Spring Break recap

Spring Break was wonderful, but exhausting. We spent the first few days at home, running errands and playing outside.
Olivia learned to pedal her bike. She was so cute and confident in her abilities. I see some skinned knees in her future, but she did really well for her first time out.


On Wednesday, we took a road trip to visit cousins. Olivia tried her hand at tee ball.

After a couple of fun and exhausting days with cousins, we met up with Daddy and did some family stuff. First was the Children's Museum, where Olivia discovered all sorts of exciting things.
She discovered her passion for scooping ice cream in a pint-sized ice cream shoppe.

Then she arranged some blown "glass" into her own little sculpture.


We all spent Friday night in a hotel. Olivia decided to brush her hair and Mommy's. This was the result. Mommy's hair fared a little better under the brush than Olivia's did.

Saturday we went to the "animal zoo," as Olivia calls it. Here is the "shark petting" area.

And the baby giraffe.

And the elephant.

We were all exhausted when we got home. Olivia slept 13 hours on Saturday night and then took a long nap on Sunday. After her nap, we painted eggs. Holy Week is pretty busy around here, so we colored our eggs this weekend and will store them in the fridge until next week.

As it turns out, egg painting is a good activity for a 2-year-old. She LOVED it and was pretty good at keeping the paint where it belonged. She is looking forward to showing off her creations to Grandparents later in the week.

In the midst of all this Spring Break fun, we also managed to mulch all of our flower beds and get some cleaning done in the house. So, I guess it was productive and fun...just not all that relaxing.

We start to get back to normal tomorrow. We have half of the babysitting crew back this week (the other half is still on Spring Break for another week).

Happy Holy Week!

Yard sale, baby shower, etcetera

This weekend was BUSY. It started early on Saturday with us setting up for our property association's annual yard sale day. They only allow us to do a sale one day a year, and it is a BIG day with lots of people coming from all over to shop at the houses in our community. Unfortunately, we are at the back of the property, and people tend to get stuck at the sales near the front of the property. So we spent most of the morning cleaning out the garage with all of our free time while all of our sale items sat on the driveway and baked in the sun. We made a whopping $10 all day. What a colossal waste of time!

Saturday evening redeemed the day for me. The whole family was in town for my sister-in-law's baby shower. Olivia and the cousins had fun playing together, the parents-to-be got lots of pink sleepers and other baby essentials, and I enjoyed the din that is created by putting almost a dozen small children in a room together with a bunch of adults. Exhausting, but fun.

Sunday was family day. We all went to early Mass, and then we headed to Local Theme Park together. It was a dreary, drizzly day, but plenty warm. The clouds and rain drove the crowds away, so we didn't have any lines to contend with, and the kids had a great time. As a bonus, the lack of crowds made it easier to move around with eleven adults and seven kids without losing anyone.

Olivia and her cousins got to enjoy activities like this:








Boy, did they have fun!

It was a great weekend. We won't have another opportunity to all be together again until Christmas, and by then there will be two more little ones (for sure) to add to our number. There will be lots of big family fun to be had in the coming year, I'm sure!

Family overdose

My oldest younger brother and his family came to visit this weekend. We had three days of cousin-palooza, starting with a swim party on Friday and topped off with a family hayride this morning after church. Olivia is tired (and so is Mommy).

See how she's just zoning out...?

Olivia had a lot of fun on Grandpa's farm with her cousins, and she'll be asking about them for days now. (She actually climbed into their van this afternoon and said, "Go home with Unka Brad?") Whatever we do this week will pale in comparison to this.

Olivia and Mommy riding on the haywagon. She's not sure how she feels about this.

Walking to the barn with Aunt Lori and Cousin Molly.

Trekking out into the tall grass of the field to chase the cat.

