Football and Fall Fun Party

What a fun day we had! We had our friends over today for a little fall and football fun.  We made lots of goodies! Brendon smoked a pork butt, we made chowder, baked beans, and mac and cheese.  We had some snacks- veggies and dip, taco dip, pumpkin pie dip... yummmmmm!! Some Boo Mix and Apples with caramel.  We had the Georgia vs. Florida game on and what a great game.  We ate, played, made pumpkins, and had lots of fun! It was even Micheal's birthday today so we had a little cake!

It is so fun and interesting to see our children growing up! What a difference even from 6 months ago! The children are starting to play together and interact.  Lots of talking and walking!  Olivia was even saying their names.  She even gave Leo a kiss. When she went to bed tonight she asked me where Leo was...I told her that he went home.  She was a bit sad. 

Two big moments today... Olivia walked down the stairs...yes walked down the stairs...just using the wall for support or she will hold my hand.  Yikes! Finally we had a pee pee in the potty today!

Party Prep

Boiled peanuts

Crafts

Chowder

Emma

Griffin checking out the table

Uh oh... Nikki wearing a UGA hat

Olivia's turn

Olivia and Griffin

Jose and Michael

Attempt at a group shot

Olivia figured out how to take the beer out of the cooler...one happy daddy

Griffin's skeleton pjs

Violet's cute tutu

Super Giggles and Sweet Baby

Today after work I stopped at a coworkers house.  They just had a sweet baby girl last week.  She is absolutely precious.  I can't believe Olivia used to be that small.  I was so glad to bring them a meal from our grade level and hold that baby girl.  So sweet!

We started prepping for our little fall party that we are having tomorrow.  I thought I bought everything for the party...what was I thinking?? Of course I missed a few items and we ran out of some stuff that I thought we had.  Off to the store Olivia and I went after her nap.  She was really good...poor thing had already gone grocery shopping with her daddy this morning.  She loves Kroger...she even said, "Bye bye Kroger" when we pulled out of the parking lot. 

You never know what children are going to say.  I was surprised this afternoon after her nap, while sitting on her potty chair (which by the way we have had no potties in like 5 days! but we still keep trying!) she looked at me and said, "Daddy at work." That was the first time I ever heard her say work and know the context of it meaning daddy was not home.  Then we talked about his job and the car he drives...which she knows since I showed her one and heard it a few weeks ago.

After dinner Olivia had the giggles.  I have never heard her giggle like this before.  First she was walking around trying to pull Jake's tail...she thinks it is funny but not for Jake.  So that was the start.  Then she got her beach ball for Gymboree and was throwing it and kicking it to me and laughing so hard.  I have never seen or heard her giggles like that.  It makes staying home on a Friday night worth it!

Playing with a pot and lid.  First it was like cymbals...then she wanted to play it like drums, then she wanted to put the lid on top.

Embarrassing Moments and More Crafts

We have had 2 embarrassing moments...well I should rephrase that I have had 2 embarrassing moments. 

First one- Olivia and I went to Target yesterday.  Which she totally loves.  When she sees the red Target symbol she says, "Circle!" and I taught her how to say Target.  We just walked into the store and I had her in the cart.  There was a sweet older couple who was walking down the same aisle.  The sweet man was pushing his wife in a wheel chair.  Well Olivia saw it and pointed and said, "Bicycle! Bicycle!" Oh man....so embarrassing.  I tried to shush her and walked as quickly as I could and told her that it was not a bicycle and left it at that.  But what she saw was the wheels that looked like bicycle wheels which I could see how she came up with the connection to bicycle...but still embarrassing!

Second one- This is more me than anything.  Olivia LOVES to listen to her Kindermusik cd in the car.  Especially the one about clean up time and bath/bed time.  So we listened to it this morning...ALL the way to Susan's house.  I really wanted to listen to The Bert show and not her music.  But as any good mom would do...we listened to Olivia's music the whole 30 minutes.  I dropped her off and drove off to work.  Little did I know that I was singing along to Olivia's cd...for quite a bit.  Then it dawned on me...you are singing along to your child's cd while they are NOT in the car.  I immediately turned on The Bert show!

Today we got more crafts! I love crafts!!We got two cute ones from Susan's house and Olivia got a cute pumpkim from Ms. Dana at Kindermusik.  Ms. Dana always makes the kids certificates and a scrapbook page at the end of the Kindermusik session.  Tonight was our last fall night BUT she is going to have 3 additional weeks of classes in November =)

Crafts from Susan! Olivia learned about triangles and rectangles.  Then she made a scary ghost from her hand print.

Ms. Dana's certificate, scrapbook page, and pumpkin with picture

Bonus night with daddy!

We had a bonus night with daddy tonight.  It is tough to only have him home for two dinners a week.  Usually five nights it is Olivia and I every night for dinner.  It is our special dinner time and we have our little routine.  After her nap today Olivia was NOT happy.  She even looked at Brendon once and then started crying.  Maybe it was she was tired or maybe it wasn't normal to her to see Brendon home.  But eventually she stopped but the tears and crying were a little unusual for her.  We ate dinner and played and then Brendon gave her a bath.  When she went down for bed she talked for quite a bit.  The past 2 nights she has been waking about 9:30 p.m. with tears.  We will see what happens tonight.....!

