Big Girl Bed!

We converted Olivia's crib to a toddler bed today. She was really excited and couldn't help herself from jumping, jumping, jumping. (We have to learn that the big girl bed is not a new playground!)

Swim & Play Date with Friends

Olivia hosted a play date with her friends, and also celebrated our neighbor's birthday. All the girls had a great time!!

August vacations

Steve had a business trip to CA that popped up with very short notice…it was a couple’s trip so I tagged along. Thankfully we have Gran & Poppy living close to us now so they happily came over to pick up Olivia for a few days. The trip is a great perk, but the problem is that we already had a vacation planned for Jackson Hole, WY.....a Mommmy & Daddy trip b/c we planned to do lots of hiking....not ideal for a 2 1/2 year old so Liv was going to stay home. Ginnie flew to Jax to take care of her.

We were gone for 5 days on the CA trip, then home for 3 days, and then heading to Jackson Hole for 8 days. Both trips were great, but just way too long away from Livie. The CA trip really messed up our WY trip! CA was perfect...cooler weather....golf for Daddy & massages for Mommy....good wine (we stayed at a resort on a vinyard)....quality rest. And the first couple of days in Jackson Hole was great, too....but then we were REALLY ready to just go home and see Olivia. It was really hard being away from her that long! We were pretty wimpy on about day 3...even checked for early flights home but couldn't find anything b/c it was the week before Labor Day. We snapped out of it a bit and talked ourselves into having fun, but we were still counting down the days until we could go home.

Pics: WY -- Mommy & Daddy in Jackson Hole, Elk on a lawn at Mammoth in Yellowstone. CA -- Steve hovering around Jay Leno at a car show, touring a winery with the group, Steve checking email outside our room

In the end, everyone had a good time....Livie had a great time with all her grandparents! Quality time for Mommy & Daddy, and quality time for Liv & the grandparents!

Company Fun Day

Family Fun Day for Steve’s company. It was so hot!! Liv had a great time and got her arms painted (didn’t want to get her face painted)…one arm had Ariel (princess from the Little Mermaid) and the other arm had flowers & butterflies. She also ate cotton candy for the first time….she took several bites and said she liked it…but was still a bit confused about what it was & didn’t fight much when I suggested we throw it away and go do something else. She kept calling it her ice cream!

Disney with Gran & Poppy

Daddy & Poppy played in a "parent-child" golf tournament at Disney this weekend, so we slipped in a trip to the Magic Kingdom. They played very early on Saturday morning, so Gran, Mommy & Livie drove over to Orlando to meet them in the afternoon to spend a few hours in the park (passes were included in the tournament registration). The day was a bit of a bust!....it rained all afternoon so we headed home after only a few hours. Even with only a short visit, we still had a great time!

On Sunday, Daddy & Poppy drove back to Orlando for day 2 of the golf tournament. We girls stayed at home...had no interest in making the 2 hour trek to join them in Orlando. We had a really nice day lounging around the house, napping, and feeding the ducks & buffalo in the area.

Playing while Mommy & Daddy napped

We all took a nap on Saturday afternoon. Mommy & Livie napped on the twin bed in her room, & Daddy fell asleep on the couch. Well.....Liv obviously woke up before Mommy & Daddy.....and proceeded to play by herself for a while. This is the hurricane that Mommy & Daddy woke up to....

Poopied on the Potty!!!

Liv poopied on the potty for the first time. She said her tummy was hurting so we ran to sit on the potty. She didn’t protest, and in just a few minutes she poopied. She was so proud of herself…and of course Mommy & Daddy were very proud. She waved bye-bye to the poopy and flushed….and then asked “did poopy go home?”….I told her yes, poopy is so happy to get to go home! (When she gets older she'll just LOVE that I snapped this picture of her!)

Visit to Tennessee

Olivia and Mommy flew to TN to visit Ginnie, Joe-Joe & Uncle Steve. We were there Wednesday thru Monday, 6/20-25. Liv did great on the flight there....not so great on the flight home...more about that later. Here's our fun-filled agenda...

Wednesday -- We flew into Memphis and spent the day playing at Overton Park, lunching with friends, & just visiting around town.

Thursday -- Ginnie had made an appt for Liv to have a "photo shoot" in the afternoon, so we spent the morning shopping for a new outfit (we ended up with the outfits we'd brought from home...but who's gonna pass up the chance to shop?!). A long-time friend of the family is a professional photographer...he actually took all the pictures at our wedding...so we took the chance to get together with him while we were in town. He took all the pictures outside around 5:30, and the lighting was perfect....and the location was great. Liv did so good and followed all of his directions perfectly. We couldn't wait to see the prints!

Friday -- We went to the farmer's market, ran a few other errands, and Uncle Steve came over to Jackson from Memphis to spend the weekend with us. Liv & Ginnie had some quality time making cookies, too.

