Smith Family Weblog

I keep a ceramic cupcake on the kitchen window sill, and it’s filled with little things we’ve collected around the house. Mostly, they are small items like Barbie shoes and crowns that used to pose a choking hazard for Olivia, but now, she loves to look through the container and show you everything she finds. There’s a pretty hilarious range, from rocks…

To rings that my mom wore in high school…

To buttons…

And shells…

Wine charms (which double as rings for little girls)…

Thimbles…

And more shells.

It’s amazing what passes for entertainment around here, but it’s infinitely better than Dora!

A few of you commented on Olivia in the photos below. I thought I’d share a few notes about the girl we affectionately call “the other one.”

• Olivia only wears purple socks, though pink will do in a pinch. NEVER white.
• See that dress she’s wearing? There’s a pink tutu-style skirt under it. She wears it almost every day.
• She accessorizes almost every outfit with a necklace, and she insists on some sort of adornment in her hair. She calls barrettes, clips and ponytail holders “cutes.”
• She loves anything covered in glitter. (Who could blame her?)
• She has the most mischievous eyes I’ve ever seen, and she gets away with a remarkable amount of willful disobedience just because of her smile.
• When she’s thinking about what to say next, her top lip curls a bit. Then, she speaks with that incredibly cute three-year-old lisp that I could listen to all day.
• Her favorite foods are pickles, olives, cheese and ice cream.
• She writes her name as a series of circles and hash marks, and it works.
• She’d prefer that you call her Liv, Livie Lou Who, or Liva.
• She picks up song lyrics very quickly, and she’ll sing along to my favorite CDs in the car.
• She sleeps with a pillow pet, a lovie, two blankets, two bears and occasionally an extra doll or stuffed animal. When she makes her way into our room at 2 am, she brings most of these things with her. She takes up a fair amount of space.
• She loves puzzles and art projects, especially anything involving tape, glue and scissors.
• She regularly says that she has the “best family ever.” I think we’re pretty lucky to have her.

How Olivia spent (a fair amount of) her summer vacation:

“But Mom, I REALLY WANT to put eye shadow on your eyeballs. Why can’t I!”

The other day, I found Olivia dressed in princess garb and singing to the birds outside. I was hoping she’d convince them to come inside and help tidy up, but no such luck.