More singing & stuff

We had a busy day singing and then seeing Santa with cousins:

2 years old!!!

Wow. I just can't believe that in two short years, we've gone from this:

To this:What an amazing little person Ms. Olivia has turned out to be. I remember wanting to hear her voice, to hear her first words, and now she's singing Jingle Bells and the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

As a now-2-year-old, Olivia is running, singing, and jumping through life. There's not one thing she's mostly interested in, she loves everything and can find a way to enjoy whatever she's doing. If we're at the play gym, she's equally interested in throwing the basketball in the air as she is riding the tiny tractor or putting rubber ducks to sleep in the doll house. She loves dancing and swill usually order one of her parents to join her by pointing to the floor and saying "You dance!" She also likes to sing and sing loud. When we went to see a children's music performer at the local cafe, Olivia stood up on her chair and belted out the ABC song along with him.

Like every toddler, there are breakdowns. We've tried not to give in to her demands of chocolate milk or more cartoons, but sometimes she wears us down. We're old, we get tired. So, we watch Madagascar for the 8 millionth time.

But she is also very caring. If you cough or sneeze, she's look right into your face and ask, "You OK?" If she wants to be held or hugged, she'll say, "Hold you!" And we do.

She's recently been able to say her name, and she'll shake your hand and say, "It's nice to meet you." You ask, "What's your name?" She'll answer, "That's O-wiv-ia."

Olivia the singing machine!

Stars!

23 Months!

Almost two!

Miss Olivia is full of words and many many feelings. She sees and hears things all day long and tells me about them. When we went downtown to the library, she saw a white glass lamp and pointed to it and said, "moon!" Sounds are very interesting to her too, she'll stop whatever she's doing and point to her ear and announce the source of whatever sound she hears: bird! big truck! train! She's also enjoying singing, especially the alphabet song which she can sing all the way through, though L-P sounds more like "lemon na na pee."

Her favorite book right now is the Ponyo comic, she especially likes the drawing of Ponyo kissing the baby's face. Ponyo is also her favorite movie and go to entertainment in moments of parental ineptitude. She loves animals, especially penguins and hippos and has a growing menagerie of small plastic animals in her toy collection.

Like many toddlers, Miss Olivia can be a bit of a tyrant. She has no problem telling us, "That's enough!" especially when she sees her parents hugging.

Next month will be very exciting with her birthday and Christmas as she becomes a full-fledged two-year-old.

Halloween 2010

Olivia in the Halloween costume that I made for her. Chris and I worked on the design together and he made the hat. I made the pants from a bloomers pattern and then used one of her shirts to create a pattern for the top. I think it came out real cute. :) Here's Gus, I mean Spiderman and Olivia before Olivia put on her costume.

And after.

22 months!

Q. What's your favorite thing about Olivia right now?

Chris: Her smile and that she likes to sing her ABC's.

Alisa: Her non-stop dialog, most of which sounds like Japanese, but still pretty convincing dialog.

Q. What does she do that makes you laugh?

Chris: When she asks: "Are you a chicken?" and I say no. Then she asks, "Are you a turtle?" And I say no, and she asks, "Are you a chicken?"

Alisa: When she wants me to "cry" and then she consoles me. Then she wants me to cry again.

Q. What is something you don't want to forget about this time?

Chris: That she actually wants to hold my hand and she asks me to hold her. I don't want to forget how much she loves funny things like pumpkins and carrying her little pumpkin everywhere.

Alisa: How she likes to pick mint leaves and then bring them to me to smell. And when she wants me giver her a piggy-back ride, she calls it riding on mommy's shoulders. And how she sits in the bathroom reading Time magazine.

21 Months!

This month, (last week) Olivia took her very first plane ride and did very well. I'm what you might call a nervous flier, but more like a cat on the ceiling who needs a Valium. But to Olivia, the plane was just another place to meet people, go "weeee" when the plane went in the air, and then a cozy and loud environment for a long nap. In order to see all of the places that I want to see with her and Chris, this is the attitude I hope to adopt.

Our plane ride was to Austin for the week where Olivia enjoyed the pleasures of Texas: tacos, grackles, butterflies, and swimming pools. We had lots of fun taking the Zilker Park Zephyr, a kid-sized train around the park, checking out the Austin Children's Museum where she hardly left the train table, and riding on Daddy's shoulders on South Congress. One of the major highlights was a visit to Toy Joy, an amazing toy store where we got some ideas of what toys we should be looking into when her birthday rolls around.