Saturday -- My aunt (Dad's sister) and cousins came over for burgers. It was a great visit...it's been about a couple of years since we'd seen some of them. Livie had a lot of fun and had a blast playing with her 3 year old cousin, Ally. I didn't take any pictures during their visit....kicking myself!

Sunday -- Church and out to lunch....that was about it for the day...nice, relaxing day. Livie also had fun picking blueberries in Ginnie's backyard. She was careful to only get the ones that were "ready".

Monday -- We went the hospital to visit all of Ginnie's friends she used to work with...then home for a nap before heading to the airport.

OK....so the flight home on Monday night. We were originally scheduled to leave around 7:15 p.m....actually boarded the plane.....waited about an hour....then had to change planes b/c of a mechanical problem (nothing serious...some indicator light wasn't working). Liv did fine, but let me just say that it's stressful to keep a 2 1/2 year old entertained for an hour....we should have been almost home in that amount of time! Finally, we're on another plane....Livie was still going great....wheels down in Jax. And then it happened. "Cough, cough, cough....HURL! Four big heaves and Liv was covered...and sitting in a pool of puke! By the grace of God, I had moved our seats at the last minute to the very back of the plane....because we'd have a row to ourselves. That luckily put us right next to the bathrooms, so I just stripped her down and she stood on the toilet while I gave her a quick wipe down with hand towels and changed her clothes. All this while I hear the stewardess on the phone with maintenance..."we're going to need to replace the seat cover". Nice.

But wait, there's more.....

Liv was such a trooper….felt fine & was ready to play as soon as she changed clothes on the plane….a good thing b/c we then had to wait 45 minutes for our luggage! So we get home about 1:00 a.m….Liv is crashed in her car seat and makes an easy transition to her bed. I put her down and then go back outside to unload the luggage (did I mention Steve was out of town….so I’m on my own here). Well, it was trash day so the empty cans were at the end of the drive. Before getting the luggage, I walk down to get the cans & then walk over to get the mail. Just as I’m approaching the mailbox, I notice something lying in front of the box….looks like a stick…but it’s hard to see since I only have the moonlight. I get closer and lean over for a closer view…YEP…IT’S A SNAKE!! So I calmly walk back to the garage to get a shovel and then proceed to hack the snake to bits in the middle of the street. All I could do was laugh…..it was so loud as the metal shovel slammed into the pavement….I know I looked like an insane person standing in the middle of the street whacking at the ground! I was really hoping none of the neighbors would wake up!

Uno, Dos, Tres...

Part of the curriculum at her daycare is that they introduce them to Spanish. Well, tonight, out of the blue, Steve asked her if she was learning any Spanish (we’ve just never thought to ask her). She paused…..looked up towards the ceiling like she was thinking….and suddenly burst out with uno, dos, tres…..the child counted to 6 in Spanish! Steve & I both nearly lost our teeth! She suddenly started beaming with pride b/c we reacted so BIG….cheering & swinging her through the air. I know all the kids in her class are learning this too….but she still freaks us out!

Mother's Day

It was a great Mother's Day! Mommy & Daddy spent a few hours at The Player's tournament (Gran & Poppy were here for the weekend to watch Liv), then spent the afternoon with our girl. We pressed Livie's hands into a stone & decorated it with different colored glass pieces (this may become a Mother's Day tradition....hand prints....we did one last year, too), finger painted, and practiced riding a scooter.

Livie sees the bigger kids on the street riding their scooters, so she's very anxious to figure it out for herself now. Our neighbor let us borrow their "toddler" size scooter for her to practice. She gets the concept and goes through the right motions....but just doesn't push hard enough with her foot to get any good motion....but she's learning fast!

We also bought her an electric scooter last week...tried it out for the first time this weekend. It's a "Razor Jr"....for ages 3-6....2 wheels on the back so it won't tip over and it goes a whopping 1 MPH (perfect speed for Mommy & Daddy to walk along with so we can keep a hand very close). Of course we had to first get the cool helmet before trying out the scooter. She loves wearing it!!!

Then to finish the day...Liv started crying around 10:00 so I went into her room to check on her. She wasn't awake...but I quickly noticed that she had unzipped her PJs (she was wearing a 1 piece PJ that zips up the front) and taken off her diaper! The diaper was neatly rolled up with the tabs securely holding it (exactly the way Mommy & Daddy wrap up the dirty diapers). I couldn't believe it...I had to go get Daddy out of bed so he could see what she had done....and of course I took pictures (she's a bit "exposed" in the pic so probably not the best option for posting on the blog!). Thank goodness she was dry....no pee-pee since she took off the diaper! She still never woke up as I put a new diaper on her!

Changing diapers is her new thing. She has a Minnie Mouse that is about the same size she is...and she changes Minnie's diaper several times a day. She'll put it on her (exactly the right way)....then take it off and put it in a blue plastic bag (the bags we use for poopy diapers). We find several blue bags in her room every day. Needless to say, she's very good at taking off her diaper....we'll have a long talk about this tomorrow!

