An awesome breakthrough

I'm overly excited to say that daycare went much better today than it has the past few weeks! Olivia cried when I dropped her off but I was anticipating that. She kept crying for almost an hour and then she finally stopped. When I asked the teacher how she did, I wasn't expecting a good report. Every day she tells me that Liv had an emotional day but today she said that Liv actually had a good day! Even though she cried here and there, she was mostly running around and playing with the kids. She was smiling and laughing, hearing that just melted my heart. I am so glad that she is finally coming around to the idea of being without me and having fun with the other kids. The best part is that she ate her lunch and snacks, I didn't have to worry about her being ridiculously hungry when we got home. I am really shocked that she had such a good day but I'm extremely happy about it. I feel like a weight has been lifted. I can stop stressing so much now, I hope it only gets better from here on out.

At least she's not crying!

Valetine's Day

Yesterday was Valentine's Day and of course it snowed. We were supposed to go out for dinner but we decided to go out for lunch instead. I ate way too much, I wasn't even hungry for the rest of the night. When we were leaving, the snow was really starting to come down so we were happy that we went early. After Olivia took her nap, I gave her a few little presents and she was super excited. Her favorite was the chocolate, she had M&M's for the first time and loved them. She would have ate the whole tube if I let her, she got mad at me when I took them away. She is getting really good at throwing tantrums lately, ugh. My mom gave her two balloons, she was running around with them and hugging them. It was cute, one of them was a monkey and she kept saying "oh oh ah ah ah". It was a really fun day but I was pretty exhausted by the end of it all. Happy Valentine's Day!

Not a fan of the mall

Okay, so the last time I went to the mall was in April (to get a picture of Livy with the Easter bunny). I try to avoid that place at all costs but I really wanted a picture of her with Santa. We decided to take her last Saturday, it was pouring out but it was the only day that I had time to take her. The line was so long, I had to pull out all stops to keep Liv entertained while we were waiting. She did okay but she was a little hesitant about sitting on his lap and she didn't want to smile this year (like she did last year). I'm just glad she wasn't screaming and she still looks adorable in the picture. Santa must have been having a bad day though because when Olivia started to fuss and tried getting off his lap, he rolled his eyes. I just laughed it off. I also got to do some more Christmas shopping, I'm still not done though and it seems like it's never ending. I love Christmas but it's a lot of work, running around to tons of different stores gets exhausting. Before we left, we stopped at the little play area and Livy had a blast! She got a huge burst of energy, she was running around and screaming in excitement. Someone had a little dog with them, she kept playing with it and calling it a cat of course. She doesn't say "dog" yet but when I ask her what a dog says, she barks (the best she can). All in all, it was a successful mall trip but I will not be going back until April.

 



Toddler mood swings

On Tuesday, we took Olivia to the park and she loved the swings and the slide. It's funny because the last time we took her, she wanted me to take her out of the swing immediately, she hated it. This time she didn't want to leave! They also had some animals there, she wanted to pet the chickens but they weren't too happy about that. She put her hand through the cage and one of them pecked at her and got her finger, she looked at me with a very surprised look on her face. There was also a horse and he was a little bit nicer, he let her pet his head and she was so happy. Today was my cousin's engagement party, Olivia took a really short nap so when we got there she was in a terrible mood. She didn't want to eat, she didn't want me to hold her but when I put her down she was running around like a crazy person. She was picking up rocks and throwing them, yelling and crying randomly (for no reason). She's either in a great mood or a horrible one and today was not a good day. Her mood swings have been pretty bad lately. Anyway, Paul bought her a little toy shopping cart, Rooney has been sleeping in it and it's pretty hilarious. I'm only mentioning that because I have a picture of it and I didn't want to just put it in this post randomly. I guess it's still pretty random, oh well. I bought a tablet today and I was hoping it would be easier to blog with since I'm using the tap to speak feature but it's actually harder. My computer isn't going to last much longer, I've had it for a long time it's very slow. I may just have to buy an actual laptop because the tablet is so annoying to type on or maybe I could buy a keyboard for the tablet. I'm on the fence about it, I guess I'll give it a chance for a few more days and see how I feel. If anyone has some tablet tips, please let me know.

All the silliness from the last few days. 

Yelling at a goat, swinging on the swings, playing with rocks, mashed potato beard, lifting heavy boxes and a very sleep kitty.

