Because She's Fifty! {Months Old}

➽ I started this post last night, but somebody came out of their room after being put to bed and then was up until 11:30.  Consequently, I wasn't in much of a mood to write nice things about her once she finally fell asleep.  So, this beginning paragraph doesn't really hold true anymore. 

Well, wonders never cease!  Today is actually the 17th and I'm writing up a birthday post for my biggest girl.  It's a 50 month miracle!

I have a feeling this is going to read more like a catching-up blog post, but that's sort of what we're doing here...catching up with my sweet girl, Livi Lou, on all she's up to these days.

➽➽ Let's just start off with the obvious...it's summertime and it's Olivia, so there's going to be lots of swimming/swimming lessons/pool tricks.  It blows my mind as to how great she is in the pool.  I remember when we moved out here less than two years ago and I was a nervous wreck anytime she even walked around the edge of the pool {and rightly so... she wasn't even 2 1/2 yet}, but I don't have that nervous feeling at all now.  Yes, I'm still very cautious with her and I would never let her swim or even be in the gated area of the pool without an adult there with her, but I don't have the urge to helicopter around her every time she gets in the gate.  She's such a fish in the water...she loves swimming, she loves diving after the toys, she loves jumping off the side and going down our new {albeit somewhat tacky} slide.  If that sun didn't beat down on us so hard, I think we could spend all day in our pool.  She is doing swim lessons every day for 50 minutes and has mastered everything at her current level already.

➽➽ In getting Olivia ready to go to Pre-K four mornings a week {uh, okay, and getting me ready for four mornings a week}, I signed her up for some summer camp classes at her preschool where she attends from 9-12 and eats a packed lunch.  I originally signed her up for two classes a week {letting her choose the theme that she wanted to learn about}, but have actually added a few more classes to the schedule since she loves it so much.  I'm definitely having to wake her up and get her going in the mornings...we are not morning people around here...but she is always excited about going.  The first two weeks, I switched her into Ms. Erin's class...she was her Book Club teacher and Olivia absolutely adored her.  She has a new teacher this week, but has adjusted just fine.  I'm so SO glad that she loves school and loves learning and being around new friends and that she is confident and secure enough to be away from me for a few hours during the day.  It simultaneously amazes me and breaks my heart that she is at this stage already.

You'll be able to tell from the pictures what some of the themes have been, but so far she has done Beach Day, Animal Planet, Prince and Princess Tea Party, Music and Movement, Pirate Adventure, Under the Sea and Welcome to the Jungle.

➹ We may have gone a bit overboard here... ➹

➹ I finally wised up and put her in the shade for the pictures, but she still squinted. Darn sun at 9am! ➹

➽➽ Olivia is totally in to dressing herself these days.  On mornings where she wakes up {at 9:30} on her own, she usually comes out already dressed.  For awhile it was long dresses {so I stocked up} and then it was skirts {so I had to hide most of the ones that she insisted on wearing because they didn't have the shorts underneath}.  Lately, she's been obsessed with this t-shirt dress I had made for her "because the skirt is already attached!" But, honestly, sometimes she changes outfits four or five times a day and can change accessories even more than that.  I'm learning to let go of some of my outfit control {or maybe I'm just exerting it onto Sydney}.

➽➽ A few weeks ago, she had her first sleepover at her friend Brooke's house.  Yes, she's had sleepovers at Nana and Poppy's and even a sleepover with her BFF Kendall, but we were in the next room over for that.  This one was sort of last minute and just across the street and she was so excited about the possibility... how were we to say no?  She had such a great time over there getting her nails painted and making monkey bread for breakfast!  We ended up having Brooke over a couple Fridays later for a little pool party/movie night/slumber party/healthy breakfast action ourselves.  I'd say all three girls had a blast.

➹ Happy National Donut Day ➹

➽➽ One thing I've really been looking forward to with Olivia is board games.  I loved Fridays with my kiddos at school because after spelling tests and quizzes were done, we would always have game days with BINGO, Yahtzee and Guess Who.  A few weeks ago, we got Olivia the Princess Candyland and she loved it!  So, I started adding to our collection...I got a few more princess games {which she of course LOVES} and I pulled out my old school Guess Who game.  Well, turns out she loves that one too, although she almost always insists on picking a girl character even though there are only five of them.  Poppy is usually our competition and he does a good job of not letting on to knowing that she's picked a girl.  I ended up getting the newer version of the game {Guess Who Extra} that has 6 different versions.  I actually played against her over the weekend and she did great!  She figured out who mine was right after I figured out hers.  Such a little smarty!

➹ Poppy's first question was, "Does your person have white hair?"  Ha ha #nailedit ➹

➽➽ In case I don't stress it enough, let me just say again how much I adore this little girl of mine.  She is smart and funny and dramatic, energetic and sassy and sweet all rolled up into this beautiful blonde girl.  GIRL.  She's not a baby anymore and I'd be hard pressed to even call her a toddler.  And, I'm just so lucky that she's mine.