Anniversary Night (Clean)

Last night for our anniversary we lived it up out on the town. We started by dropping off our vacuum cleaner at the repair shop (I guess the motor is shot, so we probably won't have it repaired) then hit Toys R Us. If that wasn't a dream come true for Olivia then I don't know what is. She immediately got the crinkled nose smile on her face and started to run around like crazy, grabbing everything that was soft or bright colored off the shelves. We finally had to put her in the shopping cart to keep her in check. As we walked down the aisles that had the stuffed animals she would screech and laugh. She LOVED it. I put her down again to run around and she would never have two empty hands.
After this we went to a child clothing/toy consignment store that she again had a great time running around in. She loved looking out the window of the store as well and watching people pass by.
Next on the list was Baby's R Us. Same situation, except this time I gave her free reign. She must have traveled the entire store. Up and down aisles, laughing and touching stuff. We need to take her shopping more often, it tuckered her out.
Last stop was Outback Steakhouse. Brooke got a shrimp salad and I got a steak. Olivia even had a small bite of steak but didn't seem to like it much. I guess she is a rib girl. She was great through dinner except for a few throws of her cup. She even ate some zucchini. We had a great time and enjoyed having Olivia as part of it this time!

Video of Olivia doing her "back walk" away from rice (talked about in last post)

Anniversary

Today is Brooke's and my anniversary.  2 years ago we were visiting in Florida and eating out at the Addison, 1 year ago we were sitting at home with an almost 2 month old losing our minds, this year we are all going out to a (hopefully) nice dinner together.  Time flys.
What is one of the first things we started teaching Olivia aside from Lipstick and comb your hair?  It is "where is your nose."  Ok, she learned that, however now she thinks her nose is her sinuses... We will say "where is your nose" and her finger will point to it, and then a lot of times just go up in it.  Now we are trying to break her of putting her finger IN her nose and just touching the tip of her nose.  The learning never ends!
Olivia has also been getting real good at walking backwards.  Last night we ordered Chinese and tried giving her rice.  After her first bite that all ended up on the floor, we kept trying to give her bites.  Every time we held our fork down for her she would look up at us and start walking backwards, then as she took about 10 steps would start to look back over her shoulder and keep going into the hall, then she would turn around and walk down the hall.  Don't know why she would back away from the rice.

Below is Olivia wanting to enjoy one of my favorite things.  Sorry Livi, you are going to have to wait a few years before you can have this.  Plus, you have enough energy as it is!

Christmas Highlights 2

Part two of Olivia's Christmas. This is all from Mima and Grandpa Rob's house. She loves her rocking horse and tent, and is not at all scared of the jack-in-the-box. Such a brave girl! Check out those hip movements on her dancing.
I will have to say that last night's story time with the Peek-a-Boo book was much better. She did get a little restless, and even did some of her signature growling, but all in all, she stayed on my lap. It was a short book, to get her back in the mood, but it went well. We can hope that this is a sign of things to come. Brooke also went to Walmart last night and got some new bins to hold Olivia's old toys. We packed up a lot of stuff she wont ever play with again to make some space in the pack-and-play for all her new toys. It feels a little more organized now. It is sad seeing all the "baby" toys go up in the attic. We were looking through them and saying "is this too young of a toy now for her now?" She has actually graduated from some of her little girl toys and is moving on up! Go Livi, go!!

Christmas Video Highlights 1

Boy, Christmas has made blogging easy for me. I will have 2 days of video highlights for your viewing pleasure.
Here are highlights from the morning at our house, right from the time Olivia woke up. She got a real treat, Lu in her crib!! Then a nice waffle breakfast after she opened some presents.

