18 months

That's right, folks! Livia just had her half birthday! (In case you were wondering, we did celebrate: ice cream, balloons, and a reason to give her the play food I had just bought and was trying to convince Chase to let me give to her before Christmas). It's amazing how fast they grow. One second they're a totally dependent newborn in your arms, and the next...


Holy cow! They're driving!!!



And playing wii (with excellent form, I might add)
Helping you clean up the house

Sword fighting with their uncle

And practicing for their piano recital

In all seriousness I can't believe how much she's grown. Her vocabulary continues to grow and her pronounciation has become quite good, thank goodness. Her wilfullness has also increased, resulting in an extremely long grocery shopping trip this afternoon, as she figured out how to get out of the little seat belt-thing and stand up in the cart! Over and over...and over again.

Livia loves to read, and I love the opportunity it gives me to cuddle with her everyday.

Here she is in her reading chair:

She also loves to get outdoors, make us laugh, and has a gazillion little routines that she likes to follow. For example, whenever we put her pajamas on we have to say "pop!" every time a hand or foot is in it's right place. If we forget, she says it for us. Ü Her bedtime routine is also extremely exact, and if we do anything out of order or forget something (like to get out her blankie AND bunny during scripture reading) she lets us know!

All in all, she's a toddler. That means one second I'm loving her to death, laughing at her antics, and feeling joy as I watch her learn, and the next I'm about ready to tear my hair out, cry, or lock myself in the bathroom for a minute to calm down.

But really, I can never remain frustrated for long with this cute little thing around!

(note: it was a really cloudy day, but she insisted on wearing her sunglasses the entire time we were at the park)

In other news she had her 18 month check-up today...and screamed as soon as the nurse walked in the room She never really stopped until we left the doctor's office. Yikes! You think she might remember the shots or something?? In any case she's doing great! She's still small: 25th percentile weight and 50th percentile height, but that's consistent with how she's been since she was a year old. Chase and I both feel so lucky to have this little sweetheart in our family. She is such a blessing to us, and I continue to learn from her each and every day.

We love you, Livvy!

It's about time!

Believe it or not, Livia is finally in a big car seat! I know, I know, most kids make the switch at about 12 months, but in my defense her infant carseat held up to 30 lbs, kids are not even allowed in a forward facing seat until they're 20 lbs, and at 18 months she only weighs 22.5 lbs.

In case you couldn't tell, she loves it. She spent a few hours playing in it before I brought it down to the car. She also loves being able to see what's going on, and now points out cars, trees, and dogs to me all the time when we're driving along. Unfortunately there is a down side: she can now see everything I do in the car! No more sneaking food without her knowing, no more faking the actions for the songs we sing as we drive along, and no more pulling out the cell phone without her demanding to hold it. Sigh.

It's still worth it though. Ü

My life is now complete

(this was a working robot some guy built and had wandering around Fisherman's wharf)

Vacation

Last week Chase and I went on a marvelous vacation. We drove down to Apple Valley and left Livia there with my parents!! Chase and I continued on to San Diego and stayed there for several days, as he thoroughly enjoyed not having to go to work for a week, and I even more thoroughly enjoyed being able to do whatever I wanted without the constraints of a toddler! We had many peaceful meals at restaurants, took afternoon naps, and could even stay out past 8:00. *Gasp!*

We took the opportunity to go to the San Diego temple, which we hadn't been back to since we were married there almost 3 years ago. It was kinda fun to go on a Wednesday morning...I'm pretty sure we were the only people there under 65. Ü


We went to Sea World one day and were surprised to discover that they now administer bioscans as you enter. Seriously, they take your fingerprint and connect it with the barcode on your ticket. We were wondering why until a man in line ahead of us got into a huge argument with the employee--turns out he had been planning on getting in with his ticket, exiting and getting a stamp, and then giving the same ticket to his son. Really?? I didn't know anyone did stuff like that, but it must be a problem because otherwise I don't think they'd bother with the bioscan.

Chase ended up lasting a minute and a half at this exhibit. My time?? 20 seconds. How embarrassing! (But at least it adds credence to my assertions that I have horrible lung capacity)
(I did try again later and got 45 seconds, but that's still pretty wussy)


We also went sea kayaking, which was cut short because I got seasick. I have a ridiculously weak stomach nowadays. I've now gotten sick snorkeling, kayaking, and fasting (I have thrown up multiple times when breaking my fast. It's kind of a problem). I felt badly that we didn't even make it through half our kayak rental time! So lame.

Livia was happy the entire time we were gone. I honestly don't think she missed us at all. It took her a good five minutes to warm up to us after we came back to AV, but then she was excited and wanted to show us all the fun things she had played with in our absence.

Since we were in Southern California, we took the opportunity to meet up with some good friends of ours from BYU. It was so much fun to catch up!

It was a perfect vacation. We got to spend time with friends and family, as well as have time all to ourselves to relax and have some child-free fun. (Not that we don't love having Livia with us...but since she is, in reality, my full-time job, it was nice to get a complete vacation from all my normal responsibilities.)

My parent's house has a LOT more toys and interesting things around than our little apartment does. Not to mention doting grandparents and super fun aunts and uncles. She had an absolute blast, and has been suffering from withdrawals ever since, I'm afraid. Here's a video of her playing the piano. I love how she wants to use the entire length of the piano, and how she sings along. Also, when she played she insisted a piano book be open, and would occasionally request that we turn the page. Ü

I don't know where she learned that since we don't have a piano, but it sure was cute!

Tales of a picky eater

A couple of months ago my previously adventurous daughter suddenly started hating pretty much everything I tried to feed her. Oh sure, she would eat fishie crackers and raisins, but we were seriously lacking in a lot of very important food groups. We're still working on it, but here are a few of my successes...

1. Edamame.
She loves the stuff! I already knew she liked it, but the only kind I could find at Safeway was a huge package of shelled edamame that went bad before she ate even a quarter of it. It felt like a huge waste of money to me, so I only bought it that one time. But, lo and behold, Trader Joe's sells frozen shelled edamame! I can prepare a small amount at a time, and it's perfect! Definite success.

2. The Dip
Everything's more fun to eat when you can dip it, right? Using yogurt, peanut butter, or hummus as dip, and carrots, apples, and pretzels as the object to be dipped = actual eating! (It also keeps her really busy, which means I have relative peace during mealtime...always a plus)

3. Presentation
How I serve food seems to make a big difference. Most anything with a straw will at least get a few bites (yogurt, in particular). She's terrible at utensils, but loves attempting to eat with a fork. If I get a piece of meat onto a fork for her and let her feed it to herself, she will sometimes swallow! (meat/protein is one of our greatest battles)

4. Smoothies
Whole-milk yogurt, fruit, ice, sometimes carrots, and yes, a little bit of sugar and she's in heaven! I don't always take the time to make them, but smoothies, eaten through a straw of course, are another success.

5. Adult cereal
This one really surprised me. I had been trying different dry cereals out on Livia after she got tired of cheerios. She liked kiddy cereals, but she LOVED muesli! She eats the raisins and dates first of course, but then she systematically goes through and eats all the grains and nuts, too. Who'd have thought? It seems like most kids like oatmeal, but Livia despises it. I can't blame her. I've never liked it either.

So there has been some major progress made, but most of her meals still end up on the floor or stuffed down into her high chair. If any of you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! I know a lot of toddlers go through a picky phase, and so I'm rather desperately hoping she'll grow out of it.

Dandelions

Livia discovered dandelions at the park this week.

While we were there a pre-teen girl approached me and said, "Aww, how old is it?"

It? Really?

I could be wrong, but Livia looks quite feminine to me. Particularly with the ponytail and pink shirt with little hearts all over it. I dunno.

And it just felt weird to have someone call her an it. I'd almost rather have had her say, "Aww, how old is he?" (!!)

(Fairly) recent happenings

In other words, things I kept meaning to write about but somehow never did, so now it's all going to be thrown together in one big post. 1. We went camping...a month ago...with our friends the Mayfields.

We camped at Mt. Diablo, and had a great view of the sunset from our campsite.

We hiked to the top, and Chase was a trooper to carry Livia the whole way up.

Two things: 1) DO NOT laugh at me! I know the backpack is almost as big as I am!

2) I'm diggin' Chase's capris.

Yay for friends who put up with our crying baby at night! One tent + two different bedtimes = TROUBLE!!! (Livia woke up when we finally crawled in the tent, and didn't go back to bed until 1:30 a.m. when Chase got the brilliant idea to stick her in her carseat in the car. He didn't even have to drive around. She fell right to sleep. )

2. Livia is growing up so fast!!

This month she learned how to color. We now have drawings up on the fridge. I swear I'm too young for that.

She's starting the I-want-to-dress-myself phase. In this photo she's sporting a long-sleeved onesie over a summery dress.

Her hair is now long enough that I have to do it everyday. It's not quite long enough to look good, but we try. Chase calls this the "bug look"

We're still working on feeding ourselves with a spoon...I don't think I need to say anything more about that.

Livia fell and got her first scraped knee! She didn't cry once, not even when I peeled off the band-aid later. Pretty sure she did NOT get that from me. Ü

She's also demonstrating her "smile for the camera" smile.

Livia will be going into nursery in a month, can you believe it?! She's growing up so fast and is asserting her independence more and more. She LOVES having friends over, playing hide-and-seek, ring around the rosie, getting piggyback rides, reading, and going on walks. She's starting to talk more, but I can't decipher everything. She says something that sounds suspiciously like "money" everytime she wants something. Should I be worried???

3. Chase has been working crazy hours for the past few weeks, but things should be calmer now. Hooray!

4. I started taking a ballet class! Even after just one class a lot of what I learned in past years is coming back to me. I think I'm gonna love this!