Grass Hills

Olivia and a Stick

Notice how she picks up lots of speed at the bottom.

Tent and Tunnel

I had meant to take some pictures of this earlier. We actually bought this tent and tunnel awhile ago. Olivia discovered these wonderful toys at Ikea and it took such a long time prying her away from them that we figured they would make a great addition to our house. And by our house, I mean Olivia's 3 bedroom 2 bath storage unit for toys.

More Oldies- August 2008

Looking back at some of these old videos, it's hard to believe how much Olivia has grown.

This was right after she got her first haircut (same day).

Olivia did a little bit of sign language before she could talk. They were all made up signs that no one but us and she would understand. The clap over her mouth was her sign for all done.

Some old Flashbacks- June 2008

I can't believe how lush the backyard looks.

This was the first video of her dancing

Birds es Hungry

Yesterday Olivia found a bag of woodshavings in our outside storage bench and started scattering them around the yard. When I asked her what she was doing her reply was, "Birds es hungry. Birds like dis." Despite her confidence in the wood shavings, we didn't any bird visitors.

"Look at all that"

First Day of Fall

We celebrated the first day of fall by breaking out the Halloween decorations. Like last year, the big hit was of course the ninja swords.

Olivia pretending to drink out of a skeleton hand cup

Olivia found a plastic bat in one of the pumpkins and flew it around for awhile.

And like any fall day, Olivia went swimming and had a popsicle to beat the hundred degree weather.

Living Room Obstacle Course

Today's Mini Heart Attack Moment

(notice this is just today's)

The first time she did this, I only saw the very last part and I didn't realize she had moved the bean bag to catch her fall. I let her do it twice more for the camera and then made the rule, "No jumping off tables."

Playground Fun

Olivia's Lolos and Auntie Richelle came up to visit us this weekend. Lucky Olivia got some new playmates at the park.

Monkey Jammies

UCD vs Montana

It was almost a year ago that we took Olivia to the Causeway Classic and then she had discovered how exciting it was to run down the grass hill behind the end zone where we were sitting. This time, she discovered rolling down the hill was even more fun. It was a little bit of a relief she would rather roll because trying to catch her as a much faster, bigger, and stronger girl, was like trying to stop a freight train that would barrel right into your chest.

Olivia being pulled around on her Nemo towel

Olivia's "smile." Her smile has become a more evil and exaggerated "mom face."

Night of the Six Movies

One of Olivia's favorite people offered to babysit this last Friday. Being Friday, Liya kept our Friday Night Movie Night tradition and her and Olivia went through movie after movie. Apparently Olivia was only interested in watching the first half hour or so of each movie. When we got home, DVDs were strewn about and they both looked like they had a lot of fun, especially Olivia.

Gleeson House

The Gleeson House was just as eventful as the Crucillo house and like the Crucillo house, we didn't have very many pictures on our own camera. Here, Olivia got to go to the wedding of her cousin Shawna and meet two more family members: her Great Aunt Sharon (who calls herself Greatest Aunt Sharon) and her cousin Savannah. Savannah is exactly one day younger than Olivia and the two of them share quite a few interests that include throwing sand and playing with bubbles. I'll post some pictures of the two girls and the wedding whenever I get them.

One exciting event from this half of our trip was Olivia getting her first professional haircut. We had an incredible hair stylist who sat Olivia in a fire truck seat and gave her a bucket of toys to play with. Olivia was so excited about the toys and fire truck that she probably never even noticed that her hair was being cut.

The before- crazy lion's mane hair

The After- Chic bob

Even though it was ridiculously hot, we decided to take a trip to the zoo where Olivia got to ride a train, another carousel, and play around on some giant turtles.

Crucillo House

Olivia "helping" pack (she just had a red popsicle)

We ended our summer much as we began it- with another trip to Orange County to visit family. This time our first stop was the Crucillo house. Unfortunately one of our cameras was lost just before we left for this trip so we only have a few pictures. The families were nice enough to take lots of pictures for us and as soon as we get them, I'll post some more up. Until then, here are some of the highlights from the ones we did take.

Two of Olivia's favorite people were waiting for Olivia when we made it to O-wah's house: Tita Susan and Bric (pronounced Teeta and Bick). There was lots of running, jumping, and chasing to be had by all.

Our big outing was to Chuck-E-Cheese where Olivia got to do some of her favorite things: ride a carousel, throw balls, eat pizza, and play video games. She made several requests to go back during the rest of the trip and even after we got back home as well. This may need to become an O-wah and apo tradition.

One of the lanes for skee ball was broken so Olivia got a never ending supply of balls to roll up the ramp. Of course, none of them ever actually made it to the score zone. She would just roll them up as fast as she could and then let O-wah (Lolo) try to catch them all before they hit the floor on the way back down.

One of the best parts of this half of the trip was Olivia's first meeting with her great grandmother (Mama). Mama was staying with the Torres family and so we all got to do a sleepover to get extra time with her and the rest of the Titas and Titos. Within no time Olivia warmed up to Mama and made sure she got several hugs and kisses during our stay. We are very much hoping that we get another chance to see her before she heads back to the Philippines.

Olivia's new piano teachers. We agreed to pay them in hours playing with Olivia if they taught her to play.