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!

What's not to love?

It's no secret that Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday of the year. Ben claims it is because I have always had lots of suitors surprising me with gifts, flowers and love notes...and maybe that has helped...or maybe not. Perhaps it is because my parents always made a big deal celebrating that day and for as long as I can remember my dad has left me a "secret" Valentine at my door, this year included! Whatever the reason may be, I love all things Valentines and look forward to sharing the love each year!

Holidays are not Ben's "strength" let's say but he is always right on the money when it comes to mid-February. (He's no fool.) He surprised all three of his girls with gifts and flowers bright and early Valentine's morning and Olivia was so proud of her very own bouquet of flowers. We let her hold and carry them around a bit before we put them in water and that may have not been a great idea. Several times a day afterward she climbed onto the table to admire and smell her flowers and carefully pluck one of them out of the water to dance around the house with.

This year was especially fun since Isabelle is in Kindergarten and was so pleased to pick out a special treat and card for each member of her class. She made sure she gave the B.F.F. stamps to Emily and Paloma and the "love" card to Emilio and sadly the "girly" card to Brian whom she is convinced wants to be a princess. (Eek.) I was lucky enough to get to attend her class Valentine's party where we made a festive trail mix, decorated picture frames and had fun delivering our special cards in everyone's handmade mailboxes.

We were surprised Valentine's evening when Grammie and Grandpa showed up with gifts and heart shaped pizza for dinner. It was a lovely day to be in love and I am counting down the minutes till next year already.

Bienvenido a Miami

I get to see my sister Tara often here in Texas or in random cities across the nation throughout the year, but not so often do I get to visit her on her own soil. Of course the girls always want to go visit "Aunt Tary" and go to the beach, but I decided that instead this time I would just hop on a quick flight alone and spend a weekend doing big girl things like shopping, eating and running!

I convinced my mom to take a break too so the three of us enjoyed a long weekend doing whatever we fancied. One morning we woke up early and drove down to Miami Beach and got our exercise participating in the Live Ultimate Ocean Drive Run. We all run a 5k or farther every morning anyway so it was fun to run along the ocean and chat about all the weirdos racing that morning. Of course anyone who knows my mom would not be surprised to hear that she qualified for the silver medal in her age group so we waited for the awards ceremony with fruit and muffins in the white sand and cheered as Mrs. United States and the Dolphins Cheerleaders hung the medal around The Great Jeanene's neck.

We shopped till we dropped, ate tacos, bought shoes and formal dresses, ate more tacos, went to the movie and just had fun being together. It was a quick weekend trip and I came home rejuvenated and rested...which was needed since Ben and both girls met me at the airport mid-morning, skipping school with their pjs still on and crying with head colds and ear infections. Thanks Ben for letting me sneak away!

**And since I had no small children with me, I guess I never took out my camera!

Busy body

My little Olivia, she is so busy all day. I literally cannot get anything accomplished while she is awake...except dance, play, color, dress-up, read her books, eat her pretend food and dance some more. She scales walls, opens every door, cabinet or container that she shouldn't and gets her own snacks. I walk behind her and save her life multiple times a day and clean up her messes as we go. It's a pretty fun life right now with me little buddy by my side and I think that 18 to 24 months has been my favorite age to date.
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.
You make me happy when skies are grey. You'll never know dear how much I love you,
Please don't take my sunshine away. Please don't take my sunshine away.

From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere!

Isabelle may look a whole lot like her mom but in one way particular she is very much her father's daughter. She and Ben share a similar sense of humor and most the time I am left scratching my head. They like to watch YouTube videos over and over together that they think are hilarious and although I give a valiant effort I am mostly just lost. They have inside jokes and laugh and laugh and Olivia and I just look at them like the nutsos that they are. Recently Ben and I were asked to fill out a parent questionnaire form about some of Belle's personality traits and quirks for school. They were deciding how "gifted" she was and we were asked all sorts of odd questions. One left us thinking for quite a while...Does she most often have unusual ideas or good ideas? I thought for sure she had unusual ideas where Ben seemed to think most of her wacky ideas were in fact good ideas...case in point.

One thing these two share is a love for anything Seussical. We own some of the books and Isabelle seeks them out from the school library weekly. They are fun silly stories and teach some of the best life lessons for all of us. I enjoy reading them...but only every once in a while. They are long and tongue twisters and Ben and Belle lay in bed and read them night after night and laugh and cry and carry on like two characters themselves. While they love If I Ran the Circus, I can read with my eyes shut, Oh the thinks you can think and so on, I love listening to them over the monitor laughing and giggling and sharing a true love of silly reading. Thank goodness Isabelle has her dad...or is it thank goodness Ben has Isabelle?!
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. -Dr. Seuss

The end is here!!

New Years Eve was nice and quiet at the Cosby home this year. We had debated lots of ideas and plans but after such a busy year and holiday season we thought nothing sounded better than a night at home, just the 4 of us.

Isabelle went into full party planning mode and wrote her own list for the store. The four of us headed to town and gathered all of her supplies: balloons, streamers, flowers, party hats, noise makers, a cake, guacamole, chips, ice cream, pizza bites, sprinkles, etc. By the time we got home it was nearly 3:00pm so rather than put the loot away, we began partying. The girls decorated while Ben found our favorite music on Pandora. For the next 5 hours we ate, sang, danced, chased, played games, hula hooped, screamed and partied until we were exhausted. We counted down to the New Year with the folks in England and watched online as fireworks exploded over Big Ben. We ran to the back yard and yelled Happy New Year while we made noise and cheered and then hit the pillow with heavy heads at 8:00pm. A perfect Cosby New Year party!

2011 was a great year for our little family and one that brought many changes.

Ben left his previous employer of nearly 8 years and began his newest Venture. Along with this change, he not only relocated his office but his family as well to The Woodlands, TX. Ben mastered the "going to bed ponytail" this year, coached soccer and basketball and completed Insanity 2x. He is officially insane!

Isabelle began Kindergarten at Creekside Forest Elementary School, and enjoyed soccer, basketball, ballet, gymnastics and swimming lessons all this year. She continued her love affair with books and now reads on her own, began writing quite alot, quit eating most foods and discovered the joy of the Internet.

Olivia went from a baby to a toddler this year. She celebrated her first birthday, began to walk, run, jump and climb and started singing her ABC's. She endured two rounds of general anesthesia and two surgeries, became obsessed with shoes and getting herself dressed up pretty and developed a strong affection for cupcakes and neenus. (Hershey Kisses)

As for myself, Amy, I am just trying to keep up and keep everything in everyone's worlds flowing and functioning best I know how. We are excited for 2012 and think this is going to be another fabulous year for the Cosby crew! Happy New Year!