

Catching bubbles with Daddy

Just couldn't resist!

The train table!

Loving the slide!

Bowling with cousins, Brittany and Jackon!

Lydia ~ 28 Months

Our little girl is 28 months old now! It is so amazing to watch how much she can learn and how quickly she truly does grow - almost before our eyes each day! Lydia had a rough few days this month with Croup, which turned into Bronchitis, but we are so very thankful that the Lord healed her little body and she did not have to be hospitalized for treatment. She was one sick little girl for several days, though. As with most children, that was very short lived and she is now back to her silly, fun-loving little self, and we are happy about that!

As you can see in the last post, Lydia also got to enjoy playing in the snow this month and she thoroughly enjoyed that! She also continues to enjoy reciting her numbers, letters, and likes to point out shapes, colors and letters that she recognizes. We are thankful that she enjoys learning and try to work with her every day. She is also completely enthralled with "Veggie Tales" right now and we know most of the songs by heart, and enjoy listening to Lydia try to quote bits from the movies at random times!

We were also thankful to celebrate Valentine's Day with our little sweetheart this month! When she discovered that her Sunday School teacher had a party planned for her class, she announced that they were having a birthday party for Valentine's Day! ha ha! :)

Valentine's Day ~ 2010
being silly with Daddy one morning...

taking the "say cheese" thing very literally these days... :)

Valentine's Day and Snow 2010

Our church on Saturday, February 13
the snow was just starting to fall and she was already loving it!

Daddy was "throwing" snow to her... :)

Our other daughter enjoying the snow...

Yep - she's eating it!

Happy Valentine's Day 2010!!

Well, after hopeful forecasts and several incidents of mostly frozen precipitation, we finally got some snow! Lydia LOVED playing outside in the snow, and even gave it a taste test (yuck!) Hopefully, she enjoyed the snow cream better and will just wait for that next time! :) This had to be the perfect snow storm for almost everyone, because by Sunday afternoon, you would have had a difficult time proving that we ever had inches of snow on the ground! This weekend, we also celebrated Valentine's Day! Mel surprised me with flowers at school (sold by the seniors for thier upcoming trip), but we are hoping to celebrate a little more next week when we go to the beach for a short family get-away!

Lydia ~ 27 Months

Well, month 27 for Lydia was pretty much covered in our Christmas pictures, and included a LOT of traveling, but these are a few pictures of some of her "treasures" from Christmas. Above, she is sitting on her new Dora trike from PawPaw and Nana Anthony ... and yes, she is sitting in our living room because we have had few days with temperatures even in the 40s! She loves all of the sounds and lights on her new bike! Lydia also got [well, got handed down] a new kitchen set! She loves to be in the kitchen when Mommy is cooking, so now she has her own set of utensils, stove, mixer, etc. - all of which she LOVES!

Lydia has continued to learn so many new things. She has pretty much mastered basic colors and shapes, but has really begun to recognize more and more alphabet letters! She can usually recognize at least 10 at this point and is starting to "draw" some letters, although they are often backwards (which we are told is normal for little ones just learning).

Daddy and Mommy both celebrated birthdays during Lydia's 27th month as well, but unfortunately, we left the camera at home when we went out of town to celebrate... hopefully all of the abundance of pics taken last month wil compensate! :) Of all of our gifts and blessings, our little gift from the Lord is our most special!