Wordless Wednesday

Another Birthday Bash

Yesterday in the 100 degree heat, Olivia got to have another birthday bash with friends and family. The party was complete with three pools and a bouncy house! The kids relished in the water while all the adults roasted away - I don't think any mom or dad really minded when their child sat on their lap getting them completely wet.

We had a couple of highlights: First, Olivia proved that the lyrics, "It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to, cry if I want to, cry if I want to" are without a doubt true. I think we tallied 10 cries - most lasted approximately one minute, two were legitimate (one after a near splits in the pool, and another after a somersault out of the bouncy house), two were questionable, and six had no basis what-so-ever. Second, we learned that one of the little kiddos at the party now has a little baby brother! Exciting news for the Berland family, and we can't wait to meet little Cohen!

I think the pictures and videos can tell the rest of the story!

Fearless Gracie - head first down the slide.

Clearly having fun!

Liv and Lilah trying out the new pool!

Click below to watch the kids playing in the pool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0gPA_GMkSY

Racing towards the bouncy house.

Olivia, Lilah, and Grace - daycare pals.

Cutie pie Leah enjoying some dinner.

New big brother Elliot relaxing in the shade.

Enjoying dinner.

Getting some help blowing out the candles from Lilah!

Click below to meet all the guests and watch Liv blow out her candles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvhayYQcxMM

Ummm....cake!

Toes

On Olivia's birthday we had a little photo session in the front yard for both girls. While I got a few cute ones of Liv that you saw on the last post, Grace was much more willing to pose and smile for Mommy. (Olivia has started the fake, and quite cheesey, smile stage.) I've got some super sweet pictures of Gracie that I'm going to save for a later post, but in the process of editing I realized how obsessed Grace was with her freshly painted (for the second time) toes... Because, after all, they are pretty cute little toes!

Happy 3rd Birthday Olivia Ann

I probably can't count the number of times Brian and I have said recently, "I can't believe Olivia's three years old already." Olivia, on the other hand, has been telling everyone (and showing them on her fingers) that she's three for the last six months. Making numbers with fingers became an obsession when Olivia's cousin Max turned four last March. On a regular basis I tell myself to treasure all the little moments because our little Livy is starting to just look and act, all around, older.


How do I even begin summing up Olivia... Well, to start, she's loosing some of her baby chub in her legs and I can see what I think are the classic Huinker calves taking shape. She's gotten a couple more freckles this summer but thankfully seems to have more of her dad's skin than her mom's. Olivia's hair is curly like her Auntie Tara's and is a cross between my color and Brian's. Her bangs have never been cut but still don't hang in her eyes, so in the bathtub she has a one-of-a-kind mullet going on. She usually wears her hair in a single pony or just a little one on top (like Grace). Olivia likes to tell me that she had to take her pony out because her hair was "too curly." This, of course, really doesn't make any sense but strikes me as funny so I just nod as if that's a truly good excuse. Olivia's eyes are the brightest blue-gray and I hope they never fade. According to Brian's friend Zach Olivia's eyes are going to be the boys' undoing when she gets older...I hope he's right...and wrong!


Socially, Olivia's showing us two different personalities right now. She can be an easy-going socialite and also super shy and clingy. We've gotten her involved in a few play-groups this summer which as been challenging at points (drop-offs the first couple of times at Camp DuNord) and totally awesome at others like when Olivia took one of her teachers by the hand at Camp and wondered around looking for all her other teachers so she could take a picture with them. Today was Olivia's third day at the Wahlen Cabin Play-Group here in Decorah and she did great at drop-off and couldn't have been prouder to show me her binoculars they had made for bird watching at pick-up. Random fact - at play-group they make a craft every session - never once has she decorated anything. Her name tag...made by her teacher, her maraca...covered in pure white paper, and today, her binoculars, decorated with one strip of glitter. I made a big deal about this only to discover her teacher (a former student of mine) had done this for her. Oh, Livy.

Three going on thirteen and asking for her own cell phone.

At home though, Olivia is really into coloring. She's holding her crayons correctly without prompting and is developing her fine-motor skills coloring little specific sections pretty well. She's also showing a lot of interest in letters and often says them as she draws straight up and down lines or little circles. Letter recognition is still a work in progress, but, finally, we have color mastery (well, most of the time). Probably Olivia's favorite activities right now center around being outside. We take her babies for a walk at least five times a day, and I carry them all inside or outside at least that much too. Otherwise, Olivia loves to play at the park, ride her new bike, play in the sandbox, run around the yard (She's gotten pretty fast.), and go to the pool. Actually, the pool is a family obsession right now all around. We don't spend much time inside these days, and when we're on our way home from somewhere, she typically asks me where we're going next.