Other than being a world class traveler, Olivia's very fond of her new drawing table where much of the coloring happens on the table itself, rather than the paper.

Thinking of her next crayon masterpiece:

The crinkle face has returned! This is the face she gives you when you ask her to smell flowers:


She also says "It's mine," a lot. She's not fond of sharing.

Quite a kid!

Our favorite books

We've amassed quite a collection of children's books over the past two years, and I'm always amazed at the books Olivia wants to read over and over. There's no common theme; she likes books with kids, animals, trucks, fairies, and any combination thereof. Some classics such as "Goodnight Moon" haven taken a while for her to warm up to, while others, especially ones with photographs of kids or objects she can name are instant hits. Although, if a book has a particularly delicious paper binding, that tends to be her favorite...

Here are Olivia's top 10 toddler book picks:

1. "Wow! Babies" by Penny Gentieu

2. "It's Spring!" by Samantha Berger

3. "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown

4. "Busy Fingers" by CW Bowie

5. "All By Myself" by Mercer Mayer

6. "Alice the Fairy" by David Shannon

7. "I think that it is wonderful!" by David Corr

8. "A Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats

9. "Paddington Bear All Day" by Michael Bond

10. "Goodnight Gorilla" by Peggy Rathmann



As for me, I'm in love with the book, "Bear Feels Scared" by Karma Wilson.

It's just about the cutest thing ever.

20 months! 3 years!

Yesterday was our third wedding anniversary and I am amazed at how my life has changed in the past four years that Chris and I have been together. I'm not plagued by indecision, anxiety, and this sort of gnawing unhappiness that previously clouded my day to day--like I was a victim of my own life. Rather, after much contemplation (not to mention three years of therapy) I have a clearer sense of purpose. And how blessed am I to have found such an incredible person to share my life with.


As for Olivia in her twentieth month, it's all learning, all the time. She's very into distinguishing what is hers and yours, Mama's water, Daddy's phone, etc. Thankfully, once an item (or place on the couch) is designated as someone else's, she's satisfied with that. All of this talking, running, playing, and thinking also makes her very tired. We're slowly moving to one long nap a day, though I really enjoy two naps (so that I can take one too!). Btu she's sleeping later in the morning, sometimes until 6:30 am! I can't tell you what a difference an hour's sleep does to the attitudes in this family.

such a cutie pie!

Humungous!

Words words words. Where does she get these words??

New stuff

Olivia is a great ball of energy and happiness (and then sadness and tears and back to happiness). But I think it's because there are so many new things she can do and more that she wants to try.
I don't know where she got the idea to drink from the hose:

But she's drinking from a cup really well. That is until the cup makes her mad and she dumps it out on the floor, then slips and falls in the water....
But she's still my love:

19 months!

There's been a lot of singing in the house lately. Olivia likes to sing the last part of "Wheels on the Bus" and the peanut butter song, and then recently she's enjoyed the "Please and Thank You" song from Yo Gabba Gabba ("please thank you, please thank you, please thank you, magic magic magic magic!"). Pretty much everything we say she'll try to repeat (curse words and all).

She's definitely a whirlwind of energy and activity--she's listening, reading, and exploring constantly. And it's great and wonderful, and...EXHAUSTING for her old parents. But, some days there are long stretches where she finds an activity that keeps her occupied, like her books, beads, and new legos.

After dinner every night, we go for a bike ride to the playground or the fountain at the park. She's becoming braver each time we go and now doesn't mind having water splashed on her face or getting completely drenched. In fact, water is her friend at the pool, in the sprinkler or at the park.

19 months is pretty awesome.

Seaside 2010!

Some pics from our Seaside trip. Contrary to the gray appearance of the sand and sky, it was really beautiful and I'm already looking forward to next year!

(Ava and Hazel running to the beach)

(Ava & Hazel)


(Ava)
(Franny)


(Hazel)

(Elena and Olivia, minutes before Olivia came crashing down out of the swivel chair...)


(Olivia at the arcade)
(Hazel & Ava on the way to the beach)


(Mom trying to convince Franny that the Tooth Fairy will appear even though Grandma accidentally threw the fallen tooth away. When your grandma's a lawyer, there are always loopholes.)
(In the sand)


(Leah and Biz ignoring the splendor of the ocean for their cell phones)
(Elena)

(Me and the girls)

Professional Photos!

Photos by Denise Dodson!