Gra's Retirement Party

ExxonMobil celebrated my dad's 33 year career on Saturday with a wonderful celebration at a local french restaurant.  It was a great night filled with delicious food, sweet family, and heartfelt speeches honoring my smart and hard-working daddy!

Yazzie gave a great speech on behalf of the 3 sisters.  She did ah-mazing and perfectly summed up how we feel about dad!

And my sweet in-laws helped Olivia make this sign for Gra! Everyone is proud of him!

April Showers

will hopefully bring May flowers!  Before I got pregnant with Olivia, I really got into gardening and had a great little herb garden going.  But, once Miss O came along, it pretty much required all my attention just to keep her, Matt and I fed and clothed, so my poor flowers suffered.  But, now that Spring is upon us, I thought it was the perfect time to re-plant and Olivia was the perfect helper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Until daddy distracted her with tennis....her newest obsession, much to her daddy's delight!

 

 

Our finished product!

 

Gardening, tennis, and Cheerios...what more could a girl ask for?!

Weekend Fun

Last weekend was busy and fun!

We started Friday morning (Fridays are now part of the weekend thanks to my part-time gig!) with a trip to the pediatric ENT to figure out what was happening with Olivia's ears. She did great! The entire time in the waiting room (an HOUR) she told us (and anyone else that would listen) that the doctor was going to look at her ears and she wasn't going to cry. When we finally got back to the doctor, she did let him look with no crying. But, once he saw that both tubes were out and just sitting in her ear, he tried to take them out. That required her to lay down (she had been sitting on my lap) and she wanted no part of it. But, after a few seconds the tubes were out and we got the great news that her ears look perfectly healthy!  Such a relief and blessing that the tubes worked and hopefully Miss O will be free of those terrible ear infections.

On Saturday, Matt went to Austin to visit some of his college friends, so Olivia and I spent the day with Gra (Grandpa) & Mimi. The weather was so nice that we spent most of the day outside!

This is Olivia and Gra before he started feeling "wonky" and they both fell off the swing!

Then we went back to the house and Gra taught Olivia the proper way to throw a temper tantrum. I'm not sure what caused this lesson or why he thought this would be a good idea, but Olivia thought it was hilarious and constantly instructed him to throw a tantrum for the rest of the weekend. I hope Mimi's prediction is right -- that Olivia will use her newly acquired skills when Gra is babysitting!

On Sunday, some of our good friends invited us to a family fun day for a charity they support. It was Olivia’s first experience with a petting zoo & a pony. She LOVED them both and was very brave!

I don't know what is so surprising that O & I both have a look of shock on our face, but I think its pretty cute!

 She was a little hesitant about these baby chicks

But she finally worked up the courage to sit down

And then she said she wanted to hold one, so the lady carefully put the little chick into Olivia's hands...

To which she promptly screamed "No!", shook her head, and made a mad dash for her mama! 

Sometimes watching from the safety of your mom's arms is fun too..

Then she rode Misha the pony. (There was a pony named Olivia but she didn't want her!)

Clearly I take no joy in my child's happiness. Sheesh! My smile may be bigger than Olivia's!

 A little snack

And every good event ends with a little game of chase in the grass!

Swim Lessons

Olivia started swim lessons a few weeks ago. I’m still not sure about them…and neither is she! She really likes playing in the pool before & after class, but the actual 30 minutes of class (you know…the part we are paying for!) doesn’t really interest her. She won’t do anything the teacher asks her to and only wants to climb out of the pool or blow bubbles. Jury is still out on whether we will go another month in swim lessons...

Blowing bubbles and playing before class (her favorite part)

 Practicing kicking our feet

The teachers want us to pour water on their heads at the beginning of class to get them "acclimated" to the water.  Olivia absolutely hates it.  I've started just pouring it on the back of her head, but she's still not a fan.  This time I let her pour it on me too....I can see why she doesn't like it!

Any other time, Olivia is glued to my side and wants me next to her at all times...to the exclusion of almost everyone else (except her da-ee!).  However, when we get in the pool, all she wants to do is get out of my arms.  I'm getting a good arm workout trying to hold onto that squirmy, wet little baby!

Here Olivia had just given me a very firm "No!" that even caused her teacher to laugh!

She is not a fan of floating on her back either.  The only way I can get her to do it is to try and make her laugh.  I'm running out of material!

Here we are supposed to practice paddling by throwing a little toy a few feet infront of them, and babies naturally reach for it.  The teachers want us to do this the entire length down and back of the pool.  Olivia is by far the most verbal kid in the class.  So while all the other babies are paddling along and reaching for their toys, Olivia is scolding me with "No throw Mama!" the whole way down!

 The lane dividers were much more interesting than learning to swim...

 Trying to make a break for it!