My two year old

This funny little girl is two years old today. She is into instant gratification. Like looking at the screen on my camera a millisecond after I take the picture so she can she how her pretties turned out.
She thinks that sitting beside her Konka is about the coolest thing ever!

She gives super creepy-crazy smiles when you ask her to smile for the camera.

She thinks photo sessions with her Sissy are hilarious. Especially when she "toots" loud enough that we can all hear it.

I guess I am to blame for that one, I can't help but laugh at her when she toots! Ergo she now thinks that it is funny to laugh anytime anyone toots ;)

She loves to dance, freeze (stand still in a crazy position), have tubby time and give Konka loves. She laughs anytime she hears anyone else laughing... like really cheesy fake laugh, she just likes to pretend she is in on the joke. She fake laughs non-stop when pretending to talk on the phone, I guess I laugh a lot whenever I talk on the phone!

When asked questions she needs time to think and hum while rubbing her chin contemplating how to best answer. She is the official door greeter whenever anyone arrives. Marcus waits patiently outside the door when he comes home from work while she figures out how to get the door open for him so he can see her huge smile at accomplishing it.

She loves "seesee" Sesame Street, but always stops watching it at the Abby's Flying Fairy School segment to take a break and resume watching when Elmo's World starts. She loves acting crazy with her Daddy and loves to have horsey rides on his back.

She loves going on shopping trips with Pampa and reading books to Mamma.

She is so crazy and funny and I am so glad she is mine!

Breakfast Extraordinaire!

MMMMMMMmmmmmmmm

Olivia had the fanciest looking breakfast the other day. Who made this fruit flower for her? I wish I could say it was me, my breakfasts look more and more like Olivia watching cartoons with a bowl of dry cheerios and a sippy cup of milk.

After sleeping in late on a Saturday I came out to see this fruit feast that Marcus had arranged for Olivia. Daddy's are the best at coming up with fun new ways to do things. I wish I could say that this has inspired me to make creative looking for meals for Olivia, but it hasn't. She may or may not have had her breakfast with Curious George this morning... again. (Hey when else am I supposed to have a shower where all the shampoo gets rinsed out of my hair?!?!).

Bianca's Blessing

Our little girl is getting so big! My mom made this dress for my girls to be blessed in. I think it makes her look like a pioneer baby!
We felt like we were having a photo shoot in the foyer at church.

Yes we are laughing, do you want to know why??

Because my toddler decided to throw a tantrum for the group shot! That doesn't make us mean to laugh at her... right?!?

I have been not blogging as much as I would like so I am going to try and play some catch up this week!

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I love this dress and bonnet that my mom made when Olivia was blessed. It was a little on the big side for Bianca as Olivia was quite a lot larger than Bianca is, but she still looked like an angel. I am glad we got some pictures at church because I have yet to take any more of Bianca in the gown since then (best laid plans right?).

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The source of Olivia's tantrum was two fold. For starters as soon as the closing song starts she tries to make a mad dash for the door because she is so excited to go to nursery. That day was not a nursery day for her because we left right after sacrament. The second reason is that my Dad (Pampa as she calls him) was holding her--her favorite person EVER-- and she was not happy to be taken away from him to get some pictures taken.

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My Dad joked afterwards something along the lines of "same time next year right??" but I think I will be okay on the baby department for a little longer than that.

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I am so glad that Kaitlyn took some pictures for me, they turned out really nice!

The Babe

Finally after a bazillion pictures I get a little smile out of her!

Normally this is the look that I see 90% of the day...

Like she is trying to figure me out. Like I am some kind of alien she is trying to make sense of. She even cocks one eyebrow in a questioning look.

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She is getting a lot bigger. I've already started busting into the 6 month clothes, there were some 3 month outfits I never had her wear yet! It's really been fun to see her little personality grow. I think she will be a pretty reserved kid, it's still pretty early to tell that yet, but it's just the vibe I get from her. Everything about her is quiet. Quiet little half smiles, quiet little coo's, quiet when she wakes up.

