Oh, O!

She's laugh-out-loud funny.
I know you've all heard me say it,
but truly, she is.

While singing She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain,
there's a verse that says she'll be eating chicken and dumplings.
Olivia ALWAYS interupts me to say that it's Chicken and Fries.
Always. 
We've had whole conversations about how
if the gal on the mountain wants chicken and dumplings
that that's okay.  O is not convinced.
Why wouldn't she want chicken and FRIES?!

Had our two-year pede check-up on Thursday.
She's in the 95th % for height and 25th % for weight.
No surprise there.
No vaccinations but she did get a finger prick for an iron check.
Got a sticker on the way out, and then in the car going home:
My sticker - tri.. - SQUARE!  :)
She was so proud of herself!  :)
(She later pointed out a van's gas tank cover, saying "I see Circle.")

We took a long lake weekend this weekend down to Lake Sinclair
in middle Georgia.  Thursday afternoon, we loaded up the kid and
the dane and headed down.  They had a swing/slide/fort thing
in the front yard, and I wish I had taken a picture of my
sweet girl's face!  It was like Disney!  :) 
She had a great time at the lake...
("more boats!" and "I like the lake.")
If you haven't heard her "like" something yet, it's hysterical.

Another bit of pure bliss with her?  Her new song.
She belts, at the top of her little lungs:
My Daddy! My Daddy! My Daddy!
My Mommy! My Mommy! My Mommy!
My Nala! My Nala! My Nala!
My Amos! My...
...okay, you get the point, but it's FUNNY.
I have no idea where she got it from, but
she changes the tone for each new line and
it gets me every time.
She's usually jumping all around during it too.  :)

We've also taught her that her "full name" is
Olivia Naughton.
And my full name.  And daddy's full name.
And then that it also applies to Nala, Amos and Dru.
But instead of "Nala Naughton" -
she says "Nala Bean Naughton".
My smart girl already understands middle names!  :)

She's now down in Macon with the grandparents getting completely
spoiled rotten for her own little last vacation before the E gets here,
and I'll pick her up on Tuesday.  Enjoy, monkey - we miss you!!!

The Big Brown Truck

So, we're all just innocently hanging out
in the living room this morning...
I'm working on my remote data project;
Olivia's playing with her baby dolls, and
Nala is actually laying on her bed quite quietly.

UPS truck pulls up next door.
Nala goes wild.  Gee.
Olivia: What that noise?
Me: Nala barking at the UPS truck.
Olivia: I see it. (Translated to "I want to see it.")
I open the blinds so Nala and O can both
watch the man deliver the package.
When he drives away, O turns to Nala and
says "S'okay, Nala, he won't get you."
SO sweet.

And just now, while I was typing this:
O: what are you doing, mama?
Me: I'm typing our blog of the cute things that you do.
O: I help.
Me: You are helping.
O: Oh.
A few seconds later:
O: I want Elmo.

:)

Road Trips

Yesterday in the car:
Olivia, from her carseat behind me: I buckle it?
Me, turning to look: Oh my, you've unbuckled your carseat.
Olivia: I buckle it.
Me, a tad panicky: How did you unbuckle that?
Olivia: I push red button.
Me: You may NOT push the red button.
Olivia, with that famous toddler glint in her eye: Push it?
Me: Do NOT push the red button.  Only Mama pushes the red button.
Olivia is clearly still considering pushing said button.
Me: You will not have meatballs tonight if you push the red button.
Olivia: I WANT MEATBALLS!
Me - grateful that problem is theoretically solved. 
God love meatballs.

Today in the car:
Olivia is quietly talking to the baby doll in her lap.
At a stop light, I turn to look.
She's teaching the baby how to say Thank You in baby-sign.
That is just precious.  :)

Also today in the car...
The shoes keep coming off and going back on.
They're the funny pink Nikes with the two pink velcro straps.
She asks at one point if "that right?"
I turn to make sure she has them on the right feet, when in reality,
she's asking if she's done the velcro right. 
Instead of pulling the two straps straight across,
she's criss-crossed them on both feet. 
We did that when we were five bc we thought we were so cool. 
She's that cool at two.  Funny.