Getting ready to ride her birthday bike! Looking focused and serious.

Olivia's favorite buddies include her sister Gracie (although they're enemies typically once a day too), Max, Mya (her best friend she'll say), Elliot, Maggie, Leah, Ava, Lilah, both grandmas and grandpas, and Thyme. She also clearly became connected with her second-cousins while on our Wisconsin Dells trip.

Okay - enough pictures, Mom.

Olivia and Grace are nearly always two peas in a pod. They hug and kiss each other regularly and go wake each other up in the morning. Olivia clearly takes care of Grace. Yesterday at bed-time I realized as I was cuddling Grace that her silky was downstairs. Just as I thought about how annoying that fact was Olivia opened up the door, brought Grace her silky, gave her a kiss, and walked out closing the door - all without any prompting from me. Olivia and Grace both sit on the counter brushing their teeth in the morning while I do their hair. Olivia puts toothpaste on for Grace, and in the tub at night, she'll do the same with soap. She makes sandcastles for Grace to squash (a favorite activity) and will even let her hold the hose for a whole five seconds when we're filling up the pool. Olivia likes to read to Grace and thinks it's really special that she lets Grace read her books and flush her potty. She still talks to Grace in a high-pitch voice raising her voice even higher at the end of questions. They like to wrestle on occasion and clearly feel sorry if ever one gets hurt. On a regular basis Olivia and Grace is synonymous with giggling.


Sometimes Olivia just about drives me crazy. For instance, at bedtime, she might fall directly asleep or she might get out of bed 10 times. When it's time to come inside she might cooperate or she might decide to throw a fit. She won't have an accident for an entire two weeks and then will have three in one day. Olivia will so sweetly say please and thank you and then will completely refuse to do so. Overall, though, she's pretty darn cute. She calls sunscreen "scunscreen" making it sound like something kind of gross and herself "Libia." She uses "excuse me" rather properly and asks to have her privacy when going into the bathroom on occasion. She loves to cuddle and asks to do so, likes to give gigantic smooches and tight squeezes, and sings along with me at bedtime with "Jesus lobs you dis I know, for the Bibul tells me so." Pretty sweet.


Addition: Today at Olivia's 3-year check-up she measured in at 35.5 inches (10 percentile) and weighed in at 30 pounds (40 percentile)... Perhaps a growth spurt is on the horizon. I'm sure I could write more, but this seems pretty good. Olivia Ann - we love you so much and hope your third birthday was the best it could be!

Wisconsin Dells 2011

This is quite the belated post... The second weekend in June, we met up with the Roiger, Groene, and Ladwig clans for our annual Wisconsin Dells get-together. As usual, it was absolutely wonderful getting a chance to visit with everyone, and equally as usual, we left wishing we would have had more time to talk and play.

The cousins and second-cousins played great. It was so sweet to see how much of a liking Olivia took to Hannah (and vice-versa, I think!), and how she wanted each cousin to take a turn riding in the truck with us as we went to various restaurants. Sigh...if only we all lived closer to one-another. Another big hit for Olivia was getting a new blankie from her great-grandma. Gracie was a bit clingy to Mommy, but she slowly opened up throughout the weekend. Gracie was a trooper adjusting to only one nap a day and later than usual bedtimes without any meltdowns.

Exercise = Sleeping in unusual spots!

However, perhaps the biggest hit of all (for Brian and I included) was watching the girls just have a blast at the water-parks. Olivia was a bit hesitant to go down any slides by herself, but she was all about going down with Mom and Dad. She even voluntarily went down the "dark" slides three times - I was pretty impressed with this! Gracie was pretty much obsessed with any waterfall type of anything, ventured into the wave pool and lazy river, and went down lots of little-kiddie slides at the various parks. One of my favorite memories of Liv had to do with the transit we took as we were so far away from the parks. It would have made anyone smile to see Olivia running from the front yard of the condo into the main room in uncontrollable excitement while yelling "The bus is coming!" or "The bus is here!". Olivia would only sit by her cousins on the bus and didn't hesitate to tell Brian and I to sit in the front with Gracie. Gracie was equally excited about the bus, but I think much of her excitement about everything was initiated with Olivia's full-blown enthusiasm.

A daddy who'll go down any slide = Great bonding!

Click below to see Olivia and Brian going down the green slide...not the greatest video (my good one wouldn't load), but something is better than nothing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ51v66lz1M

Unfortunately, I didn't end up taking many pictures of the weekend because I was too hesitant to bring my camera anywhere. It was a different story this year as Gracie was all about the pools instead of just hanging out in the Baby Bjorn like last year! As for me - I can't wait to go back!