Outdoor Fun

We are outdoorsy people, or at least we try really hard to be.  I love to be outside, in the water, or being active somehow, however, sometimes the Texas heat can really get the best of me.  We are trying to get a lot of our favorite outdoor activities in before it gets to stinkin' hot!  It looks like summer is going to come early this year, and I'm betting it's going to be brutal.

We have really wanted to go camping lately, but we can't quite get healthy enough to do the full-blown overnight thing.  A couple of weeks ago I was sick, and then Olivia, and now Dave is finally getting close to feeling 100%.  We decided just a day trip to check out a new spot would be all we could manage.  We drove up to Arkansas Bend which is in Lago Vista, about 25 minutes from our house.

Even with Lake Travis being really low, it was still so gorgeous out at this spot.  We will definitely go again sometime this summer.  There was lots of shade, lots of seclusion and easy water access.

Olivia LOVES to be outside.  She says "outside" a million times a day.  Today the very first word out of her mouth when she awoke from her nap was outside.  We have reached that point in Olivia's toddlerhood where we need to spell certain words so we don't trigger and activity we aren't necessarily ready to commit to at the time.   Needless to say, she loved our little day trip.

Olivia started out her afternoon with a great outdoor nap.  These are the best kind.

After nap time we got in some water clothes.

The water was still a little cold even though it was a 90 degree day.

Dinner time!

The corn on the cob was a hit.

The rest of the weekend we spent running errands, shopping, and cleaning.  We decided to buy Olivia her own little fold up chair because she loved to climb in and out of ours.

Olivia trying out her new chair!

My baby girl looks like such a big girl!

Sunday afternoon we went over the Gammie and Yaya's house for some family time and dinner.  Once again we spent a good amount of time outside!  We had a wonderful weekend.

My Little Animal Lover

Olivia's love for creatures started at a very young age when our monster dog was forced into her life.

Their love grew over time.

Olivia then started to love all animals. Big,

and smaller.

Some animals reciprocate the love, others do not.

Here's to hoping she is an aspiring veterinarian, and not an animal hoarder. 

School Days

Here are some fun pictures of Olivia at play at daycare.  At the end is a cute little video of Olivia getting into Itsy Bitsy Spider.  Enjoy.

Little girl hanging with the big dogs.

Kite Festival

Some fun pictures from our fun day at the Kite Festival in Zilker Park in early March.

This may seem crazy, but...

These past two days on our way to work I have sat up front with David!  Like an adult.  Dave has been our chauffeur for the past almost 15 months, but I'm slowly starting to transition to the front.  Olivia does okay, on and off,  but overall she dislikes the car seat.  Whether I'm in the backseat with her or not she is antsy and wants to get out.  I have found if I hold Olivia's hand from the front seat that will soothe her enough until she is fine with sitting back there; I love holding her little hand.

I haven't blogged as regularly as I would like, life has just been so busy!  Our weeks are filled with work and the daily routine.  Our weekends are spent with yard work, chores, shopping and visiting family and spending time together.   I'm going to try and make a bigger effort to keep up to date. 

Olivia is growing.  Everything about her is growing, her hair, her teeth, her little body, her feet!  The list of words that she can now say and repeat is also growing.  Help, ball, bubbles, 'nana, nurse, Thor, Mama, Dada, yes, shoes.  She also will mimic sounds and animal sounds like crazy.  She knows how the dogs goes, horses, monkeys, elephants, and birds, too.  I'm in constant amazement by how quick she picks things up.  One of my favorite "tricks" to date is when she will throw something in the trash per our requests. 

While Olivia just seems so grown up at times, I'm very happy with those times that she still seems so baby-like.  Olivia is still my booby baby, and although she can now say nurse, pull down my shirt and ask for help if she doesn't have full access, she is still my booby baby.  Nursing a toddler has definitely been a rewarding experience, and one I never imagined I would enjoy as much as I do.  We take our nursing relationship one day at a time, but every day I'm grateful for another day that Olivia wants to breastfeed.

Olivia is silly, silly, silly.  She and her Daddy love making faces to one another, and they do this silly little fake laugh back and forth.  Olivia looks so much like David, and I love it.  I also love it when people tell me that my beautiful little girl looks like me.  My heart melts.

14 months is right around the corner...

I have a free moment during my work day.  I walked over to Olivia's classroom as I usually do for lunch.  It's about a half mile walk.  It's a very lovely walk through the capitol complex area.  I have really enjoyed this walk over the last 5 months since I started this job.   Anyways, I walked over to the daycare and ran into David who was also walking over from his job for a lunch date with our girl.  We were surprised to find that Olivia was napping. IN THE BIG KID CLASSROOM. ON A COT!  I could of died of cuteness overload. 

By big kid, I mean just the next classroom up.  So the babies are anywhere from 12-18 months or so.  I expressed some interest in Olivia moving up this week, and I guess they sort of started her transition today.  I was told that she is very ready and was doing marvelously.  I was so proud, and sad.  Sad because I have discovered that I do terribly with transition when it comes to Olivia.  One of the other moms said that she thinks our babies do much better with change then we do, and I couldn't agree more. 

So anyways, Dave and I hung out a little bit outside because it was nice.  I walked part of the way with him back to his office, and I may or may not cried because I was sad/emotional/realizing that Olivia does in fact have to eventually grow up.  He doesn't quite get it the same ways I do because he is a "man." 

Olivia is just growing and growing and becoming more and more awesome.  I'm loving everything about motherhood, even the tough times.  I live for our lunch dates, and even more so for 5pm pick-up.  I practically run the half mile walk knowing that I will be greeted by my beautiful smiling with teeth baby happy to see me.   There are fewer things in my life right now that are sweeter than waking up on a Saturday or Sunday morning knowing I get all day with my little family.