Cute things Olivia does these days

The word "bye bye" is always followed by "see ya."  She says it all at once like "byebyeseeya."  She likes to pretend. In fact, right now she is pretending she is going somewhere, carrying my bag of yarn on her back. Several times she has told me "byebyeseeya" and come back for extra hugs and kisses.

She says "mere" when she wants you to come here. I'm sure when I tell her "come here" and it kind of runs together and sounds like "c'mere." Earlier today she was chasing Lucy around and shouting "mere" at her. Pretty funny, though I'm not sure Lucy loved it.

When we are eating, she will ask for a bite, lick, or try of our food. It sure makes eating something you don't want to share with her difficult.  She can kind of count and kind of sing her ABC's. If you say one, she will say "two, free, (and sometimes four)." She does her own version of the ABC's and says some of the letters here and there.

Probably my favorite things she says these days are "yuv you" (love you) and "nithe" (nice). She walked into Kohl's the other day and said "Nithe!"  She took her shoes and socks off in the car and exclaimed "Nithe!" But the best was when she asked me to pick her up, hugged me and said, "Aaah, nithe!"

Enjoying the outdoors

We've had a lot of nice, warm weather lately. We try to go on a walk after dinner every night. Olivia likes to help "walk" Lucy (above). It was so warm the other day (mid to high 80's) that we put on our swimsuits and played with water (below).

A little bragging :)

I recently got an email from babycenter.com that contained a list of words that a child should know by the time they turn two. See list HERE.

My little smarty pants knows and can say every one of those words (with the exception of the word juice, only because she's never had it before). So, not only can she say 24 of the 25 words she should know by the time she turns two at just under 18 months old, but she can say an additional 75+ words. I won't bore you with the list, but the nerd/teacher in me has all 100+ words in an Excel spreadsheet. I thought it would be fun to look back at some day - both for me and for her. I think I'll stop writing them down at this point though because it's getting hard to keep up with all the words she can say as she learns a new one (or two) every day!

Saturday Morning

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, a picture of
Olivia and our neighbor friend Ben

We started off our morning by checking out the Mom's Sale at the church by our house. A friend of mine had told me about it and texted me when she got there to let me know that they had some play kitchens for sale, which I had recently mentioned I wanted to get for Olivia.

So, we headed to the sale before we went down to Second Street Market for breakfast, which is our little family Saturday morning ritual. We picked up this cool little wooden play kitchen (and play food, utensils, cookie sheet, and pan) for only $25!!!

She looooooves it!

After rinsing all the play food and wiping it down, it now has a home in our real kitchen. I am hoping Olivia will play with it while I make dinner so that I can keep an eye on her.

Eating some play food (no pants b/c she spilled and fell
in the water we were using to clean the food)

Here's a picture of Olivia and Yusaku enjoying some Celtic music at Second Street Market. :)

Indy and Fort Wayne Trip

Over President's Day weekend, we went to Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. On Friday, we went to the zoo in Indy. My parents met up with us there. We had beautiful weather and the zoo wasn't crowded at all. Here are some pictures from the zoo.

Family pic before the dolphin show started...too bad it terrified Olivia and we had to leave shortly after

Olivia and Papa

Looking for the rhino

Papa, Maga, Olivia, and a seal :)

Sarah came into town late Friday night, so we met up with her on Saturday morning. We hit up the Indianapolis Children's Museum before making our way to Fort Wayne. Here are a few pictures from the museum.

She loves playing in the water

...and playing with magnets

coloring

Driving a digger

Not sure what this thing is

When we got to Fort Wayne, we checked into our hotel and then headed over to Uncle Clem and Auntie Maureen's house to visit. My mom's cousin Bill and his wife, Kathy came over along with Billy and his wife, Jennifer. It was so nice to see everyone again and to meet Jennifer. We had a great time visiting with them. Here are a few pictures from our visit.

Reading with Auntie Maureen

She loved this little dog of theirs

Sisters enjoying some Starbucks

Reading with Aunt Sarah

Smiling with Papa

The whole gang

Springtime!

I guess Spring is finally here and the Winter we never really had is over. While I was a little disappointed that we never we really got any snow to play in, I am ready for Spring and the nice weather it brings. This week in particular has been awesome - in the 70's yesterday and today!

We have spent a lot time outside lately enjoying the nice weather. We went to Possum Creek Metropark with Yusaku's parents on Sunday. We had never been there and it was nice. It was a huge property with a lake, ponds, and a farm with animals. We had a great time. Here are some pictures from that trip.

Here are some other recent pictures of Olivia (and us). Enjoy!

Cutie pie celebrating Girl's Day with "sushi"

The food Yusaku's mom made for us to eat on Girl's Day...yum!

Big girl feeding herself oatmeal

Looking for fish in the pond

Olivia and I at Paw Paw Camp

Yusaku and Olivia at Paw Paw Camp

Playing in the sand at Orchardly

Olivia and her friend Linden at Aullwood Farm

Hanging out in the ballpit at gym class