Another outfit

Off to another Christmas party (#9 of the season!) looking appropriate
for hanging out with her Norwegian- heritage relatives :)

Paul

In the Jones household, we are fans of Newman's Own products, specifically the peach salsa. Recently we tried the regular salsa, which wasn't nearly as tasty as the flavored ones. I also bought cheese dip last month which was flat-out disgusting (Evan didn't mind it), but overall, we love the products, thanks mostly to the exposure they get at our family gatherings.

As with all the other pre-made stuff we eat, Olivia is very interested in the packaging. The cereal boxes, syrup labels or pictures on jars are often the subject of conversation while we eat (which is usually just the two of us at lunch).

A few weeks ago, she asked me about the guy on the salsa and I told her it was Paul Newman. I told her he was an actor and then a philanthropist (new word!) and was now dead. That was about the extent of our conversation. She mostly enjoyed looking at his funny hat on the label. Last weekend, Evan was home for lunch and we had the salsa out. He, not knowing about our previous conversations, was a little surprised when Olivia said, "Can I see Paul Newman?"

Outfits, continued

Christmas Eve dress

Snuggly Christmas morning jammies

New Christmas Day matching outfits! Thanks Uncle Chris!
Olivia with big cousin from whom  she gets 90% of her clothes :)

Christmas Day outfit #2 - celebrating with Daddy's side of the family

Snow globe shirt! Off to an indoor park with Daddy who is home for the week.

Merry Christmas!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Outfits, continued

Sure, it's just a plain white t-shirt, but check out those awesome Christmas patchwork jeans!
(For gingerbread building at her Grandma GJ's house)

Christmas Eve Eve Eve (Thursday) - sporting red velvet and feathers (at her other Grandma's house).
Are you still finding red feathers at your house, Mom?


By the way, this is our 100th post! 13 months and 100 Olivia moments documented - thanks for reading!  :)

12 Outfits, continued

Jammies so cute it's a shame they're just for sleeping!

The 12 (or so) Outfits of Christmas

We were given an insane amount of hand-me-down clothes from our very stylish, now 5-year-old niece. As I pulled out the 2T winter stuff, I was shocked by the number of Christmas themed/colored outfits. Since I can't count on this stuff fitting Olivia next year, I have been making an extra effort to get her in each of these outfits and jammies at least once this holiday season. Here are the days we have so far - stayed tuned to see the others :)

"Cheese!" in her big girl bed

Candy Cane!

Modeling on the potty chair/step-stool

Snuggle Bunny, indeed.

Eating cooked spinach, out of a shot glass, in adorable jammies. Not something you see everyday...
(BTW, she loves the spinach - this is not a force-feed scenario!)

Hoping that at least one of those presents are for her... 

Tu-tu cute!

It's a...

We had the ultrasound today. I was shocked by the gender results! Evan and Olivia were right all along - what does Mommy know, anyway? Everything looks great so far and we meet with the doctor next week to officially go over the results. So fun to celebrate the halfway mark with seeing our baby!

"Does Chobani have gluten in it?" is not a question, I have to think, that most two-year-old would ask.

Since learning of my Celiac disease in September, I've cut gluten entirely from my diet.  At first, I didn't say anything about my change of eating habits to Olivia. I would simply and politely decline her offers to share her mac and cheese or graham cracker. After several weeks, I fessed up that I just couldn't eat some of the food she could. I'd say, "Mommy can't eat that" if she wanted to share an off-limits food with me.  I'm not sure why I didn't tell her right away. I guess I didn't want her to think there was something wrong with me or that I was different, even though, to some extent, both of those things are true.

Earlier this week, I introduced the word "gluten." I didn't really explain what it was, just that it was in some foods and I couldn't have it, but she and Daddy could. That conversation almost immediately turned to gluten-sluething on Olivia's part. "Do pears have gluten? Does cheese have gluten? Do eggs have gluten?" and so on. A few days ago, she and I were eating lunch - soup, Chobani greek yogurt, GF breadsticks (thanks, Nicki!) and milk, and out of nowhere, Olivia asks, "Does Chobani have gluten in it?" and I had to laugh. She already knows more about Celiac than many adults! Of course, the answer was, "No, it doesn't. That's why Mommy can eat it (duh! ha ha)," but I love that she is aware and that future conversations about this will be easier. 

If you want to learn more about Celiac and it's symptoms, you can find a link by clicking here.

I haven't done a very good job updating this blog to reflect what's actually going on with the Joneses, as the blog title suggests. So, here's a status update:
I'm pregnant - due April 30.
Olivia celebrates her one-week anniversary of sleeping in a big girl bed tonight. We bought a new bed and mattress set so gave her our old bedroom set. She is now sleeping in a queen-size, low, white Ikea bed. She looks like a tiny newborn baby in a crib again. Evan and I feel like big kids, too, in our super high "grown-up" bed. Right now, Olivia's room looks like a teenager's so I'm thinking of ways to make it look like a two-year-old. Meanwhile, Olivia's crib and furniture went to the baby's room (former office). It's all set up in there, waiting for the gender reveal next Wednesday after which the room will be decorated and possibly painted. The office furniture went across the hall to the former guest room. It's a smaller room so we're in the midst of paper-purging. All four rooms got a makeover and we lost a guest room which is a huge loss - not. We've had one guest in the past seven months. We'll make it work.
Downstairs, we've ordered a new couch and ottoman for the living room. Both are scheduled to arrive before Christmas. I'm super anxious to get the couch so I can get a rug, end tables, and window treatments. I'm sure the neighbors will miss the "Live from the Joneses" show they get each night after sundown, but they'll live. I might be able to decide on a light fixture for the dining room at some point now, too.
On the food front, I'm strictly adhering to my gluten-free diet. It isn't fun and I'm usually hungry. All in the name of health, right?
Now, wasn't that fun? Consider yourself updated.

Last Saturday was the first snowfall here. I dressed Olivia in her gear, grabbed the camera, and took her outside. I started snapping away as she drug her feet through the snow and looked around at our newly whitened neighborhood. I told her a few times to look at me and smile. I got some super cute shots of her, and I told her the story about taking her out for the first snowfall last year when she automatically stuck out her tongue to catch snowflakes.
"Look at me and smile, Pie!" I said as I captured a shot. I checked it in the screen to see the digital image. "Okay, smile again!" I told her.

And then, sounding heartbreakingly like a self-conscious teenager, she asked, "Was it a bad picture?"

I didn't think I was going to be the mom to teach my kid the anatomically correct words for body parts, and to some extent, I'm still not, but I did recently add "uterus" to Olivia's vocabulary.
Since I'm pregnant, we've been talking for several weeks about a baby being in Mommy's tummy. I was totally comfortable with the "close enough" of that language. It started getting a little muddy last week, though, when I told Pie, after eating something (a marshmallow, I think) that it was yummy in my tummy. That's when she said, "the baby likes it!" I decided at that point that I didn't want her thinking for the next several years that pregnant ladies were carrying their babies in the same place they also carried their half-digested Chipotle burritos and chewed-up broccoli.
"Actually, Pie, our baby isn't really in Mommy's tummy. The baby is in a special place right below my tummy called a uterus. Can you say uterus?" I couldn't help but add that last part because I was dying to hear that funny word in her 2-year-old voice. She didn't disappoint.
"Uterus," she repeated with perfect diction.
We haven't had much uterus talk since then. I still say "tummy" usually, but I feel comfortable enough with it knowing that I told her the real deal.
Last night at the dinner table, Olivia was lightly kicking my knee under the table. "Does this hurt the baby?" she asked. This is a fun game she's been playing ever since I told her to be careful not to kick me in the tummy when I'm changing her, for fear of hurting the baby.
"No, it doesn't hurt the baby," I answered.
She switched to my arm and started pushing on it. "Does this hurt the baby?" she asked again.
"Nope, that doesn't hurt the baby either. Remember the baby is in Mommy's tummy, not my arm." I clarified, though obviously not quite correctly enough.
"No," she further explained to me, "the baby lives in your uterus."

