olivia's 2nd birthday

Olivia turns 2 next week! We celebrated a little early since my parents were in town visiting. That seems to be the pattern, but Olivia didn't mind.

I decided not to do a big themed party this year and just keep it simple! We had our family over for dinner, there were some balloons, and we had cake and ice cream- easy peasy, as Jillian would say! (Thought I was swooning over some adorable ideas on Pinterest...is it too early to start planning her 3rd birthday? ;-) 

My brother-in-law took all of the pictures- thanks Timmy!

 

She is talking SO much these days! And strings more words into sentences together every day. The other day I walked into the room and she said, "Hi Mama, how's going?" And I answered, "It's going good, how are you?" "I'm good!" she said. Hah! 

On a sassy note, she's also started saying, "Give it back to me, RIGHT NOW!"

She also loves to sing! When she's playing around the house or riding in the car, she'll sing the entire alphabet song, ring around the rosie, baa baa black sheep, and a couple other nursery rhymes.

 It has been eye opening to discover how different Jillian and Olivia are from each other. Jillian was never one to "get into" things, or make messes (weird, right?) but Olivia...man...that girl is forever getting things out of my makeup drawer, pulling out random batteries and chapsticks from places. She keeps me on my toes (and makes me want to lock all the cabinets!) I can't tell you how many times I've had to wash crayon off of the walls and stair banisters because of this one!

 She STILL doesn't sleep through the night. *sigh. She will maybe 3 or 4 nights in the week, but the other times will still wake up for a minute or two until I rock her for a few minutes and lay her back down. (For those wondering, I totally would let her cry but the girls share a room and if Jillian wakes up too, it's game over. We tried moving Jillian into our room for a few nights to let Olivia just cry, but it didn't work..so..yeah..we're just over here, not sleeping.) At least she's cute?

 ^Since my Dad's birthday is the day after Olivia's, we had a cake for him too! Jillian helped him blow out the candles. 

 ^She got a little push trike! Jillian has a scooter already, so Olivia was just beaming when she had something of her own to ride on!

 ^Later that night we did sparklers outside! 

 I had a few mini heart attacks when Olivia kept trying to reach for it. Haha! It's kind of amazing she didn't get burned, because we gave her one to hold and she was swinging it all over the place... #parentsoftheyear

Happy Birthday my sweet, sweet girl! We love you to pieces!