Monday, December 27, 2010

Santa Visits and Christmas Lights

Bear with me- Santa visits of the past!

2008:

Photobucket

First try of 2009:

Photobucket

Second try of 2009:

Photobucket

This was our second try this year- the first picture was so bad, I didn't buy it! She's still not a fan of Santa. She's OK with him from a distance, but she WOULD NOT let me put her down this year. So, I am once again in her Santa picture:

Photobucket

She looks so big in this picture, especially after looking at the ones from last year! Maybe next year we will have a Mommy-less picture.

Olivia loves looking at all the Christmas lights. We discovered this house a few weeks ago. It's only about a mile from us and they broadcast their own Christmas music in sync with the lights. Pretty neat! I don't know how I would feel if we were next door neighbors, though- the lights are bright!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas 2010!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We enjoyed a nice, quiet day at home in our pajamas! We took Olivia swimming yesterday, where she once again enjoyed the pool to herself:

Photobucket



We let her open one gift- a little train set- to tide her over until this morning. The magic of Santa still isn't high on her priority list, as she slept until 9:00am this morning. When she finally woke up, I excitedly asked her if she wanted to go see if Santa left her presents and she said: "I want to watch Dora." Ha! She did get excited when Michael finally carried her downstairs (sorry it's so wobbly!):



Here's the "before" shot of her goodies:

Photobucket

She has mastered the art of opening presents:

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

She has gotten several packages in the mail from friends and family (thank you all sooooo much!) and we've let her open them as they've arrived. It worked out really well, because she didn't have a ton to open this morning. Just the gifts from us and a few from Granny (who got her accessories for her kitchen). She loooooves her kitchen- I knew she would! She keeps telling us she's making coffee, not sure where she picked that up! She also loves her learning tower that Daddy made for her:

Photobucket

Photobucket

I saw a picture of one in a catalogue and showed it to Michael. He started on it a month or so ago and when the weather cooled off, put it on hold. He started working on it again yesterday and finished it today! She is at the stage where she wants to "help" and be in the middle of everything I'm doing. She had started pulling a chair over to the counter to stand on, so this solves that problem and she's pretty well contained. It's nice, because I can give her little "jobs" to help me- like unwrapping bouillon cubes. She's pretty content if she has something to do. :)

Photobucket

I took Olivia to see Santa Wednesday. It didn't go very well- I'll scan the picture in later, it's pretty funny! We're really excited to head to TN Thursday! Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Teenagers in Training

Avry and her baby brother came to play today. Olivia and Avry were cracking me up. I was in the living room giving Ashton a bottle and when I finished we went to find them. This is what I found:



We had the same situation last week (I was giving Ashton a bottle and the girls were supposed to be watching Dora). They pulled Olivia's potty chair up to the counter in the kitchen and ate a whole tin of fudge I had planned on giving to our neighbors. Mental note: do not leave 2 year olds alone. EVER.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Parenting Advice from the Post Office

The closest post office to our house is located in a dry cleaners (strange, I know). It is extremely busy this time of year, like most post offices. There is a basket of suckers on the dry cleaning desk that they graciously share with PO customers. We've been to the post office enough for Olivia to know their exact location and she gets one each time. We stopped by Tuesday to mail a few things and there was a long line. There was a mom with two little girls (I guessed their ages around 3 and 1.5) in front of us and they and Olivia all got a sucker at the same time. Their mom immediately told them they couldn't have their suckers until after lunch (it was around 11:30 am). I thought that sounded like a good idea, so I told Olivia the same thing. I should point out that I have NEVER made her wait to eat her sucker. She was busy admiring her sucker and didn't pay much attention for a few minutes. The girls played together in line, then Olivia remembered her sucker. She started taking the paper off and I reminded her to wait until after lunch. She looked at me quite calmly and said: "No." She continued unwrapping and I bent down to her level and reminded her again. She looked confused, so I asked her if she wanted to put it in her pocket until after lunch. The other little girls were watching her, eyeing her sucker. This is when she lost it. She threw the sucker across the floor, threw herself on the floor and screamed. Several post office patrons commented on her lung capacity.

Hard to imagine this sweet face throwing a tantrum, isn't it?

Photobucket

The look I was getting was more like this:

Photobucket

I kept talking quietly to her, but it seemed to make matters worse. By this point, we were getting some not nice looks from the other people in line. I headed for the basket to grab another sucker and that's when it happened. One of the women in line said: "I wouldn't do that if I were you." I looked at her and she went on to tell me that her daughter is 16 and she has to tell her "No" to all kinds of things, blah, blah, blah. I said: "It's a sucker and this is the first time I've made her wait to eat it. The tantrum is my fault this time." She gave me a few more words of wisdom, but I gave Olivia the sucker anyway and she immediately calmed down. I hope I don't give unsolicited advice when Olivia is 16! Especially at the post office. Granted, I probably didn't handle the situation the best. I just wanted her to stop screaming, ha!

We had family Christmas pictures made last week and they turned out really well. Olivia did great- really into posing and she fell for every trick the photographer threw her way (stuffed animal on his head, a flower tickling her toes, etc). Here are a few:

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

So glad we had pictures made this year!

Olivia and I decorated a Gingerbread house tonight. This is what it was supposed to look like:

Photobucket

This is how ours turned out:

Photobucket

Ha!

Naturally, most of the candy ended up in her mouth, but she had fun trying to make them stay on the roof:

Photobucket

And if you come over to visit, you probably don't want to have a bite:

Photobucket

My friend Lindsay and I have been working out together. It works out well, because one of us will work out while the other watches the kids. Last Wednesday, we took Olivia and Lindsay's little boy, Rohen, to the rec center with the kiddie pool. They had a blast while we took turns working out:



Definitely something we should do every week!

Hope you have a good week!

Photobucket