One of Olivia's new favorite things to do is to "go shopping". She puts Bunny or Baby (or both) in her shopping cart, goes into the pantry and fills her cart. On this trip she has some egg noodles, several cans of beans, a can of diced tomatoes and some sandwich bags. There are also some toys in the bottom of the cart. So cute! She's pretending to be like Mommy. I love it!

beach trip!

We finally got to take Olivia on her first beach trip. She loved it! It was quite a drive down there. We thought she would sleep quite a bit in the car, but we were wrong. She finally fell asleep when we were about an hour away. We only got to be out on the beach Saturday morning. Olivia loved every minute of that! She ran up and down the beach, splashed in the water, and even went "swimming" with Daddy. (Which means Paul held her the whole time while he waded out into deeper water.) After her nap, we went out to eat at a seafood restaurant, went to play putt-putt, and had ice cream. Olivia really enjoyed playing putt-putt, but she didn't quite get that she was supposed to hit the ball with her putter. She either scooted the ball around on the green, or she just picked the ball up and dropped it in the hole! Of course, she didn't do much playing at all, she mostly ran around the course. She liked the fake animals that were there, and wanted to climb some of them. Olivia really enjoyed the ice cream cone that we bought her after playing putt-putt. She also really enjoyed the rocking chairs that were at the ice cream shop! We knew we wouldn't have time to go to the beach on Sunday, so we packed up the car and headed to a public playground there. We had a picnic and let Olivia run around and play in hopes that she would be really tired and take a long nap in the car on the way home. Overall, we had a great time, but we hope we can stay longer next time we go!

paci broken!

A couple of nights ago Olivia woke up screaming. As I got her up and tried to comfort her, I noticed that every time I tried to give her the paci, she would spit it out and cry harder. So I just assumed that her mouth was hurting. (She still hasn't cut her 2 year molars.) After an hour of trying to comfort her, I noticed that her paci didn't look quite right. Sure enough, after closer inspection, her paci was broken. The air bubble had deflated, and she was rather upset (to put it mildly!)

So I told her, "I'm sorry, sweetheart. Your paci is broken."

"Paci broken?"

"Yes, baby. Paci broken."

That's all it took. She laid her head on my shoulder, and she stopped crying. A few minutes later I was able to put her back down.

When we would get ready for naptime or for bed, she used to say, "Bunny, paci. Bunny, paci." (She needed both to go to sleep.) Now she's been saying, "Bunny, paci broken. Bunny, paci broken." So sad! I've tried to comfort her by telling her that Bunny is not broken, and Mommy and Daddy are not broken. I think she is going to latch onto her pink blanket next. We'll see!

Christmas cookies!

Today we had two exciting events in the Abernathy household: Aunt Mere came to visit (woo-hoo!) and we held our first annual Christmas cookie baking day! I didn't do anything fancy this year, just store bought cookie dough, canned icing and sprinkles. Maybe in the future we'll try be more creative. We did try to use the fancy cookie press that I have... "try" being the operative word. :)

Yea! Aunt Mere!

"I'm not exactly sure how this is supposed to work..."

"The sprinkles I can do!"

"Mmm... icing..."

Cookies

More cookies (pay no attention to that half eaten one at the bottom)

A few of the finished product

prepare yourself for a cuteness attack!

Since it's been forever since I posted, I thought I'd post a little about that sweet little girl:

Olivia is now a regular chatterbox. Half the time I don't know what she's trying to say, but there are a lot of words I do understand.

