Olivia and Sophia

A Fabulous Spring Break

2010-04-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

So far spring break 2010 has been jam packed with all sorts of fun activities. Beautiful spring weather has given us hours and hours of outside play time with neighbors and other friends.

Today we flew the kite Olivia got for Christmas. I had no idea what a difference using a well-made kite can make. When I was a kid, I only had those cheap plastic kites that always ended up stuck up in a tree. But with this kite, as long as the wind was blowing, the kite shot up into the air with very little effort. The girls quickly figured out that pulling the string makes the kite dip, dive and flip through the air. We all were giggling and begging for another turn.

Earlier in the week we dyed Easter eggs and splattered them with glitter paint. The girls have gone on many bike rides, had picnics in the yard, and gone to the park.

Yesterday Olivia and Sophia got packages from both grandparents packed full of Easter fun! They each got a spring dress, swimming suit with matching cover-up, a super soft, stuffed bunny, toys and Easter candy. They were both thrilled beyond belief.

Currently, I'm making use of the free wifi at Mickey D's while the girls make new friends and climb around in the playland. The girls are both wearing their new dresses and their new favorite bunnies are sitting next to me as I type.

Tomorrow I'm leading the Bunny Bop, an Easter party, at the rec center (my job). The girls will join me other preschoolers in making bunny masks, spray painting egg-shaped paper, and playing Easter games.

On Saturday I'm working at the Wheat Ridge Easter Egg hunt as the Easter Bunny chaperone. Yale will bring the girls to participate in the fun. Sunday will be spent doing our second anual Easter Bowling egg-stravaganza and Monday we plan to go swimming.

Funny Conversations

2010-03-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

I overheard a funny conversation between Olivia and Sophia the other day.
Olivia -said, "No people on Earth eat other people. If they did, they would go to jail."
Sophia responded, "What about hair? One time I ate a hair. I don't want to go to JAIL!!!!!"

Today on the way home from school Olivia was telling me about one of her classmates' dog coming to visit their class. This is what she said:
"Clancy stepped over me and hit my head. It hurt, and I didn't hear him say he was sorry."

Valentine's Day Fun!

2010-02-21T10:32:00.000-08:00

The girls had a very eventful Valentine's week. I've been subbing for the preschool at the rec center, so they both got to participate in that Valentine's Day party for that class. They also both had parties in their classrooms. Sophia's class got to decorate their own heart cookies and Olivia got to create her own banana split. They both got mulitple Valentines in the mail and a holiday package filled with treats and surprises from the Kaul granparents.

I've been very fascinated with the girls' hands lately. I love how soft and plump they are. Last night, we were walking to a church for a concert and Sophia said to me, "I very want to hold your hand." Despite the freezing temperatures, this completely melted my heart. I hope to get some good photos of their cute little hands and put them in a photo album to help me always remember that feeling.

Yesterday Yale and I were commenting on how much both the girls have grown and changed recently. Olivia has graduated from a regular car seat to a booster seat. This means she can get in and out of her seat on her own. I think this makes her feel very grown up. Olivia's teacher continues to comment on how much growth she's made with reading and writing. This year, Olivia made all of her Valentines by herself, including writing all of her classmates names and signing her own name. She even drew a picture of each kid in her class doing something that reminds her of them. One girl, Sasha, was doing spaghetti arms, which I guess is something they do in class. Another boy was playing with a truck and one of her friends was on the tire swing. I thought this was so sweet and thoughtful.

Sophia is changing a lot, too. Although she often feels frustrated because she says that she always feels small, and she really, really wants to be big. I plan to get some of her baby clothes out soon, so she can see just how much she's grown. Sophia has started writing her own name and drawing hearts, which she works very hard at. She's been taking a dance class with Olivia at the rec center and is showing a lot of focus and strengths. She also made all of her own Valentines this year and they were beautiful!

Christmas Joy

2009-12-26T12:04:00.001-08:00

The Kaul- Golter family is happy to report that we had a relaxing and fun Christmas. We continued our annual tradition of spending Christmas Eve at the Buddington house. The girls had a great time playing with Nate and Quinn, and Yale and I enjoyed having great adult conversation with good friends. We topped the night off with some delicious chocolate fondue!

We enjoyed Christmas day with just the 4 of us. Olivia woke us all up, eager to see what she got from Santa and open her presents. Olivia asked a bunch of questions about just HOW Santa manages to get down the chimney, deliver presents all around the world in one day, etc. I realized after she asked me if Santa sneaked into my room to get gift bags for their presents, that she recognized the bags from a previous Christmas. I have a feeling if she continues to believe in Santa much longer it will be out of pure will and not do to a lack of understanding.

Several hours after opening presents, Sophia, out of the blue, said, " I really like all my new stuff." She especially likes her Mermaid Dora friend and her candy cane filled with "M a M's". Olivia adores her new stuffed globe, which she calls her Earth friend.

We started building a gingerbread house and should finish decorating it today. A highlight for everyone was driving around that night looking at people's Christmas lights. The girls were really cracking Yale and me up with their reactions. Sophia kept saying, "I can't believe mine eyes!" They both decided that we were in "Rainbow Light Land". Olivia was convince that she kept seeing Santa's house, or so she said. It's so nice to see the girls get so much pleasure out of something so simple.

Bird Helpers

2009-12-13T14:23:00.000-08:00

A few nights ago while we were driving around downtown Denver looking at all of the Christmas lights, we were all wondering how people get the lights all over the skyscrapers. Sophia astutely suggested, "Maybe the birds put them up there."

A couple of days after that while I was taking Sophia to school, as she was looking out the car window, she said, "Mommy, I wish I was on a bird. Then I could fly to Grandma's house. "

Maybe we have a future ornithologist on our hands.

Abra Cadabra?

2009-11-08T10:12:00.000-08:00

Yale and I have been really working to get Sophia to ask for things nicely, which as times can be quite challenging. Th other day she wanted me to help her with something, but was not using her best manners while asking. Even though I don't use this phrase very often, I asked her what the magic word is. With a very bewildered look on her face, she questioned, "Abra cadabra?"

I've had two parents who have worked in Olivia's classroom at school comment about how coordinated and athletic Olivia is. If you know me very well, you know this makes me VERY happy! I have dreams of me playing in doubles volleyball tournaments with one or both of my girls at some point in my life. If either one decides they want to play volleyball, hopefully they'll get good enough before I need a cane to get around the court.

Both girls handled selling their leftover Halloween candy to the dentist like champs. I was impressed. In return for their goodies, they each got a dollar (a first for both of them), a new toothbrush and a little toy that they got to pick out. I think the Halloween Candy Buy Back program is a great idea. Not only for the sake of the girls, but also so that Yale and I don't have to spend twice as much time at the gym trying to lose those Halloween candy pounds.

Butterflies after a Snow Storm

2009-11-03T19:02:00.000-08:00

The girls had a delightful time dressing up as butterflies this year for Halloween. Grandma Kaul kindly made them sparkly pink tutus that the girls adore! Fancy butterfly wings, glittery antenna and a butterfly wand made the outfit complete. Olivia's class party was postponed for several days because we had a huge snow storm and school was canceled on the day her party was originally scheduled. Fortunately, her teacher realized how disappointed those 17 five-year-olds would be if they didn't get to wear their costumes to school and have a party! Her favorite part of the party seemed to be showing her friends her beautiful costume and getting tons of holiday trinkets. Sophia goes to school on different days than Olivia and she got to have her class party as planned. She loved decorating a Halloween cookie and getting to wear sparkly make-up on her face.

On the night before Halloween Yale took the girls to the Wheat Ridge Pumpkin Glow where they got to see lots of carved pumpkins, play games and dance. I missed the fun because I had some work to do, but it sounded like they all had a great time.

For the first time ever, we took the girls trick-or-treating in our own neighborhood. Despite the snow storm, the evening was nice enough for the girls to still wear their butterfly wings over a light jacket and fortunately all of the snow had melted off of the sidewalks. Yale and I were both pleased with how polite the girls were while visiting the neighbors' houses. We decided it was time to go home when the girls' bag were full and all of our pockets were overflowing with candy. All of our neighbors were more than generous!

I thought both girls were going to cry when I told them that I wanted them to give most of their candy to the Halloween Candy Buy Back program where participating dentists will pay kids $1 per pound of Halloween candy. The candy then gets sent to the U.S. soldiers serving overseas. I think it's a great idea, and I think now both of the girls are warming up to the idea. Today, Olivia hesitated before eating a piece of candy because she was concerned that the soldiers wouldn't get enough candy. She still ate it, but I thought it was sweet thought. Sophia is just excited because she wants to see what a dentist office looks like. She hasn't been to one yet. I'll let you know how the actual exchange goes. Hopefully they'll still be feeling generous when we hand over the goods.

Hug-o, Clap, Clap, and Coughsez

2009-10-28T15:59:00.000-07:00

Sophia has this new habit of adding "o" to the end of everything she says. Today at breakfast after she tasted the apple raisin oatmeal bake, she said, "Yuck-O!" She used to say, "Huggie" when she wanted a hug, but now it's "Hug-O!" Other words that she alters include: hurt-o, toe-o, head-o. I think you get the pattern.

Olivia has decided that clapping after she asks someone to do something will some how make them more likely to act or maybe act faster. She'll say to Sophia, "Get the cups!" followed with a clap, clap, clap. Or she'll say to me, "More toast!" clap, clap. I've tried to explain to her that this isn't the most effective way to get what you want and that it sounds bossy, but she just doesn't see it, yet.

Sophia has developed another interesting speech pattern. I can't think of the name of the rule that she is over-generalizing, but it has to do with making words plural. Instead of saying "ghosts", she says "ghostez". "Coughs" is "coughsez". To plural the word "leaf", she says, "Leafsez." I'll be sad when this phase ends.

2009-10-26T19:58:00.000-07:00

So far this Halloween season has proven to be quite fun with the girls. They are so excited for the festivities that they can hardly contain themselves. Their Grandma Kaul kindly made them sparkly tutus for their butterfly costumes this year. Needless to say, the girls were THRILLED when they came in the mail! Today, we bought fancy butterfly wings, wands and necklaces to add to their costumes. On the way home from the costume store, Olivia kept saying, "Sophia is going to just LOVE her new wings!" I think this may have been her way of saying that she, too, loved her new wings.

Two nights ago we discovered a Trick or Treat bag filled with goodies hanging from the doorknob of our front door. Along with the candy was a note explaining that we'd been BOO'd, and we would need to carrying on the surprise by hanging a bag of candy on someone elses door, ringing their doorbell and running. You would have thought we were planning a trip to Disneyland. They thought this was very cool! Thank you to whomever BOO'd us first. This brought a lot of joy to our house!

Photos and an update will hopefully be posted soon after Halloween so that you can see the girls all decked out in their butterfly regalia.

Fabulous Rewards

2009-09-26T09:47:00.000-07:00

So, last night Olivia says, "Mom, we need to start using our CD cases!" After I asked why, she responded with, "Because if you open a CD, you earn points and get fabulous rewards!"

I think she's been watching bank commercials.

This week while we were getting ready for school, Sophia said, "Mommy, I don't like the ants."
To this I asked, "What ants."
"The ants in my body," she said.
"There are ants in your body?" I inquired.
"Yeah, they're in my nose." she told me.

A Couple of Short Stories

2009-09-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, while riding in the car, Olivia said she was thirsty, but the water in her water bottle was warm. She emphatically told me that she doesn't like warm water and wanted fresh, cold water when we got home. Sophia interjected that she likes warm water. In fact, she said, "Cold water freaks me out!"

I took the girls to the doctor for the yearly exam. Our doctor not only focuses on the physical, but also inquires about the girls' mental and emotional progress. While she was examining Olivia, Dr. Bacon asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up. Olivia, following in her father's footsteps, said, "An ice cream maker." When it was Sophia's turn and the doctor asked her what she wanted to be when she grows up. Sophia replied, "A bee." Now I've told them girls that they can be whatever they want to be, but I'm not so sure about that one.

The other day the girls where getting ready to watch some TV while I made some phone calls. Olivia said she wanted to watch the news. I wasn't sure about this, but I thought it was worth a try. After she was done watching TV, she said, "Mommy, there's going to be a thunderstorm tonight, and Montana is having some problems." I guess she was paying attention. Maybe she'll be a ice cream maker/news anchor??

pocksissle

2009-08-30T18:40:00.000-07:00

Cute pronunciation of the week: pocksissle (popsicle)
Submitted by Sophia

Coronary on High

2009-05-28T20:29:00.000-07:00

I was on the roof a couple of days ago cleaning out the gutters. Yale was on the ground and had just handed me the hose when I turned around and was absolutely SHOCKED to see little Sophia standing about 10 feet from me ON THE ROOF! She emphatically stated, "Look, Mommy, I'm on the roof!" I gasped and as calmly as I could, asked her to sit down. She replied, "But I'm not scared, Mommy!" After a bit of coaxing, I got her to sit down, told her I was glad that she wasn't scared, but that getting on the roof will have to wait until she's older. While I was talking with her, Yale climbed up the ladder and Sophia and I carefully scooted over to him so that he could help her down. She was quite upset that he didn't let her climb down the ladder by herself. She didn't want help! So the lesson learned here is that kids will try things that you never imagined, so in the future I will try to imagine it and be more mindful!

Advice from the Doctor

2009-05-03T13:25:00.000-07:00

I will often rely on the power of doctor authority to get the girls to do something they don't want to do. If the girls don't want to eat any protein for dinner, I'll say, "Dr. Bacon says you should eat protein at every meal." And, yes, our pediatrician's name is Dr. Bacon. Or if one of the girls doesn't want to let me help them brush their teeth I'll say, "Dr. Strange says Mom or Dad should help you brush your teeth once a day." And, yes, our pediatric dentist's name is Dr. Strange. Anyway, Sophia has started using my own strategy on me. If I say it's bed time, she'll say, "Dr. Seuss says that I should play now." Or if I tell her she can't want TV, she responds with, "Dr. Seuss says I need to watch TV." It's kind of nice that she thinks Dr. Seuss is in her corner.

Sophia Turns 3

2009-04-29T23:51:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Sophia's 3rd birthday a couple of weeks ago. All in all, it ended up being about a week long celebration. On Saturday, April 18th, we had a party for her at our house. I invited several of her friends and their families thinking not everyone would be able to make it, but everyone except for Aunt Beckie and Uncle Sam were able to come. Our friend the Clarks came with their kids Ellen and Hugh, Izzi and Aiden came with their mom, Megan. Our new neighbor JoAnn brought her daughters, Sarah and Marita, Zaza, of course was here, and The Buddington's with Quinn and Nathan came. We got hit with a big snow storm the day before, so we weren't able to go outside and play; so we had a full house. Unfortunately, I don't think Sophia had a very good time at her party. I learned that maybe she isn't a party-kind-of-girl, or maybe it's just a stage because she was quite unhappy for most of the party. It wasn't until I finally gave in and let her watch TV by herself that she seemed happy. Each time the doorbell rang, she said, "Not again!" She hid when we sang Happy Birthday to her, and she insisted that I hold her for most of the part. Due to the weather we ended up letting the kids swing away at the pinata in our living room while Yale and I held it up with a broom stick. In retrospect, I'm surprised that no one got their front teeth knocked out, but the kids seemed to have fun. The darn pinata was very sturdily built. After each kid had taken several turns whacking at it, I took a turn, and put a bit of a dent in it. Then several more kids took turns. I just ended up ripping it open to get it over with. After about 10 minutes of kids swinging at it, Sophia decided she'd try it and swung at it twice. Finally, when the candy was scattered all over the floor and kids were diving wildly to get their fair share, Soph cried until she got the one piece of pink candy that she'd wanted. I do think Sophia liked the present-getting part of the party. She got all sorts of fun things: a flower night light, a bunch of sand toys and a bubble gun, dress up clothes, a stroller, and a Betsy-made hooded towel. Yale and I gave her a leotard, tights and ballet skirt for when she starts dance classes. She's wanted to take dance classes for a very long time, but now with the new outfit, she can hardly stand waiting to start.