Dust, dust , dust

I tried to capture a video of Olivia and her dust, dust, dust song from Kindermusik.  She LOVES this song.  We now bring the cd in the car and she will request to hear the song.  I sometimes can get her to listen to some other songs but usually we repeat that song over and over.

I went and voted after school today so I don't have to go on Election Day with Olivia.  Now Olivia and I will have the whole day together.  An elderly gentlemen whose eye sight wasn't that great said that I didn't look old enough to vote.  I kindly thanked him and it made this 33 year old feel better about herself.  Clearly he did need a vision screening though!

Olivia and I just hung around the house and played today.  About the only excitement and scary moment was that Olivia climbed up into her high chair by herself! Yikes... I turned around for one second to cut her green beans and turn backed around and yep...there she was! Scary because if she falls out she will get hurt! Guess I will never turn my back again!!

Close ups!

19 Months Old

As Olivia would say, "Wow!" Time is just flying by.  She is growing up so fast and becoming her own little miss personality.

Here are some things she likes at 19 months:

* To be read to.  She will sit and listen to a book and often will ask for us to read. 
* Eric Carle books
* The moon...she just loves the moon
* The word NO!
* Tickles
* Climbing on everything
* Turning the light switch on and off at the bottom of the stairs
* Sitting on her potty chair
* Reading The Potty Train book over and over and over
* Elmo and the rest of Sesame Street characters
* Helping- getting things out, throwing things in the trash, dusting, laundry, and the dishwasher
* Talking...always adding words to that vocabulary and some phrases this month- sit down, good girl, silly girl, holy cow, oh shoot, don't touch my toys
* Play outside
* Football and baseball- Loves UGA and the Braves, she is so sad that Chipper Jones is not playing anymore
* Loves to look at photographs of people she knows
* Singing to songs and now requesting songs!

Here are some firsts for this month:

* A new tooth! A molar is still coming through =)
* Going down the stairs by herself on her bottom.  Loves to climb the stairs at Hebron Church and walk down them holding my hand
* Knows the letter O
* Knows the numbers 6 and 7
* Rode on her first train
* Had her first boy/girl sleepover and a kiss!
* Went to the zoo
* Can recognize people by face and name (especially if they are in a Shutterfly book)
* Went pee pee on her potty chair.  Some days are better than others with it.  Still keep trying though!
* Started pulling Jake's tail! Poor guy!
* Got her 3rd haircut (bangs trimmed)

That's about all I can think about.  I got her finally to sit still to take a picture but she was eating her snack...but hey she is sitting still!

Half Marathon of Redemption

After the last half marathon disaster I was not satisfied with my performance.  I trained hard for that half marathon in August and was so disappointed.  I needed to redeem myself.  So I signed up for the Athens 1/2 Marathon to try to redeem myself.  I have been training still...I just kind of kept training after the Alien 1/2 and kept my mileage up.  Athens is hilly, so lots of hill training too.  Dean, Joan, and Tina were all running the race today so it was fun to be with friends.  Kim was our chauffeur and picked me up about 5:30 a.m.  We then met Joan and picked her up about 6:10 a.m. and rode into Athens and parked.  We then went to church.  Yes..church! There was a church service for runners this morning.  So we listened to the service and the best part was we could use the bathroom there.  That is always nice to have at a race.  We did a little warm up and headed to the start.  It was a chilly start and I wore one of Brendon's sweatshirts that he was ok with it not coming home...I tossed it before the race started.  The race started in downtown Athens.  They have such a great downtown! At 7:30 a.m. we were off! We started downtown and then to a historic part of Athens.  There was a LONG down hill part to Memorial Park about mile 5 but what goes down must come up! So there was a bit of a hill back up to mile 6.  Then we went out of the loop down and by the UGA golf course and then back onto campus.  There were some hills on the way back and I walked a few.  My calf muscles were getting a little tired.  The course had plenty of hydration...water and POWERADE! YAY! I was a happy girl.  The final stretch was great.  I ran past Sanford Stadium on the bridge and then a few turns and a few hills later, we ran around the hedges at Sanford Stadium and then on to the finish.  My time was 2 hours and 12 minutes.  While running for that long there are lots of things to think about.  One thing I did not think about was quitting.  I really wanted a strong finish.  I fought through the fatigue and the mental part of it.  I was very pleased with my time on this race.  I really didn't have a goal but to finish better than last time.  But overall it was a great course, even with the hills, great friends and fellowship, great temperatures, and good snacks after.

I was very tired when I got home...I didn't sleep well the night before and running 13.1 miles makes you tired.  I ate lunch and then took a nap and so did Olivia.  Olivia woke up in a great mood and we played outside.  Olivia helped her daddy plant some spinach.  We ate dinner and played like usual.  Today also Olivia is 19 months old! I will write about that tomorrow!!

Helping plant spinach

Here is my shirt, medal and number.