Halloween picture overload!

Happy Halloween! 

It was hard to get her to slow down
long enough for a photo!



She had trouble smiling because
there hasn't been much to
cheer about this football season!

We carved a pumpkin this afternoon and then dressed our little girl up as the cutest cheerleader we've ever seen!  It's been a great day for us.  We hope you can say the same!

Baby Girl enjoyed cleaning out the pumpkin



Daddy and Baby Girl work on getting the perfect face.



Daddy tries to make a Jack-O-Lantern
face out of Olivia's drawings.

proud girl!

and last but not least.....the ND football player and Purdue cheerleader console one another on their lackluster seasons!   haha!  (this is the neighbor boy Wyatt;)

the Fall blues.

Olivia desperately wants to accessorize for Fall, but the temperatures here are in the mid to upper 80's with high humidity.  Yuck! 

We are tired of summer.  We want to put our shorts and tanks away for good so Mommy Olivia can wear her new scarf!














How's the weather in your part of the world?

Absent, but accounted for.

Yes, I have been MIA when it comes to blogging.  Not sure why.  Sometimes I go through phases where I just don't have much to say.  I think this week it has been prompted by single parenthood.  The evenings come and I just don't have it left in me to do much of anything other than catch up on some shows, read, or peruse the Internet.  Those hours are my opportunity to have some time to myself and I haven't felt up to blogging.

Also, Olivia has been all over the map this week when it comes to napping, which is stressful.  Nothing gets me worked up more than a baby that will not nap!  She has successfully refused either her morning or her afternoon nap for the past five days.  I think we are in the transition stage to one nap, but the length of her one nap doesn't really give her enough rest.  However, I am hoping to do a little sleep training and stretch one nap out for two hours (or beyond) so it can be enough to get us through the day.  A twelve hour work day with only an hour nap is too much for mommy (and baby, too!).  Today we skipped morning nap and I put her down at 12:30.  We will see what that does for us.

Bundled up for one of the few
cooler morning we've had.

So, what have been up to?  Well, we spend a LOT of time outside these days.  Olivia starts her day asking to go outside and it really doesn't stop until she goes to bed.  Therefore, I spend my mornings and afternoons wandering around our yard wondering what I am going to do to pass the time when winter comes! 

Creating yet another masterpiece.

Two of our neighbors have all kinds of toddler toys so we use their playhouse, sandbox, trampoline, wagon, big play set, and plastic cars.  I think we spend more time in their backyards than our own!  However, we don't have to have that stuff sitting in our yard, so that makes Andy happy.

Taking my baby (and her baby) for a ride!

Andy should be home in time for Halloween (and his 30th birthday!!  oh my!)  This week we have something every day, so that is great.  I keep the neighbor baby on Monday afternoons, Tuesday morning I start a new Bible Study at the same church I go to for MOPS, Wednesday I have traffic court (ugh.), Thursday we have a Halloween play date, and Friday we have Gymobree and a lunch date.  Hopefully from some of those events, I will have something to blog about!  I know you will all be anxious to hear how traffic court goes......haha. ;)

 Until then, Olivia says "rock on".....

Fifteenth month recap.

So proud of her pumpkin.

Weight: 24.5 lbs

Height: 33.75 inches

Napping:  Olivia takes a morning and an afternoon nap.  She goes down around 9:30 and 1:30, respectively, and each nap lasts an hourish or more.  We have tried days with one nap beginning around noon and it is a disaster.

Night:  Bedtime is between 7 & 7:30 each night.  She is definitely ready each night when bedtime comes.  Our routine includes a bath and then we read books together while she drinks her milk.  She awakes around 7:30 in the morning and still cries out on some nights, but we do not go in unless the crying goes on for more than 15 minutes or so.  Not sure why she still does this, but the doctor says to not worry, so we don't.

Food: Olivia eats a balanced diet and enjoys food from all food groups. Fruits seem to be some of her favorite foods.  She has decided that she no longer likes peas, which is strange because she used to love them.  Her current favorite foods are cheese, strawberries, hot dogs, crackers, grapes, pasta, and bananas. 

