Halloween 2012

How did I get so far behind!  I was looking through all of our pictures, and I realized I have not been keeping my blog up to date.   We have been busy and having so much fun.   This year for Halloween I had the motivation and inspiration to make Olivia's costume.  It has never really been important to me that Olivia or any child I have for that matter has a homemade costume, but I really enjoyed doing it, and I hope I can keep it up from year to year!

My friend, Karina, sent me the idea, and it was really something I was able to pull off.  I'm not much of a sewer, but I'm getting much better with crafts and I actually enjoy it for the most part.    

Cookie Monster was adorable!!!  Olivia really liked the costume, too, which was one of my biggest worries.  We didn't want the novelty of the costume to wear off before Halloween, so she only tried it on once.  She got to wear it in the school Halloween parade and then again for trick-or-treating in Gammie's neighborhood on Halloween night. 

The school Halloween parade was the cutest thing, EVER.  I'm already looking forward to it, again!  All of the classrooms dress up and then walk into the gym and sort of just parade around.  The parents are sitting on the sides of the gym, and in the bleachers.  I was on the floor, and Olivia saw me a few times and wanted to come stand with me, next time I will try to stay out of few.  

Silly cookie monster, and daze Buzz Lightyear, and a tired fire fighter.  

Olivia was happy as a clam and really didn't even eat or want to eat that much candy.  

My Silly Koala Bear

Where, oh where has time gone?  The last time I updated this at one time beloved blog of mine my child turned 18 months.  Life has been happening so quickly these days and now that the holiday season is almost upon us again I know time will fly, and in 2 very short months my lovely and beautiful and smart and funny daughter will be 2 years old.

I am trying to squeeze so much into our time together that I'm often left with very little time to sit and write about our wonderful jammed packed days.

My hopes though are for Olivia to one day look back and read this blog and know how much she makes our hearts happy.  Olivia knows how to make us laugh that's for sure.  Today I was relaying a story that Ms. Reagan told me about Olivia's day to Dave, and Olivia was hanging on every word because she knew we were chatting about her.  We both looked over her after I finished the story and she had the biggest grin and smug look on her face.  We love how much she is really forming a silly little personality.  The story was how Olivia has learned who to go to for what between her three teachers based on their personalities.  Reagan said that it was obvious that Olivia now knows that Ms. Ashley is the softie, and tends to gravitate towards Ashley when wanting something special.  Manipulative, yes.  Pretty gosh darn bright, too, so I will take it.

Anyways, I really can go on and on.  One of my other favorite times with Olivia is bath time.  She is so soothed by the water, and loves to play with her tub crayons, and Dora loofah, shaving cream and cups.  We get some good chatting done during bath time, and singing and counting and letters.    Lately it's been hard to get Olivia to get out of the bath.  I don't even know really how it started but I started wrapping her up in her towel and calling her my little koala bear.  She loves it.  She looks forward to pretending to be a koala, and will stay in character long after her jammies are put on.  Daddy will come upstairs and Olivia will point to herself and say, "Olivia (Oyaya) koala bear."  Daddy will know that she is in character and can only ask for koala bear kisses and koala bear hugs.  It's quite fun, actually.  She also will sometimes put on an goofy koala bear face if you ask.

Tonight, I rocked her to sleep and sang her "you are my sunshine," over and over.  And she just let me.  It was awesome.

18 Months

Dear Miss Olivia Marie Copeland,

                Boy oh boy has this been the most exciting and fun 18 months ever imaginable.  You have been such a light in our lives and are constantly making me want to be a better person, mother, wife, stranger, etc.     What a fun little person you have developed into.  I’m having such a good time watching you grow and learn. 

                For months we have been saying how much you have lost your baby look, and you are a full blown toddler.  You are almost at the point where I am beginning to consider you more of a kid, than a toddler.  You are talking and communicating with us in so many different ways.  You and I still have our own sort of language as I usually understand what it is that you want before most other people, but your communication is getting better by the day.  Daddy usually knows what you want, too.  And Grandma and Gammie understand you as well.   Your teachers tell me on the days that you are “talking up a storm.”  You are starting to sign less, and speak more.  You have been crying less, but whining more.   We have to keep reminding you to try and use your words.  You are also starting to use your please and your thank yous more without being coaxed into it. You will repeat "sorry" and "I love you" but I'm not entirely sure you know exactly what either of those quite mean yet.  You will repeat "I love you" and then left your head up for a kiss from Mommy or Daddy, so we are getting there.  I’m sure we have a long ways to go, but I love where you are right now.    Your favorite word right now is still “outside,” and for that reason we are all getting very brown already this summer.

               You are still a little bitty petite thing.  We will go to your 18 month check-up next week, but on our home scale you are just barely over 20lbs right now.  You are probably about 27-28 inches tall as well.   Sometimes you look so big in someone’s arms or when we lay down and cuddle in bed, but other times, especially when we nurse you seem so small.  You have the cutest little round belly and your legs are still absolutely divine in their chubby little way.  I heard a quote the other day on the Prometheus trailer (a movie your Daddy is dying to see) and thought of you, “big things have small beginnings.” 

                Right now you love the water.   I took you to the splash pad for the first time this summer at the beginning of May and you just ran right in the sprinklers.  None of the water spouts fazed you.  You are also very brave in the big pool and I’m looking forward to the day that you can swim a little bit on your own.  We worry about you because you are so brave, but we do not take our eyes off you for one second around the water.   We need to get you a good life-vest or float that you will keep on. The traditional arm floaties were not going to work; you hated them. 

