Pat-a-Cake singing

Olive is such a cute little singer. She's at the age (just about 21 months) where the language really explodes. There are new words every day. It's great because what she can't communicate she has been better at helping us by showing us what she needs.

Anyway, this video is a couple of weeks old, but she is really good at singing Pat-a-Cake.  After I pull her out of the tub, I sit her on my lap and dry her with a towel.  While she's sitting there, she likes to take my hands and do the actions while she sings.  I love it!  Anyway, I got her to sing and do the actions while she was eating her lunch.  It's one of my favorite things to see her do.

Children at Play

Olive and her buddy, Evan, have been playing a couple of times a week. Here they are, having fun in the Florida room aka the rec room. I thought this was too good to not share.

"I Love You"

Olive is quite the little singer and it is awesome to see her vocabulary expand! She sings [most of] Pat-a-Cake, Winnie the Pooh, Elmo's World (and many other Sesame Street songs), and Skinamarinky Dinky Doo (sp?).  Here is a video of her singing it while she ate her lunch:

Little Fish

It has been really warm already, so we have hit the pool a few times. It's so fun now that Olive is more of a toddler.  We bought her this little flotation device and she has to keep her balance to stay afloat.  She learned how to do it really quickly, but didn't mind when she fell off-kilter. She loves the pool so much. She actually threw a huge tantrum when we had to leave. 

I took a little video on my phone.  It's so fun to see her laughing all the time.

Crazy Bedhead

I have extraordinarily bad beadhead in the morning, and it appears that I have passed this onto Olive.  Now that her hair is getting longer, it just keeps getting better and better.

On this particular occasion, she made me think of this:

Do you see the resemblance?

Olive's ABC Book

I just have to share this fun little project I have been working on all weekend. I took a little break from sewing and used up a Shutterfly coupon that was begging to be redeemed. Big thanks to Modern Parents Messy Kids for the clever little toddler book idea! I had such a good time putting it together for sweet Olive. Here's a preview:

   

I hope Olive enjoys it! My favorite page is U...what's yours?

February

If you saw my last post, I talked about Olive's transition to the "big girl" bed.  I'm glad she has taken to it so well.  I finally took some pictures and did a post about her bedding on my other blog.

She has been pretty cranky lately--chewing on her fingers non-stop, slobbering everywhere, etc. I'm sure teeth are to blame, as usual.  I wish they would all just come in at once so we could be done with teething. Bath time is always a happy time, thank goodness to have that!

She is going to be 19 months old this month.  My how the time flies.

Big Girl Bed

Olive is 18 months old and has been sleeping in her twin bed for two nights now.  I couldn't be more thrilled.

Recently, I had wondered aloud when a good age was to transition from crib to bed.  Most people seem to favor leaving a baby in the crib as long as possible since they cannot escape.  My friend Beth, seemed to be a lone voice saying that she thought the earlier the better.  That the younger toddlers don't fight the idea as hard as an older one might.  It was her experience that toddlers were excited to sleep in a bed once they saw it set up.

Over the weekend, we bought a twin bed from IKEA and set it up. I was optimistic that Olive would sleep in it. After all, she seems to want to copy everything Kevin and I do--it only made sense to me that she would think it cool to sleep in a bed like ours. I bought some white sheets with pretty lace and a twin-sized fleece blanket to make it extra appealing...

Well, it worked pretty well!  I knew there wouldn't be any chance of just laying her down and expecting her to stay, so I laid down next to her until she fell asleep.  I was surprised to find the next morning that she had hardly moved! Same thing with the afternoon nap! I just laid her down tonight (only laid by her for a few minutes until she was done being fidgety) and everything seems to be perfect!

I'm a proud mama! I'll post some pictures soon but I wanted to wait until I finished all of her bedding.  I finished the quilt tonight, and just want a couple of more decorative pillows first.  So stay tuned!

Tea Time

Effective tomorrow, I am a widow (once again). Kevin will start up with school and work again. I wish he could have a little bit longer of a break! I guess I do like routine, so it will be nice to get back to that.

Yesterday, Olive turned eighteen months old. Can't believe my baby girl is not so much a baby anymore.  She is certainly very loved and spoiled.

Here she is playing with her singing tea set from Grandpa and Granny Goertzen.  She loves to pretend and it just cracks me up.  She didn't need any help pretending to drink from her tea set. She'll sip from the cup and say, "mmmmmm! Mee mee (yummy)."

I was happy to realize that this cute little dress fits!  It was a birthday present from Grandma Rawson and goes perfectly with her little pink cowgirl boots (Christmas present from us).

Christmas in Utah

How is it possible to be in Utah for ten days in December and not see any snow?!  Weird, right? Really, I'm not going to complain because I still got to wear my sweaters but have safe roads to drive on.  Awesome.

As usual, I got caught up in the Christmas excitement and forgot to take lots of pictures.  Here are the few... 

Let's start off by showing how scared Olive was of the car Kevin's parents bought for the grandkids... Her fear is only equal with that of the vacuum.

I don't have any pictures of Olive opening presents. But don't worry, later I'll post plenty pictures of her enjoying them... After Christmas we went down to St. George. It felt like the autumn weather I have been craving so desperately. We had a good time playing in the leaves...

Kevin liked throwing shovels of leaves into Olive's face. I think she enjoyed it.

The (Hair) Stylings of Miss Olive

Olive has enough hair for a pony tail. Kind of. It's really a hassle to even attempt to do this because she throws a big fit when I try to do it.

She has her own ideas of style.  For example, a simple plastic embroidery hoop makes a nice double headband!

On bad hair days, a hooded sweater is perfect!!! She looks so fancy coming out of her cardboard box. She is so easily entertained.

Family Pictures 2011

Yesterday, we had our family pictures taken at SawGrass Park.  We saw the usual baby alligators, turtles, and squirrels.  It was my first time seeing a racoon scavenge for Starbucks.

He carefully climbed out of sight without spilling a single drop.  Now that's skill.

I liked many of the pictures, but it was hard to find one where everyone was smiling, sitting up straight, not blinking, etc.  Here's my favorite turned black and white: 

Here are a few more... (Kevin nixed all the ones where he is leaning over...they have some of the best ones of Olive, though.)