Zoo this weekend?

I seem to be back on the proverbial shit list with Olive. The last few days have been nothing but, "No Mommy! Daddy do it!" and its starting to get a little old. I'm sure it will pass soon. She had a great day yesterday with Kristen. Kristen only had Olive and Julian after they dropped Ella off at school. They went and got donuts, went to Michael's to get craft supplies, went to pet goats someplace in White Marsh, went to the grocery store. They had a great day, and they were exhausted. Last night we walked to get ice cream, since Olive was grumpy. I think we are going to try to go to the Zoo in DC Saturday or Sunday. It kind of makes for a long day, but I think she'd like it.

September already?

Wow, the summer has gone by so fast. I can't believe it's September 1st already. We went to the State Fair on Saturday and had a really nice time. We took the Light Rail, which is always a big hit with the kid. The trick is to go early before it gets too crowded. My Bread and Butter Pickles came in Second Place! I am very excited. That's usually a pretty tough category, so I was feeling pretty smug to get Second Place.

We went on some rides at the Midway; I didn't realize how expensive they were! I wanted to go on the Ferris wheel with Olive. Each ride ticket is $1.25. The ferris wheel is 7 tickets EACH. That's $9.50, which is more than the cost of admission. We opted for the Dumbo ride and the merry go round instead, which seemed to suit her just fine. We checked out all the animals, Olive really liked the baby ducks and the rabbits. They had day old piglets in one barn that were soooooo adorable and soft. We got some food, hung out for awhile. She pretty much crashed around 1:30 or so, and we ended up leaving just as it was getting crowded and hot.

At daycare, Ella started school Monday. So now, I try to get her to daycare by 7:30 so that she can go with Kristen when she drops Ella off at school, which Olive totally loves. I'm glad she likes school. A bunch of Kristen's kids are going to school this fall, so Olive will have a whole new group at daycare now.

Finally! Some new pictures

Here's Olive at the beach a few weeks ago with her highly fashionable pigtails. Very adorable. We had a great time at the Beach (Rehoboth) and in NY (Adirondacks) with my family. Marc had to come back to work, so he wasn't around for the New York part of the journey. We both missed him very much.

What was the most important lesson I learned? ALWAYS TRAVEL WITH CANDY. Always. It prevents child abuse. Olive did fine on the plane rides up to NY, but not so much on the way home. She was already on my nerves when we got to the Philadelphia airport because she was being really whiny. The flight from Philly to Baltimore was only about 25 minutes long, but we had to wait about 45 minutes at the airport, in which time Olive whined continuously. At one point she whipped up my shirt to my neck just for grins. But teh worst was when we got on the (very full, very crowded) plane and Olive had a full on, kicking screaming meltdown. To make the situation even better, she was screaming, "Mommy! Don't hit me Mommy! Stop it!" I was mortified. Finally, a woman in front of us turned around in her seat, and I was bracing myself for some sort of nasty comment. She whips out a lollipop, looks at Olive, and says, "If you stop crying, you can have this." Bam. Problem solved. Sticky, messy, filthy child, but a reasonably quiet one at that. People were pretty understanding; I think they were also thanking their lucky stars that it was only a 25 minute flight.

I'm making it sound more horrible than it was. It really wasn't that bad, and we did have a wonderful time on vacation. I've always wanted Olive to be able to do someof the same things that I loved doing as a kid. We went to Otter Creek, where we used to go swimming inteh river with my cousins when we were little. The rocks are so slippery that you just let the water carry you down the rapids. Olive wasn't doing that, but she was wading around in the shallow water. We were on Brantingham Lake, and she got to go swimming and ride in the canoe with Grandma and Grandpa. My parents had a great time with her there, it was nice for them to be able to spend some time with her.

Beachy Bean

Well, Olive is enjoying the beach tremendously. We are on Vacation with Marc's family in Bethany Beach, Delaware. It's been great, Olive has been to the beach, played in the sand and had lots of fun with Grandpa. The house were renting is well stocked with Ply Doh and a fun factory contraption, which she has been playing with non stop. Last night we bought a cheap ladybug kite and flew it on the beach. She LOVES it. Very cool. Anyway, now it's naptime, so I'm going to go try to get her in bed.

One of those days...

Nothing makes you feel like a good parent like feeding your kid a breakfast of Saltines you found in the car door on the way to Daycare.

Bus Stop Guy

I love Olive's ability to completely disarm people with a smile. This morning we were on the way to daycare and we were stopped at a red light. There was a bus stop, and there was this burly looking tattooed biker guy sitting there waiting for the bus, not looking especially friendly. Olive just waved and said "Hi!" and this guy just melted. He was giggling and waving back at her and it was just so damned cute. I love it when she does that!

Let's see. yesterday I took Olive to go visit Baby Eli; She got a little antsy after 45 minutes or so, but was generally being pretty good. We then walked to the Tot Lot, as promised. She's very into money now; she handed me the sieve from the sandbox and said, "You buy this! Six dollars!" They have been playing store at Daycare lately. I felt bad this morning; I overslept, as per usual, and had to get her up and hustle her out of the house. She's not a morning person at all, like her mother, and generally requires a good hour to fully wake up, eat and get it together for the rest of the day. This morning it was get up, throw on clothes and get in the car. Here's some peanuts for breakfast. So, I think I kind of threw her for a loop. Hopefully she'll be OK once she's at Daycare.

We went Blueberry picking on Saturday and had fun. We picked 11 1/2 Pounds! Oy. My neighbor and I made jam and two pies last night. The biggest drawback to the canning process is that it makes the house so damned hot. I made 14 jars of jam... adding to my state fair entries collection.

Olive's also picking up on my keen sense of direction. Now, when we drive to Daycare inteh morning, she tells me, "We turn here" or "We go that way" without any prompting. I am so proud!