A day at home....

In the morning, the first thing I do is change Olivia's diaper after we have snuggled and played for a few minutes. Today was no different. After her diaper change, we go eat breakfast. I usually let her just be in her diaper because I love a kiddo in just a diaper and because she is bound to get something on her clothes. It kills me to be stain treating before 7:30! So after breakfast, I was cleaning up and Olivia came back from her room with a pair of shoes. She wanted to wear them. So, why not? She had her black shoes on, in her diaper, playing with a truck! That's my girl!!! Look at those ribs! She is TINY!



We got dressed and then played inside for a bit. After her nap, we went outside to help her daddy with the garden.




She was not a fan of the dirt under her feet, but sure enjoyed shoveling from the side.






Oscar was not touching the dirt, but stayed down there with us for a bit. To me, he looks like he is saying in this picture, "you want me to do what?"

In this one he is saying, "I don't think so!"



Olivia, Oscar and I went up to the deck to bring all the plants down. She was really excited about carrying some flowers until she realized that she was carrying them all the way down. By the time we got down near the garden, she was huffing AT me. You know, the shew sound. She was making that sound over and over. She kinda cut her eyes at me and kept going. (look at the pics. below and you can see her little cheeks making the, "I am annoyed with you" sound. --Pretty funny!!)









She left her flowers between the pool area and the garden and took off to shovel some more. She enjoyed shoveling, so she decided to give it a taste. It does look like chocolate, but clearly didn't taste like it. She kept her tounge out until I cleaned it off.





Tonight for dinner we had yummy homemade lasagna. No, not made by me, but by mom. Thanks mom, it was great! We let Olivia try it on her own with a fork. As you can see, she was really proud of herself!





After dinner, she was playing in her kitchen and decided she wanted the play doh that is on top. John told me to look at her as she climbed. Within two seconds of me turning around she was standing on top of her kitchen! By the time we got the camera, she was almost down.



She is into everything. I know I have said that before, but she is finding more things to get into. She climbs the baby gates, opens locked cabinets, and is into anything she isn't suppose to be. I was in the kitchen earlier tonight and saw a laundry hamper go by. I went around the corner, and there she sat in the hamper in the middle of the hall. She looked at me like, "Isn't this normal? Do you have a problem?" She is a lot of fun though, and a stinkin cute little thing! We are so blessed that she is home and into everything! We wouldn't trade it at all!!

Sick AGAIN and playing with friends!

Well, our poor girl is sick yet again. It is the same crud, but this time she has been choking and gagging on all of her drainage. She can't sleep it is so thick in her throat. We went to the doctor on Tuesday. It seemed to come out of no where this time! On Wednesday I called the doctor to tell him she was no better if not worse and couldn't rest. He, thankfully, called in some medicine. We have been up most of the night the last three, and I am hopeful that she is on the mend today. I think the best thing has been going in the bathroom at night and making it as hot as possible so she can breathe in the steam. Yesterday I got so tired that I had to call in back up. This was the first time that I have been able to do this because of our 'rules.' Dad graciously came over and played for a bit so I could grab a little sleep. I was feeling sick, too, but I think it was just exhaustion. Where are we on the rules? Well, we are letting our parents pick her up if she comes to them. They are still not to offer food or change her. She is very comfortable with them now, and so we wanted to let this happen slowly. I am going to have to start having them over and me doing something else and them taking care of her to ease into leaving her in August. Oh how I dread leaving her! I do love my job, but I love being here, too. Teaching has to be the best job possible to be able to get the best of both worlds.
Thank you again to ALL who have been so supportive of our 'rules.'
I digress.....so, we have been home the last few days and while it has just been us, we got to keep the twins while Traci took Landon to his two year checkup. We had a ton of fun. I must say, we sounded a bit like a TB ward since they are fighting the same crud. They are already on antibiotics, so we should be good! :) Here are some of the pics we took while they were here.





Olivia really wanted to help, but then she seemed to want to be their size, too. I was holding Whitney and Olivia scooted herself right into my lap. Jealous much? Well, it kinda made me feel good though. :) This attachment stuff is hard and I know I will question it for a while because that is my personality.

Well, after another rough night, we woke up this morning to an owl on our front porch! What? Yes, an owl!!! We sat at the window and watched him until animal control got here. He was trying to come through the glass door. Poor thing! The man said that he was going to take him out to the woods and let him go, but I worry because he was just a baby. What if his mamma is looking for him?




