Olivia's New Favorite Place To Take A Nap...

Yes you are seeing this picture correctly, her new favorite place to take a nap is in the shower! She has done this twice before, the first time I though it was a fluke but then she did it again today.


I am sure you are wondering why I would lay my kid down to take a nap in our bathtub-let me explain. Olivia LOVES bath time, but actual baths can take some time (especially with her) so I have been trying to get her more accustomed to having a shower. Our shower is FABULOUS (not to be all braggy--but seriously IT IS!). Marcus did all of our plumbing himself and we designed the bathroom ourselves. We have this lovely 10 inch shower head that is directly ABOVE the tub, in the middle. It feels like you are taking a shower under a jungle waterfall, after two years of being here I still love it.

So for shower time I get in with her and have her sit on my lap and we lean against the back of the tub and I just let her get used to water hitting her legs and stuff. Normally the little splashes of water that hit her face start to irritate her after a while, so I sit her straight up so she can get used to water coming down softly on her head. Well both times this has happened she has been fussy about the downpour but when I move her directly under the water she stops crying, closes her eyes and puts her head down a little bit. She just stays like that, all zen, sitting straight up and then her head nods or she starts leaning and BOOM she is totally asleep. I knew for sure today b/c when Marcus, thinking surely she must be done came in to get her out, the noise kinda woke her up. She started crying like how she does when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she then leaned against me, eyes closed the whole time, and kept right on sleeping!! Marcus and I just stared and each other. He was like "Is she really asleep??" and dumbfounded I was like "Yeah, totally passed out!"


The last time I showered her she was sick. So when she fell asleep I chalked it up to "not feeling well". But today was crazy!! We just watched her for another 5 min or so. I even shampooed her hair and sudsed her all up while sleeping. When we figured the hot water would be running out soon Marcus went and put her binky in her mouth and then he turned off the water and I slowly passed her into his toweled arms. This is the crazy part---she stayed asleep through the dry off and half way through the lotioning!! I couldn't believe it! I was worried when she finally woke up that she would be super cranky from only having a power nap, but she woke up the HAPPIEST kid in the whole world. Even during putting her clothes on and everything. We were both just so amazed. It was like the most relaxing wonderful time of her life. Maybe when she grows up she will be into all kinds of spa treatments! I was just so happy Marcus was home so I had a witness to what was going on, I'm not sure if he would have believed something crazy like that if I just told him. So I see Olivia having a lot more showers in her future, now that I know how relaxing they can be for her!

This Was Me Last Night!

I had a dream last night. One of those kinds of dreams that feels totally real, like you are ACTUALLY living it. It was awful!

I dreamed that I was hanging out with Olivia and we were watching a friend of ours kid. They were playing around and before I knew it I couldn't hear Olivia. I found the little kid in the laundry room and no Olivia. The dryer was on and I opened the door and my little girl was inside! She wasn't breathing and she died from all the tumbling around. It wasn't like the kid put her in there b/c they are like the same age, but somehow it happened-it's a dream, it doesn't have to make sense....right?? Anyway I was horrified and devastated and sick to my stomach and woke up. I have never had a dream like THAT before, EVER!! I've had dreams where I was flying and it REALLY felt real and stuff like that, but never something so sad.

The upside to this yucky experience is that I totally CHERISHED my baby today. (That makes me sound like I ignore her the rest of the time--so more like cherished her EVEN MORE). I just hugged her every time I looked at her, cuddled her, laughed with her, showered her with kisses. Normally all this attention would drive her crazy-she totally loves her alone play time, everyone needs their space. But today she loved it and gave me hugs and laughs right back. I was worried how I was going to get through the day b/c that dream really kicked me in the gut. I just said a silent prayer that I would feel peaceful again and that the feeling of dread and doom would leave. I truly believe Olivia's actions today were the answer to my prayer. She smiled love down on me all day and I could really feel how much she loves me.

It just really reinforced to me how much love I have for my family. Not only that but how much love Heavenly Father has for me. He knew the best way for me to feel better, comforted and at peace was through the arms of my little angel. She let me feel that peace with every smile and twinkle in her eye. She would crawl up to me out of no where, laughing and giving me hugs and kisses. Even when I knew she was tired and ready for bed! So a day that started on a really bad note, ended with me having overflowing love to my child and feeling like I am equally as loved. So sorry to share something so yucky (the dream) but I just really wanted to share how from that dream my day changed into something truly special.

