Cousin Countdown

*Don't forget to close the "Super Poke Pets" ads on the slideshows to view the captions.

So, the final countdown to my cousin's arrival has officially begun. Harper's due date is less than a month away, and I am getting really excited! This past Saturday, Mom, along with Grandma and Mrs. Sharon, threw a baby shower for Aunt Steph; the theme of the shower was Matryoshka dolls, which is the theme of Harper's nursery. All last week, I helped Mom make the diaper cake, clothes pins for the game, and cork boards for Harper's nursery. Well, I actually just tried to destroy aforementioned items, but I only succeeded with the corner of one cork board; nothing a little fabric bandage can't fix. I also accompanied Mom on a 3 hour art supplies hunt to Michael's and Hobby Lobby, during which I had too much fun, minus the complete meltdown in Hobby Lobby when Mom mentioned nap. I think that I am pretty good at picking out paints and ribbons and things of that nature. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to the actual shower, but I did get to go to Home Depot and play outside with Dad, which made me extremely happy since Dad has been working and traveling a lot lately. Mom said that the shower went really well and that lots of Aunt Steph's friends and family came out to help celebrate Harper's upcoming arrival. Mom was a little worried the night before the shower because there was a change in venue due to air conditioning issues, but everything turned out for the best, and a big thank you goes to Mrs. Jennifer, who opened up her doors at the last minute. Aunt Steph got tons of nice things for Baby Harper, including a huge Hippo chair from Aunt Mallory and a basket full of fun stuff and necessities from Mom, Dad, and me. The guests got to write little notes and pieces of advice to pin on Harper's cork boards. Plus, there was a cupcake tower; I love you Aunt Steph, but I am really upset that I missed the cupcake tower. Unfortunately, Mom planned everything down to the smallest detail and then forgot to charge her camera, so she mainly only got photos of the setup and not as many of the actual shower. Oops! I hope Aunt Stephanie enjoyed her day, and I'm pretty sure that she has gotten everything she needs and wants to welcome Miss Harper to the world. We are now on standby, waiting for the call.

These days I am constantly asking to go to either Home Depot, if I am with Dad, or Hobby Lobby, if I am with Mom. At Home Depot, I get to buy flowers for Mom and tools for the house; whereas at Hobby Lobby, which I pronounce very enthusiastically as "Ho-ba, Lo-ba", I get to acquire arts and crafts supplies for all of my creative ventures. Last week, Mom and I got lots of string, Mod Podge, and glitter to make a jellyfish. I made one for me and one for Luke. The best part of making the jellyfish was definitely getting to shred the tissue paper. Usually, I get in trouble for shredding paper, but this time, I got to go at it. It was awesome! I painted the inside of each empty fruit cup with Mod Podge before adding lots of glitter and tissue paper. After everything had dried, Mom and I cut many strands of ribbon, yarn, and sequence to make the tentacles, all of which also looked beautiful as necklaces. I preferred to hang the spools of ribbon off the back of the chair and watch them totally unravel onto the floor. As a final touch, I picked out eyes to add to each jellyfish. Hopefully, Luke's jellyfish still has eyes; mine, on the other hand, is officially eyeless. After I picked them off and threw them in the trash three separate times, Mom decided to stop gluing the eyes back on the jellyfish. I felt the eyes were superfluous to my creative vision. Anyways, the whole idea behind this project was to hang the jellyfish outside and watch its 'legs' blow in the wind to mimic how they would look under water; however, I prefer to swing my jellyfish around the room so as to deposit sequence all over the floor. I also enjoy chasing Opie with the jellyfish while yelling, "Jellyfish, chase!"; Dad taught me that one by making the jellyfish chase me outside. Don't let Opie's terrified look fool you; he really likes it; at least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Last week was pretty rainy, so Mom and I found ways of entertaining ourselves indoors:

I've been working on perfecting my beloved, upside down stance, as well as my rock star skills. I even helped Mom clean the light switches; Mom has got to stop cleaning in front of me, or she is going to give me a complex. Mom and I also purchased a new bed for Opie, which I so kindly showed Opie how to use. I was so excited about Opie's new bed! I told everyone in Costco that we were getting Opie a new bed; I immediately showed Opie as soon as we walked in the door, and I drug Dad into the bedroom as soon as he got home from work so that he could see the exciting new addition. Deep down, I really love Opie, and my constant torture is just an expression of this heartfelt affection. Mom and I even took the cruddy weather as a sign to start figuring out my fall/winter wardrobe. Since my winter coat was a bit big last year, Mom decided to have me try it on to see if it was a viable option for this year. It fit perfectly, and I refused to take it off for the next couple of hours: I look good in winter attire. In the spirit of lowering temperatures, Mom and I also decorated some Halloween ornaments. I think that my hand inadvertently came out more decorated than the actual ornament. I suppose it is about time to start the costume hunt so that I don't end up in a mishmosh fairy costume, like last year. I did get out of the house to run some errands, do some actual running, play at Catch Air, and start a love affair with the hand dryer in the mall bathroom last week, so don't pity me too much because of the rain.

