Road trip!

Last week Livia and I hitched a ride with my grandparents and headed down to the wonderful and blustery city known as Apple Valley.

During the drive we actually had a lot of this:

Definitely some of this...

And a ridiculously small amount of this:

Livia had an absolute blast at my parent's house! Not only was she doted on by aunts, uncles, and grandparents, but there was a DOG to play with, FISH and pet MICE to look at, STAIRS to climb, and a big HOUSE to explore.

She watched her Aunt Emily hula-hooping, and decided to give it a try herself. I was out of the room at the time, but apparently she held the hula hoop around her middle and spun herself around in circles. Ha!

She loved playing outside in the yard with this toy lawn mower.

She had her very first bubble bath, and had fun "painting" with the bubbles

We all went to the park one day and Livia learned how to use a bucket and shovel (kind of)

But of course Livia's not the only one who had a good time. Here's a picture of my mom and Uncle David

And now we come to the whole reason we were there! To celebrate Jon's graduation from high school! Congratulations, J!

Jon was one of the valedictorians, and we are all so proud of him and excited for him to head off to BYU this fall!

Have I ever mentioned I'm the shortest one in my family??

Since you've been gone...

Last week we--well, really I--decided it would be a good idea to do a little experiment. "Let's turn off the tv for an entire week, Chase," I suggested, hoping it wouldn't occur to him that the NBA finals started later that week. He did remember, of course, but not one to back done from a challenge, he agreed.

I wanted to see what we could accomplish in our evenings if we didn't have our trusty ol' television to turn to when we were tired or bored. And here's what we did:

• Went on a long walk one evening and spent some time playing at the park with Livia
• Played a board game
• I made throw pillows for our couch
• Chase played soccer
• Read (John Adams for Chase, and Mayflower for me. Chase has gotten me on a history kick)
• Planned our primary lesson in advance
• Listened to past airings of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me
• I went running for the first time in two years. Here's a little piece of advice: if you're out of practice, don't think you have to prove anything to yourself. I only ran a mile, put pushed myself so hard to get a good time that I very nearly vomited all over some bushes.
• Made cookies
• Went on another walk to Krispy Kreme to participate in free donut day Ü

Did we miss our TV? I wish I could say no, but there were a few times where one or the other of us really just wanted to relax on the couch and watch a show. Luckily we had each other to report to--peer pressure can work wonders. Plus I hid the remotes.

Overall though, it was nice to do other things with our time. We talked a lot more, accomplished more, and our apartment is cleaner. So while I don't think we'll be getting rid of our tv anytime soon, I do think we're going to be more selective about when and why we decide to turn it on.

Take a hike

About a week ago we went on a hike in the hills near our home with our friends, the Laytons. Livia rode in her stroller most of the way, but we let her get out and run around for awhile, which she obviously enjoyed...

Some scenic shots:

(Dad, this is the part where you admit that the bay area is WAY prettier than AV :)

Our little family

Livia thinks Leah is just about the coolest girl ever.

Paparazzi shot

"We spotted Livia at her residence in Mountain View, checking her stocks on the way to a photo shoot." -- Baldwin Weekly

Saturday is a special day

Between Stake Enrichment activities, parks, primary pool parties, and BBQs with friends, we had a pretty awesome Saturday.

When Livia's toes first touched the water in the pool she. freaked. out. Clinging to me with all her might, crying and shrieking, I'm pretty sure we had all eyes on us at that moment (which is exactly what we wanted with our twin farmer's tans Ü). It took about 10 minutes for her to consent to even getting her feet wet, but I persevered! And eventually she got all the way in and had a great time, splashing and playing with a beach ball.



The BBQ in Palo Alto was a lot of fun, and Livia was in toddler heaven. She ran through the field, collecting bottle caps and sticks, and soberly studying deer. I've never seen her so dirty, and just tried not to think about it. She fell asleep on the way home, but we woke her up for a bath anyway, as there was NO way she was getting into her bed like that!
Playing with Daddy, with her shirt tucked into her diaper as it is wont to do.