It was late as we drove home a few nights ago. In an attempt to keep Olivia distracted so she wouldn't think about her tiredness, I talked to her about the day, recapping all the fun we had had. She loves to hear again and again the details of her life, as if she wasn't there to experience it and needs a first-hand account. I don't mind playing along. Instead of saying, "I just told you about going to the library!" I use it as an opportunity to throw in new vocabulary words, or phrase things differently, or to ask her to fill in details. We definitely love to get our gab on. After several minutes of this last night, however, she seemed to suddenly have had enough. "Put on my music," she demanded.

After asking her to restate her request politely, I obliged.

As we neared our house, we drove by our precinct's polling place - the place I had just taken Olivia on Tuesday as I fulfilled my civic obligation. "Where'd we vote?" she asked leadingly.

Taking the bait, I said, "Right there at that church! That is Mt. Hope. It's where you voted with Mommy. Remember how we went in and-"

"Turn it up!" Olivia interrupted. Thinking I hadn't captured her attention well enough, I reached for the volume. "The music?" I asked.

"No! Your voice!"

Olivia, jumping around in the playroom, listening to music and wildly waving a balloon:
"I belong in the circus!!!"

After I picked Olivia up from daycare on Tuesday, Election Day, and told her about my plans for us before dinner.
"We're going to vote!" I told her excitedly. Of course, I then needed to fill in the details so I launched into a two-year-old friendly version of the election process, using phrases like, "help choose our leader,""write on a piece of paper," "we decide," "America is special," etc.
After several minutes of explanation, Olivia's only question was, "Do we get to ride in the vote?"

Olivia was trying on my shoes the other day as is one of her favorite things to do in our room (second only to trying on my jewelry). Her favorite pair are my bright green, vinyl-y flats. When she puts them on, she tells me she's going "to school." The other day, after she pulled out and tried on about six pairs of shoes, I told her it was time to clean up. Obediently, she started cleaning up. She lost steam after putting away all but two pairs of shoes. "Good job!" I said. "Now you just have to put away the black ones (both pairs of shoes left were black).
"Are these black?" she asked of my black Rocketdogs.
"Yep."
"Are these black?" pointing to my black patent-leather heels.
"Yep. Those are, too. Now put both pairs away."
Immediately she protested, "These are NOT pears! They are not peaches [either] I think!"

As I was making Olivia's lunch today, she was flitting around the kitchen, using a kitchen utensil to "clean" various appliances. I knew this only because she was chanting "clean, clean, clean!" while she did this. Asking the obvious, I said, "Oh wow, Pie! Are you cleaning the kitchen?"
"Yep," she said. "You go sleep, I'll clean up."
Sounds lovely...how can I get her to repeat that to Evan this evening?

A Fair Trade

Today at lunch, Olivia said to me, "I like lentils" (which I had added, along with chicken, to her mac and cheese). "They're soft - like Skittles!"
That's right, Pie. And since you feel that way, why don't you fork over those Skittles, along with your other Halloween loot, and in return, I'll supply you with all the lentils you can eat.

Eggs

While loading four bags of groceries into the trunk this morning, I made a mental note to drive carefully as not to disturb the eggs I had placed on the very top of one of the bags. Two blocks from home, I used the breaks too firmly at a stop sign and Olivia and I heard a few thumps from the trunk. "Uh-oh," I told her. "I think the bag with the eggs just tipped over. We might have broken eggs all over the trunk!" She was as anxious to assess the situation as I was when we got home. When I opened the trunk, I was surprised and relieved to see that although the egg bag had tipped and the carton was turned upside-down, only one egg was broken, and it was just a small crack - no oozing. I showed Olivia and explained again what could have happened. "Thank you, Jesus," I said "for allowing only one egg to break and not make a mess!"
Olivia's response was, "Should you ask him to fix the broken egg?"

Rock-a-bye

Since Olivia isn't a reader (give me a few more months), all her memorization comes from listening. Her learning is basically an on-going game of telephone - she, always hoping to have heard correctly, and me, chuckling when I find instances of her hearing something wrong and missing some of the meaning. I was reminded of this a few days ago.
She was in the shower, and she had cleared out her bath toy holder to create a cradle, of sorts, for her lovable, green monster. She told me "Monster is a baby" and then put him in the little pouch and began to swing him back and forth while singing, "Rock-a-bye baby."
Rock-a-bye baby in the treetop
When the wind blows the cradle will rock.
When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall
And down will come baby, cradle an' doll.
Realizing at the end that she wasn't rocking a baby doll, but rather, her monster, she quickly revised the end of the line with
...cradle an' monster.

Olivia and I were reading her ABC "flap" book this morning. For each letter of the alphabet, there are several pictures of objects beginning with that letter along with a sentence giving a clue about another picture under the flap. I was reading the first part of the sentence to her, she'd then open the flap and use the picture clue to complete the sentence. For example: (picture of a saw on the "S" page) "A saw is a tool, so is a ____" and she'd open the flap and say "screwdriver!"
We went through the book and she "read" with 100% accuracy, relying on the picture clues the whole way.
We came to the "Q" page. I read, "Queen starts with Q, so does _______"
Olivia opened the flap and saw something like this ---------->
"Qu, qu, quistmas tree!"
Correct answer = quilt, though I gave her points for qu, qu, queativity!
*Were there no other less-confusing quilt patterns to choose from?!

I'm in the midst of fall parent-teacher conferences at work. Yesterday was my "off" day during the day, but I still needed to be at conferences for the afternoon and evening. This meant I had to nap Olivia early, so I could get her up and to my mom's house, so I could be back at school by 2:30 to begin conferences  by 3:00. Olivia didn't fall asleep within the five minute window I gave her so it threw of our schedule a bit. She wasn't ready to wake up at 2:10, so I (cringe) had to wake her from her nap. I tiptoed in and softly said, "It's time to wake up and go to Grandma's."
"Okay," she replied in a matter-of-factly. She was much more with-it and much less grumpy than I was expecting (or myself would have been), but I was still feeling a little bad for having woken her.
As I carried her down the stairs, I apologized, "Sorry I had to wake you from your nap."
She gently patted my back and said sweetly, "I forgive you."

Hilarious

Olivia was playing with a puzzle yesterday, but had her back to me. She did something (I couldn't see what) with a puzzle piece that must have been incredibly amusing because all of a sudden she gave a very hearty and very fake, dramatic laugh. "That is so hilarious!" she gushed. I laughed (for real) and said, "YOU are hilarious!" Olivia countered with, "No, YOU'RE hilarious! You're COVERED in hilarious!"
Good one.

We went to a baby shower today.
At first explanation, I told Olivia it was a baby party, which sounded misleading, so I changed the description to "a party for ladies who are going to have babies." More accurate, but still confusing, so I finally told her we're going to a baby shower. Women who have babies get to have a party where people shower them with gifts. No one will be taking a shower, only being showered by gifts. I think she sort of got it.
When she got up from her nap, I reminded her we were going to a baby shower. She elaborated, "There won't be one" (a wet, watery shower, that is.) That's correct.
I put her in a dress and did her hair and we were about to leave when I realized I hadn't diapered her yet - taken off the wet diaper - yes, but not yet put on a clean one. I laughed and dramatically told her what I had realized:
"Pie! Mommy forgot to put a diaper on you! What if we had gone to the shower and you went potty on somebody's carpet! That would be so embarrassing!"
Her very serious reply cracked me up. "I would not do that."
I told her that was good to know. She must have liked the drama in "what could have been" because she rolled the phrase over on her tongue several times for the next few minutes, "So embarrassing! So embarrassing!"

Note: This post will be exponentially funnier if read aloud.