Motor Skills: has become quite skilled at climbing!, runs, independent with spoon feeding herself, getting better at using a fork, draws lines and colors with crayons, balances on one foot, and tries to put on her own pants and shoes.

Language: Olivia is very verbal.  She tries to repeat so many new words a day and is adding to her vocabulary quickly.  New words include 'melmo' for Elmo, 'shhh' for shoe, 'bow bow' for hair bow, 'buball' for football (can you tell we watch a lot of that in this house!;), 'bi' for bite when she wants something you are eating, 'baberry' for strawberry, door, bubble, 'cado' for avocado, no, and probably some more I cannot remember right now.

New signs include shoe, sleep, and bubbles.

Fun Facts: moved to size 4 diapers, wears size 12-18 month and 18-24 month clothes, has 6 teeth, is a complete mommy's girl, has become a huge fan of Elmo and Sesame Street, still loves her baby doll and pushing her stroller up and down the sidewalk, asks to color every day, will pick up the remote and point it to the TV while saying "melmo", likes to go on car rides (as long as they aren't too long!), loves to be outside (we are outside for several hours each day), favorite books right now are books with babies and animals in them, points up and signs airplane every time she hears one, often asks for a hair bow, likes to snuggle and lay on my chest each morning while having her milk, puts her cell phone to her ear and says 'dada' or 'nana' when I ask who she is talking to, points out family members in photographs and says their names (mama, dada, nana, papa, and gpa), is becoming preferential on which books we read by shaking her head and saying 'no' if she doesn't want that one, and loves to shut doors.

Is there anything cuter than a baby in footie pajamas?!

fun at the corn maze.

Friday morning we joined my MOPS group and headed to West Farm Corn Maze.  It was fantastic!  So much better than the Boone Hall pumpkin patch we had gone to last week. (just an FYI to local readers).

There were cows, sheep, goats, chickens, a pony and a horse and Olivia loved them all!  They had craft

tables set up for pumpkin decorating, which was Olivia's favorite part of the day.  She also enjoyed the straw bale maze, wandering into the corn field (just a bit as I wasn't feeling up to the one hour commitment to the actual maze!), the hayride, and running around in the sunshine with a slew of other children!  They also had a large area with corn to dig and play in, but Olivia wasn't a fan for some reason.  She would cry every time I put her into it, which was surprising because she loves to play in the sandbox.  Who knows.

Enjoy some photos from our fun adventure!

We found some pumpkins just her size!

She was very focused while she painted.



And she's off!  She loved to run ahead through the corn.



Can you find Olivia?!!
A free hug to the person who spots her first ;)



"Enjoying" the hayride (we couldn't get her to smile for anything! ha.)
It was the end of a long, but fun, adventure!



in excess.

Olivia carried all of these bows to me this morning and said "bow bow" until I put them all in her hair.

Perhaps I have created a hair bow monster...

If so, at least she is a cute little monster! 

(who likes to chew on Daddy's toothbrush while I brush my teeth in the morning....shhh, don't tell him ;)

pumpkin picking.

Today we went to Boone Hall Plantation in search of the perfect pumpkin!  It was nearly 90 degrees, but we pretended it as fall as much as we could in our minds.

There were lots of things to do before we started searching for the perfect pumpkin!  First we slid down the slide...

and then we looked at the rabbits and the goats...

and then Andy helped Olivia feed the goats!!!!  She thought it was pretty great.

Then we went for a swing and jumped on the "giant pillow"....

Then it was time to find the perfect pumpkin....

Ahhh, we found it!  Now we can't wait to decorate it! 

my mama told me there be days like this...

I post about how amazing motherhood is and then it takes a turn for the worst!  Isn't that the way the world always works?  God likes to keep me dependent upon him.  Just when I think I have it all figured out and am doing pretty well on my own, He reminds me that I need him in the most desperate way!  I need him to grant me patience, and compassion, and perseverance.  I need grace, and poise, and tolerance!  Those awesome and easy days of mothering help me keep perspective on these hard days. 

Baby Girl must be working on some more teeth or else she is turning into the most cranky, fussy, rotten toddler known.  All Andy has to do is look at her and she screams and cries and runs for mommy.  I can't walk without her clinging to my legs and she requires a solid 30 minutes of snuggle time to get awake in the morning.  If I even try to set her down in that time frame, the screaming and kicking quickly begins.  Ahhhh!! 

Patience, tolerance, poise, compassion, love.....I just keep praying for these things and know that God has it all under control.  Now if He could just bring back my sweet spirited baby girl!  

Look at the camera?  Dream on, mama!

Despite her crankiness yesterday and this morning, she still melts my heart.   I love this girl so much it drives me nuts! 



For now, I need to re-enter the world of parenting.  Elmo's World can only save me for so long!  (Parent of the Year award right here, folks...)





p.s. I saw this blog post title somewhere, not sure where.  Just putting that out there since I'm not sure of the citation rules for blogging ;)

I was born to do this...

....be a mother, that is.

You ever have one of those days?  The day where you totally rocked it?  No matter what you did, you did it well?  Well, I had that feeling today.  I was driving home from Gymboree open gym with our happy toddler in the backseat and I thought, "I was born to do this"! 

I have found my true calling.  I was born to be a mother!  I love everything about it.  Sure, there are moments of stress and doubt and missing my old life, but I'm not going to think about those right now!  All that is filling my mind is the amazing blessing of being a mother!  I would have a whole brood if I had a willing husband! (not Duggar style or anything, I haven't lost my mind)  I can just envision our house bustling with children and my entire backseat filled with smiling faces (and of course they are smiling, this is my fantasy after all!) 

I have always admired moms and dads because I knew they had their hands full raising up little people.  However, I thought that it mostly just included bathing them, feeding them, changing them, and a little bit of discipline here and there ;)  Now I have a whole new perspective on the issue because the truth is that as a mother you are actually raising a human being!   Not only do I have to keep her fed and clean, but it is my responsibility to fill her heart with kindness, compassion, determination, respect, and love (just to name a few!)  Wow!  What a task. 

Sometimes that task can be daunting, to say the least.  However, today was a day where I felt inspired by the challenge.   Who knows, maybe it was the amazing weather or maybe it was God speaking directly to my heart.  But whatever it happened to be, I'll take it!

I hope that all of you mothers out there can have a day where you feel proud of what you do. Not just the "being a mother is rewarding" kind of attitude, but the "I totally rocked this job today" attitude!  If it wasn't today, then maybe tomorrow will be your day.......and then blog about it so I can read it!

part two.

Well, Olivia slept through Gymboree this morning.  She typically only naps for an hour to an hour and a half.  This morning it was two hours and fifteen minutes.  I am not complaining because she obviously needed the rest, but I would have planned nap time a little differently had I known how long she would sleep!  For example, I would have worked out or scrubbed our bathroom instead of hopping directly into the shower when I put her down.  However, I have digressed.....

Instead of Gymboree we went outside to enjoy the glorious weather!  And I mean glo-ri-ous with a capital G!!  It is in the low 70's, sunny, with a light breeze!  Ahhh, I could live like this forever.  

Olivia enjoyed playing in the mulch (I pick my battles and that is one that I have decided to stop "picking")  and drew on her chalkboard with the neighbor boy Wyatt.

We are still working on the "don't eat chalk" message.

She loves it when Wyatt is outside because it typically means his dog 'Dixie' is out, too!  Olivia follows that dog all around the yard and smiles the entire time!  She also likes to give Wyatt hugs, but he isn't too sure about that.  She doesn't seem to get her feelings hurt easily though as she keeps going back for more!  I love that girl and her sweet spirit!

Also, look what I did with my camera!  I was playing with the editing buttons and created this!  I think it is beautifully amazing!  I just may be inspired to actually read the manual now...