Beat Box Baby

She may not like opera (or clowns, as we learned today), but beatboxing?  Now THERE'S something Olive enjoys.

Reflection

Today as I buckled Olive into her car seat, she was looking at me saying, "Offa's picture!  Hey!  Offa's picture!"  She said it about 5 times before she pointed to my sunglasses (which I was wearing), and I realized she was seeing her reflection in the lenses and thought it was a picture of her.  Sweet girl.

Minnesota snow

We're supposed to get a big snow storm today - Olive will love it. She LOVES getting outside no matter what the weather. Here she is last week helping shovel...

I think it's good we don't rely on her to shovel all the snow!  It would take a while...

Olive's House

This is Olive's house.  She got it for Christmas and looooooves it.

Welcome!

It has a washing machine and sink (thanks Matt and Jess!).

It has a stove and a highchair, too.

Olive spends quite a bit of time baking things in her oven and making "coffee" (this involves pretending to pick something up off the floor and handing it to whoever needs coffee).

The oven mitt is essential.

Bon appetit!

Sideways

Cakes and Dancing

Last night we went to dinner with Irene and Laura and then to a "show", as Olive kept saying. The girls first enjoyed some cupcakes at Cafe Latte...

The "show" started out with an accordian player and an opera singer.  Olive got uncomfortable right away, when the host came out to introduce the performers.  She had a microphone, and Olive has ALWAYS been afraid of microphones.  Don't ask me to explain it, but it's true!  So she was whimpering before the singing even started.  Then the opera singer started singing, and that was just too much.  Olive said, "Ready to go to Offa's house now", as she whimpered some more.  "No singing", and we had a full on cry.  So I guess opera isn't her music genre of choice.  Sam took her out in the hall until the opera was over (she stopped crying and proclaimed, "all done!" as soon as the door shut behind them!) and the dancing and sing along part started.  The performers led the kids in a tango, and Olive and Irene did their best to keep up!

She ended up really enjoying the majority of the "show", they even sang "Comin 'Round the Mountain", one of her favorites.

Lentils

Olive enjoyed playing with some dry lentils in bowls earlier this week.  She dumped, poured, and stirred.

Stuck her tongue out in concentration.

It was serious work.

Starring...Olive!

Olive has become very interested in watching videos of herself - so tonight she kept wanting me to take "more movies" so she could then watch them on the camera.

First up are some of Olive's singing abilities...

This is not the best rendition of Bumble Bee, she gets annoyed at the end - but it's good until then.  We can't get enough of this song - love how she says "bumbum bee"!

 

She also is pretty good at Twinkle Twinkle, though this rendition ends abruptly:

Here is what life is like teaching a 2 year old anything...somersaults were on tonight's agenda.  Part of me thinks she was not getting it on purpose:

She did eventually get it together:

And one of her current favorite songs from our Music Together class - Trot Old Joe:

We hope you enjoy watching Olive perform as much as she does!

Oh, and MY highlight of the day (and maybe my year), was tonight when Sam was carrying Olive by and she leaned over to give me a kiss.  She looked at me and said, "love you".  It's the first time she's said it unprompted.  Life is good.

Weekend Update

Olive had a busy weekend!  

She made some valentines on Saturday morning...

She colored the hearts, taped them down, chose which color paper for whom, and pointed to where I should write the names.
She also spent some quality time with Carol (her Cabbage Patch Kid) this weekend.  Olive goes through phases with her guys - one week it's Elmo, sometimes Pipi, but this weekend it was Carol.

We participated in a delicious homemade pasta dinner at Matt, Jess and Oscar's house with the whole fam (we are now a clan of 11).  You all know what Olive wanted to do - "Offa hold Ocsar":
Oscar is none to sure about this!
The pasta preparers:

Mmmmmmm...

Olive and Irene enjoying throwing their bowls around:
Levi with his signature (and magical!) front facing baby hold:
Stay tuned for a video this week of Olive singing her new favorite song (Bumblebee - thanks Ara and Mike!).  I just have to get it on tape!  It will be worth the wait...

Olive and her Papa

There's something about these two...they are kindred spirits.  From the moment they met, 20 minutes after her birth, they fell in love.  Olive does not share her love so much, so her Papa is one lucky guy.

If you saw his baby pictures next to hers, they are almost identical.

When Olive cried and cried and cried for months, he was one of a select few who could calm her.

This is what love looks like.

Hours spent enjoying one another.

Sharing the world.

Protecting her Papa with her one tiny hand.

Enjoying the good things.

There are moments I think he'll cry just looking at her.

They can hardly stand it, they are in love.