Sunday, November 7, 2010 - Update

Olivia with her cousin, Julia, looking at a dollhouse.

We are having a hard time deciding what to put on Olivia’s Christmas list.  She has more toys than she knows what to do with.  And, she is not yet to the point where she’ll tell you what she wants.  We even took her to Target today to see what interested her.  A lot of the things that peaked her interest were things that she already has.  I can’t say that I’m in a rush to get to the “I want” stage, but I wish she could give us a few hints.  Santa is going to have a tough time this year. :)  Her main interests right now are watching Dora and LeapFrog DVDs, coloring, Veggie Tales, books, music, dollhouses, trains and whatever the toy of the day is.  That could be anything from the Chipmunks (from a McDonald’s Happy Meal) her Laugh and Learn purse (that I stashed away because I thought she’d outgrown it) or her My Little Pony car.  She isn’t showing a lot of interest in baby dolls or princesses, which dominate the 3 year old market.  I’m sure we’ll come up with some ideas, but if you have any that your 3 year old LOVES, I’d love to hear from you.  I’m especially interested in all of the Tag Junior, VReaders, Leapfrog Explorers, MobiGoTouch, Fisher Price iXL etc.  Boy, there’s a lot out there and I have no idea if Olivia would like any of it.  There are also quite a few highly ranked Nintendo DS games targeted for preschoolers. . .and I already have a pink DS that I never use.  Oh, and there’s that Playskool Alphie robot.  He looks kinda cool.  It’s hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner. . . .yikes!

Name That Caption

I can’t think of a clever caption for this one, but it cracks me up.  Maybe someone can come up with a clever idea?

Thursday, November 4, 2010 - Update

Every once in awhile, you capture those really cute and natural smiles.  :)  Olivia was watching Leapfrog’s “The Letter Factory” which is her new favorite.  It has Leapfrog Lily in it who is one of Olivia’s dearest friends.  She was thrilled to learn that Lily is actually in a movie.  And, have I told you how funny Olivia is?  She is one of those naturally funny people and is constantly cracking me up.  We went trick or treating at Ryan’s work last week and a lady had one of those bowls with the hand sticking out of it.  Well, it scared Olivia to death. . .so much that she is still talking about the scary hand.  In fact, she even made up a song about it called the Scary Hand Song.  She is constantly telling people (even strangers) about her Scary Hand Song and I have to hurry and give them the back story.  She’s just so funny.

Anyway, Olivia had an eye appointment on Monday that didn’t go all that well.  In addition to the 45+ minute wait for the appointment and 20+ more minutes in optical. . .we didn’t get quite the good news that we wanted.  Her change in lenses doesn’t seem to be improving her strabismus.  We are now adding the bifocal back in to see if that will help with the focusing.  Then, it’s on to a second surgery (she had her first at a year old.)  With some kids, even glasses and surgery cannot  improve strabismus.  I have even had someone, while discussing Olivia’s eye crossing, tell me, “You know, there’s a surgery for that.”  Unfortunately, there is no 100% cure.  A belief in that causes many people to think that parents like myself aren’t doing everything we can for our children.  They think, “Why aren’t they getting their eyes corrected?”  My main goal is to give her the best vision possible and that is what we’re working towards. 

More Leaf Party Pictures