Like with books, Olivia tends to find a favorite CD and want to only listen to that one for a while. Right now, it's the United States of America states and capitals CD that she requests every time we get into the car. ("America music!") The songs are seriously in my head all day long. I wake up in the middle of the night with "Jefferson City, Missouri. Helena, Montana" etc. coursing through my brain. I already know my states and capitals. Now I just have a musical version of them clogging up my brain. Anyway...
The other day, Olivia was playing at her little kitchen and pulling out various food items. She held up the bright blue fake salt shaker and said, "pepper!" Evan said, "Not pepper, it's the other one."
"Salt!" she corrected, which in her 2-year-old voice comes out sounding like, "sauwt." We both congratulated her on this important piece of information.
Then, to herself, "Sauwt, sauwt...Sauwt Dakota!"

When Olivia got up this morning, I gave her the run-down of the day, per usual. She had some funny things to say.
Me: We're going on a walk with Zach and Amy this morning.
Olivia: Again?
(Our last walk with them was two weeks ago.)
Me: Yes, again! But they're coming to our house this time.
O: Am I coming, too?
Me: Yep, I'll push you in your stroller.
O: Don't talk to Amy this time.
(Last time I gave her a heads-up that I'd be talking to Amy the whole walk so she needed to take a toy that would occupy her.)

While getting pj's on tonight:
Me: Guess where you get to go tomorrow?
Olivia: The apple orchard!
(Correct response would have been "Auntie Nicki's" or "daycare")
Me: Not tomorrow, but soon! Pie, I could listen to you talk all day - you're so cute!
Olivia: I know it!
Yes you do...

Two things that melted my heart over the weekend:

1.) We stopped at the Norske Nook on our way to Wisconsin Dells this weekend. We each enjoyed a healthy hearty dose of Scandinavian comfort food. Olivia was being cute and funny as usual, as she munched on her lefse appetizer and played with the Norwegian and American flags at the table. At one point, I told her, "You are my favorite piece of Pie (Pie being the name she goes by 90% of the time around our house). She returned the complement with, "You are my favorite piece of Mom."

2.) Walking through the water park at our resort on Saturday, Olivia said, "Hold me, Mommy."
"I'd love to hold you," I replied. Her response, "You're my best friend, Mom."
I don't know where she's heard of best friends or what exactly she thinks that means, but I'll take it.

 "This is Olivia. She is good at lots of things. She is very good at wearing people out.  She even wears herself out."

If you are familiar with Ian Falconer's "Olivia" series, you'll recognize those first few lines from his book.
Our Olivia knows the books well, almost by heart. She loves the books and any other Olivia the Pig paraphernalia. I'm happy to say, she isn't quite the handful that the literary character is.

Today as she and I were playing with sidewalk chalk, she found that the chalk was just the right size to push through the little holes of her small, plastic wheelbarrow (read: sidewalk chalk holder). Satisfied with her cleverness, she told me, "I am good at lots of things."

Mommy's Best Kisses

A parent of one of my second-graders this past year gave me a book for my birthday in June. It is a book she used to read to her boys when they were little and she said it became a favorite. She wrote me a note saying she hoped Olivia would enjoy it as much as her kids did. She loves it. It's called Mommy's Best Kisses and it's a sweet story about a mom putting her baby to bed, but not before she kisses him all over. Each page has a darling animal mom kissing her baby on his "strong arms" (a monkey), "pink knees" (an ostrich), "rosy cheeks" (a hippo), and so on.

Olivia has especially taken to the "plump tummy" (a piglet) and "wee nose" (an elephant) and uses those descriptive words often. She's told both Evan and I that we have plump tummies, right before planting a kiss on them.

Yesterday, I was kissing her cheeks so I said, "I'm kissing your rosy cheeks!" and then I started kissing her all over, trying to remember the book for memory. I went through all the animal pages in my head as I announced each body part I was kissing. "Your wee nose! Your pink knees! Your soft hair! Your little toes! Your sleepy eyes --" She stopped me right there.

"DROWSY eyes!" she corrected.

And now a lesson on synonyms...

Here's the book. Buy it for anyone who's expecting a baby.

Cake - part duex

Wondering how the pink, pretend baby/balloon cake turned out? (see July 22).

Here she is...

Can I just tell you how hard it was to find little babies to stick on a cake?!

I made (60) cake pops for the rest of the guests, and Olivia ended up wanting one of those at her party, which means she got her cake the next day...after breakfast.

Methodically picking off and devouring

each balloon.

The aftermath. She took off and put back on every baby - about three times. She decided she had had enough when the messiness of her hands started bothering her (or was it the queasy feeling in her stomach?)

Purple and red and tan all over

In the shower the other day, Olivia was playing with her bath friends - Coral, a mermaid with purple hair, and Barbie - a Barbie-like Sleeping Beauty character. I was showering with Olivia, so was able to observe the interaction she was attempting to create amongst the three of them. It was awkward. She had Coral and Barbie facing each other, ready for a conversation, and was making them hop a little, like they were talking to one another, but clearly, couldn't think of anything for them to say. So I helped out:

(to Coral, in an obnoxious high-pitched voice) "Hi Coral. I like your purple hair!"

(to Barbie, ) "Thanks, Barbie. I like the blue streaks in your hair." (It's never too soon to teach Olivia that hair-talk dominates most girl conversations.)

I then let Olivia take over. She immediately said to her friends, "I'm Olivia and I'm red!"

Not convinced I had heard her correctly, I asked for clarification. "You're what?"

"I have red hair. And tan skin!"

True, after being at the pool the last four days...let's reassess this tan-skin business in February.

Let me just say, I know I write a lot (a LOT) about mine and Olivia's brief discussions about God, often at bedtime, but I just have to blog it. This is a journal of our life, and these are things we talk about.

Tonight at bedtime, I was thanking God (aloud) for all his blessings - our family, our home, our cozy soft beds. I told Olivia that every good thing we have is from God. She said, "He's in heaven."

Me: Who else is in heaven?

Olivia: Jesus.

Me: That's right. Jesus is in heaven with God. Who else is there?

Olivia: My grandpa (my dad). And my other Grandpa (my dad's dad). And Great-Gram (she's alive).

I assured her, again, that Great-Gram is not in heaven yet, but will be there soon.

We've only talked about her two grandpas in heaven once and it was a couple weeks ago, so it was sweet to hear her refer to my dad not just as "grandpa," but "my grandpa." He would LOVE her. Funny enough, one of her favorite songs right now is "When we all get to heaven" (from her kids' hymns CD :) which says "When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be!" I can't help but look forward to that joyous reunion.

God IS good!

Olivia requested an additional song at bedtime tonight. Since I had already sung to her, prayed with her, put her blankie over her, and rubbed her back, I told her no. However, I gave her permission to sing to herself (aren't I altruistic?). As I walked out of her room, I could hear her sweet little voice softly singing, "God is so good...God is so good...God is so good, he's so good...to...me."

A little background:

We've been singing that song a lot recently. It started with a trip to the grocery store several weeks ago. As we were leaving, I mentioned that I was thankful that God gave (gives) us enough money for food and the things we need...and then I started singing "God is so good" in the Cub parking lot. Since then, we sing it often and with purpose. We frequently sing it as we reflect on the events of the day, usually at bedtime, as I am reminded of what a blessed life we have. I so want to raise a grateful child! I want her to be thankful for everything we have...while not giving her everything.

No es bueno

Olivia and I came zipping home at 7:00 tonight from an evening of swimming at the pool. Antsy because 7:00 is my bedtime target for her, even if we usually miss, I called Evan to let him know we'd be home in a few minutes. He told me he had just pulled a pizza out of the oven, so I asked him to cut up a piece for Olivia and have it and her milk ready for us when we rolled in. He had dinner set up on the porch when we arrived.

I've had better pizza. This was Mexican frozen pizza - cheddar cheese, sausage chunks, green onions, diced tomatoes atop a tangy not-quite-tomato-sauce-but-not-exactly-taco-sauce-either paste. Pie and I were both hungry enough to eat the first several bites without complaining. However, around bite five, she dug in her heels and started refusing the stuff. I didn't push it, mostly because it didn't seem healthy enough, in my opinion, to force it on her. Also, my red, green and brown rejects were conspicuously scattered across my own plate. I gave her a banana with peanut butter and a dish of yogurt and strawberries to round out the meal instead.

When Pie was done, I cleaned her off and started to remove her bib. It was then she spied something peculiar in the pouch of her vinyl bib. "Poop," she declared. Sitting in her bib was a lone sausage ball.

Not too far off...

I heart Grandpa

After bath time the other night, I grabbed a clean onesie for Olivia to wear with her pajama pants - yes, she's old enough to be wearing pajama pants to bed, but still babyish enough to pair them with a onesie. As soon as she spied it, she said "I love Grandpa shirt!" (Blue onesie with 'I love Grandpa' stitched on it)

"Do you love Grandpa? Grandpa loves you. You have two grandpas."

"Grandpa Jones and Grandpa Jim," she replied. It surprised me how quickly and accurately she recalled this.

"You have a great grandpa, too - Great Grandpa Bauman. He's Mommy's grandpa. Mommy had another grandpa, too, but he's in heaven. You have another Grandpa in heaven with Jesus, too. You'll get to meet Grandpa Dahlen and Great Grandpa Dahlen in heaven someday. They will be excited to see you!"

Olivia listened to what I said, processed, and then said "God's friends."

Friends of God, indeed.

1, 2, whatever

I took Olivia to her first play last week. It was a kid-friendly, condensed version on "Annie." On the way to the play, I gave O a heads-up on what to expect: clapping, lights-out periods between scenes, laughing, quiet listening, etc. I told her we would be watching kids perform a story, to which she said, "I'm a kid."I confirmed, yep, she was a kid.

O: You're a kid, Mom.

Me: Nope, I'm a grown-up.

O: I'm a grown-up.

Me: Nope, you're a kid. You won't be a grown up until you're 18. That's a long time from now because you're only two.

O: (her word-for-word answer) I'm one, Mom. (only the "duh" is implied...)

I guess "rounding up" doesn't work for a 23-month-old.

BTW, she did great during the play. She became immediately obsessed with the dog, Sandy, played by a 10-year-old girl in a dog costume, and asked, "Where'd the puppy go?" every time dog-girl left the stage.

Olivia was whining while I was rinsing dishes this morning. She wanted to be held or played with and didn't want to wait for my kitchen work to be done. She sort of slipped on the rug and fell in a heap at my feet. "I bumped myself!" she whined. Not wanting to play too much into the drama, but also wanting to acknowledge her, I asked matter-of-factly, "Where should I kiss you?" Expecting her to say "my head," she surprised me with "In the playroom."

Several of our family members, myself included, are fighting colds right now. It just seems wrong to have a drippy nose and sore throat in August. Yesterday, I took Olivia and her cousin James to story time. While in the car, Jimmy let out a major, juicy cough. Olivia congratulated him with, "Good cough, buddy!"

This morning's breakfast conversation:

Olivia: I'm getting married.

Me: You are?! To who?

O: A nice boy.

Me: What's his name?

O: Jesus is a nice boy.

Me: Jesus is nice, but he lives in heaven. You can't marry him (as if that's the only reason that arrangement wouldn't work.)

O: Great-gram lives in heaven.

Me: Not yet. She'll live there soon, but not yet. (We had had that conversation last week.)

Cake talk

As Olivia and I were eating brunch together yesterday (yep, "brunch" since we were eating eggs and muffins at 11:15), we were doing some counting. She's learning about how specific numbers correlate to holding up a certain number of fingers. She surprised me by holding up five fingers and saying "five" and doing the same with four. I told her Megan was four. She proceeded to tell me she was going to be" two in August." (She needs help making the "two" with her fingers, but is quick to tell us that they are bunny ears.)

I affirmed that, yes, she'd be two next month. Then she said, "I'll have cake!" I used that to segue into cake talk.

Me: What do you want on your cake?

Olivia: Frosting!

Me: Yes, you'll have frosting! What do you want to be on the frosting. What designs?

O: Balloons.

(This seemed incredibly reasonable and appropriate...and boring. So I persisted.)

Me: What else?

O: Baby dolls. Pretend ones.

(I laughed and am cracking up now writing this since I'm obviously envisioning real babies on her birthday cake. And how hilarious of her to specify this without prompting. She kills me.)

I wanted a little more info.

Me: What color do you want your cake to be?

O: (without hesitating) Pink.

So I have my marching orders. A balloon/(pretend) baby doll-themed cake in pink. I'll see what I can do.

It was a little easier last year when she couldn't give me directions...

Here comes...

Look closely at the photo below. What did this almost-two-year-old tell me she was after perfectly placing this ordinary paper grocery bag behind her?

Give up?

She came walking into the kitchen like this and said:

"I'm a bride! I look like Cinderella. I be beautiful!"

(I think she meant "I will be beautiful," unless she's picking up some ebonics from our time spent at Valley View Pool...)

We have been reading Cinderella recently and it's become a fast favorite. The last picture in the book is of a princess bride Cinderella marrying her prince. Olivia is dying to be a bride (yikes) and pretends she is getting married whenever she puts something out of the ordinary on her head for a crown/veil.

Funny related side-note -- When we were in the car the other day, she was talking about having a wedding. I told her someday when she was [MUCH] older, she would get to be married and wear a fancy dress. I said she would have to find a very nice boy. She agreed with me and then said, "We will laugh together!" Not a bad thing to put on her "Mr. Right" list.

Close enough

Let me just say, I'm not an artist...or artistic...or artsy. I wish I was all of those things, or at least one of them, but sadly, I am none of the above.

Having said that, I will often draw or color for and with Olivia. In fact, we have played pictionary, just the two of us, quite successfully on occasion, but that's a different story.

A few evenings ago, Olivia was using dry-erase markers on her new-ish easel. (IKEA, $15 - fabulous investment). After scribbling for a while, she thrust the marker at me and said, "Draw a tractor." This is not something I've drawn or something she's requested before, but I quickly drew what I deemed a satisfactory tractor (very quickly as it was already 7:15 p.m. - gasp!) She took one look at it and said exactly this: "That's not a tractor, Mom." I snickered and, always wondering what she's thinking, I asked her, "What is it then?"

"A truck."

Well, at least I turned out a motorized vehicle. A truck, a tractor, a train, whatever.

You decide:

Here a fry, there a fry

Olivia and I were playing a "game" the other day which consisted of her bringing me plastic food to eat and me telling her that the food was tasty or needed syrup. On one occasion, she brought me a fat, crinkle-cut, plastic french fry. "Oooohhh! A french fry! Yum!" I said.

"It's from Old McDonalds," she informed.

Oink? Classic.

An Elephant in the Room

A few weeks ago I read a post on the awesome DIY blog that I follow, "YoungHouseLove" about a decorating related dream the blogger, Sherry, had. Read the post here, if you wish. The Elephant In The Room | Young House Love . It's not so far-fetched, as I found another post about it from last summer on another design blog Simplified Bee®: Design Trend: Elephant Home Décor and Feng Shui Tips.

Anyway, a few of us were cleaning out my grandma's apartment last week (she is now in a nursing home) and I told my cousin about the elephant-decorating thing. She said, "Perfect! I have just the accessory for you!" and handed me a wooden carved elephant. Though our living room is far from finished, speaking from a design point of view, I put the elephant on display next to our TV that night after I got home, amused that I incorporated the weird blogger-dream, the elephant trend, and Gram all into one.

Olivia didn't notice the elephant until this morning.

I was playing the piano and she was dancing around with her "jingle ant" instrument and singing along when she spied the elephant across the room. "There's an elephant!" she said and ran over to grab it. For the next few minutes, elephant joined jingle ant in the song and dance bit until...Olivia dropped the elephant. The tip of its ear cracked off and went flying across the hardwood floor. I gasped. She managed, "What did Livi do?" and I told her, "You broke the elephant. We'll have to see if Daddy can fix it when he gets home." I set it aside and used the break in our music to take Pie upstairs to change her diaper I had been avoiding.

