Not Well

(Once again, I'm behind in blogging, but I am doing my best to catch up..)

We spent the next few weeks of July quarantined at Casa Dean.  Poor little Olivia caught adenovirus and it wreaked havoc on us for a good two weeks.  My Peppa-pig obsessed daughter kept telling us she was "not well" in a the most pathetic little British accent you've ever heard.  (PS - Olivia has taken on a Madonna-esque quality in that she is now slightly British, some of the time.  She will ask me to "ring" Matt on the phone, she loves to "play in the garden," she wants to "post" letters to her friends, and most recently she and Matt were playing grocery store and she told him it would be "50 pounds" - when he told her we use dollars in America, she ran to me tattling that "Daddy is talking nonsense."  So....not sure what to do about that...).

I will spare you all the gory details but this sickness brought with it the worst pink eye we have ever seen (and we are no stranger to pink-eye!), plus “stomach” issues, plus a constant 103/104 fever that really took it out of her.    

We first noticed symptoms of pink eye one day after school, so we went to our local Urgent Care where we were diagnosed with double pink-eye, double ear infection.

We figured (as usual) the meds would kick in and she would be better in about 24 hours.  Not so much.  3 days after she had been on meds, this is how she looked.

And, that night we actually ended up in the ER because I couldn’t get her to stop throwing up long enough to take any medicine to relieve the fever. 

So we spent the next week doing lots of cuddling, art projects and anything else we could think of to make our girl feel better.

Because this was the first time Olivia missed so much school due to sickness, I was in pretty constant contact with the school's director and her teachers trying to figure out if other kids were sick or this virus was going around.  On Friday, after missing a week of school, I got a call from her teacher asking how she was.  Olivia was actually taking a morning nap (something I thought was long extinct, and proved she was still sick) but her teacher said her friends missed her so much they wanted to talk to to her.  So we agreed she would call back later in the afternoon.  Around 4:00 my phone rang and I put it on speaker and told Olivia to say Hi.  When Miss Maria answered hello back, my little one got a HUGE smile on her face and then all of her little friends lined up and took turns telling her hi on the phone.  To me, all the different 3 year old voices sounded the exact same, but Olivia knew each one and responded with "Hello Cate" or "Hello Emma!" and as I watched her (with tears in my eyes), her face turned red and then SHE teared up.  Such a sweet moment and reassurance for Matt/I that we made the right choice in choosing this school to help us on our parent-hood journey! :)

Luckily, it passed and she was back to her old self just in time for a weekend with the Williams girls. Next post coming soon!

Fourth of July

July flew by this year!  We started things off with a fun Fourth of July weekend.  We decided to join Olivia's bff Cate at the neighborhood parade.  So, we spent the day before in Humble where Mimi and Grandpa helped us decorate our wagon.

My girl did more goofing and less helping than others!

But, the finished product turned out pretty great!

The next day we braved the heat to participate in the "children's parade" and then we stuck around for the real parade.

Olivia had her end of the year dance recital, which mostly involved her standing there smiling wildly at the audience - but not actually doing much dancing!

We then escaped the Texas sun and enjoyed swimming and lunch with Cate and her family.  After a long family nap, we headed back to the pool and then to our local park to watch the fireworks.

In the spirit of the day, Olivia asserted her independence and refused any more red/white/blue dresses.

We had fun at the park and even met a new friend!

Right before the fireworks started, she was pretty excited.  But after we sat down and waited for about 10 minutes, she looked at Matt and said "Okay. I just want to go to bed."  Luckily the fireworks started soon after, but that, combined with her similar comments at Disneyland basically confirmed to us that she craves her early-ish bedtime as much as we do!

So, she watched fireworks from her happy place - daddy's lap - and then went home and immediately fell asleep!

It was a great weekend and we hope America had a wonderful birthday!

Summer Lovin'

While nothing too exciting or earth-shattering has been happening this summer, we have been having a great time enjoying the warmer weather and some classic summer fun!

