A Day Out With Thomas

On Sunday we trekked out to Baldwin to go ride on a larger-than-life Thomas the Tank Engine. Well, more accurately, a train pulled by Thomas. Or at the very least, a train that appeared to be pulled by Thomas. Both Milo and Olive loved it. Freaking LOVED it. They loved seeing Thomas in all his blue glory, they loved boarding the train and choosing a seat, they loved the ride, they loved the scenery. They loved the ticket puncher and hearing the choo-choo and the whistle.

Beyond the train itself, there was a whole little festival of fun. Milo gravitated to the bounce house and a bouncy climbing thing with a slide at the end. Olive liked the block tables and the petting zoo. There were also a bunch of train tables, a fire truck to climb in, temporary tattoos, food vendors, photo ops, and a tent full of merchandise (of course). We had a great time, and probably would have stayed even longer if we weren't all getting hungry (and we had to head back to Shawnee for lunch since Milo had filled his cotton-ball reward jar and we were due for Fritz's--it was a day full of trains) and Olive wasn't starting to look sunburned. Bad Mommy for forgetting sunscreen. I did have the kids in sun hats, but somehow still forgot to put sunblock on them. At least we remembered water cups and diapers.

Now, some photos! (Unfortunately I did not get any photos of the petting zoo. I guess I was too busy trying to make sure the goats didn't bite Olive's fingers off.)

Olive is 16 Months Old

She's not a baby anymore, people. The other kids at daycare have even (for the most part) dropped "Baby" from her name. For a long time, she was Baby Olive. Now she's mostly just Olive. I guess that's how you know she's arrived as a legitimate toddler.

The most amazing thing about Olive this month has been the incredible explosion of language. She's been great with language from the start, but I can't even keep track of her words. And sentences! The girl puts two and three words together to form sentences. Commands! Exclamations! She says it all. Notable words: truck, big truck, grapes, apple, Thomas, train, airplane, fork, big, up, milk, hug, Zadie, on, stuck, it's stuck, cow, blocks, potty, pants, shorts, shirt, yum, car, yay, uh-huh, spoon, hat, hair, nose, teeth, paci, cereal, Cheerios, no, hello, hi, byebye, all done, boom, kaboom, duck, poop, light, cheese, book, No David, bang, thank you, A, outside, bath, Momo (for Milo). And probably lots more that are slipping my mind. I know she understands so much more. She knows to start tickling when she hears that word. She will appropriately answer uh-huh or no to questions (only rarely seeming to get it wrong).

Her hair is getting noticeably longer and thicker. I debate cutting bangs, but the process of growing them out seems awful. I just want her hair to get long enough that it naturally falls to the sides instead of directly into her face. Barrettes and hair ties don't stay in for long.

Olive climbs, throws her body around, wants to go where the big kids go, and wants to go where even the big kids don't dare go. Like throwing herself face-first over the big wheel and onto the street, for example. Let's just hope she makes it to her second birthday without any broken bones.

She has an adorable giggle, sort of throaty and deep. But she also has high-pitched shrieky laughter that comes out unexpectedly. She's ticklish, especially on her toes and thighs. And her knees.

Still has six teeth. 

Loves her paci. For awhile there she got even more addicted. She had some kind of virus (we think) called roseola that gave her a fever then made her super cranky for days and days. Cranky and needy and constantly wanting to be held. We gave in a lot and let her have her paci all day, when normally we just give it to her at sleeping times. She was not happy when she started acting like herself again and we didn't let her have the paci. "Paci?" she'd ask, repeatedly. When we said no, she would a) throw something, b) hit us, c) glare at us, or d) all of the above. If you guessed d) you are a winner! (Sadly, though, we were not.)

Olive and Milo love to chase each other around and play. Sometimes they wrestle, though that rarely ends well. Lately Milo has been really sweet to her, sharing his toys and offering to bring her things. She returns the favor by smacking him or stealing his other toy. Sigh.

Olive is into stacking block towers and knocking them down. Great fun.

She also likes reading books. No David is a particular favorite.

She plays with cars and trains and trucks, and pointing out trucks she sees on the road is perhaps her favorite pastime. 

She occasionally cuddles her baby dolls or carries around her blankets, but these comforting gestures are pretty brief.

When she's tired, she's ready to sleep. As soon as she is laid down in her crib, she's out. She seems to hit her tired wall around 6:45, and is easily angered from then until she actually goes to sleep around 7:30.

She does enjoy bathtime and doesn't get cranky in there. Unless you tell her to quit drinking the bath water, anyway. She doesn't like to be told no. But seriously, drinking the bath water is gross. There's just no need for that.

That pretty much sums it all up. My little ball of fire continues to burn bright and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Of Course

Last week I was on my way to the dentist when I realized I had forgotten to grab my phone off the kitchen counter before heading out the door. Dang. I considered turning around, but there was no way I could have gotten to the dentist on time, and then since I was already going to be so late to work, I decided I could do without it for a day. "Remember ten years ago, when I didn't even have a cell phone?" I reminded myself. "You can get through one silly day without it."

I got to work and emailed Andrew, Tara, and Kristin, saying that I had forgotten my phone, so here was my work number and of course they could always email me--I am rarely far from the computer during the workday. An uneventful morning passed.

Around noon, Andrew called my work number. "Well, you've missed an exciting morning," he says.

Um, what? What do you mean by that?

He went on to explain that he and Olive were now on their way back to Tara's house (side note: normally Tara comes to our house, but since our gutters were being replaced that day, Olive was at Tara's house) after having lunch at Winstead's after Olive had to go to the EMERGENCY ROOM.

Uhhhh... panicangerheartracingomgwhatthehellwhydidn'tyoucallmeearlier?

Lots of things racing through my mind, primarily, oh my god, my baby just went through something terrible and I was not there for her. Seriously, of all the days. The ONE DAY I forget my phone is the FIRST DAY Olive has to go the ER. (And yes, I said "first day" because I am certain she'll end up there again. Girl is cray-zay.)

It turned out to not be so bad. She fell into a barstool and cut her chin, just below her lip. Her teeth cut her somewhere inside her mouth. Her lip was swollen and there was lots of bleeding. Tara tried to call me (this was before I had been able to email about the lack of a phone), then reached Andrew. Because of the excessive bleeding, Tara thought Olive should go to the hospital, maybe needed stitches. But by the time Andrew even got there, it had stopped bleeding. But you know, better safe than sorry and all that, so he took her anyway.

She did not get any stitches, just some neosporin, basically. By the time I saw her after work, the cut was barely noticeable. She was fine, honestly.

But I was kind of a wreck. I felt horrible that I wasn't there. And I felt horrible that no one was able to reach me. I did let Andrew know that in the future, if something like this happens and I don't answer my phone, please please please keep calling until you reach me. Call every number, email, text, call someone else who might be able to reach me. If I had heard that he was on his way to the hospital with her, I would have dropped everything and rushed to my car so I could be there. Olive was perfectly fine with Daddy, but Mommy wasn't fine without Olive.

Andrew reassured me that everything was fine and that Olive really enjoyed her butterscotch shake at Winstead's. It took me much longer to calm down.

The whole thing was good practice though, for when Olive climbed over the top of Milo's big wheel and face-planted on the street tonight. Andrew brought her inside, blood dripping out of her mouth, and calmly said, "Mommy, can you help us out? Olive hurt her mouth again." And we got her all taken care of. No trip to the ER required.