Mid-diaper change, Olivia says to me, "You pway, Mommy?" Since both "r" and "l" sounds are "w" at this point, I tried to clarify: "You want to to play?"

"No, pWAY. For the elephant."

Than I understood. "You want me to pray for the elephant?"

Yep, that was what she suggested. So, we stopped and prayed that Daddy could fix the ear and for God to bless Great-Gram who had given us the elephant...and I thanked God for giving me a precious girl to remind me that nothing is too small to take before him.

Are we having fun yet?

Evan and I took Olivia on a bike ride the other evening (to Diary Queen...four blocks away). She has the most insanely-cute "wee ride" seat that attaches to Evan's bike right in front of him. She loves wearing her pink helmet and already has a serious need for speed ("Go faster, Daddy!"). As we were watching Evan make the final preparations for the bike ride, I picked her up and gave her a quick kiss. She gave my back a few pats and sweetly asked, "Are you having fun with me?"

Not sure where she came up with that one, since I'm certain I've never asked her that. I answered, "Yes! I love biking with you." (Obviously, I turned the question on her and she answered in the affirmative.) Doubtful she'll ever understand just how much fun we are having.

As the wind blows

Like most kids, Olivia feels a certain sense of power in the ability to control the temperature of her own food...by blowing on it, of course. While her wimpy and wispy blows don't do much to affect the actual temperature, it does give her something to do and she really does feel it works. The other morning, I served her a bowl of slightly-too-hot-for-her-comfort oatmeal. She protested the temperature, so naturally I told her to blow on it. She worked on it for a couple seconds and then proudly declared, "I blowed on it!"

"Blew," I corrected.

"Don't say 'blue', Mom. THAT is blue." She motioned toward the multi-colored thank you notes spread out on the kitchen table.

Let the verb tenses lecture go for a while?

Old House, New House

I picked Olivia up from my mom's after my dentist appointment today. She asked where we were going. I said we were going home. She said, "new house" which I affirmed. Then I asked,"Do you remember our old house?" (we moved out in February). She said "yeah," but I continued: "It had a little laundry room next to the living room, a kitchen that used to be red, and Mommy and Daddy had a big closet in their room." Olivia quickly said, "I know that one." Alrighty then.

Peek

I decided I could get some painting done in the playroom while Olivia played in it this morning. We happily did our thing - she, coloring on her new easel, and me, on a ladder edging the ceiling of the playroom with Colonial Cobblestone (brown-gray). We talked occasionally, but there were several stretches where I didn't say anything, instead preferring to hear her talk to herself and her play things. As one point during these lulls, she burst out, "What are you peeking at?" I ignored her the first time so she repeated the question. "What are you peeking at?!" Not peeking at anything as I edged along the ceiling, I asked her, "What are you peeking at?"

"Peeking at markers!"

"Well, I guess I'm peeking at paint."

That seemed to satisfy her and we both carried on.

Vroom...mmm...good!

Olivia was playing with a play set of cloth pancakes this morning when I realized I hadn't changed her diaper yet from the night (it hadn't been that long since she'd been up). As I tipped her back to begin the process of un- and re-diapering, she grabbed a toy car near by and said, "Eat the car!" I said, "Eat the car? What does that taste like?!" Her reply: "engines."

Good Morning!

It's my first day of summer vacation! When Olivia got up this morning, I brought her into our bed so she and I could wake up together for a few minutes. As usual, I asked her, "How was your sleep?" She said "good" and then NOT per usual, she said, "how was yours?" I almost starting laughing but managed to tell her I slept fine, too. Then she said, summarizing our short conversation, "I had mine, you had yours." Yes, that's true. We each had our own "sleeps."

Spring is in the air!

This one really made my jaw drop:

Yesterday evening, we were late getting Olivia ready for bed, which has seem to become more and more frequent now that seven o'clock looks and feels like high noon. While I was getting Olivia PJ'd, I was hurriedly trying to think through the outfit I would set out for her to wear the next day to make the morning go more smoothly. I asked Evan, "What's the weather going to be tomorrow?" knowing his i-phone could instantly check the forecast. Then from the changing table, Olivia said, "I know the weather." Amused, I asked her, "You do? What is it?" Her cheerful reply was "Springtime!"

Smarty-pants.

You save big money, you save big money, when you shop...

On Tuesday, one of my days off this week, Evan came home around noon to be here when our new stove and microwave were delivered. Olivia knew it was unusual to have Daddy home in his work clothes in the middle of the day and she relished ever minute of it. When it was time for Evan to return to work, I asked Olivia, "Where is Daddy going?" Usually, when we go through this routine, she says "to work" or "to office with Grandpa Jones." Knowing today must be different though, she replied, "Menards."

A shout out to Eric Carle

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle has been a recent literary favorite of Olivia. We borrowed it from Auntie Nicki (I'm embarrassed to say as a parent and teacher that we don't own a copy...) and we read it several times at home before returning it last month. Since that time, Olivia has been making up her own versions be it in the tub, the car, or just playing around at home as her Barbies, animals, and anyone around "see" each other.

This morning we went on a walk (stroller-style) to visit Great-Gram in the nursing home. During the walk, she crafted a fitting version:

"Sidewalk, sidewalk, what do you see? I see a car looking at me! Car, car, what do you see? I see the ground looking at me! Ground, ground, what do you see? I see Great-Gram looking at me. Great-Gram, Great-Gram, what do you see? I see Mommy looking at me! Mommy, Mommy, what do you see? I see Olivia looking at me!" Not quite as unique as purple cats and blue horses, but just as entertaining.

Creepy Crawlies

Conversation in the car this evening driving home from Edinborough (indoor) park.

Olivia: There's a worm up there (pointing to the sunroof glass).

Me: No, that's not a worm. It's just a little leaf. (wet from the rain and shriveled up)

Olivia: I hate bugs

Me: No, bugs are okay!

O: Worms are scary.

Me: No, they aren't scary. They are just slow and slimy.

O: I don't like bugs, either.

Either? Clearly I haven't masked my disgust for bugs and worms well enough. She's not buying it.

The old cardboard cross

Last weekend, the three of us were having breakfast (our first in our new house!). Olivia found a little cardboard piece from our take-out breakfast meal (we have no stove/oven yet). She held it up and declared, "It's a cross!" which it was. Or two perpendicular line segments. I said, "Yes, it is a cross! It could also be a 'T'." She affirmed, "It's a cross. It's Jesus!"

I am only surprised by this because 1.) none of her baby Bibles have stories about Jesus on the cross 2.) this Easter, I followed suit and only highlighted the "He's Alive!" part of the Easter story. I'm interested to know how she made the connection...

Hands off

Washing Olivia's hands in a public restroom is one step short of torture -- for me, not her. For starters, her hands can't reach the water stream without me having to stretch her over the entire counter, completely soaking the front on her clothes (why are the counters in there so wet anyway?). Also, we seem to always pick the sink that doesn't have soap, so I trek around holding her waist with one hand and testing soap dispensers with the other. Automatic faucets (a fixed temperature?) and soap dispensers (does the thing not sense little hands?) further complicate the situation. However, the worst part of the whole ordeal is after the washing and drying are complete. While I wash and dry my hands, Olivia has some down time to re-germ her hands that I have just cleaned. More than once she has bent down to feel the floor tiles or explore the trash receptacle, and we have to do the whole thing over again. This lead me to begin telling her after completing the process, "Stand still and don't touch anything" (Gee, fun, Mom!). This started to work pretty well when I would repeat it several times during my hand-washing routine. What was even more effective was giving her those instructions and also telling her to hold the paper towel we had used to dry her hands, instead of putting it in the garbage (to keep her hands occupied).

The other day at home, we came in from playing outside. I helped her wash her hands at the kitchen sink (a tiny bit easier than a public bathroom, but not much) before eating. As I set her down to dry her hands with the towel she instructed herself, "Don't touch anything!"