Christmas Part 2

...after opening presents from mom and dad, we were tired and ready for bed. We went to sleep and were excited to get up the next day and watch Olivia play with her new toys (and play with some of ours as well.) I will say that as I write this, Olivia is sitting captivated by the Disney's Santa Buddies dog video that Grandma and Grandpa got her. She has been very whiny this morning and this seems to have cured her, YAY!! Maybe Emmitt Otter will be next.
I finally got to mess with my new green screen that Marcia and Rob got me. I have been wanting one to help take Olivia pictures. Cutting out a background is such a pain without one, and getting Olivia to pose for anything these days is even harder. Now I can take a picture of her and put her anywhere I want!! Here are my first very rough impromptu 2 minute trials (which would have taken A LOT longer with out the screen.)

My dad wants Olivia to be an outdoor type girl, so he got her some camouflage overalls. I think she can only wear these in the house, because she would disappear in our back yard in these. (LOL, she is screeching, laughing, smiling and dancing in front of the TV right now at that dog movie, it is cute. She loves it.)



She also has been having fun playing with all of her other toys.



We even got some shots of her in her Christmas dress, and out of the 185 Christmas tree shots were were able to get two descent ones. I think we need a third person to get pictures of Olivia. Two are not enough, she refuses to look where you want, sit where you want, or stand where you want. You could not pay me enough to be a child photographer!


All in all it was a great Christmas. I will have to say that Christmas as a kid is a LOT less stressful than as an adult with a kid. I know they will get easier, but trying to open presents while at the same time guarding the trash, knife, drink cups, unopened gifts etc is a pain. It felt more like a job than a holiday at our house that morning! Next year she will be less excited about everything else and be more focused on HER presents. That will be fun. I can't wait!!

Merry Christmas from G, B, O, Z, C, and little L. (And Izzy too, while she is here)

Christmas Part 1

In the spirit of at least getting some pictures up, here is part 1 of our Christmas.

Early Hours:
It was not a good night for Olivia, she shrieked a few time during the night, waking us both up. I was extremely tired yesterday morning because of this, however she at least slept in until 8:00 for me. I got up as usual, changed her, fed her and let the dogs out. Brooke and I had brought all the presents out into the living room on Christmas eve after Livi had gone to sleep. I knew that she would love seeing all the gifts when she got up because it was something new. I was right, as soon as she turned the corner around the couches she got her "confused smile" on. She crinkled her nose and let out her "ahhhhhhhh" sound at the gifts, then started to touch everything.


She walked around grabbing small packages and didn't know where to go next. She finally found her stocking that Grandma and Grandpa sent and started pulling stuff out of it.

But she REALLY loved the trash and wrapping paper of course. We had a hard time trying to keep her out of it. Who would have thought it would be so much work Christmas morning.

Next came my "special" gift from Aunt Gail. Why must I always be tortured on Christmas!!

After Brooke and I opened presents from each other, we had breakfast. We were getting short on time and our new house guest for the weekend showed up. We had agreed to watch our neighbor's new baby chihuahua for a few days while they went out of town. I guess we can suffer through this!!

Next we headed down to Columbia to spend the afternoon with the family. It was a pretty rainy and slow drive but we made it safe and sound. Izzy slept most of the way and is a good traveler. We started out opening a few of Olivia's gifts but she grew tired so we fed her and then put her down for a nap so the adults could open presents.




After eating, we headed home to open presents from my parents..........
(to be continued..)

Traditions

I was excited yesterday because my traditional cardamon bread (home made by mom) arrived yesterday. While devouring a whole loaf (or almost the whole loaf) I decided to be nice and share some of it with Olivia (I did share my ribs with her after all.) She seemed to really like it. I am not sure that I like the idea of her liking it, I am very stingy with that bread!
A day or so ago Brooke bought Olivia a sailor suit while she was out. Last night after the bread, we decided to see if it fit. She looked very cute in it and seemed to enjoy wearing it as she ran all around the house laughing.
It is Christmas Eve! Tomorrow Olivia gets to open presents. We are excited this year for her. This year we wont be sitting around opening presents quietly hoping that Olivia doesn't wake up. This year we will be excited to get Olivia up and have her opening with us. My how much a difference a year makes!!