Carousel

We found ourselves at Como Zoo again this weekend, and this was the first time Sam got to ride the carousel with Olive.

Waiting in line (with quite the little Diva look going on):

Ready to go:

Doing a little dance while waiting (sidenote: it is such a relief to walk away from this insanely loud carousel music after riding it, I cannot imagine volunteering and listening to it for more than 10 minutes):

And they're off:

Waving to Mama:

Love this shot, so joyful:

Sleepyhead

Olive is a really light sleeper. She doesn't sleep outside of her comfort zone if she can help it. But put her in her very dark room, alone, and with her fan on, and she's a great sleeper!

One disadvantage of a kid who won't sleep unless she's alone is that we never get to see her sleep. Last week, she had passed the 3 hour point for a nap and I went to wake her up. Usually her head pops up as soon as you place a hand on the doorknob. But this time, I guess she was deeply asleep because she stayed asleep! I went in, sat next to her, rubbed her back a little, left the room to get the camera, took a picture:

And she STILL didn't wake up! So I decided to get the sweetness that is waking up on camera.

Here it is:

And a post-nap picture of Olive with her armful of "guys"...they always have to leave the room with us:

A half

7/23/09

Olive is two and a half today. How did that happen? I thought we decided to have a baby a little over three years ago. You don't realize you're having a kid when you make that decision.

I feel like Olive is on that precarious edge of becoming a kid. 2 is the year during which it seems you start with a baby at just 2 years old and end with a kid at almost 3 years old. There are parts of her babyhood that I feel like I don't even remember. Crawling? She only did that for about 4 months and it is a blur.

Parts of Olive growing up are so much fun. I feel like I have this little friend with me all the time. Someone to run errands with, eat lunch with, go on adventures with. Other parts make me sad when I think that the baby part is over and she's such a big girl now.

She still melts into my body for hugs and cuddles a few times a day. Last night as I put her to bed I was singing a lullaby and running my fingers through her hair. At one point, I kept singing but put my hand down. She reached out, took my hand and put it on her head so I'd keep rubbing her head.

My baby, my girl, my daughter.

Her first half year (July 2007):

One and a half years (July 2008):

Two and a half years:

Happy half birthday, sweet girl.

Tent

What's that I see in the yard? A garish character tent? Got that right...Olive's got a new Dora tent:

She looks a little unsure - like Dora might actually be in the tent with her:

Peeking into the window:

OK, guess this IS fun:

It's not weird to eat eggs in your tent is it? Not around here it's not:

Teacher Olive

Olive recently set up this "class" all on her own. She put her Cabbage Patch doll Madeline and her monkey on her art desk, moved it over so she could sit under a table (?) and announced, "I'm teacher Olive." She's been SO interested in school. I signed her up for preschool beginning a year from September. Now she tells everyone that she's going to school when she's 3. It's gonna be a while, kiddo!

Her class:

The teacher in action:

This one cracks me up:

The commentary: "It's time to go to class. Want to come with me? Come with me? OK, come on. (Where are we going?) I'm teacher Olive. And I know how to do things. And we're going to that class, OK? (Where is that class) It's over there and it's outside and it's kind of far away."

She knows how to do things people, watch out.

Hula girls

Olive and Irene learned to hula hoop this weekend! Or rather learned to drop hula hoops around their ankles:

Olive ate her weight in snap peas:

And the rest of us enjoyed a giant serving of paella, prepared by Levi:

Oscar slept through the eating, poor guy missed out:

Zoo trip

Today we went to the MN Zoo and checked out some animals. Our favorite area is usually the grizzly bears and they didn't disappoint today:

Olive also likes to sit in front of the trout, a girl after her Dad's heart:

We stopped at the sandbox that has bones in it that can be dug up:

Olive sat in a skull and did some work:

We also stopped at the park at the zoo - I love how cute and skinny Olive's little legs look here:

Checking out the zebras with Sam:

And the big highlight was the new Africa exhibit where Olive got to feed a giraffe:

We couldn't believe how brave she was - that tongue was LONG, and blue, and very slimy:

At the end of the day we realized there was a smudge on the lens of our camera, which is why the photos look a little foggy. Oops!

Busy, busy

We have had one busy week - here are some photo teasers of all that's gone on for Olive in the last 7 days!

We'll get back to posting more regularly soon, summer is just too busy.