Olive 1.5

Is she really a year and a HALF now? wow... I heard someone say that when it comes to parenting "the days are long, and the years are short"... I dont know how this is possible, but it's true. She's growing up and changing every single day. It's the most amazing this to see. What is Olive 1.5 up to these days? Oh EVERYTHING. I love going back and reading about her "milestones", so here they are.

Socially:
She LOVES attention. (I have no clue where she gets this from!!!??) Everywhere we go she tries to interact with new people. We were in a Wendy's the other day and she just stood at the door and said "HI!" so anyone walking in. She also has her moods though where she wants NOTHING to do with other people. People will come over and talk to her, and she will actually turn her head and refuse to even LOOK at them. What a little diva huh? When around other children she keeps to herself and will watch others play, but leave them alone. So far she is very gentle and kind and respects others space. With older children she loves copying them. She will hand them things, and loves holding the hands of older girls.

Physically:
Oh wow. Shes full blown running and climbing on everything. She has finally mastered climbing on chairs and couches and can get down properly, so I worry less about her falling from them...(unless she decides to RUN on them) She walks on tip-toes, walks backwards, walks sideways, stands on one foot, spins in circles, and "jumps" (not leaving the ground yet...) She will do all these things on command, if shes in the mood. She also is very proficient at using utensils. She can eat an entire thing of yogurt with her spoon, and picks up food with her fork. She colors well, and loves to paint! Im pretty sure she's right handed. She uses it for eating and coloring now. She has gotten really good at playing with the ipad. She can swipe her finger, chose the app she wants, play it, and change apps as needed. I have no idea how she picked this up so fast, but she did. Her hair has grown like a week the past month, and is still honey gold with little curls in the back. I love her hair. I think its beautiful!!! Last I weighed her she was around 25 pounds, and 32 inches tall. (Her Dr. Appt is Fri, so I can update). She's wearing a size 5 diaper and sleeping 10-12 hours at night with a 1-2 hour nap.

Verbally:
This is where I see the most change right now. She is EXPLODING here! I LOVE watching her learn and try new words. I notice something new everyday. TOday I heard her practicing putting the "S" sound at the end of words. I heard "Mama.... MamaS.... Mama.... MamaSSS". She still loves saying Mama and Dadda, but changes it up by calling us "Mommy and Daddy" now too. She knows all the basic colors now, and can say "purple", "green", "blue", "red", and "white". She drops a lot of the first sounds of things like "white" is actually "ITE", but I know thats very common to do. She can pretty much communicate with us what she wants, but gets extremely frustrated when she cant. I try to read her mind, but Im not the best at that either. She can put two words together, and I have heard occasional 3 word combos too. Things like "hi baby" "no mama" are common, and I heard once "mama wear green", but cant get her to repeat it. She also has started possessives like MY. "My dadda" or "My baby" is common. I also think its funny that all men are DADA and all women are MAMA. She will point out a man as "dadda", but when i ask if its HER dadda, she says NO.

We start the next swimming class in a couple weeks, which should be fun! For Christmas she got a new kitchen set, a bike (we push), babies, musical instruments, fake pots and pans and fruit, and a BUNCH of other stuff I cant remember right now. What a great age this is! The trick is finding things to keep her happy and busy! Happy New year friends! I hope you all have a healthy and happy 2014!

Bay Area Trip- Part One

Part One: Our Trip to the Bay Area!

Merry Christmas family and friends! What a month this one has been for us! Im going to try to cover the things we have done, but there is so much!

We packed up our bags and flew off to San Francisco, California on December 7th. Adam had a conference so Olive and I found fun things to do around the city. We spent a whole day at the discovery Museum in Sausalito! OMG Olive was in HEAVEN! There were so many toddler-centered activities that were right up her alley! We went with our dear friends Rachel and
 her daughter, Jamilla and her daughter, and Deborah and hers. Girls day! Olive climbed, and painted, and played and played. She really had a blast!!!

Sporting her new North Face hat.

Playing in construction area.

Me with a couple of my favorite ladies. Rachel and Jamilla.

Me with Jamilla and Deborah!

Our girls playing!

Art is dirty! Someone prefers clean hands....

Music time!

Olive in a cave with her friend, Dalia!

Not too sure about this goo...

Inside a tree!

We stayed several nights with our amazing friends Carolee and DJ (We call them Caroleejay) Olive LOVES them, and their adorable poodle, Audrey.

Olive kissing a turtle at a park in the North Bay somewhere. 

Napping with Audrey on the couch.

l

Playing at a park in the city. 

Olive coloring with her friend, Ellie, and DJ.

