Thursday, February 21, 2013

olive is TWO

Yesterday Olive turned two!  She had a really full and fun day.  I'm excited that she's two - she is so much fun and is so intelligent.  Things keep getting more enjoyable and interesting each day (except for the whining).

Olive is still diaper free, except at night.
She can carry on simple conversations and has great spontaneous language.  Sometimes she never stops talking - I really have no idea how many words are in her vocabulary.. she'll repeat and start using any new words I tell her.
We're slowly working on learning Spanish also but I'm not very good at remembering about it.  There are quite a few words she can say in Spanish better than English - it's pretty funny.
She continues to be really stable on her feet - she doesn't fall too often and has yet to have any major bumps, scratches or injuries.
She has friends and that is really cute.
She likes to color and paint.
She doesn't watch too much tv but over the past few days keeps talking about "super one".  The only thing I can think of is Super Why on PBS and if I say that she gets really excited.  But she's probably seen that maybe three times.
One time Olive watched Yo Gabba Gabba.  Months ago.  She talks about it a lot.  Sometimes we listen to the music but it's kind of weird how much she talks about it.  And if she sees a picture of it?  She gets really excited.  But she watched in once.  Months ago.  Weird.
Olive is beginning to terrorize Honey.  She puts stickers on her.  Pretends to clip her toenails.  Tries to sit on her, hug her, kiss her, pull her around the room.  Poor Honey.
She enjoys the snow but she keeps talking about going swimming.  I can't wait for summer.  :)
I think her favorite letter is W, at the moment.
She still has a floor bed, nurses a few times a day, cleans up after herself (usually with a reminder to do so), and likes to sing songs using a xylophone mallet as a microphone.
She's pretty great.  :)

Disclaimer: I did not edit any of these. I was not having a good relationship with my camera yesterday.

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Yesterday Olive turned two! Luckily she woke up kind of early so we had enough time to calmly get dressed, eat breakfast, and enjoy her birthday morning before heading to story time at the library in Roseville.

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Olive is always so serious in "posed" photos.  It's hilarious.

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Eventually she tried to have a little fun.

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We went downstairs and I had some gifts and cards waiting for Olive to open.

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She fed Honey - her morning "chore".

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I picked out her shirt for the day and she picked out this new skirt that she got for Christmas - it was her first time wearing it and she was pretty excited.

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Olive had a big bowl of steel cut oats with apple, raisins, and cinnamon.  And a pig pile of homemade maple whipped cream on top.  :)

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She was unusually excited to see her turtle.

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And was not excited that I was taking so many photos.

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I made her a crown Tuesday night while watching a show with Tyler. I almost forgot!  The big red circle is a reindeer nose - the theme of her birthday party in a week and a half.

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She ate her oatmeal and waited patiently for Tyler to come downstairs so she could open her things.

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She has been looking at this card for about a week now. She kept saying she was ready for her birthday because she wanted to open it.

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It took a while.. but she got it.

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"A two!"

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I gave Olive some new Babylegs leg warmers.  One of which she wanted to wear right away.

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And some really exciting finger puppets.

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A butterfly.

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A dragon.

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A snake (the best one, it seems).

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"sssssssssssss"

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A gift from nini.

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A big note inside.

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"babydoll!"

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Right away she gave it a kiss.

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And a hug.

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I asked her to hold it up so I could see it.

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And then it was suddenly time to go to story time.

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We all bundled up and Honey looked on jealously.

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We dropped Tyler off at work and headed to the coffee shop attached to the library.  We always meet Amber and Ethan there before story time and now Brooke and Madeline meet us also.

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Olive still can't get over that Brooke is there.

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She really seriously drinks her smoothie. Every week.

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I didn't want to be the weird mom taking photos with a big camera so I only took a couple.

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Shaky eggs!  She always picks purple.  Two for her and two for me.  But when asked I think she says her favorite color is yellow.

