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.
Friday, July 17, 2009
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.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Our little animal lover....
Our community has a Spring Fling every year so Olivia and I went to that while Mike was at work. She really wanted to get in that blow up, bouncy thing that they have for kids at little events like this. I was a little apprehensive because she was by far the smallest one in line to get in and what if she hated it when she got in? Would I have to take my shoes off, climb in and get bounced around by 5 year olds while I make my way over to rescue her and get mean looks from the other parents because, "Why would you even put her in there in the first place?" But I put her in there anyway. She LOVED it! Because she was the smallest one, she couldn't really get her feet under her much. The other kids just kept jumping and it would knock her down but that's what she loved. She thought it was hilarious that she couldn't get up. I put one picture of that on the side but you have to scroll down to the bottom, bigger pictures to really appreciate her joy. Turns out I did have to get in the thing like I feared but only because she didn't want to come out.
We went to a local dairy with our Mom's Club and took a tour. Again, she loved it. She just loves "moo moos". Every time we drive to Mike's work to have lunch with him, we stop at one of the many farms along the way and check things out. Then she tells Mike all about it when we get there. "Mama moo moo,dirty, baby moo moo, water, horsey, brown, down, white, up, knee." For those of you that don't speak toddler....that means that the big cows were sitting in the dirty barn and the babies were drinking water. The brown horsey in the pasture was laying down (and always does, not sure what's going on with that horse) but the white one was up. He got up on his knee first to stand up. I swear her vocabulary triples every week.
We went to my cousin, Diana's, shower in NY this past weekend. My mom and I were a little worried about how Olivia would take the drive but she was perfect. She thoroughly enjoyed playing with her Babi in the back seat and singing "Happy Birthday" to every family member she could name, always starting with "Annette", my aunt. For whatever reason, that is her favorite name to say right now. "Diana" is currently running a close second. Anyway, she had a blast at the shower. To prove that she is my child through and through, she got inside of the cake box and "enjoyed" the icing that was stuck along the sides of the box. We do love our sweets, she and I. The picture I have is blurry but still funny.
Today, we went to a local Alpaca Farm. It was so fun. Olivia was totally freaked out when we approached the first one because I think she just didn't know what it was. I thought it was going to be a tough trip. But when we went into this storage shed to learn about their hair, she kept saying, "Again, again, again" because she wanted to go back to see them. So she warmed up to them and as you can see from the pictures, had a great time. A friend of mine took tons of pictures on a better camera so when she sends me those, I'll put them up.
She can now count to 6 although when I was counting out days for something to myself, I said, "nine" and paused to think about something and she said, "Ten!". Like, "I'll help you out Mommy since you always help me when I practice too." She knows most of her letters in the alphabet which has me floored. She has been playing this alphabet game on the computer many times a day but I didn't think about whether or not it was sticking. Then I started quizzing her with the letters on the fridge and she kept getting them right. It was so exciting. Otherwise she has just been busy blowing bubbles outside, going down the slide and loving life in general. We have tons of fun activities planned for this summer so I'll be updating more regularly.
We went to a local dairy with our Mom's Club and took a tour. Again, she loved it. She just loves "moo moos". Every time we drive to Mike's work to have lunch with him, we stop at one of the many farms along the way and check things out. Then she tells Mike all about it when we get there. "Mama moo moo,dirty, baby moo moo, water, horsey, brown, down, white, up, knee." For those of you that don't speak toddler....that means that the big cows were sitting in the dirty barn and the babies were drinking water. The brown horsey in the pasture was laying down (and always does, not sure what's going on with that horse) but the white one was up. He got up on his knee first to stand up. I swear her vocabulary triples every week.
We went to my cousin, Diana's, shower in NY this past weekend. My mom and I were a little worried about how Olivia would take the drive but she was perfect. She thoroughly enjoyed playing with her Babi in the back seat and singing "Happy Birthday" to every family member she could name, always starting with "Annette", my aunt. For whatever reason, that is her favorite name to say right now. "Diana" is currently running a close second. Anyway, she had a blast at the shower. To prove that she is my child through and through, she got inside of the cake box and "enjoyed" the icing that was stuck along the sides of the box. We do love our sweets, she and I. The picture I have is blurry but still funny.
Today, we went to a local Alpaca Farm. It was so fun. Olivia was totally freaked out when we approached the first one because I think she just didn't know what it was. I thought it was going to be a tough trip. But when we went into this storage shed to learn about their hair, she kept saying, "Again, again, again" because she wanted to go back to see them. So she warmed up to them and as you can see from the pictures, had a great time. A friend of mine took tons of pictures on a better camera so when she sends me those, I'll put them up.
