My little college graduate

So, if you don't already know by now, Olivia is the queen of random questions. She'll be talking about something and just totally throw something out there that comes out of left field. I guess she has so many little thoughts running through that precious brain of hers, that sometimes Queen Random comes out. :)

Last night while taking a bath, Olivia asks my favorite random question yet.
Olivia: Mama, have I graduated college?

How funny - what was even more funny was me trying to explain to her that just because she was leaving her daycare soon, that didn't mean she was "graduating college." I have no idea where my child comes up with this stuff!

Nerd and Loser

Olivia has been watching way too much Jimmy Neutron lately! Here's her new thing:

Cooper: No, Mine! Car!

Olivia: *sigh* You're such a NERD Cooper!

(I mean really, does he look like a nerd to you?)

At first I didn't know where she got it - and I placed blame on the little thieves at daycare of course - but after watching Jimmy Neutron with her the other night, I found out that that's where she was getting it from. Cindy Vortex to be exact. (You have to watch the cartoon to know who I'm talking about)

And here's her other thing:

Olivia: (looking at pictures of me in my bedroom) Mama, is that you?
Me: Yes Olivia

Olivia: You were such a LOSER!

Me: Gee thanks, if I'm a loser, you're half loser!

Nice of me to fight w/a 4 year old huh? Hey, being called a loser hurts no matter how old you are. I was waiting for her to do the L shape on her forehead at any time. Ha ha! Anyways, she got from the Cindy character off of Jimmy Neutron. I'm beginning to think maybe she doesn't need to watch that cartoon anymore.

Wonderful, relaxing weekend

Man, this past weekend was so great! I mean, we stayed busy the whole weekend but it was so nice because we did everything at our own pace and really enjoyed ourselves! So, here's the breakdown of our weekend:

Friday - had pizza with my parents. Olivia got to choose what we ate and of course she chose pizza. The kid LOVES pizza - pepperoni and black olive pizza to be exact.

Saturday - we went to a birthday party for my cousin's son, Garrett. Emily's brother Tyler dressed up as Spongebob. You should have seen all the kids at the Sonic attacking that poor boy! He could barely see as is and then got flooded with kids. Cooper LOVED Spongebob from AFAR....but as soon as he got close, Cooper all but climbed out of his daddy's arms. I guess Cooper takes after me with his dislike of characters. I'm not a fan either. :) Oh, and Olivia knew it wasn't the *real* Spongebob because Tyler has hair on his arms and Spongebob doesn't have hair on his. How observant is she?

Sunday - we went to the May Fly Air show. (I hope to have some pics of that up soon). Olivia enjoyed it for the most part, but didn't like it when the jets started flying. Cooper fell asleep - can you believe that? I'm almost positive he's not deaf either. :) It was ssssssooo hot on Sunday though.

Monday - we hung out with Nana and Poppy and grilled burgers and hot dogs. After lunch, Olivia played on her big water slide for a few hours. Cooper wanted NOTHING to do with the water. Guess he's not going to be spending much time in our little pool this year. He happily played on the swing set and drove the Jeep around while Sissy played in the water. He would get close to the pool every now and then, but as soon as Olivia wet him, he cried and ran off. :) Now, I LOVE a pool, so I don't know where he gets *that* from!

So, there's our weekend in a nutshell. Exciting wasn't it? I'm so glad to be back at work but at the same time, I wish it was my vacation week! The countdown is on! Only 4 weeks to go until our family vacation at the beach - woo hoo!

Aced it Man!!!!

Have I mentioned lately that my daughter is super smart? :) She met with her teacher, Mrs. Chure (rhymes with Horray) at Thomas Hart yesterday and did so well! Mrs. Chure said she handed Olivia a square piece of paper and asked her to make a triangle and Olivia rolled it up and said, "No, I made it into a telescope!" She was *very* impressed that Olivia knew that word AND what it looked like. What can I say? She gets it from me! Ha ha! Seriously though, I really think Olivia is going to be so happy at this school and I'm so thankful now that she ended up signed up there and not "the other place." She aced her little interview and "test" with her teacher. I was very, very proud of my Baby Girl. :)

Oh, and I thought I would attach a picture of Cooper looking like a monkey - he was climbing on top of the laundry basket and then standing up. THAT I can handle, but you should see him climbing up on the bar stool AND then from there to his highchair. I nearly had a heart attack seeing him do that yesterday. He has NO FEAR!!!!!

Is my long weekend here yet???

