Big Orange Ball
Sometimes all it takes is an object three times your size, and a miniscule fraction of your weight to being on the good times.
Song Stylings
Olivia can sing!
She makes up little songs while wandering through the house. We were on the way to the park, and she began to sing about her boo-boos. The song went like this:
"whablah, wahblah, booo-boos?
whablah, wahblah, booo-boos?
whablah, wahblah, booo-bo's?
whablah, whablah."
She has another that we can get her to sing pretty easily. It goes like this:
"nahdah, wahblah..... butz!
nahdah, wahblah..... butz!
nahdah, wahblah..... butz!
nahdah, wahblah..... butz!
nahdah, wahblah..... butz!
nahdah, wahblah..... butz!"
Fairly repetitive, but she's got good a good sense of what makes a pop song.
She also sings nonsense to melodies. We fairly certain that she sings the ABCs, without the letters. And I hear her sing the dreaded "I love you" song from Barney on occasion, again without words.
And I swear, but Jenny disagrees, I can here her humming Beethoven's 9th. It really sounds like it!
Gardening
Olivia proved to be a quick study in gardening today. We showed her how to take weeds and put them in a bucket. She repeated this task for about 30 minutes, allowing us to get a much needed weeding started.
Yay! for a toddler's obsessive need to repeat newly learned tasks.
Muddy Hike
We took a hike up in Tilden Park on Sunday. The weather was nice, and we all wanted to get some exercise while the sun was shining. Olivia confirmed her interest by running to the front door and saying "Ah-shide."
We set out for Tilden with the baby backpack, snacks, water and a leash for the dog. Once in the parking lot we suited up and headed down the trail One of the first signs that we were in for a real hike was the stream across the trail. No problem it's just a hop with an extra 26 pounds on your back. Up the hill. More mud. Down the hill. More mud. Olivia was enjoying herself -- Jenny said she had a huge smile on her face as we moved through wood, meadow and near the rushing creek and falls.
At one point I needed to walk on the trail berm to avoid sinking knee deep in mud. As I stepped I heard "Ow. Owwwww. Ow." Poor Liv had her faced dragged through a pokey bush. She was good spirited - these were mainly surface scratches, but the tree hurt me, so i know it wasn't pain free.
We continued up the trail. Not 15 minutes into it, we saw about 30 feet of deep, muddy mud. Not to have our hike cut short, we saw a cattle trail up the steep hill. We took it.
It was STEEP. Livvy was listing to one side as I strained to keep us upright, and myself breathing evenly. Ten minutes later we found ourselves on top of a very tall hill, with no real trails in sight. So we took what looked to be a lightly traveled trail and began our descent. In a few minutes we saw the original trail, but with a steep, muddy slide between us and it. Jenny and I coordinated our way down, with much difficulty. Jenny says the smile never left Olive's face. In mostly one piece, we headed back to the car for about 15 minutes of shoe scraping.
I think Olivia will be a good outdoors woman in no time. Now where is the Neosporin for those scratches?
Boo-Boo Inventory
Olivia is boo-boo crazy. She talks about her boo-boos all the time. At almost 18 months, she's got a lot of them. She hits the ground with amazing velocity at least 400 times a day.
This morning we sat down and took an inventory. She asked that I take pictures and post them on her site so she could remember them. Here's the inventory:
Morning Hair
Olivia has big hair even when it's been combed. Give her a bath, send her to bed without a brushing and this is what you get.
Fowler Family Christmas
The Fowler Family gathered for their Late January Christmas tradition. This time Scott, Theresa and Tatum were able to make it down. This was the first time for us to really meet Tatum - the last time she was just tiny baby and now she's a full fledged person with personality, words and toddling.
Olivia and Tate interacted a bit, but they both ARE toddlers and had their own agendas. They more or less shared well, and maybe even learned a thing or two from each other.
At one point, Scott brought out the guitar and sang some songs -- he even made up a song that took Olivia's extemporaneous lyrics and put them to music. She was enthralled. So much so that walked around the house and sang "Bo-Bee-Bo-Bee-Bo" while strumming a pine cone. She wouldn't let go of it, and this went on for 45 minutes.
"Bo-Bee-Bo-Bee-Bo"
When we finally left, Olivia was exhausted, covered in sap, and fell asleep before we hit the end of the block.
Tate!
Olivia has trouble with two syllable names. Tatum is just plain "Tate."


