Speaking of Dramatized...

Poor little Livvie got sick today at Miss Sarwat's house and I had to go pick her up. I was only at work for 45 minutes when the phone rang. "Olivia has vomitted twice on my kitchen floor. Please come pick her up!" I can't say that she picked a bad day with it being Friday and all, but I do feel bad for her. She is eating Saltines, drinking water, and quietly coloring in her Dora coloring book for now. I know she doesn't feel well when she doesn't want to drag the entire contents of her toy room into the living room. I am hoping our living room will be a wreck again soon!!!

"Dramatized"

Yesterday afternoon I was telling Adam about a friend of mine who has a lot of drama going on her life and seems to be traumatized by it all. Instead of saying it simply...I accidently said that she was "dramatized!" I have never heard this word before or read it in US Weekly or In Touch, so to me...this is "my word!" And I am pretty proud of it! So in honor of Brangelina, Bennifer, and Adalar, (Oops! I made that one up too!) I present...DRAMATIZED.

***If you have read, heard, or used this term, please don't burst my bubble by telling me about it!***

Sidewalk Chalk Is So Much Fun

I got home from work yesterday to find a couple of packages waiting at the door for Olivia. She got an adorable butterfly outfit from her Aunt Sissy and cousin Reagan. She also got an Easter basket of goodies and an adorable turtle outfit from my Aunt Anne. (Olivia's great aunt!) The Easter basket contained a package of egg shaped sidewalk chalk. Olivia has been given sidewalk chalk in the past but has never really been old enough to understand what it was all about. I learned yesterday that she is "totally" old enough to "get it" now. She opened those egg chalks and off we went to the driveway. Mommy got to draw Dora and Boots! And then we wrote all the Dora characters names and of course we wrote Mommy and Olivia over and over again too. It took me back...
When Adam got home, he had lots of pretty art work to admire on the driveway. He said "Wow! You are a really good artist." (To me, not our little budding artist) HAHA! It is much easier to draw with sidewalk chalk then with a pencil or paints. I took some really fun photos of Olivia playing in the chalk and of my masterpieces. I will have to attach them later when I am able to download them to the computer. In conclusion, sidewalk chalk is excellent fun for both children and adults! (Using my junior high writing skills for that one.)

On Loss...

I found out last night that one of my oldest friends lost her son on Monday morning. Losing a loved one has to be the hardest part of living. For anyone reading this, please pray for peace for Ashley Purnell and her family. No words can describe the profound grief of such a loss.

Stop the Presses...

Can this really be this biggest news story for today?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,332594,00.html

Starbuck's is closing it's doors for 3 hours in order to assist baristas in perfecting their cappucino making craft. Not only is this a top story on both Fox News.com and CNN.com, but CNN has a pole up about the closure asking voters what they are going to do during the 3 hour hiatus. I voted so that I could see the top answer. I was disappointed to see how many liars there were reading CNN. (CNN is for worldly, well informed, honest people right?) 84% of people poled said that they did not go to Starbuck's. I think that about 50% of those people are in denial about their Starbuck's addiction and the other 30% answered the pole while sipping venti, non-fat, extra hot, no foam, double-shot mocha lattes and typing on their laptops at their local Starbuck's shop. If the lines at my Starbuck's store are any indication...only about 4% of people are not stopping off at Starbuck's at least twice a week on their way into work. The reason more Buckies like myself have not answered the pole (I voted that I was going to hide under my desk during the closure) must be due to the thought that for 3 hours tonight, there are no grande, non-fat, 2 Splenda lattes to be had and that, to me, is REALLY scary.

The Whole Random Thoughts Thing...

Once you start thinking "random" thoughts, you just can't stop. Have you ever noticed that when you go to a restaurant with a child they say "A table for 2 1/2?" As in 2 adults and 1 child. But why is the child a half? (I am sure that this is just restaurant jargon.) If you think about it though, are kids really just 1/2 of a real person? My "mini-me" is certainly a whole person. And what if you have 2 kids? Is that considered a table for 3 (2 wholes + 2 halfs)? And if so, then how do they know to put 4 chairs instead of just 3? This makes hostessing seem pretty complex.

For those of you that were wondering, the Pad Thai turned out okay. Adam says it was good, but I think that he was just being nice. It's definitely worth another shot. I have got to get thicker noodles next time though.

And if you need a good movie recommendation, "Why Did I Get Married" is excellent. My friend Sara recommended it and it was great. Definitely watch it with the significant other, but without the kids.

Tagged...Random Thoughts

Ashley Purnell tagged me. I am not sure EXACTLY how this works, but I think that I am supposed to write 7 random thoughts. So here goes...





