Happy Birthday Olive!

Olive turned one on December 3! I can't believe a whole year has passed! She is such a little dolly and so much fun! She loves to follow her brother around and try to do everything that he is doing. She loves to hold on her to her babies. She is a great sleeper and sleeps every night from 7:30-7:30 am. She isn't much of a napper, but I would trade naps for a full night's sleep any day. She can say hi, bye, bonk (binky) bonk (as in bonked my head), down (she says this for both down and up), mama, dada, brub (brother), bee (bunsen) and more. She really likes to eat and insists on feeding her self. She dislikes having her diaper changed because it really is such an inconvenience for her to be held still for that long. She enjoys taking baths with her big brother and is pretty much all around a very happy girl. This year we had two birthday parties for Olive, one on the 3rd for family and one on the 4th for friends at Gymboree. I think Logan had more fun than Olive did at Gymboree, but all things considered it was great! Happy birthday to my sweet baby girl!

Thanksgiving 2010

We woke up on Thanksgiving to a light dusting of snow! I was quick to get the kids up from bed, fed and dressed so we could go outside and enjoy it before it all melted away. I knew it was going to be a challenge for Olive since she wasn't quite walking at the time, and crawling on the snow really isn't a good thing! Bunsen was so excited too! The snow didn't last long, but we made it outside in time for Olive to put her hands in it and Logan to walk around. Bunsen had a great time chasing bunnies, as always!

Halloween 2010

This year for Halloween Logan dressed up as Nemo and Olive dressed up as a pumpkin (sort of). On the Friday before Halloween we went to McCall's Pumpkin Patch to pick out some pumpkins and try our wits at the corn maze. Olive and Logan had a great time and Logan really enjoyed the pipe slide. After the pumpkin patch we went to Grandma Peggy's house to carve pumpkins and bob for apples. Logan was so excited to bob for apples, but he didn't understand that you aren't supposed to take actual bites out of the apples. The kids had a great time. On Sunday, for Halloween, we went back to Grandma Peggy's house to eat dinner and then go trick or treating. We usually drive into Albuquerque to trick-or-treat with friends who live in a real neighborhood, but because Halloween was on a Sunday this year, we decided to stay close to home. There weren't very many neighbors near Grandma Peggy's house who were passing out candy, which was fine with me, and Logan and Olive didn't seem to really mind.

Pendaries and Salmon Raspberry Ranch, October 2010

We took a family vacation to Jeff and Alli's cabin in Pendaries. Scott and I were going to go up alone and play golf, but decided at the last minute to take Logan, Olive and Bunsen with us. We didn't play any golf, however we took a lot of walks on the golf course and then went to the Salmon Raspberry Ranch. On one of our walks, Logan found a golf ball...that was in plain site (I am not sure how the person who lost it didn't see it), however he and Scott washed it in the golf ball cleaner and dried it off. As we continued to walk, every time we came across a golf ball cleaner, Logan insisted on washing his ball! On our last day at the cabin on our way home, we took a 15 minute detour and drove up to the Raspberry Ranch where we had a great time. The raspberry bushes are the perfect size for little ones to pick at (even dogs too) and Logan and Olive had a great time eating raspberries. The raspberries were Olive's first real food (other than Gerber Puffs) and she did great! They were very ripe and perfect for her! I just had to be careful not to give her too many so she wouldn't get a tummy ache. After picking raspberries, we went to the little cafe and Logan had a PB&J (raspberry of course) sandwhich. We then all enjoyed a raspberry sundae and then headed back home! It was a great little trip and I can't wait until next year when Olive will get to help pick the berries and not just eat them!

Best Friends

My kids are best friends and I love it!  They have so much fun playing together.   We flew to Mesa, Az, this past weekend for Scott's grandfather's funeral.  The kids were great on the plane and they had so much fun playing together in the hotel.  I even gave them a bath together...Logan thought it was the neatest thing.  I had never bathed them together, but it was so late that I didn't think either one could wait.  Here are some recent pictures.

                      Olive was so tired after swimming she couldn't stay awake while I was getting her ready for bed.  It has been a LONG time since that has happened.

    Here is Olive at the airport

 

 Logan and Scott at the airport

 Logan and Olive at the Observation Deck.

In the bath

Playing in the curtains...why are hotel room curtains so much fun?

Busy

We have been having a very busy, but fun summer.  Olive turned eight months this week. I can't believe how fast the time flies.  She is such a joy and such a sweet heart.  She started crawling on Tuesday.  She is still pretty slow at getting around and prefers to scoot on her bottom more than crawl.  She loves Logan and wants to play with everything that he does.  Logan is getting pretty quick at saying "no, no, no, Olive, don't touch."  Poor kid, learning to share is such tough work.  He is pretty good at quickly finding a replacement toy for Olive, so she isn't interested in the one he is playing with.  This only works about half of the time though.  Olive is getting to that "object permeance" stage, where she remembers the toy she had after it has been taken away and she doesn't much like that.   She is very loud and vocal.  She doesn't cry very much anymore, but is very good at letting us know that she needs some attention.   She loves to eat baby food, and if you are too slow in giving it to her, she lets you know pretty quickly.   Taking her out to a restaurant is always so stressful because she spends most of the time squealing and screaming for more food.

