Saturday, December 27, 2008

Earth Shattering Christmas....

Olivia's 2nd Christmas is officially in the books. She wasn't what I would call "interested" in opening presents but at least she was a mobile little participant in the festivities this year. We spent Christmas Eve at Babi and Didi's house and she absolutely loved leading her cousin, Lauren, around by the hand everywhere she went. Christmas morning we opened loads of presents and then it was off to Pop Pop and Bon Bon's house for Christmas night. There was yet another load of presents waiting for Olivia there. Can anyone say, "Spoiled"? And if she didn't already have enough things to play with and keep her busy until she was 10, Santa left his last stash of presents at our house for her to open on the 26th, including the ones that Nanny and Brian sent. After finishing this marathon of present opening, Olivia reminded us how little she really needs to be happy by going immediately to the kitchen and pulling out a pot and wooden spoon and plopping down on the floor to perform a lovely Christmas percussion piece. Oh well. She does thoroughly enjoy keeping busy in her new walk-in kitchen that Babi and Didi got her though. She looks like she has her own little cooking show going on as she fries up peas, salts her hotdog and looks through the refrigerator for something else to throw in the microwave. She already knows that a woman's work is never done.

Now, I'd love to say that all that made the last couple of days the most memorable in our parental lives thus far. However, we had one more, let's just say interesting, thing happen. In her baby book, I now have to find a place to write in "First Earthquake....Dec 27, 2008". Yes, you read that correctly. A little past midnight, right after Mike and I had gone to bed, we felt the house shake and heard what sounded like an explosion. Everything BUT an earthquake ran through our heads...Did the furnace explode? Did the new wood burning stove cause an explosion in the chimney? Did a huge tree fall on the house? Mike did some exploring to find the cause of the shake but it wasn't until I called 911 that we learned that it was an earthquake measuring 3.4 on the Richter Scale. So what did Olivia think of all of this middle of the night excitement? "Eh, wake me up in the morning when my breakfast is ready."

It was definitely a most memorable Christmas!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

December Fun!

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to be able to share fun stories and pictures of Olivia with you this way. It has been so much fun preparing for Christmas. I think Olivia was a little overwhelmed at first by everything that was added to her normal playing spaces. She didn't know quite how to take it but she quickly warmed up to things like the Nutcracker that stands by the fireplace and the Santa that stands next to the TV. She likes to hang things (necklaces, ornaments, etc.) on the Nutcracker and likes to pet Santa's beard. When asked, "What does Santa do?", she tells you, with perfect intonation and perfectly shaped mouth, "Ho, ho, ho!" The Christmas tree continues to create some challenges. We have some ornaments that have been designated "Olivia's play ornaments" but for some reason, the other, pretty, sparkly ones seem to call her name. Oh well. She has only broken 3 and 2 of those were under Babi's watch so I'm blaming Babi for those.

We went to see Santa at the mall and we prepared ourselves for the worst. However, we were pleasantly surprised that no tears were shed. She did stop dead in her tracks as we led her up to him. But after I pet him a little like she does with her Santa at home, she was willing to give it a try. She sat cautiously on his lap, we snapped 2 quick pictures and then considered it a successful first trip to visit Santa.

We recently had a visit from Olivia's Godmother, Nicole, and Diana. Diana is getting married in August and, much to my delight, she asked Olivia to be her flower girl. We are SO excited for that. We are going to start practicing immediately. She does like to pluck petals off of flowers so I don't think she'll have any problem with her duties.

Generally speaking, Olivia is doing SO well. She is happy all of the time. She runs around the house and sings non-stop. You can tell that she wants to talk so badly but so far we just hear "No", "Oh no" and various animal sounds. She loves to be silly, which causes her father to just shake his head and say, "I can't believe I have both of you to deal with now." I don't care what he says, I think it's funny when she plugs her finger up her nose and laughs. Tonight, as we were putting her to bed, she leaned over to give her Daddy a kiss and then as she leaned into me, she got real close to my mouth and then let a big burp out instead of a kiss. Again....I don't care what he says, it was funny!

We cannot wait to see Uncle/Godfather Marc, Aunt Donna, Michaela and Lauren for Christmas. They arrive at Babi and Didi's tonight and we will see them bright and early tomorrow. Christmas is sure to be a blast. I'll be back with stories when it's all over.