Mommy (Mom-ee!), Daddy, (Dad-ee!), Olivia (ya-ya), Granddaddy (ga-da-da), Grammie (gee), Nana, Papaw, Kathryn (ka-ka), Will, Wyatt (wy), Reece, Abbi, baby, bunny (b), paci (pha), water (wa), cat (ca), dog (daw), turtle, mouse, goat (go), frog, deer, moose, bird (bir), duck, goose, baa, neigh, outside (ow-sigh), bath, sorry, amen (men), touch (toush), fall, go (as in "here you go"), again (geen), ball, balloon (boon), book, read, story, night-night, uh-oh, kiss, butterfly (fie), flower (fowr), stuck, hot, soap, bubble, rock, phone, nose, mouth, teeth, eye, foot, truck, boy, girl, bible, sun, dressed, shoes, socks, eat (e), egg (ya), cheese, cookie, juice, apple, banana (ah-na), orange, berry, pepper (as in bell pepper, one of her favorite veggies), peas, turkey, chicken, quiche, cracker, raisin (ree), cereal, bean, bib, spoon, fork, burp (we're working on "Excuse me"), more, please (pease), thank you (ee-ya), hello, hi, bye. (That's almost 100 words!)

One of her current favorite things to do is to read books. Olivia now thinks that when we read together on the couch, we have to have a blanket tucked around us. It is sweet!

Here is a recent picture of Olivia with her hair in pigtails. I would love to put her hair up more often, but it is quite a challenge with one so mobile!

death of a paci

What a sad post to write! Today after Olivia got up from her nap, I noticed a rather large tear in her paci! Now, I don't think Olivia will be too sad about having to throw this paci away; she likes her Pooh and Tigger pacis better. But I am! This was my favorite paci because it is so cute! Once we had two, but we lost the other at church several months ago. *Sigh* We always knew this day would come...

leaves!

Now that we've moved to the new house, we have a much bigger yard and no landscapers to take care of it! (Part (most?) of our HOA dues paid the landscapers to mow grass, seed, blow leaves, etc.) So this year we are raking our own leaves.

Olivia "helps"

Playing in the leaves with Daddy

Wheelbarrow rides

At first Olivia wasn't too sure about riding in the wheelbarrow with a bunch of leaves. Then she decided to lay back in the leaves and loved it!

we're back! mostly...

Oh, life has been full lately. We moved a month ago today. I feel more settled than I did a month ago, and I guess it feels like home... There is still a lot of work to do.

We've have major computer problems at our house, which is why I've gone a month between posts. I think that we finally have a personal computer up and running, so I should be able to post much more often in the weeks to come. Now if I can just figure out how to upload pics to this new computer...

I've been tagged!

Well, I knew it would happen someday. I knew when I started a blog that I would get tagged to answer some of those "fun" questions that go around the blog-o-sphere. Really, it's a perfect time for me to one. I'm really not that busy right now with moving or anything. ;) (At least I didn't get tagged with one of those that make you answer 30+ questions. If you are thinking about tagging me with one of those, please don't!)

(Disclosure: I totally copied the following explanation of tagging and the rules from my friend Kendra's blog.)

In case you are a non-blogger and just a reader you may not know what tagging is, it is the passing along of trivial information.

Here are the official rules:

First, the rules.
1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Write 6 random things about yourself.
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post.
4. If you are tagged, DO IT and pass it along.

So without further ado:

1. I used to play the flute, xylophone and the piano in high school (though not all at the same time - talk about multi-tasking!) I learned to play the guitar in college. I am really rusty on all four now.

2. I am a member of a book club named the "Friends and Bibliophiles" or FAB for short. (It is too a nice word! Go look it up!) All the members have, at one time or another, taught at Piedmont High School.

3. I get really sad when I log into my blogger account and find that I have no comments. :( So, leave me a comment!

4. My favorite color is yellow.

5. Paul and I named our daughter Olivia because it was the only girl name we could agree on.

6. I just joined the choir at our church.

Okay, 6 things you may or may not have know about me. Now, about tagging 6 other people... I'm not even sure that I know six people that read my blog! No, that's not really true. I can come up with six people that read it, if I count myself. But I definitely don't know 6 friends that read my blog and also have blogs. So, friends with blogs, here's what I am going to do. If you like being tagged, then you are it! If not, you're free and clear. (I can hear sighs of relief coming from you all...)

fishy face!

What we've been doing...

I know it's been 2 weeks since I last posted, but you'll just have to bear with me. I'm moving, and between the crazy business and crazy emotions, I just haven't felt like posting anything. Then I got tagged... but more about that later.

