She's alright

For those of you blog readers who already accuse me of writing tear-jerkers, you might as well get out the tissues for this post as well.  This has been an especially emotional week for me because Olivia seems to be growing up over night.  Today is her 18 mos. birthday.  Last week she was teething a lot, and now all of her canine teeth have poked through.  Probably due in part to teething pain, over the weekend she started to become much less interested in nursing.  She just wanted to bite me and when I said no, she would stop nursing without any interest in continuing.  I was only nursing her once a day, first thing in the morning anyway, and she just seemed like she was ready to get on with her day.  

After several days of Olivia refusing to nurse, yesterday was the first day that I didn't offer to nurse her.  It was also the day that Kyle and I brought her to visit her "school".  We just stopped in for a 10 minute visit in the classroom so we could meet the teachers and ask some questions.  Olivia started crying when we first went in the room, probably because she assumed that we were going to leave her there.  But once daddy got down on the floor with her, she went right over to the little table and wanted to sit in the chair that was hooked onto to it.  The classroom had about 8 boys and only one other girl.  It was a whirlwind of activity in there!  The teachers seemed excited to be getting another girl.  They said, "Wow, she's talking already!  She'll have to teach these boys how to talk!"  After she sat in the chair for a little while, Livy went right over to the puzzles and started handing out puzzle pieces to the other kids.   She would say the name of the pieces as she handed them out.  She even gave one little boy a high five.

I know we made the right decision in choosing this daycare, and I know Olivia will be all right.  But it has still been hard for me to accept that she is getting older and is becoming more and more independent.  I have been trying to get my emotions out this week so that I will have most of it out of my system by next week when I have to leave her.  It is strange the things that can set me off, though.  Last night, Kyle asked how I was going to do her hair for daycare, and for some reason that question caused me to burst into tears.  It must be hormones, as my mom would say.
         
Psalm 131:2 says, "I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me."  In this psalm, David was writing about how his soul was not disturbed by selfish ambition and passion.  Like a weaned child no longer wanting his mother's milk, he was content without the thing that he used to not be able to live without.  I feel like Olivia truly has this kind of contentment about weaning.  I really enjoyed the bond that nursing brought the two of us, but now the time has come to put that part of our relationship behind us.  I can feel God beginning to give me a sense of peace and contentment about this transition, just as he is providing it for Livy.  After all, we are both God's children and can do all things through Christ, who gives us strength. (Philippians 4:13)  I've heard that parenting is a series of letting go.  I prefer to think of it as a series of giving Olivia back to God, who she has belonged to all along anyway.

Carving Our Pumpkin!

*Just so you know, we left out the part where mommy carved the face and pinned the ears on =)

Peek a BOO!!!

The Smurf

Last weekend, Livy, Kyle and I all went shopping and bought a new winter coat for Livy- pink (of course) with sparkles!  But anyway, the funny thing was that while I was shopping, Kyle filled out a raffle ticket to win a smurf.  A few days later, we got a call that we had won the smurf and it was ready to be picked up.  So, this weekend we went back to the mall to get it.  Livy seemed quite pleased with her new smurf.  But she wasn't quite sure what to make of it, having never watched the show or even heard of a smurf before.  She especially liked the finger puppets that it came with.  I like how in this picture, Kyle and Livy have the same expression.  The look says it all:  "I just won a smurf and I'm not quite sure what to think of it."

    

      

Waking up from a nap

I love the feeling of coming home after work, when Livy has had an especially long afternoon nap.  I go in to get her out of her crib and smell her sweet skin, touch her soft, fuzzy hair and kiss her smooth cheeks.  This time I went in with the camera to try to capture what I usually see when I first walk in the room.  

 

I hope I can remember her like this forever.  

Love you, my sweet angel!  Love, Mommy.

Prayers

Olivia has been starting to say her own little prayers in which she says thank you for some of her family and friends.  The first time she did this, she said, "Thank you Laura, thank you Corbett, thank you Louisa. Amen."  Not sure what happened to Henry, lol, but she has said thank you for him many times since.  Tonight before bed, I asked Olivia who she wanted to pray for.  She said, "Uncle Corbett," so we said a little prayer for him.  I asked "Who else do you want to pray for?"  She said "Emmy," so we said a prayer for her too.  Just thought you both should know that Olivia is thinking of you and wants to pray for you.

Any Roosters?

This weekend we went pumpkin picking (for real this time) with Mike and Jaime.  Olivia loves them and was so excited about spending quality time with "Mikey and Jaime."  She somehow knows that she is one of the few people who can get away with calling him Mikey.  She wanted to hold Jamie's hand the whole time and help Mikey pick out a little pumpkin.  We made sure to fill our goat quota early on in the day.  We also got to see some bunnies.  But it turns out, Olivia was sorely disappointed by the lack of roosters.  She kept asking, "Any roosters?"  She was still asking about it while we were eating lunch, though we kept trying to change the topic.  She is very persistent and once she gets something in her head, it is hard to get her to stop thinking about it.  She wasn't whining or anything, but she would wait until there was a lull in the conversation and then ask again, "Any roosters?"  It was hard not to laugh, which of course just kept her doing it more and more.  She asked us again this morning.  Lately she has been having fun making up nonsense words.  She keeps saying, "I la boop!"  I don't think this has any real meaning, but she just likes the sound of it, kinda like she likes asking, "Any Roosters?"  But really, they have goats and bunnies there, why don't they have any roosters?

Fun with Nanny and Bop

Nanny and Bop came to visit last weekend and we had lots of fun with them.  We took a drive up to Lafayette, NJ for some of my favorite things...Dutch Onion soup from the Millside Cafe and cider donuts from Ideal Farms.  It was a perfect, sunny fall day.  Livy climbed around on some pumpkins, helped pick out mums (she wanted purple), and saw some goats and roosters (come to think of it, we seem to encounter various goats and/or roosters almost every weekend. lol.)  It is fun to see Olivia developing such a love for all kinds of animals.  She has a farm video that she watches every day a couple times of day.  It is very cute, and it does keep her entertained for a good half hour, but if I hear the music from it anymore, I think I'm going to lose it!  Olivia, on the other hand, never gets tired of it.  But, going to a real farm beats the video any day.
Kyle also took Livy to Turtleback Zoo on Columbus day, while I had to go to work.  When I got home, Livy told me all about the bisons, a wolf, some peacocks, and bears.  I'm sorry I missed out, but I'm guessing another zoo trip is in our near future...
Olivia has been missing Nanny and Bop since they left.   Tonight at dinner she was talking about eating a hamburger and french fries with Nanny.  She's been saying "Stella, be quiet!" and giggling.  She says,  "Bop draw picture", "Bop ice cream".   Tonight she said, "Nanny, Bop, Tennessee."  "Come back."  

    

Goodbye Summer, Welcome Fall!

We got to enjoy the last weekend of September at the shore with my mom and dad.  Now today I've been busy putting away all of Olivia's summer clothes, never to be worn by her again (sniff, sniff).  I'm carefully packing it away, though, with happy thoughts of Liv's new baby girl cousin on the way.  Plus, I've been doing some shopping and Liv now has some cute new "back to school" clothes in 18 mos. sizes.  

October is actually one of Kyle and my favorite months of the year.  Olivia seems to like it too.  Here is a picture of our little pumpkinhead: 

This was taken at Hamilton Farms.  It is in Boonton and they have animals including piggies, roosters, sheep and sometimes bunnies.  So of course, Olivia loves it.  She also liked riding on this straw horsey.  I'm looking forward to lots more fun fall festivities with Livy.