A few words on words.

Now that she's 19 months old, Olivia is finally realizing it is much easier to get her way by actually using words rather than by pointing and saying "eh, eh, eh" or having to make up fancy sign language. The sign language thing was funny though. It started with her pointing to her mouth for "eat", then she added shaking her fist in front of her mouth for "brush teeth", rubbing her hands on her legs for "put on lotion", squeezing her diaper for "go potty", and (my personal favorite) shaking from side to side (usually in combination with pointing at the cd player) for "please put on some music so I can get my groove on". I realized the other day that she has been adding words much more quickly and thought I would compile a list.

It all started off back in June with "shoe", a very appropriate first word for my little girly girl.

shoe, cat, dog, hi, trash, tree, truck, car, bus, eat, sit, down, potty, bye, bird, fish, button, house, hair, eye, mouth, knee, foot, bad, fly, baby, bear, bug, bath, ka-boom, book, cheese

mom, daddy, grandmom (sounds more like mom), dick (grandad)

animals she imitates when asked "what does the _____ say?":
cat, dog, cow, horse, sheep, pig, duck, monkey, bee, lion, owl

Grammie came to visit!

Alex had to go to Idaho for work for 2 whole weeks in September. I thought I would go insane on my own for two weeks (I kept telling people "Olivia I can handle, it's the dogs that will be the death of me") so Grammie came to the rescue! Here are some of the highlights:

going to the playground



eating cheese

a trip to the zoo


and last but not least, blowing bubbles
(or as Olivia says "ffffft, ffffft, ffffft)

Cookout at Uncle Jason & Aunt Karen's house!

These pics are from almost 2 months ago when we were in RI, but I'm trying to keep with chronology here. Uncle Jason & Aunt Karen were fortunate enough (or unfortunate, depending on who you ask) to move into a house with an in-ground pool last spring. While we were visiting they were nice enough to invite everyone up for a cookout.

Olivia had fun with her cousins (actually they are her third cousins, but who's counting?)
Ashley, Meghan, Zoe and Duncan

posing in her favorite hat

exploring with Uncle Jason



um, can I help you with something?

Two months with no posts...am I lame or what?

It's been a busy couple of months, but I could say that about every possible permutation of "couple of months" you could imagine in the past couple of years so that is certainly no excuse. I guess we'll start with our trip to RI to visit my family. Olivia stayed with Grammie for a week while I was at a conference in Newport, and of course, had an absolute blast! She very much surprised me by quite suddenly starting to use a fork and spoon while she was there. Grammie called to ask me how long she had been doing it, and I said "I don't know, five minutes I guess"

puddle splashing

playing in the garden

Grampa and his girl

wheeeee!

enjoying my first Del's lemonade

Kyle's birthday party

WOOHOO, KYLE IS TWO! And boy do his parents throw a great party! With three kiddie pools, an inflatable water slide, and a jungle gym all the kids were in heaven. I only got this one picture of the birthday boy because (of course!) the camera died right after I snapped this one.





Here are a few pics of Olivia in her "shoes".

The weeds growing in the front yard...

sure do make for a nice photoshoot.

Am I crazy that this weed (Queen Anne's Lace) is one of my favorite flowers, and that I requested it not be dug up from the middle of our front lawn? Wait, on second thought, better not answer that. The good news is that at least Olivia seems to share in my (possibly questionable) taste.

Hershey Park

Hot and super crowded on a Saturday, but still a blast! All the rides were a big hit with the little miss, even the Scrambler much to my surprise. I think the Frog Hopper and the Carousel were the
favorites of the day, or was it the chocolate? Yeah probably the chocolate!