Monday, May 19, 2014

My baby is TWO!

Olivia's stats:
Weight: 26 lbs (50%)
Height 34 inches (50%)

I just can't believe my baby is TWO! Olivia Jane's gone from a baby to a very independent gal.. she thinks she's four like Eli. She is all girl with a wee touch of tom-boy thrown in. She loves to wear dresses, and is a huge fan of shoes, bows, and jewelry. She especially likes her pink rain boots and thinks they need to be worn daily. Olivia can get dirty and is a fan of the mud and sand. One of her favorite things to do is dump the dog water out or fill her watering cup up from the dog bowl and dump it on the herb garden. As soon as the low spot gets any water mud she likes to run and jump in the mud until her feet and legs are completely covered.

She is very observant and you can't fool her at all. Eli will try to sneak marshmallows and she knows every time. When I get dressed for work on Tuesday and Thursday she asks, "Mommy work?" and when I tell her 'yes' she immediately starts pouting. She doesn't like me to leave her.... ever! She likes to hold my hand when we go places or ride in her stroller.. with Eli it was useless to even bring a stroller because he wouldn't ride in it and you could forget Eli ever wanting to hold my hand!

She has her 'people' and if you are one of them you get the sweetest hugs and kisses! When she wakes up in the morning and wants me to come get her out of her crib, (she did fall out once but is still in the crib.. for right now) she wraps those little arms around my neck so hard and hugs and hugs. I never want to let go! She is very attached to her pink silky blanket and paci for sleeping.. I'm going to have to take the paci soon but I am dreading it because I don't want to mess up the sleep! She is such a good sleeper...she sleeps around 12 hours at night and a good 3 hours or so mid-day after lunch. We read books and then she tells me she's ready to go to bed and lays down and goes right to sleep. I'm super thankful for my sleep, it's one of those things I don't do good without.

She's a great eater and not very picky.. yet. I hope she doesn't go through that picky stage. She likes salad, broccoli and green beans BUT, she definitely has a 'sweet tooth'. She will lick every last drop of sweets which I try to limit. We went to the greenhouse on Mother's Day and I bought the kids popcicles. Eli ate about 3 bites of his and he was finished.. however Olivia, ate the entire thing and then was chewing the stick! Her favorite foods are eggs, oatmeal, bananas, peanut butter, crackers and of course ice cream and cake.

Development wise she's doing excellent. She aced her Ages and Stages at the pediatrician and he was very impressed with her language skills. She is very smart and grasps concepts super fast. She can count past 10, sing several songs, is using 3 plus word sentences, knows all her colors, and tries to spell her name. We've been hearing aid-less for almost 3 weeks now and I can tell a difference in her speech. She is leaving off more sounds on words and her speech is much less intelligible. We are going to have to do make up work when those hearing aids get back.  See 2 posts below for the story of her feeding her hearing aids to the dog!


Olivia,
You are a joy and a delight to our family. I find myself just staring at you and smiling at your cuteness. When you grin up at me with that huge smile and little dimple I just melt. I love you more every single day and I'm so thankful God gave you to me! Your Daddy already says he's in trouble and I don't think he's ever raised his voice at you. Your big brother Isaac, loves kissing your cheeks and ticking you, and Eli thinks you're the best playmate ever. 

Love, 
Mommy





Sleepy girl

Birthday breakfast

Olivia and the hat

Super hero Livi

Monday, May 12, 2014

Olivia's Sofia the 1st Birthday


Olivia loves.. I mean LOVES the Disney Jr show Sofia the 1st. She will ask daily to watch Sofia.. it is a cute show and the songs are very catchy but I'm about Sofia'ed out. Of course she had to have a Sofia birthday and since I went low key on Eli's birthday this year (that was great!), I went a-bit overboard on this one. I ordered her a Disney Sofia dress for her birthday and let her open it that morning before her party. She loves to dress up so I thought she would love to dress up for her party and have the other girls come in their princess dresses as well! She had a blast and was ready for a long nap after everyone left. The party wouldn't be complete without an after party tantrum which I happened to video. She was upset because my sister, Audra, left and pitched a 'royal fit'!

Olivia's Sofia table
Princess Oliva the 1st 

She kept wanting to sample the icing on the last layer of cupcakes

Looking at her cake! 


I ordered tent cards from ETSY and printed them and cut them out for the food labels.


We went all out with purple princess punch, lollipops and gum balls (which Eli probably ate 15 before the party!) 


I handmade these marshmallows..
I dipped them in white chocolate and then coated them with purple sprinkles


I ordered princess cookie cutters and cut out the sandwiches in crowns, castles and slippers.


Clover's vegetable garden and Minimus's mixed fruit


We had SNOW WHITE visit courtesy of our beautiful niece Allie!


I brought out the bouncy house out of the garage and decked it out with Sofia logo


Aunt Audra and Olivia



Our niece Allie painted these boards for the kids to play with....
Prince James and Princess Sofia. She did a wonderful job.


Olivia was a fan of the bubbles

She loved opening presents and wanted to play with each one


Kellie and her little niece, Sadie Rose


She said "blow" instead of blowing the candles but it worked!
Outside table

Party favors.. Tiaras and swords (I think Eli played with every sword in there)


I loved her cupcake cake!
                                              

Thanks Daddy for making the balloon arch! I asked him to make
me one so he watched a You Tube video and viola!

Snow White and Eli

Snow White and Olivia

Carter looking less than thrilled

The Ellis girls

Gabe and Allie


The TANTRUM!


Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Crushed

Sunday, I was washing dishes, and  Olivia Jane decides to pull her 'ears' out and feed them to our dog Sampson. Sampson, being the 1 year old Golden Retriever chewing sensation that he is, promptly chewed them right up! I screamed.. then cried, then screamed, then cried. I contemplated not even going to church. That's about 4K just for the hearing aids, $150 for the molds (which were brand new), and then another 2K for the FM receivers on the bottom. I was completely devastated that so much money had been destroyed and that Olivia was no longer going to be able to hear me clearly. She is doing sooo well and it's because of these wonderful devices she wears. I couldn't even get mad at anyone because no one was to blame... she's a baby and Sampson's a dog. He is used to the kids feeding him treats, dog food and other things so he thought nothing of chewing it.

I called our audiologist on Monday and thankfully they are still under the manufacturer warrenty (it expires in October) and is good for 1 replacement per device. We are going to have to pay a bit out of pocket for the fee and for new molds but no where near what we would have to pay to replace everything. Praise God!

Olivia says "Ears broke," and when I ask her if she fed them to the dog she says, "I don't know!" I am definitely going to stress the importance of NEVER ever feeding the dog her ears again!


33! Yikes!

This year my birthday fell right on Easter! I can't remember that ever happening but I guess it probably has. We celebrated with a wonderful church service, lunch at my in-laws, naps, and then my sister had a birthday dinner for me at her house that evening. I'm thankful for another year to love on my babies, be a wife, daughter, sister, and friend.

Easter baskets for the kiddies.. the Easter Bunny mixed up Eli's and Isaac's basket and Eli was upset his was in the wrong color. Ooops. Then I was like.. "Well if you can't be thankful then maybe you won't get another Easter basket." Nice. 

Checking out the basket. Olivia's mouth was covered in blue sucker (she was up first that morning).

Pictures in our Easter attire

My handsome boys (Doesn't Isaac look so big!)

Princess Olivia snoozed through our picture taking


Isaac, Josh, Eli and of course Sampson

I couldn't get anyone to come take a picture with me... except Sampson!

I finally persuaded this one on my lap!

Love these boys

Easter egg hunt at Aunt Day's (my sister's)

Helping find eggs

Cousin play time