To date, there's been no more red button pushing.
Perhaps a few mommy-button pushes, but nothing life-threatening.  :)

Catching Up

I've been chastised for not keeping up with our new blog, so here's an attempt to get the stories up to speed.

Last week was my last week of my AHC contract so O and I are home together - just trying to find our groove together and loving every minute.

Monday: Day One
Morning started at 7:45am with the painter banging on the door.  And here I thought we'd agreed on 8am.  Sigh.  Better early than late, but 7:45 is REALLY early on my first non-alarm morning.  We get the painter and his sidekick to work on O's new room (bye-bye guest room, hello purple!), then O and I run out the door for my chiro appt.  Dr. Chris was great with Olivia - he's got an Olivia of his own who's only a few months older than our O, and his second babe is an Elena.  So similar to "Elliott" - made me laugh.  O enjoyed watching me getting adjusted and even climbed up on the table and laid down on the pregnancy pillow herself.  :)  From the chiro, we went straight to AHC to the Magic Monday toddler program's Egg Hunt and lunch with my AHC coworkers.  Home for naps and a quiet afternoon.

Tuesday: Day Two
Day started a little calmer - walked to the neighborhood library with Sue and Luke and Kate from next door to share in Story Time - O was clingy at first but then got a bit more comfortable as the half-hour went on.  Met with Sabrina, Ellie, Theresa and Becky and all the kids for lunch - again, a tad clingy, but we're figuring it out together.  Back home for naps and another quiet afternoon.  Then I dropped her off at D's office at 5 so that I could go to yoga, only for us to realize after yoga that D didn't have his carseat with him, so back to his office to "rescue" them.  :)

Wednesday: Day Three
Another quick morning - midwife appt at 9:30am (which we were WAY late for) - O got to see me pee in a cup (explain that to a potty-trainer!  she just kept saying "pee in cup? pee in cup?").  Then she used the exam table as a slide over and over and over again.  Margaret examed me and E - we're both doing great - and then O climbed up onto the exam table, laid down and lifted her shirt so that HER belly could be checked!  ADORABLE.  Margaret was great and got out the tape measure again and measured O's belly and then even went down the hall to get another doppler so that we could listen to Olivia's heartbeat.  So sweet.  After visiting with Margaret, on to the Zoo to catch up with old (I mean, "former", for Morena's sake) coworkers and lunch at Doc Chey's.  I've clearly worn her out at this point - she fell asleep in the car today!  Back to the chiro this afternoon and Chris scanned her back and did some tiny adjustments in her back and sacrum, just while she was playing around in his office.  Oh, and of course O's Pink Baby and Fluffy, the office bunny rabbit, also got their adjustments so that O could see what was going on.  :)  We're hoping for a full adjustment next week as she keeps seeing me get them and others in the office, but we'll see, not gonna force it.  As we were leaving today, she really wanted to take Fluffy home, but I was SO proud of her - when I told her that Fluffy needed to stay to show other kids how to get adjusted and for her to go pick which shelf he could sit on, she got right off her chair, took him right over to the bookshelf and picked out a spot for Fluffy.  You are a kind, smart little girl, monkey.  As for E, he'd been hanging out almost exclusively on one side of my belly, but now with Chris' help, he's flopping on both sides again, and I'm hopeful that this will help make a more efficient labor and birth too.  Margaret confirmed this morning that "his head is way down" so he's doing exactly what he needs to be doing, and I'm just trying to keep up the best I can to make his birth the best it can be.

The Funnies from the past few days...
Today, when singing Monkey's On The Bed, when I asked her what the doctor said, her response:
Need a bandaid?  :)

Like all toddlers, she takes her shoes and socks off in the car.  ALL the time.  I asked her why she keeps taking them off, knowing that I never get an answer to Why questions, and yet, in classic O form, she still surprises me.  Her response: "My feet are hot."  Of course.

After singing a song to her "sleeping" baby, she lifted the blanket and asked the baby "Like that song?"  It was just the sweeeeeetest thing!

