Jumping and Big Shoes

Hello again! Ok, so I managed to upload my pictures/videos for you guys.

Here is a picture from when Grant took Olivia to surprise Grandmom for her birthday a couple weekends ago:

Look at all the hair she is getting! And it has some cute waves in it - definitely not from me!


Last night I found Olivia clomping around in my shoes! She has gotten quite a shoe fetish lately and she was so funny trying to maneuver around in my shoes. Here's a picture and a video of her:

This last video is from about a week ago when she first figured out how to jump and get lift off! She was jumping around all night!

No More Eye Tubes!

I have some big news about Olivia's eyes - we had her latest follow-up from her last eye surgery and we decided that the tubes should come out. My thoughts were, if they haven't healed in over 6 months, they probably won't. And I'd rather us find out now if the surgery didn't work (or that the ducts are going to close back up) and get it fixed again before the summertime so that she doesn't have to endure another miserable summer again! She couldn't hardly handle being outside last summer and we don't want to do that to her again - especially with her being so much more active now.

Olivia did pretty well when the doctor pulled the tubes out (with tweezers . . . in the office . . . while I was holding her . . . arg!). The tubes were longer than I had thought they were - about 2 inches! eek! Anyway, since then, she seems to be doing pretty well with her eyes. Still a little leaky at times, but mostly pretty good. We even went out a bunch this past weekend and the sun didn't bother her! Yeah! Another sign that the ducts are open is that she is now the snotty nosed kid that we never had! So, her tears must be running down into her nose like they are supposed to! Who ever thought we'd be happy to see a snotty nose! lol

Aside from that, Olivia has learned how to jump - and actually get off the ground. She figured it out at the little gym last Tuesday and has been jumping around like a crazy person ever since. We have some videos of her, but I forgot my camera cable to upload them - so I'll post the pics/videos later on. We've been going to the little gym twice a week lately - there's another class for her age on Tuesday nights, in addition to the Saturday morning class - and they've let us go to a second class for free this semester! She loves it!

I also signed her up for swim classes again this spring. Her little friends, Masyn and Logan have also signed up for the same class - so they'll be together again! It starts in April. I'll be sure to post pictures when we start the class again!

Aside from all of that, we have still been pretty busy. Grant and his business partner have hired some folks to help them out at the clinic and are looking to even hire some more. They have gotten pretty busy up there and are doing REALLY well, considering they have only been open almost a year. They are actually having an open house to celebrate the 1-year mark next Thursday, the 18th from 12-2pm. We would love to see some of our friends out there if you can make it. They are located in Wake Forest behind the new Shucker's restaurant. Olivia and I will be there, too!

It seems like babies are everywhere right now! I have so many friends that are preggars right now - Becca, Angela, Harmony (with twins!), Diane . . . Who's next??? Wow! How exciting! Even Olivia has been really into babies lately. They have some babies at her daycare now and ever since little Madison started coming there, Olivia would come home and play with her two baby-dolls. She burps them, feeds them (her milk!), and tucks them in with a blanket while telling them "night night." The baby dolls have also made appearances at restaurants with us and elsewhere as she won't leave the house without one of them sometimes. It is very funny!

Hopefully this coming weekend will be as nice as last weekend. We took Olivia to the park both Saturday and Sunday. (She LOVES the swings!) We also went for a walk Monday evening after I picked her up from daycare. I'm not sure what we are doing tonight - but if it's still nice out, we'll probably be out walking again!

Well, that's about all for now. I hope you all are doing well and I'll try to get my pics/videos uploaded soon to show you guys. Take care!

Playdates, Superbowl and Escaping

Hello everyone and Happy March! I have been VERY swamped at work lately - so I apologize for the delay in my blogging. Anyway, Here are some pics and stuff that has been going on around our place.

We had a fun play date with Masyn and Logan (friends from last year's swim class). Here are the girls - it took quite an effort to get them all together and this is the best we could get. They had a good time together and it is always nice to hang out with them and their mommies!

