Sleep-Out

Friday night turned out to be a nearly perfect night for Olivia's first (pseudo) camping experience.

Daddy set up his big tent on the back porch, so we had double bug protection, and cool night weather (60s). We both actually slept quite well, which is ideal for getting her to ever do this again, maybe actually outside next time.

She was very cute and very excited and a very good girl. Daddy appreciates this very much.

Happy Mother's Day

I am a very fortunate Daddy and husband.
I can't explain why Olivia would be wearing a poison control phone number sticker, other than it is a sticker?
Photo from March, but the kids are all so mobile now that I can't get these four together very often.

Fraternal Love

This is probably the best photodocument of how Olivia interacts with her infant siblings right now.
She gets a teeth-clenching grin on her face and shakes her head slightly as she goes in for what appears to be an intense hug around the neck. It ends up being not as severe as it started out, and the kids don't seem to mind her hugs, though they tend to push her away a bit when she comes at them like this. I don't know if she is just trying to control herself rather than tussle with them, as she would a more durable school friend?

Sleeping Beauty

She would really like the reference from the title - Olivia inhales Princesses right now, and has for about the last 6 months. We catch up to her as she has taken to sneaking into Mom and Dad's room occasionally, when she's supposed to be in bed. Kind of hard to be mad at her when seeing this. And her current and instinctive challenging of her parents means we can use all the mercy-inducing thoughts of her we can find. This meets the criteria.

LaLa You Got Some Splainin' To Do

Clearly the public service announcements or school drills or last years' storms have taken ... root?
I mean, her explanation is factually correct as long as you drop the word "tomato" and substitute "acorn squash".
I'm glad they're drilling on vegetable disasters, especially since the local news can just inflate these forecasts to gazpacho proportions.

Hand Talk

A few weeks ago, Olivia approached me in the kitchen while I was setting the table for dinner.

"Can you get me that thing up there by the fridge?" she asked while holding her hand flat on it's side and gesturing up and down.

"What thing is that, honey?"

"That thing up there...the orange and colored things..." all with the little hand gesture, and increased frustration.

From the dining room, Mommy: "She means the vitamins."

I laughed for quite a while, realizing that this was just the first demonstrated inheritance of her mother's "hand discourse" skills. Which have nothing at all to do with the sign language I described tonight for the babies in another post. Nor usually do the gestures have anything to do with the things either Olivia or Melissa are trying to indicate or describe. It is truly endearing.

And like the gestures, these pictures have nothing to do with the story I am describing here in text. The sleeping photo is the way we found her one night hours after we thought we had put her to sleep in bed. She brought these three of her friends down to the floor with her.

They are truly dedicated toys.

And the other photo is just one I like.

The photos are from late January and early February, 2010.

Winter Extravaganza

A difficult word to say, became a really wonderful charitable-donation-raising performance.

In the Iowa City Public Library this year, on Monday night, February 22, 2010, with extensive preparation and dedication from the Apple Tree faculty. Especially the two beautiful ladies pictured, Olivia's teachers Stephanie Paulsen and Megan Sieverding. You have our sincere gratitude and admiration.

Olivia was an Owl that decided to crawl into a lost mitten to escape the cold, along with 15 or so other animals, from the beautiful Jan Brett story "The Mitten". She left her costume on very well as long as was necessary, then went on to give dance and sight-reading performances with her Kindermusick class, led by her extremely talented teacher Jodi Landeros. That's right, sight reading. Rhythms of eighth and quarter notes, with rests, but still. I am extremely impressed.

Olivia was, and continues to be, wonderful. We were so proud of her.