Baby Ballerinas

Olivia has been looking forward to ballet lessons so much that she has replaced her normal footwear (fancy flats) with ballerina slippers in anticipation.  Also any 'princess outfits' are now to be called 'ballerina outfits.'    I fought my strep throat long enough to doll them up and send them off-  I wouldn't ever want to miss the opportunity to see tight leotards hugging cute toddler bellies and slippery cuddly tights over those tiny toes!  I love when they get home and twirl and jump all over the house, showing me how real ballerinas dance.  Madelyn stayed in her leotard until bedtime.  I earned some street cred for remembering the foot positions, although I'm pretty sure I made up fourth position at least. 

i really really like this baby

my current favorites from our little big talker:

• 'maaaa-dy' 'ma-dy'
  
• 'hold you' when she wants to be held
• she says 'shirt' alot, and it sounds less like shirt and more like a swear word
• she takes my hand and says 'dance' 'dance' and leads me to the middle of the carpet to dance with her
• she saw the swimming pool for the first time this summer and tried to peel off her swimsuit, saying 'shower'
• 'jesus' is any long haired man
• she thinks all the littlest pet shop animals look 'sad' and she holds them up and says 'sad' 'sad'
• any jewelry, lipgloss or makeup is 'pretty' and she will want it
• after she is done with her meal she will move over to mady's plate and start eating more 'eat'
• for a week after the chicken nipped her finger she would hold it up and say 'chicken bite'
• saying 'pees' gets her anything she wants
• anyone with closed eyes (including sleeping dogs) is 'ni-ni'
• all princesses are 'bella'
• 'daddy home'
• 'keengup' (clean up)
• 'sink' 'sink' while clearing her plate from the table to the sink
• 'ucky'
• 'mess' after dumping out dirt from my potted plant (and getting a towel to 'keengup')
• 'paypa' when she wants to color
• 'cute'
  
• before she could say 'ni ni,' when we would say, "goodnight olivia, i love you" everynight, she would say 'bye'
• 'uh oh'
• 'feet' (you can see 'color feet' in the first picture)
  
• 'howrse' 'tine-time' (horse, valentine)
• 'cuddle'
  

look up

so i have resigned myself to the fact that if i want a picture of my girls together, it is going to be near impossible to get them both smiling. or even both looking at me.
but easter egg hunts are definitely the worst time for pictures. babies excited to hunt for eggs will only stare at the ground, run for eggs, and count them again and again (madelyn) because she always follows the rules and she needs to make sure she has her six eggs. luckily livi caught on to the egg hunt after a quick lesson from her dad. my babies won't look at the camera, or even up from the ground during an easter egg hunt- luckily they are almost as cute from the back as the front.

so. campy.

o baby.

wanted: new babysitter

innocently blurking my niece victoria's blog, i came across this photo, midst twilight book and kitty posts. (first know this: victoria (and riley and jordan) are my main olivia babysitters. livs loves to be at the kelly jones family home.) now we all know why.

the post title: lizard all jacked up on m&m's.

i might have died laughing. a baby chocolate coma.
thanks for all the babysitting toria~ i promise to restock your m&m's.

motherhood: the dirty little secrets.

earlier this week i was lamenting that waking up in a pool of baby throw up may be one of the major unpleasantries of motherhood. (dirty little secret number one.)

enter yesterday. one of those days.

i broke a glass taking it out of the fridge. it was full of milk, which left me wondering, 'how am i going to sop up all this milk and still clean up all the broken glass before olivia stuffs a piece of glass in her mouth?' (of course this happens like ten minutes after my maid left for the day. and just mopped.) nothing new breaking those, my heart is not tied to my glasses. not like my heart is tied~

later that day, i broke my first piece of butler's pantry.

i'm a big believer in not saving the special plates (except my grandmothers china, that is special occasion only!) and i use my set for everyday~

so no suprise then that it broke, full of pico de gallo, coming out of the refrigerator.

sad for the loss of the pico,

sad for the loss of the lenox.

then. (this is other dirty secret.)

