Remember when you used to blog?!

This was the question posed to me recently by my dear friend Bethany. I do, in fact remember such a time. It was approximately 6 weeks ago -- the same time that every project I was involved in at work blew up and I went from a nice, in-house, part-time schedule to working around the clock and remembering why I left a big law firm!! But, things have slowed down a bit now, so I figured I should take the chance to catch up while I can. So....here goes!

Winter Storm 2014

Houston suffered a “terrible” winter storm a few weeks ago that included 2 “snow days” for Miss Olivia.

 

Luckily, one of those days was on a Friday, so she and I met up with the Williams girls for a day of fun at Happy Playland. These blurry pictures pretty much sum up the afternoon. I love the relationship that Olivia has with Sofie and Minah. They really are like sisters, taking care of each other. Makes my heart swell!

The other day was on a school day so Matt and I took turns taking care of Olivia. I took the morning shift and we started the day by making popsicles -- because why wouldn't you do that on an ice day?!

Then we watched some Sesame Street on the iPad...in our undies. Again, because why wouldn't you do that on an ice day?!

After a few hours, we were both going a little stir crazy, so we discovered the wonder of Memorial City Mall – a little toddler gem only minutes from our house! I can’t believe all the great stuff that exists here – a carousel, train, escalator (?!), Build a Bear, and a Chic Fila. What more could a two year old want?!

Potty Training Boot Camp

I also decided to use the winter storm and forced home captivity to focus on some potty training. We have been doing some “Potty Training Lite” for several months now, but it didn’t really seem to be taking. I guess both Matt and I just assumed that at some point she would start telling us when she needed to go, as opposed to us simply taking her every 30 minutes. But when that didn’t happen after several months, we started to get a little nervous. So, I read about and got some good advice from friends and decided to try out a Three Day Potty Training.

We “modified” it a bit to fit our schedule, but I think it was still effective. For me, I think the difference was that we put a big emphasis on forcing Olivia to be conscious of her own signs of “potty readiness” as opposed to us making her “try” all the time. I’m sure we will have accidents going forward, but for now, she is doing GREAT!

Fashionista
Olivia continues to have strong opinions about everything, including and especially what she wears. She only really likes to wear dresses and patterned leggings. Here are a few of her latest masterpieces.

Funny Quotes
Matt and I continue to get a big kick out of the things that Olivia says. A few of our favorites recently:

1. I had to renew my DL, so Matt took her to school one morning so I could head to the DPS office. Apparently on the way to school Matt explained the process of getting your driver’s license to a fascinated Olivia. She then wanted to see Matt’s DL. The picture was pre-baby and pre-stressful life, so Matt was a few pounds lighter and had a bit more hair. Olivia looked at the picture and said “Oh. This was when you were a baby, daddy?”

2. Olivia still has a VERY short attention span. She won’t really sit still to watch an entire TV show. But, in those moments where you really need her to sit still (i.e. you have to go to the bathroom and want 2 minutes of privacy!!) we have found that Olivia loves her some You Tube. She can watch short little videos and has control to change things she doesn’t like. [On a side note, sometimes it seems Olivia doesn’t really care about what is on YouTube, she only cares about what else is on YouTube.] Either way….she clearly watches too much YouTube because the other day she said “Mommy, look at me.” I looked over to see her moving her hand in a circular motion. I asked her what she was doing. She got a big grin on her face and said “I’m buffering!” We took the iPad away immediately!!

3. Olivia is pretty fearless when it comes to her own safety. I’m not sure if this is a common thing for 2 year olds, or if ours just happens to have little disregard for her own personal well-being, but it causes this safety-conscious mamma lots of angst. The main culprit in her care-free attitude is one Matt Dean. Ever since he got her first little shriek of excitement, he has loved throwing her around. Literally…Throwing. Her. Around. !!! So, it was no real surprise to me when we were at Happy Playland and she climbed up the ladder and reached out her little arm to do the monkey bars, all the while knowing I was a good 50 feet away from her. I sprinted over in time to catch her as she plummeted to the ground. She of course, burst into laughter and demanded to do it again. 

This video of her on Matt’s pull-up bar will give you some sense of what I saw.

So…a few weeks ago, Popo and Tutu were visiting and Olivia wanted to show them how she “falls.” Matt went to get the bar and said “Everyone has to do a pull up. Popo is going first!” We all laughed until Popo mentioned that Olivia was stripping down naked. She pulled down her pants and undies, ran to her room, and came back holding a Pull-Up (i.e. a diaper!). Pretty cute.

Sesame Street Live

And we took Olivia to see Sesame Street Live. I bought the tickets MONTHS ago when they were on a GroupOn sale. I wasn't sure how she would do sitting still for that long, but she actually did really great. She was pretty amazed when it started and sat pretty still for about 10 minutes (pretty long time in Olivia world). But she soon got antsy. We were sitting in the first row, right by the edge and Matt and I were both nervous that she'd fall. So we snuck back to some empty seats and she spent the entire second act dancing around, and eating cotton candy and pizza. She had a blast!

After a long show, I asked her for 1 more picture. This was the best I could get (she's yelling at me here "no more mommy, ok?!"):

Which may explain why this happened about 4 seconds after we got home!

Valentines Day
We had a nice LOVE day this year! I had the best of intentions for making these complicated Pinterest-inspired Valentines for Olivia's friends. Then work got crazy, so I bought some DIY valentines. And still, days before V-Day, they were still sitting on my counter. Luckily, Matt went out of town and my sweet parents came to stay with me. This night was the perfect example to me of how you're never too old to let your parents take care of you! As life gets crazy sometimes and my focus is on taking care of Miss O, its nice to know that my parents are still here to take care of me. After an afternoon of playing with Olivia, we put her to dinner and sat down to eat ourselves. After dinner, I went back to work while my sweet daddy did all the dishes and my wonderful mother made all Olivia's valentines. SO THANKFUL!

Luckily, I did have time to make a few valentines for Olivia's teachers

And we had to get Olivia a little present, which she loved!

And, Matt and I enjoyed a MUCH NEEDED date-night, as well.

Okay folks -- that was the extra quick version of February. Glad it was a short month and I was able to catch up. March should be another busy one with Matt traveling the first THREE weeks!

Tiny Dancer

After seeing those ballerinas at the Children's Festival, Miss O has been very interested in ballet, so I decided to sign her up for a class on Saturday mornings.  I was slightly apprehensive because this is not a mommy-and-me class (the only kind of class we have ever taken)!  This is a big girl class where she goes in by herself and I stand outside and watch.  So, I prepped her for months, but she handled it like a champ!  And, truth be told, they do not enforce the "no mommies" rule at all, so I have stayed inside for a few classes to watch her.  I actually think she does better when I'm not in there because she is constantly looking at me for approval and to confirm that she should actually do what her teacher is telling her to do.  But, the good part of sitting in on a class is being able to take these adorable pictures of her.  I mean....is there anything cuter than little girls in tutus?!

And a few videos of our little ballerina...

Big Girl Bed

For a while, Matt and I have been discussing when we would move Olivia to a big girl bed.  A few of my friends proactively moved their kids to big beds, with varying degrees of success.  Other friends had told me to wait until she climbed out before making the move.  Over the Christmas break, we went to a little dinner party with a bunch of parents of kids in her class and all of them were in big beds.

But, before we could make any decisions, Olivia decided for us by climbing out herself.  As I think about it, I shouldn't be surprised, Olivia has been leading Matt and I her whole life....before I could move her to solid food, she simply refused baby food; before I could wean her off the bottle, she would only drink out of a cup; before I could move her down to 1 nap/day, she moved herself.  There are countless, good examples of her successfully leading us over the past 2 years, so we decided to follow her on this one too.  And, as she has with other changes, she handled it like a champ!

She was absolutely THRILLED when she saw the "big girl bed"!

We had one day when she kept coming out of the bed during naptime, but after we threatened her with going back to a "baby crib," she quickly stopped doing that.  And since, then, its been great.  She stays in her bed all nap/night long and then calls us to come get her once she wakes up.

I love hitting all these new, big milestones, but wish time would slow down just a little bit.  Where did my baby go?!

Christmas Day

We had a great Christmas this year.  Olivia woke up to many presents under the tree.

Her first concern, however, was the cookies we left out..

She was very excited for all her presents.

The car was the big hit of the day!

But a close second was Niva, who sings Ring Around The Rosy when you hold her hands

Olivia is really into pillows and blankets ("bacies" as she calls them) recently, so she was thrilled for a new pillow and some bacies...which also coincidentally worked out well for her new big-girl bed..

And of course she was thrilled with the other loot she got...

Like last year, we opened presents at our house on Christmas morning.  It was so nice this year to be able to let her open presents and enjoy them at home for a while.  And, this year, Miss O was feeling a bit under the weather, so we let her get a good morning nap in.

And then once she woke up, we headed to my parents' house where there were many more presents + the allure of her wonderful and silly family...

It was a wonderful Christmas and we were so happy to share it with our sweet girl!

Christmas Eve

Forgive the delay in blogging -- we've been dealing with some crazy schedules and crazy lives over here.  But, remembering what a wonderful Christmas season we had has been a nice way to spend the afternoon.

We spent the day with Pop-O & Tutu.  Olivia was thrilled to receive so many wonderful presents

The  slinky and stamps from Pop-O & Tutu were a big hit!

As was the singing, reading dog Violet from Uncle Drew and Aunt Jenny

This was also the day Olivia decided to try crawling out of her crib.  Consequently, she took no nap (and more on that later...).  However, for no nap and the excitement of the day, she was an absolutely doll.

We went to Jasper's for an early DELICIOUS dinner and she was great!  It was decorated so nicely that we got some great, festive photos.

Then we came home and put out cookies and milk for Santa and Mrs. Claus

And then it was off to bed to wait for Ol' Saint Nick!