Lydia Sings the Months of The Year- Age 3.wmv

Brownies Fall 2010

Lydia is enjoying her Brownies Troop. Above, they had an American Girl Doll event at a house on Fleming Rd. in Greensboro.


One day, Lydia studied my wedding ring and asked if it is a crystal. I said that it's a diamond. She asked me how much it cost. I asked what her guess might be. She said $5. When I looked surprised, she raised her estimate to $10. When I said that most diamonds cost more than $100, she clapped both hands over her mouth in surprise.

Lydia Fall 2010

Lydia has exchanged only a few emails in her 8 years. Her first email was sent to her friend Caroline T. Today, she asked if she may send a message to her teacher who had gone home sick. I agreed and the message she wrote touched me:

Subject: love you
Message: I really missed you today.I hope you can come back tomarow.I LOVE YOU and i hope you feel better.
Lydia

I'll summarize her teacher's reply here:

Lydia,

I am feeling better and I should be at school tomorrow. I missed you too!

Thanks for your note.

Mrs. L.

That is sweet. Honestly, we've had one great teacher after another in our public school system.

Photo of Lydia with her buddy from school, gymnastics, and Brownies at their school's 50th Anniversary celebration.

Church Baptism

The Bishops prayed for Jen, Ross, and Lydia as we were baptized. Bethany shot some video for us, too. The kids were calm, confident in their faith decisions. Pastors: Will Dungee and Marshall Benbow.

Brownie Cookie Sales

Lydia has so greatly enjoyed he first year as a Brownie. Here is a pic of Lydia at her first public cookie sale (at our local grocery store). Trying to get me to hurry, she asked me to "Pick up the paste (sic)".

Dot Pen, Pets, Etc.

Ross accidentally broke my favorite polka-dot pen. Seeing this, Lydia slipped away. She found me 5 minutes later and handed me a pen that she had wrapped with paper, punched-out shapes and tape. I'll keep it forever. That girl has such a big heart for the hurting!

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Random stories:
Overheard snippet: Russell to Daddy "No I don't want to. YOU can go to bed." and later "No I don't want to. YOU can go potty... I went potty last weekend!"

Ross desperately wants a pet (remember the old story about how he asked to keep a dry, flat grasshopper? Poor guy! Now he's got a container of fireflies- out on the deck.

Russell was the victim of a misunderstanding... Russell: I don't like this TV show. Lydia: Me neither. Russell: I not a 'mean-ie'! You a 'mean-ie'!

Russell refused to apply hand sanitizing gel. When I asked, "Why?" (thinking it might have hurt a previous cut) he corrected me, offering the real reason for his objection: "Because it makes my thumb taste bad!"

Russell and Austin, Baseball, Elmo Event, Lydia's Diagrams

Three-year-old buddies Russell and Austin ask to play together daily. They plan to grow up and play professional baseball together. We'll be there cheering for 'em! Below, they got a chance to run the bases together following a Grasshoppers game.

Austin sits with his parents, Jenny and Glenn (J.T.'s co-worker).

Daniel, Ross, Tyler, Lydia and Gracie (friends from our local school).

Lydia likes to write things down and draw diagrams. Above, she decided to write a "To do" list on the white board in her bedroom. Items include: Make bed, do homework, do piano, do clothes, go to soccer (Tues. and Thurs.), eat food, and watch T.V.

How did Lydia respond when J.T. declined to cut up a peach for her, saying that he doesn't eat peaches and doesn't know how to cut them up? She reappeared with this note for J.T. (it's a top-down view of a peach).

Spring 2009 Photos and Quotes. Easter trip to WV, Meeting Skye McCain

For Easter, we continued our tradition of spending Spring Break with my parents in WV. The highlight of the trip was getting to meet my brother's new baby, Skye. She is beautiful and our nephew (now 3) is, of course, a fabulous Big Brother.

Lydia wrote this journal page about our trip. It begins, "Soon I am going to my..."

Here are a few other stories:

Russell (3) to Lydia (7): Your bedroom door is locked. I did it because there were mons-ers in there.

Russell called the store's 'elevator' an 'allivator' (sounds like alligator).

Russell walked up to me while I was checking e-mail and said, "I need to do some things on the re-puter. Do you have any Spiderman.com on there? "But how do you get P-iderman to fly? What if he runs out of battery?"

Lydia (7) was bargaining with me about a crucial girly party she might miss due to a trip: "Mom, I'd want you to make it up to me like you did that time you took us out for ice cream. The trip (itself) won't work. Shoes would work."

Lydia is pretty dramatic. For example, asking her to pick up her socks might lead to this cry: "I'm being tortured. TORTURED, I say!"

Lydia's 7th Birthday

The page with a bow in Lydia's baby book was artfully made by her Aunt Liz (Bishop).

Calm, well-organized group for approximately...

Two seconds.

Thanksgiving Performance and Trip

Lydia (front and center) performs a Harvest show with friends in their classroom.

Below, we traveled over the river and across the hills to Grandma and Grandpa's house overlooking Blacksburg. While en route, we called my Dad to check on his recovery from an infection that led to two hospitalizations this month. Russell is shown using my Bluetooth device. Dad is well on his way to a full recovery. :)