The other morning, I was getting ready and had only gotten as far as jeans and a bra.  I was kneeling down in front of O and she asked if Baby Elliott needed to "go night-night" - I said sure, and she grabbed a washcloth, covered up my belly, patted it and said "Night Night Baby Elliott".  I LOVE this kid.

We're teaching her to put on her socks by herself, and she's really great at it.  She knows to put them on so that the letters are on the bottom of her foot.  Today, she was wearing Old Navy brand socks.  Her comment as she was putting them on?  "Olivia's letter right here."  Then at one stop we made today, she's pointing out the window and said "Olivia's letter - red light!" and sure enough, it was a red OPEN neon sign.  :)

This, all on top of counting like crazy, tons of ABC singing, and pointing out letters on signs all over the place.  Throw in a round of "I spy" or a fit of giggles, and you've got a good dose of our first week together.  She is laugh-out-loud funny.  She is smart.  She is helpful.  She is ours.  We love you, kiddo. 

ChickenFries

This little "nugget" before I forget...

Olivia LOVES fast food chicken nuggets.
She prefers CFA (the aforementioned "baby cow") or Wendys.
To request such a luxury, her sweet self will ask "ChickenFries?"

(Once, when I refused, she immediately asked
"ChickenMacNCheese?")

Today when we were out-and-about, she and I were leaving a
pay parking lot when she said "ChickenFries?", and realizing
that it was getting late, we started discussing our dinner options. 

As I was paying the parking lot attendant (all cozy in a little
glass booth with a window), O becomes more insistent about
the "ChickenFries" and as we're pulling away, she's starting a
meltdown on the subject. 

It admittedly takes me a minute, but I finally figured out that
she thought that we were to get the chicken nuggets from the
nice lady behind the glass window.  I mean, really, why else
would we have given her money?!  I love that kid. 

From there, we stopped at the first Wendy's we saw.

(Clearly, I should be more diligent.  She also asked for "ChickenFries" at an ATM once.)

Success

It's late, and I'm exhausted, but I just wanted to report that the
Big Apple Circus was a phenomenal success today! 

Olivia was enthralled and is now talking not only about
Bello Clown and Grandma Clown but also about the
boy who put his balls in his mouth. 

I'll just have to explain that one later. 

She had an absolute blast, as did Great-Gran, and the two of them
together no doubt have a tummy ache after all of the popcorn they consumed! 

Viva la circus!

Big Apple Circus

I'll start with a shout-out to Fernbank - they're good to their email subscribers!  Through them, I have a discount code for Big Apple Circus, the non-profit, family-friendly, no-tigers-and-elephants-oh-my circus.  Thank you, Fernbank!  ;)

Not knowing whether O would actually LIKE the circus, and seeing lots of clowns on the BAC website, we started talking to our little one about what she might see at the circus and pulled up trusty YouTube to find vids of BAC clown performances. 

And, of course, she LOVES them. 
O: More clowns, more clowns! 
(Except it sounds a bit more like "cowns" which is cute too.)

So we bought tickets for this Sunday, and I'm stoked.  We got second row ringside seats for $30 instead of the regularly priced $42.  Keep in mind that they also tacked on an extra $7 PER TICKET (what?!) and we'll have to pay for parking, but still - we're going to the circus.  My gran is coming up for the day to join us, and it'll be great.

Last night in the car on the way home from daycare...
O: More clowns?
(Cowns.)
Me: Yeah, baby, we're actually going to go TO the circus in a few days to SEE the clowns up close.
O: Circus? Clowns?
Me: Yes!  And Great-Gran is going to come too!
O: OK.
(I cannot describe how adorable she is when she says OK to something.)
A minute later...
O: Clowns? Circus?
Me: Yes, you'll go to school two more days, then one day at home with mommy and daddy, and THEN we'll go to the circus with Great-Gran to see the clowns.
O: OK.

And later last night, while sitting in daddy's lap:
O: I go circus.
Dust: Who are you going to see at the circus?
O: Bello clown and Grandma clown.
(We've clearly watched a lot of YouTube on the subject.)

