Miss Olivia

Since Gracie gets an update each month, I decided that it's Olivia's turn to get some screen time. Hmmm.... How best to describe Olivia these days???


I think the best phrase to describe her is a sensitive old soul with a silly streak. Olivia can go from shy and extremely hesitant to showing off by jumping off from step number five onto a pile of pillows in a matter of minutes. When she wants attention, she wants it now, and when she wants her mommy, she only wants her mommy. We've had some whining issues as of late, but if you can get her distracted she's good to go. Olivia's got just about the sweetest smile out there, and her right-cheek dimple is cuter by the day. Oh, Livy, we love you so much, and here's just a few reasons why...

* You give the sweetest little kisses
* You love to count - sans the number two (although you can identify things by two)
* You ask to watch "baseball" which really means any type of TV with daddy
* You are very in love with your cousins Max and Mya
* You play make-believe kitchen (Christmas gift perhaps?)
* When playing make-believe you feed mommy, daddy, and Gracie
* You love your little sissy so much


* You turn your head to the right when talking to Gracie and get right up close just in case she (or anyone else for that matter) hasn't noticed you yet
* You make a great exaggerated "OH" face when something surprises you
* You love Dora the Explorer and participate during her show
* You can get Gracie to laugh like no one else
* You are petrified of cars and trucks and MUST hold my hand when in a parking lot (of course I'm secretly overjoyed about this)
* You love to go shopping
* If we're out of something, you tell me "buy some shopping"
* If a toy isn't working you know it's because it "need new 'batrees'"
* You say "no can" and "mommy do" if you need help
* You like to write and do your best to mimic - lots of little up and down triangles
* You identify the "names" you write - usually being Mommy, Daddy, Gracie, Maggie, Max, and Mya
* Swinging is one of your favorite things and your new trick is to climb (or try to climb) onto your swing by yourself - thank you Cousin Mya for demonstrating this
* You take a bite of your food and then give the rest to Gracie - this may verge on gross on occasion
* Your favorite cereal is Life and you ask for this nearly every morning as of late
* You love to push Gracie in the stroller and work so hard at this you start sweating


* You ask to do "Everybody Sleeping" at night - I got this idea from Grandma Pat - where we go through a great list of everyone we know who's sleeping
* You can sing about 1/2 of the ABC's with me
* Your favorite song is Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
* You identify words as "words" but like to read stories yourself
* You call Gracie "Gracilicious" since your favorite book right now is called Pinkalicious
* You're still as obsessed as ever with your thumb and your silkie
* You're pretty terrible at identifying colors but always ask what color everything is
* You can separate by colors
* You like to play "soccer game" on the sunporch with daddy, but this is really a strange game of kick, throw, tackle, and hide


* You absolutely love playing with your dollies
* You often put said dollies in "time-out" despite the fact that you rarely get these at home or daycare
* You love candy - inherited that from mommy I think
* You still won't eat bread except of rare occasion but do like bars, cupcakes (mostly the frosting), etc...
* You haven't had an accident in over a month
* You love to cuddle on the couch
* You still unconsciously pat my back as I pat yours while we sing bedtime songs

Livy, I could probably write another 100 facts down that I love about you. Sometimes, I admit, I sigh in exasperation because of something you're doing or won't do, but every night when I check on you before going to bed, I think to myself that we couldn't ask for anything better than you and Gracie.
Lots of love,
Mommy

Pumpkin...

So, not many of you knew that we were the owners of a little kitty for a few weeks. Little Pumpkin showed up randomly one day while we were out watching the workers put a couple of extra panels on our backyard fence. I made the quick assumption that he was a stay little kitty because of his thinness and willingness to eat everything offered.


After a week of having Pumpkin living in our garage feasting on tuna and relaxing in his cardboard box and on our front porch rocking chair, we made the decision to officially keep him. Now this may surprise you as Brian has always claimed that the only pet we would ever have would be fish, but I actually think Brian liked Pumpkin too (you're probably noticing that I'm using past tense here). So, we took Pumpkin in and had him checked for general health, spade, and de-clawed.

Pumpkin adjusted to life inside very well and we enjoyed many cuddles. The girls loved him - Gracie pretty much went berserk flapping her arms every time he was near and crawling after him forcing him to hide in Olivia's tunnel. Olivia learned to pet nicely and wasn't bothered when Pumpkin would play bite or chase. She even bravely picked him up a couple of times. Pumpkin was a major trooper handling Olivia's desire to pick him up and Gracie's pulling of his fur without batting an eye. He learned to use a litter box overnight and fit in nicely to our family.

Unfortunately we had to put little Pumpkin down this week. I let him outside for a couple hours on Sunday; he came back in without prompting and seemed fine except that he stayed in his little box in our family room at night instead of coming to cuddle with us. I checked on him and he came out and let me pet him for awhile. The next morning, however, I found Pumpkin collapsed in the middle of our family room. He was making very sad meowing noises and could barely move. We got him to the vet where they came to the conclusion that he had eaten poison of some kind - this must have happened when he was outside on Sunday as we don't have anything in the house of course. Poor little kitty was in a lot of physical distress, so we had no other choice.

