Olivia loves to sing.

Check out Olivia playing Rockband. She can sing two songs by herself and complete them with between 55% and 69% accuracy. The songs are "Maps" by Yeah, Yeah, Yeah and "Brass in Pockets" by The Pretenders. In this video, she starts singing, but then has an urgent matter she has to take care of, so she leaves the stage. Check it out!

Olivia's First Field Trip!

Olivia's preschool had their first field trip of the year. They went to Blue Dog Farms in Carnation. It was nice to see how Olivia interacts with her teachers and classmates. At one point during the trip, all the kids got to sit around on benches and talk to the farmer. Olivia was very eager to participate:

Farmer: "So who has a question for me?"

Olivia: (raising her hand) "Me, Me!

Farmer: (calls on Olivia)

Olivia: "Ummm....Ummm...."

(pause)

"Do you know that I really hate story time?"

A little while later...

Farmer: "Who knows what the hardest working animal on the farm is?"

Olivia: (raising her hand) "Me! Me!"

Farmer: (calls on Olivia)

Olivia: "Ummmmm...Ummmmmmm..."

(pause)

"Beavers have a long flat tail and long teeth!"

Emily and Olivia at the Farm.
Olivia got to pet a turkey!
Morrigan and Mary (Emily took this picture!).
Olivia feeding a cow.
Olivia sitting with her classmates.

Busy Week...

We had a busy week, that's for sure! Mary's brother's family came into town last Friday and left with his wife that night for a week long trip to NYC. We got to take care of Emily and Morrigan this week. Emily is almost eight and Morrigan is almost nine months. We got to experience a week in the life of a family of five! Well, kind of... Mary's mom came with them and helped us. She was here almost the whole time. We had them all by ourselves on Wednesday day/night, Thursday during the day, and Friday day/night. Their parents get back tomorrow afternoon. Having three kids is a little different from having one, that's for sure! We ventured out a few evenings and Mary got some looks (carrying a nine month old baby around and being eight months pregnant!). Here are a few pictures of the week. Again, if you want to see ALL the pictures, click on the "Recent Pictures" link on the right of this blog. Thanks to EVERYONE who came to Mary's shower, especially those who came in from out of town. It was great to see you all! An extra special THANK YOU to An (Mary's sister), and Jen (Mary's friend) for all the work they did at the shower! We didn't get very many pictures of the Baby Shower, so if anyone has any good ones, can you send them to us? Thanks!

Nadia, Emily, Toan and Morrigan before they left for the airport.

Baby Shower
Mary and our nephew Noah

Picture Day Preview

So, Andre and Olivia just left for Olivia's first ever picture day at school. She is decked out head to toe in purple. Don't worry though, she still likes pink too! She was so excited this morning! She woke up extra early (8:00 AM!), packed up her Dinosaur "Chomp" for show and tell, and helped Mama pack the snacks for the day. Here are some pictures of her this morning in her new "Picture Outfit".

Olivia's Antics

With Fall here, we are buckling down and getting some housecleaning done. The Nursery is officially ready for the new baby who Olivia still refers to affectionately as King Leonidas. (Although the other day, she informed us "Mama, Dada, if you want to you may call the baby Conner"). She still loves preschool and learned about the human body last month. If you are lucky, she will point out to you where can find your "patella" and "phalanges". This month, the topic is the Fall and she will go to a farm for her first field trip. She has picture day on Thursday, and that is also her day to bring something from home to "share". Here is a video of her singing "Stacy's Mom". The words are "Stacy's mom, has got it goin' on! She's all I want, and I've waited for so long. Stacy can't you see, you're just not the girl for me. I know I might be wrong but I'm in love with Stacy's mom!" She dressed herself that morning and put Andre's rubber band from physical therapy around her head as a headband. (You can't be a rock star without a headband...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1hV4hsZBH4

Time flies....

We can't believe it's Fall already!! Olivia is keeping very busy with her full schedule. She now has preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 to 11:30 , ballet on Wednesdays at 3:00, swimming on Thursdays at 1:15 PM, and Gymboree on Fridays at 1:15. She is loving preschool and can't wait to go on school mornings. She is learning about the human body this month and cracks us up with all the information she likes to share. Some notable quotes from preschool include:

• "My skull is under my head, and my brain is under my skull!"


• "I have bones, but you can't see them because they are under my skin."


• "All my bones are called a skeleton!"


• "Bon apetit! You may eat!"


• "I have friends, but sometimes they hit me, so I hit them back and that's not nice!"

Here are a few pictures from last few weeks. Ong, Ba, and Cau Truong came to visit for a week and we had fun hanging out with them.

Olivia is exhausted and falls asleep on Ong, with her Halloween costume on.

Cau Truong playing RockBand in his ridiculous hat!

Olivia was helping Mama make a cake for Ong and Ba's birthdays. She had to take a break and pretend she was a pirate!

Helping to blow out the candles...

Olivia put together this outfit all by herself. She calls it her Hercules outfit. Why? We have no idea....

Olivia goes to SCHOOL!

Today Olivia started Preschool! They had an open house on Friday to meet the teachers and let the kids get to know the classroom. Olivia didn't want to go home that day! So today she was very excited. She got a new backpack (which Andre says is bigger than her), and did her homework yesterday. Here are some of her answers to her homework questions:



What is your favorite animal?- Frogs

What is your favorite game? - Animals Fighting (what the heck is that?)

What is your favorite food? - Chicken Nuggets

What are the names of the people in your family?- Olivia, Mama, and Dada. But some people call them Andre and Mary.

What are you going to do at school? - Play with Gak (silly puddy), play tag, and run around in circles.

Olivia with Dada before school!
Look at how excited Olivia is!
Olivia is telling us she is three years old and going to school today.
In the parking lot.
Why would Andre think her backpack was too big?

She was so excited she just took off ahead of us. (We're loading her pack with bricks next time...)

With teacher Mandi. Olivia picked her name out of a stack of name cards!

She didn't even say good-bye! She just took off into the classroom. We are experiencing "empty nest" syndrome...