Dancing the Night Away

Wow, it's been a crazy week! I'm so glad things are getting back to normal. Anyways, the kids have been doing great! Olivia had her dance recital on Saturday and she was the star of the show (of course!). Her group performed twice - one tap routine and one ballet routine. After the tap routine, Mrs. Brenda let them introduce themselves and Olivia was first. She said "Hey, my name is Olivia" so fast I'm not sure many people could even understand her! Ha ha! She is such a stinker. I do have to admit I'm glad dancing is over for awhile. Now, I don't have to rush home every Monday night for awhile. :)

Oh, and Al and I bought Cooper a toddler bed over the weekend. We saw one of those blue corvette toddler beds at a yard sale for $50 so we snatched it up. He's done pretty well with sleeping in it. The first night he fell asleep on the floor in front of his door and Al had to pick him up and carry him to bed. Before long, my little man won't be my little baby boy anymore. *sniffle* Now we just have to work on that pistol!

And Olivia goes to meet her teacher at Thomas Hart tomorrow. She's really excited and so am I! I really think she's going to feel comfortable with this lady because she has a very easy going personality and seems to be accepting that kids will be kids. So, I think Olivia will respond really well to her. We'll find out tomorrow though! I can't believe she's getting ready to start school in August. Ok, I'm going to seriously cry now! Ha ha! You do know she'll be the smartest 4 year old in her class right? :)

That's all for now!

It's like baby crack man!

He's addicted to that thing in his mouth!

Cooper LOVES his paci - I mean, LOVES it. He's probably the worst of the two on breaking this habit. Olivia was a breeze, but Cooper....well, Cooper has a bad dependency on the "paci." Al and I are trying very hard to wean him and now we've gotten to where he only has it at nap time and bed time. However, Cooper hasn't feel well the last few days and when he feels bad, he needs some extra "comfort" so to speak. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to give in and hand him the paci (and I won't tell my husband how many times I have!) over the last few days. I can totally understand why it's so hard for people with other dependencies to break their habits. Poor little Coop is having a tough time. And he's showing the classic symptoms of withdrawl - not sleeping well, crying a lot, being super whiny, and clingy. I know Al and I have to stay firm, but man.....it's torture!

Oh, and Al took Olivia to practice for her recital and of course my child would DO NOTHING. She did that last year though and still ended up haming it up at the show. I can almost bet she'll do the same this year!

Mother's Day and Dedication

I had a pretty good Mother's Day. The kids (and Al) got me a Weight Watchers cookbook which is exactly what I asked for. How sweet! Now I have *no excuse* not to loose some weight huh? Ha!

At church yesterday the kids got dedicated. It wasn't anything fancy, but I feel good knowing we decided to do that. My nephew Louis was dedicated as well.

Anyways, not much to report - Olivia's dance recital is on Saturday so she's getting super excited about that. I can't believe it's time for that already. She's going to be so stinking cute, it won't be funny! :)

Later!

Diaper Sissy

You know Olivia wants to be Cooper's "little Mama" right? Man, she is all into that job! She tries to feed him, bath him, spanks him, and now - even tries to change his diapers! You always know my children are up to no good when it gets eerily quiet in our house. On Saturday, we had one of those moments! Ha!

Al and I caught Olivia with Cooper in his room trying to change his diaper. She had him layed out on the floor and was doing her best to get it off (she doesn't understand that shorts have to come off first). And she finally succeeded! It must have taken her forever and she never could get the new diaper under Coop's rear to put on him. Finally Al helped her and she was so proud of herself. One diaper change = 10 minutes. Ha ha! But Cooper just layed there and let Sissy try. Maybe I should let her continue to practice so she can take over that job for me? That would be nice! Ok, so I don't see that happening anytime soon......bummer!

Anyways, the pics are of the kids on the lawn mower. Olivia used to be scared of it but since Cooper isn't - she's not anymore. Monkey see....monkey do! :)

The Stinking Doodlebops!

I hate the Doodlebops - especially that blue freak, Rooney! If your kid watches the Disney channel, you know who I'm talking about. Olivia and Cooper LOVE them so Nana bought them a DVD of them to watch in the car.

In one of the episodes Rooney is asking all kinds of questions - really getting on everyone's nerves. Kind of like a certain 4 year old I know that will remain nameless but you all know who I'm talking about! Ha! Anyways, at the end of the episode Rooney tells the kids "hey, questions are good, so ask away!" Hence the reason I hate him.....

Olivia will ask you 100 million billion (if there is such a number) questions from the minute she wakes up to the minute she falls asleep. The kid never stops talking. And now, since watching this show, she thinks it's even more ok for her to ask, ask, ask. If I dare tell her I've had enough of questions, she'll calmly say "But Mommy, Rooney said questions were good." - UGH!!!