                You also love coloring and drawing right now.  You will sit at your little table or in the bathtub and just draw away.  You are very right handed when it comes to eating and coloring, but you tend to throw with your left hand.  I’m very interested to see how all of that evolves. 

                Some of your favorite toys are anything that you can make into a “bebe.”  Your Fisher Price little people become babies that you tuck in using whatever cloth or towel you find.  You also have a couple of favorite baby dolls that travel around with us.  What a sweet little momma you are already.  I love seeing you in a nurturing light, because there are other times that you have a bit of tomboy streak that your Daddy loves to see.  You are not afraid of getting dirty, that’s for sure. 

              We are still nursing.  Right now you are nursing some days more than others, and weekends more than most days because we get to be together the full day.  For a few months, shortly after your first birthday I wondered whether we would be done anytime soon.   I didn’t really have to make a decision either way, you sort of showed me that you still needed and wanted it.   I love our special moments when it’s just you, me, and nursies.  These are the moments when you are still very much my baby.  These are also some of the few moments of each day that you will sit still and even then sometimes you won’t.   I do not know when we will stop, but I’m sure you will let me know when you no longer want to nurse.   

                Your tastes are staying pretty broad and you aren’t a super picky eater these days.    This makes us oh so happy!  I love eating a good stir fry and I love to see you eating the spicy ones with us, and enjoying the water chestnuts, mushrooms, curry sauce, chicken or pork.  You also love Mexican food and ate two whole breakfast tacos the other morning!  That was a very rare thing for you to eat that much, but I wasn’t about to stop you.   We were eating out a couple of weeks ago and you were dipping your tortilla chip into the salsa.  A lady at the table next to us was so amazed at your taste for spicy that she told the person she was on the phone with what you were doing.    It gave us a good chuckle. 

              Just this past weekend we gave you a milk box that you hadn’t tried before, and you surprised us and loved it!!! It’s Horizon low fat milk, vanilla flavored, and it comes in a little box with a straw.  I ran out and bought a 6 pack right away and you have been drinking one a day!  This is huge for you.  You have not drunk this much milk ever, aside from Mommy’s milk, which has been your favorite.  I’m going to look for other milk boxes and try those as well to see if it’s the actual milk that you like, or if it’s the cool box and straw it comes in.

                Your hair is long enough to put into very pretty pigtails that will stay up all day!  We haven’t cut your hair once, and it’s really starting to fill out and look beautiful.  Your hair is a much lighter brown today than it was the day you were born.  It’s mostly straight and slightly curly on the bottom.  I love it very, very much and need to get your Aunt Sarah to teach me how to do some cool French braids and the like.    

                I love seeing a lot of your strong and stubborn personality coming out.  Although it can be trying at times I know you are blossoming into who you are meant to be.  Six months away and you will be 2 years old, and likely a completely different person from whom I am writing about today.   We love you so much.

HAPPY 1/2 BIRTHDAY, OLIVIA!

Pictures, mostly pictures. And some ramblings.

It physically hurts me when I think of how cute my daughter is to me.   As she is asleep right now I run through all of the cutesy things she did today.  We were at the splash pad today and I turned to Dave and I said, "You know, I feel like I can honestly say that our child is the cutest child out here."  Dave, of course in all of his logic said, "I bet every single mother out here thinks that."

I think we are just wired to feel this way.  We also definitely had our fair share of tantrums and lessons to be learned today, but the cute as always seems to outweigh the nasty.  Again, probably another way that we are wired biologically to love and need to protect our young.  Anyways, enjoy....

Also, we spend a lot of time half naked around the Copeland house.  Very few people would ever really think that, because we seem like totally modest and conservative people.  However, when we get home from work all clothes off! lol.  Okay, not ALL of them but usually at least half, and with Olivia, forget it, you will be lucky to at least find her with pants on if you just surprise us and drop on in.  Our poor neighbors.

Mommy Speak

You know how they say that twins have their own secret language?  They are able to communicate with one another just by grunting or making gestures and the such, or even sometimes making up their own language.  I totally feel that there is sort of the same thing when it comes to parents and their babies!  Olivia is a talking fool these days, but sometimes I know she is saying things that only mommy would understand.  I love it because she is making communication easier every single day, but at the same time I feel crazy explaining to someone "oh, she just said 'shut the door'"  when I know what she said sounded nothing like that, but it was what she meant.  

There are a ton of words that Olivia does say very clearly, and what she is saying cannot be mistaken. Outside (her favorite), stop it please, no, yes, Thor, Oreo, door, rat baby, baby, shoe, please, walk, eyes, ear, nose, hands.  The list probably goes on, and everyday she is surprising us by the words that she knows.  I am forever amazed by what she is learning and picking up on.

Something that we have recently started doing was pointing out body parts in Spanish.  She picked those up very quickly, however, my Spanish is very limited, so sadly hers is too.  She was like a sponge learning los manos, la nariz, la boca, los ojos, la cabeza, los pies.  Tonight I taught her la luna and she loved that, she even liked saying it more than moon.



We are spending most of our evenings outside with the warmer weather.  Olivia will be a little brown bear in no time.  I'm very happy that she has not had a single sunburn yet, and the sunscreen has been doing it's job, however she has a killer farmer's tan.

The cutest little tush in the world.

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.