Number Brainiac

2009-03-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

Check out the number pattern that Olivia said completely out of the blue the the other day.13254769811101312I'm telling you the girls is BRILLIANT! And I'm not just saying that because I'm her mother. Okay, maybe that might have something to do with it.

Memorable Lyrics

2009-03-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

Sophia's favorite song to sing these days is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. It sounds something like this...(be sure to imagine this sung in an adorable almost-3-year-old voice)Twinko twinko widdo tarHow I wonduh what you ahrUp a buhbuh ky so highWike a diamuhn in da ky

It's Potty Party Time!!!

2009-02-08T18:05:00.000-08:00

I'm VERY happy to report that Miss Sophia appears to be potty trained! I was all prepared to spend a full day having a "Potty Party" with her. In the morning we were going to train a doll (one that really pees) to use the potty rewarding the doll with stickers and treats, and the afternoon we would focus on getting Sophia to use the potty with the same treats and stickers. I bought the peeing doll, drinks, treats, several fun cups, balloons, a princess outfit, stickers, and checked out potty training videos and books from the library. But Super Sophia beat me to it and decided she was ready to give up diapers before we had a chance to have the potty-training day. I had been talking up the party day, which Olivia caught onto more than Sophia. So, last night we had our friends, the Buddingtons, over for dinner and a mini party to make up for the missed official potty party. I've been very proud of Sophia. She's sleeping through the night in underwear and initiates going to the bathroom on her own. She's only had 2 accidents all week! I can't get over how cute she looks in her little Dora undies pulled all the way up to her bellybutton. My little girl is growing up! No more crib, diapers, or high chair!

Little Sophia

2009-01-04T23:42:00.000-08:00

Sophia is at the age where just about everything that comes out of her mouth is adorable. Except of course, when she's screaming her demands at me or make sure just how much she means NO!I know I've mentioned this before, but I want to make sure I have a record of how cute it is when she leaves off the beginning letter in blends at the beginnings of worda. For example, snowman is "noman" and snack is "nack". This just melts my heart, so I have to list all of them that I can think of:poon (spoon)mell (smell)nake (snake)neak (sneak)neeze (sneeze)Another adorable thing Sophia does is pretend that her hands are spiders. She been doing this for a few months now. Sometimes one hand is the baby spider and the other is the mama. Sometimes the spider is feeding her, or it swims in the bath tub with her. It's pretty clever because this way she always has a friend with her and always something to do. She used to pretend her fingers were members of a family. One finger was the dad, another the mom, and the other were children and babies. Creativity at it's best.I love it when I can hear Sophia in another room singing to her self. Her favorite songs include "The Eensy, Weensy Pider " (which fits both themes mentioned above), the ABC's (which she knows quite well), and "Twinkle Twinkle". A few times Sophia has "read" "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?" to me. As you can imagine, I find this irresistibly cute. I've tried to get her to read it to me more times, but she seems to be saving it up for special occasions. She doesn't have the entire book memorized, meaning she often has to turn the page to see what animal is next, but she definitely remembers the pattern. I've also mentioned before that Sophia is very loving. She LOVES to gives hugs! She'll often run up to me and wrap her arms around my legs. When I get her out of bed in the morning, she'll rest her little head on my shoulder and hug me while I carry her down to the kitchen. Occasionally, I'll get a sweet little kiss from her.. She takes her time, and puts the tiniest peck on my cheek. Really, even if I weren't her mother, I would think this was darling.Can you tell that I am one proud mama?

What Kind of Bum?

2008-12-27T23:53:00.000-08:00

This one gets an entry on its own.Today Sophia told me that her toothpaste is "buggle bum" flavored.

What a Christmas!!

2008-12-27T23:51:00.000-08:00

Soph and Olivia both enjoyed a bustling holiday season. In the couple of weeks prior to Christmas, Olivia attended the birthday parties of 2 classmates, one of which Sophia was thrilled to join her. They both celebrated with parties at their schools and the 3 of us went to see Okey and Dokey (former parents at Olivia's preschool) perform their 25th and final Christmas program at Livi's school. They had playdates with friends, decorated cookies with me, and made a gingerbread house with Grandma Golter. We spent Christmas Eve with our friends the Buddington's, and predictably we all had a great time. Yale was sick Christmas day, so he stayed at home while Olivia, Sophia and I went to my sister, Beckie's house for a duck dinner and pumpkin pie! Sophia and Olivia got to have their first overnight at their Aunt Beckie's house and they were ecstatic! Olivia packed her suitcase 3 weeks in advance to this big event. Yale and I had planned to stay in a hotel that night, but we were both so sick, we decided to take it easy at home. Even though we both used up more Kleenex in those two days than we normally do in a month, it was nice to have time to sleep and only care for ourselves. Olivia and Soph had a great time at their aunt's house, and can't wait to go back. In fact, Sophia insisted more than once the day she got home, that she's going to Beckie's house later.

Oh Mighty Gatekeeper

2008-11-19T21:57:00.000-08:00

The other day I asked Olivia what she wants for Christmas. She replied, "A big pillow like yours (I have a body pillow) and maybe a clo." Clo is the singular form that she uses for clothes. I think it's so cute when she says it that I don't correct her. I guess I better be sure to do that at some point, for sure before she goes to college. Sophia has become the Gatekeeper in the Wizard of Oz, and every door in our house leads to the Emerald City. She insists on being in charge of opening and closing every door in the house, and she gets quite upset if someone else tries to do her job. I think this started because she can finally reach all of the doorknobs. She used to get very frustrated with Olivia when she would shut her in or out of somewhere she didn't or did want to be. She's making it very clear, that now SHE has control.

Trick or Treat

2008-11-02T21:38:00.000-08:00

Olivia and Sophia had their first experience with trick or treating this year. They both had so much fun, it was hard explaining to them that Halloween is the only day that you can ring a stranger's doorbell and ask for candy. Yale had the idea of the girls dressing up as skunks this year. I was all for it because I was hoping we could stay away from the princess theme. I've had my fair share of princess talk/play lately. Plus, I've grown to really dislike Sleeping Beauty. She is NOT the kind of role model that I want for our girls. As far as I can tell she's known for being pretty and sleeping. Even when I asked Olivia if she does anything exciting in the movie, she said, "Well, she talks" and that was all that she could come up with! What kind of heroine is that??? When you think about it, princesses in fairy tales, books and movies are always pretty lame. They rarely getting to doing anything daring and adventuresome. I need to find movies for the girls to watch where the girls get to fly, rescue people, and wear a cool cape. Anyway...back to Halloween. I decided I would attempt to make the girls' costumes this year. Not only do I want to expand their imaginations with being something unique, I wanted to show them that you can also use your imagination by creating your own costume. Luckily I was able to come up with something very simple. I got a couple of black hoodies, some black boas and some white boas, white fur, and black and pink felt; Voila: skunks. Yale said that seeing them in their costumes melted his heart. I had to agree, they looked awfully cute. We went over to our friends', Betsy and Vince, house for Halloween night. They have a daughter, Ellen, that is Olivia's age and good friend. And their son, Hugh, is Sophia's favorite friend from P.D.O. After eating pizza, we went trick or treating to a ton of houses in their neighborhood. At first Sophia didn't seem to understand the point of the whole thing, but after she got a couple of pieces of candy, she was all for it! Olivia and Ellen held hands and ran from house to house, telling everyone "Happy Halloween!"

Oh Sweet Little Sophia

2008-10-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

More funny things that Sophia says:stam up - stand upnoey - nobanquet - blankethode da hand - hold the hand or hold my handkank you - thank youoder dare -over thereHere are two conversations that I had with Sophia this week:What would you like for breakfast, Sophia? Chocolate milk shakeWhat would you like on your English muffin, Sophia?Chocolate

In-house Comedians

2008-09-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

So we're sitting at the table eating dinner the other night and Olivia starts talking about bras. I can't remember how this subject came up, but probably like many topics with 4-year-old, it came up from out of nowhere. So after some benign questions, such as "Why do you wear a bra?" "Why don't I wear a bra?", etc. Olivia asks, "Are fancy bras only for Halloween?" I really have no idea where this one came from and didn't really know how to respond. Yale and I looked at each other and laughed, and I said, "Hmmm...I don't know." In retrospect I wish I would of had a much more informative or thought provoking response, but I was so distracted with wondering why she would ask such a thing that I didn't really have the brain power to respond.Funny things that Sophia says:Kayaroo = kangarooOvia (which used to be o-e-a) = OliviaUp and down = upside downA few nights ago, after I put Sophia to bed, she was still awake and singing after being in bed for about an hour. I went to check on her and found that she had shaken the water out from her sippy cup all over her nightgown and sheets. As I was changing her sheets, she said, "Funny, Momnmy?" I responded, "No, Soph." She said, "No, not funny," Paused and then said,"Just a little bit funny, Mommy?"Of course I thought that was funny, so I had to just turn my head while I cracked up. Once again, not able to come back with a very quality response.

Miss O at age 4

2008-09-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

Since Olivia recently had her 4th birthday it's time for my annual description of her personality. Yale and I have definitely seen a leap in her maturity since she's turned 4. I think it's mostly due to her seeing herself as much older. She's been much more polite. For example, just today we were at the Butterfly Pavillion, and I asked her if she wanted to hold Rosie, the giant tarantula, and she calmly said, "No thank you." A year ago I would have never asked because I think she would have run out of the room screaming. Tomorrow Olivia will be going to her second tao and ballet class at the Little Theater near our house. This, too, has contributed to her new sense of independence. Yale took her to her first class and said that she did quite well and seemed grown up compared to many of the other little girls, some of whom were attempting to pull their skirts over their heads while simultaneously picking their noses. Recently we told Sophia that she would get to drop Olivia off at her next dance lesson so that she doesn't feel so left out. Olivia told Sophia, "You can go to my dance class as long as your not too wild."Olivia made a big step last weekend when we went swimming as a family to the Golden Rec Center. Not only did she go down the little-kid water slide (its about 3 feet long) all by herself and about 50 times, but she also went down the huge, twisty slide with her dad twice. She was quite proud of herself, especially since her head went completely under water both times! This was an impressive accomplishment because in the past she has always refused to go down any water slides.Books continue to provide Oli with hours of entertainment. She is taking a great interest in learning how to read. She can identify almost all of the upper and lower case letter and knows many of their sounds. She often asks how to spell words and even "reads" some words if there is a good picture clue and she knows what sound the first letter of the word makes. Some of her favorite books include: Any Fancy Nancy book, all of the Angelina Ballerina books, many of the Dr. Seuss books, and a current favorite is The Little Engine that Could.Livi is also very interested in numbers. She can almost count to 30 (she sometimes forgets 15 and 20). She often asks the time, and wants me to show her how to count to a certain number. She's exploring what different combinations add up to a number. For example, 4 and 4 make 8, and so does 5 and 3. Friends have become more important to Olivia in the past few months. She has several good friends at preschool, including Anna Grace, Jenna, and Reagan. She met her friend Mae at the rec center and her friend Ellen at Parents' Day Out. Whenever I get a chance, I like to show up to preschool a bit early so that I can watch her play with her friends. Lately, she and Jenna and Anna Grace have been huddled behind a bush playing quietly. When I ask her later, she tells me that they're pretending that they have a baby unicorn or that they're kitties.

Oli's 4th Birthday

2008-08-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

Weâ€™ve had a busy week celebrating Oliviaâ€™s 4th birthday. Iâ€™ve spent the past couple of weeks painting, sewing, gluing, and drilling to surprise Olivia with a room makeover on her birthday. Keeping this process a secret was pretty challenging. She knew I was up to something, and said things like, â€œWhatâ€™s all that stuff in the shower for?â€� and â€œMommy, why is your drill in my room?â€� On Tuesday, after Yale got off work, he kept the girls busy downstairs while I hung the silky pink and orange curtains, hoop canopy, bright pink mirror, clock, and wooden letters spelling her name. Once everything was hung, Olivia came upstairs to see her surprise. It took a couple of minutes for her to take everything in and then she got excited. Her favorite part was the hoop canopy, which I decorated with colorful ribbon and flowers, and it hangs above a stuffed purple chair. Later she said, â€œMommy, youâ€™re roomâ€™s not beautiful.â€� She used to want a room just like mine, with beads on the curtains and fancy things hanging on the walls. Then she said, â€œMy room is bery, bery beautiful!â€� That night, Olivia got to choose where we would eat for her birthday dinner. She picked Red Robin. Luckily, Tuesdays are the days that Red, the person dressed as a giant, furry robin, is there. The girls got a big kick out of giving Red high fives, and they always love getting a balloon there, too. After the wait staff delivered an ice cream sundae and sang Happy Birthday to Olivia, I asked if she liked that, and without hesitation she said, â€œNo.â€�At the end of the week Yaleâ€™s parents flew here for the weekend to help us celebrate Oliviaâ€™s birthday. The night before her party, they took Olivia shopping for a new bike. She picked out a purple and pink sparkly two-wheeler with training wheels. She had to have that one because it was â€œmore beautifulâ€� than the others. She was quite proud to be the new owner of a two-wheeler and spent about an hour riding it after she got home.The next day her Aunt Beckie, Uncle Sam, cousins Ry and Kylie, special family friend, Susan (a.k.a. Zaza), Kaul Grandparents, and preschool friend, Jenna and her mom (Ann) joined us for Oliviaâ€™s party. Zaza brought over a huge box and cut a door and windows in it, which provided the kids with hours of entertainment. Olivia had a fabulous time playing dress-up with Jenna. After lunch, we sang Happy Birthday and she got to blow out her candles on her purple and pink birthday cake. Overall, I think Olivia would agree that the party was a success.

First Flight

2008-07-16T20:16:00.000-07:00

Sadly, Yale's grandfather died last month. We decided we wanted to take the whole family to Montana for the funeral. This meant that Sophia got to fly in an airplane for the fist time and Yale and I had our pioneer flight with both of the kids. Olivia is a veteran of a couple plane trips, including one to Europe, but they were both before she was a year old. All in all, I think we can call it a success. Olivia, it turns out, absolutely loves flying and everything about it, including things that most adults detest, such as hanging out at the airport and going through security. She loved having her own seat by the window, with her own tray/table. The whole experience was making her very happy. This was a huge relief to us, especially Yale, who is what you might call a white-knuckle flyer.The girls also got to meet their Auntie Ashley while they were in MT. Yale tried for a week before the trip to explain that he has a younger sister named Ashley, but since they'd never met Ashley (although Olivia had met her when she was an infant), the whole idea of Daddy having a sister who is an adult was pretty abstract and incomprehensible to them. And of course the girls both love hanging out with their grandparents and their dogs, too. It's especially nice for Yale & I to leave them with the grandparents for a while, and since they're usually more than willing, so are we.Yale took the girls to his office last weekend and they had taken the elevator up. Yale walked out of the elevator but the girls decided they wanted to stay in for some reason. When the elevator door eventually closed, of course the girls got very scared and started screaming. Yale ran back and pushed the button to get the door back open, and when the girls came out, Olivia explained that "the elevator thought we were grown-ups."

But They're just So Cute!