I didn't get a single picture with the Mayfields or Maxfields, but thanks everyone, for a fun evening!

Some recent pics

Livvy LOVES playing at the park, and always manages to make new friends. On this occasion it was a 3-year-old Indian girl, who was so nice to Livia and played with her for a good 20 minutes, to Livvy's utter delight. She was beaming and giggling the whole time, but I only took a couple pictures because I didn't want the girl's father to get weirded out.Only Mom to play with now...not so exciting. Here she is in her new dress from her Uncle Richie and Aunt Whitnie. She was very pleased when I put in on her, and kept preening and checking herself out in the mirror.

Progress update:

• Is finally waving bye-bye (and claps afterwards because I always clap when she does it)
• Whispers
• Says "ssss" when I say "Shhh"
• Still loves books--she "reads" them by herself all the time, or brings them to me and tries to climb in my lap so I'll read it to her. Once, when her friend Leah was over, they were both in her bedroom and got really quiet--never a good thing--so I came in to check on them and found them just sitting next to each other reading books! So cute.
• Repeats and understands a lot of words, but doesn't really come up with them on her own yet. For example, if I tell her we're going to get her shoes on and go outside, she says "shus" and waits expectantly for me to put them on her. Or if I tell her to go find Daddy, she'll immediately go find him in the other room and can repeat "da da da." But she doesn't point to her shoes on her own and say "shus" or go up to Chase and say "da da."
• Full list of words she says or repeats: da da da, mama, Ella, la la la, chi (tree), hi, ba-ba (bye-bye), ahh-uu(I love you. I can only recognize this one by the cadence).
• Animal sounds she makes: dog, lion, tiger, zebra, monkey, bear.
• Growls to imitate the sound of a car
• Likes to chase and be chased
• Likes to play ring-around-the-rosie and get piggy-back rides
• Her favorite song is "In the Leafy Treetops" and she waves her arms and claps everytime I start to sing it
• Dances all the time when she hears music--it usually consists of squats, but she waves her arms and stamps her feet sometimes, too. Was really rocking out during the opening song on the American Idol finale, which Chase and I found hilarious.
• Understands how to use stacking cups and rings now, but gets frustrated when she puts them in in the wrong order and they don't fit correctly.
• Is becoming very attached to her blankie and pulls it out of her crib periodically during the day
• Checks our recycling trash can multiple times a day and pulls out any bottles that are in it.
• Is finally giving kisses! Hooray!
• Got her 8th tooth last night, after crying for two hours in my arms.

When insects attack

Yesterday Livia had a rather traumatic run-in with a bug.

"Spider bite?" you ask, nodding knowingly. "Pestering fly? Bee sting?"

Nope! Actually, the insect that managed to wrench the most tragic sobs you've ever heard from Livia was...dun, dun, DUN...


A ladybug.

Gasp! What in the world could a little ladybug do to wreak such havoc in a young girl's life? It's quite simple really: it flew up her nose!

There we were, walking home from the park, when all of a sudden Livia started crying. Not just fussing, but crying as though she were truly upset. I offered her water...nope, that wasn't the problem. I dumped copious amounts of sand out of her shoes, thinking maybe it was uncomfortable for her. Again, that didn't stop the crying. Was she hungry? No, that wasn't it, either! Finally I got her out of her stroller and picked her up to comfort her, which is when I noticed something bright red sticking out of her nose.

In retrospect I'm surprised I didn't think she was bleeding, but somehow I knew immediately it was a ladybug, and I grabbed it out and flung it to the ground. Poor Livia! No wonder she was crying! I wouldn't be too happy if a ladybug flew up MY nose and got stuck, either!

By the time I finished comforting her and strapping her back into the stroller, I was surprised to note that the ladybug was still lying where I'd thrown it. Until, that is, I realized that it was covered in baby snot, and was apparently too weighed down to fly. Take that, Mr. Ladybug! Score one for the 1-year-old! (Either that or it died upon impact. But I'm going to give this victory to Livia, since she had to go through the trauma. Have to say I never thought I'd feel this vengeful towards a ladybug...they're usually such friendly creatures...)