Dallas

This post is a little late, but earlier this summer, Olivia and I made a quick trip up to Dallas to see the Gannons and Uncle Ryan/Uncle Douglas (Matt went to play poker with Uncle Lloyd).  

While Olivia napped, I got in some quality time with sweet Blythe and helped her make some muffins!

Once Olivia woke up, we packed up both kids in the car (which Olivia LOVED) and headed to the splashpad.

 Followed by some ice cream

That night, Olivia wouldn't eat peas when I asked her, but gobbled them up with Blythe offered!

I even got to sneak out for an adult dinner with Uncle Ryan while Erica and Greg babysat Miss O!  Talk about luxury!

We spent one morning with Uncle Ryan and Uncle Douglas checking out the new Perot Museum.

Such a fun trip -- can't wait to go back!

Fashion Queen

Lately Olivia has had some pretty strong opinions about fashion and, despite my better judgment, I've been letting her have some freedom in this department.  The results pretty much speak for themselves.

Uncle Drew & Olivia-isms

We also were lucky enough to have Uncle Drew in town for a few days and he spent one afternoon with us. Olivia took to him immediately and they got along famously.  I think I see a trip to Nashville in our future...

Olivia has said/done a couple of cute things lately that I wanted to record for the memory book:

1.  No way!  This is Olivia's new favorite thing to say and its pretty funny to hear that phrase come out of that mouth in her baby voice.  A few weeks ago she woke up at 5:30 and refused to go back to bed.  I asked her if she would sleep if I let her come in our bed.  She said yes.  So I brought her in and, of course, she was being silly and loud and wouldn't sleep.  I reminded her, "Olivia, you said you'd sleep if you came in mamma's bed, right?"  She replied "No way mommy!"  To which Matt and I burst out laughing.  So now, it is a constant phrase in our house and gets a laugh pretty much every time!

2.  The other day I took Olivia to Wonder Wild and when it was time to leave she was very said (who wouldn't be?!).  Unfortunately, she expressed her anger in a less than optimal way -- by hitting mommy.  I was completely shocked by this and frankly stammered for the right words to say.  Despite my lack of clear words, I guess she got the message that mommy was NOT pleased.  We had been home about 30 minutes when I called her over to eat dinner.  I picked her up to put her in the highchair and I wasn't really looking at her because I was fumbling with the straps.  But I noticed that as I was holding her, she started rubbing my back.  Then as I put her in the seat she said "hug mommy" and gave me a huge hug.  Now Olivia's "hugs" usually entail her leaning in close to you and you hugging her.  Not this time.  That little cutie put her little arms around my neck and HUGGED IT!  If that wasn't enough, she then said "kissy" and pulled me close and kissed my lips.  As I fought back tears and tried to buckle her in, she said "you a nice mommy."  I mean, seriously??!!!  This kid!!

3.  Singing.  Over the past few weeks, Olivia has become quite the music lover.  She insists on certain songs from her CD in the car and will randomly bust out a song no matter where we are.  Twinkle, Twinkle is a fan favorite and can be heard often.  She also likes "I'm Bringing Home A Baby Bumblebee" - which I didn't even know she knew until she sang it at the top of her lungs at a Chinese restaurant the other night!  And a few times we have heard "Shoo Fly" and "Skip to My Lou."  Here she is doing the ABCs..

4.  My toes!! Ever since she was a baby, Olivia has hated to have her toes covered at night by blankets.  Lately, she has been hyper-vigilant about making sure that Matt and I don't cover her toes at night by yelling "My toes!  Not my toes!" every night when we put her in the crib.  Trust us, we know.....we will not cover those toes!

5.  Matt was going to take out the trash the other day and she said "See ya later, alligator!"  Another phrase she must have picked up from school....

Japan

The delay in blog posts is due to the crazy work schedule that Matt and I have had for the past few weeks. We have taken turns going out of town and when both managed to be in town at the same time, we have been scrambling to catch up at work and home!

Last week, I had my first international work trip to Tokyo, Japan. It was an unexpected trip that had me a little nervous – to leave Matt and Olivia, to figure out how to get around in a new country, and to (arguably most importantly!) give my clients some sound legal advice that would help move along the project. But, thankfully, my worry was for not.

The best part of my trip were our daily FaceTime calls.  Although the time difference proved a little rough, we were usually able to talk twice a day. Thank goodness for FaceTime. Seriously – how did people survive before it?  Pretty awesome to see this smiley little face every morning and before bed!

The trip went about as well as I could have hoped.  Tokyo is a very modern city with a rich night life.  All the different names on this sign represent the different bars inside!   (Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to go inside...)

It rained most days I was there, but that certainly did not shut the city down...it was just a busy and chaotic as you'd imagine.

This charming entryway paved the way into my meetings each day.

While I was there to focus on work, I made sure not to neglect the local cuisine!  I enjoyed some "Japanese ramen" -- SO much better than the stuff we have here --- and some amazing sushi!  

And I even managed to find a toy store -- it was 5 levels of nothing but toys!  Olivia would have loved it!

I picked a baby doll, who much to my delight has risen the ranks of the many babies Olivia already has to be one of her favorites!  Great trip, but glad to be home to my family!

(Despite the distance between them in this picture, O really does love this doll -- the one with clothes on!)

Same Song, Second Verse...

Much to our dismay, Olivia had to get another set of tubes put in her ears this week (as well as removal of her adenoids).  We went through this process last year and had great results for several months, but unfortunately the tubes fell out after about 5 months and the ear infections started again.  Given that she was getting some pretty nasty ear infections during the Spring/Summer time-frame, our doctor thought it best to go ahead and put them back in before the "cold and flu season" started in the Fall.

Here's a "then and now" picture -- she looks so little and sad in the first one!

So, we woke up bright and early and headed back to the hospital.  This time because she was a little older, she wasn't first in line for surgery.  That meant longer to distract her from the fact that she couldn't have her beloved "ous and mik" (Cheerios and milk) for breakfast.  But, she did great and even made some new friends!

She wasn't too thrilled about the ankle bracelet......until the nurse gave her a purple butterfly sticker

Finally it was our turn.  We had been prepping Olivia for weeks that the nurse was going to take her back. Given her extreme attachment to mommy, we both knew that the prep would likely be for not and had mentally prepared ourselves for some major tears.  But, to our extreme delight, the sweet nurse and anesthesiologist saw how attached Olivia was and anticipated the freakout that would ensue.  So, they snuck me into the surgery room and let me hold her while they put her out.  (This was a pretty traumatizing experience for me - one minute it took 3 of us to hold her down and put the little mask over her face, the next minute she went completely limp and her little eyes rolled back in her head.  I definitely cried a little!).  But, I was glad that I could be there for her.

And then we waited.  The doctors assured us they would get us in less than 30 minutes.  And, just like last time, they made good on that promise.  24 minutes after she went back, they brought us to the recovery room.  The surgery went well and the doctor said there was a lot of fluid in both ears and her adenoids were very large, so it was a really good thing we did the procedure again.

Like last time, we hated seeing her look like this.  She was O-U-T and slept much longer than last time.  

After about 15 minutes she woke up completely groggy and confused.  She was crying and calling for "daddy."  Matt picked her up and she immediately snuggled up to him and went back to sleep for another 10 minutes.

When she finally woke up again, she was pretty miserable.  I think the anesthesia must have made her itchy because she kept scratching at her face and crying.  As soon as she woke up, I tried to give her some water. She closed her eyes, drank for a few minutes and then opened her eyes and asked for a chocolate chip. (Side note: She actually had an ear infection at this point and had been on medication for the past week.  To get her to take the medicine, I always bribe her with a chocolate chip.  So I guess she had them on the brain!).  Anyways, the nurse was shocked by the request and said they were fresh out of chocolate chips.  But she did have a purple popsicle which Olivia begrudgingly ate.  She was fussy and crying most of the time.  After she drank enough, they finally let us go home.  She slept most of the way home and then for a few hours in her crib.  She woke up hungry and not feeling well.  

Some pizza cheered her up a little, but she was much more miserable and grouchy for the rest of the day than she was last time.

We laid pretty low the rest of the day....watched lots of Sesame Street and played on the iPad 

By 6:00 she was a pumpkin so we gave her a quick dinner and put her to bed early.  Matt and I ended the stressful day with our new favorite summer drink -- margaritas!  

The next morning however, she woke up happy and back to her usual self.  I knew she was feeling better when she insisted on picking our her own outfit (purple dress and "fip fops") and wouldn't leave the house without her necklace, purse, baby, and sunglasses.  She's not high maintenance.  Nope.  Not at all.  And, if she is, she certainty doesn't get it from her mother. ;)

Hopefully this will be our last experience with ear tubes and sweet Olivia will have some relief in those cute little ears of hers!

Find That Baby

Last weekend we were having a lazy Sunday afternoon at home, playing with our babies.  And by "babies" I don't mean Olivia.  I mean Baby Ed, Baby Stella, Baby Carol, and Baby Naz.  Yes, 4 babies.  Poor Matt barely liked it when there was only 1!  Olivia's new favorite thing to do is spread every blanket we have on the floor, wrap up the babies, and rub their backs to put them to sleep.  This seemingly easy and mundane task is complicated by a couple of things:
1. Olivia has a certain way she wants the babies blanketed and patted.  The proper way is only in her head and if you do it wrong, she will FREAK OUT.
2.  The babies are apparently eating a lot of spicy foods because they literally have a poopy diaper every 5 minutes.  And Olivia won't let you just pretend to change the diaper -- you have to get the baby completely naked and then change the diaper.

As we both sat, patting and changing our respective babies, Matt commented: "I guess I should have anticipated this when I found out we were having a girl, but I gotta say - I spend A LOT of time playing with dolls these days, especially clothing them."

So, I guess it is no surprise that my game-loving, competitive husband would try and mix things up a bit.  I was getting dressed last night for our date night and Matt was playing with Olivia before the babysitter got there.  I hear Olivia cracking up laughing and I walked in to find this: