cousins!
what a fun holiday weekend! uncle scott, aunt jen,
delaney and
dylan came up to chicago, and we all got together on saturday night at jen's parents' house (thanks for the hospitality and good eats jim and frieda!). olivia and delaney hit it off immediately and played together really for the first time (they saw each other at christmas, but olivia was still a bit too little).
the girls did a lot of chalk drawing, golf, watering plants, and a whole lot of running around like crazy people. they did a great job of sharing, and we got some great pictures of the two of them together. by the end of the night, the two girls were completely slap-happy and running around in cirlces. what a sight.
olivia loved seeing her cousin dylan as well. she didn't get to do anything but stare at him, but her mommy and daddy are hoping that she'll react as well to her sister (due very, very soon).
on the way home, daddy noted to mommy that we should all watch out. the two girls are going to be causing trouble at every family gathering from here on out (especially with cousin
hanna directing them). i can't wait.
check out the pictures from the weekend
here.
taking the train to the zoo
olivia and daddy had the day to themselves on saturday. and what a day it was. after a morning of gymboree music class and a nice loonnnggggggg nap, olivia got to ride the el for the first time. okay, technically, it wasn't the actual first time, but it was the first time when she was aware of it. so aware that she got freaked out when the train started moving and wanted to get back in her stroller. she calmed down, though, once she started paying attention to the sights passing by the windows. she was fascinated by the big buildings. much to daddy's chagrin, she barely acknowledged the existence of wrigley field.
so, liv and daddy rode the red line down to the fullerton stop. from there, it was a quick walk to the lincoln park zoo! okay, the walk wasn't that quick. in fact, the whole trip took over an hour, and i thought olivia was going to fade. at one point, she said, "livy tired". an admission she rarely makes. constant reminders of our destination got us through it. olivia knew where we were going, so her excitement level never waned.
when we first walked in, however, i was afraid that she was going to be very disappointed. why? well, no animals. no animals in the first section we toured. no bears (polar or otherwise), no warthogs, no penguins, nothing. okay, one animal, but i tend not include squirrels in my zoo animal count. fortunately for me, livy likes squirrels...
daddy was even more fortunate to discover that there were a few more animals besides the squirrels once we ventured deeper into the zoo. we saw some zebras, some camels, a couple of yak-like things, a gazelle/african deer type thing, and a few birds. but, by far, olivia liked the cats... the snow leopard (that's yeapawd in olivia speak) and the tiger.
we went back to visit the snow leopard twice.
the trip was a success! olivia had a great time. and to top it off, mommy came to pick us up. i don't know that we would have made it through the return trip, so than you, mommy. we'll probably make a return trip this summer when (hopefully) all the animals will be out... even the squirrels.
hands
olivia's getting so big...
...but it's nice to know she still has a long way to go.
kiss my belly!
olivia getting in a belly smooch before baby eve arrives!
happy mother's day, mommy!
olivia and daddy went shopping last night. olivia picked out a picture frame, and daddy made a t-shirt with baby eve's picture on it. we then took a picture of the girls to give to mommy for mother's day.
mommy liked her present very much.
happy mother's day, mommy!
big weekend (part 2)
here are a
few shots of olivia with her gigi and papa. these are more pictures from the same baby shower weekend (5/5-7). olivia had such a good time, she didn't even seem to mind the 5 hour (yuck) trip back to chicago.
we took somewhere in the neighborhood of 450 pictures, so more posts are likely.
pretty in peach
just a few
shots from a couple of weeks ago of olivia talking on daddy's phone.
big weekend (part 1)
olivia had a big weekend. we visited heather's parents (aka "gigi and papa") in indianapolis where olivia got to spend time with 2 of her 3 sets of grandparents. my parents (aka "ma and pa") drove up for the day on saturday to spend a rare 2nd weekend in a row with us. while all the adult women spent most of saturday at a baby shower for heather, olivia spent it charming her daddy, pa, and papa. she watered and picked lots of flowers, spent some time on the swing and trampoline next door and did a really good job of tiring herself out.
this
first set of pictures are from the morning shortly after ma and pa arrived. olivia played a little hide and seek with ma and took a ride on pa's shoulders.
the cutest little baby face
well, today was a good day. today we went for an ultrasound. the doctor wants to monitor the size of our pending delivery to make sure she doesn't get too big for her mommy to push out. no worries, we're old pros at the ultrasound game. but, apparently we haven't seen everything...
while searching around for the necessary measurements, the technician came upon our baby's head. but, this was different... unlike the skull shots we've seen in the past. could it be? yes, that's our baby's face! unbelievable. i saw my unborn daughter's face. my eve.
my heart heaved and swelled to a slightly larger size.
yes, i'm in love again.
the picture the technician printed out does not do the experience justice, but you can still make out that lovely visage. check it out!
btw, notice the lips... just like olivia's. cripes! daddy's gonna have to lock 'em both up.
not so way back machine...
okay, i'm breaking the chronological order, but i've got a backlog of pictures. starting with this post, we're going to go backwards in time every once in a while. so as not to shock our systems, we're only going a couple of weeks back. this picture is from a
two day set where we were trying out the new camera on our favorite subject. this picture of olivia by her toy box prompted the quote from my dad, "geez, she doesn't look like a baby anymore. she looks like a little kid." scary, but true.
anyway, enjoy the snaps!
what a fun holiday weekend! uncle scott, aunt jen, delaney and dylan came up to chicago, and we all got together on saturday night at jen's parents' house (thanks for the hospitality and good eats jim and frieda!). olivia and delaney hit it off immediately and played together really for the first time (they saw each other at christmas, but olivia was still a bit too little).
