HOORAY for Paci's!

I was starting to get slightly panicked because Eliza was refusing a pacifier. I just can't imagine the first year or two without having it to soothe them when all else fails. This is especially critical for travel! It was so easy to wean Olivia off the paci, I was not concerned about Eliza becoming a paci addict like Olivia was. Eliza was wanting to soothe by sucking, using me as a human paci, and then getting upset when milk would come out. She is also very sensitive to over eating and easily spits up if she has too much. Nonna and I were bound and determined and we finally got success!! After trying maybe 6 different brands, she likes MAM paci's--the same ones that Olivia liked. HALLELUJAH! She has been so much easier to soothe and all around a happier little angel!

3 Years Already!!

A--mazing how time flies when you are having fun! SO hard to believe our little girl is already 3 years old (all week she kept saying she was going to be 5 on her birthday!!). To celebrate her birthday, we went to see Sesame Street Live. How convenient that Elmo came just in time for Olivia's big day! We are having her big birthday party when we come home in October.

We got a chance to take some pictures before the show because we got there really early. I have been getting everywhere early these days. When you travel with two and especially a 2 month old, you never know what can come up!

Apparently when you are three, you start picking out your own outfits and refuse to let your mom have any say about it. She found Eliza's Baby Legs and wouldn't take them off.

Eliza thoroughly enjoyed the show :)

Olivia was mesmerized! I was a little nervous that she would be scared because she is terrified of adults in costume, but she loved seeing her buddies!

After a nap and dinner, Olivia enjoyed an Elmo cupcake--the icing anyway. When we set the cupcake down with the candles, Olivia was so excited she blew them out before we even started singing Happy Birthday!

So excited for her loot

Of course, her favorites were the books (The Berenstain Bears and Clifford are favorites right now)

I thought she should get her first Barbie for her third birthday. We got her the Vet Barbie (I am still trying hard to avoid all things princess). She was not at all excited and has yet to play with it...maybe too soon?

A dinosaur book!!

Testing out the "Hungry Caterpillar" sleeping bag from Nonna

Happy 2 Months!

What a smiley baby!! She seems so engaged and just smiles and smiles at us! She is spending more and more time awake, beginning to bat at things, grasping things put in her hands, tracking movements, and holding her head up pretty well.

She is nothing but a joy! I think we might actually be making some progress on taking a pacifier, which makes Mama super happy (I am ready to hand over my human pacifier status)!

Some more smile shots:

Nonna is Here!!

We are so excited to have Mike's mom here for 10 days! I am thrilled to have a buddy during the day and an extra set of hands.

First Bath Together

I was about to give Eliza a bath and decided to throw Olivia in too. Olivia thought it was so much fun to take a bath with her sister. After Eliza got out, Olivia climbed into the baby tub :)

Summer Camp

Olivia attended a week long summer camp at one of the preschools she went to last year, Springhill. I was hesitant to enroll her thinking it would be difficult to get all three of us dressed and out the door, but glad I did. She really had a great time. Her teachers said she was the helper in the class now that she was one of the veterans of Springhill. She helped all the younger kiddos follow directions, clean up and get in line. They said she was really sweet and gentle with them.

The theme of the summer camp was "Fun in the Sun". They were supposed to do all kinds of outside activities with water. It was too cold and rainy for any of that most of the week. The last day it was finally nice enough for them to at least play on the playground. When I went to pick her up, this is what she was wearing. I packed her cover-up in her backpack and she told them that it was her outdoor outfit and she needed it put on over her jeans. It was hilarious looking! It looked like she was wearing playground coveralls.

With her buddies, Madeleine and Lana

They had a face painter the last day!

Mama Olivia

Olivia has become quite the little mama. She has an extremely active imagination. She will come up to me and tell me that she has a baby in her tummy that is not quite ready, but it will be ready in 5 days. Then she comes back a few minutes later holding an empty receiving blanket and tells me that Dr. Cooper gave her a big boo boo on her tummy, but now her baby came out. It is a little boy and his name in Jax. She will put this "baby" to bed, rock him, and hold him swaying back and forth shushing him (she has read up on Happiest Baby on the Block)! She will often want to change her outfit so that she can "nurse" her babies easier :)

She also has several babies that do all kinds of baby things:

"Bald Baby makes so many poopie diapers"

She can go through 6 diapers in about 2 minutes

She also puts her babies to bed all over the house, shuts the door and then tells us that we need to whisper

Cafe O Play

Olivia, Eliza and I met our friends, Carolyn and Madeleine, at "Cafe O Play" yesterday. Great concept--coffee shop with an indoor play land for the kiddos. We need to open one of these back home. So much fun!

Having a little lunch break

The Sound of Music

Aunt Carrie showed Olivia some Sound of Music clips on youtube and Olivia became obsessed! She absolutely adored watching all of the kids singing. Mike picked up a copy one day and we let Olivia watch her first real movie. She has seen bits and pieces of movies her cousins were watching, but has never sat down to watch an entire movie. The day we brought Eliza home from the hospital, we let Olivia watch it. As soon as it was over, she wanted to watch it again!

She knows almost all the words to every song, with her favorite being Do-Re-Mi". Cute story--Uncle Matt and Olivia shared a room in Rockport when we were there in May. One morning, she woke up and sang Sound of Music songs for 30 minutes while still laying in bed. She would sit up in her pack-n-play every once in a while to look at Uncle Matt in his bed, smile and then lay back down and keep singing :)

Ironically, Olivia has actually been to Salzburg, Austria where they filmed The Sound of Music! Flashback photos from when Olivia was 7 months old in Salzburg:

The Cupie Doll Curl

We all love Eliza's one swirly curl on top of her head. When I see it, I think Cupie Doll

My friend, Carolyn, says it is like the swirl of ice cream on top of a soft serve cone :)

First Bottle at Home

Olivia has been dying to feed Eliza a bottle. We finally gave it a try as I had a hair appointment the next day and we needed to be sure I could leave her with Daddy and Olivia. She did great!