Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

 Dear Olivia,

          You are THREE!  Happy Birthday, sweet girl.  It has been quite a year for you.  There have been so many changes!  You have risen to the challenge and impressed us all.

We picked up and moved you across the country.  We took you away from the one place and the only group of people you had ever known.  For a girl who likes predictability, you did amazingly well.

You embraced becoming a big sister with grace and style.  I'm sure you will go through your phases with your little brother, but right now you just can't get enough of him.  I know that there will come a day and time where you just might not like him (all siblings go through it), so for now I am soaking in and cherishing all the love you lavish on him daily.  I don't think you could love him any more if you tried.  You are a wonderful big sister, and I am so proud!

Your personality has definitely started to shine.  You are sweet, yet sassy.  You know exactly what you like and don't like and have no issues with making your opinions known.  You love order, routine, patterns, schedules and basically anything that lets you know exactly how things are going to go ahead of time.

Your imagination has come to life as you play with all of your dolls and little people.  You tell elaborate stories with varying voices, and even remove yourself from the situation as you become the character that you are playing with.  You then refer to "Olivia" as another person entirely.  It's fascinating to me to watch you play.

Your memory and vocabulary continue to be impressive.  You have a love for learning, but just like with all things, you are particular about it.  You are a lover of words--spoken or written.  Books still remain one of your favorite and most prized possessions.  If I even try to mention number skills or counting, you pretty much shut down.  You either refuse to participate or remove yourself from the situation.  Just a hunch, but I don't think a career as an accountant is in your future. ;)

You have started to have a definite opinion about your looks and what you wear.  You want your hair to be long, and you now only like to wear it down.  You prefer pants over shorts, but will take a dress any day.  You don't really like to be bare foot and will ask for socks even in the middle of summer.  You have no problems wearing footie pajamas in June, but will only wear short pajamas if they have the right princess on them.  Your purple jellies from Old Navy are your favorite shoe.  I think it has more to do with the color than the fit.  I'm pretty sure this is only the beginning.

You love to be a helper.  You enjoy helping in the kitchen the most, but will help with almost anything.  I hope you always have that servant's heart.

You have started to find your voice.  You can still be shy and timid in new situations, but have begun to break out of your shell.  You are learning to speak up when someone is doing something to you that you don't like.  You are also very friendly and like to talk to cashiers or other little kids that you see in a store.  Speaking of stores, shopping has become something that you are really started to get into.  We are going to have lots of fun together!

You are just so much fun.  You have a great sense of humor and make us laugh daily.  We want to keep you a cute little girl forever!  We just enjoy you so much.  We are so proud of you and love the little girl you have become.

Like I tell you every day--You are my favorite little girl ever, and I love you SO much! I hope you have an amazing day and feel special and loved.

Love, Mommy

Rainbow Fish Art

I literally have hundreds of children's books from my teaching days.  Some have made their way into our collection, and some remain in boxes in the basement waiting for the right time to make their debut.

Besides just a random collection of books, I use to do an author of the month.  Each day after lunch and recess, we would unwind at our meeting spot by reading from our author. That meant I needed a minimum of 20 books from each author.  Over time I collected enough books for each month.  So I have over 20 Dr. Seuss, Clifford books, Curious George, Berenstein Bears, Eric Carle, and more.

One of the collections that I recently brought up for Olivia was the Rainbow Fish book by Marcus Pfister.  At some point I brought up one of Rainbow Fish books that had flaps and she really got into it.  In general, she is less interested in the actual Rainbow Fish book and enjoys the smaller readers.  She's already picked out her favorites and, of course, has the words memorized. :)

So when I was thinking about a craft to do, I thought I would tie in her current reading favorite.

I printed off an outline of Rainbow Fish on light blue cardstock.

Then I used a craft punch and cut circles out of different colored paper.

Then I just dribbled glue all over and let Olivia get to work.

In true Olivia fashion, she chose to do one color at a time.  She started with purple because it's her favorite color.  Then she went on to pink for mommy.  She is always very deliberate about her choices.

Last up was the googley eye.

In order to cover the whole fish, some of her circles hung off the edge.  After it had dried a bit I trimmed those off so that it still held it's proper shape.

The finished product! 

The "shimmery scales" are aluminum foil.

Decorating our fridge for a season.  I think it turned out great!

Storm Watchers

Olivia loves to go outside to play with Michael after dinner.  The other night they were on a little walk around the neighborhood, but then returned quickly because it was going to storm.  They decided they'd watch the storm from the garage.  This is something they have done before.

Olivia scraped her knees on their walk though, so Michael asked me to bring out some band aids.

I brought a few treats along with the first aid stuff. :)

Olivia didn't mind.

I'm not sure they got the "show" they wanted with the storm, but they shared a little special bonding time nonetheless.  I just love them.

This and That Thursday

We are all just chugging along over here.  The countdown is on for a sweet little girl's birthday!

We went out for our anniversary last Saturday.  Our friend Laurie offered to babysit, and that is the day that worked best for everyone.  We didn't do anything too exciting--dinner, walking around outside, and dessert.

