Poof! Another year gone. And suddenly Lydia is six whopping years old. I would almost swear the years are going by faster.
Lydia is really a well-rounded kid. She’s my outgoing child, very athletic and eager to please. She is still very much a morning girl, rising with the sun. I recently invested in a new pair of blackout curtains for her room, since the sun — and Lydia — are currently rising at about 5:30 a.m.
She’s grown a lot, too. Though officially she just gained three inches from last year, it was a really big three inches. Over the course of a few days she suddenly grew out of about every pair of pants she owned. There has been a lot of clothes shopping in our house, and I don’t think I’m done yet. Last week I noticed her gymnastics outfits are not fitting well anymore.
The biggest news of the past year is Lydia’s first year of school. Not knowing what to expect at all, I left my job to homeschool her. Everything really went better than expected. Lydia’s favorite subject right now is math, believe it or not. She enjoys finding the patterns in the numbers and how they all connect together. Her handwriting is pretty good as well. We get a lot of practice in by writing letters to friends, family members, and the people that make Cheez-Its.
Reading is Lydia’s least favorite subject. She can do it, but it is still more work than just immersing herself in a story, so her passion for it isn’t there yet. Every kid learns differently, and I believe it will click more during this upcoming year. Perhaps soon I will be fussing at her not to read books at the dinner table.
The ‘school’ part of school did not take up much of the day at all, so the rest of the time was usually spent playing. After a month or so, we took Sam out of daycare as well, and the kids just play, play, play. They play inside, they play outside, they play at the park, they play in the grocery store despite my nagging. As a result, Sam and Lydia are probably the closest they’ve ever been — they work really well together.
During the last year we have both lost and gained family members. We lost our sweet Hermione last fall, but gained a new house kitty in the form of Watson. Lydia loves this cat to pieces, petting and snuggling on him whenever she gets a chance. Watson still has a lot of kitten in him, and Lydia takes great offense when Watson chases her around the house even though she was chasing him not two minutes earlier. She can dish it, but she really doesn’t like to take it.
The other new addition is a sweet little cousin in the form of Jonathan. Both kids are always glad to see ‘the baby’.
This winter we had the first really decent snow since Lydia was an infant. Both kids were enthralled by all the fluffy white stuff — though Sam didn’t like how cold it made his hands — and we played in the snow for a few days. It was incredibly cold all last winter, though now that it’s in the 90s and steamy outside I’m having trouble remembering how miserable it was. I think we all could use a little snow right about now.
After a long hiatus, a few trips were had this year. Lydia was finally able to experience a successful beach trip in September, then both kids went out of state for the first time when we went to visit Ken and Lisa in Louisville. Lydia can mark Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana off her list!
Just a few weeks ago, we had a big breakthrough in the swimming department. For years, even though both kids would swim all summer, they were very averse to sticking their face in the water. Well, Lydia finally gathered her courage and suddenly we have a deep water fish! We went from it’s-not-gonna-happen to oh-my-gosh-underwater-is-so-awesome in the span of about thirty minutes.
And so life speeds on. The kids are enjoying summer and I am in planning mode for the next year of school. I’m so excited — we’ll be doing science and history this year! I know Lydia will love science. She’s already a big animal person, loving on everyone’s dogs and always bringing me worms and insects. History is my own personal love, so maybe some of that will rub off on her.
. . . or maybe not.
Just smile for the camera, girl.