She can now count to 6 although when I was counting out days for something to myself, I said, "nine" and paused to think about something and she said, "Ten!". Like, "I'll help you out Mommy since you always help me when I practice too." She knows most of her letters in the alphabet which has me floored. She has been playing this alphabet game on the computer many times a day but I didn't think about whether or not it was sticking. Then I started quizzing her with the letters on the fridge and she kept getting them right. It was so exciting. Otherwise she has just been busy blowing bubbles outside, going down the slide and loving life in general. We have tons of fun activities planned for this summer so I'll be updating more regularly.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Where's the off button?
My thought was to list the new words that Olivia has added to her vocabulary every time I add a posting. Um....that's not going to happen. She just adds words by the hour. She is even starting to put things together. A little boy rushed by her on the steps of the playground the other day. He stopped at the top of the steps to glare down at her and block her way. In her carefree, loving way she just said, "Hi boy!" She not only loves to talk but she is starting to amaze us with numbers as well. She can count to 4 already!
Olivia continues to love spending time outside so we got her her first bike. She pulls it out of the garage each and every time we go out. I was showing her how to pedal so I got in front of the bike, put my hands on her feet and showed her how to push down on each one as the pedal goes down. I said, "OK, now you do it." So she leaned over the handlebars and put her hands on her own feet to push them down for herself. It was so funny. Literal, but funny. We had some hot temps here last week so I experimented with pigtails as you can see in the one picture. She was a little apprehensive at first until I let her see a mirror and then she was SO excited. She had the cutest smile on her face and she just shook her head to watch them bounce.
Another cute story, we were in church and it came to Olivia's favorite part, the hand shaking, "Peace be with you" part. She always likes to shake hands with people around us. But last week, she got down from my arms and made her way down the entire length of the pew, shaking every hand along the way. She looked like she was running for office. It was hilarious.
Olivia doesn't really watch TV yet. She just has no interest in it. But I did have Dancing with the Stars on tonight right before she was going to bed. She LOVED it! She was just fixated on it and sat there trying to do the moves that she saw. When they finished, she clapped along with the audience and looked at me and said, "Again!" So of course, I let her stay up for another contestant to perform. I'm dusting off my old ballet shoes tomorrow!
Don't forget to check out the larger version of the pictures down at the very bottom of the blog. It is a long way down.
Olivia continues to love spending time outside so we got her her first bike. She pulls it out of the garage each and every time we go out. I was showing her how to pedal so I got in front of the bike, put my hands on her feet and showed her how to push down on each one as the pedal goes down. I said, "OK, now you do it." So she leaned over the handlebars and put her hands on her own feet to push them down for herself. It was so funny. Literal, but funny. We had some hot temps here last week so I experimented with pigtails as you can see in the one picture. She was a little apprehensive at first until I let her see a mirror and then she was SO excited. She had the cutest smile on her face and she just shook her head to watch them bounce.
Another cute story, we were in church and it came to Olivia's favorite part, the hand shaking, "Peace be with you" part. She always likes to shake hands with people around us. But last week, she got down from my arms and made her way down the entire length of the pew, shaking every hand along the way. She looked like she was running for office. It was hilarious.
Olivia doesn't really watch TV yet. She just has no interest in it. But I did have Dancing with the Stars on tonight right before she was going to bed. She LOVED it! She was just fixated on it and sat there trying to do the moves that she saw. When they finished, she clapped along with the audience and looked at me and said, "Again!" So of course, I let her stay up for another contestant to perform. I'm dusting off my old ballet shoes tomorrow!
Don't forget to check out the larger version of the pictures down at the very bottom of the blog. It is a long way down.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Quick note about the blog..
Just wanted to mention that I've heard from lots of people that the pictures are so small that they wish they could click on them to see them bigger. Well, you can't do that and I can't do anything about the size of the pictures because of the setup that I chose. However, everytime I add pictures, I will add those same pictures to the bottom of the blog too where they are MUCH bigger. You have to scroll quite a ways down to see them. When I add a new entry though, I plan on deleting the old pictures and swapping them out with the newest ones so you better be keeping up if you hope to see those big pictures at the bottom. Hope that helps!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Our professional flower girl...
