Crossroads: January 2018

Friday, January 12, 2018

Olivia Layne - 6 years old!

Somehow 6 takes my breath away. Did I say that at age 5, too? I'm amazed, as usual, at my sweet girl. She is growing up! Olivia is becoming more and more independent, empathetic, curious, eager to learn, helpful, funny, active, and delightful to be around. Of course at each age, she is my favorite age ;) She is doing great in school-a fast learner, a good helper, an example to others, a follower of directions, and a lover of kindergarten! At home she continues to LOVE to play with Daddy. Numbers and math seem to be one of her strong suits, but then again so does everything, if I do say so myself. She is super creative. She writes books for Georgie, makes artistic cards and pictures for us, creates neat crafts. She loves to learn about things. Especially animals. Almost every week she brings home a book from the school library about animals. This week at school they started reading a "real book" and she is thrilled. She's been learning to read at home with Dick and Jane, which is so fun and adorable, and also Piggie and Elephant. She loves dancing, singing, gymnastics, swimming, ice-skating, building snow forts, playing legos, reading with Mama, helping Daddy in the kitchen, having spelling bees at dinner time, training Georgie, exploring, trying new things, creating imaginative stories in her head for herself, her animals, her classmates. She loves her cousins and grandparents and brother and friends. She is hilarious, smart, energetic, silly, brave, active, a lover of life! She is a people pleaser and a rule follower, which will serve her well since she is also a girl who knows what she wants and is strong and passionate, which will help her reach for the stars and stand up for herself and what's right. She delights in her Daddy and something I hope I never forget is the sight of them running toward each other as they both get home from school. Just in the two weeks since she turned 6 I have loved watching her become more independent, less whiny, less demanding, easier to talk to, and fun to just be with. There is so much more I could say about her awesomeness, but the words keep tumbling around in my mind and it's hard to get them out eloquently. Babies growing up is bittersweet, to be sure. But I wouldn't have her any other way. I love my baby 6 year old beyond words!

December 2017

We had a magical December!

Here is Olivia opening her Lego Friends Advent set!

Jim and Patsy were able to sneak over for a visit in early December and we were SO happy to have them, as always. It was special for Olivia to get to open her yearly advent card from them WITH them :)

And her third advent countdown, a special one on the computer, with snowflakes to create, Christmas trees to decorate, trains to ride and so much more!

The ever patient girls best friend :)

a Winter trip to the beach with an amazing dream catcher

look at this! we think it's a sturgeon. But isn't it strange and gross and cool?

Trolley Christmas caroling!

a visit to Cade at USM

writing her letter to Santa

Dear Santa, I want a really big car track and zhu zhu pets

Georgie would like a sweater and a bag of dog treats

Santa's special mailbox

we visited Kennebunk which is one of the best Christmas cities in the country. It was indeed very cool, but we forgot Olivia's snow boots, so her feet were soaked and wet. We didn't get to do as much downtown as I would have liked, but I'm still glad we went. Lesson learned!

Our pretty house with snow and Christmas lights

Olivia went to a very cool birthday party at a tennis club for her friend Stella

making snowflakes

getting ready for her Christmas dance recital.

Olivia was so excited for her dance recital. She had a solo in the jazz dance where she got to do the coffee grinder (a break dancing move) because she was so good at it. But her favorite part of the dance was where she and Orrin ran over to Aurora to catch her as she pretended to fall. Wouldn't you know it, during all the rehearsals she nailed it, but during the performance her earmuffs distracted her and she missed her cue. She was so upset. It was devastating for me to see her little face fall when she realized she missed her favorite part and made a mistake. She is definitely a perfectionist. I wanted to run on stage and sweep her into my arms to comfort her. But she recovered and finished the dance well. It was hard for her to let the mistake go, and she even talked about it that night at bedtime, how bummed she was that she messed up her favorite part. I took the opportunity to share with her that we all mess up, forget things, get distracted, make mistakes, but that it's OK. That the people in the audience didn't even know she missed her cue. That she still did totally awesome. That it's about having fun. Etc. Etc. It's so hard when our little ones experience disappointment that really hurts their hearts. I'm thankful for her sensitive spirit and how it will benefit her as she learns to empathize with others, as she learns from mistakes, as she grows into a compassionate woman. But man, I sure wish I could turn back time and make it so she nailed her favorite dance move!

Livi and her sweet dance teacher for the past 3 years, Allison.

Out and about for a special late night-Bright Lights Bath

and a Winter beverage for mama :)

For some reason this year I was hit with a strong desire to put tinsel on the tree. I have great memories of using tinsel on our trees growing up and it made me so happy!