Olivia is 2!

Olivia is two!  My baby is definitely not a baby anymore and we are diving into toddler-hood and the "terrible twos."  She is stubborn!!!  She can be so extremely frustrating, and then so extremely cute the next minute.

At two years old, Olivia weighs 27.4 lb and is 35.5" tall.  She is taller than Kayla was at this age, and just a tad bit shorter than Nathan was.  It makes sense now, why she is starting to wear 3T clothes, whereas Kayla didn't wear them until she was almost three.  Speaking of clothes, Olivia still refuses to wear flip flops, so she has been wearing crocs all summer long.  Or boots.  If she sees her boots at the bottom of her shoe bin she'll choose those.

She is quickly becoming quite the chatterbox, so long as she is in a comfortable environment.  I understand roughly 50% of what she says.  When she is in an unfamiliar environment with people she doesn't know, she clams right up and won't even make eye contact or crack a smile.

She always talks about "Memma" (Emma) and "Ry-yee" (Riley).  She loves to play with Emma, and loves to boss Riley around.  "Ry-eee, NO!"

Kayla is called "See-da", Matthew is "Sa-hew", Nathan is "Mmm-hmm."  All flies are called "bees."

She loves playing with lego or duplo, trains, and her baby.  She also loves doing puzzles.  Olivia loves swimming.

Her favourite thing to eat is chips (what a Struik!).  Or candy.  Or fruit.  Thank goodness she likes fruit.  She absolutely loves juice and chocolate milk.

She has enjoyed the luxury of being able to climb into my bed while camping a little too much, because when we are home, that's the only place she wants to sleep.  She puts up a fight going to bed, and then wakes up during the night only wanting my bed.  She also likes to sleep at the foot of Nathan's bed.  It will be nice when summer is over and we can figure out where we want her to sleep and do some sleep-training.

{She couldn't sleep so I took her out of bed and let her snack and watch t.v. with me}

{She couldn't sleep so I let her sleep on my bedroom floor like the big kids do.  I was quite surprised that she didn't fight to sleep in my bed.}

 Birthday Celebrations:

{Jon and I gave her her birthday gift (the doll bike seat) early, so that she could get maximum enjoyment from it while camping.  She LOVES biking her baby around.}

{Celebrating her birthday with my parents and Candice two days early.}

{Birthday "cake" (an ice cream sandwich) #1}

{Birthday cake #2 to celebrate with cousins on Aug 8}

{Too many people are paying attention to me...must act shy!}

{We spent Olivia's birthday driving 10 hours to Vanderhoof.  We actually had forgotten that it was her birthday until we had been driving for a few hours.}

{We celebrated Olivia's birthday again when we reached Vanderhoof, with birthday cake #3}

Poor Nathan

Nathan walked into the toy room this evening while I was cleaning it up and said, out of the blue, "Mom, I think I'm going to be an adult when you die."

I replied (jokingly), "You better not cry when I die!"  And then he started to cry just thinking about it.  So very cute!  I assured him that I wasn't going to die anytime soon and we had a big hug and then he was fine again.

Poor kid.  I wonder what is going through his head all the time.

Nathan is 3 3/4 Years Old!

Almost a month late, but better now then never, right?

Nathan continues to grow up at a rapid pace: physically, spiritually, and academically.  He is quickly catching up to Matthew...he is only an inch or two shorter, and one pound less.  We've been having quite a few discussions as of late with both him and Matthew about how God makes people of all different sizes.  For now, Matthew is very proud that Nathan is catching up.

Nathan loves to talk about God/Jesus/Satan.  He often talks about Jesus dying on the cross and about Heaven.  He likes discussing who gets to go to Heaven and what it will be like.  ("Mom, guess who put Jesus on a cross?  God did.  That means when we die we go to Heaven and not with Satan").  He asked Jon to read him the second last story in the Bible and then he came to tell me that it was about the new world.  It will be interesting to see where his love for Jesus takes him.

Nathan is still a sponge.  He absorbs whatever he hears, mostly from Matthew and Kayla.  He recognizes and names all of his letters and he knows how to spell each of their names.  He can print a lot of his upper case letters, and the others he can do with a little verbal direction (ex. R is "straight line, little loop, leg).

He loves playing with Barbies.  He still enjoys dressing up as a princess, but since we acquired a few more superhero ones the princess costumes have not been worn as frequently.  He loves doing puzzles and has really gotten good at drawing and colouring in the lines.

Nathan enjoyed the free soccer sessions he participated in this summer, so we have him signed up to play soccer in the fall/spring.

He is not shy!  He doesn't care if you are an adult or a kid older than him, he'll still talk to you or ask you a question.  We had walked past a construction site a few months ago and Nathan asked me what they were doing.  I didn't know, so I told him to ask the workers.  A few seconds later he put his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Hey guys!  What are you doing?"  He'll also be the first of my kids to talk to kids at the playground.

Olivia is 23 Months Old!

Almost two years old!  AHHH!

Olivia seems to have grown up so much lately.  She is really starting to talk a lot.  She can string together three words easily, and is saying new words daily.  She learned how to say 'Matthew' this month, but still only says "hmm hmm" for Nathan.  She often can be heard saying, "Where Daddy go?"

