2-Year Doctor Appointment

I took Olivia for her 2-year doctor appointment on Tuesday and she did really well. Out of all the skills that they asked if she could do to determine if she was on-target, behind or ahead. The only one she couldn't quite do yet is catch a ball. But we are working on that. That is a bit advanced for her age anyway.

She also didn't have to have any shots this time! Yeah! She isn't due for any more until just before kindergarten. (around age 4 or 5).

Here are her stats:

Height: 35 inches (78%)

Weight: 24 3/4 pounds (25%)

Yup, she's still tall and skinny!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Olivia!

Happy Birthday to Olivia! I cannot believe she is already 2 years old! Wow, I can still remember taking her home from the hospital and being able to hold her all wrapped up in a little blanket - so small and helpless! Now look at her! She's a big girl now and she can do all sorts of things all by herself!

We started out her birthday by letting her open her new play kitchen and accessories from Grant and I when she first came down in the morning:

Then, the party preparations began. I had already made the cake (with mom's help - thanks, mom!) the day before, so that was done. I made little honey pot favors the weekend before with my craft girls. Then at the party Sara helped me stamp their little thumb prints on them in yellow paint and we turned them into little bees!

The party was a good turnout. Everyone in town that we invited (except for one of our neighborhood friends) was able to make it. We also had our parents and brother's come into town. Even Ms. Angie and Ms. Mur-mur came. You should have seen Olivia light up when she saw them show up in the back yard. When she opened her presents, she had to go and show Ms. Mur-mur each one! She kept saying "look Mur-mur, see Mur-mur" after each one. It was very cute!

Here's Olivia and Gracie playing at the water tables in the back yard. All the other kids were out there, but it was so hot out, most of them had come back in for a break. But not these two - we had to drag them in to get cleaned up to do the cake. (they were both SOAKED!)

Here's a really cute video of us singing "Happy Birthday" to Olivia. She got so excited!!!

Then it was time for presents! She has become a real pro at opening all the presents! She just tore right into them! Thank you to everyone who gave her such wonderful gifts! She is already enjoying quite a few of them!

Then we had to do our picture on the couch again. When Olivia was first born, we took pictures of myself with Olivia, Sara with Gracie and Becca with Drew. Then one of just the 3 kids. See those from before and then this time:

(Drew 4 1/2 months old, Olivia 2 weeks old and Gracie 5 1/2 months old)

(Emma - 2 months old, Drew 2 yrs and 4 months old, Olivia 2 yrs old and Gracie 2 years 5 1/2 months old) Not the best picture, but the best we got! They were not in the mood!

Now just the kids!

(then)

(Now)
Poor Emma was so mad!

Here's Olivia running around in the play dress shoes that her cousins, Emma and Drew got her. What a perfect gift! She LOVES wearing our shoes and now she has her own big girl shoes!

Unfortunately we forgot to pull out the party hats during the party, but Olivia had a good time with them that evening. (Sorry Harmony, I know you worked hard on helping me with those!)


Here's Olivia playing with her new kitchen set:

Then here's a picture of Olivia playing with her new play dress-up shoes that her cousins, Drew and Emma got her!

Olivia had something she wanted to say to everyone that was able to come to her party, sent their best wishes and/or were thinking about her on her special day:

Thank you to everyone! We really appreciate it!

We also had some pictures taken for Olivia's 2nd Birthday. We went to Lundies in Cary, NC. They did a great job. If you'd like to see the pictures of Olivia online, you can view them by going onto their website (see link above), select "Enter" under the left picture, then select "Clients" at the top. Then you can enter in our password (nelson10) to view them.

Homemade Birthday Cake . . . .again!

I decided to make Olivia another fancy homemade cake this year to fit with her Winnie the Pooh theme. (I couldn't just buy a cake - nope got to be fancy! lol). So, I went ahead and baked the cakes first thing Saturday morning (at around 7am) before we went to The Little Gym. Here's Olivia *helping* me! She just brought her chair over and came to *help*. More like, she wanted to stick her little fingers in the batter! (which she did as soon as she could sneak it in!)

I made 3 cakes again this year. One beehive for Olivia to eat, one honey pot and one bigger cake with all the characters. My mom came up Saturday to help me with it. Although not all the characters look exactly right, Olivia was able to identify them all and they were pretty cute. Here are some pictures:

The Little Gym Graduation

Olivia graduated from her second semester at The Little Gym this past Saturday (yes, a VERY busy weekend for us!). She had a great time and is really starting to become more independent and try more things when we are there. She always has a great time there and we'd highly recommend it to other parents!

Olivia is walking across the uneven bars in the below picture and video. This is one of the skills that they have been working on and she has NEVER wanted to even try it before. This time she initiated it and walked the entire length!

And here she is swinging on the bars - her favorite thing at the little gym!

An action shot of her making a basket:

Here's Olivia and Gracie with their little medals for graduating.

First Hair Cut

I took Olivia to get her first haircut last Tuesday, 6/08/10. Her hair was starting to get crazy and the ends were starting to fray. I just wanted to get it shaped up a bit.

Here's a before picture. you'll see her hair was getting pretty long.


I took her to a place call JJ's Kids Cuts and they specialize in little kid hair cuts. All of the chairs for them to sit in to get their hair cut are little cars, planes, motorcycles and one is even a fire engine. We let her pick out her car and she chose the girly pink one!

Then she got her hair cut. She was really good for the hair dresser. She sat pretty still for it and the lady was very nice. They even put on a winnie the pooh show for her to watch.

We got a little baggy with some of her hair clippings in it to bring home as a keepsake. They even took a picture of her and were going to print us out a certificate for her first haircut, but their printer wasn't working. So we should get it in the mail pretty soon.

Sesame Street Live!

So, I have a TON of blogging to catch you guys up on! I'll start back to where I last left off and bring you up to date on everything (including her birthday!) I hope to have it all posted sometime this week.

For Olivia's birthday (a little early) we took her to see Sesame Street Live! She had a great time and it was so much fun watching her watch the show. She'd get so excited and clap and dance. I took a bunch of videos, but it was too dark in there to see her dancing her little heart out. Trust us, she was dancing like crazy!

Here's the family right before the show started:

Almost 2!

So . . . Olivia is almost 2 years old already! She is becoming such a big girl! She is trying to talk in complete sentences and doing a pretty good job of telling us what she wants to. We still don't understand 100% of what she is trying to tell us, but most of it. Here is a picture I took of her all dressed up from this morning. She even has a little headband on (which didn't make it more than 5 minutes, but at least I got a picture!).


We had a good time at the Little Gym again this past weekend and took a couple pictures and videos. Here are some of them:

That's about all that's going on around here other than me planning her birthday party. We're just going to do a small party at our house with some of our close family and friends. This year, Olivia actually has some little friends to invite and most of them are able to come. I cannot wait, it is going to be a lot of fun. She is having a Winnie the Pooh party! Yeah! And I am going to attempt to make another cute cake for her. I'll show you all pictures once I am done.

Not sure if I'll be able to blog much between now and then - lots of planning to do, but I will definitely post lots of pics and videos of her party for those of you who cannot be with us that day to share it.