3rd Birthday!

We made it 3 years, and Olivia couldn't couldn't be a sweeter little girl!  We had a fabulous bday party at newark community park yesterday with a face- painting fairy who did a magic show and balloon animals, and tacos made on site by Carmen's tacos.  Delicious!!!!  Kathy brought the tools for making giant bubbles Amandine Charlie brought the games he'd made for Olivia's 1st birthday, and they were finally used!  We had a garden theme and Olivia was dressed as a monarch butterfly while I used the excuse to buy a new dress with a petticoat!  I couldn't be happier with how it all went.

Some fun Olivia tidbits these days:
- "mommy, let me show you a trick!"
- "mommy, let me tell you a secret."
Those are both great stall techniques
- still likes Frozen, but also Minnie.  No lasting favorite character or doll.
- singing more on her own, also along with frozen soundtrack
- going potty on the big potty every time now, and can climb on it without a stool
- twirling in the 3 dresses she will wear, butterfly, Minnie mickey, and the red Minnie dress.  I'm hoping the Elsa dress I gave her for for her bday will be added to the rotation.
- loves salami
- sleeps with with us basically every night

- Misha is her best friend from school, like sisters
- has about 90% of the capital letters down.
- 36" tall, 27 lbs and 20/20 vision in her left eye.... wouldn't let us test the right eye.
- still the favorite snack for mosquitoes
- great little camper and loved looking at the boat passing by at Kirby Cove
- empathetic
- loves giving Trixie and Kiwi hugs
- naps at daycare, but questionable on weekends... too much fun playing with mommy and daddy.  Stays up until 2 go to bed.
- taking swim classes and loves the water (we're at the pool right now and she was swimming in circles in her floater)
- taking dance classes, not as interested...
- plays with her kitchen much more now.
- still has breathing issues occasionally needing the nebulizer
- sweetest little sweetheart ever!

Sweetheart

A few weekends ago, I was out front watering plants and Olivia had to climb to the top of the mound in the front, as if it was the North Mountain in Frozen, and belted Let it go for a good 20 min.  Too funny.  Today she's singing

Dresses, twirling and butterflies!

These days Olivia just wants to wear her pretty dresses and twirl around in them.  She has a favorite black dress with butterflies all over that we wear 2-3 times a week; it's great for twirling.  Olivia also found the bags of too small clothes and ransacked them, pulling out Christmas dresses from last year, and Insisting on wearing them and twirling.  Super cute.  She says how pretty she is.

Olivia is also becoming adept at dressing herself.  "No Mommy.  I do it."  We've been watching Disney movies and she's certainly identifying with the princesses.

Tonight is her elementary school's open house from 6-7pm.  We plan to check it out.

Olivia also stays up late these days, playing with her legos in her room.  Last night she made a symmetric castle, I was impessed!  She's just the sweetest little girl.  We do butterfly kisses at night and tonight I will start Olivia time and give her a solid 15-20 min of undivided attention. 

Need to do Something

This is one of Olivia's new phrases to try and get out of things.... "but mommy, I need to DO something."  I think she picked it up from me telling her to hold on a sec while I finished something.  She's a hoot, and is doing OK at her little dance class.  Last week a little girl told Olivia to get out of her spot.... Olivia was surprised and sad... pouted the rest of the class.  Hopefully she will dance tonight.  Olivia's been a little under the weather lately and i think she's better now.  We have flowers to give her teachers for teacher appreciation week.  And cupcakes.  The flowers are for the ones who calm Olivia down in the morning at drop off.   It can't be easy.  From my perspective,  i love that she wants to spend time with me, but I'm sad for her when she's so upset at drop off.  We'll see how today goes...

Off to the beach!

We are off to Half Moon Bay for a fun day with Misha, Olivia's best friend, and her family.  Aunt Kathy is planning to join us too.  It's a gorgeous day and Kevin took the weekend off.  All good things. 
Olivia continues to be a sweetheart.  We still have Frozen fever and she's wearing her Elsa flip flops right now. Friday night we had a mother daughter date and watched Aladdin on the couch tigether.  That movie is a bit dark for a Disney movie, but she did ok with it. 
Yesterday we worked in the yard, which is really coming together.  Kevin and Olivia took a nice long nap.  He came home at 2 am Saturday morning, working hard so he could take the weekend off.  I feel like we are getting to the point almost where we are tweaking things which is a good feeling.  We have big projects to go, but the overall impression is good at the moment so I can start thinking about the next project.  Ok time to chill with Kev while he drives.

Camping at Big Basin

We had a fabulous weekend camping at Big Basin!   Olivia spent the week before looking forward to it and asking if it was time to go camping.  We went with Kevin's friend Joe and his family.  Olivia and Nola (7 yrs old) were like two peas in a pod and had a blast.  Nola read books to Olivia and they wandered all around enjoying being outside.  All the girls climbed a huge stump in the Rashid's campsite and Etta spent most of the trip up there.  We did very little hiking, and lots of eating.  Sleeping was not the best and Sunday morning Olivia was a walking zombie. 

