Olivia's 18 Month Check-Up

Olivia had her 18 Month well visit even though she wasn't feeling so well.  She has an ear infection. I felt so bad because I didn't really know.  Last night she was fussy and I was thinking maybe her teeth were bothering her.  When she woke up this morning she was crying and had a runny nose and felt a little warm.  When I took her to the doctors I asked if they could take her temp and she had a temp of 99.4.  Poor baby.

She weighted 23 pounds which was in the 25th percentile. The doc said he can see her teeth in her gums, it's just a waiting game for them to come.  He said he's never had a patient that never had teeth and not to worry.  He told me if it would make me feel better I could get xrays done at a pediatric dentist but he really didn't think it was necessary because he can see that she has teeth we just have to wait for them to come in. 

Even though Olivia wasn't feeling so well, she still was her happy self playing with her stroller and her new toys.

My Montage 12/27/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

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Christmas Day!

Christmas was so much fun this year!  Luca was so excited.  When he first woke up I was surprised that he didn't mention anything about Santa... I think he forgot it was Christmas Day.  He did his normal routine of coming into our room and laying in bed with us and watched cartoons.  We let him watch his cartoons and then I reminded him that Santa came last night!  He was so excited.  We woke Olivia up and took them downstairs to see all the presents under the Xmas tree!

Christmas Tree full of presents!

Luca was so happy to see that Santa ate all the cookies he made him. He kept reminding me not to cut the carrots for the reindeer.

The stockings were full of fun presents!

Olivia asked for a stroller for her baby.  She and Luca both love it!

Baby Elle is on the move scooting around the house!

All the cousins - Olivia, Evie, Elle & Luca

Everyone was dancing in the play room.  Next year, Elle will be dancing with them, too.

We spent Christmas at Grammy & Poppy's house.  They had us over for a nice dinner and of course tons of presents that everyone loved.  Aunt JuJu, Uncle Kevin, Evie and Elle were there, too!  The kids had so much fun playing together.

Luca showing off his new Elmo T-shirt.

And his Yo Gabba Gabba game plus much, much more.

We bought the kids a bouncy house!  They love bouncy houses.  It's in our bonus room and pretty much takes up most of the space.  We were a little sad that there was a hole in the seam so we are going to have to take it back already!

But we're going to let the kids play with it a couple more days and just keep inflating it since we know all the stores, especially, Toys R' Us where we got this will be packed the next few days.

They love it!  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we decided to stay in and bake some cookies with the kids and get them excited about Christmas the next morning.  Ideally, I would like to take the kids to church but last year we were there 20 minutes early and there were no seats, so we decided not to go this year.

Smooch!

Luca did a great job decorating cookies for Santa and was so excited.  He even made a cookie for Olivia.

Christmas Eve dinner!



He's so excited to try some of that frosting!

Christmas with Ante & Jes

Ante and Jes were over for the holidays. I love seeing them with our kids. You can tell they enjoy kids and will be great parents one day! Luca & Olivia loved all the toys and clothes they bought!



The kids bought Ante this Cleveland Browns t-shirt. He asked that we take a picture with Luca wearing it b/c Corey is a huge Cincinnati Bengals fan!

Moms N' Munchkins ~ Adopt a Family

I really love my Moms group that I joined over 2 years ago. I've met some great friends and they are all really good people with good hearts. Every year our group adopts a family. This year, I helped the organizers wrap all the presents. I was amazed at everyone's generosity - there were over 100 gifts and lots of them were gift cards. The mother of this family is sick and is a single mom of three kids. She did not have a working stove or refrigerator. Our group was collecting money to buy them the appliances but the social worker had already found one for the family so we used the money to buy gift cards for groceries, gas and several other things. I'm so happy that our group could help a family in need. It was nice to be more involved this year and buy them the things they need rather than just give a donation and not think twice about it. I was able to learn about the family and realize how fortunate we are.

Happy Year and a Half Birthday Ms. Olivia!

I can't believe Olivia is 1 1/2 years old today! Luca was Olivia's age when we 1st moved into this house and Olivia was only 3 months old. It's amazing how time is flying!