Olivia, Logan, & Masyn

We also had a small superbowl party/get-together at our house (on our new LCD TV that we got for each other for Christmas!). We had about 12 adults, Olivia, Gracie and our neighbor's daughter over. It was a nice group and we had a good time together.

The girls had a great time hanging out together too! Here's Olivia in her stylish little outfit and boots!

Whenever there is a box around, it either has a kid or a cat in it. In this case, it had TWO kids in it!

Olivia's cousin, Drew had his 2nd birthday party on Valentine's Day weekend and we drove out there for a day trip. Olivia and Drew had a fun time hanging out with the other kids.

Olivia LOVED the cake, too!

Here are the two little hams! You can definitely tell they are related!

Then, after the other kids left, they started racing around with Drew's two toy lawn-mowers. They were VERY loud, but had a ton of fun! (Needless to say, Olivia was passed out in the car before we left the neighborhood!)

Then, back on the home front, we had a fun time helping Olivia make a fort around her little table. She thought it was hilarious! We have a couple videos of her cracking up, but they came out too dark to really see. So, pictures will have to do:

Olivia has been teething really bad lately. She is getting all 4 of her eye teeth in and having a hard time with it. She's been running a fever off and on and having some tummy problems and won't eat much. Hopefully they will finish coming in soon so she can go back to normal!

She has also figured out how to climb out of her crib! The little stinker climbed out of it last week and I found her wondering around her room in the morning. SO . .. we decided to try her in the toddler bed (her crib converts). We had our first night in the toddler bed on Friday night . . . and let's just say that by about an hour after her normal nap time (which didn't go so well!) on Saturday, it was back to a crib again! Yep, she's not quite ready for it yet and was almost scared to lay down in it. And WE'RE not ready to deal with all that yet! So hopefully she won't climb out of her crib too much - we're just afraid she'll fall and hurt herself. However, she did it again this morning!

Yesterday (Sunday), Grant decided to take Olivia for a day trip out to see his family as a surprise birthday present for his mom. He said she did really well and everyone was excited to see them! I had my craft girls over and we had a good time scrapbooking and hanging out!

That's about all for now. I hope everyone is doing well and keep in touch!

Some Fun Videos

Hello again! I just wanted to share with you guys a couple more videos we took of Olivia that I thought were fun.

This first video of little Miss Olivia showing off some of her skills. She goes through a lot of her animal sounds that she knows.

The second video needs a little explanation before you watch it. Ok, so for the Christmas when I was pregnant (and didn't know the gender of the baby yet), Grant's brother, Chad, got Olivia this toy NC State dinosaur. It has a NC State football helmet on and has the NC State logo on the side of it (it also moves around and plays music). Well, this is sitting on her hutch in her room and Grant was teaching her that it was a dinosaur. At some point she just associated the NC State stuff on it with the hand gesture for NC State and saying "Go Pack" - that we had also been trying to teach her. So, now it has turned into when we ask her what a dinosaur says, she'll try to do the NC State hand gesture and say "Go Pack" - it is very funny!

This last video is from when we were over at my neighbor/friend, Amy's house for dinner and Olivia and Addison were playing Ring Around the Rosie. Addison was singing the song and they were holding hands twirling around together. They kept doing it over and over again for quite a while and Amy was able to get a video of it. How cute!

Winter Wonderland

Happy Winter, everyone! Well, we had a nice snow storm this past weekend and we had a good time playing out in the snow and sledding down our back hill with Olivia. She was too young when it snowed last winter to remember it or do very much out in it, so we were happy to have the chance to bring her out in the snow and go sledding this year. Our back yard has a great hill for sledding and we took full advantage of it! Sara, Randy and Gracie came over on Sunday to try out our hill, as well. Unfortunately, we don't have a sled and they were sold out everywhere around town so I couldn't get one. So, we used our boogie boards from the beach. They worked great on Saturday when it was REALLY cold and the snow was still pretty hard. On Sunday, it didn't work as well, but still got the job done. Sara and Randy's REAL sled worked much better. Looks like I'll need to go get a sled for the next time it snows!