A verse a day

...or week.

Olivia has been working on Bible verses recently in conjunction with BSF (Bible Study Fellowship). We worked on it a lot the first week. I picked her up from GJ's a few Thursdays ago on the day the verse was "due." I asked her if she said her verse at bible school - she said yes. I asked her to recite it for GJ and me, but she declined (that whole performing thing again...). About 15 minutes later, as I was buckling her into her carseat and randomly blurts out, "The sovereign Lord helps me."

Totally hilarious, though she left out the reference (Isaiah 50:7).

By the way, our current verse is, "The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Whaaaa?

Hi!

Olivia goes to my cousin's house for daycare on Fridays each week and occasionally on Wednesdays. Several Wednesdays ago, there were some kiddos there that are not often there the same days as Olivia. One of the little girls, who was surprised to see how much Olivia had grown since she last saw her, asked her, "Olivia, can you say hi?'" Olivia responded with, "Yes, I can say 'hi!'"

This instantly became a "viral" story, quickly spread to our family and beyond. My apologies if you've already heard it :)

The house that Jack, er...Spidey built

We have spent countless hours at our new house - knocking down walls, making holes in other walls, ripping up carpet, painting, painting and more painting. We are hoping to move in by next week. The one person who has, without a doubt, spent more time there than us is Chris, aka Uncle Spidey. He is the mastermind, manager and motivator behind the entire project. One day last week when Olivia and I were checking out the progress at the house, she pointed to the door that Chris "created" last month out of a formerly bare wall. She said "Spidey," recalling one of our first big projects. I told her, yes, Spidey made the door, and he made our new kitchen, too. Thank you Uncle Spidey for working on our house!

After picking up Olivia from GJ's house today (Olivia was playing there while we and other family members were participating in the April Painting Extravaganza) I told her our new house was coming along nicely. I said we had painted and it looked very pretty. Her reply was, "Spidey made it." That's right, Babe, and we can't thank him enough.

ABC...Wowwee!

Olivia half sang, half said the ABC's yesterday -- the whole she-bang. Every letter and even the "now I know my ABC's," verse at the end. She does her best performing when she's not put on the spot (which makes "Olivia, can you count for Grandma?""Olivia, tell Auntie how old you are" really difficult). She was just talking and singing to herself and then she started in on the alphabet song. I let her finish before breaking into raucous applause. This startled her and about sent her through the roof. She came running to me, terrified, of my sudden outburst. Can you blame me?

Home at last!

A thunder storm passed through around midnight last night. It woke Olivia and me, and my mom rushed in to close the windows. Olivia wanted a bottle of course, but was still up a couple times after that within a two-hour span. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well. Olivia was up and ready to go by 6:45. At nine, I tried to get her to nap, but she didn't sleep - she didn't fuss for a long time, just talked. I finally got her up so she could run around outside before our long day of travel. We left for the airport around 11:15. It took forever to check in and we barely made it on the overbooked plane - thankfully a few people agreed to be "bumped" or else we wouldn't have gotten seats. We boarded a bit late due to the seat shuffle, and then had to wait on the runway for over 30 minutes to wait our turn to take off. The hour-long flight to Atlanta was fine, though a little bumpy - Olivia didn't mind, but I did. She fell asleep just as we were descending so she got about a 15 minute nap. In Atlanta, we got lunch - Pie had yogurt parfait and we ate pizza. Our flight to Minneapolis was very full and Olivia was very restless. She wasn't naughty, but she needed a lot of entertaining. We used several more of the gifts I had brought along for her to unwrap. The only time she cried during the flight was when I went to give her a drink of water from her water bottle, but it "exploded" because of the pressure change. It sprayed all over my mom, who was holding Pie, and even got the lady behind us. Olivia burst into tears because of our startled reaction. We were thrilled that we landed about 5 minutes early, BUT we couldn't get off the plane because our gate was still in use. We ended up sitting on the place for another 20 minutes. Olivia really was a champ, yet again. She was very anxious to see Daddy, who picked us up. He got lots of hugs and kisses from her. He commented on how old she looked! She was super excited when she saw Grandpa, too. We got home just before 8 and I couldn't let her go to bed without a bath. She ate some oatmeal during her bath and went to bed at 8:30 (90 minutes after regular bedtime minus a nap and plus and early wake-up this morning -- whew!) She just woke up during a major coughing fit. I'm hoping she can get a very restful night of sleep. We ALL need it!

Florida - Day 6

Last night wasn't great. Pie got up at 3:15, politely requesting a bottle. I obliged. She went to sleep after not long, but I was awake until at least quarter to 5. My mom was up for several hours during the night, too. I was awakened at 7:30 by a coughing baby - a wet, yucky cough. After hearing it, I expected her voice to be gone, which it was not. After eating breakfast, Olivia and I were going to head to the pool but she couldn't even tolerate getting sunscreen put on. She was fussing and crying about everything. At 9:45 I gave up and put her to bed. My mom babysat the monitor while I went to the mall :) Olivia slept for almost two hours. She was eating lunch when I got home and she was pretty cheerful. She started falling apart again after lunch so again, we put off the pool and put her to bed. She slept for almost and hour and a half while I read outside. When she got up, we played around in the house and outside. Then we went on a walk with Grandma to the ocean and back; then I gave her a quick bath. By dinner at 6:00, she was already falling apart again. She ate hardly anything and even that was WW III. She went to bed at 6:15 and fell asleep right away. Although she had periods of cuteness and cuddles throughout the day, poor Pie just wasn't feel great and was needing a ton of sleep just to hold herself together. I am praying that she has a better day tomorrow, as our travel day starts at 11 and doesn't end until 7. That means naps and bedtime will both be affected, as well as two meals. Would you pray, too, if you have minute, that all goes smoothly?

Florida - Day 5

Olivia slept soundly the whole night. She was up at 7 ready for the day after some cuddles with Mommy. Soon after breakfast (well, 10 a.m.) Great-Grandma dropped us and our gear off at the beach. While GG and G went to church, my mom, O and I spent the morning frolicking in the waves and building sand-structures. I had to ignore the looks from beach-walkers as I worked diligently battling the surf to create a "baby pool" for my toddler, when my toddler was hanging with Grandma 15 yards away. I imagined more than a few people commenting to their companion, "That girl must be like, what - 25? What is she doing building a fort? Weird." We, once again, used a mixing bowl and a measuring cup for sand toys. Olivia and I went in to the ocean and she enjoyed it - it didn't seem too cold and there were certainly other people swimming. Olivia was pretty cheerful during our outing. On the walk back to the house (our chauffeurs were still at church) she fell and skinned her knee which made her a little unhappy, but other than that, she was pretty good-natured. She ate a good lunch during which we discovered she loved cottage cheese! Auntie Nicki knew this months ago, I'm sure. I had just told Evan we should try give it to her sometime, her being the Diary Queen and all, but she hadn't had it until now. We did our usual nap/read outside routine for two hours and then headed for the pool. She spent as much time out of the pool as she did in it. She enjoyed pushing her stroller around, playing on the lounge chairs, and exploring the gardens around the pool, as well as swimming with Mommy. She's getting very good at blowing bubbles, enjoys edging around the pool and being thrown up into the air. Oh yes, panda and bunny were present during this pool visit and provided Pie with much entertainment on the steps of the pool. We left the pool at 4 to get ready for another (early) dinner out. We ate at the Ocean Club to celebrate my Great-Grandma's (early) 80th birthday. The grouper almondine was divine, though Pie's ability to be angelic through another dinner out was not. She spent quite a bit of time on the deck with Grandma. She was obviously exhausted from a day of sand and sun, but I had thought she could last until 6 or so. On the wall home, we pointed out the outlet mall that we had shopped at yesterday. Olivia said "go back there" to which Great-Grandma laughed and said we had our hands full with this one. I told Olivia that we may be able to go shopping there again, but not tonight to which she replied, "want to go shopping!" Even tired girls usually can muster up enough energy to find a good deal, I guess. As soon as we arrived home, I got her ready for bed. She was sleeping by 6:50. Hoping for another good night so we can enjoy our final full day in Florida tomorrow. It has really felt vacation-y. I wish we could stay longer -- and that Evan could join us here, of course. :)

