Is It Naptime Yet

Dear Lilah,

I can’t believe you’re four. Or really when people ask how old you are you  just hold up four fingers.  I remember you being little and growing, but I still can’t believe you’re four!

You’re a wonderful daughter. You don’t always listen and you’re testing your strong will but you are almost always helpful towards your sister. At least when it comes to sharing food, getting dressed, and putting her down for naps. There are times that I remind you that you’re the sister and I’m the mother, because you often “mother” Eden.
You love to read. You’ll stop playing if I begin reading to Eden and hop onto the couch to be with us. You love to draw.  You love making up stories and talking on the phone.
Everyone loves saying hello to you, and you are often shy, but you’re coming out of your shell. You now say hi to complete strangers as long as I’m around. You love animals and can’t wait until we move to a bigger house so we can have one.
You ask a million questions about everything. Especially the movies we watch or the shows we see. You always ask questions when it’s time to eat. You love Mommy’s Oatmeal Squares, and I don’t mind sharing with you.

You’re a wonderful daughter. You remind me that I have to share you with Daddy and Eden when I ask you if I can have you forever. That’s true, but I’m sure I won’t mind sharing you as long as it’s for forever.
Happy Birthday.
Love,

Mommy

So Lilah day kinda started Friday night when we made her cake. But Saturday was the real adventure.
The moment she got up she started asking to go to Chuck E’ Cheese. We had to explain several times that it wasn’t open yet and we needed to wait so Lilah then started asking if we could go to “Carolyn’s house” and go swimming. (Carolyn wouldn’t it be sweet if the house really was yours and not your boss’s. 😉 ) Unfortunately she had to wait until we were all ready. Lilah dressed herself so instead of wearing the new shirt I bought her on sale at Target she wore a shirt that’s from Katy’s hand-me -downs. Oh well, at least I was able to dress Eden in her new shirt.
We left a little late and had to drop the cake off at the house and in the process we forgot our camera. We borrowed Carolyn’s camera and took pictures at the pool party, but there are none of Chuck E’ Cheese.
For Chuck E’ Cheese Kristi brought her three kids, Carolyn brought Dominick, a boy she nannied that’s just 6 months younger than my nephew Howie and my friend Anna came with her husband Kevin, whom she dragged a long.
Lilah got a crown and a balloon and had a good time. Lilah only wanted Mom or Dad with her though, so Anna took Eden and had fun.

Fun things about Chuck E’ Cheese.
Anna decided it would be fun for Eden to go up the big tube tunnel and go down the slide but Eden isn’t big enough to climb up into it, Lilah can barely do it on her own. So she would recruit kids to help Eden go up. Dominick and Howie helped her up one time and they then came straight down the slide. Then Howie wanted to go play but Dominick wanted to go back up. We asked if they’d be willing to take Eden back up and they said yes. Well Howie just went right in and started climbing up, Dominick was at the bottom yelling up, “You’ve got to help my Howie” referring to help him getting Eden up. (It was a team effort one would be on the higher step and the other would push her up.) So Howie came back down and helped. From below you could see the shadows of Howie going on ahead in the tunnel and Dominick guiding Eden to go places. It was really cute.
Lilah and Jon played air hockey and she was actually pretty good at hitting the puck. Lilah , Eden and me had a picture of us “drawn”. (Picture taken and then transferred to a drawing look by the computer.) Lilah spent most of her time with Jon so I’m not sure what all went on with her.
A few of us got hook on the wheel of fortune game. you get 1-4 ticket depending on where you stop the light, but the goal was to get a spin by stopping it at a blue light. I spent a lot of tokens on it to have a girl come up and get the spin on the first try! I think I was priming the machine. This game got Anna and Carolyn talking about how Chuck E’ Cheese encourages gambling.
Lilah wanted to go swimming but we stayed until 1:30 or so. Eden feel asleep on the way to the house for swimming, and was cranky the whole night. Well. not cranky but sensitive and any time you said no she got upset. We think she just woke up badly since she was in a strange house in a strange room.
Carolyn, Derek, Dominick and I went to Target while Eden slept and Lilah avoided a nap. Then we had Del Taco and people come for swimming. (The Kemple’s, Lee’s , Carolyn, Derek , Dominick and Grampa Harvey) The pool was very cool so I stayed in the spa with Eden and Lilah.
We then had cake and ice cream and Lilah got toys that her parents would never buy. That’s why we have Aunts right?
I think it’s more that we’d never think to buy them. One was moon sand, Dominick picked it out and wanted Lilah to share it with him.
Once we got home there was a gift from Katia and Isabell on our door step, two girls in our ward, and Lilah has had a ball playing with the doll and combing her hair.
It was a crazy day. Jon kept insisting that we would forget something, and we did forget the left over pizza, but that’s fine by me. Hopefully I’ll get the pictures from Carolyn eventually and I can post some.
It was lots of fun and Lilah day was a whole day event.
Eden day will be much lower key. One because we won’t have a pool to go too, two because she’s little.