We're On the Right Track

Olivia and I have survived and even enjoyed the first two weeks of me being back at work.  Liv is having a great time with her grandma while Kyle and I are at work.  She loves being with her and is sounding more like my mom the more time she spends with her.  For instance, she started saying "okay" a lot more lately.  I never really noticed it before, but my mom says this a lot, and most grandmas probably do... "Watch TV?"  "Okay", "Color?"  "Okay"... Most everything is okay with grandma, as it should be.  When Livy's bored or tired, Livy will now say in a heavy sigh, "Okaaaaayyy...."

My mom was talking aloud (not necessarily directing it to Olivia) saying something like, "Well, pretty soon, I'm going to head over to Sparta to check up on Chance kitty and make sure he's okay."  Livy thought about it and then said, "With you. hold hands."  She wants to do everything with grandma.  When I left Livy in the church nursery, the babysitters assumed grandma was at our church because Livy kept asking for her.  This weekend my mom and dad went to babysit Henry and Lulu...  These grandchildren are really keeping them busy!  I'm so thankful for my mom and the help she is giving us!  You are doing a great job :)

Olivia has learned a lot even in the past couple weeks.  She can now count to five on her own.  Today, over the monitor, I heard her counting the flowers on her pajamas when she woke up from her nap.  She also says, "A, B, C." and can fill in letters that you leave out of the alphabet song.  She talks about shapes and colors and sings little songs to herself.  She does an extremely accurate impersonation of a baby sheep.   She knows her first and last name.  Her middle name is another story.  She thinks it is "Shoes on."  lol!  She makes some pretty funny jokes.  Like, today she had a piece of bread stuck to her finger.  She held it up and said, "Puppet!"

In other news, Olivia is becoming a real railfan!  She talks about the train ride we went on a few weeks ago, commenting about the "loud whistle", the "noisy brakes", "tracks" and the fact that "Grandpa like it."  We stopped by the Whippany Railway Museum today and Livy loved it.  I know her great Grandpa Furler would have been very pleased with our little girl.  She has a bottomless appetite and likes talking all about trains!

Livyisms

Lately Olivia has been repeating all kinds of things that Kyle and I say.  She has some really cute/funny expressions that she uses.  She says, "What in the world!" a lot these days.  And she also says, "Oh my goodness!"  I like how she combines the two and says, "What in my goodness!"

Olivia  just recently started asking, "How you doing?"  She also exclaims "Mamma mia!" several times throughout the day (daddy first taught her to say this while serving her raviolis).  

She learned the word "obviously" from Aunt Emily.   Now if we ask a question like, "Are you hungry?"  she will sometimes giggle and say, "obviously".  She can't possibly understand what it means, but somehow she knows it is sure to get laughs when used in answer to any question.  

She also likes to point out when things are weird.  We were eating in Panera Bread and Olivia looked up at the lamp above our table and commented, "Weird light!"  Apparently, she is used to more traditional decor.  

Olivia also loves saying "Naaaw" to answer questions.  It kinda sounds like she has a Southern drawl as in, "Ah, shucks."  Yesterday, Kyle asked her, "Are you going to be one of those kids who we're always gonna have to be telling to clean up your room?" and Olivia answered in a drawn out, "Naaw!"  

She says "member" a lot when she wants us to remember something.  She said, "Member lady, ducky, moo cow?" to remind us about the carnival from the previous blog. 

She loves watching videos of her cousins and will request specific ones "Watch Baby Drew laughing Logan?"  "Watch HenLulu Ringo?"  She uses the names Louisa and Henry, but whenever she talks about the two of them she combines them into "Henlulu."  

Oh, and she loves her aunts but especially loves talking about and making jokes about her uncles.  She says "Uncle Corbett, Woah!" because that is what Corbett likes to say:)  She says, "Member Craigy beard?" "Mommy, beard? naaaww!" and tickles under my chin as she makes the joke.  She has a little play person with a baseball cap that she named, "Logan."  She looked right at him and said, "Hi Logan!" and cracked herself up.  She's expressing herself more and more and has a good little sense of humor developing. 

          

Labor Day Weekend

We've been so busy having fun lately, I haven't had time to blog about it all (but I want to, so be on the lookout for backposting!)  We've had a great summer and I've had a good two days back at work so far.  The students start on Tuesday and Kyle starts back then, too.  We wanted some quiet family time before our busy week, so we decided to stay home this weekend, or at least stay in Morris County.  We took Livy to the county library on Friday and she really enjoyed the circle time with the other kids.  She was happy and a little taken aback by having so many other toddlers to sing Twinkle Twinkle, Wheels on the Bus and Old MacDonald with her.  She was exhausted when we got home, thanks to our new 7:30 wake up time to try to get her used to the morning before work routine.

She took a long nap and Kyle and I got a lot of yard and gardening work done.  Saturday we did more gardening and had more quiet family time.

Today, since we didn't go away for the weekend, it was like a treat to get to go to our church.  Olivia wore this cute butterfly dress from Auntie Lynn. When I asked her about what she did in the nursery she said "play friends".   She also said they had "dollies" and "blocks".  (I'm feeling pretty good about our decision to put Olivia in Building Blocks Child Center in a couple months.  Knowing how much she enjoys playing and learning with other kids makes me confident that it will be a good environment for her.  I am very glad, though, that my mom volunteered to babysit full time for the next two months.  It will help to ease the transition both for me and Olivia.  I'm sure I will write more about this later.)

In the afternoon, we went to The Boonton Labor Day Carnival.  As soon as we got there, before we even got close to the food stands, Livy started asking for ice cream.  She can already recognize the kind of place where there is sure to be ice cream!  Of course, daddy had no trouble meeting this request.  And of course we just had to let Olivia win a prize from the duck pond.  Okay, maybe she is a little spoiled, but just look at how happy she is in her stroller with a pink cow prize and ice cream on her face!  Isn't that what summer is all about?!