Some recent good times...

Although a bit of a stomach virus has torn through our house recently (which Olivia started!), we did manage to have loads of fun the week leading up to it. Olivia normally enjoys taking a bath. She loves taking off her clothes and running around the house until we can corral her. She loves dumping all of her toys into the water to create her "fun pool". And she loves to play with those toys once she gets in. But one day last week, she just took it to a new level. She decided that life was too short and she was going to take the most fun bath that she has ever taken. She was just going crazy in the water with non-stop splashing so I sent Mike for the camera and we captured this beauty of a photo to the left.

We finally got some snow. Maybe 2 sad inches but it was something. So we suited up and took Olivia out for her first sled ride. Everyone had a good time flying ("flying" being a relative term, she is only 1 and 1/2) down our street which is a hill. (with speed bumps, for extra added fun!) She seemed to have more fun just walking around the yard through this odd, white stuff until we witnessed Daddy accidentally running over our new sled in the driveway with his truck. No worries though....best $12 we ever spent. There wasn't a scratch or crack on it.

Ah, the sounds, the sights, the smells...

We visited the PA Farm Show tonight. It was so much fun. Olivia seemed cautious at first. Why was she standing 3 inches from these massive cows that she sees in her books everyday? But when we made our way into the poultry wing, she really came alive. Every time a rooster cockadoodledooed, she swung her head around to try to catch which one it was. The turkey cages were on the floor so she got down to wander down that row and she loved that. She pointed to each one and "told" us her thoughts on them. She pet a bunny and a guinea pig, saw horses, pigs and chickies, ate a hot dog, wings and ice cream, played in a corn box and rode on her first carousel. We will be regular visitors to the annual Farm Show, that's for sure.

O Christmas Tree....

Olivia found putting away the Christmas decorations much more enjoyable then putting them out. For the past month, she heard, "No" over and over again as she tried to touch the ornaments. But last weekend, we decided to let her help us take them off the tree and pack then away and she thought she was in her own little piece of heaven. Mike handed her an ornament and sent her to me with it so that I could put it in the box. When she realized that this wasn't a very efficient plan, she started holding out her other hand to let him know that she could handle 2 ornaments at one time. But again, not efficient enough. So she piled 2 ornaments on top of each other in one arm while using her chin to steady the ornament on top and then held out her free hand for a 3rd ornament. It was SO cute! (And very smart too.)

She is "talking" so much these days. Oh sure, we have no idea what she is saying but she really seems to understand herself. She sounds like she is just talking in her own language and she looks at you when she finishes a sentence, waiting for you to respond to what she just "said". She is getting very good at mimicing sounds and sound combinations so I think it's just a matter of time before she is talking up a storm. She loves all of her new puzzles that she got for Christmas and it's quite impressive to watch her work on them. I've tried tricking her by handing her pieces upside down but she isn't fooled. She just spins the piece around in her little hands and puts in the right place, the right way. Looks AND brains!

Happy New Year!

Who says you have to be up til midnight to have a good time on New Year's?! We decided to have some neighbors over and make it a family event with lots of food, fun and kids. Everyone had a really good time until the party had to break up around 8 pm. (That's bedtime for about 50% of the guest list.) Olivia loves playing with her neighborhood friends so I really wanted to capture the moment so that when they all graduate from high school, they can look back at these photos of themselves "partying" at age 1 and laugh. (The youngest friend is 6 months and the oldest is 4, by the way.) And laugh they will because all of the photos were so bad that it was comical. YOU try to get 6 kids on a couch together to pose for a picture. The picture to the left doesn't do the detail justice so I've attached a bigger version to the bottom of this blog for awhile. Max, in the back, didn't even want to sit with the others so his Mom is holding him up from behind the couch. No one is smiling, or even looking at the camera really. And Olivia is saying, "Forget this, I'm sliding off and getting back to the dance floor." In the 2nd shot,which I didn't post, she is out of the picture all together because she had fallen off the couch. It really was a good time for all though. It was the 2nd year in a row that Mike and I weren't awake to ring in the New Year. Oh well, it was there when we got up the next morning.

Generally speaking, Olivia continues to amaze us every day. She currently loves to climb things and sit on things, even if they aren't meant to be seats. She LOVES to read, which makes us very happy. Her favorite place is sitting in her new bean bag (that Santa brought her) where she just picks book after book off of the bookshelf that Pop Pop built her. I"m going to add a list of books to the blog so that everyone knows what she already has. I can't figure out how to make it something that you just click on to see so it will take up a bit of space. Everyone looks at Olivia and comments on how much she looks like me. They ask what she got from Mike and we definitely have an answer to that....her culinary tastes. She has currently enjoyed italian sausage and sauerkraut, turkey chili, prime rib and sour pickels. Getting her to eat is not an issue in this house.

Happy New Year's everyone!