2008-06-05T15:32:00.000-07:00

More cute things our kids say and do:(I love writing on this website because I feel like I can just brag and ramble on about my kids and don't have to worry about boring people because it you find this boring you can just move on to something more interesting :)I love it how Olivia says "werry" instead of "very".For example, "I love my umbrella werry, werry much!"If someone is in Sophia's way she'll politely say, "Coo me", which is "excuse me" in Sophia language.The other morning, just after I had woken up, I was holding Sophia and asked her if my breath was stinky. She pulled at the neck of my shirt, put her nose down in it, and told me it wasn't stinky. I guess she got the word breath confused with breasts. When I told Yale this story, he asked how she knew the term breast. I had to explain that she finds breast very funny and intriguing and asks about them often. You'd think she was a man. Last week when we were driving home after spending the day at the girls' Aunt Beckie's house, Olivia said she was sad because she missed Beckie. When I turned around to look at her there was a tear going down her cheek. It was so sweet. I have never seen her cry that way before. Typically, when she cries she's upset because she got hurt physically or she's sad because someone hurt her feelings. Since that day both of the girls have been dying to go see their Aunt Beckie. Sophia demands, "Beckie's house. Want it!"When Olivia asks for "together corn" we now know that she is asking for corn on the cob.

Nuggo Me

2008-05-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

A few days ago Olivia was talking about how she will do her daddy's job when she grows up. This seemed like a good opportunity to discuss additional career options that she could consider. I start listing a variety of options: doctor, teacher, artist, writer, astronaut, secretary, trash collector, etc. Astronaut caught her interest most, and she start talking about how she would take Sophia, Daddy and me in her rocket to the moon. She also insisted that her "air helmet would have a crown" and her "boots would be purple with sparkles". Who knows, maybe she'll be the first fashion designer for astronauts, or better yet, the first stylish astronaut!The other day I was awoken from a wonderful afternoon nap when Sophia walked into my room wearing a stocking hat and her big winter coat (it was a warm, spring day) and said, "Nuggo me." This of course is how she says, "Snuggle me", which completely melts me. So I scooped her up and plopped her on the bed next to me for some quality mother-daughter cuddle time.

It's Potty Training Time, Again!

2008-05-07T15:33:00.000-07:00

About a month ago Sophia started showing an interest in using the potty. She would sit on the toilet occasionally and wanted me to read potty training books to her. She seems a bit young to start potty training, but I decided I would get out the potty chair and just see what happens. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. After I got the potty chair all ready for her, she spent the next 3 hours sitting on it. She didn't even want to eat dinner because she wanted to sit on the potty. As a compromise, we put her potty near the table so she could take breaks from eating to try to go pee. She came very close that day to successfully using the potty. The poop landed next to the potty, which I thought was a pretty could start. Within the next couple of days, she peed and pooped each once in the potty, both time with very little help from me. She's not nearly as interested in using the potty now; she will sit on it several times a week, but without any results. It still seems like a good start, especially considering that she just turned two a couple of weeks ago.

Sophia at Two

2008-04-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

For each of the girls' birthdays I like to record some of their favorite things, funny things they say and do, etc., to help us remember what they were like at each stage. I also think it will be fun for Sophia and Olivia to be to read these when they get older.Sophia, at age two.Favorite Books: Goodnight Moon, Oh the Wonderful Things Mr. Brown Can Do by Dr. Seuss, anything with animals, books about potty training.Favorite Foods: Sophia LOVES fruit! Grapes, berries, bananas, melon. You name it. I wouldn't be surprised if she grows up to be a vegetarian.Favorite Toys: Any type of ball, baby dolls, her Little People's Bus, anything she can push or ride.Favorite DVD: Anything with Elmo in it.Favorite Shoes: Pink, sparkly princess shoes given to her by her Grandma Kaul. She also loves her pig slippers, which she calls "wee-wees", as in This Little Piggy...Cute things she says:Flip Flops: FlopsMacaroni and cheese: Mac (long pause) cheeseNoey: NoOey: OliNuggo Me: Snuggle meShe calls all animals by the sound that they make (cat is meow, sheep is BaBa, etc.)Now that I think about it, I think just about everything she says is adorable, but it's kind difficult to convey the cuteness in writing.Things She Can Do I Find Impressive:She already know many colors: white, black, purple (which seems to be one of her favorites, along with blue), green, yellow, orange, and pink.She's a super climber, and has been for a long time. She's climbs ladders, up slides, she even likes to hang from the monkey bars. She can count to three and including counting object up to 3. She hangs from the kitchen counters, and hangs and swings from the headrest of the front seat of the car.She is exceptionally empathetic. If she sees another child crying, she becomes very concerned and will try to comfort them. If her sister is upset, she will often offer a hug or will get Olivia her favorite friend, Bunny.Interacting socially comes very easily to Sophia. She's outgoing and assertive.

Soph Doubles Her Age

2008-04-22T22:49:00.000-07:00

This weekend we celebrated Sophia's second birthday. She is still at the age where she doesn't really grasp what it means to have a birthday. So she was thrilled that she got to spend the day at the park with some of her favorite people, play with balloons, and eat cake, too! She and her sister had a grand time playing on the playground and being chased by their cousin Ryther. Sophia really got into tearing the paper off of all of the presents she received. Some highlights were a very fancy stroller from the Anderson family, a grocery basket filled with play food from Su-su. Sophia has given Zaza (a.k.a. Susan) a new nickname, and now I'm not sure which one to call because I think they both are so cute! She has been thrilled with the new purple and pink tricycle given to her by the Kaul grandparents, and she loves the new shape puzzle and blue outfit from her Grandma Golter. She wasn't sure what to think about it when we were all singing Happy Birthday to her, but she perked up when we all said her name. Blowing out candles was a new experience for her, luckily she had help from the wind.

The Top 10 Things O and So Do to Melt My Heart

2008-03-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

10. When Olivia is counting and says "beleven" instead of eleven.9. If Olivia has been gone for awhile, when she first walks in the door, Sophia will run up to her and give her a great, big hug.8. How Olivia says "got-for" in place of forgot. I also get a big kick out of she uses the word twisted in place of traded. For example, she might say, "Sophia and I twisted toys." Clever, eh?7. If I hurt myself or am feeling sad, Sophia will stroke my hair and pat my back and say, "Ohhhh, babyyyy".6. Whenever Sophia learns how to say a new word. Today the new words have been "Beckie", "Sam", "Kylie" and "Ry".5. When either of the girls rock their doll or stuffed animal and sing to them. My heart got really squishy the other day when Olivia and Sophia were pretending to be cats. Olivia was the baby and Sophia was the mommy. Sophia pretended to put Olivia down for a nap and hummed "Ba Ba Black Sheep" to her while she stroked her hair. Adorable!4. This probably belongs on the "Top 10 Most Embarrassing Things My Kids Do" list, but I'm putting it on this list anyway. How Sophia calls every grown man she sees in public "Daddy" and it's always so that they can hear her.3. When Olivia very seriously asks Yale or me if we've pooped our pants.2. I love to watch Olivia draw faces and people. This new development started a few weeks ago. Right now her people drawings are heads, with a complete face including eyebrows, and long arms and legs shooting right out of the head.1. When the girls are playing together and they're having so much fun, that they start doing that unstoppable and contagious, deep belly laugh.

Moo

2008-03-02T08:36:00.000-08:00

Sophia continues to find creative ways to communicate. Her most recent one is calling yogurt "Moo". The yogurt we typically buy has a cow on the side, which I guess, is where her name came from. She now refuses to eat any yogurt without a cow on the container. Olivia and I were looking at pictures of me when I was pregnant with her. When I told her that she was inside my belly, she gave me a bug-eyed-look and said, shocked, "Did you eat me?" I guess it will take awhile to fully understand that concept.

Yee-ha and The Fire Baby

2008-02-15T19:14:00.000-08:00

As Olivia was lying in bed this morning, spending some time waking up, she said, "Last night when I was sleeping (I took this to mean that she was dreaming), a baby ran to the fire thing. The fire thing jumped into the fire and helped the baby go home". As you may know, I love to talk about and analyze dreams, and I found this one fascinating. I became very excited about the possibility of being able to hear about more of Olivia's dreams.Sophia's vocabulary has increased significantly lately. She identifies many things by the sound that they make. Train is "Choo choo", cat is "meow", a sheep is "baa baa", pig is "wee wee wee" (like in "This Little Piggy"), and dog is "woof woof". My favorite is "Yee-ha" which is horse.

What's Been Happening???

2008-02-14T13:10:00.000-08:00

Yale pointed out to me that the last time I posted anything on this website was in the middle of December. I knew it had been awhile but I had no idea that it had been that long. ACK! We have been pretty busy the past couple of months so it doesn't surprise me that I haven't found the time to write something. I started a part-time job doing data entry for the company that Yale works for. So typically if I have a chunk of time when the kids are napping, I try to do some work. We've also been traveling some which is very unusual. We all drove to Missoula, MT to spend Christmas with Yale's parents and had a great time. The kids loved spending time with their grandparents and their grandparents' dogs, Max and Chloe. Yale and I loved having our kids spend time with their grandparents! Sophia was especially taken with Max and Chloe. She did her best with making friends with them, but I think Max and Chloe found her excitement just a bit overwhelming. Yale's parents generously gave us the very thoughtful gift of dinner and a night out at a local hotel. What a treat that was. I've found time alone with Yale to be quite a rare treasure. The drive home was pretty challenging; Olivia puked several times. I guess she had the flu or food poisoning of some sort. Then a snow storm stranded us for the night in Wheatland, Wyoming. We were lucky to get a hotel room for the night, but we were all ready to sleep in our own beds in our own house by then.In January, Yale and I got to go to Cozumel for 4 nights while Yale's parents came to our house and took care of the kids while we were gone. We had a great time, and I think both of us would go back in a heart beat.I have tons of funny and endearing stories to tell about the girls, but that will have to wait until next time. Hopefully I will write soon enough so that I don't forget what I was going to say.

Appoo

2007-12-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

Sophia has starting saying a lot more words lately. I'm going to go ahead and be an obnoxious, gloating parent and say how darn cute she is when she talks. She uses this tiny high-pitched voice and slowly articulates each word. Apple is said, "Appoo". Yale is always trying to get her to say choo choo because she gets this cute look on her face and sticks out her pouty little lips when she almost whispers it. She also says happy, boots, baby, mommy (which is stretched out into about 3 seconds), daddy (also stretched out), bee, push, pull, up, out, etc. I've been so eager for her to start talking more. I'm excited to hear what Sophia has to say; to find out more about her personality.

Two Peas in a Pod

2007-11-25T19:38:00.000-08:00

Lately, I've been intrigued by the differences in Sophia and Olivia's personalities. I realize their personalities are far from fully developed, and a lot can and probably will change, but for right now it's fun to see how delightfully different they are.Sophia is quite independent and exceptionally determined. Sometimes I find myself wrestling with her to get her dressed or into her car seat, and I'm amazed at how driven and strong she is. Ever since she was itty-bitty, she's been very physical. She loves to play rough, run around, and take on new physical challenges. She often half skips and half runs where ever she's going. At the same time, she can be very tender and thoughtful. She will often try to comfort her sister by rubbing her head and stroking her arm. Sophia will often find Olivia's bunny and give it to her when she's upset. She gives kisses often and can be very cuddly, but only if she's in the mood. If there's a ball in the area, she'll find it. In addition to her stuffed sheep, which she calls "Baba", she loves to sleep with her shoes. Her favorites right now are her snow boots and her tennis shoes. She has about 15 words that she can speak and 15 more that she can sign. People say that she seems quiet, yet she's not hesitant to interact with people she's never met. She often cracks us up by contorting her face and making funny noises. Olivia loves anything sparkly and pretty, especially clothes. She loves to dance,sing and change her clothes. She tells me daily that she likes stars and her favorites colors are purple, pink and blue. It seems to me that she has a good vocabulary for someone her age. She loves to talk and play with kids, but is quite selective about when she'll speak to adults. However, at home she never struggles to find something to talk about. She's quite introspective. She often identifies her own emotions often and is concerned about how others feel. She loves to play with her sister, and frequently asks me if I can get Sophia to play with her (Sophia loves to play with her, too, but she doesn't always want to do what Olivia has on the agenda). She is quite protective of her Sophia and will regularly tell me what she thinks Sophia needs. Olivia loves to paint and color. One of her favorite books right now is a children's book with Vincent Van Gogh paintings, and she says she likes Starry Night the best. Her imagination is quite vivid. She likes to pretend that she another person, Kylie, her cousin, is an all-time favorite. Pretending she's an animal, like a baby goose or a flying dolphin, is also a favorite pastime. As I'm writing this I'm realizing how many similarities the girls share. Maybe my next entry will be about how I've been noticing how alike Sophia and Olivia are.

Bag Balm Disaster

2007-11-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

Yale's mom called us last weekend and left a message saying that some of the photos that were recently uploaded to the website required explanation. The first set of pictures are of our friend Kat making wax molds of Sophia's feet so that she could then pour plaster into the molds. We now have perfect plaster models of Sophia's feet sitting on our shelf, including every wrinkle and itty-bitty detail. They're quite adorable. We had Olivia's feet done, too,when she was quite a bit younger. The other set of pictures that stand out of are Sophia covered in a white powder. You really have to look at them to see just how covered she was. The day before the girls decided to play in the Bag Balm which was in Sophia's top dresser drawer. We sometimes use this for a bad case of diaper rash. Olivia had to drag the rocking chair across the room and stand on it in order to reach the drawer. Anyway, by the time Yale caught them it was all over a big stuffed chair, covering the items in the drawer, and worst of all, it was about an inch thick in Sophia's hair. I tried washing it about 4 times and that did nothing. I read on the internet that cornstarch would get it out. I tried that twice and didn't notice a bit of difference. I finally found the solution when I called a hair salon and they told me to buy clarifying shampoo. After washing Sophia's hair with this 3 times, she was grease-free. I think the girls, at least Olivia, learned a lesson from this experience. Olivia felt so badly for her sister when she had to be covered in cornstarch, that she said, "I am so sorry that we played in that cream!" I was glad to hear the remorse in her voice because that is not a mess that I want to have to clean up again in the near future.

Stubborn Girl and a Stinky Man

2007-10-10T05:10:00.000-07:00

In the past couple of months Sophia has gotten a bunch of teeth. Now there are a couple of molars trying to work their way out. Sophia is definitely a trooper, but the pain from these teeth coming in has made her a bit of a handful lately. It's so interesting so see how differently the girls handle things. When Olivia is hurt or sad, she wants to be held and cuddled. The opposite is true with Sophia. She makes you work to comfort her. When she gets really angry she doesn't want to have anything to do with me. The other day she fell off of a stool and was laying on the floor crying because she was hurt. I picked her up to try to console her, but she screamed, bucked out of my arms, and ran into the other room. She was still screaming and clearly very angry, so I decided to take her sheep blanket to her to help comfort her. Boy, did that ever make her mad! Screaming, she shoved the sheep back into my arms and crawled under the table, as if insisting that I leave her alone. I decided I needed to remove myself from the situation, so I dropped her sheep, hoping she still might use it for comfort and left the room. The minute she spotted the sheep, she started yelling some more, grabbed the sheep, found me, shoved it back into my arms, and stomped off. She clearly didn't want any help from me, but as her mother I couldn't give up completely. I waited a few more minutes until her crying calmed down a bit, and called to her with my arms out. Finally, she came waddling over, let me pick her up and she buried her head between my neck and my shoulder. She quieted and let me cuddle her for several minutes. I sure do wish I could understand what was going on in her head. It was a huge relief to me that she gave in and let me hold her. I can't imagine what a scene like this is going to look like when she's a teenager! Maybe she's getting it out of her system now.Last Sunday Olivia and I were doing some shopping in the grocery store. We were in the cleaning aisle, when Olivia spotted a clean-cut, middle-aged man picking out laundry soap. He was about 10 feet away from us when she said very loudly, "That man is getting some of that. He's getting that because he's a man and he's stinky." Needless to say I immediately exited the premises. I'm not exactly sure where that comment came from, but it certainly was embarrassing, and I have a feeling this is only the beginning of those socially awkward moments.

