Miss Pinky

"The Uncles", Trey and Tracy, gave Olivia a pink lamb lovie at our baby shower in Houston. When she was about 6 months old, I started putting it in her crib with her. She immediately latched on to it and wanted to sleep with it at every nap and at night. I bought two more on Amazon just in case anything ever happened to "Miss Pinky", something I randomly started calling it. Even though I put all three in her crib at every sleep, she always preferred the original. To this day when she asks for Miss Pinky and you give her one of the newer ones, she will say, "NO! Other Pinky". It is hard to see in this picture how loved the Pinky on the left is compared to the right, but it is really obvious in reality. We could do without a lot of things while traveling, but Pinky is NOT one of them. At home, Pinky is not allowed to leave the crib, but Olivia will not be in her crib without her! It is the sweetest thing to watch how she rubs Pinky's ears. I hope to never forget that image of those sweet little fingers soothing herself to sleep with Miss Pinky.

Edmonton Zoo

Even though we know it wouldn't compare to the awesome Calgary Zoo, we decided to give the Edmonton Zoo a shot on Father's Day. It was okay. Olivia had fun and that is really all that mattered! We decided that with the hot 70 degree weather, it might be time to let Olivia have her very own cone of ice cream. She has never been a huge fan of ice cream, but I thought maybe today she might like it. She took a few bites, but had no interest in holding it herself. She was much more interested in running up and down the hill in the mulch by the picnic table!

Maybe???

Nope, this hill is lots more fun!

Having another try, only by coaxing her. One day she will be begging us for more ice cream, I am sure!

Checking out the wolves with Daddy

The Bosses Wife!

Mike had a team building BBQ last week that turned out to be an unfamiliar experience for me. It was at one of his coworkers who has some acreage somewhat near Mike's office. Mike had told me that he was "the boss" in Edmonton for Exxon, but until I saw him in action, it didn't really sink in. The host got up at the beginning to welcome everyone and one of his comments was that everyone should go and meet the bosses wife...oh, that would be me! It was a role I have never experienced before. It was only then that I realized all eyes would be on Olivia and I and we needed to behave :) It truly made me so proud of all that Mike has accomplished and understand all of the late hours at work recently.

Olivia really had such a great time. She is often pretty clingy to me in new situations. After about 5 minutes of getting over the fact that we were not just going to see Daddy like I had told her, but close to 50 new people, she had a ball running all around and "chatting" with everyone.

Michael manning the grill. They told him that because he was from Texas he needed to prove his manliness and grill all of the steaks (with our gracious host, Sheldon). He did a great job despite equipment malfunction.

Sheldon's daughter Kendra, Olivia's new favorite person, her "buddy"

Sheldon rigged up one of those super trampolines like you see in the mall. Huge poles and lots of engineering was used! Sheldon's other daughter, Carrie, demonstrating.

Olivia watching in amazement

Olivia wanting a turn

Mama bouncing her around and Olivia loving it!

Backyard Fun!

Out in the backyard enjoying a couple more early birthday presents!

Olivia is HUGE fan of the sand/water table

The freezing hose water is barely tolerable even after it has been sitting out in the sun for a couple hours. And then just to stand in it and play with cupfuls.

Still tons of fun though!

A little naked sand castle building :)

Splash Park!!

Olivia loves this smaller people section. Playing with water is more fun than being in the water!

What Canadians look like on a low 70's day.
The water was freezing, but they didn't care!

Not too sure about the sprinklers that unexpectedly turn off and on

Dinosaurs!!!

We ordered some new living room chairs from a store in Calgary right before moved and they were finally ready to be picked up. So, we decided to make a weekend out of it and head to The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, a city that is in between Edmonton and Calgary. The Canadian Badlands is a huge dinosaur discovery area and the museum has the largest dinosaur collection in Canada.

Following this trip, Olivia has a new found fascination with dinosaurs and talks about them all the time now. While at the museum, she would walk into a room and there would be a huge T-Rex and she would run up to me and jump in my arms and say, "Mommy, I scared dinosaurs". We thought it was so funny and she picked up on that and said it all the time for the next couple of days. It was too funny.

A complete T-Rex found in this death pose

Interactive computer screen for kiddos

Canadian Badlands in the background

After a night of celebrating Mike's birthday in Calgary compliments of a babysitter, the next day we went to the Calgary Zoo. They have a huge dinosaur section called the Prehistoric Park. We have never spent much time there, but after her day in the Badlands loving the dinosaurs, we decided to go. You walk down a pathway and along the way, you find life sized dinosaurs that move and growl. It was even more scary than the "just bones" dinosaurs of the day before, but she wanted more!

T-Rex that completely freaked her out that she wanted to go see again!

Discipline!

Olivia is very easy going, even-tempered, and pretty compliant. However, she is almost two and has her moments. I felt like I had ruined any chance of disciplining her because I had always teased her by saying things like, "Don't you do that" when we were playing. So when I was actually serious about her not doing something, she thought I was kidding and always continued doing whatever it was I did NOT want her to do.

That apparently has all changed! We got her this fire truck as an early birthday present. The stickers don't want to stay on and she started pealing them all off. One day, I told her not to peal them off and she, of course, continued to do so with a huge grin on her face. It was a battle I started and I had to finish it, despite not really caring. So I told her that if she did it again, I would take it away. She of course, took off one more sticker and so I put her truck on the front porch for a couple of minutes. She had an absolute melt down! I don't think I have ever seen her so upset. It really made an impact on her. Ever since then, all I have to say is, "Do you want me to take that away?" and she stops immediately. Even now, when she is doing something she knows she shouldn't, I will hear her say, "I'll take it away" mimicking my intonation. She will look at me to confirm that she needs to stop and then she stops!!

Amazing! I hope it continues!

She LOVES this thing. She was thrilled to get back to Edmonton to play with it again.

These are her new rain boots which she loves and wants to wear even when it is not raining

Gardening

Now that it is JUNE, we can now actually plant some flowers. It's funny, winter flowers at home, like Pansies, are summer flowers here. Daddy had such a good helper!

Part of the finished product!

Dog Park/Boulder Park

Our first weekend back in Edmonton, we found this awesome park just down the road from our house. It is brand new with an off leash park for Maya which includes a winding walking path through a creek (read - wet stinky dog). It has a giant play-scape that isn't open just yet, a splash park, and what they call a "boulder park". I had never heard of one nor had I ever seen one. Olivia really liked it, but to me it just looks like a brain injury waiting to happen. It has giant concrete boulders just waiting for a child to fall and hit their head on!

Poor Maya was not allowed in the boulder park!