Tuesday, September 30, 2014

My 31st birthday

I love that my birthday is during Fall and I can celebrate by being outside in the beautiful weather. This year, my birthday was on a Saturday so Yusaku had the day off from work and I got to do things that make me happy, like going on a hike in Glen Helen with my family. We followed our hike with a stop at Young's Dairy for some ice cream and a quick peek at the farm animals.












Later that night the fun continued with a date night for Yusaku and I - a yummy dinner at Bonefish followed by painting at Pinot's Palette. This had been something I had wanted to do for a while and I really enjoyed it! It was an awesome birthday!




Monday, September 29, 2014

Olivia: 4 years old


It's such a strange feeling. On the one hand, it seems like it can't possibly have been that long ago that she was born, but on the other hand she's already seemed four to me for a while. Looking back at pictures of her from a year ago, you can see a huge difference. When she was newly three, she still had something that looked "baby-like" about her face. She's grown a few inches and stretched out this past year and now really looks like a "kid" instead of a toddler. Here's a little bit about Olivia these days:

-She is very smart, which we already knew of course. ;) She knows all her letters and can write many of them legibly. She writes her name by herself very well.

-She vacillates between being very emotional and cranky to being very sweet and loving - from being logical and mature to being irrational and immature. She could be growling at me one second and telling me she loves me to pieces and smieces the next minute.

-She's really enjoying preschool this year. She has a very nice teacher and according to her teacher, does very well in school.

-Even though her little sister drives her crazy sometimes, she is very sweet with her and protective of her.

-She is learning more Japanese every day.

-She has an amazing memory and imagination. 

-She doesn't like to have her picture taken most of the time, which is why I have pretty much no pictures of her from her own birthday party. Not worth the fight.

Natalie: 13.5 months


It seems I've taken a couple month hiatus from blogging and in that time, a lot has happened, including Natalie's 1st birthday. Her first year flew by, even faster than Olivia's first year it seems. It's already hard to remember her seeming like a baby. She started army crawling at four months and speed crawling by six months. Just a few months later, at ten months old, she started walking. She has always seemed more interested in Olivia's toys than her own "baby toys." Just recently, she has begun seeming even more toddler-like - showing us her funny sense of humor and communicating with us more.  Here are some things she is doing these days:


- Fake coughing when she's thirsty - this happens when she sees anyone else drinking something and decides she also wants something to drink or, if she sees me undressed and wants to nurse. :)

-Vigorously making the "more" sign when she is hungry or sees someone eating something she wants.

-Using the sign "all done" when she's done eating.

-Climbing EVERYTHING, all the time! She is such a monkey and is so proud of herself after she reaches the top of whatever she's just climbed. Anything that can be climbed, she climbs it. I honestly think she probably has better climbing skills than other kids her age.

-Throwing temper tantrums if she is mad. This means slowly lowering herself to the ground until she is flat on her back and then kicking her legs a bit and making pouty lips. At this point, it's pretty funny and cute.

-Giving kisses - both the puckery-lipped kind and the "blowing" kind.

-Putting her finger to her lips and saying, "shhh!"

-Tucking things (pretty much any small random thing) under her chin and walking around like that just to be funny.

-Loving (hugging and kissing) baby dolls. 

-Tackling/climbing on Olivia whenever Olivia is laying on the ground.

-Dancing to music in the car. Both kids love "Moves Like Jagger."

-Sometimes she will let Olivia hold her hand, but sometimes, just like her big sister, she wants to "do it herself" and won't let anyone hold her hand.

-She looks up to Olivia so much, but also gets jealous of her and if she sees me or anyone else holding or snuggling Olivia, she wants to get in on it too.

-She can hold her own and sometimes even picks on Olivia, pinching her or trying to push her out of the way.

-Pretending to be going somewhere and waving goodbye and blowing kisses before she goes.

-Loving books. She will bring you a book and plunk down in your lap, but rarely sits still long enough to hear a whole book.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Olivia's 4th Birthday


On Olivia's actual birthday, she went to preschool and I got to come in to her class with cupcakes. Her teacher invited me to stay and read a few books to her class afterward. I really enjoyed reading to the kids - a chance to fulfill the teacher in me. I also enjoyed the opportunity to watch Olivia do her thing at preschool and she really got a kick out of having me there.

After preschool, we came home and she opened her presents from Yusaku and I. I think maybe her favorite present was her own box of princess bandaids. She had a great time "decorating" herself with them (see pic). ;)



After Natalie woke up from her nap, we headed out for some lunch as a family. We followed  that up with a trip to Windmill Farm. Even though we were a little disappointed that they didn't have any carriage rides that day, the girls had fun climbing around all the wooden play structures and seeing the farm animals.

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We finished off the day with some delicious Dewey's pizza at our house with both sets of grandparents.