Happy 2nd Birthday to the most beautiful little girl in the world! Hard to believe Olivia is already 2! Pat and I had a mini B-day party for her yesterday (on her birthday) with just the 3 of us before the big shin-dig this weekend. I posted just a couple of the 90 pics I took-at that rate I better clear my pics on my camera for the big party!
Olivia's theme this year is Elmo-she loves, loves, loves Elmo. It used to be that we had to turn Elmo videos on the computer for her, but now it's every time the TV goes on, it's "Where Elmo?" or "I watch Elmo please". Good thing for DVR (and the cute little please thrown in there) b/c I have pretty much filled up the whole memory of the DVR with Sesame Street & Mickey Mouse club-Minnie Mouse is becoming her new love.
At the age of 2, Olivia is keeping us quite busy, and we're loving every minute of it. She loves to play outside. Every time we drive by a park, it's "oooohhhhhhh! Momma, park! ooooooohhhhhh!" She isn't afraid of any slide, or jungle gym to climb. Considering she just walks on her tip toes when she has no shoes on, I think we will have quite the gymnast. Olivia also loves to go on walks. We have every sidewalk crack, ant hill, and lawn ornament around our block memorized. There's a little deer planter at one house, that she has to stop and say "hi deer" to every time. Another favorite of Olivia's is her babies. She's already gotten down the nurturing motherly instinct in her. She loves to push them in her stroller, feed them in their high chair, put them down for night night, and give them baths in the dog dish (Daddy will have to explain that one-I was at the grocery store when this happened). Olivia has never had a favorite blankie to go to bed with, but she usually likes to fall asleep with one of her babies. And speaking of bedtime, Olivia has been mastering for the last month how to prolong her bedtime. One mention of the word night time, or if it's getting close, Pat or I will ask- "what time is it?", and Olivia instantly replies, "I wanna play"-every time. Once we do get her to her crib, she giggles, and tells us "I wanna kiss momma". And then it's "I wanna kiss Dadda", (which we love) but it's back and forth a million times until we literally have to walk out leaving her hanging or we'd be in there all night. Olivia is also really (finally) starting to love books. But again, she only wants to be read to when it's getting close to bedtime b/c any mention of the word, and she either wants to play or read books.
Olivia is already picking up quite the vocabulary, and has also repeated a few things that she shouldn't be hearing (oops). Some of our favorite cute little things she says are "cool beans", "ohhhh man", and anytime one of us stubs our toe, hits something, minor injuries, etc, Olivia will ask "you otay Momma/Dadda?, You otay?" It's the cutest thing. And I'll leave this post with something she said yesterday morning that I'm
sure she got from her Daddy, but I was waking her in her crib in the morning, and she woke up, but was still lying there not quite ready to get up. Well, she started tooting-probably a good 3 loud ones, and kind of giggling about it, and then said "DUCK!" I couldn't help myself from cracking up. That is our Olivia. Full of surprises and never misses a beat!
Olivia opening her presents
Olivia's daycare provider, Lisa, gave Olivia some new bracelets, a beach towel, yard digging tools, and play-do. She even had balloons outside the house, and the inside decorated for her special day. For many reasons besides this, we're loving her new daycare!
Olivia and her mini B-Day cake. Surprisingly, she kept pretty clean and didn't dive into it as expected.
She was so excited about her cake!
Olivia opened a few of her presents from us, and Lisa, and this is what she played with all night-her balloons I had decorated with.
Olivia and her very own kitchen from Pat and I for her birthday.....$150.00
All the accessories to go with it from Uncle Dan and Bella......$25.00
Helping Mommy make Daddy breakfast in my kitchen....priceless.
Olivia loves being in the kitchen more now than I think I have in all of my 35 years! She helped me make French toast-from pouring the milk, to cracking the eggs (I think we got out all of the shells-it was quite the mess!), to dipping the Texas toast. And in the afternoon she helped me make chocolate chip cookies-every step of it-she must have gotten both of her Grandma's cooking abilities. I just had a blast cooking with my little girl. 