I was sad to say goodbye to our little kitty. I think I miss him the most. Olivia asks about him every now and then, but then follows up her own question by telling me that Pumpkin is at the doctor. I comfort myself by saying that at least Pumpkin had a happy and comfy life at the end having been plumped up a bit during his time at the Huinker household. Sigh - maybe another kitty sometime...

The Upstairs

Here are a couple of pictures of our new house - I know some of you are having a hard time picturing us in our new place! These pictures are of the entryway and Olivia's and Grace's room. I definitely need to take a couple from the outside so you can see our great yard. As for the other rooms... I'll take a pictures next time they're actually clean!

Front entry: This front entry looks so much better now than a month ago! Originally it had some not-so-lovely silvery wallpaper gracing the walls. I started stripping the wallpaper but quickly gave up when I found even older wallpaper underneath. Ultimately we ended up hiring someone to finish removing and stripping and painting. Not having to do all this myself was well worth the money in my opinion! Obviously we need an electrician to come fix the light that has been hanging off the ceiling like that for the last 5 weeks (Grandpa Roiger where are you?)!


Gracie's room: This room was originally a very dirty light blue - I think the paint was original to the house (1960s). This paint is the exact yellow that was in her old room at our house. I like this room - it's nice and cozy and has a very large closet. My only wish - new carpet.


Olivia's room: This room was originally a very dirty cream. The previous owners had four boys all of whom slept here (yes, the room is huge!) so I really mean it was dirty. The paint is the same yellow as Grace's room, but I added the pink to help add some variety. Brian's reaction to the pink was "too bad you're going to have to redo that when you put so much work into it," but I think it's grown on him - plus, I like it! We temporarily thought about making this bedroom the master as the closet is very big, but it just didn't feel right having one or both of the girls downstairs without us there too. Upstairs seemed more logical and safer to me. Someday the girls might share this room - it certainly is large enough! Again, my only wish - new carpet.

Wordless Wednesday

Grace Elizabeth - 8 Months

So lately, I feel as though I'm neglecting my promise to actively blog about our daily lives! Over time, my weekly blog posts have slowly transformed to every other week posts and, more recently, once a month posts.... However, I will prevail, and I've decided that this month is the month to redeem myself. I have lots of things to write about, I just need to take the time to do it!


Okay, enough about that - on to the real topic! This last month just flew by, and now I find myself already a week overdue in writing about Grace now that she's eight months old! Here are ten new facts about Grace....

1. Is a frequent babbler - favorite sounds include baba, yaya, gaga, and dada. When I say mama to her she usually just laughs as though to say - whatever, I'm not trying that one! Grace is a great conversationalist. She loves being talked to and enjoys when you mimic her squawking, growling, ahhhh-ing, and any other type of sound she's making.

2. Has decided that army crawling is better than traditional crawling and really doesn't make much of an effort any more at traditional crawling. Grace does still practice rocking while in her crib, but otherwise, it's just the army crawl. I tried to attach a video of Grace scooting, but it wouldn't work. The video would have been incredibly tardy in appearance as it was from early September when she was just starting her scooting. I will get some new video soon that really shows off her skills!

3. Continues to love her big sister despite the fact that said big sister has been increasingly nasty in the taking-toys-away department. No one can make Gracie laugh like Olivia.

4. Has 3 ad a 1/2 teeth. Her bottom two are fully in (and have been for awhile); her top right tooth is through, but not very far; and, her top left tooth is just starting to break through.

5. Enjoys spending time with both sets of grandparents - and officially had her first over-night. She did get up at 11:30, but then slept till 8:30 in the morning. (Secretly, I think Grandma Pat might have slipped some wine in her bottle.)

6. Isn't sleeping through the night all the time, but is doing fabulous. We've had quite a few nights where she sleeps 7pm - 5am, has a bottle, and then sleeps till 7. This morning she slept straight through till 7.

7. Has become quite the kicker, jumper, and arm waver, but isn't good at standing unassisted yet. Gracie can climb up the back of the couch if you take her socks off to give her some traction and expresses her excitement by kicking and arm-waving at the same time. Gracie sometimes gets annoyed if left behind or on the floor - and is always annoyed when everyone else is eating dinner and she's not.

8. Developmentally Gracie has started to mimic gestures - we get some random arm waving when I try to work on waving, clapping, and "so big." She also can bang to objects together and enjoys doing this frequently.

9. Is losing interest slowly in baby food (especially dinner) but isn't all that interested in big-people food. She's destined to be a permanent peanut.

10. Continues to be an extremely happy and flexible little girl (see video below)!

Careful with this one - it might give you motion sickness!