Good Summer

We have had an incredible summer, and are sad to see it come to an end.  You can read more about it here on Carrie's blog.

Olivia Turned Two!

I can hardly believe Olivia is already two. She has grown up quite a bit in recent months, and no longer seems like a baby. She's talking non-stop, and loves to express herself as often as possible. Her favorite phrases are "I did it!," "I got it!," "right there," and has already become quite the little boss of her brothers. The other night at dinner she barked at Noah, "Stop it! Come. Sit. Eat," as he was spinning around in the kitchen instead of eating dinner with the rest of us. Looks like she's already practicing the fine art of motherhood.

She had a great birthday.  She loves pointing out Kitty Cats, and saying "neow, neow," and has a special affinity for Hello Kitty, so we went with that for a theme.  She got a Hello Kitty stuffed animal, which has since become her constant companion.

I made some Hello Kitty cupcakes, and tried my hand at cakepops:

The cake pops were a little more challenging and time consuming that I was expecting. I think my icing/crumb ratio was off.  There's a reason they are laying flat... They were falling right off the sticks.

The first gift she opened was a Hello Kitty shirt I had made with an iron on.  It was so funny to watch her quickly strip off her jammie shirt, and put on her new one.  My boys could have cared less about clothes at this age, but she was really excited about getting clothes.  And she's much better at dressing herself at this age than my boys ever were.  Which can come at a cost.  Have I mentioned we've had to tape her diaper on with packing tape every night for several months because she will undress herself and take off her diaper in the night?  Yeah, not fun.

To go along with her "mini-mother" attitude as of late, she received some "mini-mother" doll toys from Grandma Margie.  She now puts her babies to bed in a crib, diapers them (complete with diaper rash cream), helps them sit on the potty and flush, bounces them in the bouncy seat, carries them in their car seat, and seats them at the table for dinner.  

 Here she is enjoying her Hello Kitty cupcake.  We celebrated by having her best buddy, Isaac, and his family over for dinner and to help us consume our cake and ice cream.  They brought her some Hello Kitty books, which also became an instant favorite.  I'm thinking she might even be Hello Kitty for Halloween...

Olivia is such a delight.  She is a ball of energy, and loves to laugh and play with whomever is up for it. She loves being tickled, and requests more and more if we ever stop.  One of her favorite games is ring around the rosies.   She's quick to say sorry, and loves to give big hugs.  Swimming is probably her favorite past time.  She'll bring me her swim suit and a swim diaper several times a day, to see if I'll take her swimming. She's a dare devil in the water.  She's becoming very independent, and wants to do everything on her own.  If we help her with something she wants to do herself, she often undo what we helped her with, and redo it on her own.  She is very picky about her clothes, and I often have to coerce her to wear what I have picked out for her.  But pointing out how pretty it is, and showing her that I have some matching hair bows is often all it takes.  She loves to be pretty, and asks to have her hair done each day.  She is extremely observant. (I tried to do some birthday shopping with her, and there was nothing getting past this one!)  Lately when we spell things to try and keep a secret, she yells out what we just spelled (like should we get out the i-c-e c-r-e-a-m?, and she yells, "ice ceam!")  We love you Olivia, and can't imagine our lives without you.

Advertisement for Legos

It's been 8 months since Christmas brought Legos to our house. I will say it now to be clear. Everyone should buy their children a lot of legos. Ditch the TV, and any other toys. Our boys play with Legos all day long. They particularly like Star Wars. Sometimes they recreate scenes from the movie (or the book about the movie that they have read ad infinitum) or improvise with the characters and anyone else they can co-opt into the act. Woody from Toy Story is Han Solo, Jessie is Princess Leah, Propector - as you can see in the image - is one of the bad guys. Sometimes the emperor.

Without being a totally walking ad for Legos, these have been awesome. They are captivating. They promote imagination, even if it is 'blow them up' imagination. I've been surprised by the in-depth story lines they are making up.

Cute Card

Harrison wrote Olivia this birthday card, all by himself. We asked him where he got the "pur-fect" joke, and he said "I got it from a Spiderman story." I think it may be a catwoman joke in a Batman book, but maybe I don't know my superheros that well. He reads more than me, so ...