Florida - Day 4

Olivia woke up in a raging fit at 4 a.m. demanding to get into my bed - this is the consequence, I understand, of indulging her requests while she was sick or after she gets up in the morning - but I needed to draw the line at 4 this morning. I told her no and she raged on. Then she demanded a bottle. I decided I could handle that request. She went to sleep right after that and slept until 8. Aside from that episode, which woke my mom, too, the night was very good. When she woke for the day, she didn't feel feverish at all. She ate a decent breakfast and we headed to Silver Sands, the fabulous outlet mall not 10 minutes from here. My mom and I alternated between entertaining Pie and browsing the sale racks. She did pretty well, and enjoyed trying on sneakers at the New Balance store and pushing her stroller down the sidewalk. She seemed like herself with only a few outbursts. Pretty soon we'll be able to tell how many of these outbursts end up being a result of her sickness and how many can be attributed to toddler-ness. When we got home, she ate a lunch of mac and cheese, which she now loves. She's come a long way from hiding her noodles on her lunch tray at Auntie Nicki's only a few months ago to now enjoying this meal (really, who can resist Kraft Mac and Cheese?) She went down easily for her two-hour nap and I chipped away at my Ann Coulter book while sunning myself on the front lawn. The four 'girls' went for a little walk through the neighborhood after her nap. She was disappointed when we walked around the pool instead stopping to swim, but enjoyed the lawn swing and flowers. Great-Grandma made the decision to go out for dinner because she didn't feel like cooking so we ate at Captain Dave's for a five o'clock dinner. I was nervous because of the looming outburst possibility, but Pie was a champ. She happily played on the stairs by our table and looked out the giant windows overlooking the beach until the food came. Then she chowed on bread and butter, crackers, squash, fruit, water and a lemon wedge - I hear this is a balanced dinner :) Since she was in such good spirits when we left at six, my mom and I requested we be dropped off at the Avalon beach on the way home so Olivia could enjoy some play time before bed. She, again, loved the sand and the waves. This time I took care not to let her get drenched by the water. We found a little tide pool for her to play in and collect shells. We took our time walking back from the beach, admiring our favorite front yard decorations - a carved wooded bear, a white wrought iron sheep, and a stucco dolphin above a garage. Oh, the things that amuse a 19-month-old. After a quick sponge bath, Olivia went to right to bed at 7:00. I promised her we could visit the beach and the pool tomorrow so she needs a good night sleep tonight - me, too!

Florida - Day 3

Olivia slept very well last night. She woke once at 1:30 but was easily soothed back to sleep. At 6 this morning, she cried to get up and "get in Mommy's bed!" I put her in there with me and she fell asleep. I tried to gingerly transfer her back to her own bed 20 minutes later, but she woke up and protested loudly. I stuck her back in my bed and we played for a while. At 7:30, I tossed her in her bed with some toys and told her to play while I went back to sleep. Amazingly, she did this for another half hour. At 8, we (she) decided it was time to get up for the day. She ate some oatmeal and fruit. I had given her some Tylenol at 6 and she seemed cooler at breakfast. She was mostly cheerful. She said she wanted to go outside so we put on some SPF and a hat with the intention of playing out in the front yard. She squatted next to a slug, mesmerized for about 10 minutes, going back and forth between being to squeamish to touch and and being way too rough patting it. We started down the sidewalk, Olivia pushing her panda and rabbit in the stroller. I eventually put her in it and we headed in the direction of the beach, which is about a 10 minute walk through my grandparents' gorgeous neighborhood. The walk was pleasant and Olivia was entertained by the various garden decorations and fountains. The temp was about 70 with a slight breeze. I had to call back to the house to get the new code to the beach- I had forgotten that it is a private access beach for the neighborhood. As soon as we stepped off the stairs on the beach, Olivia started squealing. She absolutely LOVED the sand. It is exceptionally soft and fine and white. We made our way to the ocean - I wasn't sure how she'd feel about the waves, but she LOVED the freezing, wavy water, too. She quickly soaked her capri pants (why do I keep thinking she'll just go in up to her ankles?) and so I pulled those off. I had called my mom for her to come down and bring the camera and a few other things. She arrived with G & G and the three of them set up camp on the beach. Olivia wasn't dressed for the ocean and I hadn't put sunscreen on her thinking an hour at the beach. I was feeling like she needed to go inside soon. We played with the bowl and measuring cup my mom had brought from the house - poor man's sand toys, she called them - and played more in the water. Olivia would have tried to swim out to sea if I would have let her. She tried her hand at catching a few sea gulls and managed to keep the sand out of her eyes (and mouth). Around the time I decided we needed to get her inside, she began to fall apart. My mom quickly drove us back and then went back for my grandparents. I gave Olivia a quick shower and tried (unsuccessfully) to get her to each something. She completely protested going down for a nap, which is not normal. She wailed for me to hold her and to lay down on my bed. I let her cry it out since I knew she was just uber-tired and needed to fall asleep. After it had been quiet for a few minutes, I snuck back in to her room only to find her standing up in her pack 'n play, her head laying down on the corner edge, asleep! Poor exhausted baby had fallen asleep standing up (stubbornly refusing to give in and lay down). I wasn't sure if I should wake her and move her, but then the image of her falling back and biting her tongue or something made me decide to lay her down. She woke up and fussed a little but I rubbed her back and she fell asleep. During her two+ hour nap, I burned myself outside while reading "Godless" (I was book shopping in the Bill Bauman library - "Going Rogue" was my second choice :) Olivia woke up completely unhappy. She requested a bottle immediately (unusual) and then said she'd eat peanut butter toast, which she did. She wanted to go back outside, so we sunscreened again and headed to the pool. She enjoyed it again, but needed a little break to calm down when she got a little test with Grandma. The whole day, she was great and normal about 90% of the time, but the other 10% of the time she would completely fall apart. She has much less tolerance for less-than-perfect conditions than she usually does. After the pool, we took another shower. After the shower, she was wiping off the foggy mirror and she accidentally tipped over a cup of water on the counter. She said "uh-oh, spidey-oh!" getting the cute kid phrase mixed up with her Uncle Spidey. I told her he was working on our new house so we could live there. She did pretty well at dinner, but ate mostly Olivia staple foods. She played hide-and-seek (using panda and rabbit) with Grandma and Great-Grandma and then got ready for bed. At bedtime, we prayed for Daddy back at home and she asked about him. I said he was at home with Grandpa in Minnesota. She said "when we go see him?" I told her in a few days. Then she said "say goodnight to him" so we called Evan. Of course, she didn't want much to do with the phone once we got him on, but she did get to her him say goodnight to her. After we hung up with him, she said, "goodnight to Grandpa now" so we called Jim. Again, she wasn't that enthused about the phone, but I wanted to follow up on her request. She went to bed easily and is sleeping soundly. I gave her one more dose of Tylenol before bedtime. If she wakes up cool in the morning, we might be safe being done with the meds. I'm hoping for an even better night tonight.