Look how high I am!!!

Liv & Daddy have a little too much fun in the pool...neither of us could believe how high she was when we looked at these pictures. She was having so much fun! (And Daddy went to bed early after taking a couple of Advil!)

Sweet girl

Livie has her moments of being very sweet....and her moments of being a very "testing" 2 year old. Tonight was all about my sweet girl. She was very sweet & gracious all by herself...without the usual "teachings" from Mommy. "Be nice...sweet girls don't say "No" to Mommy...tell Putter you're sorry for pulling his tail"...etc. She bumped my leg pretty hard when she was scooting her potty around in the bathroom, and she immediately said "I sorry Mommy". Every time she asked for anything tonight...it was followed by "please". "More milk please"..."get my blankey please"..."Mommy, lay in floor please". Then to top it all off, when I tucked her in and kissed her goodnight...she said "sweet dreams Mommy". She is such a doll! She does something amazing every day!

April

All dressed up to celebrate Easter....opening gifts!!

Going to get baby sister!

We've been talking about it since we came home from China, and have now decided to start the paperchase AGAIN! The wait is currently about 16 months...and some predict that it will stretch even longer. We're actually ok with the timeline....if the wait was 6 months we wouldn't be ready to go back yet. It'll work out great this way...Livie will be 4 and hopefully able to really help out with baby sister & be more independent. We’ve made the mistake of already telling Livie that we’re going to China. She now talks about it EVERY DAY! “Do you want to play with bubbles?”...“I go to China.” “Do you want to watch Elmo?”...“I go to China…get baby sister.” This comes up a couple of times every day. What were we thinking??!! She actually started talking about “baby sister” before we mentioned anything….she must have heard other kids at school talking about their baby sisters….so the discussion with her evolved from there. I asked her a couple of weeks ago what she wanted to name baby sister b/c we need to start making a list of ideas. She paused….with an “ummmmm” (she does that when she’s thinking now)….”PURPLE”! She was so proud of her suggestion. I just cracked up….she looked at me like I had 3 heads when I tried to explain that was just the name of a color…but there might be better names for baby sister.

March

Playdates...Easter egg games....swimming!!

February

Livie's grandparents came for a visit from TN...they rented a condo just around the corner from us for the month. Uncle Steve even came for a visit one weekend and we all went to Epcot & Magic Kingdom. It was great to have them here for a long visit...it's the longest I've lived in the same city (not to mention within 1 mile!) of my Mom since we got married.

We also celebrated Chinese New Year....such a great night, and all the girls looked so beautiful!

Magic Kingdom & Swimming in January

Big weekend for Liv...Magic Kingdom on Saturday with Gran & Poppy and swimming on Sunday afternoon! The weather was perfect this weekend. It was in the 80's on Saturday in Orlando, and upper 70's on Sunday in St Augustine. You can't ask for better than that in January! It was warm enough on Sunday for us to heat the pool and swim all afternoon. Livie was so excited to get in the water....it felt like bath water! She kicked around in her float, and jumped off the side into Daddy's arms. She was wiped out by 6:00 p.m....so was Mommy & Daddy!

2 yr check up

Olivia had her 2 year check up today. She has grown so much in the last year. She is now 27 lbs and 33 inches tall…that puts her at the 50th percentile for weight and a bit over the 25th percentile for height. She is right on target developmentally….speech, coordination, play, eating habits. She’s running, jumping, throwing & kicking balls, playing with everything, curious about everything, learning new words every day, loves daycare/school, talking about the “potty”, undressing herself occasionally, becoming more loving/affectionate everyday. She is the joy of our lives!!

Christmas

We had a great time at Ginnie & Joe-Joe’s house and Livie loved playing with Matthew & Mariah (her new cousins). Liv was so little last year, and Mariah was just a few months old….it was a different picture this year with them all chasing each other around the house. We headed to Gran & Poppy’s on Christmas Eve. We usually don’t go there until Christmas morning, so they were excited to have us a day early. We went to the candlelight service that night and Gran was so proud to show off Livie…and of course Livie layed on the charm. Liv loved all of her new toys....a rocking gator (like a rocking horse but with the a gator head), a doll, puzzles, hokey pokey Elmo, bathtub toys, books, clothes, a horse head that she can wear like a hat and it makes horse sounds, a Dora kitchen, and a desk shaped like a butterfly. OMG....it's all just too much! We really need to convince everyone to dial it back next year....although that will be hard since Liv is the only grandchild on both sides. OVER-STIMULATED!!! She learned a bit about Santa Claus this year but didn't totally get it....next year will be a blast because she'll really get into it when she's 3. We've already declared that we're not traveling next year at Christmas...Livie needs to wake up at her house on Christmas morning. She needs to be hear the reindeer on her own roof (or perhaps be terrified by the idea of reindeer on the roof and a strange man with a white beard and a red suit is breaking into the house....all part of growing up!) :-)