Halloween Parade

This afternoon was the Halloween parade in downtown Media! It was the best. (Although we couldn't believe how many people tried to give our baby actual candy! When we refused taffy, a woman insisted on a tootsie pop. People, please.) Oly dressed up as Sal, from 'Blueberries for Sal'.

One person guessed correctly what she was (!) but most people had to be told and then were very satisfied with the costume. Like many Halloween costumes, it was hard to pull off because it was a little cold. The hat is cute though, no?

We met all of our friends at Birthmark to watch together and we saw Roxy, er, I mean, Darth Vader.

And Ruth, er, I mean Princess Leia.

After the parade we had cider and corn bread at Birthmark and tried to take a picture of some of the costumed kids together.

Here's Sal, a coupla monkeys, the man in the yellow hat, a pirate, Leia and Elmo. Yes, Olympia Louise is trying to take a banana from that monkey.

We learned something new today. Olympia LOVES high school marching bands.

If you have 10 minutes......

It's nighttime here at Love, Inc. and we're all exhausted. Tim and I are recovering from a stomach bug which Oly somehow managed to avoid. She has been cranky though, so after putting her to bed I had to go back and look at some cute videos to recharge my Mama batteries. If you have a few minutes to kill, I would recommend going back to look at posts from the month of April. That kid was so unbelievably cute and photogenic.... and FAT! Woooo weeeeeee was that kid fat. Like, really fat.

uh-GHIH-shuh

uh-GHIH-shuh is one of Oly's words for "this". That's what she's saying to Jeff and Niki in this picture. She talks about their "save the date" card a lot. She misses you guys!

Multi-tasking

Catching up on some reading while we drive. So efficient.

Friends

Oly and I are pretty busy ladies these days. We have activities almost every day. I took some photos of a few of them.

On Mondays we go to Baby Book Club at our friend Daril's (the Mom). Here Oly is playing with Jack, Daril's son:

Here she is with Micheal:

Then on Wednesdays we go to "Movers and Shakers" (which Tim has renamed, rightly so, "Poopers and Biters". It's just another BirthMark group for us to get together, away from the group where brand new infants and their Moms come for support. We realized we'd outgrown it about a month ago when Oly tried to hand a book to a 4 day old. We see Kids and Moms that we've known since they all were born when we came into BirthMark for breastfeeding support. Here's Tommy:

And Ruth with her Mom Amelia:

Rachel:

and Ben. All of these babies are the youngest that were there, because they were the only ones who would be still so I could take their pictures.

Here, clockwise from the top left, are Calvin, Eydie, Nate, Oly and Tommy.



Here is a shot we successfully (more or less) got of all the Mom's and Kids at todays group, although they change every week. Olympia is about the 3rd or 4th oldest, but by far the biggest.

Go Flyers!

In case you're worried about how grown-up she looks in this picture......

This one should ease your fears:

Drowning in Books

Oly's favorite toy is, hands down, all of her books. She has a big bin of them that she empties over and over. She picks one out, flips through the pages very fast then starts over, savoring each page a little more carefully, and pointing out things that interest her on the pages. Then she throws it over her shoulder and gets out the next one. The only time of day that I can be sure to get a few things done in the kitchen is right when we come downstairs in the morning and she jumps to the floor because she missed her books so desperately while she slept.

Doing Work

Oly, rightfully, is obsessed with our laptops. What are these little boxes with blinking lights that Mama and Papa stare at and tap on incessantly? I remembered today that we have the shell of our last laptop (RIP) lying around that is going to go to recycling sometime in the future. I put it on the coffee table and briefly pretended she couldn't have it, just for posterity. She's hooked. Now she can finally get some spreadsheets done!

Pumpkins

It's a Sunday evening in October. What is there to do other than go to Linvilla Orchards to pick out pumpkins, eat 'fair food' and see the masses? We went with my cousin Jaimie and her honey Johnnie (who are here in Philly for med school) and we had a great time!

She liked being photographed in the pumpkins because she sensed she was doing something against the rules and Olympia likes to be bad.

She waved goodbye to that giant scarecrow for a long time after this.

Olympia had real dinner so she's sleeping soundly upstairs- Tim and I had hamburgers, cheese fries and this:

Our tummies hurt.

Dainty Little Princess

Blueberries for Olympia

Ok Sal, you can't have JUST blueberries for dinner.

Studious

Here she is studying for the entrance exams to the elite Prep Schools.

Kristin and Kyle

My friend from my freshman year in college at Moravian, Kristin, actually grew up here in Media. I remember visiting her family here years ago and walking through town. Small world! Anyway, she's finishing Grad School in Ohio now and was home to visit for the weekend with her husband Kyle.

Olympia appreciated Kyle because he, being nice and tall, could get her up closer to the art on our staircase.

She appreciated Kristin for her long beautiful hair which she pulled at endlessly.

Upon hearing Kyle was a professional Sax player, Oly auditioned for percussionist in his band.

She's hired!

Tot Lot

Several times a week we have to get out of our boring house and stalk the big kids at the Tot Lot. They're all so very accommodating of Miss Oly Lou.

Here she is singing on the tire swing.

Going down the big kid slide.:

"I'm watching you......"

This is not really representative of how she plays on the slide, but it's hard to videotape her from far enough away to get everything in the shot- and be close enough to catch her if she falls. It's a dilemma. What she usually does is climbs up the stairs to the top of the slide, I help her slide down, I take her slippers off so she can immediately climb all of the way back up, repeat. In this video she is distracted by her intent study of the rowdy tricks of the show-off big kid.

How do I know she's studying him? Yesterday she watched a little boy go down head first one time- she immediately thrust that giant head of hers first down the slide. Oh my.