We took lots of pictures and videos from our winter fun. We had a great time!

Look at Olivia in her cute little snow gear!

The 2 little buddies!



Sledding as a family (on the REAL sled!)

The girls each made a snow angel (with help). Here's Olivia's:

Playing in the snow:

The Robersons

So, now the fun begins. Here are a TON of videos of us acting like kids playing in the snow. Olivia had a great time sledding - she's such a little dare-devil. Gracie was a bit more hesitant.

Olivia and Daddy Sledding

So the first time I went down the hill with Olivia on the sled, my sled (i.e. boogie board) turned sideways part way down the hill and we fell off. I was able to keep Olivia sitting up-right so she didn't get covered in snow. Me . . . not so much. Check it out:

The second attempt was a success:

Then Olivia got to have a sled ride from Daddy:

These next videos are from Sunday when Randy, Sara and Gracie came over to sled with us. We all had a good time, but the girls were pretty worn out and cranky by the time they left.

Olivia and Daddy

Olivia and Mommy

With Daddy, Again.

Here comes Sara and Gracie:!

Family Sled ride!

So that was our winter adventures for the weekend! I have a cute story to tell you from a couple weeks ago that I forgot to mention in my previous blogs. So, we worked with Olivia to learn who Santa was for Christmas this year and she got to be pretty good and recognizing pictures of Santa (or "Sanna" as she calls him). Well, she has not gotten to where ANYONE with white hair and a white beard is Santa. She saw a commercial with Charlie Daniels and yelled "SANNA!!" and same with anyone else on TV with white hair and a white beard. Well we were eating lunch at Chili's back in the beginning of January and the man at the next table had white hair and a big white beard and was wearing a red shirt, even. Well, Olivia was mesmerized by him and just kept staring at him calling him "Sanna"! The man thought it was very cute and it turns out that he really was Santa! He was a Mall Santa and took much pride in it. He and his wife were very nice and Olivia got to meet Santa! It was very cute!

Well, aside from meeting Santa, Olivia has gotten to really enjoy twirling and dancing and such. Here's a video of her "twirling" and one of her playing a game of getting "gooched" by daddy. She was so funny - Grant gooched her behind and she thought it was so funny that she just kept backing up into him to get gooched again! She would run away then start backing up from the other side of the room! ha ha

In other news . . . I have finally gotten Olivia to say "luv you!" to us. I've been working on this for a LONG time and now she will say it to us quite a bit. I even caught it on video for you:

Little Gym Graduation

Hello everyone! What a week it has been! So last Friday evening I started feeling pretty bad and running a fever. I thought I was just getting the bad cold that Olivia had had the previous week or two. I REALLY didn't want to be sick since the next day (Saturday) we had Olivia's final day of this semester at The Little Gym (Graduation) and Gracie's 2nd birthday party! Well, I was still running a fever on Saturday, so Grant wound up taking Olivia to The Little Gym AND Gracie's party.

Here are some pics that Sara took for us of Grant and Olivia at The Little Gym Graduation:

On the balance beam

Surfing across the barrels

Doing a head-stand

Her FAVORITE - Hanging from the bars

Then they got their medals at the graduation ceremony. Aren't they so cute with their little awards. I hate that I missed it! :(

That afternoon, Grant got to go to Gracie's 2nd birthday party with Olivia. I can't believe that she's already 2!! Wow, time flies so quickly!

Happy Birthday, Gracie!

Here's "auntie" Sara with Olivia:

So, that brings us to Saturday - still had a fever! Daycare was closed on Monday, so I already had planned to stay home with Olivia anyway, but turns out, I needed a sick day anyway! Still running a fever! I went to the doctor (with Olivia in tow) late that morning and they said I had a 102.5 degree fever. The doctor told me that based on everything going on I most likely had either pneumonia (great) or H1N1 (even better!) and they weren't able to do a chest x-ray on me to check my lungs that day to confirm the pneumonia. So they gave me Tamiflu for the flu and antibiotics for the pneumonia - to cover all the bases. They told me to call Olivia's doctor just to confirm, but they said that since she had already had the H1N1 vaccines, chances were VERY low that she would get it from me if that's what I had. The pediatrician confirmed this - so at least I wasn't too worried about Olivia getting sick, but I was still feeling AWFUL and not really able to take care of her. Thankfully, Sara was able to come and get Olivia and watch her the rest of the day. Grant picked her up from their house on his way home from work! THANK YOU, SARA - it was such a help!