i woke up this morning in a pool of baby diarrhea.

and by morning, i meant 3 am, because that is when it happened.

i cleaned the up the perp and threw a towel on the spot,

and slept in it until morning, when i peeled back the towel, the sheet, the mattress cover, and the mattress itself,
and bleached the heckoutofitall. (not to mention the scrubbing liv and i got this morning.)

i have since changed sixteen of the grossest (fullest) diapers of my life.

funny, just this week i've been thinking

it's time for olivia to sleep in her crib.

babyfat.

baby steps

olivia's baby steps. she turned one august 4th, took her first steps the week before, and walked the day after. here's the news, yaya and grandpa. olivia's walking. and she's perfectly adorable at it.

the view from here.

so i stopped curling my hair.

last thursday olivia burned her arm with the curling iron.

can we talk about this?

i know not to leave the cord dangling. i know to keep burning hot scalding scarring implements out of the reach of babies.

our baby has turned toddler, i'm afraid.

toddler olivia climbed the stool and reached into the sink where the-out-of-baby's-reach cord was kept. (for safekeeping.) i heard the sound of the curling iron drop and ran the ten feet from where i was to where she was. in my fear and my dead run i realized she was only in a diaper, and i could see the curling iron next to her nakie little body and was afraid she was burned head to toe.

she has a big ugly burn on her little arm. but just her arm.

i had a strong urge to burn myself too, so we could suffer together. i refrained.

our poor baby olivia (toddler) is recovering well (and happily.) we are keeping the wound from air and are using a magical mexican remedy creme (thanks to aunt wendy, in pj's, 10:30pm) and a mummy-wrap technique to heal the burn. we are hoping for no scars.

please understand why i may wear straight hair only for the next few years.

today she is one

happy first birthday olivia!

remembering your birth day

one year ago right now

still one hour forty eight minutes from five o five

you the familiar bump under my shirt

heaven hovering quiet and close

you came out our baby

slimy blue white wet bloody a beautiful mess

arms feet legs hair belly purple cord and hardly a cry

i lay barely covered

wide open from my heart down

straining to see your face

watching doctors cut us apart

irreverently and soon

they lift you high and proud a championship trophy

i finally see your soft perfect face

and as quickly they whisk you away

i am missing you already when you are back in my arms

a little warm bundle

bright red cheeks rooting lips big blinking blue eyes

we slept close that night and every night since

my heart still wide open

why olivia is my current favorite baby

why olivia isabelle j. is my current favorite baby. (the short list.)

1. she likes to cuddle. even asleep.

2. she gets really excited over stuffed animals. really really excited.

3. her waist size is almost the same as mady's.

4. those crazy baby teeth are crazy cute.

5. the way her little baby hair curls up around her fat neck.

6. because she dances when she hears music. even from commercials.

7. she will find a way to climb inside of any basket or box she sees. (see dig and throw below.)

8. mama ma ma mama ma ma mama

9. she will go to sleep without nursing.

10. she has to be rubbing someone to go to sleep. any arm will do, preferably moms.

11. she loves food. she eats more than mj most meals.

12. she laughs easily. oh the laugh is oh so cute.

13. the lip sucking when she's tired. unbelievably adorable.

14. she loves the water. loves to swim and splash.

15. she is good in the car.

16. those fat rolls. the back of her neck, her wrists, fingers, thighs.

17. she will even fall asleep sitting up.

18. bright aqua blue eyes. (that's not photoshop people)

19. the dig and throw: she gets into cupboards, shelves, boxes, bags or purses- grabs things out one at a time and hucks them behind her back.

