Yesterday marked what I thought was a milestone--Lydia's first birthday party for a friend whose parents are not family friends of ours. Lydia spends every Tuesday with my parents, and one Tuesday, they took her to the wading pool near our old apartment. At the pool, Lydia began playing with another little girl named Marit. Lydia shared her kickboard, Marit shared her princess toys, and a friendship was born. Since then, my mom has organized several playdates with Marit's mom on Tuesdays, but we had yet to meet Marit or her parents. When Lydia was invited to celebrate Marit's 4th birthday, I was excited to finally connect with her family!
Lydia was SO excited about this birthday party. She started thinking about gifts immediately, and for once, we had our gifts purchased weeks in advance. This past week, she started planning her birthday party outfit, putting articles of clothing into a designated drawer. We knew she was excited, but we didn't realize just how important her outfit was to her until Wednesday night when she woke up crying due to a "bad dream." In the morning, we finally got her to tell us what happened in the bad dream, and we tried to stifle our smiles when she said, "In my dream, I went to my drawer to get my outfit for Marit's birthday party, and I couldn't find it!" Because Lyds was so enthusiastic about the outfit, I promised myself I would do as little "gentle redirecting" as possible, and I have to say, Lydia did pretty well. (The wings were put into place when we arrived at Marit's house.)
Lydia had a lot of fun at the party! Marit's parents, Peter and Katie, did a great job planning a party that was fun for the kids but didn't feel over the top. Lydia was so excited to see Marit and watch her open her gift. The only blip was when Lydia became upset that another boy was playing with the yarn we'd used to decorate the wrapped present. Some tears ensued, and then all was right again. I'm hoping that we will reconnect with Marit's family; they were very nice people, and Lydia LOVES her friend Marit!