It's been a fun month getting everything ready for Christmas. Olivia got all dressed up to go see Santa and it went well, as the picture shows. The next night, we had to go back to the mall for something and when she saw Santa there again, she wanted to go talk to him again. So we did and he said, "So do you want anything more then what you told me yesterday?" It was funny and nice to know that someone else thinks she has a memorable face. The tree and all of the decorations seem to be safe with her around. She likes to have them around but nothing is getting pulled down or played with.
We have quickly moved into the "Why?" stage. I try to have my creative juices flowing each and every day when I answer the endless string of why's but it is exhausting.
She still loves to sing and dance right now. She is usually awake in her crib for about an hour talking to herself and singing every song she knows before she actually falls asleep. I really wish there was some sort of dance class we could sign her up for but they all seem to start when the kids are 3 years old. So her dance career will just have to wait a little longer. Until then, I'll just have to dance home school her. She still loves to read too. The other night from her crib, I heard her say over and over again, "Baby Jesus is here, Baby Jesus is here." I was tempted to go into her bedroom because let's be honest, if Baby Jesus was really there, I wanted to see him. But I realized it was the last line of a book that Aunt Sharon and Uncle Greg got her. The painters are coming next week to paint the spare bedroom that will be hers soon to make room for the new baby. She seems really excited about it so we'll see how all of those changes go.
Speaking of the new baby, the pregnancy is going very well. We just had an ultrasound that showed everything looking good. We had the option of knowing the sex of the baby at this ultrasound but we officially turned down the offer. Olivia went to a routine ob appt with me and she seemed to really enjoy being with me through everything that was going on until they listened for the baby's heartbeat over the monitor. Then she got a little freaked out like that noise should not be coming from my belly.
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and we'll be sure to take lots of pictures to share.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Happy Halloween!
Well, by now you all probably know that Olivia is going to be a big sister. She seems to be mildly excited about it. We got a cute card from a friend with a duck on the front and I told her it was for the baby. So Olivia said, "Awwwww, here baby!" and she lifted up my shirt and put the card up it. I asked her what we should name the baby and she said, "Beluga" which is a word that she recently made up and uses for everything. So little Beluga Blocher will be joining our little family around May 9th and I will be even worse at updating this blog, if that's possible.
Halloween was fun this year. Olivia was a spider. She is not at all into playing any sort of dress up so I was worried that she wouldn't want to wear her costume. But when we got to the mall where we went the night before Halloween to go store to store for candy, she saw all of the kids and seemed to really want to get into the festivities with them.
Generally speaking, Olivia is just the happiest child I have ever met. She loves to pretend. She pretends she is holding baby animals in her hand and asks me to pet them. She loves the part of her library class when the teacher takes his wand and gives all of the kids pretend "reading dust" in their hands. She pretends she is a puppy and has me feed her from my hand. In addition to pretending, she loves to sing and dance. With the singing, her favorites are Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the Alphabet (done with 99% accuracy). With the dancing, she pretty much just has one signature move where she sways back and forth and kicks her legs from side to side while she is swaying. It's not fancy but it just makes us laugh every single time she does it. Her other favorite thing is running around naked. She just takes off running from room to room laughing when we take off her clothes to put her pjs on. This is NOT something she learned from her parents, by the way.
Don't forget that I put a larger version of the little pictures on the left waaaaaaay down at the bottom of the blog. I remove them though when I update.
Halloween was fun this year. Olivia was a spider. She is not at all into playing any sort of dress up so I was worried that she wouldn't want to wear her costume. But when we got to the mall where we went the night before Halloween to go store to store for candy, she saw all of the kids and seemed to really want to get into the festivities with them.
Generally speaking, Olivia is just the happiest child I have ever met. She loves to pretend. She pretends she is holding baby animals in her hand and asks me to pet them. She loves the part of her library class when the teacher takes his wand and gives all of the kids pretend "reading dust" in their hands. She pretends she is a puppy and has me feed her from my hand. In addition to pretending, she loves to sing and dance. With the singing, her favorites are Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the Alphabet (done with 99% accuracy). With the dancing, she pretty much just has one signature move where she sways back and forth and kicks her legs from side to side while she is swaying. It's not fancy but it just makes us laugh every single time she does it. Her other favorite thing is running around naked. She just takes off running from room to room laughing when we take off her clothes to put her pjs on. This is NOT something she learned from her parents, by the way.