Florida - Day 2

Olivia's temp at 9:30 today was just over 102 so she got more Tylenol and we talked to Jan again. Aside from being a little more clingy than usual, she wasn't seeming sick. She was acting like herself, asking questions, talking a lot and being pretty sweet. She ate a little fruit and yogurt, which encouraged us. I gave her a bath (finally) and then we went outside to enjoy the high 60's and sunny morning weather. After chatting with the neighbors and pushing her stroller around, Olivia took a two+ hour nap, during which my mom ran to the store and bought some children's Ibuprofin, which Auntie Jan recommended we alternate with the Tylenol. When she woke up, she ate a little bit and we went outside again. I painted Olivia's fingernails and toenails bright pink, which she loved. We decided to walk down to the pool. Grandpa rode his bike, and my mom and I pushed Olivia's stroller. When we got there, Olivia was eager to go for a swim. We hadn't planned on swimming, just checking it out, but Olivia had more than dipping her toes in the pool in mind. We soon took off her drenched capri pants, and then her shirt. Seeing that she definitely wanted to swim, I took the bike back to the house and got a suit for her, changed into mine and grabbed the camera and a few towels. She LOVED the pool. We swam for quite a while. She checked out the "water mountain" (water fountain), she crawled along the edge of the pool, and played on the stairs. When she was ready to get out, we stripped her down and she layed on the warm cement, wrapped in a towel. It was a great time. We thought the water may have cooled her off a bit. After a quick bath, she ate a pretty good dinner and had more medicine. Her last temp check showed 102.2. It's puzzling that her temperature remains high, though her demenor is pleasant. She seems almost totally normal. I'm glad for it, and happy that the fever hit AFTER our long day of traveling, not during it. We ended the evening reading books, playing the piano and hunging around until bedtime (7 p.m.). She is sleeping soundly, but the Tylenol and thermometer are ready to roll if we have a repeat of last night. Pray for a complete healing, please. We are planning to visit the beach and/or the outlet mall tomorrow :)

Florida - Day 1

For the next week or so, I'll be using this blog as a journal of sorts to keep my family in MN (and anyone else who's interested!) informed about our Florida trip. My mom, Olivia and I left yesterday afternoon. Getting out of Minneapolis went fairly smoothly. Upon check-in at the airport, we were told our plane was delayed 20 minutes - nothing as far as delays go. We walked the concourse and looked out the windows to pass the time. I had a suitcase full of wrapped dollar-store toys to keep Olivia entertained and tons of snacks. When we boarded, I asked the flight attendant to fill O's bottle with hot water for a little formula snack during take-off. We were sitting waaay in the back so it was super noisy and it was super bumpy until we got up to cruising altitude, but Olivia did great. She sucked her bottle right down and showed no signs of discomfort. For the duration of the flight, she played with her two favorite (at the moment) toys- a panda figurine and a squishy bunny named Cottontail. We read one or two books, but mostly passed the time by snacking - animal crackers, pretzels, Delta cookies, string cheese, Goldfish - to name a few. She did totally great. A nice bonus was that the flight wasn't fully booked so we had an empty seat in our block of three. We used the middle seat as a little play-space and Pie enjoyed using her tray as a launching pad for her toys. She fell asleep in my arms for the last 40 minutes of the flight. Because of the delay, we felt like we needed to hustle once off the plane to catch our connecting flight. We booked it through the Atlanta airport, only to find that flight was delayed as well. Maintenance... My mom and I got dinner and tried to interest O in food, but she wasn't having it. I think she was super tired. Unfortunately, she was up and hour and a half earlier than normal that morning and took less than half of her regular nap time. It seemed she was starting to melt. Upon boarding, we were told the carry on that housed all of Pie's treats and comfort items was too large to take on the plane. What?!?! The guy said it was because this plane was a smaller one and it wouldn't fit. I had about 30 seconds to grab anything I felt was vital to a smooth flight and could fit in the diaper bag. Not fun. We once again made a hot water/formula bottle for take-off and once again, Pie was a champ. However, she wasn't interested in sleeping. We tried to feed her some snacks, but she didn't want anything. She played quietly with us and with the two little kids sitting in front of us. When we landed, it was coming up on her bedtime. My grandparents met us at the airport and after collecting our 19 (almost) bags, we made the 20 minute trip to their house. Olivia, amazingly, was cheerful and quiet the whole way - charming, even. While I would have liked to bathe her, food and sleep won out over cleanliness. My mom made a scrambled egg (an Olivia staple) while I PJ'd Olivia, but when I offered it to her, she totally melted. Like completely and utterly fell apart. Instead of fighting her, I whisked her off to bed (a pack 'n play that fit almost totally in the closet in my room). She fell asleep right away. That SHOULD have been the end of Wednesday's festivities, BUT... shortly after I went to bed at nine, Olivia woke up crying. I rubbed her back and hushed her back to sleep. Around ten, she woke again. When I picked her up, found she was BURNING up. I got my mom and after feeling her, she confirmed a fever. Brilliantly, I had not packed the Children's Tylenol (yes, I looked at it and considered it, but my kid doesn't get sick...hmmm.) My mom called Jan in MN and they decided we could crush up a bit of regular Tylenol and give her that. I called Evan in MN and told him what was up. I gave Olivia some water and crushed up pill in baby food fruit. After laying in bed with me for a while, I deposited her back in her crib. The next several hours were not fun - she was awake approximately every 20 or 30 minutes. Around three a.m. she woke up crying again and my mom came in. She got a thermometer by digging around in my grandparents' bathroom (yep, didn't pack that either) and found that her temp was near 103. At that point, we knew we needed some children's meds. I called (and woke) Evan back at home so he could check for a 24-hour drug store near us and at 3:30 I left the house, a sad and very hot Olivia being held by my mom. I made a bottle and added the dosage to it and Pie sucked the whole thing down. I made another 8-ounce bottle and she took almost the whole rest of that. She soaked three diapers that night - which we were glad for. At four, my mom told me to try to sleep while she rocked Olivia. It seemed she may have cooled a bit, and was sleeping soundly in her arms. I slept for a bit and then at five, encouraged my mom to put O back in her bed and get some rest herself. Olivia and I both slept until 7:15 when she woke crying again. She felt warm again and I put her in my bed. She started dozing almost immediately so I transferred her back to her bed. She didn't wake again until almost 9:30.

Correction

Olivia inherited a super cute coat from her cousin, Megan. It's a red coat that has toggles as fasteners. I taught her the word "toggle" a couple months ago, but had never heard her use it. Today when I was putting on her coat and I said "you have buttons on your coat!" She said, "no, toggles!"

(BTW, I was talking about the buttons on her coat sleeves :)

Flashlight fun

Olivia has been really interested in flashlights as of late. She loves taking the flashlight into the dark bathroom (she's totally unafraid of the dark) and shining it on different surfaces. She discovered that when she lays the flashlight on the ground, it makes a triangular shape which she calls "arrow." The other day when we were going through the flashlight/bathroom routine, I noticed there was a rainbow ring around the center of the light when we shined it on the wall or ceiling. I pointed that out to her and we had a fun time checking it out on the bathtub, sink, and ceiling. Today, when we were playing (again) I noticed that if we shined the light on the corner of the tub, the middle refracted and it looked like a heart. We were amused by that; then we looked at the rainbow again. Seeing how much fun the flashlight could be, she said, "Make butterfly!"

Sorry babe, I'm out of tricks...

Boom!

Olivia and I were driving home from the grocery store at 4:30 this afternoon. She was a champ during our shopping trip and on the (very short) trip home, she requested some goldfish to snack on. Her bag was in the back seat so I tried to blindly feel around in it while I drove. Unsuccessful in my attempts, I dragged the bag to the front seat. I quickly glanced down to see if I could locate the snacks and as I did, I have grazed the shoulder of the road, plowing over the icy chunks of snow laying by the snow bank. The sound was sort of clunk-cu-clunk-ba-boom. From the back seat, Olivia yelled, "thunder!"

How Big?

I taught Olivia a new song this week. It's one that we sang at Sunday school with the three- and four-year-0lds last week. It goes, "My God is so BIG, so STRONG, and so MIGHTY! There's NOTHING my God cannot do!" And we sing it like that - emphasizing the important words and using actions. We sang it a bazillion times and then I decided we should talk about the theology behind it. I said, "Olivia, God is bigger than you, and bigger than Mommy and even bigger than Daddy." This blew her mind, so she thought bigger. "Paul Bunyan?" she suggested.

I guess the water park is still fresh in her mind from our Brainard weekend last month... (note the mural of Mr. Bunyan on the back wall.)