Two (and a half)

Olivia,

Your half birthday is this month! So, what are you up to?

- You weighed in at 22 pounds and 12 ounces at your doctor's appointment last week. 33.8 inches tall. Still petite. :)



- You are wearing 18-24 month clothes, although some of your shirts are 2t.



- Your vocabulary is awesome! Sometimes you are shy around people you don't know, but you can carry on a conversation with anyone. There are some words you've said recently that I'm surprised you know: diamond (the shape, ha!), helicopter, janitor, screen (on the window), and place mat (I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head).



- You know most of your colors, but think it's really funny to tell Mommy the wrong color when she asks. You can sing the ABC's and count to 20, skipping a few numbers. We sing a song with the letters of your name and you almost have it memorized. You also know simple shapes (square, circle, triangle, rectangle, star, heart).



- You love playing dress up. You and your friend Renya at daycare love putting on princess dresses and trying to make all the boys play princess.



- You really like puzzles, "cooking" in your kitchen, and singing. You have so many songs memorized! We love hearing you sing.



- You are a sensitive soul and get your feelings hurt easily. You aren't too sure how to express that, so you tend to say "_____________ hit me." Example: Daddy wouldn't turn the TV to Mickey a few nights ago and you ran to me and said he hit you. We are currently working on the phrase: "____________ hurt my feelings."



- You take naps about half the time. Some are 30 minutes and some (like today!) are almost 3 hours! You're always in a better mood when you take a nap and it doesn't seem to affect your bedtime either way. You are a night owl. :)

- You've recently become interested in pirates and love to say "Argh, Matey!" Example:



- Daddy and I love you more than you'll ever know!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wow, Valentine's Day snuck up on us! Wasn't it just Christmas?! We've been busy and didn't even get a Valentine's card made, but we'll be ready for Easter!
Olivia and I made cupcakes for the daycare party today. She is quite the little helper in the kitchen.





She loves dumping the ingredients and stirring. Strawberry cupcakes with pink icing, her favorite!



I let her pick out a Valentine box of candy for Michael at the grocery store today. She took it very seriously, going back and forth between Hershey kisses and Reece cups, finally settling on the kisses and a heart shaped balloon. Just what he wanted, I'm sure! Daddy brought flowers home and she thought it was just the best thing. Cute!





I've been working on re-decorating a little and recently got new curtains and sheers for the den. After finally getting the curtain rod hung (I had to spackle, sand, re-texture, and re-paint the first holes I drilled in the wall), I hung the curtains, only to realize one of the sheers was backwards. I kind of sighed and said something like "Shoot!" Olivia was playing beside me and asked what was wrong, and I said "just a little accident," instead of trying to explain a backwards curtain to a 2 year old. She looked at me and said; "Do you need some dry panties?" Ha!

A little message from Olivia:

COLD

So, here's our forecast for the week:



Yes, the HIGH tomorrow is NEGATIVE 2. I like to use CAPITAL letters to emphasize. Ha!

So, while the cold overtakes us, we do what we can to stay warm. Like play with umbrellas in the house:



And enjoy having the dogs inside:



The dogs love it when Olivia shares her carrots:



And, I finally got her saying "accident" on video:




Hope you're staying warm!

The Children's Museum

Olivia and I picked up our friends Yarelys and Caden and headed to the Children's Museum yesterday. We went a year or so ago and it was incredibly crowded. This time we figured out school groups aren't allowed on Mondays and it was great!
We started out in the firetruck. Olivia had no interest in putting on a coat and hat, but loved pushing the buttons for the lights and sirens:





She painted a picture:



The train room was a hit, but she kept putting EVERYTHING in the pail with the "Dirty and Broken Toys" sign. She kept saying she was "cleaning up." Ha!



The big hit of the trip was the Bubble room. It was incredible! Safety glasses were provided, since the bubble solution was mostly soap and glycerin.



She kept them on approximately 3 minutes. There were many neat things in the room:







Our favorite was the Bubble Box. You stood in the middle, pulled a cord, and a bubble rose around you:



Our bubble never got too high, because she popped it as soon as she saw it!







We hit the grocery store next:





And ended up at the indoor playground that looked like a forest. Olivia loved these flowers and kept smelling them:



It was sooooo much fun!



This cow is outside the museum. Yarelys and I were commenting on how green the grass is there (the rest of the grass around here is brown or covered in snow), then we realized it was fake. Ha!
They were mad at us, because we wouldn't let them get on the cow:



We'll have to take Daddy with us next time!

This past weekend, we headed out to do a little shopping. I got Olivia ready and went to put my coat on. I heard her say "I'm ready!" and turned around to see this:



She has her own style!