Don't forget that I put a larger version of the little pictures on the left waaaaaaay down at the bottom of the blog. I remove them though when I update.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Flower Girl Summer Tour continues....
So Olivia had her second run at being a flower girl for Diana's wedding at the end of August and she did even better then before, if that's possible. She actually wore the ring of flowers around her head this time and she partied hard at the reception until 10pm when her mean Mommy and Daddy made her go back to the room to go to bed. She had an absolute blast though. On a side note, on our drive home from the wedding, we saw an RV and pulled over to check it out since we had been casually looking for one for years. We ended up buying it later that week and Olivia absolutely loves that too. She calls it Gus, as in Gus the Bus because she sees it as a bus rather then an RV.
Olivia just started swimming lessons through our township. She LOVED her first lesson the other night. Most of the kids are holding tightly onto their parents' necks and just sort of sitting in their arms. But not Olivia! She is pushing away so that she can kick and move and splash. I'm very happy we signed her up.
She is just talking like crazy. She loves to ask questions already. (I thought that came later.) She is nosey like her Mommy. She says, "What cha doing, Mommy?" "What chu eating, Daddy?" "You drinking beer, Daddy?" "What chu have in your bag, Mommy?" Some phrases need some tweeking but she seems to be able to say anything she wants to to get her point across. I told her it might rain today and she said, "I hope so not." She was calling me to her crib the other night when we put her down and when I finally got there (obviously not fast enough for her) she said, "I no idea where are you?"
She has a great imagination. She loves to pretend she is holding different baby animals and asks me to pet them. She likes to play the ol' "which hand is it in?" when she is eating something small. Of course she holds forward the hand that she wants you to pick which is the empty hand but it's my job to play along so I do.
I promise to be better about this blog for all of you who have been breathing down my neck.
Olivia just started swimming lessons through our township. She LOVED her first lesson the other night. Most of the kids are holding tightly onto their parents' necks and just sort of sitting in their arms. But not Olivia! She is pushing away so that she can kick and move and splash. I'm very happy we signed her up.
She is just talking like crazy. She loves to ask questions already. (I thought that came later.) She is nosey like her Mommy. She says, "What cha doing, Mommy?" "What chu eating, Daddy?" "You drinking beer, Daddy?" "What chu have in your bag, Mommy?" Some phrases need some tweeking but she seems to be able to say anything she wants to to get her point across. I told her it might rain today and she said, "I hope so not." She was calling me to her crib the other night when we put her down and when I finally got there (obviously not fast enough for her) she said, "I no idea where are you?"
She has a great imagination. She loves to pretend she is holding different baby animals and asks me to pet them. She likes to play the ol' "which hand is it in?" when she is eating something small. Of course she holds forward the hand that she wants you to pick which is the empty hand but it's my job to play along so I do.
I promise to be better about this blog for all of you who have been breathing down my neck.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
A Mooooo-velous 2nd birthday....
We had a great (and big) 2nd birthday party for Olivia last weekend. She isn't much into any TV characters or anything like that so in thinking about a theme, I just thought to myself, "What does she like the most in the world right now?" Cows! It was the natural answer. She looks for them out the window everytime we get in the car so I did lots of internet searching to find all of the party plates, balloons, favors, etc. with cow prints. I even painted a few of them to put around the yard. (I included a few pictures of that stuff on the bottom of the blog that aren't along the left side.) We had 55 people here. It was way too much but very fun.
We just had our 2 year appt at the doctor and that went VERY well. First of all, she is now in the 80th% percentile for height which is a huge jump from her ealier appts. Her weight is in the 44th% so she is going to be tall and thin like her mother used to be. The doctor went through his usual list of tasks that she should be able to do and she breezed through those with flying colors. Then he asked about a few things that she probably is not doing yet and it went a little like this:
(Dr.) "Is she saying lots of words yet?" (Me) "Whole sentences and conversations with you."
(Dr.) "Can she use pronouns like I, You, etc.?" (Me) "Yes." (Dr.) "Hmmm." (Dr.) "She doesn't know her colors yet, right?" (Me) "Yes, she knows all of the basic colors, maybe 8-10 of them." (Dr.) "That's a 3 year old task." "She doesn't count yet, does she?" (Me) "Well, she can count to 11 but that's it." (Dr.) "Really? That's a 3 year old task." "She doesn't know the alphabet though, right?" (Me) "Well, not in order like to sing it. But she knows all of the letters if you show her one and ask her what it is." (Dr.) "Wow, that's a 4 year old task." "We usually do the screening for autism at this visit but I think it's safe to skip that with her." It made me very proud!