The weather was wonderful.  Everyone was relaxed.  Fun trip overall. 

Tonight i want to plan the next trip!

Why mommy? why?

Another favorite phrase the days, is "why did you (eat your beans all gone) mommy?  Why?"  And she says it so indignantly.   Must have learned that at daycare.  It's pretty funny. 

Today I managed to put mulch down the rest of the fence and move more river rocks... looks so much better!  The neighbors must be ecstatic.   I know I am happy to have that project much further along.  Tomorrow am I'd like to set up the soaker hose and then be in really good shape.  We'll see, since it is Easter Sunday and I really should take Olivia to church.

Also today, Areal and his son Jorge came by to see the ledgestone project and fireplace  and they'll be sending a quote shortly.  Kevin seemed to warm up to the idea of Arael doing the work, but we'll have to see what the quote is.  My fingers are crossed!

Not to enjoy my very rare pedicure....

It's my favorite.

Olivia's favorite phrase today is, "I want x, it's m favorite. "  it's super cute, especially in her sweet little voice.  We had another breathing episode over the last weekend.   Terrible timing since my parents and Vicky were out visiting and Emi ' s lacrosse game was on Sunday.  We ended up going to urgent care in the early evening and I watched her like a hawk overnight.  Olivia is fine now. 

We had a great time with the family during their whirlwind visit.  The kiddos were good and everyone seemed fairly relaxed. 

I've been treated to 2 weeks of Kevin in town which is wonderful. 

Back to Olivia, she loves singing to herself now and knows the words to various Frozen songs surprisingly well.  Last night she was singing head, shoulders, knees and toes on the way home from school.  So adorable. 

Super cute!

Olivia loves her new butterfly dress I bought last weekend and ran into daycare today to show it off to her friends.  She is well known for sharing raisins in the morning with everyone.  I've gotten a kick out of watching her imagination run wild!  Olivia now is happy playing with her stuffed animals and an imaginary Goofy, or some other character.  She tucks them in on the floor repeatedly and is their mother. It's too much cuteness! 

Potty training is really good.  We've hardly had any accidents. 

Mum mum and pop pop are coming to visit tonight for the weekend.  We are all off to see Emi play stanford in lacrosse on Sunday.  Aunt Vicky is coming out too!  The rain has finally stopped for a bit and things are growing like mad.  Work is calming down a tad and things are generally good.  I'm trying to plan a number of weekend trips. 

Olivia is just the sweetest little girl. She's going down to bed easier again and has been a delight the last few mornings at drop off. 

Back to the grind

After a week of travel in Colorado, it took some adjusting to come back home.  Poor Olivia was sick while I was gone and poor Kevin had to figure out juggling everything.  O is all better now, Kevin had to work all weekend, and Annie came down with Walter Sat and helped turn over the veggie garden and planted a few things while Olivia was napping.  Yeaterday, Aunt Kathy went with us to the Cal Academy for a lovely morning.  Olivia was cranky in the afternoon due to a poor nap, but found her happy place playing with the sand box.  I planted 3 mexican salvia plants against the back fence.  They were cut offs from an existing plant.  I figure it'll be pretty while we wait for kev to be ready for the fancy sculpture in the back. 

So, here we go, back to work.  My teams are being consolidated onto one floor next week and I have a new person starting in a few weeks, another a few weeks later.   Thank goodness.   I think things will calm down here fairly soon, at least I hope.

Time to book some more weekend trips.

Potty trained!!!

Olivia decided a couple weeks ago when we were home sick that she wanted to wear her Anna & Elsa (Disney's Frozen haeroines) underpants.   I explained that she would have to go pee pee and poo poo in the potty every time, and she was good with it.  Ever since that day, which was the week prior to the super bowl, she has been wearing big girl underpants with very few accidents!!! We are so proud of her!
Two weekends ago, we went to Tahoe to play in the snow.  Olivia and Kevin made their first snow angel!  The snow itself wasn't great, but we were able to find an untouched field and could stomp around and leave tracks.  It was about 60 degrees and Kevin didn't wear any of the brand new snow gear he'd purchased. 

For two nights we stayed at the Tahoe Glen Cove hotel in North Tahoe, right across from the lake.  The room had a little gas fireplace and a kitchenette.   Olivia was scared of the fire and whenever she had to go potty, we would have to stand in front of the fire and screen it from her.  This would allow Olivia to pass by the fire.  So whenever she had to get by, she would ask, "Mommy, pass the fire?" Indicating she wanted to pass by.  Too cute.  Olivia slept with us the first night and the second night was in the pull out bed (though I joined her there around 3 am since she awoke scared).  Saturday night we turned in pretty early and just hung out in the room from about 6 pm onward.  Of course we had a healthy dinner of cheese, crackers,  salami and champagne (had a late lunch).  Olivia kept up with using the restroom throughout the trip, and we had her go in her mini potty in the back of the car when we were out and about. 