Why can't my kids watch something on tv that teaches them manners and how to behave when out? Ha ha! Stinking Doodlebops......

Freaking me out

Olivia's new thing is to ask about death - or dieing - or killing - or anything that results in one being buried in the ground. Honestly, after the conversation I had with her on Sunday, she's starting to FREAK ME OUT!!!!

Here the story:
Olivia: Mommy! I'm the new teacher Ms. Linda (don't ask, I don't know?)
Me: Hello Ms. Linda
Olivia: I'm taking over at daycare because Ms. Judy, Mrs. Dawn, Baby Allison (Dawn's youngest daughter) and Ms. Ada are all dead.
Me: Dead? No....they aren't dead. They are on vacation.
Olivia: Fine...they are on vacation......(long pause, stare)....DEAD.
Me: NO! Let's not play they are dead, they are on vacation.
Olivia: *sigh* Fine, but they killed themselves on vacation.
Me: What? No, how do you know about killing themselves?
Olivia: They shot themselves with a gun and died.
Me: Ok, I'm done playing this game....
Olivia: It's just pretend Mommy - DUH!

I immediately called Nana and she assures me that it's a normal phase and that Olivia is just at the age where she notices this stuff now. Maybe I should have talked to her about death and stuff more but I honestly don't see the point. She's only 4 - why should I throw that in her head? Maybe I'm just being weird. :) Nah! But she is freaking me out a little!

Pictures from last weekend

So here are some pictures of us picking scrawberries!

Picking Scraw-Berries

Olivia has been asking me for the longest time to take her to pick some "scrawberries" so Al and I finally took the kids up to McLeod Farms in McBee over the weekend. It was really fun! We got to ride the golf cart down to where they wanted us to pick - which Cooper HATED....for whatever reason my baby is terrified of golf carts. Then when we jumped down, Olivia picked a few scrawberries and announced she was done. Wait, her exact words were "I'm tired, my hands hurt, you pick the scrawberries Mommy." So guess who got to pick all the strawberries? Yeap me! Al didn't even get his butt off the golf cart. What a slacker! Cooper ate as many as he picked which I thought was cute.

We got some really pretty strawberries though. When we got back to the store, we paid for them and then got some strawberry ice cream for Ms. Griggs and Cooper and I got some peach cobbler. It was yummy! Not good on a diet, but I think Coop ate most of it anyways. I do think we'll go back in a few weeks and let the kids have at it again. Oh, and I took some pics so I'll try to have those posted. Well, Al took the pics since his slack self was just sitting there!

Husband

My daughter is the funniest kid on the planet. On the way to school this morning we had this conversation....

O: Mommy?
Me: Yes love of my life.
O: I want a husband!
Me: What? You don't want a husband.
O: Yes I do! I want a husband!
Me: You're too young for a husband, you can have one when you're 35.
O: Awwww.....

Don't ask, I haven't a clue! She'll also tell me sometimes that she wanted to come our wedding and I laugh because - heck, she was there! Ha ha!

Just some pictures....

If you don't know by now, I am a picture addict. I take tons of pictures of my babies. Some turn out extremely cute (ok, almost ALL of them) and some don't. :) These are some that I took over Easter weekend. Easter was so cold this year and it didn't really even feel like Easter at all. But the kids still had a lot of fun hunting eggs at church. I really like the picture of me and Cooper - now you know why I keep saying he's not my kid! He's as blonde and blue eyed as they come! :) Too bad he inherited Al's HORRIBLE cowlick right in the middle of his hair. We're going to have a hard time with his hair as it grows.

Anyways, just thought I would share some pics!

What was I thinking?

I have no idea what I was thinking over the weekend. On Friday night, Cooper woke us up screaming crying. I mean, you would have thought a dingo was after him or something (A Dingo ate my baby!!!!). When Al got in the bedroom, Cooper wasn't in his crib! Somehow he had gotten out of his crib, climbed under it, and then totally FREAKED out.

Background story : one side of Cooper's crib keeps coming loose if you push on it hard enough - we keep messing with it and thinking we have it fixed, but after a few days, Cooper messes it up again. SSSSOOO, with that being said, Al and I assumed he had pushed on the side of the crib and climbed out. So, here's when I have my *brilliant* idea - let's just take the side of the crib down, put up the side rail for the toddler bed and see how he does. Now does that sound like a really bad idea looking back or what? Ha! Well, the little stinker tricked us! Saturday night went pretty darn well....he might have cried a few times but that was it. Sunday morning I thought I was a genius! WWWEEELLLL......Sunday night was a completely different story. Cooper went to bed like normal with no problems until about 11pm. Then all HADES broke loose!