She loves being in the pool. She has become fearless when it comes to standing on the edge, laughing with excitement and then diving into Mommy or Daddy's arms. We love it. It's a little scary though so we signed her up for swim lessons that start in mid-September. She continues to love jumping on anything... bed, couch, floor. She loves to take pictures and actually got 2 of her own cameras for her birthday. Mike got up from bed one morning to go to the bathroom. When he opened the door to come out, Olivia was right there waiting and quickly said, "Cheese, Daddy!" and flashed it in his face. There aren't a lot of heads in her shots but she's just getting used to her new equipment. I'll have to share some of those pics when we download them onto the computer.
Some favorite phrases are currently...."How are you Mommy? (I'm fine, thank you. How are you, sweetheart?) I'm fine." She will ask over and over again. She is using "Excuse me" alot. "I almost tripped." "Be careful" And many more but like I told the doctor, it's just turning into normal conversation now. She has her 2nd trip down the aisle this weekend for my cousin, Diana's wedding. We're very excited but she has come down with a cold today. Maybe just be a reaction to the flu shot from Monday but this is becoming a bad, wedding habit for her. Keep your fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.
We just had our 2 year appt at the doctor and that went VERY well. First of all, she is now in the 80th% percentile for height which is a huge jump from her ealier appts. Her weight is in the 44th% so she is going to be tall and thin like her mother used to be. The doctor went through his usual list of tasks that she should be able to do and she breezed through those with flying colors. Then he asked about a few things that she probably is not doing yet and it went a little like this:
(Dr.) "Is she saying lots of words yet?" (Me) "Whole sentences and conversations with you."
(Dr.) "Can she use pronouns like I, You, etc.?" (Me) "Yes." (Dr.) "Hmmm." (Dr.) "She doesn't know her colors yet, right?" (Me) "Yes, she knows all of the basic colors, maybe 8-10 of them." (Dr.) "That's a 3 year old task." "She doesn't count yet, does she?" (Me) "Well, she can count to 11 but that's it." (Dr.) "Really? That's a 3 year old task." "She doesn't know the alphabet though, right?" (Me) "Well, not in order like to sing it. But she knows all of the letters if you show her one and ask her what it is." (Dr.) "Wow, that's a 4 year old task." "We usually do the screening for autism at this visit but I think it's safe to skip that with her." It made me very proud!
She loves being in the pool. She has become fearless when it comes to standing on the edge, laughing with excitement and then diving into Mommy or Daddy's arms. We love it. It's a little scary though so we signed her up for swim lessons that start in mid-September. She continues to love jumping on anything... bed, couch, floor. She loves to take pictures and actually got 2 of her own cameras for her birthday. Mike got up from bed one morning to go to the bathroom. When he opened the door to come out, Olivia was right there waiting and quickly said, "Cheese, Daddy!" and flashed it in his face. There aren't a lot of heads in her shots but she's just getting used to her new equipment. I'll have to share some of those pics when we download them onto the computer.
Some favorite phrases are currently...."How are you Mommy? (I'm fine, thank you. How are you, sweetheart?) I'm fine." She will ask over and over again. She is using "Excuse me" alot. "I almost tripped." "Be careful" And many more but like I told the doctor, it's just turning into normal conversation now. She has her 2nd trip down the aisle this weekend for my cousin, Diana's wedding. We're very excited but she has come down with a cold today. Maybe just be a reaction to the flu shot from Monday but this is becoming a bad, wedding habit for her. Keep your fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Sunny Florida....
You would think we do nothing but play with animals everyday, huh? Olivia does love animals so we took a drive to a local wildlife park. They have many cages of animals but the highlight is the safari tour that they offer. We got in the convertible bus with crackers in hand and off we went to feed the deer, moose, elk, etc that came up to the sides of the bus. Olivia had a great time until she saw the slide and swing set at the park and then the animals took a backseat.