20. that big happy toofy smile.

i admit to being excited when i hear that she's up from her nap. and when i hear the quicker slap slap slap slap slap of her hands on the tile as she excitedly crawls to see me. (quicker than the normal, slower, unexcited slap slap slap slap.) she's just perfect. and almost one, i can't believe it. this is the only day she will be eleven months and twenty days, but every day she will be our sweet baby liv.

olivia and her lip

since she was born, olivia has done this amazingly adorable thing with her bottom lip. when she is tired, she pulls her bottom lip in her mouth and sucks it. like a pacifier. for comfort. it is the sweetest thing. what you can't see in the pictures is how she will suck suck suck suck pause. suck suck suck suck pause. suck suck suck suck pause. and how her little chin bounces up and down. it is so olivia. so sweet. sweet baby olivia.

mady and livi's wild ride

i was making dinner when i heard mady's dora car screeching around the corner, banging into walls and doors, and lots of giggles. madelyn and olivia came cruising in on their first joy ride. of course they didn't climb in there themselves: daddy j put them in there and helped them along. it was just hilarious. i guess it was the way olivia had her arms: one around mady, one hanging over the side of the car. they just looked too grown up. madelyn was a pretty good driver for a three year old, and olivia loved every second of it.

molars-ish

ish= kind of sort of. used to express doubt about what preceeds it.

what happens when daddy leaves town and the three girls j are home alone? a mini-mani-pedi party! since olivia is almost a year old after all, this time she needed her little tiny toenails painted too. some families may celebrate monumental firsts like words, crawling, teeth, etc. and while those are reasonably celebrated around here too, i am very proud to announce olivia has had her first pedicure. you better believe she is in the top 10th percentile of awesomeness. that fat baby. i like her. too bad she's been such a drag lately, pushing through those, ahem, bicuspids. **the backstory: i was talking to mv on the phone (mv is my dad for those who dunno. and he's otherworldly smart. and he's super good at everything. and he's a CEO of a huge company. and a concert pianist. and he's funny. he's definitely in the top 10th percentile of awesomeness. for those who dunno.) and i was telling him she was getting her one year molars, midst my feeble explanation my dad clarified it must actually be bicuspids she is getting, not molars. oh. ya.** anyhoo, those dang bicuspids (man i sure feel super geeky saying bicuspids, why couldn't it just be the simple molars) are really ruining my life. teething babies need to be held. all.the.time. at least i can admire her pretty pink toenails. and enjoy this three hour nap she's having right now. must.go.organize.pantry! ish.

now that is just pathetic.

saturday. daddy, the girls and i at the pool. way too much fun for naps. some people just weren't tired. until we got home. i was busy making a compassionate service dinner, mj was watching the jungle book (which coincidentally, she likes to watch "nakie" so she is just like mowgli, but the truth is both girls were nakie after swimming cause momma was in a big hurry.) olivia, naturally, after missing both naps, fell asleep at about 5 o'clock. but. she was sitting up. yes, the poor baby was so tired, she fell asleep sitting UP! you hear about kids falling asleep in the high chair, in the car seat, in the excersaucer, but sitting up? that is one tired baby. i was laughing so hard, trying to take as many pics as fast as i could, keeping mady from bothering her all-the-while my mother's voice is in my head, loudly: now that is just pathetic. my poor livi. i moved her into her nice comfy bed as quickly and smoothly as i could, as i was laughing so hard. pobrecita olivia!

the wedding

meet candice and coby. the happy bride and groom.

after the rehersal dinner, madelyn got the idea to sing: "here comes the bride, big fat and wide." except mady just sang: "here comes the bride, big, fat, wide."

helping candice into her dress. she looked so beautiful.

my mom and dad watching the ceremony. madelyn was the ring girl, and she was unbelievably perfect. she stood by candice and coby the whole time. she just stood there. people said i must have really put the fear in her, but the truth is, we didn't even talk about it. she just knew it was an important job.

mj and i just after the wedding. mady you were just perfect!

welcome to the fam, coby!

sweet little olivia. she was so adorable, down to her little gold shoes.

bridesmaid sisters! thank heavens my stylish sis made sure the dresses were fab. good job bear!

mom's wedding speech. she was purdy.

the sissies. and olivia.

funny grandpa.

candice and madelyn.

dad rockin it out on the bass guitar.
it was a party to remember. congrats candi!

you were just gorgeous! we love you coby! welcome to the fam!