Mother and daughter time

Gary spent the weekend helping his Dad with some home improvement projects so I got to spend an entire weekend with Lydia on my own!  I always have visions of being productive, organised and efficient with my time.  I've come to realise that spending time with Lydia is just that, even when we're just indoors staying away from the heat.  In 10 years time, I have a feeling that she won't want to sit on my lap, or hang out with me so much, or even consider me her 'friend'.  I'm okay with that, so I relish these moments where there is so much love and laughter between us.

She helped me with some of the household chores today - she helped me do the dishes (put them in the dishwasher haphazardly), she helped me with the laundry (flinging clothes on the bed and laughing really loudly) and when I dozed off and took a nap, she decorated the house with play doh supplies.  Nice!  We also started a weekend tradition of dancing like Peanut Gang maniacs in the front room.  Not that we don't already do this, but it seemed we were doing this all weekend.  We put the radio on and made up crazy dance moves.  The move of the weekend was JUMPING A LOT!  So when I got really tired (because toddlers can just do that FOREVER), we rolled all over the front room instead!

On Saturday, we had a playdate at the park.  This is where these gorgeous pics come from.  My friend has a great eye for those special moments - I love these types of photos!  They're just so real and capture such emotion.   

There's Lydia with a face full of banana!  On a somewhat related note, here's a memory that came to me the other day.  When I was younger, my Mum would peel oranges for us.  I hated peeling oranges.  To me, it just wasn't worth the work but I still ate them when my Mum peeled them.  This memory came to me the other day when I was peeling the umpteenth orange for me and Lydia to share together.  I still hate peeling oranges but I do it for Lydia.  It helps that the oranges taste good too!  Thanks for all of the oranges, Mum!

Lydia has a new fear of noises.  It actually started on July 4th.  We thought she'd love watching the fireworks this year, which she did from afar.  Once the fireworks started up right in front of our faces, we realised it wasn't the best idea we've ever had!  It wasn't so much the noises (as she has been next to cannons going off and not batted an eyelid) but the 'colours were too big'.  So now she associates the loud noise with that feeling of fear she had.  Fireworks, thunder, random cannon going off in Charleston harbour (Yes, really, just the other night when we were having dinner).  In this photo, she was scared of the sprinklers and how loud the splashing was at the time!

This new awareness of fear means her sleep routine has changed.  She's now insisting that we sit in the chair in her room whilst she falls asleep.  This process can take anywhere from an hour to two hours, usually involves listening to our lullaby Pandora station and listening to her whispering to herself and her stuffed friends for a while.  It's actually not bad other than not having time to do much else in the evenings, but I don't particularly care to do laundry, or unload the dishwasher, or spend time on stuff for work.  So when I get irritated about sitting in there and 'wasting' my time, I remember that one day she's going to wish she had locks on her bedroom door to keep me out!  Then I relax and cherish the moment.