Dizzy Girl and Backwards Crab Walk

2007-09-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

Yale and I can't stop talking about how funny Sophia has been lately. Each time I put Sophia to bed I find myself cracking up. Either she's trying to stick her finger up my nose while I'm reading to her, or she toots while I'm changing her clothes and blowing on her belly (and I have to say the farting seems intentional, at least the second and third time she does it), or she's accompanying me while I sing "Ba Ba Black Sheep". She spends most of the day-time hours trying to jump. It's hard to explain, but she kind of throws her upper body up and then almost lifts one of her legs. I guess she sees Olivia jumping, and it makes her want to be able to do it too. Spinning in circles until she's so dizzy that she falls down laughing is another a favorite activity. Olivia has always loved having books in bed with her. Sophia insists on taking a shoe to bed. She prefers shoes with laces. At the moment this seems to be her favorite toy, second only to her stuffed sheep. Olivia had her first swimming lesson today. I had the challenge of chasing Sophia around the pool and not letting her get into the water, while also trying to watch Olivia in her lesson. I was really impressed by her teacher, Melissa. I can't imagine that teaching 3 and 4 year-olds how to swim is a very easy job, but Melissa kept them busy by changing the activity about every 30 seconds. They did the backwards crab walk, walked like alligators, floated on their backs while she held them, practiced kicking, chased toys, and put their faces in the water. About 15 times during the 30-minute lesson, Olivia would spot me and shout, "Look at me, Mama! Look at me!" I think that means she was having fun.

Transitions

2007-09-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

The past 2 weeks, our little family has been working on transitioning into some new situations. Sophia moved up to the Toddler Room at Parents' Day Out, so she has a new teacher to get used to. We all loved Charlie, who took care of her in the infant room. It was hard to say goodbye. Even Charlie got teary-eyed when she talked about saying goodbye to Sophia. We're fortunate because we know, and also really like, Sophia's new teacher, Ms. Dana. Olivia had her when she first started at P.D.O. Olivia has completed her first two weeks of preschool. Luckily the preschool is in the same building as P.D.O., which makes for an easier transition for Olivia, and an easier for me when both girls go to "school" on Thursdays. Olivia seems to really like her new teacher, Mrs. Mesa. Already, she has gotten to do lots of fun things, lik painting, making a Fruit Loops necklace, and playing with a big parachute. I'm also adjusting to our new schedule. Over the summer, both O and So went to P.D.O. twice a week, which gave me time to clean, do yard work, and I also tutored during that time. Now Olivia goes to preschool on Thursdays and Fridays and Sophia goes to P.D.O. on Thursdays. Now I don't get quite as much time to get things done, but it gives Sophia and I some time to spend together. This past Friday I pushed her in the stroller while I rollerbladed. I think she had fun, but she seemed a bit cautious. I was really hoping that she was flashing back to the last time I took her and her sister rollerblading and rolled their stroller as I wrecked!

O's Birthday Party

2007-08-27T04:47:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the recently posted photos we celebrated Olivia's 3rd birthday with a small party. She was so excited about having a party she could hardly stand it! One of her favorite books is "If You Give a Pig a Party". This book introduced her to party hats and streamers, and how to properly decorate your house for a party. Along with the cake and balloons, these were the things she was most excited about. At her request, I baked her a double-decker chocolate cake with pink frosting and decorated it with pink and red candy. I don't know how many times she had to open the refrigerator door to get another look at her cake. I hung a sparkly "Happy Birthday" banner and purple streamers, and we had several shiny star-shaped mylar balloons. We also had dog-print party hats, plastic dog plates for the kids, along with clear rubber balls with a puppy face in the middle. I think we had made her day before the party had even begun.She was thrilled that her grandparents came from Missoula to help her celebrate this special day. This was also the first birthday party our dear friend Susan (a.k.a. Zaza) was able to attend. Top it off with getting to play with her friends Nathan and Quinn, and you've got a party that's a dream come true!While we were singing Happy Birthday to her, you couldn't help but notice her beaming eyes and that she was savoring every moment. After she blew out that candles, Yale accurately summed up how she seemed to be feeling when he said, "Oli, you've been waiting for this moment all of your life."

Steps in the Right Direction

2007-07-20T15:42:00.000-07:00

Sophia has been making great gains these past couple of weeks. She's now walking full time. It seemed like one day she just decided she was ready to walk and hasn't stopped since. I expect that soon she will be running in an attempt to keep up with her sister. She's also been signing a lot more lately. She does the signs for milk, eat, more, all done, sleep, and she's working on the sign for cheese. The only word she's saying is "mama". Yale is dying for her to say "daddy". Another neat trick that she does is when you hand her a tube or bottle that looks like it could be lotion (for example: a Balmex tube), she pretends to squeeze some into her hand, rub her hands together, and then rub her hands all over her legs. Of course, I find it quite precious.We're working on teaching Sophia to be more gentle, especially with her sister. Her typical greeting for Olivia is to bap her on the head or or to yank on her hair. Olivia tries to be patient, but gets pretty frustrated with her. Yale says that he's seen Sophia petting Olivia's head which is a step in the right direction.

Bark, Bark, and Pththth

2007-07-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

The last couple of mornings Olivia has woken up and come out of her room saying, "I'm ready for my birthday!" It's pretty hard to explain to her that her birthday is a month away. She's so excited for the cake, candles, balloons, and I think, presents, too that she can hardly stand it. Hopefully the big day will meet her expectations.Olivia has been going through a stage where she likes to pretend she is a dog. She spends her free time crawling around the house barking, eating food from a bowl on the floor, and curling up on a blanket to take a nap. She tells us she has a blue sparkly tail that is very fluffy and wags. She loves to get right in her sister's face and make this loud screeching barking noise. Half the time this makes Sophia crack up, and the other half it makes her cry. When Yale mentioned that Olivia is going through a dog faze, Olivia said, "I have a dog face. I have a nose, and eyes, and fluffy ears."Sophia was sick most of last week with Roseola. She had a high fever and didn't sleep well. She's also cutting four top teeth. Fortunately she is feeling much better this week. While she was sick she took a break from learning to walk, but now she is back to taking lots of steps and getting a big kick out of it. It's looking like Sophia is going to be quite social. A former co-worker of mine, Mike Woolworth, came over last week. He's only seen Sophia once and that was when she was a new born. I was holding Sophia when I opened the door to let him in. She took one look at him, stuck out her tongue and said "Pththth" and then put out her arms and reached for him. He was amused by her warm, funny welcome.

Mac and Chee and Volleyball Tournaments

2007-06-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

Funny things said lately by Olivia:After dropping one piece of macaroni and cheese on the floor, she said, "I dropped a mac and chee."The other day she told me she couldn't wear a certain pair of shorts because they were "too exhausted."After spending the day with her cousin Ry (and her Aunt Beckie), Olivia professed that Ry is her best friend.Sophia has recently learned to climb to the top of this play structure that we have in our back yard. I'm pretty impressed that she can do this because it involves finding the proper hand holds and some upper body strength. I think the incentive is that she gets to go down the slide when she gets to the top, which she absolutely loves to do. Sophia is also very interested in playing catch. She's been doing this for a few months, and my sister, who has a master's degree in early childhood development, thinks this is unusual for a kid her age. I'm not sure about that part, but I know it makes me have visions of playing in a volleyball tournament with one or both of my girls in about 10 years!

Coming Soon: Vertical Mobility

2007-06-08T12:47:00.000-07:00

Like most kids her age, while trying to master the English language, Olivia makes mistakes that crack us up. One that has been making me laugh lately occurs when she is talking about one article of clothing and she calls it clothe. Like, this shirt is my clothe. She realizes that typically you put an "s" at the end of a word to make it plural, but she's still working on understanding the exceptions to that rule.Sophia has been standing a whole lot more lately. She hasn't really taken any steps, yet. She tries, but ends up just leaning and falling over. I think she is very eager to walk so that she can keep up with her sister. I don't think it will be long before she is vertically mobile. She's also discovered how to click her tongue and make fish lips that ends with a smacking noise. She's pretty impressed with herself and the new noises she makes. Olivia and Sophia have been playing very well together. This makes the work of having two young children so close in age feel more worth it. Don't get me wrong, I love my children, but sometimes having two little kids feels exhausting! Now, I can actually type an e-mail, do the dishes, or even take a shower while they play. For the most part, they're pretty careful and don't get into too much trouble together, at least not so far.

Fear Factor, Here She Comes!

2007-05-25T12:41:00.000-07:00

Lately I've really noticed Sophia's personality blossoming. Several people have commented on the mischievous sparkle in her eyes. She seems to be pretty fearless and definitely very physical. We went to the park the other day and she was having a great time going down the slide face first. She climbed the stairs and slid down the slide about 20 times. Yesterday I took both girls swimming for the first time by myself. I was reminded of why, in the past, I didn't think this was a good idea. Sophia was everywhere! She didn't care if the water was up to her nostrils, she wanted to keep going. She went completely under twice. Several people commented on what a handful she is to watch. She even went up to a stranger lying in the water and patted his behind. It was pretty embarrassing. At the same time, it seems like kids of all ages gravitate towards her. I've seen this at Parents' Day Out, and the child care staff at the rec center tell me this, too. I think it might be because she makes everything look like so much fun. She always has a huge grin on her face, and often just burst out laughing. I'll be very curious to see her as a teenager. I think she will continue to keep Yale and I on our toes!

M&M Addiction and Throwing Signs

2007-05-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

I think I've unintentionally passed on my chocolate addiction to my oldest daughter. A friend of mine suggested using M&Ms as a motivator for using the potty. It was a really good suggestion because potty training is going very well. In fact, tonight Olivia went to bed with underpants on. Now, I may think this was a mistake in the morning, but she wanted to do it and her diaper is often dry in the morning, so I thought it was worth a try. Anyway, my friend suggested that I give Olivia one M&M every time she pees in the potty. I tried that, and both Olivia and I thought that one just didn't seem to be enough. So now every time she pees she gets two M&Ms. At first this didn't seem like much at all, but I wasn't considering who I was dealing with. I swear that every time Olivia goes pee, she holds in just a little so that in five minutes she'll have to pee again and will get 2 more of her new favorite treat. The last couple of mornings she's earned 10 M&Ms before 9:00 a.m. This girl either really has to pee a lot or she's scamming me for candy. I guess it doesn't really matter much as long as it's getting her potty trained. I'm proud to announce that Sophia has been doing a new sign. She has been signing for "more", but it's her own version of the actual sign-language sign. She points her finger to the palm of her hand. I've read that it's not unusual for kids to modify the signs. I remember Olivia doing the same thing with a few of the signs. Sophia is also signing more for milk. She had kind of quit signing all together for awhile, so I'm glad she's back on track. Sophia had her one-year check-up a couple of weeks ago. The doctor said she looks healthy and developmentally on track. She's cruising around furniture, she knows at least 3 words (mama, dada, baba, and her 2 signs count, too), she can wave and clap, and she's feeding herself. She's between the 25th and 50th percentile for both weight and height. We've completely switched from formula to whole milk, and we're working on weaning her off of the bottle. We've cut out two bottle feedings, and now she only takes a bottle twice a day. Once she gets better at using a cup, I think it will be fairly easy to wean her off of the last two bottle feeding. She's seems to enjoy eating more finger foods. She really likes cheese, Goldfish crackers, bananas, any kind of cereal, green beans, and peas. I think she'll be a good eater just like her sister.

Potty Training Time!

2007-05-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

WARNING: In the following paragraphs toddler words such as pee, poo, and potty will be used. Readers who are opposed to using childish terms for excrement, urine, and voiding should use discretion.Olivia and I started working on potty training about 6 weeks ago. She started off well, but then put the breaks on after she pooed for the first time in her little potty. She was pretty grossed out by the whole experience, and refused to use the potty again for several weeks. Just the other day she informed me that she wanted to pee in the potty so that she could get her fingernails painted pink. This was an incentive I had used during the first round. Just like an old toilet-trained pro she went directly to her potty and peed. Then I told her if she used the potty two more times, Yale and I would take her and her sister swimming. Knowing this, she became like an athlete training for the Olympics, only her sport was peeing. She quickly reached her goal and was determined to go swimming that moment. It took some explaining for her to understand that, due to circumstances beyond our control, we would have to wait until the next evening for our swimming excursion. Swimming was all that she could talk about. She was so excited she could hardly stand it. She was so excited that when I went to to check on her that night before I went to bed, I found her dresser drawers open, clothes all over the floor, and her sprawled out and sound asleep in her swimming suit. She had dug it out of her bottom drawer and put it on to sleep in it. It was awfully cute.Finally, after 24 hours of talking about swimming, her swimming suit, purple bagels (this is what she calls the purple inner tubes at the rec center), and "swimming by self", we made it to the pool. After floating on the Lazy River with her dad, splashing with her sister, and swimming laps with a green noodle (another flotation device), it was time to go home. Even though she was soaked, shivering, and blue, it only took as far as the locker room before she started asking to go swimming again. I'm sure we will be using swimming again as an incentive for potty training.Sophia seemed to really like the pool, too. She's pretty tricky to manage in the water. If you let her crawl in the shallow end, she zooms every direction, and doesn't seem to care if the water is deep enough to flow into her nostrils. Trying to hold her in deeper water is like trying wrestle a greased bull dog. However, I must say, she looked quite striking in her new lime-green polka-dotted swimming suit that she got from her Aunt Beckie for her birthday!

Today Mommy Gets to be a Pig

2007-04-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

We spent a good part of our day today acting out a scene that I've never seen from an older cartoon version of Charlotte's Web. Olivia likes to pretend that she's Fern and I'm Wilbur (I know, lucky me. I get to be the pig). Anyway, it's a scene where Fern is putting Wilbur to bed with a "nice, cozy blanket." Olivia has obviously watched this scene very carefully because she has every step memorized, including the words of the song that Fern sings, in addition to the parts that she hums. It's pretty funny, but I have to say that after pretending to be a sleeping pig 15 or more times I was pretty relieved when Olivia decided that it was time for Sophia to be Wilbur. Sophia was surprisingly cooperative. She did lie down on the special blue blanket, but she didn't stay there long enough for Olivia to say all her lines. It didn't take long for Olivia to get frustrated with her sister's lack of dedication to acting out the full scene, and she was back to asking me to act like a pig and lie down and go to sleep.

Sophia Turns One

2007-04-23T05:35:00.000-07:00

Sophia celebrated her first birthday over the weekend. Her birthday was actually on Friday, but we waited to celebrate on Saturday. She was excited to get to spend not only her birthday, but several days with her Kaul grandparents. My sister, Beckie, and her family also came over to help us celebrate the big day. Sophia doesn't really understand the whole present opening process, but her big sister was more than willing to help. In fact, I think Olivia was more excited about her sister's birthday than Sophia was. Sophia got a couple of adorable summer outfits, some very cute sunglasses, a little car that she can ride on, a Little People's bus and farm, and a set of musical instruments. I think she will be kept busy for quite some time.Since Yale's parents were here, Yale and I enjoyed our first night away together since Olivia was born. We kept it simple and just stayed in a hotel in downtown Denver. It was nice to be able to have 24 hours worth of conversations with complete sentences, and to just be able to enjoy each other's company. Sophia and Olivia loved having their grandparents here. Sophia clearly is quite attached to her grandpa. It's pretty cute to watch her try to get his attention. Speaking of attention... I think both of the girls will go through attention withdrawal now that their grandparents are gone.

