Dos, due, deux, two!

Little Livi the Brave turned 2 years old on February 25th, 2012! We begged her not to, but she did it anyway. It's her new terrible 2 year old way...doing things we tell her not to.

Isabelle was so excited to celebrate Olivia's birthday and couldn't wait to help her pick out a theme. (What's a party without the all important theme?) We decided that a zoo party would be the perfect way to celebrate and of course that meant a trip to the zoo was the first thing on our to-do list. Grammie was planning on being out of town the weekend of the party, so she joined us a few days earlier downtown at the Houston Zoo.


The girls were thrilled to have grammie with us on this adventure and she even brought birthday gifts to open while we waited in line for our tickets. The weather was perfect for a day spent outside and we had fun eating popcorn and looking at hundreds of animals together. Olivia could name almost all of the animals and wore her birthday badge proudly as she climbed, ran, and jumped through the zoo. The best part of the day was the perfect ending when the girls got to ride the huge zoo carousel twice in a row before making our way back to the car and heading home tired and happy.

Luckily this year Olivia's actual birth date fell on a Saturday so it was a perfect day to party. Aunt Alee, Uncle Nick and Leo drove down from College Station, Aunt Tara flew over from Miami and Grandpa Elmo drove over from Cypress all to show Livi how much she is loved. We had a great time eating pasta, playing with balloons, and eating the special Texas chocolate sheet cake that Alee and Belle decorated to look like a zoo, complete with edible grass.

We were careful to not wrap any of Olivia's gifts until the big birthday actually arrived because this year she knew just what to do. She loved ripping off all of the colorful paper and was so excited to discover all of the fun things placed inside. Olivia loved when we sang Happy Birthday to You and wanted us to sing it to her over and over and even chimed in singing Happy Birthday to me! It was a lovely 2nd birthday for our little Livi and we are so glad that she is our baby.



A few fun facts about Miss Olivia at age 2:
* She knows her ABCs and loves to sing them often.
* She can count to 10 and then goes into her teens but after about 14 you never know what number will come next.
* She has an amazing vocabulary and speaks full sentences with correct past/present tense, etc.
* She likes nuggets and french fries and dip from Chick-Fil-A and asks for it about lunchtime most days.
* She is never going to win a nap-award but sleeps from about 7pm to 7am everyday.
* She thinks she can do almost anything Isabelle can do and has no fear in trying.
* She has recently discovered coloring and sometimes spends several minutes coloring a picture...and other times spends several minutes trying to color on things she shouldn't.
* She thinks it is funny to hit you and when you fake cry she laughs and does it again.
* She knows all of her basic shapes and most of the rainbow too.
* She loves to be outside and and can't wait until it is time each day to go outside and pick up big sister from school.
* She LOVES to read and we spend hours and hours each week with books.


On a bit of a personal note, Olivia had her well check a week or so ago and her new doctor was absolutely overwhelmed by little Livi. Like usual, she is taller than fatter but he was shocked by her speech and could not believe she said her favorite color was pink and named each of the shapes correctly that he pointed to. Dr. E actually took out his IPad and had Olivia "draw" him a picture that he saved to put in her file because he was so amazed at how capable she is. He asked us several times what we were doing at home with her and spent most of the exam explaining different programs we should get her involved in downtown like music, art and even diving! (Huh?) He called her a sort of prodigy and told me I had my work cut out for me. (I'm tired all ready.) Now who knows what this Dr. E thinks he knows or what our Olivia is capable or not capable of but I've felt slightly overwhelmed ever since. She seems to be following in Belle's footsteps and I pray that I can somehow keep up! I've said to her many times since that day I don't want you to get bigger to which she replies I'm not bigger, I'm a baby! And for me, those are precious words to hear. We love you Olivia and think you are the brightest star in the sky!