Distractions

Wonder what keeps Olivia from playing with her new Cozy Coupe?  All the animals in the neighborhood.  First, she gets sight of the cat, then hears the dogs, then sees the cat again, then the dogs.  It is a never ending cycle with her.

Vroom

Brooke got Olivia a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe Monday during their trip to Wal-mart.  It has the option to have a floorboard (so you can just push her around) and no floorboard (so she can push herself around.)  We brought her outside with the coupe and all she wanted to do was run on the stairs, chase cats, and look at doggies.  Maybe if she plays with it inside a bit she will get good at it and we can take it back outside with her again.

It started out as a mess

But Olivia’s help with the instructions were a lifesaver

The final product

Morning Routine

Every morning the same routine.  Here is a peek into my mornings, which begin around 7:30 (well, my morning really begins much earlier, but 7:30 is when it really matters.)  I see on the monitor that Olivia is awake.  Head into room and see her immediately reaching down for her toys that she inevitably threw on the floor when she woke up.  Hand her the bunny that she usually says “no” to first, then hand her the other toy, then hand her the bunny that she is now ready for.  She drops to the mattress on her belly.  I rub her back and tickle her a bit until she is ready to stand up.  She dances and walks around for a while then throws toys out again.  When I think she is ready I reach for her to take her out and typically she throws a quick fit as she collapses back down (because she is not yet ready to exit her crib.)  Wait for her to stand up again, go to pick her up again and usually by second time she is ready.  Lay her on changing table while she cries like I am pulling her hair out.  Once diaper is changed, set her on the ground and say “Go get your cup.”  She run to living room to drink, but first must survey the area and see if anything new is there before she drinks.  If all is normal, she drinks.  Yep, every morning!!  Welcome to my world.

80’s Day

Olivia love Beverly Hills Chihuahua so much (who couldn’t) that now when she gets home from Young World she immediately runs to the DVD player, taps on it and says “doggie, doggie, doggie, pssss, psssss, pssssss!”  So I click the input over to DVD and the screen goes blue and she starts laughing, then the menu comes up and she laughs more, then the show starts and she settles in and does not move the rest of the time.  It is cute, but I may need to stop this habit early.  It can’t be that good for her, but she loves it sooooo much.

Olivia did her own little 80’s day Tuesday.  Pink tights, visible panty (diaper) line, long shirt, socks over pants, tennis shoes.  She was rockin’ it well and even had the attitude.

Dinner Time

Brooke went to the doctor yesterday and was diagnosed with strep throat.  Since Livi has been sick for 2 weeks she went to the doctor today as well and has a double ear infection, but tested negative for strep.  She will be on antibiotics for the ears which will hopefully knock out anything else that happens to be lurking in there.  Though she has been good overall, she still hasn’t been totally herself.

Below is just a quick (well, lengthy actually) video to show Olivia eating with her fork.  I don’t know why she seems to need to twist her hand upside down to put the food into her mouth, but it is effective.  Look at the size of those broccoli bites!

Pudding

Young World is still good for little Livi.  Naps are still elusive in room 3 but at least she isn’t miserable there.  The whole family is still suffering with the remnants of the most recent cold.  This cough just won’t seem to go away!

We have started giving Olivia a plate and fork for to use for her dinners.  No more bowl and hands.  It is time to take that step.  She is doing quite well actually, and can get most food on the fork with out much trouble.  Her hotdog phase is over, hates them now, but is starting to like turkey cubes.  Still continues to love her broccoli!  Not a whole lot of new words happening, but she can sort of say broccoli, up, down, and finally Mommie!!!  She is also getting good at sort of communicating what she wants and doesn’t want with shaking or nodding her head.  She still gets frustrated if we don’t figure it out fast enough, but she will stand by her toy box and say “psssss  psssss psssss” (please) and I will lift a toy and she will shaker her head, will lift another, shake again, lift what she wants and she nods and smiles.  She also loves cooking things in her play kitchen.  She stirs stuff up in the cups and brings it to us or the dogs to taste.

Last night I had to finally install child locks on our entertainment center so I could put the DVDs back in their drawer.  I had to move them to the office because she finally discovered the cabinets and drawer.  She tried opening it today, but no such luck and I was surprised she gave up so quickly.

Olivia’s latest love is vanilla pudding.  She loves it, especially when she can serve herself.

Little Model

Olivia seems to have adjusted to Room 3 very well.  She napped one day, nothing the next, and we will see about today when Brooke picks her up.  When I got her Monday she was running around playing with the other kids.  She is still feeling sick and is a terror in the morning, but I think she calms down at Young World.

Nothing new other than that.  Here are a few pictures that Brooke took yesterday.  They look like they are from a mini modeling shoot.

The Devilish Grin

The Pretty Girl

Show Me Your Teeth

Give Me Some Shocked Face

Make Me Smile

Shhhhhhhhh…..

Ok, It Is Over….

New Room

I knew it was happening, but didn’t realize it was today.  I got to Young World with Olivia, walked into room 2 (where she usually stays, which is the step up from babies) and all the kids were sitting in their highchairs, and there were no spots available for Olivia.  I stood there, playing back in my mind that Brook had told me that they were going to be starting Olivia in the bigger kid’s room soon, but was it today already?  The lady in the room looked at me and so “oh, Olivia is in room 3 now, it is her first day.”  I looked over at my still sick little girl, with little strands of hair stuck to her nose and eyes and tried to mask my nervousness for her.  We walked into room 3 where about 10 kids were sitting at a rectangular table, all staring at Olivia and Me as we walked in.  Behind the 10 kids were 3 kids in highchairs eating their toast.  They looked out of place and I knew Olivia would be one of those weird kids too.  I handed the new lady Livi’s milk cup and she pointed me to Olivia’s new cubby.  A small tear welled up in my eye as I saw her cubby at the beginning of the cubby run.  She was the new kid now.  Starting a new room with new kids and a new “teacher” while kind of sick.  Poor Livi.  But on the other side of that, she enjoys older kids I think.  She will also start learning about how to sit at a table and maybe even start talking more now that she is around older kids.  We shall see.  So good bye room 2.  It was fun while it lasted.  A new adventure awaits you now my little Lee.  And you better behave because I don’t think those kids will be pushovers like your Dad.

Kickball

Olivia has been practicing kicking a ball and has gotten pretty good at it.  She even completed a running kick.  I guess Grandpa Rob needs to put the soccer coach hat on early.  She may be ready.

Not Popeye The Sailor, But…..

Olivia got to have her first piece of popcorn this morning.  Needless to say, she LOVED it.  It was left over from last night and Brooke needed something to calm her down while doing her hair.  It worked very well.  Kept her nice and reserved while the pigtails were put in.  She kept asking for more (she has gotten very good at “please” which sounds just like “pssssss”)  So I tried to get her to use both words together, “popcorn please.”  I almost got that, however, corn is not in her vocabulary, but eye is, so I got “pop….eye psss”  which works just fine for me.  She loves saying it also.  She will finish a piece then look at you and say “pop…eye, pop….eye” or sometimes “pop….paaaaap”

Last night we played with her and her new kitchen that Grandma and Grandpa got her on their visit.  We decided to start getting her to learn the parts of the kitchen.  We would say “open the stove”, “put your bowl in the stove”, “close the stove”, “wash the dish” even got her to do the water sound when washing them.  She is very good in the kitchen.  She was even shaking the little salt shaker on her toy sandwich and making the shhh shhh shhh noise.  Will have to get some video soon of it for the blog.

She did wake up with pink eye again and has another cold.  Currently it looks like a cold, pink eye and a few teeth starting to come in.  She is a trooper, but very wimpy right now.  Growing can be hard sometimes!

Sassy Walk

I have mentioned Olivia’s tough girl walk before in previous posts but have not had a chance to capture it.  On Easter I finally got to get a few seconds of it on video.  I can’t tell if it is a “I feel pretty”, “I am sassy” or “I’m a tough girl” walk.  Either way, I like it!

Easter Sunday

We had a fun Easter down at Mima and Grandpa’s house.  Olivia had a lot of little Easter baskets with a lot of goodies in them.  She makes the cutest sound when she sees a basket full of colorful stuffed animals and things, kind of a little squeal type laugh.

We all hung out for a while waiting for Olivia to get tired enough to go down for her nap so we could eat.  We brought over our pack-and-play since she has learned to crawl out of Mima’s.  We put it between the bed and the wall so she would have no where to get out.  She definitely did not want to go down for a nap and screamed like crazy for an hour, but finally fell asleep.

We all sat down to eat and had a honey baked ham, mashed potatoes and carrots.  Then Grandpa started getting antsy for Olivia to get up.  Around 2:30 he said “Should we go get her up?”  She had not been asleep that long yet so we made him wait until 3:00.  When 3:00 rolled around we all went up stairs to wake her and play until it was time to go, we had planned on leaving around 4:00.

When Olivia got up, her Auntie Steph gave her her first Peep.  She loved it!  She could have eaten them all day.

  

 

Olivia also rocked some of her best dance moves for Easter.  We had fun watching her dance around to her favorite tunes.

 

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter as well!!

Happy Easter

Olivia made it to the Clinton paper, at least we think it was Olivia, the last name was Staffa (even though I spelled it twice for the reporter.)  This was taken at the PC Easter Egg Hunt.  The photographer took lots of pictures of her and this is the one they published.  Would have liked to see a front view, but this picture actually fits the story well with her walking away.

Happy Easter everyone!

Easter Countdown

Happy one-day-til-Easter!  Tomorrow we will be heading down to Columbia to Mima’s house to see the family.  Yesterday we received this beautiful tulip arrangement from Mom and Dad.  Olivia loved them as well, she always laughs when she sees flowers and wants to smell them.

Bad Hair and Blowouts

Well, weather wise it is going to be a perfect weekend.  How is it that the last few rainy and crappy weekends I feel 100% but can’t go out and ride, but this 3 day weekend it is perfect out and I am sick?  Where is the justice?  On top of that, Brooke is very sick as well.

So because it is a day off, and I was going to be selfish and go for a long ride this morning, we decided earlier in the week to just take Olivia to daycare as normal and pick her up at lunch.  That would give Brooke a chance to relax, and me a chance to do something fun.  Well, now we are taking her in today because we both want to sleep and relax and try to feel better.  I hope she does not catch anything.  But because Brooke is worse off than I am, she was unable to get up to help do Olivia’s hair, so it was all on me.  I did the best I could but she looks very homely. 

In another story, our little girl is getting bigger.  She is starting to have blowouts in her jammies now.  Poor Livi, cold toes at night!!