Cooper was up and down, up and down, up and down, cried, cried, cried and wanted to be held and rocked. Finally close to 1am, we decided to just put the side of the crib back up and put him to bed. I guess my little man wasn't ready for a toddler bed after all. And I have to admit, I am kind of glad because I was so sad looking into his room and not seeing the crib set up. He's growing so fast that it hurts my heart. And don't get me started on Olivia. I tear up just thinking about her starting school soon!

Anyways, I'm done with brilliant ideas for awhile! We're leaving Cooper where he is for a little while longer. :)

New word

Cooper has a new word he can say - and he says it ALL the time now. It's NO.

"Cooper, you want something to eat?" NO

"Cooper, are you thirsty?" NO

"Cooper, do you love Mommy?" NO NO NO!

Ugh! I want Coop to talk more, but he's stuck on this word. I'm sure it's just a phase and apparently he hears it all day, every day at daycare and that's why he's so hooked on it. *sigh* I just have to be patient I guess. It is really cute how he says the word though...he's got this cute little high pitched voice that says "nnnnaaaawwww" - it's funny.

Oh, and the word MINE is a close, close second!

They are slowly killing me.....

That's right - Cooper NOT Olivia is going to be the death of me! I promise you, that little boy is rougher and into more stuff than Olivia Grace ever dared to be! Ok, so you want to know why Cooper Thomas Griggs is going to give me a heart attack right? Well, he's learned to climb. And I mean, he is a *PRO* at it - there is nothing my little 19 month old, 26 pound toddler can't get into. So, last night he climbed up on my bed like he does all the time. No big deal right? I walk over to my closet and for whatever reason - Divine Intervention maybe - I looked over just in time to see Cooper falling head first off the bed after a stinking pretzel that fell. I lunged for him but didn't catch him in time. He hit his poor little head! He cried - I almost cried - and after a few minutes, he was fine. I swear, if I were a cat, I would have lost about 4 lives right at that moment. Ha!

And don't think Olivia Grace is innocent in contributing to slowly driving Mommy crazy and killing her! If I have to hear "tell me a story about it" one more time, I'm going to go POSTAL!!!! Ha! Olivia wants to hear a story about everything - why the grass is green, why Ariel's Daddy has long hair, why she has to go to big kid school, etc. You name it, she wants a story for it. And don't ask *her* to tell *you* a story, because as I found out this morning...."I don't know how to tell stories." Yeah right!

They are out to get me I tell you!

Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter!!!

I took these pictures of the kids myself. I don't think they came out too shabby do you? :) I was really, really pleased with them. I can't believe how grown up they are getting! Al is home with them today and they have been outside playing and having a good time. Which is a big difference from yesterday when I was home with Cooper since he was sick. Anyways, I know this is short and boring but I'm getting ready to leave work and it's FRIDAY!!!!!!

I promise to have a funnier blog on Monday!

Party at Chuck E Cheese

Olivia had her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's on Saturday. I have to say, I was really expecting it to be chaotic and nerve racking and it totally wasn't! The waitress kept us with us and would periodically remind me when to go get the kids to eat, have cake, dance with Chuck E. and open gifts. Then after the party, you could stay and finish playing for as long as you wanted. I think we were the last of the Griggs party to leave to be honest! Olivia had so much fun and Cooper did too. Al and I may reserve Cooper a party there when he gets a little older.

The last picture is of "The Girls" - Olivia, Gracie, and Lauren. They run the daycare they go to! Ha ha! It's just too sweet. Can you believe my little girl is going to be FOUR on Wednesday? Wow, where did the time go!

And the award goes to.....

Louis Bryson Griggs!!!! in "Cutest Nephew In the World"

Isn't he just too cute? He has definitely won over his Aunt Mandy and Uncle Al's hearts! :)

Al and I have decided to put Olivia in Thomas Hart. I am tired of waiting for Emmanuel to make a decision so to heck with them. (I only wish Jennifer and Mrs. Charles were blog readers!) I'm sure it's a great school, I won't deny that BUT I think they are very biased in their selection process so we'll just go elsewhere. I called Thomas Hart today and we will go on a tour tomorrow and can sign her up then. AND once you sign up, you are guaranteed a spot. So, I'm actually much happier about this - I mean, not only is it cheaper than ECS, but it's a lot closer to my house. So, I'm happy. :)