The second two nights, we stayed with Kate, Eaton,  Pete, and Alice Dunkelberger at their house in Reno.  How fun!  Olivia loved having other kids around, exploring new toys, and being social.  Pete was an energetic boy and super sweet, giving Olivia lots of hugs.  Alice was a sweetie little 2 year old and did a really good job sharing her toys.  The only point of contention was a set of Disney Princess figurines.  The first night, kate and Eaton had a social engagement so we went out on the town and Olivia fell asleep in the car for a bit.  Afterwards,  Olivia hung out with the adults until some hour and slept with us.  Saturday, after a delicious homemade breakfast, we all went to find snow, and had marginal success playing in it.  Both little girls were a bit testy, but we did manage to do a few sledding g runs and play with a rock hard snowman.

Potty Training!

Last week, Olivia had a little virus and we stayed home on Tuesday.  She ended up seeing the underwear I had previously purchased for her and it was game on!  She wore underwear most of the day and only had a couple accidents.  Since then, we're mostly done underwear, except for when going out and sleepy time.  She was doing really well... and today was fantastic!  When we picked Olivia up from daycare, they happily reported that she didn't have a single accident, though she hadn't poo-poo'd yet.  We went out to Chili's to celebrate, and she went pee-pee on the potty at the restaurant!  Yes, we were the people running through the restaurant while she was holding her crotch.


Back at home, she would run off to the bathroom all of a sudden and pee-pee'd twice.  15 min later, she was worried about poo-poo'ing and we rushed back to the bathroom.... and voila!  A big ol' poo poo in the toilet!  Kevin tells me she did one yesterday too!  We are very proud!


Olivia's language skills are impressive as well.  We are working on the whining and on complete sentences for asking for things nicely.  She's getting better by the day.  Olivia remembers things for fairly long times and brings up memories from week and months ago.  It's so amazing to see her develop. 


<I'm in bed typing this up and Olivia keeps coming out of her room to go potty again.  10 min ago we did a substantial pee with a surprise poo-poo, and she just came out again wanting to do another "monster poo poo".  Yes, she said "monster".  Too funny!>


So now I'm fighting some sort of something and hope to be over it before we go to Tahoe this weekend to play in the snow.  Can't wait!  We'll be visiting Eaton and Kate Dunkelberger and their two children when we're up there and I'm looking forward to the kiddos playing together.


We've had a couple play dates with our friend Misha from daycare and her lovely family.  I owe an invitation to them for next weekend - invite them over to play.  Last weekend, Melanie and little Zach joined us for a Home Depot project and playdate with brunch (eggs) back at home.  It was a very relaxing time.  Melanie is due with her second boy in April so she is counting the days to maternity leave.


I guess that's all for now.  I should look at some work stuff but will probably just go to sleep to get over this thing that I'm fighting.


Nighty-Night!  Sleep tight!  Don't let the bed bugs bite - I have to go see what Olivia just deposited in her toilet....

Talking up a storm

Olivia's sentences are becoming more complex by the day.  It's amazing to witness her development.   We are still working on "please" and "thank you", but she's doing pretty well with "thank you."  Our new morning routine, as of last week, is to plop her down in front of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse after waking her.  Then I'll sit with Olivia for a bit, and eventually get her dressed... without any struggle!   Thank goodness!  Mornings were very very stressful until we figured out this trick!

Olivia helped kevin make chocolate chip cookies last night (premade dough), and we had a little dance party to burn off some energy.  I also took Olivia for a little walk before the rain really started.  When the drops began, we tried to catch some in our mouths, and of course we jumped in puddles!  

This morning we were at daycare when the garbage truck was visible out the back window.  The children were all so very excited and ran to the window to check it out.  Olivia was the smallest of them all, on tiptoe to look out. 

We are planning a trip to the snow in February and can't wait!  I have to buy some boots and find our hotel for the first few nights. 

Kevin has been around for the first part of the year, which is awesome.  But it sounds like we won't see much of him overall this year. 

Happy New Year!

2016 has come up in us when we weren't looking!   My resolution is to work less, delegate more, and stress less.  Now to figure out how to make that happen...  Olivia and Kevin are doing well.  Olivia is settling back in at daycare and is a regular chatterbox.  She's sharing well and is super empathetic.  Olivia's best friends at school are Ely and Misha, and Gigi moved up a few months ago.  Super cute!  Olivia now helps feed the dog all by herself (eating a few kibble in the process) and lets them out of their kennels, puts things away, and us growing up so fast!

Kevin will have a strenuous travel schedule again this year, so we will see how that goes.  We plan to tack on a trip to Disney World when Kev is in Florida for a few months.  I'm looking into a trip to the snow in February,  and Pismo, and camping.  Looking forward to it all!