3 birthday's, 1 celebration!

We have just been living one day at a time. I don't know where this week went! I just realized that I hadn't blogged since the 8th! We have stayed home for the most part playing and enjoying time as a family of four (Hello! Oscar counts too, people!)! The few outings that we have had were a yogurt date with some friends, Cheesecake Factory (after a doc. appt.), PF Chang's for my birthday, encores sale (that was just me...Olivia stayed home with the boys), and finally our first dinner at my parents! We celebrated Annelyn's birthday (Feb. 15), John's birthday (March 4) and my birthday (Mar. 11). We have also had a few visitors over the past few days.

On Wednesday, I had a Doctor's appointment in Nashville and we were only a minute away from Green Hills so John and Olivia tagged along since my appointment would be fast. We then headed over to the mall. Olivia rode in her stroller most of the time, but we thought it would be great to get her out and let her walk. Hmmm....we should probably learn how to hold hands. We tried this several times since she would take off running. When we would go to hold her hand, she would throw herself down on the ground. So, I would pick her up and then we would try again a few minutes later. She is slowly seeing that if I hold hands, I get to walk. If I don't, I get carried. We will get there! Since we were already down that way, we decided to eat at the Cheesecake Factory! YUM! John and I love to get a piece of cheesecake to go and have 'cheesecake dates' at night. We stand at the counter and eat a few bites of cake just talking and hanging out. We did this even before Olivia. We usually have a few good laughs and then put the cheesecake up for the next date! :) We came home and played a bit and let Olivia nap. Then Olivia and I went to meet some friends at a local yogurt place. Though it takes Olivia a bit of time to warm up, she ends up coming out of her shell and having a great time! This was a great meeting place because it was not crowded at all! My friend, Ashley and I had some good catch up time while her girls entertained Olivia!



On my way home, I stopped by my parents to get some stuff that I had taken out of my wallet before leaving for Korea. Olivia quickly warmed up and before I knew it my 10 minute stop was 30 minutes. I kept saying we were leaving and mom got a tea set out and then dad was blowing bubbles. I guess you could say that they were happy we stopped by! This was her first time to go to their house with them there! I wanted her to see them there before today since we were going to all be there for our birthday's.

We decided that Wednesday was a bit busy, though Olivia handled it extremely well. We stayed home all day Thursday and Friday until dinner. We also stayed home Saturday until time to head to my parents.
Thursday afternoon I headed out to a local consignment sale. I love this sale! I got to shop with only 50 other people since I bartered prior to the sale. I would usually work the sale, but was unable to since we are still new to being home. I don't want to be away too long. I think this was a great bonding opportunity for John and Olivia. Since she seems to be attached to me, we are letting him to more of the 'basic need' work. We are really trying to be sure we all have a secure attachment before we allow anyone else to hold her.
Well, back to my attachment soapbox....sorry! Consignment----I found some great stuff!!! Though her closet was already stocked, I found myself with several more outfits for the spring/summer. I also got her some great toys. I was going to take a picture of this, but I forgot and have already washed the clothes and cleaned/put away the toys.

On Friday, we stayed home during the day and Cassie and Khloe came to visit. Our "rules" have changed a bit this week, so we felt that it was ok to try a play date. The rules are still no holding, no feeding, no changing. However, if she comes to you and brings you a toy, it is ok to take and interact with her. She has even plopped into a few laps, but you are not to try to keep her there or encourage her to stay. She doesn't stay long, but we think that she sees us ok with the people that are here, so she is comfortable. I think I am ok with the lap plopping???? I love how my friend's react to this. They are all being so wonderful about this and they have all said the same thing when she plops. "um....what do I do? I don't want to mess up!" Too cute!!! Love you all for that!!! She plopped into moms lap first and mom had the same reaction! She redirected her to me, and Olivia was fine with that.
Back to the original discussion.....I got a shelf at encores for Cassie so she was coming to pick it up. We decided to try a play date. I think they did pretty good. The great plus is that Cassie and I got to hang out for a bit!!! Khloe is 15 mos. so she and Olivia are really at the same developmental level. They played for a bit and then had to leave for a lunch date with Cassie's mom.






I also had two of my students stop by to wish me Happy Birthday! One came and gave me a sweet card (plus an excellent hug!) and the other one and his sister (whom I also had) came with several sweet gifts! I have no clue why I don't have pics. of this....obviously I was a bit blown away, I guess! :)

We ate lunch and then had a great nap. We decided that since Olivia had done well at our lunch outings that we wanted to try dinner since it was my birthday. We met Brandon, Ashley and Everley at PF Changs for a delicious dinner. I left my camera at home, but Ashley got some really cute pictures. I will post them when I get copies. We had a great dinner and enjoyed the company! We usually do lots of dinners with them, but with us newly home with Olivia and them just getting settled into their new house; we haven't been able to go out much. I have really missed that! I hope we get back into our routine! :) The girls seemed to have a great time!
We got home and got ready for bed. As I changed Olivia's diaper, she popped up and went to get a toy. As she began dancing, she had an accident. Ooops! Obviously we should have put that diaper back on before dancing! No harm done, but I wasn't the one who cleaned it up either!

So that brings me to today. Today is Saturday. This morning, my friend, Danyell and her mom came with breakfast and gifts! We had a wonderful visit and yes, Miss Olivia plopped into Danyell's lap! Danyell had the exact reaction as everyone else. "uh-oh....what do I do?" Love it! Thanks Mrs. Karen for the gorgeous blanket and thanks Danyell for the sweet Olivia book!











After naptime, we went to my parent's house for dinner. As I said before this was the first time we have eaten over there. If you know me, that is not the norm. We typically eat there at least once a week, sometimes twice! It was so nice to be over there. I miss it!
Today was the first time that Olivia got to play with Annelyn. They played really well together and Olivia handled the family very well. I wondered what was going on in her little head. She laughed and played once she warmed up. She and Annelyn were running around as if they had played a thousand times before!
The same 'rules' applied here for my family just as they have for everyone else. This makes for some comical times when Olivia is climbing and they know they can't help her down. The frantically call for us. She is quite the monkey! They also reacted the EXACT same when she plopped in their laps!

We have had to put this birthday celebration on hold twice due to sickness. Would you believe that after dinner poor Annelyn got sick!!!! We don't think it is the virus that I had, because she bounced back well. When that girl is sick, she does not bounce back quickly! We think she just ate too much! So, after a second bath for her and mom cleaning a bathroom, we visited in the den for a bit. We never have a dull moment in our family!!!


Annelyn got Olivia some bath toys! She helped her open them! :)




Annelyn was so sweet. She bagged up all the toys that she had "outgrown" and brought them to Olivia. Well, as you can see, Oscar wants to play too!




Poor Annelyn got sick right after this picture. You can tell she doesn't feel her best here!
Yes, this is one of her gifts from Korea. This is the first time we have had since then to give them their gifts. Annelyn has been so patient!






I love this picture. Annelyn is modeling her Hanbok, and Olivia is showing off her naked body! Too cute!!! I had Olivia in short sleeves today and she kept pulling at them to make them long sleeves. She eventually just took her arm out, so I took her shirt off for a bit. I changed her diaper right after, so I let her just run around for a minute. :)

We came home so we could get her to bed at normal time. Our sweet girl is currently sleeping soundly in her little bed. We will head in there in a minute. Yes, we are still on the floor! I am thinking tonight will be a long one. She has been in her bed for a week now. She wakes up at 1:00 and usually snuggles up with me. Starting tonight, I am going to try to get her to go back to sleep in her bed. I think this is going to take quite a bit of reinforcement. Pretty sure this will make for a long next few weeks! We will see!