Archive for the ‘Olivia’ Category
29 Mar
Overheard: Bedtime battles edition
Ava: “Mom, will you tell me another story?”
Rebecca: “Sure. Once upon a time there was a little girl who didn’t go to bed when her mother told her to, and she lost every single one of her privileges. The end.”
Ava: “…how about a different story?”
—
Olivia, at roughly 10 pm, and while in my bed: “Mama, are I cute?”
Rebecca: “You’d be much cuter if you were sleeping.”
16 Mar
Party preparations
We are having a birthday party for Ava this weekend, and we’ve been working on a few projects to prepare. A few weeks ago, we started building a papier mâché piñata.
I inflated a round 36-inch balloon to about 24 inches, and Ava and I covered it in strips of newspaper dipped in wallpaper paste. The online instructions we used suggested four layers, but we stopped at two. Fortunately, that seemed to be enough.
After the paste was dry, we began work on the tissue-paper roses needed to cover the beast. I was grateful to have two willing partners in this endeavor:
To make the roses, we wound them around our fingers and secured the bottom with a staple.
Olivia’s approach was a bit less complicated.
I secured the roses to the base using hot glue, and only burned myself 750 times. I snapped this photo with my phone at the half-way point; I’d used 150 roses. This was the the moment I realized this pinata would be destroyed and thrown away. ON PURPOSE.
Nevertheless, we carried on, making numerous tissue paper runs over the course of the past week. In all, we made about 325 roses. Here’s the end result, filled with packages of Hershey’s kisses, and awaiting a visit from a few woodland fairies.
This is definitely a project I will do again–we had a good time working on it together. But next time, I’ll use a much smaller balloon!
8 Mar
Arts, crafts and naked time, all rolled into one
Mom recently gave us a subscription to the Disney Family Fun magazine, which we love. It’s filled with great ideas, fun recipes and cool projects. A couple of weeks ago, this necklace holder caught Ava’s eye:
I found a few die-cut pieces at the craft store, and armed with washable paint and paintbrushes, the girls set to work on their own versions.
Ava was very precise in her painting and assembly, and she was more than a bit irritated when I wouldn’t let her use the hot glue gun.
Here are the finished pieces—Olivia’s is on the left, and Ava’s is on the right.
Bryan will hang them in their rooms. I’m expecting a few of my own necklaces may go missing, but at least they’ll have a good home!
28 Feb
Olivia at three
There are a couple of lines from an old Counting Crows song that keep coming to mind lately:
She’ll change so suddenly
She’s just like mercury
As I adapt again to life with a three year old, I’m reminded of how unpredictable and uneven they can be. One minute, there’s a red-faced ball of anger throwing a massive tantrum on my kitchen floor. She is, of course, dressed as Sleeping Beauty in this scene. Her tiara is slightly askew and her round cheeks are wet with tears. She wants the impossible, and the fact I absolutely can’t deliver only makes her fury grow. It seems the only word she knows is “no.”
And then, moments later, she’s bright and cheerful, and she puts her sticky, pudgy hands on my face, presses her nose to mine, and says, “Lend me some sugar, I am your neighbor!” She tells me she loves me, and asks, “Are you happy at me now?”
Inevitably, I am.
She’s completely unreasonable and absolutely adorable. She’s the most challenging part of my life right now.
But, in the words of Adam Duritz:
She’s entwined in me
Crazy as can be
Yeah, but she’s alright with me
15 Feb
Just add summer
Temperatures are climbing, but not quite as high as the girls would like to think. Still, it was a balmy 71 degrees in the living room last Sunday.
29 Jan
Parenting is hard, but also kind of awesome
A special edition of “Overheard,” as it pertains the previous post:
—
Olivia’s preschool teacher, Karina: “Your daughter is doing really well. She’s so sweet and well behaved, and she is very obedient.”
Me: “I’m Rebecca, Olivia’s mom.”
Karina: “I know….”
Me: “Oh! Right. Great, then.”
—
Me: “Ava, don’t you remember the conversation we had on the way to school yesterday? About no crying? No whining?”
Ava: “Mom, why don’t we just start with less crying and less whining, and we can see how that goes.”
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