warm fuzzies

Livy missed two days of day care recovering from her cold/fever.  So I was a little worried that she had gotten out of the routine of going, but turns out she has gotten right back into the swing of things.  As we were walking in, she said, "Hug Caroline.  Sit Caroline's lap."  Today, when I dropped her off in the morning I told Livy, "Bye, See you later!"  Olivia immediately replied, "Have a great day!"  I think hearing her say this really did help me to make the most of my day.  I had parent conferences all afternoon and went back to work for more parent conferences in the evening.  So it was definitely good to know in the back of my mind that my daughter is happy and wants her mommy to have a great day, too.    

Kyle's workout video

Kyle gets a good workout, being pushed to the limit by his little personal trainer and furry assistant.  Livy keeps saying "again," or just "gain."  Oh, and they had been doing this for quite a while before I started recording.

favorite jokes and games

Livy loves to dive behind my back or a piece of furniture and say, "Where'd Livy go?"  She wants me to ask the question myself.  Then she'll peek around at me and when I see her, I call out, "There you are!"  She laughs every time.

When Livy sees a sippy cup or a vase or anything filled with water, she likes to ask, "Brucey in there?"  (Brucey is our fish).  Then when we say "Nooo, He's not in there," Livy will ask sillier and sillier questions..."Daddy in there?"  "Mr. Potato head in there?"  "Ears in there?"  She's way into absurdities these days.  We keep answering, "Noooo!" in a playful way."  

Livy likes to pretend to make "hot tea" like Grandma.  The first time she made the joke was when I was changing her diaper.  She pulled one sock off, put it on her hand and said, "Makin' hot tea."  I thought it was pretty imaginative the way she used the sock as an oven mitt.  She continues to do this with her socks.  She will also say "Elmo song" and use the sock as a puppet.  

On the way to day care, Livy keeps herself busy on the lookout for pumpkins (I never would have noticed so many people still have pumpkins on their porches in November).  Every time she sees one in someone's yard or front step she yells, "Pumpkin right there!"  She even tries to count them.

Livy thinks our living room is called "the Livy room."  She'll say, "Come play Livy room."  From the looks of it these days, this definitely seems like an appropriate name for it.  

Second Day at Day Care

Today as we were in the car getting closer to day care, Livy said, "Almost there."  "School coming soon."  She seemed like she was actually looking forward to going.  When we got there, she wanted to "play toys".  When she went in the room all three little boys looked at us with big smiles on their faces.  Ella, the only other girl, was busy coloring a picture at the table. Livy told me, "Coloring. Ella like it."  She took Ms. Caroline's hand and I said, "Bye.  See you later.  Have a good day!" from across the room.  She didn't cry at all when I left!

When I came back in the afternoon, she was playing with her favorite kitty stuffed animal.  Ms. Caroline said she had a great day.  She ate her whole lunch and took a good nap.  We're off to a great start!

First Full Day at Day Care

Today was Olivia's first full day at day care.  When we first went into the room, Livy said, "Kitty kitty. meow?"  Ms. Caroline said, "Oh yeah, there's a stuffed animal kitty that she loves," and went to get the kitty for her.  Livy had a sad look and whimpery cry as she took the teacher's hand.  Ms. Caroline sat her on her lap and I kissed her goodbye and said, "See you later."  She cried but I could hear her stop crying before I left the building.  She didn't have a fever anymore but she was still  congested, so I was a little more emotional about leaving her.

When I picked her up, Ms. Caroline said she had a great day.  This time, the first words out of her mouth were, "Daddy coming home soon?"  She was happy to show me the pink picture she had painted.  Ms. Caroline said that even after the class had their art time, Livy asked to "paint a picture." Ms Caroline told her they did that already, and Livy asked, "Again?"  Only her third day there and she's already making her desires known.  Not that I want her to be bossy, but I am really glad she feels comfortable there and is not holding back on expressing herself.

Ms. Caroline said that she had a hard time going down for the nap but did eventually fall asleep.  She was up talking to the teachers for a while, and then she didn't want to keep her shoes on during the nap.  On the way back home, Livy told me all about it.  She told me, "Shoes off nappy."  "Ms. Caroline says no."  She was also thinking about daddy the whole way home.  She had worked up an appetite, too.  She said, "Daddy is making hamburger."  "french fries."        

little sicky

Last night Livy was crying in her bed at around midnight.  We went in to check on her and found that her fever had gone up again.  Also, her heater was set at a very warm setting (the dial is a little hard to read).  So I turned the heater down a little and rocked her while she drank a cup of water.  After she settled down, she said in a meek little voice, "A little bit too hot."  I just thought it was so cute how she described what was the matter.  It really helped me too, because I knew what to say to comfort her.

A nice day with Grandma, Grandpa and Cousins!

