Go Texan Day

Our little cowgirl looked pretty cute for Go Texan Day and made this awesome "Wanted" poster at school.

Valentine's Day (a little late!)

I know this post is very delayed, but better late than never. We had a great love day this year! The night before Valentine's Day, Matt and I went to see a concert of the band fun. We have loved this band for years and Matt counts it as one of his greatest accomplishments that he “discovered” this now very popular, Grammy winning band before anyone else!

For anyone that knows me well, I’m sure it will come as no surprise to hear that I was excited to go to the concert until about 8:00 that night when it was time to leave and I was exhausted and only wanted to crawl into bed. But, I rallied and I am SO glad that I did because it was a wonderful concert and we had the best time! Some of my happiest memories of the early stages of our relationship were spent watching this band or listening to their music and it was nice to feel “young” again and enjoy that time with Matt.

We didn’t get home until almost midnight and we both fell into bed. Until about 1 am when Olivia woke up crying….and then 1:30….and so on until about 5:30 when we relented and decided to greet the day. I had high hopes of making her heart shaped eggs for breakfast. But, given the lack of sleep, she only got Cheerios! I don’t think she really cared though because as soon as she walked into the kitchen, she saw her highchair decorated and a present waiting for her.

She has been really into her baby dolls recently, so we got her a “baby bathtub.” She LOVED it and we have spent many hours since making sure that the babies are all clean. One unexpected side effect of the present is that Olivia now realizes that the babies’ clothes come off and she LOVES to take off their clothes. Its slightly weird and moderately embarrassing in public, but I figure that as long as she isn't taking off her own clothes (ahem, Aunt Yasmin) then she is fine! Here are some recent pics with her babies.

We also made Valentines daddy, our family + friends at school.

Daddy brought us flowers that day which Olivia asked to “smell” often!

She looked so cute in her little shirt that says “Love" and her hair in piggy tails.

'Kay and Kisses

This is just 2 quick stories for the memory book.

1. Olivia has been in a “no” phase for a while now. For the past month or so, she would usually answer “no” to everything but didn’t really hold too firmly to her stance. However, over the past week, she has been in a feisty mood and absolutely freaks out if she does not get her way. And, she is going through a bit of a “mama” phase, so poor Matt is usually the one who bears the brunt of her wrath. However, earlier this week she started saying “no-kay” which is pretty cute and harder to get mad at. Pretty much anything Matt asks her to do or offers to help with is answered by a strong “nokay!” Yesterday she added “yeah-kay” into the mix too.

2. Olivia has a very strong and deep love for cheese. She usually asks for “wa-wa” and “chee” first thing in the morning (read: 5:30 am!) and constantly runs to the fridge asking for “chee” throughout the day. The other morning, Aunt Naz was over and she and Olivia were sitting next to each other on the floor eating “ows” (Cheerios). Olivia asked for cheese and after I gave her the piece, she walked to the other side of the kitchen as far away from Naz as possible and sat down. I guess she was afraid Aunt Naz was going to try to steal her cheese. I told her that wasn’t very nice and that we had to share. She didn’t say anything, so Naz and I went back to talking. All of a sudden and completely unprompted, Olivia stood up and walked over to Naz and gave her 4 big kisses, then walked back to the other side of the room and finished her cheese. Again, she does these absolutely precious things that make it very hard to discipline her!

Happy Retirement to "Gra"

