This post is probably going to be all over the place. I'm just going to try to catch up. I haven't taken pictures of most of our outings recently. It is getting harder and harder! I spend most of my time chasing Olivia around and I usually don't have an extra hand for a camera! I'll try to do better on that...

Weekend before last, we took Olivia to the actual swimming pool for the first time. She really enjoyed it! Her favorite part was splashing her daddy. The majority of last week was spent indoors at play dates. We were having a (rare) massive heat wave, and it was just too hot to do anything outside. (I felt like I was back in AR! Ha!)

As I briefly mentioned before, we were hit with the stomach bug this past weekend. It started with Olivia throwing up on Friday night. I guess we've been pretty lucky, as this was the first time we've had to deal with that. It was pretty pitiful and resulted in her sleeping in bed with me and Jon on the couch. I don't think any of us slept well. Thankfully, she woke up feeling fine on Saturday, but unfortunately I didn't. Jon took care of her and even took her out to dinner with friends. (He was a little nervous doing this, but he came home beaming... He said she was the life of the restaurant and was sooo good!). I woke up feeling a little better on Sunday, thank goodness, because Jon caught the bug then. Needless to say, it was a looooong weekend at our house! We are all feeling better today, though... whew!

In other news, Olivia is saying more and more words. She even signs "eat" and "more". (Don't ask me where she learned this because I have never tried teaching her!) The other night, she said, "Night, Night Da-Da". You should have seen the look in Jon's eyes. He melted! As he put it, "That's the first time that she's actually talked to me!". It was pretty sweet!

Her favorite thing now is to "snuggle" and give "big hugs". She puts her head on my shoulder and her arms around my neck. Most of the time, she also pats my back. She is soooo sweet and loveable!

However, she has also developed a little bit of an attitude. If she doesn't get what she wants, occasionally she will throw quite the fit. Luckily, this doesn't happen very often. Most of the time, her fits come when she gets in trouble. She has started trying to turn the knobs on the stove. I tell her "no" and set her somewhere else. This is when she throws a fit. I think she is learning, though. Now, she has started walking up to the stove, pointing at the knobs, and saying, "No, no no." Ha!

As I have probably mentioned too many times, she is SO busy! Anytime she is awake, she is on the go! Taking care of her becomes more and more work every day- BUT I wouldn't have it any other way! She is still the sweetest, happiest child I can imagine. I feel blessed by her every day and I'm so glad I am getting to spend every moment with her.

We are leaving to go out of town Wednesday for a little getaway. I'll update when we return. Here's a couple of more pictures for you before we go.

When I ask Olivia to "give me a big smile", this is what she does:


That's not quite the cute, sweet smile I was hoping for, but what do you do?!? :)

Have a great week!