Last week, we also continued our adventures in baking and made cupcakes for my playgroup pals; unfortunately, playgroup got cancelled since several of my friends aren't feeling well, and we got stuck with a lot of cupcakes. I didn't mind at all, but Mom wished they would disappear, quickly. Believe it or not, I loved the cupcake batter and reveled in the sheer delight of licking it off of the beater, but I wasn't as excited about the baked product, and I refused to eat the cupcakes with chocolate icing on them. We'll keep baking though, and I will keep enjoying the yummy batter and yellow sprinkles.
















To solve our cupcake dilemma, Mom and I headed down to Grandma's office on Wednesday to have lunch with Grandma and leave some of our cupcakes for the CRI gang. Everyone was excited to see me,- my blog has made me a pseudo-celebrity around there - and I was nice enough to test Mr. Bearden's scale and entertain Mrs. Holly and Mrs. Kerry with my conversational and dancing talents before heading out with Grandma. By the way, I hate to burst your bubble, Mr. Bearden, but your scale is about 15 pounds off, and not in the direction that you may be hoping. After lunch, Grandma got me an ice cream cone at McDonald's; even though, I barely ate any lunch. Grandma is a keeper! I inhaled the entire thing and even tried to eat the cone first, forcing Mom to get me a cup for the actual ice cream while I enjoyed the cone. I kept shouting, "Ice cream cooone!" for anyone who was in earshot. After lunch, I sat at Grandma's desk and wrote her a few notes to keep her on track throughout the day. I did get hit in the head pretty hard by a swinging bathroom door and had to get a nice, long hug from Mama to make it feel better, but it was a small price to pay for a day with Grandma. Thanks for lunch, and especially the ice cream, Grandma!





























About 2 weeks ago, I started fighting naptime and bedtime, which I have previously never challenged. I've started crying hysterically whenever it is time for nap or bed, and nothing can console me. I begin from the moment I wake up in the morning saying, "No nap", and one day last week, when Mom mentioned the word tomorrow about 2 hours before bedtime, I lost it and had a meltdown for almost the entire 2 hours. Mom and Dad were at first worried that I may have an earache or may be getting a molar and that the pain was the culprit, so I got a little extra attention on those nights. As my fits have continued, it has become apparent that I just don't want to lay down anymore, which is not an option in my household; therefore, I decided that extreme measures were necessary if I was going to avoid the dreaded nap. On Thursday morning, I woke up and told Mom to "Call do-tor" because "Ear hurts". That was enough to convince Mom to book me an appointment for that day. I didn't seem too terribly sick in the waiting room as I danced, talked, and entertained all who were waiting with me, but as soon as I got into that exam room, I started tugging on my ear and saying, "Ear hurts". The doctor checked me out and concluded that I was perfectly well and just very smart. The official diagnosis in the exact words of the doctor is "very smart and manipulative". She basically told Mom that I probably started fighting nap because of teething pain, but after realizing that pain got me a little more sympathy at naptime, I used it to my advantage, and you are darn right, doctor. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do to skip naptime. Unfortunately, my sick ploy cost Mom $40 and didn't even work because I ended up taking a nap that same day; it also resulted in some crazy story about a boy crying wolf - whatever. Darn doctor foiled my charade. On the bright side, I didn't scream or cry at all during the exam; I wasn't overly pleased with being poked and prodded, but I didn't freak out - one small step for Livie; one giant leap for everyone else involved. I have come to terms with bedtime by reading books about other characters going to bed, but I'm still fighting naptime, at least until my head hits the bed, and I immediately pass out almost every time. My continued new motto - "No Nap".


I take comfort in the knowledge that all of my best stuffed animal friends will be there to greet me whenever I wake up. The other night, I gathered all of my favorites to join Daddy and me as we watched a little evening TV. Mommy, of course, decided to capture the moment, which I happily cheesed it up for; however, I felt it only fair that each friend get equal attention, so I proceeded to hold up each stuffed animal and demand that Mom "take pi-ture". I believe in stuffed animal equality, especially when it comes to my main creatures and characters.