Stalker cricket

Somehow a cricket got into our house and it has been driving me crazy! It's seriously so loud and annoying and I have no idea where it is! The creepy thing is that I can get close enough to where it's super loud but then it stops, Paul said it's watching us and it stops when it sees us.. Uhm what?! How freaking scary is that?! I don't like it ..I don't want to have a stalker cricket, I hope it just goes away! Okay, moving on from that because it's giving me the chills.. my throat was hurting again this morning but after a few hours it felt fine. So I decided to take Liv to that indoor playground, today was the last day of free play before the classes start. There was only one other kid there and he left after about fifteen minutes so we had the whole place to ourselves. It was really cute, there was a swing set, slides, little roller coasters, ride ons, trampolines, tunnels, ball pits, basketball hoops and a bunch of other toys. Olivia's favorite part was running around (of course) but she played on pretty much everything. The classes are kind of expensive so I'm not sure if we will take them or not since the library classes are free but we'll see. Olivia had a great time and I'm really glad I brought her, watching her run around and have fun makes me very happy!

It was really hard to take a good picture because she didn't stop moving the entire time.

Wedding weekend!

My cousin got married this weekend, me and Olivia were both in the wedding party. Liv was the flower girl (of course) and I was a bridesmaid. I was pretty nervous about how Olivia would do because she is still pretty young so at the rehearsal my cousin decided it would be easiest for me to just carry her when I walked down the aisle. I definitely think it worked out for the best doing it that way because otherwise she probably would have just stood at the end of the aisle crying. The rehearsal was on Saturday night and then we had dinner at my uncles restaurant. Liv was having so much fun running around with her big cousins. She loves to run and yell at the same time and my nephews were copying her, it was pretty comical (luckily my family owns the restaurant or we probably would have been asked to leave). We didn't get home from dinner until almost midnight, Liv was wide awake and I was getting nervous since we had a long day ahead of us so I quickly put her to bed, she fell asleep fast. The big day was on Sunday, I left bright and early to get my hair and makeup done while Paul watched Olivia. He met us afterwards while we were getting ready so I was able to eat something quickly and get Liv into her dress (she was not very happy about that). She looked so adorable in her dress though but she wouldn't let me get a good picture, she was too busy running around. I think the photographer got some pretty good pictures of her though so I'm excited to see them! During the ceremony Olivia was getting antsy so Paul took her into a side room and she watched Dora on someones iPad. After the ceremony, the wedding party got on a party bus (woohoo!) and headed to the reception. Meanwhile Olivia hadn't eaten since breakfast and just did not want anything (ugh). Once we got to the reception, we took some pictures and then Livy finally decided she was hungry (after almost eight hours!) so she had some veggie sticks and cheese. The wedding was great, it was a lot of fun but Olivia was super tired and wanted to be held pretty much the whole time. At one point I thought my arms were going to fall off, thank goodness I brought some flip flops because my feet were killing me from wearing heels (I rarely wear them). I danced with Liv until I couldn't anymore, she didn't want to eat while sitting with me for some reason so my mom fed her some ziti and then some mashed potatoes and she ate pretty well. Paul was helping too, we were all taking turns holding her because like I said, she didn't want to be put down. Paul and my mom ended up leaving a little before me so that Olivia could get some sleep, she was seriously exhausted. It was a long day, especially for her. The wedding was beautiful, my cousin looked gorgeous and I am so happy for the newlyweds! We just stayed home and relaxed today, my entire body is sore right now (especially my legs) but it was worth it.

The Stensland family. Notice Liv's black eye (ugh).

 The happy couple and of course the beautiful bride!

Left: Little miss Olivia, the adorable flower girl.

Right: My gorgeous sister, mom and me.

The photo booth was so much fun, I wish I knew about this when I got married!

Liv's first bachelorette party

Over the weekend I went to my cousins bachelorette party, they rented a beach house for the week so I decided to take Liv over there today to hang out. It was the first time she has ever been to the beach and she was not a fan of the sand, she started screaming anytime I put her down. She sat on my lap the whole time and had a blast playing with a bucket of water, she was splashing it all over me. I had to take it away though because she started drinking it and the water was gross. My sister and nephews met up with us too, it was a good time besides a few meltdowns from Olivia (but that was expected because she skipped her nap). I finally got my normal schedule for work so I will be able to see Livy and Paul a little more, yay! I am starting to get into a routine now so I'm feeling a bit better about everything. Anyway, it's time to go catch up on my shows since everyone is sleeping!