On a VERY happy note.....we have slept in our own bed the last two nights!!!!! Thank goodness! We leave on lights to light the way to our bed and we have lamps on in our room for her, but stil, WE ARE IN A BED! WOOOHOOOOO! She knows where to come to find us and I have my monitor so I can get to her as soon as she gets up. I am going to get some night lights today to light the hallway and our room and hopefully turn off one a week or every other week? I don't know yet. I have really tried to document our sleeping so we can look back when we bring our next one home. I feel like Olivia likes her little bed and will eventually sleep through the night. Right now, since she doesn't feel well, sleeping is a bit on hold. Hopefully next week we can really get a routine. Yay for a big comfy bed!

Movin' on up

John and I have made yet another move in the 'floor bed.' When I clean up the bed in the morning, I now am closer to our room than hers!!!! We are literally sleeping in a 41 inch area. That is quite cozy when Olivia joins us and Oscar snuggles in. Today hits the two month marker of being a forever family, and I am hopeful that by this time next month, we are all in our own beds!




We are making improvements daily. Olivia warms up much faster each time she is in a new situation. My only concern at this point is her language development. She was saying words such as 'more', but has now stopped and grunts. She chooses to say it occasionally, but it is still concerning to me. I am hoping since she has only been home 2 months and has heard another language longer than english that that is the reason for the grunts rather than words. It could also be that she is a toddler and that is something she can control? I know in Korea that she just had to grunt to get what she wanted, so that could be it too.
Olivia is feeling more comfortable every day here at home. Lately, instead of playing with her toys while I am in the shower, she pulls one out and puts it up to the sink and then stands on it. That is what toys are for, right? She is comfortable going from room to room, but likes to come back occasionally to make sure that we are still around. Her personality comes out more all the time. She really shows out being silly when she knows she has a room full of people watching her. I have yet to find something that she doesn't really like to eat. That girl can put down some food!!!!



Funny story to end the day. This morning I took Olivia for some Easter pictures. They had baby ducks and it was at a pond. I put her in her Easter dress when we got there. She had to have her warm up time, but she squealed with delight as the baby ducks swam around. She started out gently touching the baby ducks and then feeling the beak. She finally got brave enough to pick one up. Lets just say that one now has a longer neck! She held him out at arms length by his little neck. Poor thing! She then threw one. I told John she probably thought it was one of Oscar's toys. At that point, we decided the photo session was over, but nonetheless, it was pretty funny and cute!!!!

Happy two months home little one! Many more to come and many more good memories. We love you more and more everyday!!!!

Happy Birthday Mia and Macy

Yesterday we went to Chattanooga for two special birthday parties. Mia and Macy bn(cousins) turned 3! They are two weeks apart, so what better way to celebrate than having a joint birthday party?! When we went last year, I kept thinking, "Olivia will get to do this next year!!!"
We always have fun when we are with my family and there are always a TON of good laughs! Yesterday was no different! We got to the party just in time for the Easter Egg Hunt. This was Olivia's first hunt ever! She did great with the help of her sweet cousin Annelyn. We went back in afterward to check out their loot. They all got a lot of great stuff.





It was time for birthday cake. We got the cake cut and served and then enjoyed! They were huge cakes and I am pretty sure they will be eating on them for a while.





Check out these next few pictures. We think Olivia ate 6 or 7 times while we were there. She would steal from other plates (see Mia protecting hers), we found her up at the table just grazing, I fixed her a plate and she ate it, she ate cake with daddy, and then we stopped for dinner on the way home and she ate well then! Think she may be growing??? :)







After cake, the girls opened their presents. They got some great stuff!








Since it was cold out, we stayed inside rather than going out to the boucner with all the other kids. Olivia found her own entertainment. She kept bringing us Mia's new toys, but we told her no since they were her new toys.






Cousin Harper just watched and giggled!

I got a quick picture of cousin Ian as he ran through to go outside.

Annelyn was busy running around with all the other kids, but I did grab this great picture of her.





One toy was opened so Mia could play with it. It was a Melissa and Doug 4 in one block puzzle. She got tired of working it and took off to her next adventure. So, my uncle decided he would give it a try. It took him a while to do this age 3 and up toy, but he got it! He has a brilliant mind, but these things are just too tricky! :) We all had great laughs over this! We told him the edges had the same color and John even showed him what the picture would look like when he was done. (that was on the bottom of the container.)







Olivia did make a new friend. She fell in love with "Mad Mad." This is Madison my cousin's sweet dog. Olivia got several kisses from Madison and thought it was hilarious! Madison looked at us like, "its ok, right?" It is amazing to us that she loves dogs as much as she does seeing how 8 short weeks ago she had NEVER seen one!







We did get one quick family shot today!!! Not the best since she was eating cheetos, but it works! :) As I have said before, these are my favorite days. We are not a big family, but we have BIG fun!!!! I wish we could have more times like these more often!