Birthday Girl

I'm officially the proud mother of a four year old.  It's funny to think that I didn't even know Kylee a year and a half ago, and now she has completely stolen my heart.  I know she's not perfect, but I think she's pretty close.  Here's an example:

A couple months ago I was having a Young Women's Board Meeting at my house.  Matt was at work, so I had Kylee on my own.  Before the women came over for the meeting, I got Kylee in her pajamas and told her that the meeting would go past her bedtime, so when I told her it was 8:00 and time for bed, that she needed to go to the bathroom, say her prayers, and go to bed, and that I would come tuck her in after my meeting.  I wondered how this would go, since I had never had her go to bed on her own before... As 8:00 rolled around and I told Kylee it was bedtime, she responded with "Okay Mommy" and went to the bathroom, said her prayers, and got in bed all on her own.  Such a sweetheart.

Another example:  Kylee loves to give hugs.  She gives hugs to anyone she recognizes.  She especially loves giving hugs to the young women in our ward and the young women leaders.  Don't be startled if all of a sudden a little one has come up from behind and started hugging your leg.

For Kylee's birthday, we had a big family dinner - 15 of us in total.  It's fun that most of my family and most of Matt's family live close enough to celebrate with us.  After dinner we had cake (I loved that Matt made the cake on his own) and presents.  Kylee loved all the attention and was super excited to play with all her new toys.  She especially loved the singing Barbie that Grandma and Grandpa Nye gave her, and she has been carrying it around for the last two days, pushing the button to make the Barbie sing over and over again.

Just to close, I wanted to record a couple cute things Kylee has been saying lately:

"My bottom is dancing." - as she sits in her car seat "dancing" to music on the radio.

"I'm so proud that we live close enough to the church that we can walk." - she doesn't quite understand what the word "proud" means!

And she loves to say "I love you to infinity and beyond."  And if we ever say I love you to the moon and back or to the far far galaxy, she tells us that is "short"!

She calls any time she goes to bed a "nap".  She either takes a "short nap" (her daily nap) or a "long nap" (when she goes to bed at night).  I've tried to explain that it's only a nap when she sleeps during the day, but she continues to call sleeping at any time a nap!