A birthday, a wedding, oh me, oh my

Well, we have many picture updates over on our photos page, but we have other goodies for you as well.

Where to begin?

Livia's 2nd birthday was last month. She had so much fun... except when we sang Happy Birthday to her. Oh she didn't like that one bit. Of course, she cheered up once she could lick the icing off her candles (and try to eat them). Lots of family and friends came including: Grandma, Aunt Beth, Pappap, Aunt Kris, GG, Great Grandma Hilliard, Aunt Mary Beth, Aunt Linda, Aunt Kathy, Roxanne, Jackson, Lynda, Leon, Stacie, Steve, Miss Dee, and more, of course... but mama is getting tired tonight and suddenly can't remember who she is forgetting!

Livia loved her presents. She plays with everything constantly most especially her chalk and crayons. Livia is a little artist. She is also left handed. Playdoh, crayons, pencils, markers, the doodle pad, whatever it is... she is happy drawing for hours.

Oh, she also likes No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed:



She's been sleeping in a toddler bed now. Potty training will be soon, but not just yet. As far as talking goes, she speaks amazingly well for a two year old. She can speak full sentences and is mostly very clear about what she wants... except when she has the pacifier in her mouth and then we have to ask her to spit it out so she can talk to us. Mama's favorite sayings are: "Where's Mommy?" "Where's Grandma?" "I can't reach it!" She has such a sing song voice that it's really cute.

Livia can count to 20, knows her letters, knows her shapes, and is getting better with her colors. As far as eating goes, she's still the only kid I know that steals your salad from you before she'll steal your pizza slice.

She's loving following Noelle around as independent a she can be. Everything Noelle does, Livia wants to do as well. This includes dance class. Livia will stand outside the studio and tap and such along with the class. One of the parents gave Livia shoes that her daughter grew out of. So she loves her tap shoes. Next year she'll be old enough to go to class.

Weird quirks are still abound. The fuzzies in the nose still happens. There is the cutest wedding picture of her but she has a fuzzy in her nose. She also still likes trying to eat lots of things she shouldn't from playdoh to grass outside. But oh well! She's a kid.

Hello again old friends

I love chocolate.

So, Livia discovered her love for "cendy" aka candy. Everything has to be kept up or both girls will have their hands in it. Of course, it doesn't help that a sweet tooth runs in the family.

Livia is a doll. She is always very happy, and when she's not, most people get concerned. Of course, Mommy knows better. Miss Liv has a temper behind that sweet smile. If she doesn't get her own way, she is apt to throw down whatever she's doing or start blowing raspberries. Of course, we don't love her any less for it. It just shows she's human. Haha.

She has been given a new nickname: Sunshine. Every morning when myself or Noelle wakes her up, Livia just jumps up out of bed with a smile on her face and says either "Hi Mommy!" or "Hi Noelle!" If Noelle is still sleeping, Livia always wants to wake her up by yelling "Noelle! Wake Up!" into her room.

Livia speaks very well. She strings together multiple words and has some sentences down. Whenever I put her pajamas on, she will tell me "Zip me up!" I told Noelle that Livia is a parrot so she should watch what she says. Noelle had fun at dinner that night getting Livi to repeat everything she was saying.

Livia finally learned how to climb out of her crib, not that I'm thrilled about it. It's time to get a big girl bed, though. She has also learned to climb on the tables and everything else. No fear.

Things she loves to do: shapes and numbers. She counts up to eleven or twelves, sometimes skipping a few numbers. Either way, she knows them. We don't have colors down yet. Every crayon she picks up is 'bloooo.' She loves to color, though. Livia will sit for hours and just color if you let her. Of course, you have to watch because she might get up and color on everything but the book. Magic erasers are wonderful.

It's hard to believe she'll be two years old in a month. She still is our little "Baby Liv."

Twick Treat... Thenk You!!

That was Mommy phonetically spelling what Livia was saying to people as she went to their door steps. She had so much fun once she got the hang of all this Trick or Treating. As you can see from the picture, Livia was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. She had ruby slippers that didn't last long since she grew out of them already! I just bought them a few weeks prior. She carried her loved little lion around as her Cowardly Lion.

The first few houses she wanted to ride in the stroller and not get out. But once she watched big sister Noelle at a few houses, she wanted to try. Livia would walk up and politely take a peice (or two.. she's cute and can get away with it) of candy and put it in her bucket. She would try to say "Trick or Treat" and would always squeak out "Thank you" from behind her pacifier. She also insisted on walking and wouldn't stroll. She also wouldn't let anybody else carry her bucket when it got too heavy. I wish I had a picture of her dragging it down the side walk because she was so determined to do it herself.

After awhile, she thought she should share her candy. Whenever somebody would hand her a piece, Livia would give them one from her bucket. Everybody gave it back to her, though ;) She was just trying to make the world harmonious. Heheh. That's my Livia.