Olivia loves to bike and always asks to where her "hem".  She has learned how to lift her feet off of the ground to coast, which is quite exciting and nerve wracking at the same time.  I videotaped her one of the first days after she had learned and she majorly bailed.  She cried, but was not hurt, and then I made her get back on her bike and go down the hill again.

Olivia is PETRIFIED of bugs.  If she sees a bug on her, she SCREAMS.  She also does not like to have grass cuttings or sand stuck to her legs or feet.

When we are camping, she just sleeps on the collapsed table (no play pen to pack anymore!) and naps just on a bed at my parents' house.  She naps in her crib at home most times; if she fights being in the crib for her nap then she sleeps on Nathan's bed.

She loves to sleep on her back, with her baby laying face-up on her chest, with the blanket on top of both of them.  We have started praying with her at night, and it's the cutest thing ever.  She folds her hands nicely and stares up at you with a huge smile on her face while her prayer is being recited, and then when it's time to say, "Amen," say says, "Umm."  Just before I leave the room she always asks me, "Mommy sleep too?"  And I always say, "no," and then she says, "Mommy clean up?" and I say, "Yes."  It started during camping when I told her I would lay down beside her after I cleaned up all the toys and towels outside, and has just carried over to at home now.

She has no fear at playgrounds, successfully climbing many walls/obstacles designed for older children.  She definitely prevents me from sitting around too much when we are at a playground.

Olivia still loves to eat fruit.  Her favourites are strawberries, blueberries, grapes, oranges, and bananas.  If I give her watermelon, she likes to chew on the rind rather than eat the fruit itself.  She loves juice.

She LOVES swimming.  That girl is a fish!  She has no problem jumping in and going under.  She loves wearing her puddle jumper, and even likes to do back floats when wearing it.  Sometimes her legs are straight out of the water, which is cute.

Olivia is 22 Months Old!

Time with you is flying!  Each month I'm caught off-guard as the 9th passes and I realize that I've taken very few pictures of you, once again.  Luckily we have a lot of camping trips planned for the summer because it's easy for me to sit and watch you play and take pictures!

{One last rock in our rocking chair before it went to a new family.  Bitter sweet saying goodbye to it, that's for sure!}

You now weigh 27.2 lb.

You are at a very cute age.  You play great with your siblings, but you also play great by yourself.  You seldom need very much attention.  You are amazing at your wooden puzzles, completing them quickly each time.  I pulled out Nathan's first four-piece jigsaw puzzles and you're starting to get the hang of those.  You also do our colour-coded shape sorter with ease.  You love wrestling with your Dad!

At Grandma's house, you LOVE jumping on the trampoline.  You know how to do a bum-drop - now you just have to learn how to stand up at the end of it.  You scale the 6-foot rock reclined climbing wall and the 8-foot completely vertical climbing wall with ease.  The pool, although extremely cold, is always fun for you.  You always panic when you first get in because the coolness takes your breath away, but you love swimming so much you just push through it.  You love swings and slides.  I taught you how to swing on your tummy on a big-kid swing, so that I don't have to push you all the time.

You have started speaking in three-word phrases, such as "Where Daddy go?"  Your most frequently used words are: Mommy, Daddy, Kayla (Ee-da), hiding (hi-ing), no (mo), ju (juice), Riley (Ri-yee), Emma (Mumma).

Your favourite breakfasts are yogourt and a banana or banana muffins.  You are very patient at waiting for breakfast; you often don't get fed for the first hour you are up.

You are not a very big lunch eater.  If I can get half a slice of bread in you, I'm happy.

You are a great dinner eater.  You always finish all of your food, without complaint.  You love sausages.

This month we took away your final bottle feed, the before-bed bottle.  It was not intentional initially, but we came home late from my parents' and forgot to feed you a bottle in the rush to get everyone in bed and you did fine.  The next night, I skipped it again and you were fine.  You've asked for it a couple times, but a sippy cup of milk has worked instead.

Oddly enough, since you stopped having that before-bed bottle you've been sleeping better at night.  Yes, there are some nights where you wake up crying for me and then screamed when you realized that I'm not bringing you into our room, but overall, it's been much better.

You will not wear sandals.  You refuse.  So, crocs it is!

You are able to understand reasoning, which is very helpful.  "Olivia, if you don't stop crying (in your crib) then I'm going to take your baby away" is commonly heard if/when you wake up during the night.  "Olivia, finish your breakfast and then you can have a banana."

We've started praying with you at night.  You fold your hands when told to, but then hold them above your eyes and peak through, smiling as I recite your prayer.

 You LOVE babies.  Real or fake!  You are not particularly attached to any specific baby doll - it just can't have hair!

Morning at Williams Park

After our typical Saturday morning breakfast of hash browns, scrambled eggs, and bacon, we headed out to Williams Park.  We haven't been there for a long time, and they recently re-did the entire playground.  The kids enjoyed testing it out, and then we went for a walk along the creek and through the forest.  It was great.  Nothing like a full belly and some fresh air to start out the day!  Unfortunately, we didn't take the camera so all we had was Jon's cell phone.

A Few Hours at Blackie Spit

After we went to the last Noah's Ark program for this school year (and Matthew and Kayla's final one ever!), we drove straight to Blackie Spit at Crescent Beach.

The kids love the outdoors.  At the beach they love digging in sand, looking for shells, laying in tide pool water (Matthew!), and climbing rocks.  It was HOT today, and the kids had swimming lessons in the afternoon so we only stayed for just over two hours.