13 Months Old

Olivia is 13 months old today.  Time just keeps flying along!

I just love her little belly laughs.  She is the most good natured little girl!

Look at me standing all by myself!

This girl knows how to have fun and laughs all the time.  She can't help but brighten your day!

This is not a great picture, but she got to see her first fireworks and really enjoyed them!

She still loves snuggling close to mommy and likes walks along the ocean

This is her new favorite place.  She loves to sit in the empty bookshelf and play!

And this represents her other favorite thing.  She will take these shapes and put them over her head and then attempt to crawl across the room.

She got to be a big girl at Madeline's birthday and ate more pizza than the rest of the kids combined!

She explored the San Diego Children's Museum for the first time.

She loves a good challenge and obstacle.  She got VERY mad when I tried to pick her up and carry her up these stairs.

She is a water baby!

...and is turning into quite the beach baby!

Each trip we take to the beach she puts less and less sand in her mouth, so I think we are making progress here!

This girls LOVES to eat!  She's becoming a bit more picky, but is still a great eater.

Check out my first bikini!

She loves being outdoors

At 13 months, she is not walking yet, but I think it is coming any day now.  She took 3 big steps on July 19 and I thought she would just take off right after that, but she is still being a bit cautious.  She'll take a few steps between objects but needs just a bit more confidence.

She has been moved up to the toddler room at daycare.  She's been doing well, but misses her morning nap and so has been needing to go back to the infant room on some days.

She is a binky baby and loves her paci.  I fear needing to wean her from it!

Her favorite word is maaam-maam-maaam.  Which basically, means mama, I'm hungy or I'm out of food, depending on how loud and quickly the words come out.  She also says dada and the ladies at daycare told me she said paci, but I haven't heard that one yet.

She loves playing with her big sister and really looks up to her.  Watching to two of them together is so much fun.

Pictures

We received Madeline's dance photos last week.  She looks adorable and it made me really sad that we had to miss her first recital because of the move.  She make quite the perfect little ballerina and she looks so proud and confident!  She's been begging for us to find her a dance place here, so come fall, hopefully we'll be ready to give it another go!

We also got the girls' school photos back.  They turned out super cute.  Apparently Olivia wasn't too keen on taking photos by herself, so we just got the one of them together.  Madeline is sure getting photogenic, if I can say so!

Madeline turns 4!!

Madeline has had a huge day of celebration for her 4th Birthday.

She started the day with the breakfast of her choice...donuts.  We then moved on to gifts from the grandparents and other family.  She was very excited and got some great gifts.

Listening to Grandpa sing Happy Birthday to her!

She had requested ballerina cupcakes with rainbow frosting and cherries.  She also picked out a pink box of cake mix (which made it really easy on mom!!)  She was pretty happy with how they turned out!

She was big help making the cupcakes

Her wishes delivered....ballerina cupcakes complete with a cupcake and rainbow frosting.

Being 4, we thought she might enjoy Chuck e Cheese for her party.  We were wrong.  We should have known that even though she said that she was going to be excited to see Chuck e, our previous experience with large costumed people has not proven otherwise.  The first half hour there was quite overwhelming, but then she relaxed and had a good time.  She had a great time hanging out with her cousins Ryan and Sarah and friend Sophia, though, and they all had a blast riding the rides and playing the games.  When returning to the party room, she still needed to keep one eye on the animatronic animals!

Olivia was very interested in the animals.  She was more than willing to check them out!

Enjoying the pizza.  Olivia loved being a big girl and ate a ton!

Madeline enjoyed the birthday show from a distance in the safety of daddy's arms

Olivia doesn't yet realize that the animals are scary!  She loved it!

Beautiful Birthday girl!

Our proud 4 year old!!

She was too scared to go in the ticket blaster alone, so mommy got to accompany her.

All engines go!

Making a plan!

It was much harder than you think it would be! :)

We capped of the day with the delivery of her new bike!

It is hard to believe that she is four! She is such a smart, energetic, witty, caring and beautiful little girl.  We are so lucky that she is our daughter!!