And then again this morning on the way to school, we go through it ALL all over again.  To the point that when singing Old MacDonald's Farm during our commute, she asks whether Bello is on the farm too.  Sure, baby, Bello's on the farm too. 

Me: But what do the Bellos on the farm say?
O, laughing: Splash water on face!

Yep, we saw that on YouTube too.

School Daze

We are lucky - O loves school.  She just moved into the Two's Room at the end of January, and we're all still getting used to the new teacher and all still miss her One's teacher.  Such is life.

Dustin usually does drop-off; I usually do pick-up - it works on many levels, one of which is that I really suck at drop-off if she's having a meltdown, which is rare now, but not extinct.  Yesterday morning, the Tuesday after a three-day weekend (three-and-a-half if you count the Friday snow afternoon), was particularly hard for her, and I had drop-off.  Even in the car on the way there, she's saying "I go home" and we have a big discussion about how much fun she's going to have catching up with her friends.

She does fine walking into the school, but once we walk into her classroom, she starts the monkey grip and won't let me go.  We hang up her jacket, I do my best to stay calm and positive, I haul her now-limp, whiny body over to the Circle Time carpet and plop her down with her friends, all the time telling her what a great day she's going to have.  The big tears start, she and I are both miserable, but I know I'm only making it worse by staying so more hugs, more kisses, and out the door.

I also did pick-up yesterday, and as usual, ask her how her day went, and as usual, she talks about the teachers and her friends.  At one point, I think she says "Kaia" - talking about one of the little girls, so I repeat that back to her, but then she says, with one little fist up next to her eye, "No, Mommy, I crying." IT's the pantomiming fist next to her eye that gets me.  Me: "Oh. you were CRYING.  Yes, why were you crying?"  O: "Mama go work."  I love you, too, munchkin.  ;)

The Funnies

When I was growing up, I called the comic section of the newspaper "the Funnies" - does anyone still call them that?!

I want to try to capture some of the recent Olivia "funnies" - there are so many, I'll no doubt leave some off, but still - if I can remember only a fifth, we're rich indeed!

A couple of weeks ago...
O: I go Grandma Lynneth's house.
Me: You'd like to go see Pop-Pop and Grandma Lynneth?
O: I wake up Grandma Lynneth's house.
Me: Ah, you'd like to spend another weekend there.
O: Yes. 
(Cute.)

Last week, while standing with Dustin in front of the pantry, seeing a can of evaporated milk with a cow on it:
O: Baby cow!
(Generally by this, she's referring to Chick-fil-A.)
Dust: What does Baby Cow say?
O: Eat mor chikin!
Dust, teasing: Eat more bananas?!
O: No, daddy, monkeys eat more bananas!
(How does she know this stuff?!)

This past Sunday morning, after her babysitter, Savonya, had put her down the night before...
O, from the crib, to me, sound asleep: Mooooommmmy?  Mooooommmmy?
Me: Yeah, baby, I'm coming.
O: Hi, Mommy.  Where 'Onya?
(So sweet that she loves babysitters.)

Sunday, while Dustin's watching the taped GT Basketball game...
Dust, refraining from a harsher expletive: Jimminy Christmas!
O: Where Santa?

and later in the game:
Dust, from the couch:  G*d Dmnit, Paul!
O, from the next room, without looking up from her crayons: Peanut Butter.
(If you don't know the peanut butter story already, you're really missing out.  The fact that she knows that GD is cursing and that you should say PB afterwards had me and D ROFL!)

Fine, I'll blog it.

We have two funny, amazing kids.  We haven't even met the younger one yet, but already, I find him funny.  Olivia turned two at the beginning of January and is, quite simply, a riot.  Elliott will move from his current "womb and board" and into this crazy world sometime late April/early May.  We are truly lucky.  And, still, in constant awe.

How Olivia is already two, I have no idea.  So much I've already forgotten and should have written down.  So here it is, a way for me to capture the funny, the grotesque, the little snipits that are so quickly slipping away.  I love this family we're building, this life.  I am so proud of us.  I suppose this is my tribute to that.  To just the joy of being together.