2-Year-Old Power!

 Lydia turned two!  I can't believe our little Liddybug, who was once small enough to curl her whole entire little body into the crook of my arm - too small to even open her eyes for weeks, is now our bouncy, bubbly, curly-topped two-year-old! She runs and climbs on everything.  She sings all the Primary songs even though she's not in primary.  She talks constantly but doesn't enunciate anything. Lydia is still really small for her age.  At her last doctor's appointment we also discovered she has a heart murmur which we'll need to keep an eye on. Other than that, Lydia is like any other two-year-old - feisty, opinionated, and on-the-move!  She'll sit quietly (by herself) on the couch looking at books forever but won't sit still for a second in church (with or without books). She hated nursery but has recently been going (and staying) happily.  A favorite game around here is asking her, "Lydia, do you want to go to nursery?" because no matter the time or day, her reaction is always the same. She scrunches up her face and yells at the top of her lungs, "No!" and then will wrinkle her eyebrows at you for the rest of the day.  She wants to do everything herself and everything Eliza does.  The other day she threw a fit because she wanted to wear underwear like Eliza.  The meltdown was solved when I finally let her wear Dora underwear over her diaper.  That's about how things roll around here.  Lydia is a handful.  But we love her and had so much fun celebrating her 2nd birthday with friends, presents, and a Dora cake.

We had a very thrown together spaghetti dinner since everyone was so anxious to get on with the cake and the presents. 

Lydia was confused about the whole thing - she kept wondering why I was taking so many pictures, why everyone was all of the sudden paying so much attention to her. . .

and worst of all, why I wouldn't let her have the Dora doll (which turned out, to her surprise - you'll see it on the video - to be a cake.)

A very pretty one.

Do you like her frosting sleeves?

Eliza loved the whole thing.  She was so jealous.

Here is Dora all lit up.

 Here's the video - so cute.

 Lydia had lots of help blowing out the candles.

And opening presents.

I love love love this picture - Isaac is more excited about these Dora bubbles than Lydia.

The most coveted gift was this purple light-up horse from Grandma.  Without fail, she always sends the best presents!

The McKay kids made cards for Lydia.  They were so cute.  This was our favorite!

Lydia loved them so much she carried them around for an entire day and signed her name on each one to make sure we all knew they belonged to her.

Our neighbors around the corner gave us this hand-me-down wagon and little red car.  It was perfect timing.  They made for awesome birthday presents!

Eliza was especially excited about Lydia's new presents.

Clayton has been getting quite the work-out since he is the one who always ends up toting the younger kids up and down and around our street.

We celebrated again after Conference with some more friends and chocolate cake.

Two birthday parties for everyone's favorite two-year-old!

We love you little Liddybug. . .

and all your 2-year-old power!

Happy birthday sweet girl.