My favorite moment of each day - when those meaty arms reach out for "mama mama".  Olivia counting her Easter candy this year.  She had a successful egg hunt in school and have been playing with these eggs ever since.  I love you sweet monkey.

What a great essay!  It brought tears to my eyes.  Isn't it amazing how deep down, we are alllll the same.  It goes perfectly with the theme of the current book I'm reading and podcast I'm listening to.

Steve and I are planning to take a calculated risk for our family.  We don't do these often.  Both of us are terribly risk averse.  Now that there is Olivia, I want to bubble wrap our lives many folds over. BUT, these are the days and years when big decisions are made, and this feeling of "discomfort" is not necessarily a "no don't do it", right??  I'm looking for signs, interventions, answers, hints... anything that can tell me what to do.  I take comfort in knowing that in the big scheme of things, this is small, and too, shall pass.

Loved this documentary (Netflix).  There is one scene where she is donating her collection of clothes to museums and the curators are unfolding and asking her about each piece.  The camera zooms in on her face and I see sadness and mortality.  Things, no matter how beautiful, are just things.  Can't take them with you in the end. 

How do you choose what to give away?

It's not easy. 

Does it keep you up?

oh God no.  I have more important things to keep me up at night... as you get older you realize that all these other things are just ... [she snaps her finger in the air].

Olivia Lately

26 months

Two years and two months

2.2 years

However you count it, there is no denying Olivia is entering toddlerhood.  Yesterday we had one alarming moment where she slapped my face then proceeded to half spit on me!  My sweet little baby, spitting on me like a little thug.

[saliva actually didn't leave her mouth very far as she hasn't quite mastered the act of projection]

I was so shocked I stared at her wide eyed.  It was all made more awkward by the fact we were at someone else's house.  Thank goodness there wasn't anyone witnessing this.  The moment ended when she quickly wrapped her arms around my neck and "asked' to be forgiven.  I had to give her the benefit of the doubt because the alternative was a public spanking.

The next time it happens... something tells me there will be a next time... I need to have a plan.  And it should not involve spitting back... [right??]

it's hard to punish this cute face but oh I try...

On a cuter note, she can count all the way to twelve.  She also says her ABC's [a.b.c.d.o.o.g...], even the lmnop part!  She is saying full sentences left and right, catching us by surprise all the time.  We went through about two months of sleep regression but finally seems to be over the worst of it.

Oh... and Olivia is officially allergic to peanuts and shellfish.  😲

Second haircut.  The bangs is too cute to handle. 

First dentist appt!  We were told to start flossing.😣

I had high expectations going blindly into this book, what with all of its accolades.  Fifty pages in and I'm thinking... what is this about?  How does this story go deep and do I really even care about this main character?  How do I feel about this omnipresent third voice telling the story?  Why am I bored?? In short, I had mixed feelings about the first half of the book.  What kept me going in the beginning was the authentic and original voice of the narrator.  The style of the writing is something of a classic.  The second half, however, is action packed from the start.  Full of deep revelations and plot twists.  It follows no rules, with it's over-arching plot tentacles that reaches across time and pull all of its characters together.  It is a book that lays heavily in my heart long after I have put it down.

I was not in the mood for another suspense/mystery.  The title and the cover should have given it away but somehow I picked it anyway (for my book of the month club).  I was prepared not to like it and for the most of the book I wasn't that impressed.  It is, however, a page turner.  There is enough suspense to keep me reading for hours at a time in a pursuit of WHAT IS GOING ON?  Then... the story changes... and I am literally speechless, reeling from the unexpected.  I mean... what the hell just happened???  I will leave it at that.