Although Olivia looked absolutely adorable in her Easter dress, I have very unimpressive pictures to share. I'm hoping someone else will send some to me and I'll pass them along. We were all fighting off a 2nd round of cold/cough stuff so with the cold temps outside, we really didn't have an egg hunt either. But it was nice to be with so much family. Because of the passing of my grandfather, Olivia's Uncle Marc and Uncle Greg flew in for a couple of days as well and she really seemed to like their silliness. Probably the most exciting thing though was Olivia being asked to be a flower girl for her 2nd wedding this summer!!! My cousin JoAnna is getting married in June and we're very excited that Olivia will be helping her down the aisle.
Olivia continues to surprise us with a new word everyday. So far, she has the following under her belt: Mommy, Daddy, Babi (Ukrainian for Grandma), Didi (Ukr. for Grandpa), Nanny, Pop Pop, yes, no, milk, jeans, bunny, book, boogie, baby, hat, peas, water, juice, up, out, shoe, boy, girl, away, bus, off, bubble, cheese, hotdog, monkey, sticker....I feel like I'm forgetting some but those are the ones that we hear pretty regularly. And she's so close to a ton of other words. Oh, it's so fun!
Olivia continues to surprise us with a new word everyday. So far, she has the following under her belt: Mommy, Daddy, Babi (Ukrainian for Grandma), Didi (Ukr. for Grandpa), Nanny, Pop Pop, yes, no, milk, jeans, bunny, book, boogie, baby, hat, peas, water, juice, up, out, shoe, boy, girl, away, bus, off, bubble, cheese, hotdog, monkey, sticker....I feel like I'm forgetting some but those are the ones that we hear pretty regularly. And she's so close to a ton of other words. Oh, it's so fun!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Hockey and a Hair Cut....
OK, OK....I will post my entries more regularly. I'm getting a lot of slack from some people but that's good. At least I know you're reading.
This is SUCH an awesome age! Olivia is so much fun. She just loves to be tickled, walk around with her hands in her pockets and be just plain silly. Her vocabulary is growing and growing every day. It is so crazy to hear it. She can even tell long stories. She will tell you, "Clop, clop, clop....Big...(stomps floor)....away." Translation: "I saw a horse (with a buggy) at the grocery store yesterday. It was a big horse. He went like this with his foot. Then he went away and went home."
We took Olivia to her first Bears hockey game. I was hoping that she would at least stay put for the first period so I could watch. However, I am happy to share that we got to see the entire game. I kid you not. She just hung out and people watched, or she enjoyed her hot dog and popcorn or she played with her friends who were also with us. But she was totally content to be in her seat area for 3 periods of play. She even clapped when she heard everyone else clap, which wasn't all too often in the 1-0 loss. Her highpoint was probably meeting Coco the Bear while we walked around the concourse between periods. Although repeating the words "Hot dog" over and over again came in a close 2nd.
She got her first official haircut last week too. I snipped her bangs when she was tiny but this was her official "professional" haircut. She was perfect, perhaps a little confused about why she was sitting in that chair with a cape around her neck, but she just sat and watched and waited for the girl to finish. Don't worry, she will have long hair to put in ponytails but we just had to even up the back since it grew in at different lengths.
Hope everyone has a Happy Easter and we'll be sure to post some egg hunt pictures.
This is SUCH an awesome age! Olivia is so much fun. She just loves to be tickled, walk around with her hands in her pockets and be just plain silly. Her vocabulary is growing and growing every day. It is so crazy to hear it. She can even tell long stories. She will tell you, "Clop, clop, clop....Big...(stomps floor)....away." Translation: "I saw a horse (with a buggy) at the grocery store yesterday. It was a big horse. He went like this with his foot. Then he went away and went home."
We took Olivia to her first Bears hockey game. I was hoping that she would at least stay put for the first period so I could watch. However, I am happy to share that we got to see the entire game. I kid you not. She just hung out and people watched, or she enjoyed her hot dog and popcorn or she played with her friends who were also with us. But she was totally content to be in her seat area for 3 periods of play. She even clapped when she heard everyone else clap, which wasn't all too often in the 1-0 loss. Her highpoint was probably meeting Coco the Bear while we walked around the concourse between periods. Although repeating the words "Hot dog" over and over again came in a close 2nd.
She got her first official haircut last week too. I snipped her bangs when she was tiny but this was her official "professional" haircut. She was perfect, perhaps a little confused about why she was sitting in that chair with a cape around her neck, but she just sat and watched and waited for the girl to finish. Don't worry, she will have long hair to put in ponytails but we just had to even up the back since it grew in at different lengths.
Hope everyone has a Happy Easter and we'll be sure to post some egg hunt pictures.
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