Easter

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. Sarah got into town Friday afternoon and we had fun hanging out with her and then having dinner with her and my parents at one of our favorite places - Dewey's! Saturday morning we had our usual breakfast down at Second Street Market, along with Sarah and my parents. We followed that up with some Easter egg dyeing. Here are some pictures of the fun.

While Olivia napped, I snuck out for some shopping and lunch with my mom and sister at the Greene. It was really nice. After we were done shopping, we met up with Yusaku and Olivia at Lincoln Park Pond. They had ridden the bike over and had a little picnic lunch and were watching the ducks and the geese - a nice little Daddy-Daughter date. :)

Saturday evening we had Easter dinner at my parent's house. Yusaku's parents joined us as well. Dinner was delicious. Afterward, Olivia looked for Easter eggs in the front yard. She's a pretty good Easter egg hunter. :)

Sunday morning, when Olivia woke up, she checked out the basket the Easter Bunny had left her - a stuffed duck and Elmo puppet and some Sesame Street stickers and books!

We went to 9:00 Mass and then came back to our house afterward for some brunch with my family. We did another little Easter egg hunt in our front yard.

After Olivia's nap, we took a little picnic to Smith Gardens to enjoy the beautiful scenery and weather and took LOTS of pictures...so many that they will need a post all to themselves (coming soon).

After Smith Gardens, we headed over to spend some time with Yusaku's parents. His mom had just gotten back from Japan and had some gifts for us. We hung out outside with them because it was just too beautiful of a day to be inside. All in all, it was a great, very busy weekend. :)

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