Logan is growing so quickly too.   He is getting really good at knowing his alphabet and spelling simple words with pictures.   He can even spell his name.  Although, sometimes after he spells L.O.G.A.N,and I ask him what that spells he will say "me."  I am not sure if he does this just to tease me, or if he forgets that those letters actually spell Logan.  He points out all of the letters that he sees when we go places and can recognize all 26 letters.  He can also count to 12.  Logan loves to watch "Wheel of Fortune" and can point out how many of each letter is on the board.   I am so lucky to have such wonderful children!

What is going on?

Life in the Stevens' household has been very busy lately.  I am not sure I can tell you what we have been up to...it seems like the days go by so fast, but we never really do anything.   Logan has really been loving the Zoo, we try to go every other Friday when I am off of work.   His favorite animal is the Peacock, and our Zoo has several which is very nice.   Olive is growing fast and it makes me so sad.   She is almost 7 months and getting so big.  She has started "talking" and it seems like she is never quiet now.   She loves to eat baby food, and I actually let her feed her self (something I never did with Logan).   She can get up on all fours and rock back and fourth...which is amazing to me because Logan didn't do this until he was about 9 months old.   She is sleeping well, from about 7:30-7:00 with one feeding around mid-night.   My babies are such joy and such a blessing.  They remind me everyday that there is good in the World!  Just last night Logan told me that he loves me, which melted my heart.   He loves his stuffed animals and likes to "change diapers" and "put them to bed."  Every night as he puts them to bed, he tells them "night, night, sleep well and sleep late." 

Yay for Sleep!

On Thursday night we "sleep trained" Olive, which was so hard and sad. She spent most of the night up crying trying to figure out how to sleep. I kept checking on her every 5-15 minutes to remind her that she was okay. Well on Friday night, Olive slept from 8:00 (she only took three minutes to fall asleep) till 11:00 when I woke up her to feed her, then I put her down and she put her self back to sleep and she slept until 3:30 when I fed her again and then she slept till 8:00 am. Last night she had a tougher time falling asleep, but slept from 8:15 until 12:30 when I fed her and then she slept until 8:00 am this morning! Yay, Olive! The only problem is, she is sleeping on her belly. I try to flip her over, but she wakes up only minutes later and flips herself back on to her tummy. Which worries me, and makes me not sleep so well because I am always checking on her. I do kind of miss her cuddling with me all night, but am excited about finally being able to get some real sleep.

Happy Birthday Logan!

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Logan turned two on Monday the 19th! He is such a good, happy and goofy boy! I can't believe he has only been with us for two years. He is such a joy and a blessing! He loves his little sister, his puppy and to play outside. For his two year check up he weighed in at 27.4 lbs and 34 3/4 inches. Still tall and skinny. We are looking forward to having a healthy boy, so we can see what Logan really acts like as a two year old. Since March 10th, he has had a cold,a stomach flu,another cold, an ear infection, an allergic reaction to amoxicillan (which by the way was the scariest/sadest thing I have yet to see with him), three days of health (last Sunday thru Tuesday) then a cold (well that's what we thought it was) and was diagnosed with Strep Throat just yesterday (sorry Amber, we didn't spread the puke bug, but you may have to deal with Strep, but we didn't touch anything at your house, so hopefully you guys are safe.) Needless to say, we have watched a lot of "Nemo" over the last few weeks.

Firsts

For the first time (in 23 months) last Sunday when I got in the shower, Logan didn't scream bloody murder or insist on being in the shower with me! He just looked at me, and then went about talking to his daddy! I was so excited. Olive finally giggled at me last week also. And, I am happy to say she put herself back to sleep after she woke up after a very short nap today. It is crazy, it seems like she has regressed in her sleeping habbits. At two months old, she was sleeping for about 4-5 hours straight at night, it seems like in the last three weeks (as soon as I went back to work, go figure) she started only sleeping for about 1-2 hours straight and then wakes up and can't go back to sleep unless she was nursed or rocked. Well, last night after she went to bed at 7:30, woke up at 9:00, 10:00 and 10:30, I fed her and then put her back in her crib at 11:30 where she screamed for 15 minutes before falling asleep. I know it probably makes me a bad mom to leave my nearly four month old baby to cry herself to sleep, but I was exhausted and really at the end of my rope in trying different ways to get her sleep more. Anyway, she cried herself to sleep and then woke up at 12:30,when she cried herself to sleep in about 8 minutes. When she woke up at 1:30 I moved her into my bed and we nursed and slept together as usual until I had to get up this morning. At 10:45 this morning I put her down for her nap, she woke up at 11:14 and I left her in her crib because she was talking and happy. She started to fuss around 11:21, so I got up (I was napping too) went to the potty and then went in her room to get her. When I got into her room she was sound asleep! Yay! Maybe she is learning how to put herself to sleep. I sure hope so! I can't function on 2-3 hours of sleep each night for much longer! If any one has some other suggestions (beside crying) I would love to hear them!