We spent part of Labor Day weekend with my parents and grandmother. They loved seeing Olivia! They like seeing us, too, of course. And Paul and I got to go see a movie! Woo-hoo! We love free babysitting!

Olivia deciding that she wasn't going to let us forget her!

Making a new friend

Olivia enjoying the fountain at the nursing home

Olivia and Grammie

Olivia giving Granny some kisses

Olivia playing catch in Granny's room and having a ball (pun intended) :)

Back home, I finally gave Olivia the chance to use her new crayons:



The final product. This is why I bought washable crayons!



This is Olivia helping me pack a box. This is preferable than her unpacking!

Olivia-isms at eighteen months

One sided conversations I've been having with Olivia lately:

"Olivia! Mommy's pants are not a napkin! Please do not wipe your mouth on me!"

"Use your spoon, please. Oatmeal is not a finger food."

"Oh, Olivia. I love you even when you hug me with your lasagna-y hands."

"What are you ga-ta-ga-ing?" (Ga-ta-ga is her word for, "Give me that".)

Some new words Olivia says: hello, bath, bye-bye (also followed by her blowing kisses), night-night, go, sit (she know this one because we tell her to "sit" all the time!)

New things that Olivia is doing:

She likes to turn herself around in circles.
She can climb out of the bathtub (she still needs some help)
She can climb onto our bed (I fear the day she can climb out of her crib is coming soon)
She sorta helps me make the bed
When something is split on the floor, she sometimes will get a rag or a towel and wipe it up

Our little girl is growing up so fast! It seems like she is learning a new word a day. She still loves to go outside, still loves her bunny and still loves to cuddle up with Mommy, bunny, paci and a good book just before nap time (I love cuddling with her!) I hope she won't outgrow that anytime soon!

On another note, Olivia's diaper rash is gone! Ya'll must have been praying hard, because we started to see immediate improvement on Thursday. Thank you!

life is never boring...

Well, life at the Abernathy's hasn't been boring! We now have boxes all over the house. I considered posting a picture of our living room, but I decided that would be pretty depressing for me. Just take my word for it; it's a mess. Olivia, on the other hand, has enjoyed the boxes. She drags them around the house and puts her toys in the empty ones. We are currently packing an average of 2 boxes a day. Maybe I should up that count a little... I don't want to get overwhelmed the last week we are here. It still doesn't seem real that we are moving - it probably won't hit me until I stand in this house after it is completely empty. Remind me to leave some tissues unpacked; there'll be waterworks!

In addition to packing, we are also dealing with a diaper rash that just won't go away. We are going on 3 weeks now. (Her dr. checked it out last week, but we may end up going back.) It starts to clear up, then it comes back. Now, you know that the best thing for a diaper rash is lots of air. (Do you see were this is going?) So, we have established "bare bottom time" at least three times a day at our house. As you can imagine, this can be, well, hazardous. Maybe not to our health, but definitely to our sanity! Ya'll please pray that Olivia's bottom heals up quickly. Quite frankly, I'm tired of sanitizing the kitchen floor.

And if boxes and diaper rashes didn't constitute enough excitement, we are still waging war with some local ants. Now, I have nothing against ants in general, but these particular ants evidently were never taught any manners. Specifically, the rule about never going into someone else's house unless you're invited. Things are getting better, and we hope to have them completely evicted by the time our renters move in.

So that's what's currently going on at our house! Hope things at your house are a little more tame.

Olivia update

Today I took Olivia to her 18 month check up. She now weighs 23 lbs 4 oz and is 33 inches tall. That puts her in the 30th percentile for weight and the 85th percentile for height. In other words, she's tall and skinny. But we already knew that. :) She is also above average in language development. She can say between 15-20 words pretty clearly and sign a few more. Of course, she's saying a lot more than we can understand right now, but pretty soon we'll be having conversations!