1. I wish cats would look in their food bowls before meowing for hours in an attempt to get their owners to give them food. Andy cries to me every morning in an attempt to get me to follow him into the kitchen and fill his bowl. If he would just take the time to go and check the bowl, he would see that 95% of the time...it's full!





2. I really like tofu! Sometimes the thought of meat disgusts me. I am not a vegetarian, but I regularly eat tofu or meatless "meat." But sometimes all I want is a good steak cooked medium rare. Yum!





3. I love magazines. I subscribe to Glamour, Parent, Working Mom, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Domino, SELF, and US weekly! I love to take a warm bubble bath and read magazines. It is fun to open the mailbox and have a new magazine waiting for you a couple of times a month. It's a pretty inexpensive indulgence.

This is hard to do...



4. The worst concert that I ever went to was a Dave Matthews (Gasp!) concert in the Woodlands after it had been raining. It was hot and muggy. Dave played only instrumental music and I mean ONLY! No words. After driving almost 3 hours to see the show, sitting in the hot, muddy, mosquito filled park, he played instrumentals...We had to drive back to Austin that night too. I don't think that Mindy and I will ever forget that night. I have forgiven Dave but sitting here listening to Satellite on my iPod reminded me of how mad I once was at him!

Ummm....



5. Are they ever going to come up with a cure for cancer? I wish that some really brilliant scientist would develop a cure or at least a drug that suppressed those wildly dividing cells that become cancers. I remember when AIDS was the scariest disease ever. Not that it is "unscary" now, but they have made such strides in prolonging the lives of HIV and AIDS patients. Magic Johnson has been kick'in it for years and years. Can someone come up with a magic cancer drug too? Please?





6. I am going to attempt to make Pad Thai for dinner tonight. I got the recipe from Redbook. The picture in the magazine looks great. It's from a cookbook called "Skinny Bitches in the Kitchen" or something to that effect. Anyway, I love cooking so this will be a new adventure in the kitchen for me. Hopefully it tastes as good as the picture looks.





7. For the first time in many years, I did not watch the Oscars last night. I watched Dora with Olivia and read magazines. I was asleep by 9:30 p.m. I feel great today. It was totally worth it. I hadn't seen any of the movies anyway. It is too hard to see movies in the theatre with a toddler. I still really like to watch the stars on the red carpet. But, last night I decided to "forgettaboutit." I did see a picture of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie on MSN this morning. They were at some independent film award show over the weekend and if Angie isn't preggo then she needs to order a copy of the above mentioned cookbook. She hasn't gone public with the pregnancy yet, but HELLO? Does she really need to with pictures like this circulating?

I am not sure about copying pics from other sites. Like that many people are really going to read this! HAHA! But anyhow...this is from MSN.Com and the Independent Spirit Awards. I personally did not snap this photo of Brad and Angie. (Though we are close friends!)

So now, I tag someone...and I really don't have to many options...so Elissa...GO FOR IT!

Did we make it?

Nope! I gave in on Sunday afternoon after Adam bought the Princess Bike. Oops. I felt so bad for Olivia. She was crying and saying "You took it from me and you won't give it back!" She wouldn't even say "the word." So, I gave it to her. Adam was less than happy with me, but seeing Olivia fall asleep peacefully and sleep for 4 hours (on a Sunday afternoon) was worth it! (Sorry Adam!) So, we will have to start all over again, but I am going to give it a little more time. She has agreed to only have it at night and not take it out of the bedroom. So we did make a little progress.

On another note, she did have a great time spending the night with Ashley on Saturday night. She got her nails painted, hair blow dried, and ate lots of yummy food courtesy of Mimi Kay. She was glad to see us on Sunday morning, but still clung to Ashley until it was time to go home.

We had a great time at the going away party with all of our friends at Fido while Olivia was with Ashley. Chris and Ceci are moving on Friday. China is a 14 hour time difference from Texas. They will be well into their tomorrow while we are still in our today. Weird. We will miss them so much, but now we have a great reason to go on a trip to China!

Another Day...

We have successfully made it past the 48 hour mark without the "bop." It is still rough. At about 3 a.m. this morning, Olivia woke up whining and could not or would not go back to sleep. She finally fell asleep around 5 a.m., but we had to be up at 7:30 a.m. to take her to ballet and tap. Needless to say, mommy and daddy are tired. (Please forgive typos for I am bleary eyed!)

