An Almost Three Year Old

So, I didn't even look at the date of the last post before this one. I'm not always the best blogger. But, life happens and it has been good! After a bit of an (ahem) rough patch from 2.5 until now, this almost-three-year-old has been WONDERFUL recently.

*knocks on wood*

Anyway, second year molars are nearly in. Olivia is somewhere between a 2-3T, she is super creative, intuitive, and sensitive.

I'm going to post more so I don't have to do silly updates like this.

Until then, these are my most favorite recent photos!

Mommy Moron

Yeah, this is an awesome post. So, we have this dog, Gordon, who is totally a idiot. He's just a big doofus. So we all had a good laugh when J discovered this old punk song called "Gordon the Moron". We listened to it a couple times, J made a few jokes about it.

Fast forward a few months. I met a friend at a nice cafe with a play place, our children were playing while we enjoyed a chat and some lunch. From nowhere, Olivia gets super excited, running around the play area, yelling, "Hi, Mommy Moron!" And then I died. Especially when she yelled it a second time, in case there was any doubt what she was saying the first time around. For a 27 month old, she has a surprisingly clear voice.

I've been trying to replace "Mommy Moron" with her other favorite nickname for me, "HoneyMommy", which thankfully seems to be working. She has no clue what a moron is, or that it's not a nice word. She says it endearingly, as though she were saying "Mommy Dearest".

At the end of this day, we walked around a bit and I could tell Olivia was tired and a little overstimulated. So of course, I suggest going into a toy store. Oh dear. Massive, epic tantrum. In public. Sure, she's independent, happy, funny, adorable, sleeping in her own bed, etc... but this right here makes you feel like you are doing everything wrong as a parent. At least in that very moment. I had to call my mom to be sure it was normal. You see kids throwing fits in public all the time, and mostly think nothing of it... it happens, they are kids! But when it's your own child, you're pretty sure no other kid in the history of the universe has ever done this before. Truly, it wasn't even that bad. A little crying (fairly loudly) and she let me carry her out of the store. She was then terribly sad when we parted ways with our friends.

I guess the moral of the story is that even if it sounds funny the first time your child says something like "Mommy Moron" do. not. laugh. Do not encourage it in any way! Because it's so not funny when screamed in public ;)

Independence

Independence... it's so bittersweet isn't it? Olivia has been little miss independent lately. She wants to do everything herself, which I suppose is a totally normal phase that all kids go through.

We set up her room about 10 days ago, and she was SO excited. She picked out owls and birds for her theme (which I was ecstatic about! I didn't want a theme room that she was over in a week) and helped decorate. We talked about moving her bed in there, as she'd been sleeping really well in her own toddler bed in our room. She was totally excited about it, so in it went. And she just, slept in it. All night most nights since then.

It's amazing to see how secure she is; I feel like I've done a good job as a mama, because there has been no issues with the new sleeping arrangement. If she wakes up, she just wanders into our room and climbs into bed with me. However, I miss her! Another baby may or may not be in the cards for us, so sometimes I feel like I have to savor each moment in case she's my only.

This has been accompanied by the exclamation, "Mine do it!" about EVERYTHING, which is cute but, you know, time consuming.

Lots of my friends are sending their kids off to preschool for the first time today, and I think I'm having an absolute freak out moment... that'll be us next year. Yes it's cliche but my god, where did the time go?!

That reminded me of a funny thing Olivia's been doing... I get on Josh all the time about swearing in front of her, and luckily she hasn't picked anything up (yet). Yesterday we sat down to eat dinner and Olivia says, "Oh my gog! Jesus Christ!" As you could have guessed, she definitely got that from me. She also transposes the "d" and "g" sound, so it's hilarious! Basically impossible not to laugh. Oops.

Getting Settled In...

This has been a bit of a process. Olivia is taking one of her very rare naps at the moment, so I'll have to make this quick!

We have finally moved and are settled into our new place. It seems to have a great energy and has really brought out the best in everyone. Aside from a particularly clingy toddler, life is good! We are enjoying getting things set up and Olivia has been the best project helper :)

Pictures to come soon, I still haven't gotten into a good routine for anything yet.

We're Moving!

We have finally decided on a home, after almost 2 years of searching, waiting for the right time, etc. I am SO excited that we get to provide Olivia with a really cool house to grow up in, and a nice big yard, in a great little town. We move this weekend. Beyond thrilling!

Our house has been ready and packed for some time; we definitely did not wait until the last minute! It seems that Olivia gets what is going on, a little bit anyway. She seems a bit frustrated and upset that the house is in boxes (hello, tantrumville!) but often asks to drive by the "new house" which is pretty amazing.

Lots more updates to come, this is a very exciting time in our lives!

Firsts and Lasts

June 22, 2011 was the last time Olivia nursed. I gave it 25 good months, and I feel really good about that. It can be a little bittersweet, but we were all ready. It was rough for a couple days, but she has quickly gotten over it. She stopped on her own for about 2 days, and I just took that as a cue to create new nighttime routines and things like that.

Since then, she's completely stopped napping, except for the occasional snooze in the car. This is a bummer.

BUT! She sleeps through the night! In her own bed! I guess having an infant who was awake every 2-3 hours, then a toddler who still woke 3-4 times per night made me think I just wouldn't sleep well until she went to college (and then, I know what goes on at college)! This has been awesome, and great for everyone. We got her her own "big girl bed" a few days ago and put it in our room (until then she'd been sleeping in crib sidecar to our bed) which has been great too. She loves her bed, and I've only had to pick her up off the floor once. And she didn't wake up.

I'm all rested. It's pretty nice.

First Horse Ride

So there is plenty I could write about, since her birthday Olivia is definitely a two year old. I think you know what I mean ;)

I'll write all of that soon, but for now I just had to share how adorable she was today for her first horse ride! We went to a great birthday party with a horse for the kids to ride. Although Olivia loves animals and likes to look at them, she was adamant about riding the horse, which surprised me. I suspected once she got up there that she'd want to get right back down, but it was quite the opposite. The entire time she was chatting away, "I ride horse, mommy, me like horse!" and has not stopped talking about it all day. The horse even neighed while she was riding, and instead of being scared she laughed and said, "horse neeiiiiighhhhh!" Hilarious.

The following photo was taken on my phone, I think some another mom at the party will be uploading some more tonight but for now this'll do. On my phone everyone looks great... just ignore the weird face I'm making ;)