Tuesday, May 27, 2014

3 months

Miss Olivia is three months old!

She's getting more and more fun all the time; she laughs now and gets really excited to see daddy at the end of the day.  She gives Kate lots of smiles too.

She's growing these adorable leg rolls and pudgy arm rolls.  Her bright blue eyes are as beautiful as ever.

She's becoming more content to play on the floor, which is a big step for her.

She is sleeping swaddled in her crib at night (that was Matt's wonderful idea), and usually only wakes up once each night to eat and then goes right back down.

She has rolled from front to back a few times, but doesn't seem too interested in doing it consistently.

She grabs at things when you dangle them in front of her, and often catches them now.

She's still struggling with naps.  If I lay her down in her crib or the rock and play, she wakes up after 20-30 minutes.  She takes her best naps in the swing we borrowed from our friends, the Hammers, but someday she will have to learn to sleep in her own bed.

She discovered her hands and feet, and is quite enamored with them.

She's wearing mostly 3 month size clothes.

She is a total jabber box once or twice each day.  She gets going and you can totally have a conversation with her, jabbering back and forth.  It's fun:)

She gets pretty feisty at times (usually when she's hungry), but smiles a ton.

She tracks objects and likes to hold onto small toys and blankets.  A lot of people have commented that she's very alert for a baby her age.

She is super strong and loves to sit up (holding her own head, of course).

She's getting a bit better with being in the car.

And she's a total sweetheart.  We love her so much!








Wednesday, May 14, 2014

2.5

Today is Kate's half birthday.  She's two and a half! How is that possible? I want to remember what she's up to these days, so here goes...
  • loves to play outside (current favorite outdoor activity - bubbles)
  • makes the cutest duck and goose noises
  • loves to color with markers - especially to color in shapes (and she's really good at it!)
  • can sing the alphabet song and count to 10
  • loves to read stories and makes up her own when she's looking at books by herself
  • sings to herself in the car
  • is not great at sharing her toys yet
  • likes to sort and organize things
  • is always finding color matches (e.g. your shirt matches my bowl)
  • has really good fine motor skills
  • makes 'mochas' in her kitchen:)
  • has crushes on Justin and Tristan
  • loves to play with our neighbors, Griffin and Paige
  • totally takes after her mom's love of chocolate
  • is a major bedtime staller
  • gives the best snuggles right after her nap
  • wears 2T clothes and size 6 shoes
  • is very good at puzzles
  • loves cheese and milk
  • helps pick out her clothes and Olivia's clothes most days
  • has really good senses of smell, sight and hearing...you can't hide anything from this girl!
  • likes to be a helper and do 'projects'
  • has learned to ask for things by saying, "May I please..." and it's so hard to say no to her!
  • definitely has her terrible two moments (some days more than others), but has developed a super sweet side too
  • calls Olivia hun/honey and sweetie (and Livia, Liv, Livvy, Oliv)
  • is really good at jumping
  • loves to dance
  • has three of her 2 year molars
  • remembers the most random, obscure things
  • likes to show off her baby sister
  • gives lots of hugs and kisses 
  • has my most favorite expression when she discovers something or figures something out.  it's pure joy, with a little awe mixed it, and it is priceless



Mother's Day

Kate made me this super cute handprint at Bible Study for Mother's Day.  Matt spoiled me all day (I got to cook lunch all by myself and then took a nap!).  And we went to my parent's house for a cookout for dinner.  The weather was beautiful.  I am blessed.



Tulip Time 2014

We got to go to Holland for Tulip Time twice this year.  The first weekend, there weren't many tulips blooming yet and it was pretty cold, but we did get to see the little kids do their dutch dance and Kate visited the petting zoo at Kollen Park.  She also had her first experience at The Peanut Store.  I'm pretty sure she touched every piece of candy in the place.  We let her choose one thing to buy, and she picked a dum-dum sucker:) I love that girl so much.  Livvy slept most of the time we were there, but made sure we remembered that she does NOT like to be in her car seat and prefers to be held at all times.





I stayed with Olivia while Matt took Kate to see the animals.  He said she was kind of shy, and just kept yelling 'neigh' at the horses:)

Our second visit was so much fun.  We met my parents in Holland and saw the real dutch dancers (Kate calls them touch dancers or wooden shoe dancers) at the Civic Center.  Then we walked around Centennial Park to see the beautiful tulips before walking through the Hope campus and heading downtown.  We had lunch at Crust 54, and the pizza was awesome! Then we got to see the dutch dancers perform on 8th Street one last time before we headed home for naps.  Olivia tolerated the stroller for part of our visit, but got passed around a lot too:)







we love Hope! bummed Liv was sleeping during these pictures:(
back to the Peanut Store for a treat