Things we love

Since our camera was stolen I have stopped recording many Olivia memories, but there are so many things that I want to remember that have passed by. I wanted to sit down and type out a few things about Olivia at this stage in her life that I love.

1. I love that she LOVES to help and she takes it very seriously. Last weekend we were building a bookshelf and Olivia was very excited to lend a helping hand. She was in charge of giving Matt the correct screws and nails he needed and she even used the electric drill to tighten the screws. There was one part of the building process that Matt thought would be safer if Olivia wasn't involved, so he told Olivia her job was to sit on the chair and make sure everyone was ok. Olivia immediately ran over to the chair and hopped on. She kept saying "is everyone ok, is everyone ok." It was very cute how seriously she took this task.

2. I love that she gets SO excited SO easily. There isn't much that doesn't make this girl excited. Olivia is very very excited for Halloween. She squeals with delight if she sees or hears about anything related to Halloween (the color orange, hay, bats,...). We have an advent calendar to count down to Halloween and do Halloween activities each day. Olivia was so excited to begin the countdown to Halloween we had to do a countdown until we could start the advent calendar.

3. I love that she taps her finger on her chin and says "hhhuuummm" when she is thinking.

4. I love that when you talk about certain food she will get a big smile on her face, rub her hands back and forth and say "he he he he!" She usually gives this response when you talk about cookies or ice cream. However, it is starting to broaden to other foods as well. Last night at dinner I said "Here's your fish Olivia" and I was surprised to see her start to rub her hands together and a big smile spread across her face.

5. I love her thoughts. Olivia has a lot on her mind and she is always talking. I love to hear what she has to say. Last week I was cutting Olivia an avocado and she asked if she could see the pit, so I gave it to her. It was slimy and green, she looked at it for a while and then said "This pit looks like it's from Mars." Later that night I was putting her to sleep. Olivia popped up from her crib and said "Where's my Dad," Matt had been out of town for a couple days. Before I could answer she asked"Is Dad on a mission?"

A trip downtown

We took a trip downtown and headed to South Street Seaport. This is a fun little village, it feels like you have stepped out of the city when you are down there. Olivia enjoyed all of the big old ships.
I stepped away from Olivia and Matthew to ask someone for information when I heard some commotion. I looked over and saw a large group of Asian tourists going crazy over Olivia. It was really one of the funniest things I have ever seen. They kept waving at her and beckoning her to come closer and they got their cameras out and started taking pictures of her. Olivia was a little alarmed by the situation and started backing up.

There has been quite a buzz about a new playground they just built near Wall St. It is called the Imagination Playground. People were making such a huge deal about this playground and how much better it is than traditional playgrounds. I was wondering what the big deal was when we got there it was pretty much just a big pile of blue styrofoam shapes. Olivia tried building a house a few times, but then asked where the slide was.

The Imagination playground doesn't have anything, but the blue blocks so Olivia took matters into her own hands and came up with her own slide. I think we'll stick to the traditional playgrounds.

We decided to end our day with ice cream cones on the piers. Olivia just wanted to hold hers and Matthew had to keep trying to convince her to lick the ice cream. Just holding the ice cream didn't end well and the ice cream ended up on Olivia's shoes. We all had a good time and really enjoy exploring new areas in the city.