Monkey Business

I used to pride myself in the fact that I didn't have a child that climbed out of their crib, all over the furniture, and what not. My friends would tell me horror stories of how their little one got out and roamed the house in the middle night, etc. And I smuggly felt superior because my precious angel never, ever even put her leg up on the crib railing to pretend to climb out! But with Olivia Grace, I've learned a very hard lesson in eating my words. No, Olivia never was a climber when she was younger - shoot, she stayed in her crib until just a few months ago. Yeap, I had TWO cribs in my house for awhile! Thankfully, it was her choice to start sleeping in her toddler bed, not a forced issue because she wouldn't stay in the darn crib!

However, lately Olivia has turned into a little monkey. Just over the weekend we were in the kitchen when I walked into the other room. Two seconds later, I hear Olivia on the counter (spilling god knows what out of a bag, making a mess of course). You guessed it, she climbed up on the counter to get into the cabinets. And that was just the first of many times that would happen throughout the weekend. She climbs on everything now. She climbs on the counter, up on the table - she'll even climb up onto Cooper's changing table! I can't tell you how many times I've had to "rescue" her from the evil changing table because she was too scared to climb down. Funny how my little monkey can climb *up* things, but can't figure her way back down them!

As if climbing on everything wasn't my biggest problem with Ms. Drama Queen herself, Olivia has also gotten into the habit of saying "shut up". This is a big NO NO in our house so it's battle we've been fighting with her for awhile now. She'll try to be slick and throw the words into the middle of a song like, "row row row your shut up". She is a clever one I tell you! So of course when me or her daddy react to this, she immediately says "I mean be quiet please!". Mean, mean little girl! Thank goodness Cooper is so sweet and loving right now. I just don't think I could handle two Olivias. Speaking of Cooper, I think he may be my little thumb sucker. He just loves to suck on his thumb these days. I think he's teething because he's drooling like crazy and gnawling on his hands, but it's hard to say. He's such a little pretty boy!

Oh, and Layla had her puppies on Saturday. Talk about fast! I just noticed the dog was pregnant! She had a litter of six, but one of the puppies died. So, we have five really cute mutt puppies to give away. Now I just have to keep Olivia Grace away from them! This should be fun!

Dance Dance, Tap Tap

Olivia takes dance at her daycare every Thursday. You would never know it though! She refuses to show me or her Daddy any glimpse of a dance move. She will hold her hands out and say "Ta Da!" So does that count? Every Thursday morning when I get her ready to get dressed in her tights and leotard, she tells me, "Mommy I don't want to dance!" I had this battle with her this very morning. She also wants a BLUE leotard which apparently no one makes because I have yet to come across one. I'm just waiting for her to tell me she wants a Dora one. But according to her beloved Judy, she can't wait until 10 am when it's time to tap away. Just goes to show that you can never really be certain of anything that Olivia says.

I've had to resort to bribery to motivate Olivia to go potty. Obviously my "you should be ashamed that you're still in a pull up" tactic has failed miserably. She told me she LIKED peeing and pooping in her pants. Real nice Olivia. I asked her what it would take to get her to be a big girl and she replied that she wanted a "pack pack" (backpack) like Dora's. Exactly like Dora's. It has to be purple. So I searched......none at Walmart, none at Target, none at Roses. Here I am thinking I will never ever get her potty trained. Thank goodness for eBay! It was my life saver! Yeap, they had TONS of Dora "pack packs" on there. So, Al and I gave it to her yesterday and sure enough, it was a big hit. She even slept with it in her bed. And wore it to daycare this morning. I wouldn't let her take it in though because "someone might steal it" so now she thinks everyone at daycare is a thief. If she asks if she can take something in and I say no, she'll ask me if so and so will steal it. Of course I say yes. :) They are all thieves at that daycare you know? So wish me luck on the whole potty training deal....it is totally stressing me out but doesn't really seem to phase Olivia Grace at all! I just have a fear I'll be training her and Cooper together if something doesn't change soon!

Oh, and last night we made a new "family" game! We were the Butterfly family! Yay! Cooper gets to be a butterfly along with everyone else. WRONG! He's the yellow bumble bee. Poor Coop can't catch a break for nothing!