This mom has her sanity back!

So life has gotten back to normal! Olivia was sick for quite a while (2 weeks really sick and one final week of kinda sick). It seems that her being sick helped "reboot" her system so to speak. Once the runny nose was done she settled right into 11 (almost exactly to the minute) of sleep at night with 2 (yes- TWO) naps of about 1 hour to 1.5 hours morning and afternoon. I have been singing from the rooftops, glee full with my new found freedom. It has been AMAZING!

She also all of a sudden stopped being a baby and has become....... A little kid! She is laughing ALL the time and wanting to play games with me. She will laugh to get my attention then hurry and crawl away, turn to see if I am chasing her, then squeal with delight when I do. She has also started mimicking. Waving goodbye, blowing kisses, shaking her head no. The shaking no has been the funniest! Anytime we call her "Olivia" and not a nickname it is usually b/c she is getting into something she shouldn't, so as soon as she hears that she turns to you while shaking her head b/c that is what we are normally doing to HER! She also does it at random times IE "baby-girl, you have some pretty cool parents, right?".....shaking her head no. "Is it nap time??" shaking her head no. I know it's not b/c she UNDERSTANDS what we are saying, but her timing is comedic perfection!

All of these things have happened within the space of a week or so. It has been fun, exciting and less stressful in our neck of the woods. I was getting a little worried that she would never snap out of it, and then BOOM-she did!

Twas the Twilight Before Xmas

I know my last post was about Twilight but b/c it is so popular now there are a lot of really funny spoofs about it. This one had me laughing all day! I promise my next post will NOT be Twilight related!!!

Twilight-The Puppet Saga

This is such a moving rendition of Twilight I just felt I had to share it with the world!

The Verdict is IN!

So I am noticing BIG improvements today and have concluded that garlic DOES WORK!! I can deal with the temporary stinkage to be done with this dang-blasted cold faster. Everyone you have been warned that I reek so if you are sensitive to smells you might not want to drop by my house until the weekend-I should be stink free by then!

This is what I am RIGHT now!

Yes you heard me right-I am a big humungous stinky pile of garlic right now. I bet you are wondering how this is possible, have I been doing some crazy cooking, or magicked myself this way?? Well I tried really hard last night to "visualize" a healthy me, but dang it, I woke up feeling even more poopy! So I decided it was time to bust out the garlic. I'm a firm beleiver in "au naturale" ways to heal yourself, but there are some slight downsides.... The biggest one being that I REEK! I've been slicing up garlic cloves and putting it on toast and I have noticed improvements today. Garlic is supposed to do wonders for your system, and it has worked for me in the past.

So basically you can smell me before you see me. It is oozing out of my pores. Olivia wasen't too fond of being around me, I think I can hazard a guess why. Marcus being so kind and helpful just brought me home a plethora of cough medicines as a surprise to help me feel better. He isn't a fan of the garlic cleanse either.

Totally gettin festive!

So we totally got into the xmas spirit today and set up our christmas tree. I will post pictures later-our camera is fritzing out right now :(

It was so fun to bust out all of the lights and decorations-all five of them. I didn't want to put anything breakable on the tree (foreseeing a crazy baby pulling the tree over) which left us with all of five ornaments that were either wooden or made of felt. It still makes out house look magical!

We totally scored a fake tree from walmart (thanks for the idea Kaitlyn-you are my shopping hero!). It is prelit which was really nice-not having to take forever to string lights, and the tree like glows.

I also have this really cool little tree made out of metal that you put candles underneath of. The candles heat up the tree and makes it spin in a circle and it flashes light around the room-very mesmerizing! Olivia seemed not interested in them tonight, I think it was too close to her bedtime to think clearly-hopefully she has a better reception to it tomorrow.

Olivia's cold hit me full force today and I feel like my throat is made out of rusty metal- I will be so happy once this sickness is done sweeping through my house. We have all been getting it one at a time- I can't remember the last time we were all healthy, yuck! Maybe we should just stay quarantined through the rest of the winter?? No, I would go crazy- I got to have my human interaction, even if it means the occasional "throat is a dry desert, want to scratch my eyes out, coughing hurting to the core of my being, everything achy" mild cold. I am visualizing my body healing itself over night while I sleep, will keep you posted to my strategy of self healing.