My favorite part of the morning is taking Olivia to school.

Every school day Olivia...

holds my hand in the parking lot until we get to the part where no cars are allowed. Then she lets go of my hand and races me (except that I don't actually run) to the front door where she sets down her lunch box and gathers all of her strength to open the door.

sneaks past her 2's class teacher because she doesn't want Miss Becca to see her. She actually loves Miss Becca; it's all part of Liv's love of sneaking around and surprising people.

finds the place her lunch box belongs and puts it on the shelf. Then she signs herself in by moving her picture from the Home board to the School board.

hides outside her classroom and giggles loudly until her teacher notices her.

These moments make up her school day ritual.

Mud and Water Day

Ever heard of it? Well, it's a major holiday according to Olivia. For a week we've woken up to a sing songy voice asking us "Is it Mud and Waters Day?" or telling us "It is Mud and Waters Day" when it actually wasn't.

Olivia put a lot of thought into this day. She requested that we present her with cards for Mud and Water Day, as if Hallmark had a line of greeting cards specifically for this special Day. She even instructed us as to when would be the appropriate time to give her the cards; first thing in the morning in case you are wondering.

The idea was just too fun to pass up. Chris did a wonderful drawing of Harry making his own mud and water puddles with a watering can (inspired by Harry and the Lady Next Door by Gene Zion) and then gave it to her before breakfast. And I gave her a foam football because I happened to have bought it a few days earlier to replace one the dog ate and hadn't given it to her yet.

So here are a few images from Olivia's much anticipated Mud and Water Day at school.












No home made treats or shiny decorations, just water, mud, shaving cream and some friends.

Santa's elves make an early arrival...

While touring local neighborhoods for Christmas lights we saw a little cottage with a big yard filled with probably 20 or more inflatable Christmas decorations. Liv was enchanted and decided she wanted a "popup" Christmas decoration for her yard from Santa. She specifically wanted a snow globe with a merry-go-round in it.

I think Santa had a tough time fulfilling Liv's specific wish but he did pretty darn well. A few days before Christmas Eve he sent his elves to set up 3 popups in our front yard! Liv was so excited when Chris and I woke her to show her the surprise. At first she was a little scared and wanted to go back inside. But after a few minutes of thinking about it she wanted to go right back outside to walk around and inspect her presents. Santa brought a giant snowman, Santa in a plane (with spinning propellers) and Santa on a sled with penguins.

Unfortunately this story has a sad ending; somebody swiped all but the snowman from our yard a few nights after Christmas. But luckily we had a chance to get some pretty good pictures to remember them by.

Something nice to know about 3 year olds.

All year long Olivia has been asking me to fly her kite with her. And all year long (with exception of our trip to the beach) I've said 'it's too hot' or 'there's no wind' or 'we don't have time right now'. In regards to the time excuse here's what I had in my mind for kite flying. Get the girls and myself ready, pack snacks and water for a 2 hour trip and get out the door (a monumental task when you have a babe that still naps 3 times a day), drive or walk to a park and keep Violet protected from energetic dogs/kids while I help Liv fly a kite.

She asked again a few Saturdays ago. And since we were sitting on our front porch and her kite was handy and the wind was gusty AND Violet was taking a long nap I figured sure! Let's give it a go.

So Liv got her kite, put her shoes on and we walked down the porch steps to the front yard. We tossed the kite into the air (Daddy showed up about this time), Liv ran around giggling, I took photos and after 10 to 15 minutes of pure 3 year old joy at watching a kite fly and fall to the ground repeatedly she was satisfied and we all went back to the porch.

Well here's the thing to know about 3 year olds. Sometimes they are happy with so little that it does you a lot more good (think good karma) to say 'sure, why not?' than to keep telling them 'no'. If I had known how little it would take to make Liv happy I would have flown a kite with her for 10 minutes many months ago.

On our walk last week, Liv presented this magic wand to me.

Lunch with ladybugs...

Talented from head to toe

Olivia's creativity is without a doubt one of her greatest assets. She is an avid dancer, singer, story teller and artist.

A few months ago while I was on maternity leave I noticed a drawing on her chalk board. I assumed Chris had helped her draw it. A few days passed as Chris and I were both deeply involved in Violet's feedings, diaper changes, medication and doctor visits. I kept looking up and seeing that drawing on the chalkboard and finally found myself in the same room with Chris for a few moments. I asked him if he'd helped Liv with the picture on the chalkboard. He said no; he thought that I'd helped her with it. When we realized that neither of us had helped her we were both in awe and got up to get a closer look at her work. She'd drawn a nicely shaped circle and filled it in with straight and diagonal lines that impressively stayed within the circle.

A few days ago she painted two pictures of Mickey Mouse. And it looked just like the Mickey Mouse icon that you see at the beginning of Walt Disney movies. First of all, it's amazing that she remembered what Mickey Mouse looks like. We don't let her watch much television and she doesn't see many movies. I think she has seen maybe one half hour episode of a Mickey Mouse cartoon and a few other times we've pointed out pictures of Mickey to her. The pictures she drew had one large circle in the middle of the paper and two slightly smaller circles on the top left and top right of the large one. They were mostly black with some red and green. The first one she drew had one of the ears touching the head. Neither Chris, Christine or I said anything about that but as she showed her work to Grandpa Jim she noted that she'd made a mistake and pointed to that spot.

Olivia sings a lot. She makes up her own lyrics to familiar tunes but also makes up her own songs entirely. And most of her dancing routines have a fantastic finale of her on the floor in some kind of spinning move ending with a leg lifted in the air. One of the cutest things I've seen her do is to slap her tambourine on her hip while dancing. That girl's got some moves I tell ya!

This morning while sitting at the table she pointed to the fourth seat that didn't have any oatmeal or smoothie and said "What about Emily?" I said "Emily who?" She said "Emily, Clifford's girl." Her imagination is powerful. Chris and I have even learned how to use it to our advantage too. When she asks for something that we don't have (or don't want to give her), like a cookie, expensive phone or camera, we'll pretend like we're giving it to her. And you'd be surprised how often she says "Thanks" and pretends to take it from our hands without skipping a beat. Of course this can backfire. Like tonight when I was in a rush and needed her to wash her hands. I said "Liv, where's your stool?" She reached an empty hand to me and said "Here it is!" I think the theater is in this girl's future.

An interesting case of Iwannabea Ladybugitis

Olivia was inspired by the rocks we painted to look like ladybugs. So she took the Sharpie pen and put spots on her belly. When Chris came out to the front porch she hid under the table and said "Dad will be so upset!" Of course he wasn't mad but he turned to me and said "Are you nuts?" Perhaps a little.