A Doctor is in the House

2007-04-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

Sophia is having no problem climbing stairs now. Even if everyone is downstairs, she'll climb up the stairs just because she can. Whenever she get to the top she crawls a few more steps, and then turns around to flash us a check-me-out-I-made-it-up-the-stairs grin. I have to admit, it makes me kind of nervous. I also know that once she can do it without a problem it will make my life a lot easier. I've been working some on teaching her how to go down the stairs. It will seem like she's getting it, and then she'll start crawling back up the stairs again. I remember Olivia doing the same thing. It's like they are so used to going forward, that if they don't think about what they are doing every second, they just end up going back up the stairs. Sophia has recently earned a new nickname. Yale and I have both started calling her Doctor. She has become very fond of the stethoscope from Olivia's doctor kit. Every time she gets her hands on it, she puts it around her neck and will wear it until someone forces her to take it off. It seems like it would get in the way of her crawling, but she doesn't seem to mind one bit. A couple of Olivia's current funny words:Volleyballey - volleyballdishwish - deliciousice cream bread - ice cream sandwichOlivia has enjoyed singing for quite some time. Recently she started adding a new twist to it. Now she likes to sing the first few words of a song and then she closes her eyes and hums the rest of the song. If her sister starts to cry, she will run over to her, get on her knees and start singing and humming to her. I find that absolutely heart warming.

Ravimama

2007-04-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

Funny Olivia quote of the week:Me: Oli, would you like some ravioli for dinner?Olivia: Mama, are you going to have ravimama?The girls and I went to visit my sister Beckie and her kids yesterday (her husband, Sam, was working all day). Olivia had a grand time! She got to play their piano and stare at her cousin Kylie for hours on end. She even got to put her Aunt Beckie down for a nap. She went through the whole routine. She got Beckie some water and a snack bag, and told that when she woke up, if she went pee in the potty she could have a sticker for her foot. Beckie even got to sleep with Olivia's beloved bunny. Olivia was so committed to her task, that she took a nap without her bunny because she wanted Beckie to have it.As we were leaving and had been in the car about 30 seconds, Olivia said, "I miss Ry (her cousin)." About 2 minutes later, she said, "I miss Ry and Kylie again." Ever since then she's been pretending that she is Kylie, who she says is very pretty. I think that means she likes her cousins.

She's Growing Up

2007-04-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Sophia has been acting more and more like a kid and less and less like a baby. Lately she's taken an interest in attempting to climb the stairs. It drives her crazy when her sister speeds upstairs and leaves her behind. It's especially frustrating to her if I go upstairs for a moment to grab something and she's left downstairs by herself. I'm sure this has been the motivation to learn how to climb the stairs. As a result, she's taken a few spills, but nothing serious. I'm guessing it won't be long before she's ascending our short set of stairs with ease.Phones have also become a favorite of Sophia's. She rests the phone on her shoulder and, pretty convincingly, looks as if she's talking on the phone. You might remember that Olivia took a great interest in phones at a young age. When Olivia starting pretending to talk on the phone, I felt like it was a result of seeing me talk on the phone a lot. I used to feel kind of guilty because it made me think that I spent too much time on the phone, and the truth is that, when given the time, I do have quite a bit of stamina for gabbing on the phone. However, now I don't feel that way because these two girls don't allow much time for me to yap with my friends. Another one of Sophia's steps out of babyhood and into childhood is combing and brushing her own hair. If she ever gets a hold of a brush or a comb , she clearly know it's purpose. Not that she always gets the comb or brush facing the right way and strokes in the correct direction, but she's definitely giving it a good try. Maybe when she's older, she won't despise having her hair combed like her older sister. Maybe she'll even let me style it with cute little bows and hair clips. If I put anything in her hair now, she just tries to eat it. Hopefully that won't always be the case.

Miss Baby America

2007-03-27T06:06:00.000-07:00

Sophia is in that baby stage where she acts a whole lot like a dog. Crawling is the most obvious aspect of this dog stage. Add to that how she carries things in her mouth, such as toys, lids, or anything she finds on the floor that she can fit in her mouth. Eating everything she finds on the floor is also rather dog-like. Especially considering that she will things off of the floor that she wont' eat if I put in on her highchair tray. She even does the breathing thing that kind of reminds me of panting. She lets out these little puffs of air, sometimes several at a time and rhythmically. It's awfully cute. At times she even blows her little bangs up with the puffs. Sophia is also really into crawling over things. It's like she searches to create her own obstacle courses. She will be crawling along and something will be on the floor, like a stuffed bear, and instead of avoiding it, she'll go out of her way to crawl over it. She especially enjoys crawling over my legs or over Yale's body when he's lying on the floor. I'm surprised at how many times she will do this. One day when I was sitting on the floor, I think she crawled over my legs about 50 times. As I'm sure you can imagine, Yale is quite smitten with Sophia. His new nickname for her is Miss Baby America since he thinks she has to be the cutest baby ever.I'm excited to report that Sophia did the sign for milk several times today. She has done this sign, which involves squeezing your hand like your milking a cow, a few times over the past few weeks, but this is the first time I was sure she really knew what she was doing. I think she may have done the sign for sleep, too. It's been a big day for signing!Olivia just woke up and is sitting on my lap as I type. She is pointing out letters on the keyboard and saying things like, "'O' for Olivia, 'S' for Sophia." The other day she surprised me by saying, "Juice starts with 'G'." Although, juice obviously doesn't start 'G', I was impressed with how she got the right sound.

"Oh, no! Mommy's Going to Fall Over, Again!"

2007-03-09T13:20:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago, inspired by the sunny, spring weather, I thought it would be fun to push the girls in the double stroller while I rollerbladed. We drove to a nearby open-space park with a well-kept path. We got off to a tough start because Olivia protested riding in the stroller with her sister. This is a stroller that doubles as a bike trailer, and isn't really designed for comfort. Therefore, when both the girls sit in it, Sophia leans on her sister while pulling her hair and poking her in the face. Understandably, Olivia doesn't care for this. After some coercing, I got both girls buckled into the stroller, and we were off. We had gone about half a mile, when Olivia asked to go down a rather steep hill. My first instinct was to say no. Unfortunately, I didn't stick with that. I thought, I have a brake on my skate... I'm a fairly seasoned skater... I've gone down that hill a gazillion times on my own... Let's give it try. Just as we started down the hill, some people near by were pointing at a coyote that was running in the direction that we were going. So, I'm distracted, wondering if we should be traveling in the direction of a wild coyote, when I feel my skate get caught on something and I can't turn to follow the curve of the path. I didn't realize it at the time, but my skate was caught on the break cable that I usually clip up and out of the way so that it doesn't drag on the ground. For some unknown reason, I forgot to clip it out of the way this time. Because of the hill, we were going just fast enough that I didn't really have time to try to get my skate loose, so instead I tried to veer off the path and onto the grass. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to maintain my balance through all of this and fell and hit the pavement pretty hard while pulling the stroller over with me. I didn't really take the time to think about it I was okay, although I was definitely feeling pain, because I wanted to make sure that the girls were okay. They stayed buckled in, but had fallen on top of each other. They were both crying, but I think it was because they were more scared than hurt. A man was kind enough to run over and make sure we were all okay. After taking off my skates that were covered in mud, I held Sophia to calm her down. Because of the mud, my skates were out of commission and I had to walk about a half mile back to the car in my socks. Olivia decided she wanted to walk most of the way. At one point, as I was walking I bent over to pick something up and Olivia said, "Oh no! Mommy's going to fall over again!" I thought that was pretty funny. After a couple of visits to the chiropractor I'm thinking that in a couple of weeks I'll be ready to try rollerblading with the girls again. I've rollerbladed with each of them separately without any problems, but this was the firstl time I tried it with both of them in the double stroller. I'm hoping that this experience didn't traumatize them so much that they won't want to try again. Next time I plan to make sure the break cable is out of the way and we will stay on level ground.

New Tooth and a Bad Toupee

2007-02-20T13:02:00.000-08:00

Yale and I are very excited about how well Olivia and Sophia have been playing together. I'm surprised at how many different activities Olivia can think of to do with her little sister. THey look at books, chew on things, crawl around, and make faces and funny noises. Often they are both giggling and cracking up and I have no idea why.I'm surprised that Olivia finds these things so entertaining, but I'm definitely happy that they enjoy each other's company. A few days ago we noticed that Sophia's front bottom tooth is finally popping through. As a result she is even more determined to chew on everything in sight: my pant leg, her dad's nose, even her sister's toes. She got her first teething biscuit for Valentine's Day from her teacher at Parent's Day Out (P.D.O.). After I saw how much she loved it, I bought her a box. She can devour one of those things just while we are eating dinner. I guess this surprises me because Olivia was never very interested in them.Olivia's new thing is to put a brown, long-sleeved shirt on her head and call it her hair with pony tails. Last night she wore it to bed, and when I went to check on her, the shirt had slid over her eyes. Kind of like an old man with a bad toupee. Olivia's good friend, Jack, is on vacation, and hasn't been a P.D.O. I was curious about how this would work out and who Olivia would end up hanging out with. After the first day, her teacher informed me that another little boy, Edwardo, had filled in for Jack. I guess they were holding hands and walking and running together. Olivia even told me that when she fell down Edwardo said, "Olivia, are you okay?" I thought that was awfully cute. Olivia's teacher said it was almost like Edwardo was waiting for the opportunity to take Jack's place. I'm not sure what to think about all of this, but her teacher told me she thought I should prepare myself because this could be a sign of what's to come. I'm just glad that Olivia is making friends and enjoying her time at P.D.O.

She's a-crawlin'

2007-02-05T18:01:00.000-08:00

Sophia has finally mastered crawling upon all fours. All that army crawling seems to have helped her develop the skills needed to maneuver on all fours. Now she can get to the electric cords and cat food dishes in about half the time she was doing it about a week ago. She even attempted to crawl up the stairs today. I'm not really ready for that stage, but I guess she's not asking me for my permission.Olivia and Sophia have been playing together quite a bit lately. Olivia recently decided that playing "babies" with Sophia is fun, and it just so happens that Sophia is very good at it. It's kind of nice because Olivia drops the typical bossy-older-sister approach and lets Sophia lead the game. It basically involves Olivia doing whatever Sophia does (since she's the expert on being a baby). Their activities are limited to crawling, making messes, and chewing on things. P.S. Olivia turned 2.5 today!

Paci Free!!

2007-01-31T12:36:00.000-08:00

Olivia has officially given up her first addiction: her pacifier. About a week ago I bought her a stuffed sheep that she has wanted for a very long time. It's similar to one her sister has. I hung it up high in her room and told her that when she was ready to give up her pacifier she could have the sheep. Two days ago, for no apparent reason, she decided she was ready. She even threw the paci away herself. It was a proud moment. Surprisingly, she has slept well the past two nights, but nap time has been rough. Yesterday, I spent on hour and a half trying to get her to take a nap. It was definitely a challenging power struggle that was not fun, but I knew if I didn't do it then, I'd be doing it at 10:00 that night. Hopefully it will only get easier. I've been experimenting with feeding Sophia finger foods (peas, small pieces of a pear, scrambled eggs, etc.). The only one she really seems to like is Cheerios. She doesn't even like bananas; I thought all kids liked bananas. It's kind of funny to me because she will put ANYTHING from the floor in her mouth, but won't eat the food I give her. I'm tempted to "accidentally" drop some of these foods on the floor and see what happens. Olivia's recent passion is dancing. This activity requires a special dancing suit which can be one of her sun dresses or one of my camisoles, and some plastic toys which are her "flowers". I'm always surprised that she doesn't get cold because she refuses to wear anything else with her dress, including socks or shoes. Anyway... she will turn on the CD player in her room and spend a large part of the day twirling, jumping, bouncing, and shimmying about. She especially loves it if Yale or I will dance with her. I'm really glad there aren't any big windows in her room because this is quite a sight.

I'm a Woman!

2007-01-27T20:18:00.000-08:00

Sophia had her 9-month check up. The doctor says she looks good. She's 18 pounds and 1 ounce and 27 inches long, which puts her in about the 50th percentile for both height and weight. She didn't have to get any shots at this appointment, which we were all happy about. I would say she was quite charming with the doctor. She was smiley and easy to examine. Then again, how could you not find her irresistible when she's sitting in just a diaper with that adorable Buddha belly and those roly-poly thighs?Yale recently discovered that if you ask Olivia if she's a girl, she says, "No, I'm a woman." Now, that's my kind of attitude!Olivia seems to have made a friend at the parents' day out program. His name is Jack, and because there are two Jacks in her class everyone calls him Jack R. I think he's absolutely adorable. He has big brown eyes and these cute little glasses. I've spent a little bit of time with him, and, so far, I'm thrilled Olivia has picked him as a friend. He is friendly and gentle. He's kind of quiet, but if you start up a conversation with him, he has a lot to say. Geez, I sound like a school girl with a bit of a crush. I'm just trying to make the point that he seems like a nice kid. Last week when Olivia had just gotten to class, Jack walked up to her and tried to give her a hug. I thought it was very sweet, but I think Olivia thought it was too soon in their relationship for hugging and gave him a stiff arm. Now, when she gets to class he just comes up to her and wants to play. Olivia's teachers report that they are inseparable and play together every chance they get. All of this has lead me to do something uncharacteristic. Even though I've never even said hello to Jack's mom, I'm going to ask her if she and Jack would like to come to our house for a play date. Bold, I know. I see it as a chance for me to get to know someone with whom I have some things in common. She lives in the area. She's about my age, and has a child the same age as Olivia, and apparently doesn't work full time. Geez, now I sound like I'm going to ask her out on a date. Also, it's a way for Olivia to spend more time with her new friend. I know, it's not that big of a deal, but I have to admit I'm a little nervous. I'll let you know how it goes.

Those Kids Will Crack You Up

2007-01-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

Funny Recent Happenings at the Golter-Kaul Household:Olivia shouted, "Oh no, I dropped my moustache!"I found a pea in Sophia's bellybutton.Olivia stated, "I've got to get my dad out of jail!"While I was combing Olivia's hair, she said, "I've got lots of rectangles in my hair." (Rectangles instead of tangles; get it?)

O & So

2007-01-06T10:12:00.000-08:00

Olivia's recent passion is watching "Country Mouse and City Mouse" videos (which she calls "Crunchy Mouse"). She spends much of her day pretending she is Jeanie, a guest character in one of the episodes. I'm happy to report that Jeanie is a brave little girl who rescues her dad from jail. For some reason there are only two scenes that Olivia likes to act out. The first is when Jeanie is on her knees, covering her face, and crying. The other involves Jeanie falling down and saying "Ouch!". Who knows, maybe there is an acting career on Miss O's horizon.Sophia continues to be on the verge of crawling. She is getting better at lifting herself onto all fours and rocking back and forth, and she uses her arms to drag the rest of her body across the floor. She's also mastered waving and clapping, but only when she's in the mood. She's graduated to sitting in a highchair for the 3 meals she eats each day. Our youngest has recently pushed us to be better house keepers. We've realized we need to vacuum quite often because Sophia's now able to pick up very small things and, of course, they go straight into her mouth. The other days she spit up part of one of those small plastic thingies that holds the price tag on new clothes. I think we were lucky she spit it up without any damage being done.

Phia's First Christmas

2006-12-26T12:33:00.000-08:00

I think, if Sophia could talk, she would report having a great first Christmas. She got to enjoy it with some of her favorite people. Christmas Eve was spent with her friend Quinn Budddington and his family. Christmas morning she wallowed in the attention from the Kaul grandparents, and that afternoon she was entertained by my sister Beckie's family. She managed to get lots of great presents: clothes, toys, a book, and ornaments. She even got to try her first finger foods, including Cheerios and a sliced banana. Without a doubt, Olivia definitely had fun celebrating Christmas this year. This is the first year she got really excited about presents, although she still doesn't like to open them without assistance. Yale and I got her a wooden kitchen with an oven, stove, a cupboard, sink and cooking utensils. She also got pots, pans, and dishes from both sets of grandparents. I think it's easy to say she is in toddler heaven. A keyboard from her Grandma and Grandpa Kaul has her singing and performing several times a day. I've already gotten a couple dozen shots and heart examinations with the doctor kit she got from Beckie's family. We're hoping these new toys will keep her occupied and satiesfied at least until Parents' Day Out starts up again, which won't be until the second week in January. We may be asking for too much.Sophia has been getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. We're convinced she'll be crawling very soon. I think she's even waved a couple of times. Either that, or she is doing the sign for milk, which is open and closing a fist like your milking a cow (funny, huh). I've been showing her the sign for milk about a month now. I would be very excited if she's attempting to do it already.