She loves this little monkey that Ms. Jackie gave her. Jacki bought two - one for her and one for Luca but they seem to always fight over the same one! She's smiling b/c she just stole this from Luca while he was taking his bath!


Olivia is still using a paci only for naptime and bedtime but sometimes I'll catch her trying to grab her paci like this picture here. I'll say put it back in your crib and she'll throw it in there & say "Bye bye paci!"

She loves to brush her teeth (that she doesn't have!)


She has been trying to sing "Santa Claus is coming to town" those are the only words she'll say and it's a little hard to understand her. I tried catching it on video but once I got the camera out she of course wouldn't sing it. Another thing that she does is when Luca is counting she will interject with the correct number. I was amazed - Luca yelled "1,2,3,4,5" then Olivia said "6,7,8" but if you ask her to count she'll get it all mixed up!

Brunch with Santa!

Our gym had a really nice Member appreciation brunch. I took the kids because they had Santa and tons of different events. They had a great time.


Luca LOVES Santa! He went on his lap 5 times!

When I asked Olivia if she wanted to sit on Santa's lap she said "NO!" She was very intrigued by him and even took a candy cane from him but just didn't want to sit on his lap.

We met up with our friends, Sophia and Ethan for brunch. It was yummy!


They had a cookie decorating station. Olivia was more interested in eating the cookie rather than decorating it. They also had an ornament station and Luca made his Grammy & Poppy a very glittery ornament since Grammy is in town from Florida for the holidays.

Olivia's back from Vacation!

Olivia sure takes a lot of vacations! She was on another vacation last week to Michigan. She had some great bonding time with Uncle Lelo and my parents. One of the first thing she did when we got home was she went right to her books.


Olivia ended up getting a little cold while she was in Michigan and would ONLY let Uncle Lelo wipe her nose. He would say to her "nicey, nicey." She hates it when we wipe her nose and now she'll remind me by saying "nicey, nicey" so I'll wipe it very gently like Uncle Lelo.

While she was gone we would skype her everyday. Whenever Leo would come home from work and would go on the computer she would say "I wanna see!" Because she wanted to skype us...what a sweetheart!

Luca definitely missed her and would ask about her every day "Where's Ovivia?" When we came home without her he fell asleep in the car and the first thing he said was "We forgot Ovivia!"

Carrying and burping her baby. She takes her baby everywhere with her and insists on having her baby sit next to her in her high chair.

Feeding her baby.

My parents have always prayed to Padre Pio. While Olivia was in Michigan my mom taught her to pray to him and say "Padre Pio, I want teeth!" So funny! Maybe she'll got some now since Padre Pio is a man of miracles!

Christmas with Zia, Uncle Chris & Gabri!

Since we were in Michigan again, my sister and I decided we should do our gift exchange then since we won't be celebrating the holidays together. Just as we do, they want to celebrate the holidays at home, too. We just wish we lived closer so we can see each other more often, especially on the holidays.

Olivia and Gabri wearing matching PJ's that said "What Santa doesn't bring, Grandma will!"

The kids were so excited to open up their gifts!

Trying to get a group picture but it wasn't working...


Gabri's 1st Xmas present! :)


Luca was so excited to get another Gap sweatshirt from Zia in Buckeye colors! We even passed the outlet mall where my sister used to work and there was a big sign that said GAP and I asked Luca if he knew what that sign was and he said "Zia buys it for me!" So true!

Olivia has to have whatever Luca has so a Gap sweatshirt it is for her, too!

I thought we decided no gifts for the parents - just for the kids but Gabri got us two cute pictures of her in frames. Thanks Gabri!

The kids had to buy this t-shirt for Uncle Lelo.


So happy they were dancing to Holiday music.


She's such a good little helper! Luca got to sleep in a big boy bed since my parents were watching all three grandkids on their own for the night for Chris' party, and we didn't have enough pack N Plays for three kids! Luca did so well in a big boy bed...he might be ready for his own soon!