Absent

Olivia and I just returned from a few days visiting her cousins, including the one who was born on Monday. My brother has dial-up and spotty Wi-Fi, so I haven't been able to write. And at the moment, a tired, sick and grumpy toddler is tugging on my shoulder, so I can't give you a full update today. I'll just say that Olivia really enjoyed spending time with her four older-than-her cousins and her new baby cousin. I think she learned a lot from the constant flow of activity that goes on in a household with four (and now five) little ones running around. It was fun to watch her interact...to learn from her cousins and teach them some things too.


And, of course, I got to glimpse how Olivia might interact with an infant. It looked very sweet.Of course, moments after this photo, she tried to shove her off her lap like she was a rag doll, but still.

Coming up this week...

I'm having a hard time believing that Thanksgiving is this week. November just sort of disappeared. Must have had something to do with the fact that I spent half of it counting down the days until my husband came home from his trip.

This should be a pretty busy week for us. We'll be visiting with one family on Thursday, the other on Saturday, and we're having everyone over to our little house on Friday for Olivia's birthday party. I'm not sure what plans we have for Sunday outside of going to Church, but I'm sure we'll fill it with SOMETHING.

Thankfully, my husband has been able to take the entire week off of work. He had all these vacation days left, so we are taking advantage of that. I think we are going to *gasp* go see a movie this week! This is almost unheard of. We only see one or two theater movies a year, and usually at Christmas time. We just have a hard time justifying the expense of the big screen when we have a perfectly good DVD player at home and free movies from the library. But this is a special occasion. This is VACATION, people. Even if it is the kind where you stay home and cook all of your own meals.

In other news, we FINALLY finished Olivia's photo montage and figured out how to burn it onto a disc so we could watch it on the TV. We will use it at her birthday party. I'm toying with the idea of putting it on the internet and password protecting it (we have family pictures in it), but it's 23 minutes long! I'm not sure any of you are interested enough to watch 23 minutes of my baby growing up. Maybe I'll get motivated to create a 5 minute short version. Or maybe not. We'll see!

He's home!

My husband and his coworkers drove straight through the night to get home. He arrived around 10:00 a.m. and is still awake! He's running on about 43 hours of nothing but short snoozes, so he'll crash hard tonight, but we are just so glad to have him home!!

Sundays and the crunch-crunch of my favorite season.

We are enjoying some very warm days around here this September. Although mid-80s is a bit high for my liking, I am enjoying the cool evenings. Our one huge backyard tree, a maple, is rapidly losing its leaves due to the dry weather and the cool nights, but this has led to a rather pleasing familiar sound that always reminds us of the cooler days of Fall.

This is Olivia's first experience with the crunch-crunch of the leaves, and since she is now extremely confident in her walking skills (to the point of almost running) we had some fun yesterday playing with her in the backyard. She was tromping around in high-kneed baby style, randomly turning this way and that while exploring all corners of our backyard. The ground is a bit uneven, so she did take a few dives into the leaves, always coming up with a handful that went straight to her mouth. I will be glad when that leaf-eating stage is over!

Yesterday was a pretty fabulous family day. Because of our busy schedules and my husband's work responsibilities, it is rare that we have a weekend that is entirely our own. This weekend was, though, and the weather cooperated nicely.

Sunday was what I believe Sundays were meant to be...a day of rest and spending time with family. We headed out to Church early because Olivia was SOOO tired. We anticipated that she'd fall asleep on the drive and then we'd park by the river and read until it was time for Mass so Olivia could finish her nap in the car.

Our church, and old German parish that was established in what was once a rowdy river town, sits just one block away from the Ohio River.

So we went forward with our plan, and Olivia did sleep in the car for about a half-hour. We still had some time left before Mass was to begin, so we took in the cool morning breeze and the views of the river.




After Church, we went home for lunch and Olivia's nap, and then we headed out to our local state park for a free patriotic concert at their amphitheater. The concert wasn't great, but Olivia enjoyed the outing anyway. She really loves being outdoors.

We capped off the day by grilling out and playing in the crunchy backyard. A perfectly relaxing Sunday. This week, we are expecting a shift to seasonably cooler temperatures. Bring on the jackets! Olivia and I are looking forward to crisp fall days and playing in the yard.