Michael and I actually went to an Avalanche game by ourselves last Saturday. Shocking, I know! Olivia stayed with Lindsay (my friend that owns the daycare) and apparently had a great time. It worked out nicely, since she's familiar with their house and looooves their little boys. It was so nice to go out and not worry about her! She was exhausted when we picked her up and took a nap when we got home. When she woke up we had this conversation:
Me: Did you have fun at Ms. Lindsay's house?
Olivia: Yea, I hit Rohen. (Rohen is Lindsay's 2 year old)
Me: Olivia!
Olivia: It OK Mommy, it an ack-si-dent. (I can't really type how she says accident, I need to get it on film!)

Sure, I bet it was an accident! That's been her excuse for everything, lately!

The Usual

It snowed a few inches last night and when we got home from the daycare today, Olivia pulled her stool over to the window. Side note: why do toddlers love stools so much?! She carries this stool EVERYWHERE. It came with her kitchen.
Anyway, she was looking at the snow, tapping on the window for the dogs:





Yes, I made her a new hat. :)



She kept looking, so I asked her if she wanted to go outside and play in the snow. She said yes, so I bundled her up and we headed out. It lasted approximately 3 minutes. This girl does not like to be cold!



Maybe if I pull out her snowpants? It was in the 40's today, so I didn't drag them out, just her snow boots. Oh well, hopefully we will get another snowy day to try sledding!
Her kitchen has really enhanced her imagination and pretend play! She loves to "cook" for us and regularly brings us a cup or plate of something. Last night we were walking upstairs and I told her she needed to sleep in her room. She said she wanted to sleep in Daddy's room, because there's a dinosaur in the closet in her room. She also likes to hide under her blanket and then pretend to be a monster. It's really cute!
Not much going on around here, just the usual! Hope you're having a great week!

TN Visit!

Our flights for this trip started with a 2 hour delay in Denver (on the plane), a 5 hour delay in Atlanta, then a 2 hour delay in Tri- Cities and Michael swearing to never fly Delta again! What do you do for 5 hours in the Atlanta airport with a bored 2 year old? This:



We finally made it to Tri- Cities, picked up our luggage and headed to Greeneville. We got there around 1:30am and Olivia had JUST fallen asleep. We slept late the next morning and Olivia perked right up when she noticed something: presents!





We stayed around Greeneville and enjoyed the one day of warm weather we had that week. We got to visit with Michael's sisters and their families and Olivia LOVED all the attention she got from her cousins. Granny Stills came to visit, too! Then Michael and I got to go visit some friends by ourselves! It was a great New Year's and Olivia once again stayed up past midnight, ha!

We headed to Elizabethton Sunday to visit my family and I (naturally) forgot my camera. We had a great dinner with Lilo, Papaw, Granny, and Ben where Olivia once again enjoyed lots of attention and I succeeded in washing most of Lilo's dishes with hand soap. :) Then we headed up Stoney Creek, where Olivia was thrilled to discover more presents at Pappy's house! Pal came to visit, too and we had another great meal. We finally headed, stuffed, back to Greeneville. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful meals and gifts, we appreciate you all so much!

Monday, we headed to Wallabies, a new indoor playground in Johnson City. It was right up Olivia's alley:



We met Granny, Rachel, Maggie, Aubrey, and Aiden there, along with Rachel's parents and sister. My friend Megan and her 2 kids and 2 of her nephews met us there, too. We had quite a crew. The kids (literally) ran wild. This picture is a little fuzzy, but it's too cute not to share:



Maggie and Aubrey made sure to take care of Olivia. They helped her into the bounce houses:



And waited for her when she was a little slow:



Not sure where Aubrey was in this pic:



Aiden is the cutest little thing. He has a "cheesy" face for pictures:



I think this is my favorite video of Olivia. She was climbing up this set of blocks and jumping off. Mom, Pat, and I were cheering for her, so she started bowing:



We were cracking up!

We headed to Brett and Rachel's house to open gifts with the kids that night. Maggie and Aubrey's gifts were lost in the mail, along with a few others (that's a story in itself!). Luckily, I had ordered Aiden's online and had it shipped to their house.



One of my favorite pictures:



How did we get such sweet kids (and cute, too!)? :)

Our last full day was Tuesday and Billy, Kristy, Josh, Jacob, and Taylor came over to play. I went to dinner with friends and asked Billy to snap a few pictures while I was gone. He has a habit of getting interesting pictures, especially of Kristy (sorry!):



The rest were great!

`





Mamaw let Olivia decorate another gingerbread house, where (once again) most of it ended up in her mouth or on her face:





We had a great time, thanks for all the hospitality! Come visit us!

I took this video yesterday at gymnastics. It's not too impressive, but she looks really cute in her leg warmers:



Hope everyone is staying warm! We're having a snow day, too:

Santa Visits and Christmas Lights

Bear with me- Santa visits of the past!

2008:



First try of 2009:



Second try of 2009:



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:



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!