Liv was having way too much fun playing with the mardi gras beads.

Memorial Day weekend

It was a pretty relaxing weekend, we just hung around for most of it. It was nice to have Paul home for an extra day, he let me sleep in a little longer than I usually do. We went to a cookout at my aunts house on Sunday, that was fun. Olivia loved running around in the big backyard they have and I loved the food. One of my favorite things about summer is going to cookouts. I'm obsessed with the food! I absolutely love to eat cheeseburgers, barbeque chicken, potato salad and watermelon (fatty!) ..seriously, it's my favorite. I was so full when we left but it was so worth it. Liv surprised me and ate more than usual, she actually had half a hot dog, a little chicken, potato salad and lots of watermelon. We were thinking about bringing Olivia to the parade on Monday but decided next year would be better. She probably wouldn't care too much this year and she gets antsy when I make her sit still for a long time. Anyway.. like I said, the rest of the weekend we didn't do much but I'm not complaining about that, if you read my last post you will understand why I was so beat yesterday.

 I love these two! I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend!

New playgroup

I've been taking Olivia to a playgroup since she was around six months old and it's been really cute. I like being able to get out of the house and get her around kids close to her age. I also love talking to the other moms, we share some interesting stories. We go once a week and we were going to a class for babies up to 12 months old. Olivia is 15 months now and last week she was running around, nearly knocking the babies over and just being crazy. I decided it was time that we switch her to the next age group (probably should have a few months ago). In the baby group they just read some books to the kids, sing songs and then let them play with toys. The babies just lay there or crawl around and steal each others pacifiers. In the toddler group they are much more aware of what is going on and they are all developing their own little personalities. It's really funny, they crack me up. Today is the first time we went to the toddler group and it was so much more fun (even for me lol). The teacher was blowing bubbles (they were all in awe) and singing songs, then she gave all the kids instruments and they all marched around the room, it was adorable and humorous at the same time. She also pulled out a parachute and we all held on and let the kids run under, it reminded me of my childhood because we used to do that in gym class (so fun). At the end the teacher brought out some toys for free play and a ton of those little ball pit balls and dropped them all on the parachute and the kids were so excited to play with them. It was just so cute to see Olivia running around with all the kids and having a blast. I love being able to do things like that with her, seeing her happy melts my heart. When we got home, she was completely exhausted and took a really long nap so I was able to relax. It was so gross out today and the whole house was just hot and muggy. I ended up giving her a bath just to cool her down because she was sweating pretty much all day, her hair was extra curly (so darn cute). Anyways just wanted to give a quick update about her new fun little playgroup! :)

 Sorry about the blurry pictures but she was having too much fun to stay still!

Friday night IN

It's funny to think how different my life is now. It was only six years ago that I was single and stuck in party mode. I would go out to bars/clubs every weekend without a care in the world. Now a Friday night consists of spending time with Paul & Liv, feeding her dinner, giving her a bath, reading her books, getting her to bed, watching a movie or TV and relaxing on the couch. "Going out" consists of going to the store or maybe running errands. I'm sure all that sounds boring to people without kids but I actually love it, I wouldn't have it any other way. Maybe I'm old but it's nice to feel settled. I had a lot of fun when I was younger but I wouldn't ever wish to go back. I really don't miss hangovers, although sometimes I get so sleep deprived that I feel like I have one and it brings me back. Don't get me wrong, it's great to have a "girls night out" every once in a while but going out and getting wasted every weekend does not sound fun at all. Before I had Liv, I would always see people posting tons of pictures of their kids (it never bothered me) but I didn't think I would ever be "that mom". The truth is, I am. I post pictures and talk about her all the time because she is my whole life. I guess it's hard for some people to understand but I'm sure they will get it one day. Plus, I much rather see pictures of kids than gym selfies. Actually to be honest, nothing anyone posts really bothers me unless they are complaining about what other people post.. and now I just became part of the problem ha. Anyway, the whole point of this post was because I realized it was Friday and I started thinking about how much has changed, I am completely happy to be where I am now and so grateful for Olivia.

 Left: 2007 - Long live the duck face. Right: 2014 - My whole world.