Neighbors

Our next door neighbors have eight grandchildren. Their son has two children and their daughter has SIX! They are the sweetest, most outgoing kids and Olivia just loves them. They spend a lot of time at their grandparent's house and we play with them all the time in the backyard. Yesterday, Quinn asked if she could come in and see Olivia's house. Here they are having a tea party in the playroom (Notice Olivia's new "cheese" face ) :)

Olivia, Quinn, Georgia, and Jackson (who is 20 days older than Olivia)

The BOX

Mike was cleaning out his closet and didn't need this storage box anymore. He set it by the door to the basement (by the way, what are we ever going to do without a basement once we finally move home) and within minutes, not surprisingly, is a great new fun game...

Where's Olivia???

"I want some more"

Elmo Goes Potty

Aunt Heather gave Olivia an old DVD of Aiden and Haylie's called, "Elmo Goes Potty". It is interesting, to say the least. Of course, it is Olivia's favorite. This is how I found Olivia and Elmo this weekend:

Everyone knows you must wash your hands after you go potty :)

Cooking

Olivia loves to help in the kitchen! It is messy, which I am not a fan of, but she sure loves to "help". Here she is making pancakes with Daddy!

Bye Bye Paci

Over the past several months, Olivia became a paci-addict! She loves her paci, smiling and giggling even, every time she saw it. She was only allowed to have it while sleeping at home, while traveling was a whole other ballgame. She could have it on the plane, in the car on long trips, and basically whenever grandmas felt she needed it (all the time). I wanted to wait until after this last trip home to take it away, as I did not want to fly without it.

I had some anxiety about getting rid of it. Olivia is a fantastic sleeper and I was so worried taking it away would lead to a sleep disturbance for all of us. I also thought she would have trouble because Pinky (her lovie) and Paci were an inseparable duo.

Last week we started the simple process outlined in this article: http://www.bye-bye-binky.com. The idea is you simply snip off a little bit of the paci each night, with the end result being children reject the paci on their own, because it no longer soothes.

AMAZINGLY, it actually worked! She is totally over it. For a few days, she still put it in her mouth without really sucking. She would look at us and say, "Uh-oh paci, Mommy fix it". Then a couple days she just held it while falling asleep. Now, it is down to a little nub and she doesn't even want anything to do with it. She said, "I don't want broken paci!". Her sleep was only somewhat affected for a couple days. I am SHOCKED and so relieved that is over.

Bye Bye Paci!

Corn Maze and MORE animals!

We read about this corm maze and petting zoo place in the paper, Prairie Gardens & Greenhouses. This year's maze is "Alice in Cornland". Olivia is a little young to find any entertainment in the corn maze, but the rest was great for kids her age. It was tons of fun for all of us. We can't wait to go back for the pumpkin harvest in October. Olivia, of course, LOVED all the animals. I did not love her walking around in the coops with open toed shoes...note to Mommy, next time wear boots! Proof of admission were Mardi Gras beads...also a huge hit with Olivia! It was really neat and we had so much fun.

Petting a goat

Checking out the big turkey (have you ever noticed every picture of Olivia is the back of her head?! She is always too busy checking out the world for picture posing)

Another goat

She loves bridges!

These jewels are really tripping me up, but won't take them off for anything!

FUN!

The vegetable gardens where you can pick veggies or dig up potatoes

Her first face painting

A butterfly (that didn't last very long)

Gorgeous flowers everywhere

Birthday Zoo Trip

We took O to the Edmonton zoo for her actual birthday.

Checking out the chickens in the petting zoo

Petting a goat

Sheep

We went looking for the pony rides and got pretty annoyed that we were in some far off part of the zoo with nothing there--definitely no pony rides. We looked around and saw the zoo keepers taking the elephant for a walk! It was so cool to be so close to an elephant just freely walking around.

The keepers turned the hose on for her and she used her trunk to put the whole thing in her mouth for a huge drink...so cool!

After the long walk with the elephant, we got popsicles. I got an all natural one with real fruit to share with Olivia and Mike relived his childhood and got a Bomb Pop! Olivia wanted nothing to do with my low sugar popsicle and ate most of Mike's Bomb Pop! She won't eat ice cream, but apparently loves popsicles full of sugar!



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After nap, we went out to eat to continue the birthday fun!

I love this picture: Mike studying the drink menu and Olivia studying her Elmo sticker book

Doing a little post dinner plant watering

Happy Second Birthday, Sweet Olivia! We love you!

Neil Young!

The very same night that Olivia and I returned from Indy, we had tickets to see Neil Young in concert. Mike and I both LOVE Neil Young and were so so excited he was coming to Edmonton. It was the day before Olivia's birthday, so we justified 2nd row tickets as a present to ourselves for making it through another year as parents! AMAZING is all I have to say. We were pinching ourselves being so close to a true music legend! We also found a great babysitter (albeit expensive) in the process.

No zoom needed for this shot!

I got in trouble for taking flash pictures, so this is all I got!

Indy!

After the big birthday celebration and a quick trip to Dallas with Ducky and Pong Pong, we hit the skies, yet again, and headed up to Indy to see my mom and stepdad (Nana and PaPa). We had a great time swimming, going to the bookstore that is within walking distance, eating yummy food and going to the awesome Indianapolis Children's Museum...twice!

Airports, Olivia's home away from home

Hitchin' a ride from PaPa at Costco

The always fun-- Nana's wheelchair. She figured out how to drive it herself this time and loved it!

Working on "cheese" for the camera on the way to the bookstore. She will now say, "cheese", but looking at the camera is still a work in progress!

A ladybug landed right on her arm on the way...how lucky and cool to see it right up close

Every time we have ever taken her to the bookstore, all she does is go read the books we already have at home...all copies of them. This photo is an example of that. This was the first time we have gone and she actually explored new books (while still reading the ones we already have, of course)!

Super cool entrance to the Indy Children's Museum. A giant dinosaur and its baby peeking in the window.

Checking out the dino tea party! We later went into the super girly Barbie exhibit (which was very cool, in my opinion) and Olivia's said, "I wanna go back and see the dinosaurs" :)

Trains!


Riding the crocodile in the Nile River in the Egypt exhibit...the last time she was on the real Nile, she was just barely in my tummy!

Checking out the sphinxes at Luxor Temple

The water table was fun, but...

not nearly as fun as the dryers right next to the water table!

There is a lot of construction going on in our neighborhood in Edmonton that we see while on our walks. She loves to look at different construction vehicles, so getting in one was very cool!

First time on a carousel. Watching it go around and around was more fun than actually being on it!

First time in the cockpit of a plane! Heading home to see Daddy just in time for her real birthday!