Life. In snippets!

- Lately, whenever Olivia is trying to trick me into anything, usually whilst pretending to be a mean witch, she always says something like, “Come on!  Just try that magic potion!  It’s not poisoned, I trust you!  Do it!”  or “Come on, this isn’t a trap. I trust you!”

- Every time we’re at the duck pond, she shouts things at them like, “HEY, DUCKS!  COME OVER HERE!  HEY! COME SEE ME OVER HERE!”  and is genuinely disappointed when they blatantly ignore her breadless self.  (One of these days I’ll remember to bring bread.)

- She begged me to paint her nails ‘stripey’.  She pinky swore that if I’d do this to her nails, she absolutely would not bite them, oh, please, please, I promise, I won’t!  I won’t even do that at all, I promise! 

And this paint job was completely obliterated the next morning by her teeth.

- Olivia was asking me about why Captain Hook has a hook instead of a hand.  I explained that the crocodile ate his hand, so he had to get a hook instead, finishing with, “…and that’s why they call him Captain Hook.”  She thought for a moment, then asked, “But what was his name BEFORE that crocodile ate his hand?”  And I had no answer for her.  I mean, yeah, what was his name?

- Olivia and Rusty spontaneously hold hands when they walk places together.  They spent a lot of time together this week:

- This September was the best September of all Septembers!  It was so gorgeous and warm.  Warm enough to have the kids playing at a little splash park in the last week of the month!  And did you know that the Riverwoods mall has a couple of these??  I had no clue!  We would have been there all summer!  And sorry for the awkward pictures, I was really trying not to get other people’s kids in them.

Plus, they got free balloons at the end.  Best day ever!

- Olivia and I do our homework side-by-side.  (She calls her preschool work ‘homework’. [Even though she isn’t actually in preschool; she is just doing pages out of a preschool workbook.])  P.S. I actually kind of like stoichiometry.

- Her completed homework.  Don’t mind that her ‘I’s look like ‘P’s because she puts the dot right on top of everything.  I told her which letters to draw next on ‘green’ and ‘brown’, then showed her on my own paper how to do the ones that she wasn’t sure about.  I love her little words!  And her backwards 3.  And her picture of herself with green eyes and brown hair.

- Emily and I took Olivia on the Sundance ski lift on Friday because we wanted to bask in autumn’s glory. 

Me, basking.

We went all the way to the tops of the mountains.  It was unbelievably gorgeous.

And then I remembered that I’m actually kind of terrified of heights, plus with no seat belts or anything for Olivia, I was a little bit stressed most of the time.  She could have just gone sliding right out!  We were really high in the air the majority of the ride.  Like, really, really high.

Even seeing this picture of Olivia gives me anxiety.

We’re on top of the world!  And terrified!

When we got back on the ground, we explored the area a little:

I love autumn! 

And Olivia’s face in this picture!

Also, Sundance is kind of funny because it is such a tourist attraction; it really doesn’t even feel like being in Utah.  You don’t see many tourists with cameras around their necks, walking around Provo speaking in foreign languages, is what I’m trying to say.  Olivia was a huge hit with the tourists.  We had just random people walking by saying, “What a beautiful child!”  People were staring at us as we walked around- I am not making it up, I promise.   At one point, we were walking past a large group of Asian ladies (if I had to guess, they were Japanese?), all standing in a line.  As we walked down the line, there were audible gasps the whole way and lots of pointing and exclaiming about Olivia.  One lady bent down, speaking in her language, and cupped Olivia’s cheeks in her hands, cooing to her.  Olivia was like, “…..?”  So I had her say hi, more gasps!, then we waved goodbye and walked away.  It was awesome.

 

p.s. In a recent conversation (with someone I love, respect, and admire), the person I was talking to was asking questions about my life, what’s been happening, and said something to the effect that I am in a doubly challenging situation because my marriage is struggling and because I have a difficult child.  The very thought that I may have conveyed to anyone that Olivia is a difficult child makes me want to curl up and die in a cave where no one could ever find me to rescue me from my fate. 

She is three.  She certainly has her three year old moments; she whines, cries, is occasionally obstinate- all of it.  I try not to sugar coat it because that is all totally normal kid stuff.  But she is absolutely the light of my life.  She is sunshine, laughter, silliness, teasing, imaginative, vivacious, extremely flexible, and clever.  I would never describe her as a difficult child, ever. 

Today she played quietly all through General Conference so I could enjoy all four hours, mostly uninterrupted.  She is awesome.

(Cara, do you recognize her dress??)