Olivia took her first flight when we went down to Florida to visit Dad while he gets his cancer treatments in Jacksonville, FL. She did so well even after being delayed an hour and 1/2 or so. We must have walked the moving sidewalks in the terminal at least 25 times to pass the time. It was hot, hot, hot when we got to FL but it made for nice naps and sleeping. The Zoo was great and she particularly liked feeding the giraffes their lettuce from the stand they come to for food. Our trip to FL was unfortunately delayed though when Olivia came down with a full body rash and a 4 day fever with temps topping out at 104.4. Doctor said it was some sort of virus. When the fever broke, we re-booked our flight and got down there to visit Nanny, Brian, Babi and Didi. As our week was coming to an end, I noticed yellow goop coming out of Olivia's eye so we went to see a doctor in FL and it turned out to be pink eye. Oh wait, it gets better.....we came home and she just seemed to be struggling with a horrible cough that would keep her up for several hours every night. So we went to our doctor and both ears are infected. I was worried about everything she was getting but the doctor diagnosed it as being unlucky. Oh well. She's on her way back to 100% and hopefully she will be there for her big 2nd birthday party this Saturday.
She continues to amaze us with her language skills, intelligence and sense of humor. Some favorite phrases nowadays are, "yesterday" as in, "Olivia what do you want for breakfast?" "Ate breakfast yesterday." She also likes to say, "I guess so", "Stop it!" and "Look at this thingy." She is also very into telling people and things that she loves them. We all love this, of course.
Can't wait to post pictures after this weekend's big birthday bash. We'll miss all of you who can't make it!
Olivia took her first flight when we went down to Florida to visit Dad while he gets his cancer treatments in Jacksonville, FL. She did so well even after being delayed an hour and 1/2 or so. We must have walked the moving sidewalks in the terminal at least 25 times to pass the time. It was hot, hot, hot when we got to FL but it made for nice naps and sleeping. The Zoo was great and she particularly liked feeding the giraffes their lettuce from the stand they come to for food. Our trip to FL was unfortunately delayed though when Olivia came down with a full body rash and a 4 day fever with temps topping out at 104.4. Doctor said it was some sort of virus. When the fever broke, we re-booked our flight and got down there to visit Nanny, Brian, Babi and Didi. As our week was coming to an end, I noticed yellow goop coming out of Olivia's eye so we went to see a doctor in FL and it turned out to be pink eye. Oh wait, it gets better.....we came home and she just seemed to be struggling with a horrible cough that would keep her up for several hours every night. So we went to our doctor and both ears are infected. I was worried about everything she was getting but the doctor diagnosed it as being unlucky. Oh well. She's on her way back to 100% and hopefully she will be there for her big 2nd birthday party this Saturday.
She continues to amaze us with her language skills, intelligence and sense of humor. Some favorite phrases nowadays are, "yesterday" as in, "Olivia what do you want for breakfast?" "Ate breakfast yesterday." She also likes to say, "I guess so", "Stop it!" and "Look at this thingy." She is also very into telling people and things that she loves them. We all love this, of course.
Can't wait to post pictures after this weekend's big birthday bash. We'll miss all of you who can't make it!
Friday, July 17, 2009
More summer fun...
We continue to be busy, busy, busy. There is a place not far from here that turns their farm into an "Adventure Farm" and it is great! The big draw is the corn maze they make but we didn't even get into that. There was just too much to do. Olivia's favorite thing was this giant inflatable pillow looking thing that is pictured to the left. It's like one of those inflatable castles but it's just open and huge. Even if it's not on an inflatable thingy, Olivia loves to jump. She'll just stop whatever she is doing sometimes to practice her jumping. It started at her 18 mos doctor's appt when the doctor was taking really long to come into the room. I was at a loss for ideas of how to keep her occupied so I said, "Ummmm, wanna jump?" She hasn't stopped since then. (Of course, now she is actually getting off the ground.)
We also made our first trip to a local amusement park. Olivia clearly loved the ride with the flying planes. But she also loved Duke, the dragon, that walked around the park. She talks about him all the time how she gave him a hug and a high five.
We're doing lots of swimming too. We were unsure if we should get a pool pass since we didn't know if she would like it but she loves it. I'm thinking swim lessons are on the list of things to do next summer.
Olivia is up to at least 13 animals and babies in her crib for nap time and bedtime. She organizes them just right, which is usually all lined up on one side of the crib, and then she wakes up in a sweat because she has 10 pounds of fur surrounding her. She repeats EVERYTHING that she hears, including "Move it, Buddy!" that Mommy said to someone who was taking his time crossing the street in front of our car. Sometimes I don't even think about what I'm saying until I hear it from her in the back seat. Today, we raced to the post office at the end of the day and Olivia would be happy to tell you that "post office closed, darnit!" She repeated a point that Bill O'Reilly was making on TV the other night which most of you know warms my heart tremendously.
We have many fun plans for this weekend so I will back to post those next week before heading to FL for a couple of weeks to visit Mom and Dad.
