Friday, July 11, 2008

I'm Now Two Years Old!

Miss Olivia just celebrated a major milestone last weekend- July 5th- by turning two! We honored her big achievement by having a party with our families in Oklahoma the end of June, and then a smaller party on the fifth here in Shreveport. She did great, and although she was more interested in playing with her cousin Jade's cell phone at first, she quickly learned that the gift thing could be pretty good too! It was wonderful to be able to celebrate her second birthday (and the first birthday as a member of our family) alongside her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins!

The summer is moving right along, and it has been a good one for us so far. Ian is in summer school, and has also been taking swimming lessons. He LOVES the water, and is very independent when he's in the pool. Swimming and swinging are his two favorite activities. He is doing great with his new sister despite the fact that he somehow manages to find a fist full of her hair from time to time. I think she must have an especially tough head because she rarely cries when it happens. Back to the swimming- Olivia of course goes to the swimming lessons too, and she does pretty well. On the first day though, I turned around and she had pulled her shorts down in front of everyone and was waiting to put her suit on too! Fortunately, when she realized she wouldn't be swimming, she was okay with it and was willing to sit on the edge of the pool and watch. She's a pretty good girl most of the time!

Today we dropped Ian off at school, and Olivia and I drove on to Brian's office to see him for a minute and let his co-workers see her. Several have followed along through our adoption process and seem to enjoy seeing "the outcome" in person. She did well, and several commented on how much she has come out of her shell since their first time to see her. It is wonderful to see the progress she is making! She will be attending "school"- a mother's day out program- this fall, and I think she will love it. Just last Sunday we were able to leave her in her Sunday school class by herself. She was also able to stay in her class Wednesday night too. She didn't cry either time, so I think we have turned a corner there!

Well, I'm going to try to include few pictures before Olivia wakes up, which could be any minute. As always, I have the best intentions to write again soon, but time gets away from me. It sometimes just takes someone to comment on how long it's been since I've posted, and that spurs me on!

Leah