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The other morning I woke up and it was light out and I realized she never woke up during the night to feed. I thought about it for a second (because how could she have possibly done that!). Then I see that it is 7 am, I jump out of bed certain she must not be breathing or something and stand in front of her bassinet. There she is wide awake looking at me, she had to have been starvation central, and there she is just checking me out, like "oh cool you woke up... so do you mind feeding me now?". She had to have just woken up a few minutes before, but just so typical of her. Most nights I wake up to the sound of her rustling around in her blanket, and if I am lazy and don't get up right away she will kind of go "waa" just a little burst of noise to remind me she needs to eat.

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My kids teach me a lot. Olivia shows me how to be goofy and to laugh and have fun. Bianca shows me how to chill out and not be such a worry wort, it's okay to just sit back for a minute and take it all in. I always thought that they got sent to me because I needed to be their teacher, but I am learning more and more that they are the ones teaching me.

Seriously?

So in October Marcus was sick, followed by Olivia and then followed by me. We have had 7-10 days of no one being sick and Olivia woke up the boogies crusted all over her face and just looking so forlorn. So according to this cycle I can expect for members of my family to be sick for approximately 70% of each month from now until the late spring.

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I feel like I just got my house decontaminated from the last round. Once I saw that Olivia was sick again I just wanted to crawl back into bed for the rest of the day. For my sanity there has been lots of Sesame Street on (thank goodness that the new season has started, I was really getting sick of all the reruns!). There has also been lots of juice drinking. Water and milk are the norm, juice is for special occasions but beings how the milk makes the booger factory work overtime I have been letting her have rasp lemonade all day. I know that this is the norm and that I should expect with the more children that I have, the more chances for people to be sick.... but it doesn't mean I have to LIKE it. Alright enough complaining, I gotta go wipe my kid's runny nose.

Time Change

So why is it that a time change of an hour can freak my kids up so much? Olivia's patterns for the day have gotten all freaked up and last night she WANTED (as in asking) to go to bed at 6:30. She was out the minute that she hit the pillow. The only problem with that is the earlier she goes to sleep, the earlier she wakes up... ergo the earlier I have to wake up.
Bianca has been having a fussy time this week that is between 4 and 6 where she is really restless and needs to be held the whole time. That isn't a big deal as much as the fact that Olivia has been crankster extraordinaire from shortly after nap to bedtime. So basically the last two hours before Marcus gets home I am just trying to survive and kinda loosing my mind in the process. I hope that things will get regulated by the end of this week so I can get some more sanity. My threshold for whining has about hit its limit!

Let's trim that up!

Blogger uploaded these in opposite order, urgh! But here is a side shot of the finished product. Some nice trimmed up bangs.

And here is a front shot. Getting her haircut happened during the week that she was sick, so that's why she doesn't look that excited about it, and why she looks slightly drugged up, glassy eyed and drooly.

We pinned a towel around her so she could have the whole experience!

And bribing her with fishy crackers definitely helped her to sit still too!

I honestly can't believe how big she is getting!

My favorite Aunt Rosalie came to visit last week and it was SO MUCH FUN! She has been a hairdresser since she was a wee young lass and I used to get my hair done by her when I was growing up and when we still lived in Canada. I had been nervous about taking Olivia anywhere for a trim for fear they would chop off too many of the locks that I had been waiting all this time to grow in. I was also way too nervous to attempt trimming it myself. Her hair was getting some pretty seriously scraggly witchy ends. I was so thrilled when my Aunt suggested that she could do it for me. It was so fun and such a full circle moment. She cut my hair when I was little and now she is cutting my baby's hair, SO SPECIAL! She did such a wonderful job and you can hardly tell that she had a haircut (as she still has length left), I can still get it into pony tails and everything.

Olivia loves it whenever I do her hair in "pretties" (normally requesting me to do this about once a day at least), so I think under normal circumstances she would have thought it was the coolest ever. That day, because of being sick and doped up, she just sat patiently and quietly with not much enthusiasm about it. The downside? Her mullet is much more....PRONOUNCED.... now that her hair has a straight edge at the bottom. But it also feels so much more healthy now that all the split ends are off.