The Big Girl Bed

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.

Christmas Collage 2007

Here are a few pictures from Christmas this year.

Christmas Morning (aka the Kangaroo Climber)

That Santa Claus is one clever fellow! (He must have connections at Toys R Us). He could not have picked a better present for Olivia this year than the Kangaroo Climber that was sitting in our living room on Christmas morning. Olivia has been playing with her climber almost nonstop since she discovered it yesterday. (As a matter of fact she is behind me right now playing with it. ) She has come up with a variety of ways to play with this toy. So far, she has climbed up the back and sides, gone through the tunnel, went down the slide, climbed back up the slide, and played with the swinging door in the back. Right now she is sending other things (toys, sippy cups, books) down the slide and then sliding down after them.




Just for the record, Olivia did receive other things from Santa on Christmas morning, but all of the other toys were mere afterthoughts once the climber was discovered.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to Mama and Daddy's to eat and open presents. This year it was very exciting because Ava and Olivia were old enough to help open presents and old enough to get excited about their gifts. All of the babies were very good despite the fact that they were up way past their bedtimes. Even Claire- who is usually sleeping when I'm around- was alert for most of the evening.

Ava and Olivia took it upon themselves to help everyone unwrap their presents. (Here Uncle Kelly is getting assistance from the girls.) When it came to opening their own presents, though, they were not as willing to help out. Once the toys started coming out, the girls quickly lost interest in unwrapping and became preoccupied with playing. The only thing that could really distract them was the introduction of another toy. It was also funny how both girls wanted the same toy at the same time- even though there were plenty of different toys available.

At the end of the evening, Ava and Olivia both received tricycles. Ava got a big-girl tricycle, while Olivia's was one that "grows" with her. The girls had a lot of fun pushing each other around on their new toys. After all the gifts were opened, we took Olivia home for some much-needed rest.

She's Here!

Here are some pictures of my brand new niece- Emma Claire Murray (called Claire). She was born this morning at 9:49 am. She weighed 7lbs. 11oz. and was 21.5 inches long. Claire is as sweet as she can be, and she looks just like her daddy. Both she and Hannah are doing well, and Ava is very excited to be a big sister!

If at first you don't succeed...

I know that it has been a while since I last updated the blog. It seems that all I do these days is go to work, come home to cook/clean, and work on my college assignments. It's easy to forget that while I'm busy with my day-to-day chores, a lot is actually going on around me. Take Olivia's eating habits, for example. For about two months now she has been refusing to let anyone feed her. I guess she thinks that she is a big girl and can feed herself. During this time, she has gotten MUCH better at feeding herself. The first picture was taken when she was just beginning to feed herself. Notice the lack of shirt- she is not wearing one because it is covered with food.

This second picture was actually taken last week. What an improvement- her shirt is on, she is relatively clean, and she is using a spoon (even though she does have the wrong end in her mouth). It is amazing that she is changing so fast, yet so much goes by without my recognizing it. She's actually becoming quite helpful (which is good- maybe she'll be ready to help with her brother when he gets here in March).

Happy Halloween

Here are a few pictures from Halloween this year. Olivia dressed up as a panda bear. Fortunately, we had better luck with the costume this year than we had last year. She actually seemed to like wearing it. As a matter of fact, when she first saw herself in the mirror she smiled and then growled at her reflection. Never once did she try to pull the hood off of her costume, which was good- I was expecting a battle to keep it on. I don't have a picture of Remy, but he dressed up in his tiger costume again this year and assumed his ususal role of barking at every trick-or-treater that dare disturb our house.

Ava dressed up as a lady bug, and seemed just as happy to be wearing a costume as Olivia was. What a cute pair these two made!

The girls couldn't eat any candy, so we didn't go from house-to-house trick-or-treating. Instead, we rode them around Granny Buie's neighborhood in golf carts. They liked seeing other kids dressed up and being out in the middle of the "action". There were actually a lot of people out on Halloween night in golf carts and on hay wagons. I never thought that I would be stuck in a golf-cart traffic jam between my house and Granny's house- but I was.

Ava spent a large part of her evening transferring candy from Granny's candy distribution basket into Olivia's plastic pumpkin. Notice how full Olivia's pumpkin is in this picture. Once the pumpkin started overflowing, Ava began moving the candy back into the basket. Ava was also very helpful at passing out candy to trick-or-treaters- at least until a big kid in a skeleton costume came up and scared her.

Even though Olivia didn't get to eat any candy, Brian and I probably gained five pounds off of all the chocolate that we ate. It was a very fun (and fattening) night.