For the past several weeks, Brian and I have been working around the house trying to get things ready for the new baby. One big thing that we wanted to do was to move Olivia out of the nursery (and the crib), and into her new room. So, last weekend we purchased a twin-sized mattress and a bed rail. Olivia had gotten some twin-sized sheets and a quilt from Santa Claus, so we put those on the bed as well. We ohhhed and ahhhed over how beautiful the bed was, and Olivia really started to get excited about it.
We also spent some time "practicing" how a big girl sleeps in a big girl bed. Here you can see Olivia "sleeping" on her pillow while peeking to make sure that someone is watching her. All of that practice has paid off, though, because she has slept by herself in her new bed for a week now. I'm really surprised by how easy the transition has been. Remy (who used to sleep under Olivia's crib) seems to be the only one that is upset about the change.
This afternoon we took Olivia to the Jacksonville Zoo. This is a trip that we had been wanting to take for quite some time because Olivia really loves animals. All of Olivia's favorite books are about animals, her favorite toys are animal toys, and the only television shows that she will pay attention to are those on Animal Planet. In short, it was time for Olivia to see the animals in real life. She was so excited the entire day. Every time we saw a new animal, she would get excited all over again. She was especially excited to see the elephants, giraffes, and rhinos- and we spent a lot of time at those exhibits. I bet that we spent close to thirty minutes watching the elephants. Every time we asked Olivia if she was ready to leave, she would shake her head and say "no". We stayed at the zoo until it closed, and still weren't able to see everything. Below are some pictures of Olivia with her favorite animals.
