Thanksgiving

My parents and my brother's family all came down last week for Thanksgiving. We had a really nice time and it's always nice to have family around during the holidays. I hadn't seen my nephew since he was born in July either so I was excited to see him again. We went to the zoo again on Friday. It's always a nice place to take the kids. Olivia loved having her cousins around to play with. They all left on Sunday and we put up the Christmas tree. Olivia is so excited about Christmas this year. I don't think she really understood it until this year. When I ask her what she wants for Christmas she says "presents". I asked her what kind she wants and she said "big ones".

She's been saying funny things lately. Sean thought it would be funny to teach her the word "duh" which she now says ALL of the time. I hate it and I've tried to get her to stop because it just sounds so disrespectful when she says it. She uses it in perfect context too. I mentioned it to her teacher the other day and told her it would be alright to give her a time out if she said it but she just laughed and said another little girl in her class says it all of the time.

I also got home from work the other day and had taken all of my clothes off to put on some comfortable ones. Olivia came in and yelled "put some clothes on!". It was too funny! Since when do little kids care about clothes? She runs around in just her pull up all of the time.

The Zoo

I'm a little late in writing about our trip to the zoo since it happened last Sunday but I got some nice pictures and we had a really nice time. Sean's parents came down for a long weekend. We had a really nice time and Olivia loved having them here. We usually go to the zoo a few times a year. I love our zoo - it's in Asheboro. It's sort of in the middle of nowhere but it's in a very natural setting and you have to do a lot of walking. We'll be going again in a week and a half when my parents and my brother's family come down for Thanksgiving.

We're still working on the potty training. It's not going so well. She was doing great but has seemed to take a few steps backwards. It's also really difficult on the weekends when we're running around everywhere. I hate to admit it but it is SO MUCH easier to just have on a pull up. Sean thinks she'll be 20 and still in a pull up. At least we won't have to worry about boys!! :)

Halloween

                

We took Olivia trick or treating for the first time last night.  She had a great time.  We actually went to a neighborhood in Pittsboro.  They don't really do anything in our neighborhood since the houses are on such large lots and so far apart.  We went with our neighbors across the street who have two young girls.  Olivia's school had a party during the day too.  She wore her cat costume (minus the mask - her head is too big and it kept popping off) during the day and her mouse costume at night.  She was so cute!  The first house we went to she was so excited that she grabbed three handfuls of candy from the bowl.  She did great walking too.  We walked pretty far and she walked herself the whole way and wouldn't let anyone carry her bucket for her.  

I'm too tired tonight to write a lot but I wanted to put up some pictures since it's been three weeks.

Potty Training

So I started potty training Olivia last Thursday.  I had ordered some regular underpants and that's the day they came so I figured what better time to start?  I also ordered a video from Amazon called "Potty Power".  Olivia had already been using the potty a couple of times a day at school.  I had talked to her one teacher at school and she said that they would work with her using regular underpants and lots of extra clothes.  So I take her in on Friday with 8 pairs of underwear and like 6 outfits.  I told the morning teacher what I was doing and she seemed ok with it.  When I picked her up that night and got home I realized she had a diaper on and that NONE of her underpants were used during the day.  I was not happy.  The one teacher that I know well has been out the last week and just got back yesterday.  She asked me what happened today with the underwear.  I told her what happened and she said that the girl had complained that she had an accident so that's why she put diapers on her.  HELLO  - that is the whole point!!  She told me to bring them in again tomorrow and she would work with her.  I'm just having second thoughts about her new school.  She also came home today with a big scrape on her chin.  I didn't see it until we were home.  At her other school they would fill out an incident report for everything no matter how minor it was.  She's come home from her new school with cuts and bruises and I haven't seen any reports or received any explanation.  I'm just feeling like maybe I made a mistake.

Play Doh

I finally caved and let Olivia play with Play Doh in the house. She's received a couple of gifts of Play Doh that I've kept hidden in the closet until yesterday. She was having a MAJOR meltdown (don't even remember why) and I thought maybe that would help her calm down. It did the trick! We played with it for almost two hours last night. I stopped at Target on the way home and picked up another set - one that makes ice cream sundaes and cones - to play with tonight. It kept her busy for over an hour again tonight - yeah! I hadn't really found anything that would keep her interest that long. Until now!! I always thought that it would be a nightmare to clean up but it's actually pretty easy. It doesn't stain and it dries up on the carpet and you can just vacuum it up. I wish I wouldn't have waited so long to let her play with it. I need to relax a little bit sometimes;)

She's still wanting to put on her "dress" (Halloween costume) every night. I bought her a new car seat so we have one in each car. I bought another Britax because we were very happy with the first one. This one is a cute cow print. It looks so comfortable - wish my seat was like that.

I also bought her some new Nick and Nora pj's at Target. They make the cutest pj's. I bought her two pairs of flannel ones last year and they were so adorable. She was dancing around in it tonight. 

Dress Up

Olivia has really been into dressing up a lot lately. She is definitely turning out to be a girl that way. She LOVES to dress up in different outfits and put on all of her shoes. Today was no exception. I had pulled out her Halloween outfit from last year to sell on Ebay and she wanted to wear it. It still fit which is amazing. She also wanted to wear her "dress" which is her Halloween outfit for this year. It's a cute cat costume with a twirly dress and a cat mask with long black gloves. She loves to put it on and twirl around in it.

She's doing really well adjusting to her new daycare. She came home today with some new tattoos. She loves showing them off to everybody. She's actually had tattoos for the last month and she gets a little upset when they start to wear off so her new teacher was nice enough to bring some more in today.

Well it's pretty late so I'm not going to write much tonight. I just wanted to put some new pictures up!

FINALLY!!!

I have been waiting for over 4 years for DSL and it's finally here - and it is WONDERFUL!!! I can't believe we finally have it available - I never thought I would see this day! AMAZING!! I'm so sorry it's been so long since I've written an entry but it used to take FOREVER to upload pictures. This will be the real test.

Since my last post, we have lost our dog Harley, gone on vacation, switched daycare centers and GOT DSL!! We've had some rough times this past month - we had to put our dog Harley down. She was 13 years old and she got really sick the night before we left for vacation last month. It was definitely a bad start to our vacation in Gatlinburg. We did end up having a great time. We went with my parents and my grandparents. I was so happy that my grandparents were able to come. We had a wonderful time and it was very relaxing. I'm ready for another one already.

Olivia started taking dance classes last Saturday. It was too cute!! There were only three girls in her class so hopefully more will sign up soon. She did great! She actually followed along and paid attention. She also started her new daycare this week. Her last day at her old one was last Friday. I think I was more upset than she was. I loved the center and the teachers there are wonderful. I told myself as I drove there to pick her up on Friday that I wasn't going to cry but as soon as I walked in all of the teachers were waiting at the door with some gifts for Olivia. As soon as I saw them I burst into tears. It was very hard - they have been taking care of Olivia every day for the last two years. It was very sweet and they made us feel special. I will miss all of them very much. The reason that I moved her was because she was spending 2 hours a day in the car with me. She's now only about 15 minutes from the house. She's done great adjusting which has been a big relief. I was really worried she would have a hard time. She's always talking about her friend Mia from school and I wasn't sure how she would handle it.

Attached are a few recent pictures from the vacation and Olivia's dance class.

Books

Well my promise to update weekly isn't working out so well. I try to work on it at home but get totally frustrated with my internet service. It takes FOREVER to upload pictures at home. Living in the country sucks (probably not the best choice of words but that's exactly how I feel). We went to VA last week to visit our friends John and Courtney. They had a baby a few months ago and we wanted to see her. Her name is Natalie Grace. She was adorable! She looks a lot like her daddy. I named the post "Books" because Olivia has been obsessed with books lately. All she wants to do is read "her books". She carries them everywhere with her and has a fit when she drops them out of her carseat. I have become very good at driving and reaching into the backseat to retrieve her books. I can also change a movie from the front seat - I know SCARY. She's going to be transferring to a new daycare on September 8th. I've had her on the waiting list since the month she was born. She finally got in which I'm so excited about because it's only 15 minutes from the house and she won't have to spend almost 2 hours in the car with me everyday. I'm feeling sad though because she loves it where she is at now and I do really like her teachers there. I haven't told her current daycare yet. I'm supposed to give them 2 weeks notice and I will probably tell them today. I'm just dreading it though. They love her there. They call her "Miss O".

We're leaving for Gatlinburg on Saturday for a week. I cannot wait to go. I really need a vacation. Work has been really busy lately and I'm starting to get a little stressed. I'm really looking forward to just sitting on the front porch swing.

Life with Lola

I thought I would give this blogging thing a try. I have been TERRIBLE with sending pictures of Olivia to the family so I thought this would be a great way to journal her life. I wish I would have started a little sooner - she just turned 2 in June - but I guess it's better late then never! I named the blog "Life with Lola" because we have called Olivia "Lola" since she was born. Sean came up with that nickname and it's kind of stuck. I like it though. It totally fits her personality.

We went to Baby Loves Disco in Charlotte two weeks ago. It was so much fun even though I had a terrible headache that day. We went to one in Atlanta last year and I was glad to see one closer to home this year. If you ever get a chance to go it is so worth it. It's too cute to watch all of the kids dancing to disco music!! Check it out at http://www.babylovesdisco.com/.

Anyway - attached are a few recent pictures and some from Baby Loves Disco. I'll try to update the blog at least once a week. I'm having a little trouble with perfecting adding the pictures so it might take a few more posts to figure out how it all works. You can double click on a picture to enlarge it for now. I also am adding one of "The King" (aka my dad). I thought he would like to be famous for a day:) I also had to add one of my new nephew Cody because he is too cute!!