Olive kissing "Uncle DJ".

We also met Santa! She was very unsure of him at first, and preferred to sit on MY lap. After this picture was taken though she was giggling and playing with him. The rest of the trip I would ask her what Santa says, and she would say "HO HO HO"!

Then, We stayed a few nights with my amazing friend, Rachel, and her darling daughter, Dalia. We had so much fun hanging out, but I didnt take that many pictures.... We did have a holiday party with several other moms we know in the area. This group of moms is a group that existed before our babies were conceived. We were friends during pregnancy and early motherhood. It was amazing seeing how grown up our kids are now! The rest of the time Dalia and Olive hung out while Rachel and I hung out, and I loved it! I truly miss seeing her now that I am so far away, but I know she is a forever friend.

Olive pushing Dalia around....

Relaxing time!

Part Two- Family Visit

Part Two: Visiting the Family

This was such a long trip, and as you can tell from the first week's pictures, it was a very busy trip. By the time we got to our first family stop, we were already pooped and overtired. Olive handled it all well, and was super excited to see new things and people, but we paid for it at night. She's usually a really good sleeper, but not during this trip. This made it super hard on us, but we made it through. I have new sympathies for people who struggle with sleep at this age. 

First stop: Adam's parents! They live in Aptos, overlooking the whole bay. It's just an amazing view that Olive cant really enjoy or appreciate yet, but she did enjoy other views... the dog, the clock, grandpa's chair, and new toys! Olive is a huge animal lover, and is so gentle and sweet with them all. Adam's parents dog, Bessie, was no exception. Olive would giggle as she fed her Cheerio after Cheerio! Bessie, who usually kinda hides when we visit, was out watching Olives every move, in hopes of getting another snack. Olive was fascinated by Adam's dad's wheel chair. She would make the hand sign for the wheels on the bus going round and round. She gave grandpa some hugs and high fives! Her two favorite things she did there were: One, swing on the swings at the park, and two, Play hide and seek with "Grandma Tiger". We would all run through the house, hiding, giggling and chasing! She LOVED this!!!

Adam and I on a sunset walk

One amazing sunset.

Despite the crazy look on her face, she was so happy to be swinging!

The Billingsley's

Here Olive met two puggy boys what she also fell in love with. My parents have two pug boys, who was so sweet and gentle with Olive! Olive loved running about my parents house, playing with them, the ornaments on the tree, and all the toys over there! She loved seeing my family too, although got stingy about loving on my dad sometimes. She loves him and thinks hes funny, but not because of his jokes! (hahah I love you dad!) My parents live in the mountains just outside Yosemite! Their cute house is nestled in the woods, and Olive enjoyed exploring and searching for the cat. 

While we were there, we couldn't resist going to Yosemite. I had never been there, and I really wanted to go. It ended up being a long car ride for Olive, who got grumpy in the car, but it was well worth the headache. I had seen pictures of this place, but being there in person was amazing. I hope to go back one day and hike around and see it more. Our trip was short because our toddler needed it to be (It was also FREEZING). I managed to snag some good picts though!

My wonderful mama!

My sweet man

Half Dome!

Grammie showing Olive how to make snow balls

My sister, Bekka, and her family joined us for a nice afternoon of food and silliness! Her 3 boys are growing up so fast, and its always nice to see and hug them! My mom make her delicious clam chowder. I made some seriously yummy chicken enchiladas, and we ate a lot! Bekka and I sang our "White Christmas" song, Olive and Owen took a bath and ran around naked together (haha one day that will be so embarrassing to them both). It was just a wonderful time enjoying family! I wish I took more pictures of this part of the trip. I think I was just so tired.

"Selfies with Aunt Bekka"

The last day of our trip we visited with Adam's sister and her husband. Erin and Kyle were so welcoming and its always nice to see them. Im sure we were all kinda grumpy at this point, but they didnt kick us out. We spend the day at the San Jose Discovery museum, where Olive ran all over the place "discovering" so many things. She loved it, and it totally wore us out.

We made it home at midnight on Christmas Eve. Everything was closed, and the only thing in our fridge was leftovers from Thanksgiving... no joke. Luckily, my mom sent us a lovely basket of meats and cheeses, that Adam and I pigged out on after a super long day of travel.

What a trip huh? Reading all this makes me no longer wonder why I am so tired the past week. I am literally in bed right now and its not even 7:30! We LOVED seeing our family and friends! We also doubt we will take a trip that long for a while. Its been a week since we got back and tonight was the first night Olive went to bed at a normal time. Merry Christmas everyone!!!