One... two... three... four...

The title is supposed to be Livia counting. She does it in a really cute sing song voice. That leads me to the thing that impresses me the most: her vocal skills and how well she picks things up. She's got her yes and no down and will let you know if she wants something. Whenever I come home from work, she wants food so she runs to the refrigerator and tells me 'grapes' and pulls the bag out of the drawer to eat. It's our routine by now. Sometimes you can even get her to talk on the phone. I have to feed her things to say, but she'll say them.

The pictures from Myrtle Beach are up now. The kids had so much fun with everybody. Livia was in love with the sand and you'll see it in the pictures. Most of them are her with a shovel and bucket. It's too precious. Eventually she warmed up to the idea of the water, but that wasn't until the last day we were there. Her second favorite thing was playing at Hadley's house. She loved the swing and just took Hadley and Audrey by storm.


This past weekend we went to the pumpkin patch. Both girls loved the hay ride and both kept trying to pick up pumpkins that were way too big for them. We were able to go to the petting zoo where they feed the goats and sheep. Livia mostly loved petting the animals. We then went through the corn stalk maze that had Candy Land characters in it. At first, she was weirded out by going through the narrow row of corn... but when I mad it a game with her to hit the leaves out of the way she had fun. Of course, the day ended short when Livia thought laying on the ground and refusing to move was a good idea. By then, the kids were worn out. So Lynda and I took them for ice cream and went home.

This weekend Livia gets to have a 'Maw' weekend. I bet she'll have fun. She is a Grandma's girl.

Enjoy the new pictures! Until next time!

The things I do

Like mentioned in Noelle's blog, we'll have more pictures and stories to tell about the beach soon. Mama just wants to make some quick notes this morning for everybody.

Livia is talking up a storm. Her vocabulary expands more and more every day. I'm amazed since she's not even a year and a half yet. This morning she's singing (or trying to sing) along with Go Diego Go... but she has put Diego into her dictionary. She also says "Oh Man" everytime she sees Swiper on Dora the Explorer (since that's what the fox says when foiled). This week we've noticed she's been saying spaghetti or ghetti often times.

Of course, Mama thinks that Livia is getting too big too fast. She had Noelle's high heels on last night (well they're not even an inch and are part of her Cinderella costume), a hat, and was pushing the play shopping cart around with a baby in it. It was too cute, and I couldn't get my camera in time to take a picture of it! I was impressed that she was walking pretty well on the tiny heels, too.

Livia loves trying to play with Noelle even if it consists of sitting on her sister or laying on her. Noelle isn't exactly the biggest fan of it, but Livia thinks it's fun.

We'll have more for you later this week!

August updates

Oh where the summer has gone...

Livia got her tubes in her ears on the 14th. It's hard to say just yet if they've helped, but time will tell. All I know is that I felt horrible for her after she woke up. She was inconsolable. She cried the whole way home but after a nap or two she seemed to be her usual self.

Miss Livi has also furthered her daredevil status. She enjoys standing on all tables and playing rather than the floor. Really, she has no fear when it comes to things. She will climb it if she thinks it can be climbed.

Talking is always improving. One of her favorite things to say lately is Bibidi Bobidi Boo to play Cinderella with Noelle. Of course, Noelle is still learning how to play with Livia since at 16 months, but sometimes it works out. Livi likes being Noelle's shadow most of the time... even in time outs. She'll sit with Noelle on the step even if she isn't in time out either (which is still a game at the moment to Liv.)

Teeth are coming in rapidly now which leads to a lot of chewing on fingers, books, and toys... along with cranky nights. In the last few weeks she had 2 molars pop up and three in the front.

We had a treat Saturday morning. Livia was thrilled when we looked out the door. Jason, myself and Liv got to watch deer walking up our road and eat the neighbors bushes ;) She kept calling them 'doggies' and thought it was so funny.

Saturday night (the 18th) I took the girls to Assumption's festival with Mom, Pap, and Kris. Livia was just watching Noelle play at first but eventually wanted to try herself. Her second attempt at a drop ball game (you drop a ball into a plastic box that has muffin tins at the bottom, get it in the red opening and you on) won her her first prize, a light up star fish necklace... which became a chew toy too. She loved it though. Aunt Kris also won her a stuffed butterfly (by putting a quarter on every option to win on haha). She also had fun picking a duck at the duck pond and just was thrilled to ride the train with Noelle.

Until next time...

Ears.

Finally, something medical that makes sense. Livia is going to be getting tubes in her ears on 8/14. It seems like something long over due for the number and duration of her ear infections. Sometimes it would take one or more antibiotics to make it go away. I'm glad this is finally going to happen. There are so many medical concerns constant antibiotics and ear infections bring up.

Just thought this was something important to note.