Croup and Crap

2006-12-11T05:51:00.000-08:00

My days and nights for the past week have by filled with caring for two sick kids. Olivia has croup, but finally seems to be on the mend. Poor Sophia has the stomach flu or something of the sort. I feel like I've been up to my armpits in diarrhea for days. I will spare you anymore of the disgusting details. Let me just say that it feels like our house is teeming with germs. I will be really surprised if we all don't end up puking and pooping before the week is over.Last week I took Olivia to the doctor to see if they could do anything for her cough, which, by the way, they did. They gave her a steroid to help reduce the inflammation in her airway. Anyway... since then she's been pretending she's a doctor. She wants us to put Sophia in her swing so that she can examine her little sister. Then she decided that it was high time that I get a check-up. She used Sophia's monitor to listen to my heart and vacuum my arm (I know, she kind of lost track of the medical part of the exam). After she had thoroughly checked me out, she looked at me with complete seriousness and said, "Mom, you need to get a job." Now, I don't know if this is because she thinks I need to get out more, or if she needs me to get out more, but I found this diagnosis quite funny. Out of the mouths of babes...

Gimme Those Boots!

2006-12-04T06:28:00.000-08:00

Olivia's funny saying of the day:"Whacha fink, huh?"I think our dear friend Susan says this to her when she's asking Olivia what she wants to do. Of course, when Susan says it, it sounds more like, "What do you think, huh?"Sophia really has really figured out how to best use rolling as a way to get around. Yesterday, while Yale and I were in the kitchen and she was laying on the floor in the living room, she managed to roll across the floor, around a recliner, change directions to avoid a wall, and change directions again to get to her sister soaking wet snow boots. I found her laying on her belly on the cold tile floor sucking on a boot. I know... Gross! I'm not sure what's so intriguing to her about those boots, but she goes after them often.We went out to dinner the other night with some friends, and on the way home Olivia was singing and making noises to try to stay awake. For some reason this was really funny to Sophia. She started cracking up and it didn't stop until we got home. She even kept laughing after her sister stopped making noise and was quiet. I have to say, one of my greatest pleasures as a parent is hearing my kids laugh uncontrollably .

"RIGHT NOW!" says Baby Bear

2006-11-27T14:10:00.000-08:00

A day in the life of a stay-at-home mom:After lunch today I found myself waving silk flowers in the air with a red scarf tied to my belt for my "tail" and wearing a pink-striped bib. I had to think to myself, "Is this why I got a master's degree?" Olivia seems to think that if she adds the words "right now" to her demands it means she's going to get her way. For example, the other day she told me she wanted eggs for breakfast. While I was cooking the scrambled eggs, in her two-year-old way of thinking, she said, "NO EGGS! NO EGGS, RIGHT NOW!"I calmly told her that it's not okay to yell at me, and that behavior will earn her a time out. I also told her that her eggs were done and they're on the table, if she decides she's hungry. About 30 seconds later, she was sitting at the table, gobbling up her eggs. I don't think I'll ever completely understand the thought process of a two-year-old.Olivia went through a long stage after Sophia was born of pretending she was a baby. She would tell us exactly what she wanted us to say to her to play along with the game. "Read books, baby. Baby's going to take a bath. Baby is very very hungry." This has recently changed to Olivia requiring us to end every sentence we say to her with "Baby Bear". For example, "It's time for dinner, Baby Bear." We recently checked out a book from the library about a baby bear getting a new baby brother and sister. I guess she could relate to this bear's experience. Or maybe she just thought the bear was cute. Sophia is really getting into taking baths. She absolutely loves to splash. If she's laying on her back, she's bucking and kicking, trying to make the biggest waves possible. If she's sitting, she's waving her arms trying to splash her sister and me. She loves the water so much, she cries when I take her out of the tub. Sophia's favoirite toy these days is a set of metal measuring spoons. She gets really excited, squealing and squirming, if you hold them up so she can see them. Usually Sophia is so enthralled with Olivia that she'll let her sister yank any old toy out of her hands. This does not apply to the measuring spoons. I can be at the opposite end of the house and know when Olivia has taken her sister's treasured spoons.

No Screamy Scream

2006-11-17T16:08:00.000-08:00

Miss Sophia is busier than ever. She is ready to be moving around. She rolls several feet across the floor, and will change directions multiple times. She's got to be the squirmiest baby I've ever encountered, especially when it comes to giving her a bottle and changing her diaper. She's so wiggly during diaper changes that poop ends up everywhere; in between her toes, all over my clothes, on her legs. It's pretty gross. Yale and I have both given up trying to hold while feeding her a bottle. We have to lay her on a pillow or on the floor to give her room to roll and flail. Needless to say, milk ends up all over her face, but it's far easier than trying to hold her still on our laps. Sophia has started babbling. She says "bababa" and "mamama". I'm pretty surprised about the "ma" sounds because I thought that usually came later in the babbling stage. Maybe Sophia will say "mama" before she says "dada". I would kind of like that because it took Olivia forever to say "mama". Lately, Olivia especially enjoys pretending that we're riding in a car. She's driving and I'm sitting in the backseat in her car seat. She likes it when I scream and throw a fit about being strapped in the car seat. It's pretty funny to see how she reacts. Sometimes she tells me I have to be strapped in because, "It's kinda cold." If I really throw a fit, she'll wag her finger at me saying, "No screamy scream!" Every time Grandma Golter comes over, Olivia asks if they can go sit in her car. Sometimes they're out there for almost an hour pretending to drive around. I don't know who gets a bigger kick out it, Olivia or Grandma. Yale and I have been really surprised at how well Olivia knows and can identify letters. I would guess she knows about 80% of the alphabet. Now that's with her magnetic letter set. It's probably lower with letters in print, but she's knows quite a few of those. Yale and I were recently talking and wondering if this is a typical age to learn the letters. I know when I was a Reading Specialist, there were often Kindergartners who coudln't identify all of the alphabet, but I don't think this is the norm. Of course, as proud parents, we think she must be a genius. :)

6 Month Check Up

2006-11-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

Sophia recently had her 6 month check up. She weighs 15 pounds and 5 ounces, which puts her in the 45th percentile. I'm kind of surprised that she is below the average weight because she seems pretty chunky to me, but I think that is partly because Olivia was pretty tiny at this stage. Sophia is in the 50th percentile for height, and is 25 and 3/8 inches long. She did pretty well this time with all of the shots, however it seemed to take a few days before she was completely back to normal. Sophia is now easily rolling over both ways, but definitely prefers to be on her stomach. Trying to get a diaper on her has become very challenging because of this. She's had an awful diaper rash the past several days. She gotten several huge blisters. It looks terribly painful. I mix Balmex and Mylanta to use as a diaper cream, which works quite well. It's pretty runny and messy, especially when you're trying to put it on a squirming, determined baby that refuses to stay on her back. I've been trying to leave her diaper off a couple of times a day to help the rash. I expect her to pee every once in awhile, which is okay because it's not hard to clean up. But the other day while I left the room for about 3 minutes, she managed to poop, roll through it, and poop again and roll through it. It was a disgusting mess. Poop was everywhere! It was between Sophia's toes, all over the floor of course, on toys, on her clothes, and all over her legs. Olivia came in while I was cleaning it up, and decided to leave the room and shut the door on the way out. I thought that was a pretty smart move. I've been surprised at how much Sophia eats. Introducing her to solid food has been a breeze. She gobbles up everything we've fed her so far. Her menu choices currently includes carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, peaches, pears and apples. I'm happy to report that since we've started feeding her solid food twice a day, she's been sleeping 7-9 hours. Whoopee! That makes a mama happy. We seem to have gotten our delightful daughter,Olivia, back. The worst of the Terrible Twos have subsided for now, which is a huge relief. We've been experimenting with some Love and Logic strategies, which seems to have made a big difference. This is a parenting approach that focuses on empathy and consequences rather than anger and discipline. For example, we went out to eat a couple of weeks ago and Olivia started screaming and throwing ravioli. Rather than getting mad at her, I scooped her up and quietly said, "Oh how sad for you. Instead of getting to eat dinner in this fun restaurant, you have to go sit in your car seat. What a bummer!" I stood out in the rain while she was strapped in her car seat, and we waited for Yale to pay the bill and get our food boxed up. I made sure Olivia could see me so she wouldn't think that I'd abandoned her, but I also didn't want to sit in the car and listen to her scream. Instead of letting her know that we were disappointed that we didn't get to stay and enjoy our dinner, we focused on how sad it was for her to have to leave. We've haven't attempted to eat out again to know how well this worked, but this approach has made a big difference in other daily events, such as eating, getting dressed, putting on her coat, etc. Sure, she still has the occasional tantrum, but it's happening once every 3 days instead of 3 before 9 a.m. Olivia's funny word of the week: Ovendare (this is what she says for underwear)

Terrifying Twos

2006-10-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

Olivia seems to have decided that she's going to make the most of being two. She is fulfilling the expectation of a two-year-old being spirited, tenacious, and strong-willed, and that's my kind way of explaining it. The other day she caught me completely off guard and scared the living-day-lights out of me. We were driving on I-70 at about 70 miles an hour. She was having a full-on I'm-going-to-scream-until -one-of -us-passes-out tantrums when somehow she wiggled free from the top straps of her car seat. At this point she thought opening the back door would be a good idea. The doors were of course locked, but if you pull on the handle twice the door will open. And this is exactly what she did while we were speeding down the highway. I about died. Of course there was no shoulder to pull over onto, so I had to reach back and try to hold the door closed while still trying to drive. Then this determined little one started grabbing at my hand to pull it off while simultaneously trying to push the door open wider. I'm screaming like I've never screamed before, and Olivia is screaming right back at me. It was unbelievably terrifying. I finally found enough space to pull over, but I didn't really know what to do. I didn't want to get out of the car because it was getting dark and cars were flying by us. So I told her NEVER to open the door, and if she did she would get a time-out. A time-out seems like such a wimpy response, but I didn't know what else to say. In shock, I drove home. Once I got home and calmed down a bit, Yale and I realized that we can set the locks so that someone sitting in the back seat cannot open the doors when they're locked. I've also been pulling Olivia's car seat straps super tight. She hates it, but I see no other alternative. Boy, do I ever hope this is a stage!!!!

Scrubbidy Dubbidy Doooo!

2006-10-13T09:13:00.000-07:00

I just got done giving Sophia a bath. We've graduated from using the plastic baby bathtub to just laying her down in the regular bathtub. I think she enjoys getting a bath, but she tends to get real stiff once she gets in the water. She straightens and extends her legs. This makes it very hard to get all of those leg rolls clean because the skin is all squished together. It takes some work to get her to relax enough so that I can get all of those folds of skin clean. Often people comment on what a happy baby she is. This is true. She smiles easily and is very laid back. The only thing that seems to bother her is if she's really hungry or when she's teething, which she seems to be doing a lot lately. Fortunately, we found these little homeopathic teething tablets that really seem to help. We put two under her tongue, and she conks out soon after. With all the teething she's been doing, it seems like we should be seeing a tooth soon.It looks like the breast feeding days are coming to an end. I've had to supplement Sophia's feedings with formula ever since she was born, but within the past couple of weeks I haven't been able to keep up with her. It got to the point where I would breast feed her, and then right after she would drink 3-5 ounces from a bottle. Now, I'm breast feeding her about twice a day, and I don't expect that to last too much longer. I've always struggled with producing enough milk. I have to really stay on top of it with pumping after I breast feed (even if nothing comes out) to keep up my supply, and with 2 kids I just don't have the time to do that, so I'm not surprised that my supply has dropped off. I'm sad to see the breast feeding days come to an end with Sophia because it's a time of such closeness and I know it's good for her. At the same time, I'm happy to not have to worry hurrying home to feed her, leaking in public, using a breast pump, and wearing goofy bras.

The Terrific Twos

2006-10-06T13:32:00.000-07:00

Reasons why they call it the Terrible Twos:Scene OneOlivia: (whining) Want cheese! Cheeese!!Mom: Okay. Hang on. (1 minute later after cutting a slice of cheese)Here you go, Sweetie. Here's some cheese.Olivia: (grabs cheese, throws it and yells) No cheese! No like cheese!Scene TwoOlivia: (whining) Hug! Hug!Mom: Okay. Let me put Sophia down. (Mom picks up and hugs Olivia)Olivia: No hug! Want down! No hugs!Scene 3Olivia: (whining) Poopy! Poopy diaper!!!Mom: Oh. Let's go change your diaper. (picking up Olivia)Olivia: (screaming and squirming to get free) No diaper! No diaper! Diaper dry! No poopy!Now, don't get me wrong. Olivia is a great kid. Both our children, overall, have been very easy. Some people don't even believe me when I tell them that, at times, Olivia can be very challenging because she's so well behaved with others, but it's true. Sometimes she really puts Yale and I through the ringer. I guess it's just part of being 2. To me, it seems like she's hormonal, but her doctor says she's not (Yes, I asked the doctor if 2-year-olds have hormonal surges that affect them emotionally). She has such extreme mood swings that she reminds me of me when I was pregnant. One minute she's running across the room to give me an unsolicited hug, and the next minute, for no apparent reason, she's hollering at me like I'm the devil. I guess this is where the psychological challenges of parenting begins. On a more positive note...Olivia has started to become more interested in letters. Her favorite letter at the moment is R. She can also identify Q, A, H, P and sometimes K. I get a kick out of it when we're out and about and she says, "That's R". Her interest in letters took off when Grandma and Grandpa Kaul gave her these magnetic letters that you put in this little box-shaped doohickey and the doohickey sings a little song to go with the letter. Like for R it sings, "R. R says rrr. Every letter makes a sound, and R says rrrr." As you can imagine, Yale and I sing that song in our sleep, but she loves it so it's worth it. She even has this little twirling dance that she does when she hears the song. Sophia continues to melt our hearts. She is really quite adorable. I'm sad to report that her hair is no longer dark, like mine. Instead it is quite blond and very cute. We got the girls' pictures taken at Sears recently. Sophia's turned out so cute. There's one with her in just a diaper, kicking up her legs. It really captures all of her adorable chub rolls, which as I say every time, I absolutely love! She's not the super sleeper she used to be. She is now sleeping in the crib (Yes, that means Olivia has formally graduated to a big bed. Yea!). She seems to be having a hard time getting used to it because when she rolls over she either hits her head on the bars or her leg or arm gets stuck between the bars. We don't have a crib bumper because the SIDS people say they can be dangerous, but I recently ordered a "breathable" bumper that is supposed to be safe. Hopefully that will help us all get more sleep!

Deflated

2006-09-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

Today, for the very first time, Olivia said, "I love you," to a bus.

One to Remember

2006-09-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

Today Olivia told me she loved me for the very first time.

Proud Peacock Mama

2006-09-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

Olivia and Sophia have both been getting a lot of grandparent time lately. My mom has come a few times in the past couple of weeks to watch the girls while I wrote curriculum for a small contract job I was working on. Olivia talked my mom into letting her "drive" my mom's car. This is one of Olivia's favorite pastimes these days. My mom said she really got a kick out of pushing the buttons on the car key to open the trunk and unlock and lock the doors. That is until she set off the car alarm, which startled everyone and even made Sophia cry. We're all getting spoiled with Grandma Golter's regular visits, plus she often brings some yummy baked treats. Last week Yale's parents came to visit. Olivia got quite attached to Grandma Kaul when she came to help after Sophia was born, and this time Olivia seemed to really bond with her grandpa. We were all going out to eat, but had to take separate cars. During the ride to the restaurant Olivia asked where Grandpa was, we told her he was in his own car. She said, "Missed it," which is her way of saying that she missed him. Those few words said a lot.Grandma Kaul was kind enough to help with feeding Sophia cereal. We started feeding her cereal only a few days before the grandparents came to visit, so it was a pretty new experience for Sophia. Grandma was very patient with getting her to eat even though each spoonful takes about 3 tries and cereal ends up in Sophia's hair and eyelashes because she tries to grab the spoon. We celebrated Yale's 35th birthday while his parents were here. Not only were they kind enough to watch the girls while we enjoyed a rare dinner out, but they also gave him a new, fancy, sleek digital camera. I think you can expect to see a lot more photos on the website; Yale is very excited about experimenting with his new toy. Olivia started a new class last week at the Parents' Day Out program she attends twice a week. She moved up to the toddler room. Most of the kids are around 2 years old, and there are twice as many kids in this class. They get to go outside and play on the big playground, which is very exciting. She seems to like going there. She always goes straight for the kitchen area as soon as we get there. The teachers have given her some wonderful compliments. They say she's very good about cleaning up, follows the rules, plays well with others, and keeps herself entertained. They also said she is one of the few that doesn't start crying when everyone else is crying. As you can imagine, I puffed up like a proud peacock mama when I heard all of that.Sophia continues to charm us with her contagious smile. She has this cute little beginners laugh. It's kind of like when I first started playing the piano as a kid: you could tell I was playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb," but the notes were delayed and the song was kind of stretched out. I'm sad that the warm weather is coming to an end because now I have to cover up her adorable, roly-poly thighs. I've so enjoyed showcasing them in little skirts and baby shorts.Sophia got her first haircut last night. Her hair has been growing in stages, and one of the stages has gotten to be pretty long, while the rest of her hair is on the shorter side. So we just trimmed it around the ears and snipped some of the longer hairs in the back. This is all in preparation for an appointment at the Sears Photo Studio on Sunday. Yale has been teasing me because I've had such a difficult time deciding what the girls should wear. I had gotten them matching sundresses, but I don't think that's going to work. I'm very sad about it because I had these visions of having my girls dressed identically, at least for a photo, but despite my meager sewing efforts, Sophia's dress still doesn't fit her. I had to accept that when I put it on her after I had shortened the straps and the front of the dress went over her mouth and touched her nose. Bummer. It's also supposed to be quite chilly here on Sunday. At this point, I know they are both going to wear pink, but that's all I know.Okay, I know I've had a lot to say, but one more story...The other day after Yale had gotten home from work, he was laying on the floor and Olivia was pretending to put him to bed. First she got him his bunny and pacifier (both invisible), then she patted his head and told him to close his eyes. The next part is what got us both choked up. She sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to him, twice! We've heard her sing parts of it, but we've never heard her sing it so completely. Now, don't get me wrong, there were still a few words missing and a few words blended together to create a new, unknown word. Still, it was such a sweet gesture and she sang it in all seriousness. I wish I would have video taped it. It was definitely something I would like to remember forever.

Oh, Is There a Doctor in the Room?

2006-08-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

Last week I took both girls in for their scheduled check-ups; Olivia for her two-year, and Sophia for her 4 month. I'm not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to take both of them at the same time; it was pretty challenging trying to keep them both happy for a double appointment. The doctor asked Olivia a bunch of questions, and Olivia acted like she and I were the only two people in the room. I would think it's pretty common that two-year-olds don't answer doctors when they ask, "What color is the butterfly?" or, "Where are your eyes?" The most Olivia would do was point to my eyes with her foot. I still felt a little silly trying to convince the doctor that she knows most colors and can identify her body parts; I felt like I needed to say something. Olivia has never been much for answering or entertaining on command, so I'm guessing I have many years ahead of me where I'll feel like I'm trying to explain that my daughter knows more than she's indicating.Sophia had to get the dreaded 4 shots in the thigh, which, as I've said before, I despise. It seems so mean when they're completely relaxed and innocently grinning at the physicians assistant, then BLAMMO!, they get stabbed 4 times without warning. Sophia definitely put those lungs to work and let me know how she felt about the whole thing. Both girls got weighed and measured. Sophia is 13 lbs and 6.5 ounces, and 24 inches long. That puts her in the 50th percentile for both weight and height. Olivia continues to be on the smaller side. She is in the 30th percentile for height and 20th for weight.

Ahh, Her First Hickey!

2006-08-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

This week us girls are on our own; Yale is in Switzerland for work. So far it's going okay. Last night I almost quit and walked out because both kids were screaming I couldn't figure out why. Luckily, I was able to regain composure and get the troops back in order. I have some help scheduled for later in the week, so that will make a big difference.Sophia has started rolling over from front to back. I haven't checked yet, but I think this is quite a bit earlier than Olivia accomplished this same task. The other day she rolled over and discovered she could suck on her arm. I guess she was really hungry because she sucked so hardh she gave herself a hickey that is still visible 3 days later. You have to watch her, when she gets hungry she doesn't mess around.

Pan Helmet

2006-08-08T12:33:00.000-07:00

One of Olivia's favorite things to do is bounce on the bed with Yale's assistance. He bounces her really high in the air and flips her over. She loves it. Because Sophia just has to tag along with whatever we're doing, she was on the bed last night while Yale was "bouncing" Olivia. Yale decided that Sophia needed to join in on the fun. So he held her horizontally and "bounced" her on the bed. I wasn't there for this, but Yale says she was really cracking up. I've noticed that she was close to laughing, but this is the first time that she really let loose. I wish I could have been there. Today I keep doing things to try to get her to laugh, but it's just not happening.Olivia's funny quote for the day: She put a pan on her head and said, "Hat, motorcycle." I thought it was observant of her to notice what people riding motorcycles wear on their heads. True, it's not a pan, but you get the idea.

Happy Birthday, Little O!

2006-08-08T05:36:00.000-07:00

Today is Olivia's 2nd birthday. I thought it might be nice for her when she's older to be able to read about what she was like when she turned two. Favorites:*Color: seems to be purple*Stuffed animal: bunny (half blanket, half stuffed rabbit)*Food: blueberries*TV shows: Boobahs, Teletubbies,and Sesame Street*Books: Piggies, anything with Elmo*Friends: Nate, Zaza*Song: "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"*Things to do: Go to the park, go swimming with your dad, and ride on a "purple bagel".What Makes You Unique:You have a funny sense of humor. The other day you came down stairs with the potty chair pot on your head saying "Splish, splash, I was take-un da bath".You are very caring and nurturing. Yesterday, when Nate's baby brother Quinn was crying you went to check on him and patted him on the head trying to help him feel better. You often do this with your sister, too. It seems to upset you if she's crying. You'll give her a toy or say in your most caring voice, "Oh, what's wong, Phia?You love to take naps and ask for them often. This seems pretty unusual for a kid your age. People are often impressed that you know that you need sleep.You have a great imagination. You started pretending several months ago, which seems young to me. You like act out scenes that have actually happened, like waking up from a bad dream or having to take a time out. You also pretend that everything is a phone. I've seen you use a postcard, the snap on your shirt, and the flag on a toy mailbox as a phone. It's very James Bond.You LOVE books. Books keep your interest for a very long time. We check out gobs of books from the library. I think we both have every board book in the Lakewood Library memorized. We recently checked out a book about different trucks used for construction. You know the name of almost every truck and tool in the book, like tamper, crane with clamshell bucket, and bulldozer.Yesterday you counted to 10 for the first time. You started counting the snaps of your shirt and then just kept going.Some of your newer, more impressive words: different, backwardsThings you say that are funny: You often tell me to have a good weekend. If Sophia is sleeping you'll say in a quiet voice, "SSHH, Phia sleepeem," and then walk up to her crib and look at her saying a in very loud voice, "Yep, sleepeem!" The other day you came to say hi to me in the bathroom. You had been in there for about 5 minutes, when you all of a sudden said, "OOHH NOOO!! Diapers mess!!!!" When I went in your room I saw that you had scattered about 25 diapers all over your room.Words that crack you up: cranky (even if you're really cranky) and noody (a word that your friend Nate uses for nude).

Rolls of Chub

2006-07-30T12:20:00.000-07:00

One thing that I absolutely love about Sophia is her chubby rolls. I've always loved chunky babies, and I would say that Sophia qualifies as one of them. She has those adorable fat rolls on her thighs, several chins, and she's even starting to develop rolls around her wrists. It's kind of funny to me how fat is so cute on babies, but not so attractive on other folks. One of the challenges of having a baby with all of these rolls is keeping them clean. It's pretty amazing the goo that gets stuck in there. Milk drips down her neck, and if its not thoroughly cleaned, can quickly start to stink. We've realized we need to bathe her often so that she doesn't start to smell like a lunchroom trash can. Anyway, I really don't mind the cleaning or the smell; I find those little rolls of chub unquestionably irresistible!

Baby Research Subject

2006-07-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

Olivia's funny quote of the week: While taking off her shoes, she said, "Oooh, stinky diaper feet!"Another funny thing Olivia has been saying lately takes place when she wants us to turn on the radio. She says, "Yucas on." This means "Music on." I'm not quite sure why she substitutes a y for the m, or reverses the last two consonants. Sophia has been participating in a research study for bi-polar and schizophrenia. After she was born, I got a letter in the mail asking if I was interested in having her participate in this study. It sounded kind of interesting, and they pay me $30 each time I go. The pay averages out to about $20 an hour, which is pretty good for an unemployed lady like me. Anyway, most of the study is done while she's asleep. They put 7 electrodes on her face and head, and then I'm supposed to figure out how to get her to sleep. Not only do I have to get her to sleep, but I'm supposed to keep her asleep for more than 30 minutes. They need 15 minutes of REM time, and I understand it takes at least 15 minutes to get to the REM stage. The first time we tried we didn't quite make it. She only slept for about 20 minutes. Part of the problem is that I'm holding her. We got all sweaty. I have a hard time sitting still that long, and because she falls asleep so easily I rarely hold her while she sleeps. We've had 3 appointments so far, and tomorrow is our last one until she's 6 months old. The next sessions are at 12 months and 18 months. I'd try to explain what they're trying to determine with the study, but I'm afraid I wouldn't do a very good job. It has to do with trying to determine if an infant is likely to end up with schizophrenia or bi-polar as an adult.I'm glad we're doing it, but I'm also glad we only have a few more sessions left. At least this gives me something to talk about at parties since I don't have any work stories to tell. People don't usually want to hear about how many diapers I changed that day, or how hard I had to scrub to get the dried up applesauce off of the chair leg.

Roll On Over

2006-07-20T18:07:00.000-07:00

New Alert: Sophia rolled over for the first time today, the same day that she turned 3 months old!!

Keeping It Cool

2006-07-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know it, Yale hates the heat, and that's an understatement. Earlier in the summer when our thermostat read 70 degrees, he informed me that he wouldn't be able to do anything all day because he was suffering from heat stroke. Now I will say that he does seem to have a much higher body temperature than me, but heat stroke at 70 degrees??? Anyway, on days when it's really hot we are often trying to find activities that we can do that will put us in an air-conditioned or cooler environment. This past Sunday, we decided to take both kids swimming. Olivia is a big fan of our local rec center. She loves to ride in the inner tubes (which she calls purple bagels). This was Sophia's first time in a pool. I can't say that she seemed to love it, but she didn't seem to hate it either. After swimming we went to the mall to get something to eat, where you could find every other Denver-West suburbanite who doesn't have air-conditioning. Olivia was dying to have some ice cream, so I waited in line at Dairy Queen for 20 minutes only to be waited on by an extremely grumpy DQ worker and to find out that they were out of Reese's, while Yale try to manage ready-for-a-nap Olivia and way-past-hungry Sophia. I don't think we'll be rushing back to the mall anytime soon.Intently watching her hands and feet move has become Sophia's favorite pastime. It's funny how fascinating that is to babies. It's also pretty interesting that it takes them 3 months to discover that these limbs waving in front of them belong to them, and that they have control of them (at least somewhat).I'm beginning to notice an unfortunate pattern with our two children. When one doesn't sleep, neither does the other one. Last week when Olivia was sick and not sleeping, Sophia quit sleeping through the night. Then when Olivia felt better and slept better so did Sophia. Last night Olivia woke up at midnight and 2:00 wanting a snack and to read books. Sophia woke up at 12:30 and 4:00 also wanting to eat. I guess part of being a mom is just accepting that a good night's sleep is rare.

Healthy Toddler and Happy Baby

2006-07-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to report that Olivia seems to be recovering from being sick for the past few days. She had what I thought was a pretty high fever. The doctor told me that 101.9 is considered low-grade, but the blue lips, chills, and hallucinations accompanying it didn't seem low-grade to me. Because she wasn't demonstrating any other symptoms and had had the fever for 2 days, the doctor checked for signs of strep, ear infection, and a bladder infection. Checking for the first two were easy, but testing for a bladder infection was not. Because the process needs to be sterile a catheter had to be used. This was one of those moments when being a mom sucked! I hated being the one to hold her down and to see her so scared and hurt. It's no wonder kids can get so angry at their mothers. We're the ones that are right there when all of these rotten procedures are performed. Anyway, it turned out that Olivia didn't have any of the infections that the doctor was looking for. Now that she seems to be feeling better I guess it was just a virus. It's good to have our bright-eyed, giggly girl back in action.Sophia will be 3 months old a week from today. She is at a stage that if I could make it last, maybe not forever, but for a very long time, I would. I'm amazed at how easy she is. She's very laid back and smiles all of the time. When I'm feeding her early in the morning in a groggy fog and she stops eating to give me an ear-to-ear smile that lights up my heart, I think everyone should have a chance to see it. Then I have to remind myself that rarely do other people find your kids as wonderful as you do. But, it really is a great smile. I'm also amazed at how easy Sophia is to get to sleep. At night I just swaddle her, put her in her basinet, and turn on the vibration setting that puts her right to sleep. I never have to rock or walk around with her. And, then of course, I'm completely thrilled by how well and how long she sleeps. We have been very lucky to have two very easy babies.

WHAT A SLEEPER!

2006-07-05T12:32:00.000-07:00

Sophia has slept through the night 2 nights in a row! She slept 9 hours last night! Wowee!!!

Those Rotten Shots!

2006-06-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

At Sophia's 2 month check-up appointment last week I found out that she weighs 11 pounds 4 ounces and is 21.75 inches long. This puts her in the 60th percentile for weight and the 25th for length. I have to say that I think her length measurement is off; I think she's longer than that. The nurses say that it's hard to get the correct measurement because it's difficult to get infants to stretch out to their full length. I was pleased with Sophia's weight gain. This means I can let her sleep as long as she wants at night and not have to feel like I should be waking her up to feed her. She continues to be a great sleeper, sleeping 6-7 hours at night. I was always jealous of those moms who had babies that slept that long, and now I am one! Yeah!As usual the bad part of the appointment was the shots. She had to get four, two in each thigh. Boy, did she scream! I hate those shots because the babies have no idea it's coming or why you're hurting them. Sophia even bled through the band aid and all over my shirt. I don't remember Olivia bleeding at all. Sophia was a trooper and only cried for a few minutes. Not until after her nap did she get fussy, and then she really let me know what she thought about the whole thing. I guess her legs got stiff while she was sleeping because she woke up screaming and did stop for about an hour. I tried massaging her legs and giving her a bath as the doctor suggested, but that only made it worse. I only had Motrin, which I don't think you're supposed to give to infants. I wasn't to thrilled about attempting to take a screaming baby and a toddler to the drug store, so I waited almost 2 hours for Yale to get home from work to give her some Tylenol. As you can imagine it was pretty hard to give Olivia much attention during this time. Overall, she was very patient. While I was getting a bath ready for Sophia, both girls were on the bed in Sophia's room. Sophia was really wailing, and Olivia was eating a snack. When I came into the room to get Sophia, Olivia was saying, "Nice." I wasn't sure why and was so distracted I didn't think much about it. That was until Olivia kept repeating it and I spotted a chunk of her cereal bar in Sophia's mouth. Olivia thought sharing her snack might help her sister feel better! It was a sweet gesture, I'm just glad Sophia didn't choke!Fortunately after the Tylenol kicked in, Sophia was able to take a nap and seemed like she felt much better. Yale took Olivia to the park and gave he lots of attention to reward her for being so patient during this whole ordeal.