On another note, Olivia has figured out how to scribble! It was pretty exciting the other day - I taped down a sheet of paper on the kitchen floor, gave her a couple of colored pencils and let'r at it! She had a blast!

Olivia - the budding artist

The final product

As you can see, Olivia also took it upon herself to alter the shape of the original page design (i.e., she tore the paper off the floor). That's about the time Mommy ended her first art session. Eating the pencils also influenced my decision. I did write her name on her paper; I was trying to show her that you could write words on paper, too; she wasn't impressed and just ended up pushing my hand away. I guess I did get a little ahead of myself. I bought her some crayons this week, so we'll have another coloring session soon.

happy "birthday" Olivia!!!

Today Olivia is 18 months old! We can't believe that she has been with us for that long; at the same time it feels like she's always been around. I can't imagine life without her! Paul and I decided to celebrate a little bit, so we took her out for lunch at Chick-fil-a. She really enjoyed it! She pretty much ate her whole lunch, with the exception of one or two bites she shared with Mommy (okay, that Mommy snitched). She wasn't too sure about the apple juice, which really surprised me because she normally loves it. She did enjoy squeezing the box and watching the juice squirt out of the straw. She loved her fruit cup! She also finished her 4 piece chicken nuggets! Below are some pictures from today. Enjoy!

Chowing' down on that fruit cup

Trying to decided what to do with her ice cream cone...

Daddy showing her how it's done:

Deciding that she doesn't really like ice cream;
she pushed Paul's hand away and went back to her fruit!
(Don't worry; Mommy and Daddy finished it for her. :) )

Olivia got a book in her Kid's meal! She was pretty excited about it! I eventually had to take the book away from her while she was eating because she kept chewing on it as well as her food.

Playing in the playground at Chick-fil-a:

I would have taken some more pictures of her in the playground but my camera batteries died. I barely got these pictures! I think Olivia had a blast, but she was ready to go home. She didn't fuss at all when I told her it was time to leave. She told everyone in the playground, "Bye" as we where leaving. What a sweetie!

playing catch-up

As promised, here are a bunch of pictures from the last month (while our computer was sick and in the hospital)...

Me and Livi all decked out in our Independence Day duds (we actually took several pictures; this was the only one that even came close to being good of both of us)

Olivia having a blast with her cousin Wyatt

(Wyatt is actually wearing Olivia's sweatshirt on his head in this picture. She thought it was hysterical when he tickled her like this!)

Olivia wearing Wyatt's Groucho Marx glasses

We saw cows while we were in the mountains! This was the best one I got of Olivia and her Daddy. They were both saying "cow" and "moo".

This was taken one day back home after Olivia "helped" me water the garden:

Olivia "reading" to her baby:

Our friends the Dutys came to see us! They used to go to church with us, but now live in Texas. Olivia and Beckett were too busy checkin' each other out to be bothered with taking a picture.

Kathryn came over to play! I'm not sure that they really know how to play with each other yet; Olivia just kept following Kathryn where ever she went. I'm not sure if she wanted to play with Kathryn and didn't know how, or if she was just concerned about her toys. :) They did have a blast with those boxes.

Alathea also came to see us one day. At some point, Alathea decided that Olivia needed to eat her lunch. (I had tried to feed her earlier, but Olivia was too excited about her friend that she didn't eat much.) Alathea took Olivia by the hand, lead her into the kitchen, and proceeded to feed her split pea soup:

The same day Olivia found both her bunnies. (We keep a back up handy, in case we misplace one or in case one needs a bath.) She was pretty happy.

Granddaddy came to see us one day because he needed some cheering up. I think Olivia worked her magic! (Grammy also came the same day; I don't know why I didn't get any pictures of her! This was the day we all piled into Mama's car and drove over to the new house so Mom and Dad could see it.)


Now I know my little girl is growing up! She's already learning to walk in heels! Next, she'll be wanting to borrow my jewelry in addition to my shoes...

And, finally, we celebrated Paul's Birthday! Happy Birthday, sweetheart! I'm glad God put you on this earth 29 years ago!