Pardon the non-Olivia post, but I just wanted to take a minute to gush about my sweet daddy who just retired from an amazing 33 year career with ExxonMobil.  Long before the phrase “work-life balance” was a part of my vocabulary, my dad was showing my sisters and me the balancing act every day.  He would drive 45 minutes to and from work, put in a grueling day at the office, and then come home and jump into helping with dinner, homework, and extra-curricular activities.  He was a chauffeur, a teacher, a counselor, an arbitrator, and, to this day, our biggest fan.  When I graduated from law school, my parents hosted a small dinner party for me and some of my friends.  My dad, with tears in his eyes, gave a toast expressing his pride in my accomplishments and his hope that I got as much joy and fulfillment from my career as he got from his.  That was a really touching moment for me and it signified a change in the relationship between my dad and I.  While we may not have bonded over dance recitals, make-up, boyfriends, and prom dresses, my dad did understand careers, office politics, bosses, raises, evaluations, and work stress.  And over the past 8 years, I have loved sharing all the ups and downs of my career with him and knowing he felt each disappointment as strongly as I did, and celebrated each victory as if I had just been named to the Supreme Court!  I am so proud the example he set for me and when I struggle with my own work-life balance issues (which is usually on a daily basis!), the one truth that brings me the most comfort is knowing that I am better for seeing my dad try to balance it all and hopefully the same will be true for Olivia.  Congratulations daddy and we hope you enjoy retirement!

Here are the proud sisters with their wonderful dad!

And the whole family!

Movin' On Up Monday

Matt is out of town again this week.  I always hate it when he's gone, but I have been dreading this particular Monday all weekend because today Olivia officially transferred to Movement II, the next class at her daycare.

As you may remember, Olivia had a very hard transition with move into Movement I.  We had several weeks of some very traumatizing (for me at least!) crying.  So, when the time came for this move, her daycare did all they could to ease the transition.  By way of background, a "typical" transition at Olivia's school is that you visit your new class for longer and longer periods of time over a 1 week period, and then you officially start in your new class the following Monday.  However, given Olivia's aversion to new things (can't imagine where she gets that from...), she had a THREE week transition.

So, today was the first official day in her new class.  I summoned my best "happy face" as we marched into the school.  Right before we got to her hallway, I told her we were going to see Miss Virginia this morning (her new teacher).  She looked at me, pouted her lip, raised her arms for me to pick her up, and burst into tears.  Good times.  I stayed in her new class for about 20 minutes and finally calmed her down.  At some point I realized that I had to rip the band-aid off and just leave.  So I gave her a kiss, handed her to Miss Virginia and then left.  I stood outside the room and after about 2 minutes she stopped crying, so I left.

I must have looked worried myself because by the time I got to work, I had these pictures on my phone along with the following text: "She's fine.  Don't worry.  Miss Virginia :)"

Thank goodness for cell phones and thank goodness for Miss Virginia!  I got another picture a couple hours later after gymnastics.

This evening, I left work a little early and was expecting the worst.  But when I got the room and peeked in the window I saw her sitting at the "kitchen" stirring the heck out of a cup of tea!  I opened the door and she ran over to me, gave me a hug and kiss and then ran to give each of her teachers a hug and kiss goodbye.  Success!

We are really excited about this new class and all she will learn and experience.  This class is definitely more toddler than baby....she has her own "locker!"

She will also go to Spanish class, take gymnastics, and have a special art class and music class.  They focus on language, flash cards and "introducing" potty training.  I think she will love it.

And.....we got some other exciting news today....I applied for a part-time schedule at my work that was approved today.  I will be back to the schedule I had after maternity leave (Mon-Thurs from 9-4:30).  I am SO excited to have Fridays with Olivia again and I am already planning lots of fun things for us! 

We finished the day with a Face Time call with daddy and went to bed. Pretty good for a Monday!

Outside play

Matt and I were both grateful for some nice weather this weekend and a chance to get outside.  Olivia (and her parents!) get a little stir crazy if we have to stay inside all weekend, so we spiced things up with a few trips to the park + a brand new, bright pink bike.  Olivia LOVES them both!

We were lucky enough to have "Gra" (Grandpa) join us at the "pa" (park) on Sunday.

I am so behind on blogging, but I promise that I've got a couple posts in "draft" form and I"m hoping to have time this week to add some pictures and actually post them!

 

Sleepy Heads

I haven’t posted in a while because both Matt and I have been B-U-S-Y at work lately.  I have been working on an international deal that has me up early for conference calls.  The other morning, I had a 5:30 am conference call.  I came back an hour later to this sweetness: