Santa Clause

hmmm....I want a new dolly, a dress-up trunk, a vanity, some DVDs, a Backyardigan ....hmmmm...lemme think Santa...what else?

The Magic of Christmas

Or maybe I should call this "The Magic of the Santa Clause Threat". Yes, I know. She is only two and a half but she fully grasps the concept that this big jolly man in a red suit is going to come some night when she's sleeping and leave her a dolly. That's what she wants from the Big Man, a dolly. So I've learned something about this and it's so great that I had to share. I pick up our telephone about a half-dozen times a day threatening to call Santa. Yes, I know it's awful but it works. Dammit, I wish Christmas could last all year long. Here is a perfect example:

Me: "Olivia did you just dump that bowl of dry cereal on the floor?"
Olivia: "yup"
Me: "Why?"
Olivia: "I don't know"
Me: "Well are you going to pick them up?"
Olivia: "No, mommy, I can't. I have to get my books."
Me: "Olivia, Santa's watching you do you want me to call him?"
Olivia: "No."
Me: "Well then you better pick up that cereal."
Olivia: "OH"

Sometimes she'll argue a bit more about not picking up that cereal and then I pretend to dial Santa on the phone and she flips out yelling "Don't Call Santa! Don't Call Santa!" After that she usually does what I ask. I'm telling you girls...I wish this could last all year long....better yet, I wish this would work on Jack but I'm pretty sure he gets what Santa is really about. He pretty much told me that he knows we're Santa but will not dare say that again for fear that maybe he's right and once we know that he knows the 'jig will be up' as some say and the presents stop!!

"JOY TO THE WORLD......."

What a booger!

WARNING: This post is kind of disgusting and I can't believe I'm even sharing this.

Want to know Livi's new trick? It's picking her nose. I know it's so disgusting. Since she was this little teenie tiny baby she's always had a nose chocked full of boogers. But what gets me is that she waits until we're in public to drive her finger up there. Usually when she's sitting in the grocery cart. I should know by now to always always take kleenex when I take her to get groceries because 9 times out of 10 she looks at me (and I swear I don't even see her doing it in the grocery store...I SWEAR! or else I'd make her stop) and says...."EWWWWW MOMMY A BOOGER - HERE! TAKE IT!!" - to which I have to take it off her finger with whatever the hell I can find in my purse....once it was ...nevermind...you don't want to know. If you're totally grossed out now it's your own fault...I warned you!

Hrmmmph!

69 hits on Livi's little website in the past week and 1 comment? Who's out there reading this? Don't be shy.

Tiny Dancer

....hold me closer Tiny Dancer.....Olivia loves to dance. She loves her Disney Princess Sing-A-Long DVD with the dance-along bonus features. She wants to be one of those girls I swear! Don't you love her leg-warmers? Thanks for the idea Nita!!!

Airplane!!!

I don't know what it is about this picture. I just love her wild hair in it. We were playing airplane on the bed and I took this picture. Don't you just love it too?

Livi's 'Illin

Is that a word? Anyways, tonight started off good. It was just me and Liv home tonight. I cooked supper. Nothing gourmet by any means but I had a hankering for fried bologna. So there you have it. Fried bologna, potatoes and caesar salad. WHAT? It was good! So I proceed to feed her supper to her while she's taking a bath like I do most nights because she can't run from me in the bathtub. She pretty near cleans it up. She gets out of the bath and she's pretty clingy. Lying on me on the sofa. She tells me her belly and her back hurts and I didn't clue in that her tummy was upset. Did I mention that she drinks the bathwater? Yeah, she drinks the bathwater. Tonight we were blowing bubbles. You know, the kind with the wand that's probably dishsoap. She dumps it into the tub. It was just small. I think from a wedding. Yah, definitely from a wedding. There was a bride and groom on top. Anyhooooo - she's drinking out of it. I know - ick!! It didn't even click with me. So, back to the sofa. She sits straight up and I can tell she's going to throw up so I pick her up and she vomits....on me. In my face. On my clothes. On herself. EWWW!! EWWW! I feel so bad for my poor little angel. I clean myself and her up and she's lying on the sofa again. I give her tylenol because she seems to have a bit of a fever. Five minutes later she projectile vomits on the sofa. Blech! This time I have to cut her shirt off of her because there is no way in hell I'm going to lift that over her head. I get her settled down again and call my sister and ask her if she thinks it is okay to give her tyleonol again. She suggests gravol and I immediately say we don't have any. I get the okay and give her tyleonol again and ask her if she wants to snuggle mommy in mommy's bed. That gets her every time.

Sooo......we go into my bed and I'm rubbing her back and she sits straight up and does it again. I take her into the living room where I proceed to yet again, cut another shirt off her because she's covered in it and well, it's gross. I prop her back up on the sofa and wipe her down with a facecloth and she seems to be feeling a little better when I decide to actually check to see if we do have gravol and yes, we do. I forgot we bought some for Jack when we went to the Dominican Republic. I get that into her and she drifts off....into sleep. She is now in her bed, sound asleep. I hope feeling better. I think I'll sleep in Jack's bed tonight so I can keep an eye on her. Fingers crossed tomorrow will involve no vomit.

Happy Halloween!!

Yea, I know - Halloween was yesterday but I couldn't get the pic until last night! Here' s Livi & Brooklynn. Liv was sooo excited to see her.



I wasn't sure Livi would get the 'gist' of Halloween. But she went to every door and said "Trick or Treat, smell my feet......mmmmghhh mmmh mmmmmm good to eat!!!" There were a few witches answering doors that frightened her and a BIG man dressed as a gorilla that she would NOT go near. Other than that we slept peacefully last night and there were no nightmares!! Yippeee!!

My Girl is Smooth

With a capital S. I just put her down for her nap. Albeit a bit early but she was up at SEVEN this morning and we have someplace to be this afternoon. Her Auntie Lindsey has a special Halloween treat for her and Jack and I told her she had to nap early. So, I put her down and not ten minutes later I hear her bedroom door creep open. She comes into the living room, stops to face me, opens her mouth in a big fake yawn (covering it with her hand and full sound effects too) and a BIG stretch and says "I wake up Mommy".

Ummm yeah; you got to get up earlier than that to fool me!!! LMAO

Good Morning

This is Olivia's morning look.



The picture makes her look pretty good. Her hair is usually a complete bed-headed mess and she's sometimes cranky. This was a good morning. I thought I'd capture it!

Corn Maze

A few weekends ago Bud & I along with Cindy & Kash decided to take the kids to Truro to check out the corn mazes. It was a beautiful day. We were going to have so much fun. On the way up we were going to stop for lunch at a nice place......until the kids saw the BIG FREAKING play area through the window of Burger King. We had Jack, Mikal and and Livi in the car with us and Jack & Mikal started screaming that they wanted to go there. So we gave in and went there. Needless to say it was gross. But off to the corn maze. Throughout the maze if you get a certain number of stamps on your paper you get a free ice-cream. About half an hour through the maze we said, lets get out of here and we'll pay for the darned ice-cream!! So we proceeded to try to find our way out when Jack & Mikal ran ahead. Yup, we lost them. Great parents that we are...we lost the kids. I didn't panic right away. Cindy & I hung out at the entrance with Livi & Max while Bud & Kash went back in to find them. I couldn't just stand there any longer so we took the kids to the petting zoo on the grounds. Half an hour later the guys come out.... with no kids!! I'm kind of freaking at this point and we told them to stay with the little ones and we'd go in. Cindy went in without me and I talked to the staff and described the boys to them. Another half-hour later they come out with another family. I asked them if they were scared and they said..."nah, not really - but we got SIX stamps!" little friggers - I wanted to knock their heads together!!!

Here's Livi and Max hanging out while we're waiting for the lost boys:



Very much enjoying this hot-dog:





Livi the cow:

Another New Look

....don'tcha love it? I do!

Potty Training 101

So we're in the middle of potty-training fun. It's going pretty good at home but she's terrified of the toilet. She will only sit on the potty and she won't poop in it either. Did I say it's going pretty good? Anyways, we went out yesterday and I forgot to bring pull-ups and she pooped in the one she had on. So I took it off and said, "Oh well...you're just going to have to use the big-girl potty today". Fast forward to about an hour and a half later and we're in Home Depot and she tells me she has to go potty. I thought, WOW - this is going good. We ran through the store to the bathroom and all she sees are big toilets and she completely FA-LIPS out. No way will she go on it. I thought 'well crap! what am I going to do?' - I pull up her pants and go out to the store and told her if she has to pee we'll have to go back to the bathroom and she said "I no wanna pee Mommy". Fine, whatever right? We're in the aisle looking at pot-lights for our kitchen and she's yells, I POPPED! I POOPED! I look down and she's peeing right on the floor. Proud as a freaking peacock at the puddle on the floorl. I was mortified and Bud & I kinda looked at each other and laughed. I went to a guy working and said, we're potty training and my daughter had a little accident on the floor. He just pointed to another guy and said "Tell him". We couldn't get anybody to help us with our lights so we then took Livi and walked out the store. Poor thing peed all over herself. Note to self: Don't leave the house without a pull-up EVER again.

Dear Webkinz,

....Yes, I know this has nothing to do with Olivia but bear with me.

Jack has a Webkinz. I truly think I play with the darned thing more than he does. When he goes to bed or isn't home I'll play with it to try to win him some Webkinz moolah!! Yesterday I won 1254W on the Wishing Well. Their darned server had issues so it booted me out before his account got credited. Today I did a job for him that pays 175W and the same thing happened and then I played some silly game and had racked up 172W and it happened, yup, you guessed it, yet again. It ticked me off. I know, get a life right?

The Discovery Center

This summer we went to the Discovery Center. Livi enjoyed it alot. We met up with a lady that I met on my 'expecting board'. She lives in Washington and was visiting Nova Scotia. We decided to meet up here. I must take her back. She had a great time. She especially loved the "Bubbles Room" - She got soaked!! Look at how wet her shirt is!!

Yeah Yeah - I know I know

Bad Mommy Blogger I know. Let's see now. What has Livi been up to this summer? Not a whole lot sadly. We did manage a two-night getaway to Digy Pines so Daddy could golf. That was fun. The kids loved the pool. Livi and Jack would have stayed in it until they shriveled up.




We managed to get to Upper Clements park. That was fun. Olivia didn't know what to do with herself there. She loved driving the big truck, the race cars in the arcade and the train too. It was real nice when they BOTH napped in the afternoon. And those that know Jack know that he is too darned nosy to take a nap!!! haha

I Ask You

Does she look like a two-year old? No. I don't think so. She looks so grown up. Yesterday Olivia went to a birthday party and wore some build-a-bear clothes. I look at this picture and I have a glimpse of what she's going to look like in say, eight years. Kind of freaky!

My Bud

This is my cousin Brookie. Sometimes we fight. I love her though and I know we'll be BFF. This morning she came over and we had breakfast together and watched a Dora movie. We snuggled. It was fun.

It's beginning to look a lot like summer....

Finally. I think the rain has stopped and we can spend our days hanging outside, going to the playground, running around in the sprinkler, going swimming, etc., etc. On Sunday it was beautiful out. Uncle Rick filled the pool and the kids were swimming. Not you though Livi, it was still a bit chilly for swimming. However, the Dora sprinkler was a BIG hit!!! You are too cute in your little bikini. I LOVE it!!!

Oh Gosh

....I better not find you dancing on a pole in sixteen years!!! Check it out:

SOOKIE BE GONE!!

The other day I told Livi to throw her soother in the garbage and that she was a big girl and didn't need it. To my surprise she did. Then she threw her other one in the garbage too. I, of course, dug them right out of the trash without her noticing. All day we talked about what a big girl she was and that she didn't need her sookie anymore. She has seven of them. Yes, I said seven. I keep them stashed everywhere.

Fast forward to bedtime. She's dead-tired. Which I thought was great because I figured she'd fall asleep easily and not be overly concerned about not having her sookie. WRONG! DEAD WRONG! I read her five billion stories, rubbed her back, played with her hair. That kid was not going to sleep. EVER. Not without her sookie! I let her cry it out for a bit thinking I can handle it. I'm tough. WRONG AGAIN! I caved. I know I probably should have stuck it out. I was ready darnit. I'm sure I could have but she was breaking my heart. I went upstairs to give her her sookie(s). That thing barely touched her lips and she was out like a light. Soooo sleeeeepppy she was. The irony of it was that she had one in the bed with her the entire time and didn't realize it. Neither did I for that matter.

So, I've come to the conclusion that I don't really care if she has the soother or not. It makes her happy. She's two-years old. Don't get me wrong, she won't be taking it to school or anything like that. I will, eventually, take it away. Just not yet. She's growing up way too fast, I think I'll just hang on to my baby for a while longer.

Weekend at Nanny's

Well this past weekend we went to the country to see Nanny Faus. Livi had a ball hanging with Aunt Jam and the kids. Little stinker that she is wouldn't go to bed so on both Friday and Saturday nights, after about four or five attempts, I ended up falling asleep trying to get her to settle down. She loved being one of the 'big kids' here:





And here is Livi hanging at the beach with Aunt Jam. She loved throwing rocks in the water:



Now that summer is almost here I hope we have lots of more weekends with Nanny!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Aren't they the cutest? I love 'em both so much!!!

Awww.....

.......don't you just love pics of Daddies with their baby girls? Me too!

mmmmm....ice cream sandwich

No text required. The pics say it all!

As Mother's Day is Around The Corner...

....it gets me thinking about how much being a Mom has changed me. Gone are the days of spending all my money on myself, hanging out with my friends, going on vacations, coming and going as I pleased. Here are the days where I practically live Monday to Friday in yoga pants and tank-tops. I've traded in my shoes & boots for sneakers and flip-flops. Fashion for comfort. I even learned how to cook!!! I never thought that would happen....and neither did your Father. And you know what? I wouldn't change a single thing. I love my life. I love being your Mom. I so much enjoy seeing the world through your eyes. The excitement you get when you see a balloon in the grocery store. Or when you recognize a shape on a street sign. The sheer joy in your eyes when I mention the playground. When you wake up in the morning and run to me yelling MOMMY! MOMMY! I don't know anybody in the world that gets that happy to see me.

You are everything to me Liv. I promise to be the best mother I can be and to be the best person I possibly can. I want you to grow up knowing that everything I do and evey decision I make I think about you first. I want you to grow up to be a good person. I don't care if you are a doctor or work at McDonalds. As long as you are your true self and are happy, then that is all I want for you. I want you to always be my little girl; but I promise you I will give you the space and freedom you need when the time comes. Gosh, you are growing up so fast. You're TWO. The last two years have flown by and before I know it you will be starting grade primary. I am going to cherish every single moment of being home with you. I love you my angel.

Always and Forever,

Mommy

xox

Just a reminder

I think you should know this Liv:

I'm the Queen of the Castle



And you are my understudy

WHOO HOO - the rain finally stopped

Yes indeed. The sun came out. We got up....had breakfast and were going on a 'family' walk to the playground. Ok. It started out, Mommy, Daddy, Jack and Livi but we picked up Allison, Becca and Brooklynn on the way. We had so much fun. Slides, swings, sidewalk chalk, sandbox and popsicles. Good way to start the morning. Here are one of the very, very, few pics of me and you O-Dog:



You're getting to be such a BIG girl now. No more baby-slides for you:


Ahhhh....nothing like a nice popsicle after spending the morning at the playground:



Ok. Liv I promise, now that the rain is letting up we will get out lots and lots more. I promise. I really, really promise. More long walks in the mornings and playgrounds in the afternoons. Gosh, I've never seen a kid love slides like you do. I take my chances everytime I drive up Lady Hammond Road because you know exactly where the playground is and I hold my breath every time we drive by a playground in the car because I'm afraid you'll see the slides.

And I also promise that I will update your blog on a more regular basis. I'm going to print this entire thing off. It's your baby-book since Mommy was too slack to do a proper one!

A Sign of Whats to Come

On Tuesday, Livi's cousin Brooklynn came over to play. It wasn't a long visit because Liv wasn't feeling too good. In fact, she was pretty miserable. Every time Brookie even so much as looked at one of her toys she had a fit. I don't know what happened but you two disappeared upstairs and it *sounded* like you were having fun so your Aunt Kathy and I just left you. And then we heard a big THUD and you crying. We went upstairs and there was water EVERWHERE. The bathroom floor, Jack's room and both of your clothes' were soaked.

Fast forward about an hour later when Mommy has to go to the bathroom and the toilet isn't flushing quite right. I figured there's probably something in there but I couldn't see it and it would probably just eventually flush down. It was like this until the next morning when the darned toilet overflowed. Everywhere. All over the bathroom floor. Oh crap I thought!! The plumber showed up at 6 o'clock to fix it.

There are two morales to this story:

1. YOU TWO ARE GONNA BE TROUBLE!!!

2. KEEP THE BATHROOM DOOR LOCKED WHEN YOU TWO ARE PLAYING UPSTAIRS!!

Livi & Maddox

This is Livi's cousin Maddox. She loves him to death. Seriously, she dotes on him. Always hanging around him waiting for him to spit out his sookie so she can put it in his mouth. Always kissing him. They're too cute together I just had to blog them!!



Gosh...I could just eat him with a spoon!!

Best Friends For Life?

Gosh I hope they turn out to be best friends. Olivia and Brooklynn BFFL!! Sometimes they just love love love each other. Sometimes I'm not so sure. The other morning Brookie came over for a few hours before Livi was even out of bed. Livi woke up because I'm pretty sure she heard Brooklynn. We could hear Olivia yelling "BROOOOOOKKKLYNNNNNN........ BROOOOOOKKKKLYNNNNN! So Brookie and I went upstairs to get Livi out of bed. Well, she was beside herself the second Brookie went in her room. I mean Beside. Herself. Didn't want her touching anything that was hers. This is going to be a fun morning. We go downstairs and the girls are playing nicely.



Whew. playing nicely I thought. I get them some breakfast and that went okay for about a second. Here they are while all was good eating toast and bananas:



This is Brookynn. Aint she cheeky lookin'?



There were a few moments like this. She's having a fit...but won't take her eyes off Brooklynn.



All in all the girls get along really well. It's when they haven't seen each other in a while that this happens. Olivia gets very territorial and she had a few timeouts that morning.

The end.

Puh-lease stop growing

Livi, you're getting to be such a big-little girl. I mean, COME ON you're now sleeping in a toddler-bed. I was ready for this. Really, I could have sworn I was ready for you to move out of the crib. Daddy and Uncle Walter set up your big-girl bed on Saturday and you slept like a trooper. Well, except for when Sebastian was running up the stairs and you opened your bedroom door to see 'what was up' - who knew you could open the door? Not me thats for sure. Anyways, you went straight back to bed and slept until 8:50 Sunday morning. I was so upset that you weren't in your crib anymore. I asked your Daddy "Do you think she's ready to sleep in that bed?" and he replied with "SHE'S ready....I'm not so sure YOU are though!" - He was totally right. I was pretty emotional. I mean, MY GOSH you're outta the crib. This morning you woke up, opened your door and came running into Mommy and Daddy's room! I don't think I'm ready for this! Really, I'm not so sure anymore.

Happy New Year!!!!!

Well another year over and another Christmas has passed us by. Olivia, you and your brother sooo cleaned up this year. All that behaving must have paid off. Now, listen kiddo.....you have to be good ALL YEAR if you want Santa to come again this year. Remember....he's always watching....so....You better watch out, you better not cry.....you'll get to know the rest - trust me!!

Aren't you pretty posing under the tree in your new bathrobe from Auntie Lindsey:



You love this new kitchen. I think you'll have tons of fun playing house with your best bud Brookie:





THIS art table is a big hit: