the patience of a 4 yr old

garrett's "why" phase is still going strong. it pretty much drives us nuts. sometimes i think it could be a good interrogation tactic for law & order. after "why mom?" 10 times in a row i'm pretty much ready to break down and say anything. so maybe i should let the law enforcement people know that it works.

but olivia is different. garrett gets on her nerves plenty, but the "why's" don't seem to bother her. yesterday i sat and watched them play dollhouse. she likes to imagine lots of stories and talks to her people. the whole time garrett asked her why she was doing everything. for each answer she gave, he responded with "why, wivvy" (that's what he calls her). each time she answered him so sweetly. it was awesome to see how much patience she has for her little brother :)

i love you to meijer & back

last night i read 'guess how much i love you' to olivia & garrett. we read it all the time and the kids love to throw their arms open wide to show how much they love us. last night olivia decided to get creative.

olivia: mom, guess how much i love you? i love you...
out the door
through the trees
over the bridge
in the forest
down the street
to the cottage
over the river
over the hill
through meijer
through walmart
down the street
over the bridge
through the bushes
back to the house

that's how much i love you!
now show me how much you love me. but don't use your hands!

when mom's busy...

joie de vivre...these are for you. i remember how much you liked the other marker pictures :)

olivia's new friend

i must be out of the loop because i had never heard of webkinz until a few weeks ago when emily surprised olivia with a stuffed koala from webkinz. in case you haven't heard of them...they are a group of stuffed animals that each have a unique code. you enter the code online and then can interact with your animal. you earn money to buy your pet things like food, clothes & toys.

olivia totally loves webkinz! she named her pet koalie and they spend lots of time together. olivia loves to play games on the computer with koalie. this usually involves me because olivia can't read so she usually has no idea what the buttons she clicking on the screen mean. her favorite activity online is buying new clothes for koalie. go figure!

emily, thanks for koalie! olivia loves her :)

the other day i downloaded pictures off our camera. i found several that olivia must have taken. plus lots of movies of koalie. here are a few of her pictures...

updates

well it's been a while since my last post. let's see what we've been up to...

garrett has fully discovered his words. we hear WHY all day long. at first it was cute, now...umm it's not so cute anymore. garrett has also discovered the world of vintage transformers (more than meets the eye... ) he is very good at breaking the little pieces off and asking me to fix it. such fun...

ryan is still our pudgy little guy. Fatty Fatty Ry Ry, as olivia calls him. he doesn't want to crawl or stand up...just sit in front of a bucket of toys. occasionally, he'll face plant into a pile of mr. potato head pieces but for the most part he plays great by himself.

olivia's newest adventure was kindergarten registration. she's not actually going to kindergarten next year, but she had to go get "assessed" so she can go to kinderstart (1/2 days, 5 days a week). we talked about her "meeting" (as she called it) and prepped her for all the questions they might ask. i thought she was ready...but according to the teacher who she met with...olivia can only count to 6 and does not know her shapes. ha ha! i guess the pressure got to her! afterwards we still celebrated with a trip the mall. smoothie, pretzel & a new pair of capris are what my 4 yr old loves :)

big guy & little guy

olivia loves to talk about god. she is constantly asking questions. most of the time, i'm not really sure how to answer her. sometimes i don't think the "simple faith of a child" applies to her.

her main complaint lately about god is that she can't see him. it drives her nuts! last night she was so frustrated she said "mom, i want god to get out of my body so i can see him!"

later at bedtime...
olivia: mom, which one is the big guy and which one is the little guy?
(i had no idea who she was referring to. finally after much guessing...)
me: do you mean god & jesus?
olivia: yeeeeees.
me: well, i guess god is the big one.
olivia: ok, then jesus is the little one.

she proceeded to show me with her hands how big each one was. then she settled on the following description...
olivia: so god must be 65 and jesus is 45.

nail polish girl

olivia has 2 BIG passions in life right now. ariel and art. this weekend she discovered a new one. nail polish.

she has liked to have me do her nails for a while now. but this weekend she realized that she could paint her nails herself. and of course that meant she wanted to do mine too. ( that should explain the smudges on the above picture!)

being super crafty, olivia doesn't just want to apply one color. no way. several colors must be used. and glittery paint is a must.

so i think i need to stock up on wet 'n wild nail polish. i don't think a 4yr old needs to experiment with my opi collection :)

how many languages can you speak?

olivia cracks me up. here's a recent conversation...

olivia: i can clap in several languages.
me: cool.
olivia: i can talk in barbie language, too.
me: what's barbie language?
olivia: you know...like when ursula says "never underestimate the use of barbie language."

thanks for making me laugh, olivia!

happy easter

this morning at church was my sunday to be in the nursery. tim offered to help so we got to hang out together. 23 little ones...birth up to crawling stage. lots of fun! tim decided that the nursery was not where he wants to volunteer his time :) i'm not sure why not because the 2 kids that he hung out with both fell asleep in his arms AND he transfered them to a swing without them waking up. that takes skill! but i guess he's not convinced. so he's going to look for somewhere else to serve.


this afternoon my parents came up to have dinner with us. and to keep up with his usual holiday tradition, ryan slept the day away. so far he's missed thanksgiving, christmas & easter. thankfully we caught some pictures before naptime! and speaking of naptime, after dinner we all sat around and watched the Masters. at one point tim & i were both asleep while my parents played with olivia & garrett. so all in all, a good sunday afternoon!

tim's newest fan

i'm always amazed at what random stuff olivia notices. she's always telling me about stuff she sees on commercials. and she can usually tell me about it word for for. and usually it's stuff like when the newest mermaidia dvd comes out or how much she likes the lelli kelly shoes & cell phone. (if you haven't seen that commercial, you're lucky. that song is always stuck in my head!)

a few weeks ago i heard olivia singing a song to herself. it was the new tim mcgraw song "last dance dollar." the only part olivia knew was "1 2 3 like a bird i sing cuz you've given me the most beautiful set of wings." she called it the "1 2 3 song".

tim mcgraw performed it on the view and that was like christmas morning for olivia. thanks to the magic of tivo, we played it over & over. well we couldn't resist...last tuesday it hit stores. so we bought it for her. probably a waste of $10, but easier than downloading it off itunes and then having her carrying my ipod all over the house.

so if you call our house and hear music blaring it's probably tim mcgraw and the "1 2 3 song".