Elsa is hiding under her dress.

We were invited to go to a Clippers baseball (minor league) game with our friends Nick and Kim on our actual anniversary.  Nick had free tickets from his work and they were right behind home plate!  We couldn't pass that up.  My friend Amanda babysat for us.  She is the nurse at the school I use to work for.  I first met her when her oldest son Luke was in my class.  I had two out of three of her children, but quit the year her third would have been in my class.  Anyway, she brought her daughter along with her.  Grace is about to be a freshmen.  Olivia loved it.  She had napped that day.  That never happens, but when it does she is pretty much guaranteed to be up until between 10 and 11 at night!  So I told them instead of trying to deal with her being OCD about her bedtime routine, she could just stay up and play.  She would have been up and reading in her bed the whole time anyway.  She had them cracking up all night.  Amanda kept sending me texts with all of the funny things she was saying.  Grace and Amanda were talking about how to turn the x-box on.  I guess Olivia wanted the attention on her, so she said "Whoa!  I'm not use to all this noise!"  :)  That girl!  At one point Grace asked Amanda if she was that smart when she was three and Amanda said, "NO!". Ha ha.  Amanda said to me, "I think you might need to skip Kindergarten with her and just go right to first grade."  I said, "How about we get through the next two years of preschool first!" :)  At one point Olivia turned to Grace and said, "I don't know you, but I love you.  You are so pretty!".  Aww

We are still sleep training.  We have good days and bad days.  He will go down for a nap without needing any checks and then the next nap will take forever for him to get to sleep.  Honestly, I think the issue is just him being stubborn.  He is already at the point where he wants me near at all times.  If he can't see me, he is not happy.  I don't necessarily have to be playing with him, but I have to be sitting next to him while he plays or he is fussing and/or crying.  So when it comes to sleep it is the same thing.  He would go to sleep just fine if he could just hold my hand. :)  He also seems to wake up more at night now, but not really need to eat or anything.  I don't know.  I know it's a process, and we are still working on it.  It was just so easy with Olivia.  The first night we did 3 checks.  The second night we did 2.  And by the third night she was asleep before the first check.  I'm not sure if it was because she was older, or if it is a personality thing.  Regardless, I am not holding him for naps and we are making progress.  He has gone to sleep by himself multiple times now, and he also has woken up after 45 minutes but put himself back to sleep.  I know he can do it.  It's just not solid yet.

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 Remember my friend Stacy who I met for sushi last week?  Before she was a nanny she went to culinary school.  Now she is the General Manager for the Gigi's Cupcakes in the Columbus area.  When I moved back I joked with her that I was going to need a job after I had Logan.  She said I could for sure have one!  Well, Michael took a pay cut with his current position. He can work up to 10 hours of overtime a week, which helps with any shortage we would have.  But it takes away from his time with the kids.  I also didn't want him to get burned out.  So I took Stacy up on her offer.  What is not to love about working in a cupcake shop?  Right now, because of the hours they are open/the drive/prices of gas, etc. I am only doing Friday nights as my regular hours.  But then I am going to help out with events here and there.  I have two that I am doing this week, and I am really excited about it.  A fantastic boss... cupcakes... getting out of the house a few nights a week... all while making money?!  Sign this girl up!

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I have been funding my home decorating by selling things on Facebook.  I am so ready to get rid of all this stuff I don't need anymore.  I have been selling maternity clothes, Olivia's baby clothes, and baby items as we grow out of them.  Sometimes it's tedious and annoying, but when a sale goes through it is worth it.  I've already made a couple hundred bucks!  Next up, the bassinet.  Anyone need one? ;)

I mentioned before that I am having to do the decorating slowly, where my personality is to just go buy all the stuff and do it in a day.  I hate having people over because my living room doesn't have a single thing on the wall, there isn't "the right furniture" yet (in my mind), and there are kiddie contraptions all over.  But my friend Amanda kept gushing about how cute my house was decorated and now she wants me to go shopping with her to help decorate her house.  That made me feel better  about the rooms that are done/almost done!  Baby steps.

Wordless Wednesday--Outside Play

Happy 7th Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary, Michael!

You are my best friend, my partner in crime, my biggest cheerleader, and my rock.  I love you, and couldn't do life without you.  Thanks for walking by my side on this journey we call life.

Happy Father's Day!

Dear Michael,

Thank you for being a great dad to our children!  We appreciate how hard you work to provide for our little family.  The time you invest into these little lives today will impact them for a lifetime.  They are so lucky to have you as their daddy/boppa.

Olivia loves...
    *when you read books to her (over and over)
    *when you take her outside to play
    *when you tell her how beautiful she is or gush over her "pretty dresses"
    *when you get down on the floor and play with her
    *when you share your treats :)

Logan doesn't know it yet, but is going to love having you for a daddy too.  If he could, he would thank you for all of the diaper changes, baths, early morning feedings, and playing on the jungle mat. :)

We hope you have a great day feeling honored to be a dad! We love you!