Best wishes to everyone this new year! Brian and I were just talking about what a beautiful, fun, exciting decade we’ve had. (Yes, we’ve been together for almost nine years…crazy, right?) We’ve been so blessed by having so many great friends; fabulous, caring families; good jobs; amazing overseas vacations; a comfortable (now a little too cozy) home; a fun and cuddly dog, and, of course, our two adorable children! Ahhh… Ok, sentimental moment over.
Brian and I brought in the new year by staying home, watching a movie, and drinking a bottle of wine. Actually, I think he was the only awake at midnight…oops! But the following night, we were able to get out of the house for a little bit, thanks to Kelly and Dave. The rest of this weekend has flown by in a whirlwind of cleaning, running errands, and holding/chasing our little ones. That pretty much sums up most of the days of break, except last Wednesday we went to Shedd’s Aquarium with Grandma and Grandpa Carro (and then out to dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe with the rest of the Carro clan). For those of you who don’t know, Brian loves the aquarium (and zoo), so we’ve been meaning to take Olivia for quite awhile. Brian talked up the trip so much that when Olivia awoke in the car as we pulled into the aquarium’s parking lot, she burst into laughter and squeals: “babies,” “fish,” “babies.” She was ridiculously excited by all of the kids, but she loved looking into the tanks at all of the fish..so much that we had a hard time corralling her to move onto the next window. It was almost like she didn’t believe that there were more fish or turtles anywhere else. Unfortuantely, we didn’t get to see the dolphin (or “dolfish” as Olivia says) show or the beluga whales since it was so crowded. But it was wonderful to see her pure excitement and joy with each exhibit.
Olivia makes us laugh everyday. One of her new things is asking the question “why” all of the time. We’re not sure if she’s really asking the question or just saying a letter, but we give her an answer every time. She really is repeating everything we say, too. I’m starting to understand why my parents used to refer to each other as “mom” and “dad” because a couple of times Olivia has said Brian’s name repeatedly when I was trying to get his attention. She still loves to read and now has most of the board books memorized. When we read Snuggle Puppy, Olivia starts saying the “ooo” and giving us kisses right before we get to that part of the story. She also still loves music and dancing. We have do to “Head and Shoulders” at least once a day, and yesterday we learned “The Monkey Dance.” Olivia enjoys acting like a grown-up, too, whether it’s cooking food with her kitchen, talking on the pretend phones, caring for her babies, or starting to dress herself. It’s funny and very humbling to watch yourself be impersonated by a toddler.
My little Connor is so cute, but he’s still not rolling over. (We practice all of the time, and Olivia loves to show him how to roll, too…but nothing yet.) We have put him in the exersaucer a couple of times this weekend, and he seems to enjoy it so far. He’s definitely strong enough to stand on his own. He doesn’t fall asleep on us very often anymore, but he did yesterday and again this morning, so I enjoyed the moment (see pic below).
















































































































