We also made our first trip to a local amusement park. Olivia clearly loved the ride with the flying planes. But she also loved Duke, the dragon, that walked around the park. She talks about him all the time how she gave him a hug and a high five.
We're doing lots of swimming too. We were unsure if we should get a pool pass since we didn't know if she would like it but she loves it. I'm thinking swim lessons are on the list of things to do next summer.
Olivia is up to at least 13 animals and babies in her crib for nap time and bedtime. She organizes them just right, which is usually all lined up on one side of the crib, and then she wakes up in a sweat because she has 10 pounds of fur surrounding her. She repeats EVERYTHING that she hears, including "Move it, Buddy!" that Mommy said to someone who was taking his time crossing the street in front of our car. Sometimes I don't even think about what I'm saying until I hear it from her in the back seat. Today, we raced to the post office at the end of the day and Olivia would be happy to tell you that "post office closed, darnit!" She repeated a point that Bill O'Reilly was making on TV the other night which most of you know warms my heart tremendously.
We have many fun plans for this weekend so I will back to post those next week before heading to FL for a couple of weeks to visit Mom and Dad.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Weddings, carnivals, and more animals.....
Clearly, I'm bad at this but we are just having too much fun to sit down and write about it. It's been a fun start to the summer. We have a local family owned dairy that does this big "Farm Days" event every year. So Olivia got to hold chickies, pet pigs and cows and do general farm stuff which she absolutely loves. We also went to a local Carnival. We were apprehensive to get too many ride tickets when we first got there because what if she gets scared when she gets on a ride. Ummmm....NOT a problem. We left the carnival tired and VERY poor. She would get off of something and say, "Again, again!" Her favorites were the giant slide and (again) the bouncy castle. She kept falling flat on her face, literally, but would just laugh and laugh and laugh.
We also had our first of many weddings this summer. Olivia was the flower girl for my cousin, JoAnna. Unfortunately, she happen to get a bad summer cold the very day of the wedding so we had to cut the day short. However, she was a total trooper and made it down the aisle perfectly. Mike said it wasn't looking good in the lobby of the church but when he showed Olivia all of the people sitting in the pews, she turned on a huge smile and marched down to me, sitting in the front. I'm hoping to get some good pictures of that for you but I was too busy guiding her down to take any. So as soon as I get some of those, I'll post them.
Generally speaking, her speech continues to take off. She's really putting together some nice sentences. She loves to tell you when you are being silly..."Silly Mommy!" and everything is "nice" to her right now. "Olivia, how was the park?" "Nice" She also loves the phrase, "a little bit". I told her the other night that I couldn't rub her back until she fell asleep because she needed to sleep on her own. But she looked at me and said in the saddest voice, "A little bit?" So what am I going to do at that point, say no?
She's thoroughly enjoying galloping these days. She also plays hide and go seek several times a day. She's getting better and better at it. For awhile, I would let her know where I was looking by saying out loud, "Is she behind this door?" and she would call out from whereever she was, "Noooooo." Now she knows to wait quietly.
I'll leave it at that for now but if I don't post something new every 2 weeks from here on out, please leave nasty comments.
We also had our first of many weddings this summer. Olivia was the flower girl for my cousin, JoAnna. Unfortunately, she happen to get a bad summer cold the very day of the wedding so we had to cut the day short. However, she was a total trooper and made it down the aisle perfectly. Mike said it wasn't looking good in the lobby of the church but when he showed Olivia all of the people sitting in the pews, she turned on a huge smile and marched down to me, sitting in the front. I'm hoping to get some good pictures of that for you but I was too busy guiding her down to take any. So as soon as I get some of those, I'll post them.
Generally speaking, her speech continues to take off. She's really putting together some nice sentences. She loves to tell you when you are being silly..."Silly Mommy!" and everything is "nice" to her right now. "Olivia, how was the park?" "Nice" She also loves the phrase, "a little bit". I told her the other night that I couldn't rub her back until she fell asleep because she needed to sleep on her own. But she looked at me and said in the saddest voice, "A little bit?" So what am I going to do at that point, say no?
She's thoroughly enjoying galloping these days. She also plays hide and go seek several times a day. She's getting better and better at it. For awhile, I would let her know where I was looking by saying out loud, "Is she behind this door?" and she would call out from whereever she was, "Noooooo." Now she knows to wait quietly.
I'll leave it at that for now but if I don't post something new every 2 weeks from here on out, please leave nasty comments.
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