Words to Remember

2006-06-13T12:36:00.000-07:00

These are some of the things that Olivia says that crack us up. We want to be able to remember them to to tell her about them when she is older.*Sleepeem = sleeping*Phia = Sophia*O-ee = Oli (Yaleâ€™s nick name for Olivia)*O sakes. Whaâ€™s wong? = Goodness Sakes. Whatâ€™s wrong? (She says this when Sophia is crying)*Ma-ee = mommy*Butt = belly button*Cups = hiccups*Care-oo = carry you (this usually means she wants you to carry her)*I gashoo = I got you (she says this when she wants someone to chase her)*Blue blues = blueberries (her favorite food, which she asks for all the time)*Piscker = picture*Smell = smile (she uses a plastic child lock for the cupboard door as her camera and holds it right next to Sophiaâ€™s face and says, â€œSmell. Piscker.â€�)*Stinkies = a poopy diaper*Shoff = shoe off*Run around = she says this in place of turn around. For example, if she is flipping a book over, she calls it run around.*car steat = car seat*beeg = big*zipper do dah = zippity-do-dah*yucas or mucas = music

Super Sleeper and Atomic Drops

2006-06-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

I can't tell you how happy I am to report what a great sleeper Sophia is. Last night she slept from 9:00 to 4:00. 7 hours!!! Can you believe it? I have to say I feel a little weird about it; like I should wake her up and feed her. At the same time, why ruin a good thing? She seems to be gaining weight just fine, so I think I will take the sleep when I can get it. This wasn't just a fluke either. In the past week she's slept 6 hours straight two different times. We've also been getting to see lots of smiles from Sophia. Nobody can tell me all of these smiles are a result of gas. Now, sure the kid has a lot of gas, but when I pick her up and start talking to her and a huge grin spreads across her face with no evidence of gas passing, I'm pretty sure that smile is meant for me. I especially get a kick out of it when she sticks her tongue out of the middle of her toothless grin. She keeps her tongue pretty busy, which we find pretty entertaining.Olivia seems to truly enjoy being a big sister. I have to be careful when I leave her alone in a room with Sophia because I often find her trying to hug Sophia or cover her with a blanket. You might be thinking, "Now what's wrong with that? That sounds sweet." There's nothing wrong, except when you consider how clumsy toddlers can be. Often a hug is more like a full tackle, and laying a blanket on a baby becomes something resembling an inverted atomic drop.Pushing Sophia (or Fia as Olivia calls her) in her stroller is another way Olivia expresses her sisterly love. Yale and I decided to take the family to a nearby mall last night to escape the sweltering heat. We thought Olivia would enjoy playing at the indoor playground there, but she was more interested in pushing Sophia rather than jumping off of the humongous insects. We have to help her with steering and make sure she doesn't fly recklessly down the ramps, but otherwise she does a very good job. It's also a way to burn off some of that endless energy she possesses.

Bye Bacuum

2006-05-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

It's been really interesting and fun to see Olivia's speech develop. The more she talks, the more I feel like I get to see her personality. I don't know if most kids do this, but one thing that has made us laugh lately is that Olivia says hi and bye to everything, including inanimate objects. She tells her shoes bye, she says hello to her socks, she says goodbye to the car and the house. She's even started saying goodbye to her diapers by saying, "Bye stinkies." I've been wondering if this has been influenced by the book Goodnight Moon. She adores this book and both Yale and I have it memorized because we've read it so many times. If you're not familiar with the book, each page tells different things in the room goodnight. For example, "Goodnight comb, goodnight brush. Goodnight bowl full of mush." The part of this stage that seems particularly funny and intriguing is that Olivia even says hi to things she's scared of like the vacuum cleaner. Whenever we vacuum she often cries and is very eager for us to put it away. Yet, when she walks by the closet where it's stored, she waves and says, "Hi bacuum" even if the door is closed. It makes me wonder if this is her way to try to get over her fear.

Grunting and Squealing

2006-05-20T13:41:00.000-07:00

We continued to be entertained by Sophia's funny old-man-facial expressions. I think it's so cute how newborns stretch and scrunch up their faces as they are waking up and after they've eaten. Sophia seems to be really chunking up. She gained almost a full pound between her two-week and her three-week check up. She is starting to sleep for longer stretches at night (the max has been 3 hours), but that is only if Yale gives her a couple of bottles before we go to bed. I'm completely amazed at how noisy such a little thing can be. I sleep in her room to make breast feeding easier, but I have to wear ear plugs so that she doesn't constantly wake me up with all of her grunting and squealing. Don't worry, I have no problem waking up as soon as she starts crying. Olivia seems to be adjusting to having a sister. There are times when all of the changes are hard for her, but that is to be expected. She often gives Sophia kisses and wants to hug her. She is also very curious about what the baby is doing. The other day Olivia sat on the floor and deliberately placed a pillow on her lap. She grabbed her doll, lifted her shirt, and started breast feeding her baby. She was so serious and determined. I couldn't help cracking up about that one. Olivia has been very interested in colors lately. She knows the basics (red, green, yellow, blue, orange, purple, black, pink). When we are out in public she loves to point and loudly announce the color of strangers' shirts. I'm glad she knows her colors, but it can create some kind of embarrassing situations.

Sophia

2006-05-09T11:04:00.000-07:00

Finally I'm finding some time to write about our new little bundle. As you probably noticed, Yale has been working hard on redesigning the website, and I've been busy caring for Sophia and trying to get some sleep. I have to admit, we are both pretty enamored with our new daughter. We find her to be very sweet and pretty funny. She was born over a pound less than Olivia, and then she lost almost another whole pound before we left the hospital, so she seems very tiny to us. She swims in many of her little outfits. As you can see in the photos, she has lots of dark hair. We are both hoping it stays dark, but there are some blonde highlights in there that make me think it won't stay dark for very long. I'm quite sure we will find her adorable no matter what color her hair is. She has the smallest dimple on ther left cheek. Her Grandma Kaul was the first one to notice it. She seems to really like to cuddle. Yale loves to let her fall asleep on his chest. Sometimes she hangs out on his chest and they just stare at each other. It's pretty cute.

New Site

2006-05-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

We did a bit of an overhaul on the site, you may have noticed. We also decided to put the photos on Flickr, because it's way easier that way.Hope you enjoy!

The Eagle Has Landed

2006-04-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

Olivia now has herself a brand-new baby sister! Sophia G. Kaul is the name, and there are some photos in the gallery. More info when we have time...

One Week and Counting

2006-04-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

One week from today our new baby should be born. We have a c-section scheduled for 8:00a.m. on Thursday, April 20th. According to the doctor the operation should take about 30 minutes. Yale and I are both excited, nervous, and well, kind of scared about meeting the new addition to our family. Scared, not to meet her, but scared about the responsibility of taking care of two children now instead of just one. I have a feeling we will rise to the occasion and all will be fine.Olivia seems to be showing some signs of understanding that she is going to have a new baby sister. This past weekend my sister, Beckie, and her family spent Saturday helping me finish the baby's room. It's bright purple and yellow with a sheep theme. Yale's mom was kind enough to sew an adorable quilt to hang on the wall and a curtain that both make the whole room. Now when Olivia and I go into the room she says "baby" which sounds more like "bayee". This morning she spotted some pacifiers that I bought for the baby, when she grabbed one I told her that she could use her own pacifier, but those are for the baby. A few minutes later she said, "bayee". I can't say the look on her face was one of excitement, but at least she is acknowledging what I said, which is more than she has been doing.Livi has been under the weather the past couple of days. It doesn't seem like anything major; a fever and a little bit of whininess. Luckily she's stayed in an exceptionally pleasant mood considering she doesn't seem to feel well. Her appetite is less than normal, and she wants to sleep more. In fact, yesterday at about 4:00 in the afternoon she asked for her bunny and pacifier, and then threw bunny in her crib and said "nap". I was surprised that once I put her in her crib she laid there quietly for close to 2.5 hours. I'm so happy to have a kid who knows and can say when she needs sleep. This makes bedtime and nap time a pretty delightful experience for all of us. If all goes as planned, the next time I write this will be a web site for both Olivia and her baby sister. Stay tuned...

Twins

2006-03-26T11:07:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been feeling like I live with twins. For those of you who've had toddlers, you probably remember the stage where their language is really developing, and they like to say the same thing over and over again in a very enthusiastic tone. That's the stage the Olivia is in. If she sees her ball while she's eating, she'll say ball over and over again until you acknowledge her, and sometimes keeps going even after you've repeated the word ball.For some strange reason Yale has been in this same stage ever since I met him. He loves to repeat the same word or phrase very loudly, especially while working in the kitchen. I know, some of you are thinking, I should just be happy that he works in the kitchen. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate it, but I also like a few minutes of peace and quiet now and then, and with Yale and Olivia around it is a rare event. The other night Yale was yelling "Dere's Faish in da oven" over and over again. He didn't stop until I started imitating him to demonstrate the ridiculousness of it all. One would think that pointing this out would make him stop or at least cut down. Instead, he thought it was hilarious and now begs me to shout, "Dere's faish in da oven."

Big Sister Boot Camp

2006-03-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

It's finally official (well, as official as it can get at this point), it looks like Olivia is going to get a little sister in about 6 weeks. We had a third ultrasound, and the doctor was able to get a good look to determine the gender. It also looks like this baby is going to be on the bigger side, just like Olivia (8 or more pounds). We are planning on another c-section the week of April 17th. The doctor says that based on the complications with Olivia (basically, she got stuck), it would be best to just plan on a c-section. I would love to have the baby with a normal delivery, but I really don't want to have to try to recover from both pushing and surgery.I've been encouraging Olivia to play with her baby doll, Tallulah, that we got her for Christmas. I see this as the closest thing I can do to prepare her for when the baby comes. I bought some infant diapers the other day, so we had to put one on her doll. Then in true toddler spirit, she had to do this over and over and over again. Olivia has been carrying her doll around, rocking her, and giving her lots of hugs. It's kind of funny to watch her be so tender with her doll and then grab her by the head and purposefully fling her to the floor. What really cracks me up is when she first sees Tallulah, she makes this kind of cooing, whimpering sound. It kind of sounds like she saying, "Oh, you sweet little baby." I'm not sure where she got that from, but it sure is funny. Yale and I have decided that Olivia has an exceptionally high EQ (emotional quotient). Of course this doesn't come from informed insights, just from overly proud parents who think their kid is exceptional. I don't know if many toddlers are like this, but she seems particularly caring and considerate. The other day Yale laid on the floor with a pillow. Olivia decided that he needed some help to get comfortable so she handed him her bunny. Then she went all the way upstairs to her room and got him one of her books to read. It was really sweet. She also does things to take care of me. She washes my face, rubs lotion on me, and combs my hair. She is very generous, and always wants to share her food and toys with us, with the cats, and with her stuffed animals. Don't get me wrong, she definitely has her stubborn moments. In fact, we are certain she has entered that "Terrific Twos" stage (better known as the terrible twos, but we trying to stay positive). However, overall it does seem like she is unusually caring. We just hope that carries over to her soon-to-be little sister.

Oh, the Snap is a Phone? That Makes Sense!

2006-03-01T16:37:00.000-08:00

Oli's speech has really taken off lately. It seems she is adding a couple of new words to her vocabulary each day. At the moment she seems to be working on words that end with the /k/ sound, such as walk, truck, bike, clock and yuck. Now, not all of the blends (like /tr/) are pronounced clearly, but she's close enough for us to understand her. New items that Olivia has used as a phone: one of the snaps on her onesie that goes between her legs (while she had it on, but it wasn't yet snapped), the buckle at the end of the strap on her highchair, a page of a fold-out book that she tore out, and one of those large plastic connectable beads that have been around for decades.Olivia and I got some serious mom and daughter bonding in last week while Yale was in Switzerland for work. Now, Olivia and I normally spend a lot of time together, but this was pretty nonstop. Thank goodness for Susan who gave me some breaks and watched Liv while I subbed a couple of days. We also spent a couple of days at my sister's house. Her family helps out with Olivia a great deal, so that was also a nice repreive. Liv seemed to really miss Yale. A couple of times we looked at pictures of him just to calm her down. I'm sure it's confusing for a kid her age when a parent is gone for an extended period of time.

Bunny Love

2006-01-30T16:08:00.000-08:00

Miss O's recent developments have been of the verbal kind. Yale's favorite word that she says right now is down. It sounds sort of like "dow" with the "ow" extending for two syllables rather than one. The word I like to hear the most is "mama". Yes, she's finally saying mama. I don't get to hear it very often, but when I do I get pretty excited. Some other words that are included in her vocabulary are: up, sit, go, meow, shoes, snaps (which sounds like "aps"), and ouch. The phrase she says most often, which she has been saying for several months, is "what's that?", but it sounds more like "wha S'at". Some mornings it seems like she says it about nine hundred times. Yale thinks it's really cute when she's having a crying fit, but, in the middle of it, she will take the time to point and stretch out a long "what's that?" For those of you who have spent time with Olivia in the past six months, you know that she is quite attached to her furry pink bunny, which is a very soft blanket with a velvet lining topped off with a rabbit head. It sounds kind of weird, but she really digs it. I got it from Pottery Barn Kids; they call it a "thumbie". I guess because kids like to suck their thumbs while they hold on to it. Anyway, it seems that within the last couple of weeks Olivia has gotten even more attached to her bunny. She wants to have it nearby at all times. One way you can score a lot of points with Olivia is to give her bunny some attention. Either a hug or kiss will do. She also rubs her bunny on things that she likes. For example, she will rub her bunny on another stuffed animal or on the TV when it's playing her favorite video. My pregnant belly (and her baby sister) even gets a little bunny love now and then. As I've mentioned before, our cats aren't too fond of Olivia, but she loves them. It's pretty funny when she chases one of them around trying to spread some "bunny love".

There's a Baby in Mommy's Belly

2006-01-06T16:32:00.000-08:00

Olivia has really been cracking us up lately (I think I might say that every time). We're always telling her that there is a baby in my belly and that she is going to be a big sister. We weren't really sure how much it was sinking in until a couple of weeks ago she stuck her play baby bottle in my belly button. At first I wasn't sure what she was doing and then my sister pointed out that maybe she was trying to feed the baby. She also likes to put a diaper across my belly. At first I thought that's where she thought a diaper belonged, and then it dawned on me that this might be her way of putting a diaper on her yet-to-be born baby sister. We are looking forward to telling her this story when she is older.Oli had an exciting Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with our friends Matt and Laura and their son Nathan. Olivia and Nathan are just starting to interact some, but Olivia spent most of the night sitting in Nathan's new musical chair watching him dive and tumble across the room. Christmas day was spent with my sister's family. Olivia loves to hang out with her cousins, plus she gets a lot of attention from her Aunt Beckie and Uncle Sam. She is working on becoming better friends with their dog, Satchmo. She doesn't understand why he doesn't respond to her signing. I kept trying to tell her that she needed to say No to him, rather than just shake her head. I think hanging out with Satchmo and kids her age will encourage her to talk more rather than just relying on signing.