In which my head explodes...

After a much anticipated and more-exhausting-than-expected weekend, I'm battling back a two-day-long headache. A couple dozen different brands of pain killers later, it has finally dulled to a manageable level of pain.

This weekend, we went to an out-of-town wedding, spent the night in a hotel, and then went to my niece's fifth birthday party.

All in all, it was a fun weekend. But I always underestimate the complete horror that is sharing a hotel room with Olivia. She hates hotels. I always think it will get better with age, but it only seems to get worse.

Our first mistake was trying to get her to sleep in the hotel-provided crib instead of hauling our pack-n-play out of the car. Olivia is a sleep roller who prefers to curl up next to the crib bumper for her stationary sleep stages. This doesn't work so well in a crib with metal slats and no bumper. It completely freaked her out. By the time I figured out why she was so hysterical with sobs of exhaustion, it was past midnight. I finally remedied the situation with the pack-n-play, and she slept much better after that.

Despite the sleep deprivation, Olivia did well at the birthday party on Sunday afternoon.

As long as she is fed and/or entertained, she can endure a good long stretch without a nap. But her sleep deprivation was evident when we finally hit the road and she was asleep less than a minute after we left my brother's driveway.

Poor baby.

She has slept nearly 12 hours straight each of the past two nights, and is napping like a champ. So far, she hasn't shown any signs of getting a cold or anything, so we are crossing our fingers and hoping that the combination of exposure to lots of small children and lack of sleep won't lead to illness this time around.

I'm also in recovery mode, although I think my headaches are due to some sort of external factor and just exacerbated by the lack of sleep. It may be the air pressure. We've had some storms come through, and as much as we are (finally) enjoying the rain, I think the change in air pressure gets to me. My husband thinks I have migraines. I'm starting to think he's right.

We acquired three more bags of hand-me-downs from the cousins this weekend. Mostly 2T and 3T, but as we all know, these kids grow faster than we think. Olivia and I sorted and boxed them by size this morning. She absolutely loves when I sort hand-me-downs or laundry because I just dump everything in a pile on the floor and then start sorting it into piles. She likes climbing on top of the piles and inspecting certain items that catch her eye. It keeps her occupied for a good long while.

I'm off to finish some of the laundry before the princess wakes from her royal beauty sleep. I have to get SOMETHING done today, other than napping and feeding the baby.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Dear Daddy,

From the first hours after my birth, I heard your deep, soothing voice, calming me in the midst of all the confusion of nurses and doctors and strange faces. I spent hours staring at you and learning your face. I knew you were my Daddy.

I felt comfortable and safe in your arms.

I could sense how much you loved me, and I loved you too!

Over the past nine months, you have taught me a lot. I enjoyed visiting your college and meeting the mascot.

I really loved learning about the piano and hope to become as good a pianist as you are!

I enjoyed seeing new things with you.

Even when you wore me out showing them to me!

I look forward to all the new things you will show me and teach me in the future. But most of all, I just enjoy spending time with you, Daddy! You are the best Daddy a girl could ever want. I love you very much!

Happy Birthday Daddy!
Love, Olivia

Babysitting

I'm babysitting my nephew, Trey, today. Olivia and Trey are seven months apart, but they are very close in size and love to play together. So I was really looking forward to this.

We successfully made it through the morning. Olivia usually takes a morning nap and an afternoon nap, but she refused to sleep when Trey arrived. We got through lunch and then I put each of them down to nap. After some fussing, they fell asleep. And I was thinking I was doing pretty well with my management of two little ones.

However, Olivia has been waking every ten minutes or so and screaming since she fell asleep. I'm afraid she got overtired and now she's having a hard time settling down. This should make for a very interesting afternoon.

*Sigh*

I shouldn't really complain. Trey's just about the easiest kid in the world to watch. He's very easygoing and tolerates Olivia's tackle moves.



Seriously, though, they do play well together. I caught them hugging or kissing each other several times this morning (although I could never reach my camera in time to catch it). They are both very sweet kids.