Oh, yeah - the doctor also said that I was not going to be able to go back to work the WHOLE WEEK! At least I could send Olivia to daycare during the day so that I could rest. I wound up running a fever until Wednesday! Then I was having trouble breathing (and still am a little bit) - so I was REALLY exhausted and felt terrible. I had a follow-up appt. at the doctor on Friday and they were able to do the chest x-ray. It confirmed that I had pneumonia in my right lung (looked like a pretty good case of it, too!). So they gave me a second round of antibiotics and an inhaler to help me breathe. I am back to work today, but still feeling pretty run down. I wound up coming home a little early today because I was too worn out to handle a full day of work. Maybe by the end of this week, I'll start feeling back to myself! I have another doctor's appt next Monday to check on my breathing stuff, then have to have another chest x-ray in 4-6 weeks (apparently it can take quite a while to get over pneumonia!). All I can say is PNEUMONIA SUCKS!

So, that's how my week has gone! Aside from all of that, Olivia started her 2nd semester at The Little Gym this past Saturday - she has moved up from the birdies class to the beasties class. With it she went from being one of the older kids, to being the baby in the class! She's keeping up pretty good, though! Grant's parents came up to see us on Sunday and were able to hang out with Olivia for the afternoon.

That's about all that's going on now. Here are some more pics of Olivia from this past week.

Grant's Dad got Olivia some cute jammies that are pink camouflage and have a little robe that came with it. Check it out:

Look what it says on the back:

"Doe Crossing"

Isn't that funny! Until next time, take care!

Playing and Dancing

Happy New Year! Well, Olivia has been having a great time playing with all her new toys and showing off her dancing skills to us! She can be quite a ham sometimes! What's really neat is that my parents got her a soft photo album and put pictures of all the members of our immediate families and of our friends Randy, Sara and Gracie in it. Olivia LOVES that album and can tell you who almost everyone is in it. She'll just pick it up and yell "Papa!" and find him in it then go through and show us Drew and Nana and Gracie and . . . She is still having some trouble saying "Grandma," "Grandmom," and "Granddad" - but she definitely can point them out if we ask her to. I'll have to work on getting a video of her going through it for you all to see.

Here she is playing with her new Sit-N-Spin (I know, right - they're actually still making these - my brother and I used to play with ours all the time!). Gracie (and Sara and Randy) got it for her.

I also got a great picture of her *Cheesing* on her new bike from Grandmom and Granddad. I'll need to get a video of her riding on it. She still can't reach the pedals but can really move around on it pretty well by pushing off the ground with her feet. (You can see all her teefers in this picture, too!)



Olivia has also been a pretty good girl about sitting at her new little table to eat her dinners and color (except for one incident when I left the room to load the dishwasher and came back in and she was sitting on top of the table coloring the WHOLE table!! - Thank goodness for magic erasers!)

Olivia has been growing a lot lately. We need to go through her clothes again and pull out all the clothes she's outgrown. Not only is she growing - but her hair has really started to grow. She has these really cute little *wings* in the back and sides of her hair. Here are some good pictures of her hair from when she was brushing her teeth. Look how long it is getting!

Brush, brush, brush . . .

Oh, yeah, here's a family picture from my family at Christmas that I forgot to put on the last blog. (it was sitting in my email from my dad).

And, here's the best part of this blog - Olivia's great dance moves! She has really started to LOVE to dance to any and all music playing. She twirls, squats, claps and sways. She has started dancing even better than this lately - we just need to get another video of her. But for now - these two videos are pretty funny!!

I will do my best to get some more videos of Olivia dancing and doing all the fun and silly things that she's been doing lately.