This year Olivia helped with our Summer Bucket list

For those of you struggling to read 3 year old, its:
1.  Beach
2.  Pool
3.  Sno Cone
3.  Ice cream
4.  Popsicle
5.  Lemonade

(She takes after her parents in her love for food, clearly!)

One of the many blessings Olivia's school has given us is a close group of friends.  This year we have gotten close to several of the families at her school, so we spent Memorial Day with a few of them.  Our contribution was these M&M cookies - do yourself a favor and make some immediately.  We made approximately 5 batches in a 3 week period!  (I don't know why she poses like this or where she learned it.  I am equally delighted and terrified by it!).

Sweet girls!

Everything evolves into watching Disney...

And we also survived the Houston floods of Memorial Day weekend.  Lucky for us, we did not get any water damage.  But Olivia's school was cancelled for the day - she was completely heart-broken clearly!

Matt and I took turns staying home with her.  During my morning shift, we headed to the Mall for some carousel time and lunch.

 After nap, it was actually bright and sunny so she had some sprinkler time with daddy.

Olivia also had her end of year dance recital, which involved more of her standing and smiling at the audience than actually dancing!

And the summer brought a new member to the family - Aunt Yazzie got a new puppy named Crosby.  He's pretty adorable!  Olivia liked him while he was sleeping, but got a little nervous when he was awake and hyper.

But the bulk of our summer has been spent at the pool.

Which, if you know me, is also my happy place.  Olivia has been taking swim lessons and doing great.  She is obsessed with the pool so we spend most of our #funfridays there - we arrive at 10:00 when it opens - armed with a picnic lunch!

The sun and swimming WEAR.HER.OUT. (which  makes for some awesome naps!)

We have also been going most evening after work/school for dinner and swimming;

She has gotten pretty brave this summer and has had some fun jumping off the diving board.

Matt also tried to teach Olivia the basics of tennis - a few boys on the street came over and quickly Olivia was fighting for her daddy's attention!  (PS - like most things, she insists on wearing a dress - so yes, she wore a maxi dress for her first tennis lesson!)

The warmer weather also means its time for Splash Day at Olivia's school.  Splash Day is on Fridays, so Olivia usually misses it, but I had to work one Friday and it was an easy sell to get Olivia to school with the lure of Splash Day! :)

We spent an evening in Humble celebrating Naz and Tyler's birthdays.  I kind of love it because I think Olivia sees herself as "one of the girls" meaning its me, Yasmin, Nazreen and her!

Olivia's friend from school Emma has been staying home with her mom this summer, so we have been lucky to hang out with them on some Fridays as well (did I mention how much I love not working on Fridays?!!)

I also managed to have a quick trip to Kemah to catch up with some of my BFFs from college.

We also celebrated Father's Day.  I won't gush - I will only say that I hit the husband jackpot with this one and seeing how much he adores Olivia (and vice versa) has me thanking my lucky stars daily!
On Friday at O's school, they had Dads and Donuts.  We did not attend Moms & Muffins this year because it was on a Friday and she doesn't go to school on Fridays.  Well, she was very upset about that and ever since was very clear that she did want to go to school for Dads and Donuts.  So, they went!

Then on actual Father's Day we celebrated by giving Matt the present Olivia picked out - a purple shirt, of course.  When I showed her the catalog, I was surprised they actually had purple polos and wasn't sure how Matt would react.  But luckily in person it was a pretty muted shade which he actually loved!

Also in May, our favorite doctor - Aunt Yazzie - graduated from her residency (she's taken the lead in the race for smartest Mehta daughter!), so the entire family joined her for a reception at a local hotel.  Matt and I took the opportunity to celebrate our 7 year anniversary with a little stay-cation, courtesy of Popo and Tutu who graciously agreed to stay at our house with Olivia.  We got to the hotel early and enjoyed a little pool time (and sangria!) before dinner.

And then we got all fancy to celebrate our little smarty-pants!  Congrats Yazzie - we are SO proud of you!