Happy New Year

Although its cliche, time really does fly when you're having fun.  We can't believe 2012 is already over!  As our family Christmas card showed, it was truly pure joy.

We spent New Year's Eve reminiscing about what a wonderful year it has been and we rang in 2013 with some of our best friends!

For the new year, Olivia resolved to give up her paci!  With some help (i.e. tough love) from mom & dad, she is doing great.  We are one week into "Operation No Paci" and so far, so good!  Now if only her mom and dad can follow the good example that she set and carry through on our own resolutions!

So far, 2013 has been great. We are LOVING the funny, curious phase Olivia is in.  She is so observant and curious about the world around her.  She is constantly mimicking things we do or say, trying to do things on her own, and testing her limits.  Her favorite thing these days are books.  She is finally to a point where she will sit and look at an entire book and notice things on the pages.  It is so amazing to see her point out things that we did not even think she knew/noticed!

Her vocabulary is also growing by leaps & bounds!  I am now officially "ma ee" and Matt is "da ee."  She can also basically say and recognize the entire family, which is very exciting.  Other new additions are "mah-ney" (money) and what we hear every time we get to the check-out line in a restaurant or store as she demands a credit card so that she can give it to the cashier! And "ba ba" which is ring-around-the-rosy for some unknown reason. 

Olivia also LOVES these flashcards.  Santa left her a box in her stocking and it is usually the first thing she runs to in the toy closet.  She's getting pretty good...(note - I know Matt sounds like a bit of a task master here telling Olivia to "look at my eyes" but we've found that its a good tool to get her to focus!)

Olivia is also into climbing on/into everything! 

Apparently the apple doesn't fall far from the tree..

And one final funny video is Olivia testing to see how far she can stick her hand in this jar of peanut butter and how tickled she gets when I tell her no.  I obviously need to work on my delivery!