The bombs bursting in air...

This 4th of July weekend was quite eventful for us, despite Olivia's recent illness. She was a little tired, but other than that she was back to her usual self.

On Friday, we spent the afternoon at a family gathering with about 25 members of my extended family. It was fun, but a little exhausting for our tired little girl. She spent a lot of time chillin' outside.


After a good nap in the late afternoon, Olivia wasn't really tired at her regular bedtime, so we decided to drive a couple of miles over to where the local fireworks display was going to be. We parked and got Olivia out of her seat so she could watch. I REALLY wish I had taken my camera with me. While we were waiting, she stood in Daddy's lap and played with the steering wheel. It was so cute. And when the fireworks started with a bunch of really bright flares, she just stared in awe.

Overall, the fireworks were more fun for us than they were for her. After awhile, she got bored and started playing with the steering wheel again. I was glad that we got to go, though. Fireworks were always one of my favorite things about summer. While we may make the fireworks an annual tradition for our family, I pray that our children will never have to witness what they actually represent.

We had a bridal shower to attend on Saturday, and today we played in the yard and then had some family over for a cookout at our house. Olivia enjoyed playing with the neighbor's dog.



It was a great weekend, but Olivia was worn out! She went to bed early tonight. I think we'll keep it pretty low key tomorrow. Lots of napping and relaxing at home.

Road trip

Now that I'm finally finished with the adoption story, I return you to our regularly scheduled programming...

Last Wednesday, the three of us packed up the car to travel many, many hours North to visit my husband's 92-year-old Grandpa. It's a trip we have always enjoyed and try to do at least once a year. Grandpa is quite a character and gets around much better than most people in their 90s. We'd been planning this trip for awhile because we wanted to introduce Olivia to her great-grandpa.

Well, traveling long distances in a car with a baby pretty much beats the desire to travel right out of you. Olivia actually did pretty well, considering. We cut the drive in half because it's about 10 hours straight through and CAN YOU IMAGINE A BABY SITTING STILL AND HAPPILY FOR THAT LONG? Me neither. But she slept much of the time and could be entertained for quite a bit of the rest of the time in the car.

Nighttime sleep was another story. Spending hours and hours in the car threw her off her sleep pattern. Besides that, there was this pesky little problem of being stuck in the same room with our noisy baby, who kicks and talks to herself in order to get herself back to sleep. Needless to say, none of us slept very well or very much. Hats off to those of you who can stand to sleep in the same room as your baby, but it has just never worked for us. Olivia likes her quiet space, and so do we.

As you can imagine, several days in a car isn't all that fun for anyone, but she did OK. All in all, Olivia had a chance to meet her Great Grandpa, her Daddy's cousin, her Aunt J and a friend of Daddy's from college. Lucky for them, she was all smiles for most of our visiting time. Must be due to all the car napping she was doing.

Unfortunately, all the sleep disruption and hotels and excitement wore us down, and now Olivia and I both have a nasty cold. Ugh. And with 6-month portraits scheduled for Wednesday! I hope Her Snottiness can cooperate with the nice photographer-lady, despite her cold.

Traveling baby

This Sunday, Olivia and I ventured out in the car, by ourselves, for the five-hour drive to spend some quality time with her little cousins. I had been promising a visit since we missed my twin nephews' first birthday a few weeks ago, and since my husband had meetings that would require him to be very busy for a few days, it seemed like the time to go.

Aside from the "I'm tired of being in the carseat!" and "Feed Me NOW!" whines from the backseat, the trips there and back were fairly uneventful. Olivia slept a lot, played with her book, and looked at the passing scenery without much fuss. ("Much", of course, is a relative term. Her Daddy would have thought it was a lot, but I'm learned to tune out a certain amount of fuss in the name of survival.)

The actual visit was both delightful and UNBELIEVABLY EXHAUSTING. In fact, we had to cut it short (we were planning to stay two nights, Ha!). Olivia did not sleep or nap well. Which meant that Mommy barely slept at all. Which doesn't bode well for the five-hour drive home.