Saving Cooper!

I knew it wouldn't be long before I'd have to protect Cooper from Olivia! My mom calls at lunch and asks if Poppy (my dad) told her what Olivia did at their house the night before. Hmmmm, no! So here's the story.......

Nana (my mom) had Olivia and Cooper in the living room with her. Olivia was busy watching Dora of course, and Cooper was on a blanket on the floor rolling his little heart out. So my mom goes to get a glass of water out the kitchen and when she turns around, there's Olivia DRAGGING Cooper into the kitchen. Mom said his little feet were just a dragging the floor and his eyes were really big like he was thinking "Please God Nana SAVE ME!!!!" I swear I was about to die laughing at this point! So, Nana takes Coop Coop from Olivia and in true Olivia fashion she says, "Thanks Nana, Cooper sure is heavy!" How funny is that!

Naked Butterflies......

Apparently Olivia remembers EVERYTHING. She used to sing the "Nekkid" song but had seemed to have forgotten all about it. Unfortunately, she remembered it last night. It goes a little something like this...."I'm naked, na na na na na na, I'm naked, na na na na na" and she sways back and forth. Quite the catchy tone really. There are also a ton of variations of this song...There's the "Mommy, you naked, na na na na" one, the "Cooper's naked, na na na na na" and so on. And she doesn't even have to be naked to sing it - take off a sock, the song is sung. Leave her in her pull up, the song is sung. Put on her nightgown, the song is sung. Did I mention it was catchy?

Also, when we play "family" - Olivia is always, and I mean always, "the baby". For example, she likes to play Bee Family. I'm the Mommy Bee, Al is the Daddy Bee, and she is the Baby Bee. What's Cooper though? A Butterfly. Yeap, she says he's a butterfly. Which I can sort of understand when we're playing Bee Family. But it doesn't matter what game we play......Bear family, Horse family, Camel family....He's a butterfly. I don't know where it came from, but that's what she says he is. He's probably the prettiest little butterfly I've ever seen! :) When we're not playing Bee Family, Olivia occupies herself with her doll, Baby Jesus. It's the dirtiest little doll in the world, but his name is Baby Jesus and she loves him. Ha! Baby Jesus usually sleeps with her at night, or he can be found jammed in her play highchair or squished under Cooper's clothes in his clothes basket. Because, as Olivia tells me....Baby Jesus sleeps in a bed of hay or in a basket like Moses. Who can't love this kid??

On a non-baby note, one of our boxers, Layla is pregnant. Just great! I guess that Lab from across the street got to her while she was in heat. The stupid dog did all but climb our fence to get into the back yard. UGH! So, if you know anyone who wants a free puppy soon, let me know! Maybe I can work on potty training the puppies along with Olivia. Ha!

The Beginning......

Ok, so this is officially my first ever BLOG!!! Wow! I've taken the advice of my cousin Keisha and started one. So, I guess I'll have to start from the beginning......

The reason I'm doing this blog is so everyone can keep up with how fast Olivia and Cooper are growing up. As you all know, Olivia will turn 3 on April 4th and Cooper will be 5 months old next week. I so can't believe my baby girl is already 3! She is not my little baby anymore, but actually my little girl! *sniffle* Man, she is growing up fast. She is a mess though. I have no quiet moments in my house with this kid. If there was ever a hyper, too smart for her own good kid, I have her! And Cooper is already almost half a year old! Whoah! Is that how you spell whoah? I'm not really sure......

Here's a picture to the left of the two of them. This was taken at Christmas. In case you don't know, Olivia is not a smiler at all! She did CHEESE for this picture so I have to say we're making some progress. I love Coop's expression...it's almost like he's thinking "I'm too good for this picture" doesn't it? Ha!

So Olivia's big thing is Dora the Explorer now. It's like she came home one day and said "Mommy I want Dora" so now we have Dora EVERYTHING. She even wants a Dora cake for her birthday. Which is just great since I plan on actually making the cake. I better buy the pan and start practicing now huh?

So anyways, this is it for now. I will add as much as I can remember of what comes out of Olivia's mouth. With her though, you never ever ever know. So please come back for some funny stories. I have tons of them!