This is for you, Mrs. Teri: I have taken quite a liking to my yellow hairbow, and I insist on wearing it every evening. I am just so proud of my beautiful, long - no comments, please - hair. I was even wearing my bow the other night as I did a raspberry demonstration for Daddy, and I cried horribly when Mom accidentally vacuumed up my hairbow and had to retrieve it from the evil vacuum. Thank you, Mrs. Teri, for introducing me to the world of feminine hair decorations.

















Drum roll, please...I said my first full sentence last week, with the exclusion of commands that I have been barking for months. That's right; a subject and a verb were combined in perfect harmony to create - wait for it..."I love jumping"; I know that you are beyond impressed with my Ghandi-like wisdom. As an extension of my profound declaration, I now love "bock-bock", to eat, and "fish", the still alive kind. Just so you know, the doctor, as well as several random strangers, is very impressed with my verbal skills, so I command you to be impressed also. It is really impressive when I call out my own burps too.


Thankfully, this week has been a bit sunnier, and Aunt Mal, along with "Back-ster", made it up Monday evening for a little pool time with Mom, Mrs. Allison, Lucas, and me. I even called Lucas on the phone to invite him to the pool, but I mainly just giggled the whole time once I heard his voice. After the pool, Aunt Mal stayed for dinner, and she invented a new game: She put my princess chair on the couch, used her leg as a seatbelt, and then shook the chair wildly. I made sure to get my yellow balloon in on the action, and I shot Mom a really dirty look when she interrupted our playing to fix my "yellow 'airbow". I have begged to play the seatbelt game again and again every morning since, so Mom sends you a big, sarcastic "thank you", Aunt Mal.













Yesterday, Tuesday, Mom and I went to Aunt Mal's work to meet up with Aunt Steph while she got new glasses; Aunt Mal works at Pearle Vision. After picking out really pretty new glasses for Aunt Steph and running around wildly at Aunt Mal's work, the Aunts, Mom, Ms. Lauren, and I went out to lunch at the good ol' Olive Garden. I turned a straw into a fork and forced Aunt Mal to try all of my food. After eating, I made sure to give Baby Harper a little attention and several kisses. I also gave everyone at the table a kiss on her belly so that no one felt left out. I was very excited to sit in the big girl chair next to Aunt Steph, and I garnered a bit of attention from the table next to us as we were leaving, like anyone should be surprised. I even got my first Andes chocolate candy, which was quite delicious. Thank you for lunch, Aunt Steph; it was so much fun!

When Mom and I got home from lunch, I indulged her desire for a quick photo shoot in the front yard as a way of delaying nap. I know, I know; I'm too cute; therefore, Mom cannot resist taking my picture on a constant basis, and, as an added bonus, I had my Olivia pants on, so check out my butt. I believe that there was an ulterior motive for the photo shoot and that she was attempting to capture a picture for my birthday invitations. Can you believe it? I will be 2 years old in less than 2 months, which I will gladly tell you if you ask. I finally had to firmly tell her only "one mor'"; you've gotta regulate that Mama sometimes.

Today, Mom and I even made it to our new favorite park, Gary Pirkle Park, for a little playtime and a quick lunch. It is an awesome park with a covered playground and fans that blow cool air down from the ceiling, which doesn't totally keep me from sweating, but it definitely helps. The turf is also really soft so as to avoid scraped knees. I really enjoy all of the slides, big and small, and of course, I love to copy and follow the big kids. I have pretty much mastered the difficult ladder, which is pretty impressive since there is actually a sign that says the playset is geared for 5 - 12-year-olds. Those 5-year-olds ain't got nuthin' on me. Every time I pass the little music center, with drums and a bell, I am called to compose a quick ditty before I am on my way. I also warmed up to the ride-on truck and caterpillar this time. However, one little girl, who is older than me, was running around without her pants - weird, and a much older boy tried to jump on top of me, but I held my ground, and he got in trouble. The park can be a strange and dangerous place, but that just adds to its appeal. It was very difficult to stop for lunch, but I chose to be a good listener and sat at the picnic table for a few minutes to appease Mom. It was worth it since I found a hand dryer in the bathroom - oh, beloved hand dryer. I didn't throw a fit when Mom said that it was time to leave either, and because I was so good, Mom promised that we could go back and play this weekend. Maybe, we will even try the running trail over there as a break from our usual. On the way home, Mom and I went over one of our new concepts, what each color on the stoplight means. I'm catching up to Lucas, and I've almost gotten them figured out; although, it would be easier if they all just meant stop. On that note, remember to stop and enjoy these last few weeks of summer before they slip away; I know I will.