See, our little Olivia is just not used to that much activity. She's used to spending her days with Mommy, primarily in a relatively quiet house where she's the loudest person she knows.

Her cousins, on the other hand, are individually and as a group MUCH louder than she is. These four cousins (ages 4, 3, and the twins are a year old), as I like to say, got their "inside voices" from their father (my brother) who absolutely never learned how to whisper. And then there's the age factor...little kids are not, by nature, quiet individuals. Together, they create quite a chaotic scene.

Now this has never really bothered me because I grew up in similar chaos, as the oldest of five children born within six years. Yeah, I can get a little fried after being dragged for hours around the house by a 4-year-old who wants me to spend hours eating her pretend cupcakes made in her pretend kitchen, but I adapt quickly.

Olivia, on the other hand, was overwhelmed by the situation. Amazingly, she was adapting by the time we left (where she could actually nap in the midst of the noise, which is something she does NOT normally tolerate), but it started off a little rough. This is why we came home the next day instead of staying two days, as anticipated. I just don't do well on severely limited sleep. And I wanted to spare everyone the pain of dealing with a REALLY fussy Olivia by the end of Monday. She doesn't do so well on limited sleep either.

She did have fun, despite the overstimulation factor. She was having a great time watching the kids play. She was just taking it all in. She's so observant and so social. I imagine that we'll have a lot more fun with such a visit when she's old enough to join in a bit. It's just hard to play with active cousins when you can't sit, crawl or walk on your own.

They must have REALLY worn her out, because she's going on two and a half hours for her nap right now. Gotta wrap this up before she decides that she's had enough of the sleeping.


These people are wearing me out!

Complete social meltdown

Yes, I'm still here. It's just hard to find time to post in the midst of feeding, changing, playtime, etc. Throw in Holy Week and family gatherings, and it's downright impossible to find spare time around here.

We discovered over the last few days that Olivia is just not ready for daily social engagements. She's such a social baby, wanting to be awake and see everything, but her little brain just goes into meltdown mode with too much input. I was able to get her to sleep through Holy Thursday Mass, but Good Friday and this morning's Easter Mass found me playing the walk, jostle, distract, repeat game.

We spent most of Good Friday in the back of church, but that was impossible this morning. There's something about Easter that makes lapsed Catholics come out of the woodwork. People I've never seen before come in droves and fill our tiny church to bursting. The back of church was crammed with folding chairs, and there was absolutely nowhere for us to go when the fussiness started. Outdoors was also out of the question because of the cool temperatures and Olivia's cute but definitely NOT warm Easter dress.

So I pulled out my entire bag of tricks, including her favorite soft book with the paper in it that crinkles because, seriously, crinkle sounds are way better than listening to my baby shriek through the entire Mass.

We survived. I even remember parts of the homily. I was listening, but the servers could have done a jig in front of the altar and I would have missed that completely. I had to keep my eyes constantly on the baby in order to keep the inevitable shower of spit-up from hitting her Easter dress or my own clothes. I succeeded in this task, with the kneeler taking the hit instead. *Sigh*

I suppose we made it worse by dragging Olivia to family gatherings on Friday night and Saturday. The noise and chaos of the 30 or so cousins, aunts and uncles who were able to attend just gets to her, and quickly.

We are not a quiet family. And while most of us have learned to either join in the chaos or completely tune it out, the "in-laws" have more trouble with this. My husband is one of those who gets overstimulated by the noise and confusion...and that's just from the adults. Add in the many small children and the seven (yes seven) babies that were born into the family last year, and it gets pretty crazy. Even I think so.

So I think we'll be laying low for the next few days. We could all use some peace and quiet.

Speaking of the princess...she's awakened from her nap and is crying for her supper.

Why my husband is the sweetest man on earth...

Today is my last day at work. This beautiful arrangement was delivered to my office. If you can't read the card it says, "Job well done. Welcome Home."

From my husband. Isn't he the sweetest?