Right before story time was over everyone sang happy birthday to Olive.  :)  We joined in playtime for a little while but Olive had to go potty so we had to go out to the car.  She is currently protesting using toilets anywhere other than home so we use the car potty a lot again.  This would be less annoying if it weren't freezing outside.

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Next we went to Babies R Us to find something special for Olive.  She had a tiny coupon and I thought it'd be fun to walk around and play with the toys and kill some time.  I also picked up a little fold-up potty.  We have a few kid sized potties for Olive but they're too big to bring into stores and buildings.  I didn't like the idea of buying yet another one but this one is only a couple inches thick when folded so I can just carry a bag again when we're out.

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Just before we arrive home Olive fell asleep in the car.  Olive hasn't really napped for months now but sneaks one in every couple of weeks.  I'm still hoping they return but it's been months since she's been nap free.  I assumed we would be out late so I was totally fine with the car nap.  Until one hour into it when I was bored out of my mind and really had to use the bathroom.  So the nap ended.

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She wanted more oatmeal for lunch.

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She really really REALLY likes oatmeal.

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She also likes this snake.

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We talked to my dad on Facetime and Tyler's mom on Skype.  We talked to my mom briefly too but I think Olive was really done with the phone at that point.

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Don't you talk on the kitchen floor, too?

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While we were talking to my dad someone from Rebuilding Together showed up.  They helped us do some work on our house last Spring.  They had a huge donation of thing from Toro and were dropping them off to people they've worked with in the past.  So, to add to Olive's birthday loot, she now has an electric snowblower, leaf blower, and weed whacker.  They're hers since they arrived on her birthday, right?

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Olive was really excited to see the moon. As usual.

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Olive and I drove "DOWNTOWNNN!!!!" to the Orpheum to pick up Tyler.  Brooke and Scott met us there and we headed out to Maple Grove to go to Chuck E Cheese.  Neither of which is really our thing but the whole idea really amused me.

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Look it's Scott, on his phone.

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This is a typical sight.  Tyler is always bringing Olive back.  Especially like this.  Do you see her hands?  I don't think she was happy about it.  haha.

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We waited a long long time for our pizza.

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We sat in the party room.  I don't really remember this place from my childhood but the general consensus was that it isn't nearly as fun as it used to be.  There was no ball pit and barely any tubes for climbing in.  There was no longer a big show - just this one mouse.  The live mouse was really bad at his job.  Overall it was really disappointing but Olive had a great time.  She got excited for the two birthday parties that were there.. not really realizing that it was for other kids and not her.

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See that?  Chuck E Live?  Nope.  He was nowhere to be found.  Even after they counted down for his arrive for FIVE WHOLE MINUTES.  And they had his voice speaking about how to do a dance.  Last we saw him he was heading to the kitchen.. when they were counting through one more minute.  Yep.

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Olive and I took a trip to the little toddler room.

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Important phone call.

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She kept asking for money for the rides. She got pretty good at putting the tokens in.

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Tyler showed Olive how to play this game - very energetically.

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Olive and I climbed up in the thing a few times.  She needed help with the first climbing section.  Soon a mom pointed out how her "too small" son was able to do it but pulling onto the net.  I showed Olive how and soon she was climbing up and going down the slide repeatedly.  She met a friend inside that helped her every once in a while.  But we occasionally caught a glimpse of them pushing and could hear a few screams.  Olive doesn't really have the ability to ask friends to move and to ask them to stop something quite yet.  But they worked it out.. no biggie.  :)

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This was not as fast or as high or as exciting as I was anticipating.

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Brooke and I put our tickets into the ticket counter and were standing there for what felt like forever trying to figure out how to get our receipt.  Oh, maybe push that big button.  Right in the middle of the machine.  Whoops.

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We got home way past Olive's typical bedtime but she had a few more gifts to open from nini.

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Overall she had a really great day and she is excited for her birthday party!  Too bad she has to wait a while.. but it'll be here soon!