Henry and Lulu had their first night sleeping over with Grandma and Grandpa without their parents last night.  We went over today to hang out with them.  All three kids were a bit sick- Livy had a 100.8 fever at one point, but it didn't keep them from having a lot of fun together.  I'm thinking now that Livy's in daycare, sickness is something that we're just gonna have to roll with.  Anyway, Livy had so much fun that it seems like she would rather be sick at Grandma and Grandpa's than healthy anywhere else.  Here are some of the things Livy got to do today:

Play at the playground in Station Park and ride in a swing next to Louisa.

Play Grandma's big piano with Henry and Lulu.  ~It sounded lovely ;)

 Ride in a Cozy Coupe being pushed by Henry...see him?

 Try on a bunch of hand-me-downs from Aunt Laura.

 Hold hands with Louisa while watching Elmo...How cute is that??!

 Eat spaghetti at the kids' table...mmmm!

She fell asleep at 6:30 on the way home and had no trouble staying asleep in her own crib.  It was a fun day and I hope she feels better in the morning.  I wonder if she is aware that daylight savings time is ending?

For extra credit:  How many pictures can you spot Hally doggie in?

18 months update!

Today we took Olivia for her 18 mos. check-up.

Here are her stats:
32.5 inches (75th percentile)
22.5 lbs. (25th percentile).

Olivia was the perfect little patient today.  Maybe it was daddy's calming influence.  She held still and relaxed on daddy the whole time Dr. Dana was examining her.  She was very friendly and curious about everything.  She seemed to want to show the doctor all the stuff she could do.  At one point, she took her socks off and started putting them back on herself, saying, "By yourself. point toes."  By the way, this morning she managed to put her pants on all by herself.  Also, lately she wants to pick out her own clothes.  Tonight I gave her two different fuzzy footed jammies to choose from.  She still eyed the rainbow striped pants in the drawer and said, "No. pick pants. stripes."  Luckily she is still pretty easy to redirect.

Anyway, Dr. Dana could see how many things Livy could do independently, and said she was very impressed.  She even joked that Livy didn't need to come back at age 2 because she doesn't need any more shots until age 4, and has achieved all of the 2 year-old milestones already.  The biggest shocker about the appointment was that Dr. Dana was convinced that we should start potty training Livy right away!???  She thought we should do it now before the "terrible twos" set in.  I have always heard that it is best to wait until later, and figured starting before age 2 would just take longer and make the whole process harder on me.  But since the Dr. was so adamant, I guess it wouldn't hurt to get her a potty and give her the option to sit on it once in a while, especially when she lets us know she has to go.  I'm not going to push her into anything though.  I have to admit, the idea of not having as many dirty diapers is appealing...I'm just not ready for all of these changes!

After the appt., we made a trip over to Target to get some stuff and we let Olivia pick out a little something for herself as a post-shots reward.  She picked out a shiny gold purse from the girls' accessories dept. We have a real Jersey girl in the making.  lol!!
  
She may be a big girl, but she can still fit into a little basket, even with a sippy cup and a bunch of animal friends...

Second Time at Day Care

 This time Livy stayed at day care from 7:30 until 12:30.  When I dropped her off, she cried again.  But when Kyle went to pick her up, she was eating lunch happily with the other kids.  She was getting very sleepy though.  The first words out of her mouth were, "Mommy coming soon?"

My teacher friend, Lisa, emailed me to tell me how Ms. Caroline was raving about Olivia to her at pick-up.  That made me feel good knowing she wasn't just telling me that Livy was doing great.

First time at Day care

Livy stayed at the day care for a few hours today.  I brought her and dropped her off at 7:30 before work and daddy picked her up.  When we arrived, we ran into my friend/coworker Lisa there who was dropping off her 2 and a half year-old daughter, Ella.  Just seeing her there helped to calm my nerves.  She introduced Livy to Ella and Livy immediately said, "Hold hands" and reached out for Ella's hand.  They walked into the classroom holding hands.  It was sooo cute!  We explored the room a little together and got the dollies out.  Olivia walked over and gave one "tiny one" to Ella.  Livy cried as I was leaving... 

When Kyle went to pick her up, the teachers said she did great and was only a little teary-eyed.  She was sitting in the little chair she had picked out the first time she visited, eating snack with the kids and watching a Curious George video.  (The teachers picked that video because I had included that in a list of Olivia's favorite things).  The first thing Livy said to Kyle was, "Mommy coming soon?"  Then she was talking all about what was happening in the video.      

Trick-Or-Treat

This weekend we went to Alfred, NY to visit our friends Pete and Janet and their two boys.  We always have a great time when we get together with them.  Livy had so much fun on her first real trick-or-treating experience Saturday night.  It didn't take her long to get the hang of saying "trick or treat" when someone came to the door, and she loved the whole concept of dressing up and having people give her candy.  She still talks about the experience and even mentions how one man asked, "What do we have here?"

We got back home in time for more trick-or-treating to our neighbors' houses on Sunday night.  Of course, Scooter had to be dressed as a banana, what else would he be??  Getting the two of them together in one picture wasn't easy, but I tried.