She found a bop hidden in the back of a bookshelf this morning and shyly brought it over to me. Adam immediately grabbed it and "took it over to our neighbors' baby." She threw a tantrum, but got over it pretty quickly. Adam told her that if she makes it through the weekend without the "bop," then he will buy her a princess bike on Sunday. Now that's what I call incentive (or bribery!). Whatever works!

We are going to a Bon Voyage party tonight for our friend's Chris and Ceci. They are moving to China in a couple of days. Olivia will stay over at Mimi Kay's house. Mimi Kay is Tray's (Adam's high school buddy) mom. Tray's daughter Ashley will be there too. Ashley is 11 and Olivia loves her. She is a cheerleader and an athlete and she is super gorgeous. Olivia is looking forward to seeing all of Ashley's toys. They have plans to paint nails, watch a movie, and do make-up. For Ashley, this is a supervised baby-sitting job, but for Olivia, it the coolest thing ever. If only she can make it through the night without the "bop!" We'll see...

Intervention

An intervention took place yesterday morning at daycare. It has been hard for me to cope with, to say the least. After 9 hours yesterday without a "bop," I felt like I had to at least try and continue Sarwat's work. In the past, I have given in after a few minutes of begging and pleading. I was feeling a kind of strength yesterday that I had not felt before. Maybe it was the organic salad and tofu I had for lunch or the extra vitamin I had with my morning coffee, but I felt I could actually go through with it this time.

The "bop" has been both a blessing: when it was impossible to get her to stop crying, we would just pop a "bop" in her mouth and it was instant gratification; and a pain: when it was 3 a.m. and the "bop" had fallen behind the bed and we couldn't reach it, but she had to have it to fall back to sleep. Last night falls into the pain category, but I think it was actual physical pain. Shaking, crying, whining, begging, and then finally calm... only to start the whole thing over again. This must be what withdrawl symptoms are like for people trying to beat an addiction. After a night with little sleep myself, I feel like crying for her as I write this.

Early this morning after at least an hour of whining, shaking, and begging, I let her get up. She grabbed a little piece of a "bop" nipple that the dog had chewed off and showed it to me proudly. She was clinching it in her hands over and over again as she would suck the "bop" in her mouth. I told that it was only a piece and that the dog had ruined that "bop." She held to it for several minutes and then agreed to let me throw it away. Now we are almost 24 hours without it and she is playing quietly with her Dora toys in the bed.

I am left tired, drained, sad, and asking myself, could a pacifier ever really be worth all of this?

Olivia at about 23 hours "sans bop."

Birthday's

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. Olivia called Nana to sing "Happy Birthday!" She did a pretty good job of it. She forgot the last "Happy Birthday to YOU!" But I think Nana enjoyed hearing the toddler rendition of the birthday song.

We went to visit Nana in Dallas not too long ago and had fun trying on Nana's fun hats and wigs. We had an all out fashion show and laughing fest after seeing Olivia in a "grandma" wig! I think that laughing should be added to the list of treatments for cancer. It sure seems to help!!!

The Boyfriends

This is Olivia's "younger man," Cooper.

This is Olivia's "older man," Jake.

"Where are we going?"

GRANDMA'S HOUSE!!!!

Olivia LOVES Dora the Explorer. Dora goes on adventures that end at her Grandma's house quite a bit. So Olivia was very excited to go visit her Grandma Great's house in Houston this weekend.

Olivia got to chat with Grandma Great, play with the toybox, and had a "peanut jelly" sandwich. She also got to visit with her Great Aunt Debbie. She told Aunt Debbie that she has 2 boyfriends, Cooper and Jake. Isn't she too young to like boys?

She also got to visit with her Uncle Thad, Aunt Kelly, and cousin Campbell. Campbell and Olivia could pass as twins. It was so much fun seeing the girls play together.

Our visit to H-Town ended with a night in Galveston. Olivia had so much fun hanging out with her Pa-Pa and Grandma Happy. It's great for mom and dad too since they ALWAYS offer to baby-sit so we can go out!

I am getting it all figured out, slowly but surely!

Back Tracking

We celebrated Valentine's Day with Olivia on February 13th since Adam and I had dinner reservations for February 14th. She got nail polish, make-up, stickers, and chocolate. All things that most 2-year old little girls love but should never get their hands on. I am a sucker. And I have had quite a few little messes to clean up since we gave her the gift!

First Things First....

Adam says that the only people that do this are those that have WAY too much time on their hands so I guess I fall into that category. Several of our friends and family members have created blogs to keep in touch. I find it fun and interesting to catch up and see pictures through blog sites so I figured that I would give it a shot myself. My sister just started her own blog spot site several days ago so I see this as my way of "keeping up with the Lindsey's!"