You are my baby, you will always be my baby, and yet you are very much not a baby any more. You can definitely do it (whatever it is) by yourself, even if it takes you all day. You have a determination that I can't even begin to fathom and with it you teach me patience on a daily basis. At the moment most of our battles are fought around how much you can get yourself dressed, I think you need a hand but you disagree! You are getting much, much better though.
You know what you like and you are very vocal about letting us know. You might be the smallest in the family (for now) but you make up for it with a hefty character every single day. You like all things Peppa (and are very good at singing the theme song complete with grunts) and you love dollies. I love to watch you shush your baby to sleep and take it for a walk in the pram. "Baby sad, Mummy, need cuddle".
You like to be a big girl, you don't want to sit in the pram, you want to walk. "I walk Mummy", sometimes I have time and we let you, you like to hold onto the pram like your sisters do. You're a big girl now, and I am coming to terms with that.
You are getting ever so good at talking just now, willing to give pretty much all words a bash and getting very good at making yourself understood. You are also excellent and making yourself heard over your sisters, a skill which I am sure will stand you in good stead for years to come.
You have a quiet side too, though. You enjoy sitting watching telly (Peppa) or reading a book. I love watching you figure all the things out. You are very clever darling. You are very good at observing.
You are wonderfully quirky, I laugh all the time at your antics, you are very good at coming up with things to do, even when those things are not necessarily obvious to the rest of us. Like the day you spent half an hour under Grandma's coffee table even though none of us could really work out what the appeal was!
When we go somewhere new you like to take a moment to stay with mummy and work out the lay of the land. It's very wise to work out what's going on before you rush into things, but you quickly work out what is where and what you want to do, at which point I don't get so much as a second glance. You are very confident and very able to hold your own when the situation requires. I have no doubt that when the baby comes next year that you will do a very able job of making sure that we don't forget about you (not that we ever would sweetheart, you are far too precious for that).
I am looking forward to seeing you be a big sister, you have a beautiful, caring quality and I look forward to you passing on any words of wisdom about being the littlest one. I expect you will get up to all kinds of mischief by being a big one and one of the little one all at the same time. I expect you will be a brilliant big sister, although I do feel a little bad for you that we have relegated you from the role of littlest. Sorry about that.
I love you baby girl, more than I ever thought I could. More than I ever realised I would. I love you from the very depths of my being to the very depths of yours. I am very excited for what the next year has in store as you start nursery, become a big sister, learn more "stuff" and learn about your place in the world. I pray that this year you will know more of who God is and that He loves you even more than me. You are so precious, Lydia. So, SO precious.
Because I am God, your personal God,The Holy of Israel, your Savior.I paid a huge price for you:all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in!That’s how much you mean to me!That’s how much I love you!I’d sell off the whole world to get you back,trade the creation just for you.
Isaiah 43:4 (The Message)
