Nicknames

We've discovered that Liv has a knack for creating nicknames. Over the past couple weeks she's come up with Emsters (for my sister Emily), Davey-doo (for my brother David), and Janie-Boppy (for Jane).

What's remarkable is that none of the nicknames are alike in form, and none had ever been used before in our family (which is quite a feat. we're rather prolific nicknamers. i've got at least a dozen nicknames myself).

From the mouth of babes

The following are snippets of conversations we've had with Livia during the past few months.

Livia: “Dad, give me your face. I want to kiss your lips.”

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Me: “Livia, maybe you and Daddy can have a treat while I’m gone!”

Livia (in a very resigned manner): “But I didn’t eat a good enough dinner.”

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Livia: “I had a bad dream! It was really bad. About lions, and tigers, and people. And ducks.

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Livia: (after another bad dream, spoken while sobbing hysterically) It was about a hippopotamus…who crashed…a snowman.

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Livia: Is Jesus a girl?

Me: No.

Livia: He’s a boy?

Me: Yeah

Livia: But he has long hair. Long hair like me.

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Livia: What’s that?

Me: It’s a grapefruit

Livia: What’s its middle name?

Me: Um, I don’t think it has a middle name.

Livia: I know what it is!

Me: Oh?

Livia: It’s second-third-second.

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Me: It’s time for the sacrament. It’s time to think about Jesus.

Livia: I’m thinking!...about…the candy cane. At the grocery store. That’s what I’m thinkin’ about.

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Livia: (waking up in the night, sobbing) There’s a bat!

Me: Livia, there aren’t any bats here, go to sleep.

Livia: No, it’s right there! There’s a bat!

Me: There are NO bats in here.

Livia: Get the bat!

Me: Livia—

Chase: Mary, just get the bat!

Me: (grabbing a handful of air) Oh look, I got it!

Livia: No, it’s over there!

Me: (grabbing a different handful of air) Ok, now I got it.

Livia: Throw it in the trash!!

Me: (throwing the handful of air onto the ground) Okay, it’s gone now.

Livia: (Silence, because she’s now completely calm and going back to sleep)

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Livia (from the back seat of the car): I smell like…baking powder.

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Me: Livia, you’re so cute.

Livia: I’m not cute.

Me: You’re so pretty and nice!

Livia: I’m NOT pretty and nice.

Me: You did such an excellent job.

Livia: I’m NOT es-calent!!

Me: Oookay then.

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Livia: Mommy, you’re short and fat.

Me: (bemused silence. how does one respond to such things??)

2 months

First up is a picture of Miss Livvy in her new bed! I took this picture before we'd put her cute new bedding on, but I had to post this one because she just looks so grown-up! She loves it and stays in it all night no problem. But I'm afraid it's caused naps to officially go the way of all the earth. But she's 3, so it was about time for her to get out of that crib! (Plus Jane's going to need it soon)

And then we have Jane! Cute, smiley Jane, who loves to coo but gets nervous every time Livia approaches. I don't blame her. "Gentle" is apparently a very difficult concept.


She turned two months yesterday, which I can hardly believe. She's still right about in the 50th percentile, weighing in at 11 lbs. 12 0z, and 22.5 inches long.

Life with two children is busy. Very busy. And I know my life will keep getting busier from here on out! But hopefully things will at least settle into a routine sometime soon. We're already getting better at getting out the door, and I'm usually only 5-10 minutes late now, instead of 25-30. Really. I was about a half hour late to everything for a good month and a half. It's a work in progress. But I sure do love my girls!

Life outside of children

The above picture was taken about a month ago when we visited Chase at his work. Even though 99% of my blog posts are about my children, there are other facets of our lives! And Chase's work is obviously a big part of his. The Oracle campus is beautiful, and he says he's learned a lot about corporate finance so far.

Chase also takes the opportunity almost every Saturday to go out biking. He usually goes with his brother, Tyler, and they go road biking and mountain biking up in the hills near our home.

This picture is obviously from a mountain biking excursion that he went on one rather wet weekend. I don't know if you can zoom in enough to see it, but his face is completely spattered with mud, and even though I washed his shorts multiple times I couldn't get all the mud stains out. But look how happy he is!

I love that he loves cycling, and that he can do it so often.

Jane has blessed us by going to bed at about the same time as Livia every night, so Chase and I still have our evenings together, which I love! I was really dreading having to give those up, so I'm glad I didn't have to. It's nice to have some time each evening to chat, watch a show together, read a book beside each other on the couch, or even clean up the kitchen together.

Figure drawing

Let's just admit it, Liv isn't (so far) very artistically inclined. She likes to color and do art projects, but she still hasn't gotten much past scribbling all over the page. This is largely my fault, as I haven't really taught her how to draw anything else. Quiet time spent coloring tends to be my cue to try to get something done. So a couple of weeks ago when she wanted to color, I sat down with her and asked her to draw me. It took a bit of scaffolding, but eventually she came up with a recognizable face! I also told her to draw a sun, which is the large object on the right. She drew a flower below the picture of me, but it's a little hard to differentiate that from the random lines and markings that are my body. For a first real attempt at drawing something though, I thought it wasn't half bad!

Budding ballerina

Livia just finished up a ballet class at the community center in our city. She took it with two of her friends, and loved it! I had taught her a few things before, but it was just so cute to see her stretching in class and trying to follow the teacher's instructions. She was one of the youngest girls in the class, and definitely the smallest, so I didn't expect her to really learn all that much, and you'll see in the videos that she can't do everything right, but she sure is cute trying!



Kate, Emerson, and Livia

6.5 weeks

Ah, Jane. She's a sweetheart. And she sleeps! This little rockstar usually sleeps for a solid 5-6 hours at the beginning of her night, and then wakes up every 2-3 hours after that. The only bad thing is that her night is not the same as my night, since she goes to bed at 8. So I'm still getting up pretty regularly all night long. But since she sleeps so much better than Livia ever did, I know I can't complain!

She's smiling now, but is not terribly generous with her grins, so I've yet to catch a good photo of one. In lieu of a beautiful smiling shot, here are a couple funny pictures I've captured:

Livia put the glasses on her. I thought it was funny that she stuck out her tongue to complete the "silly picture" look. (Any other mothers wonder how younger siblings survive childhood?)