End of Summer & Starting School

 

 Each summer flies by so quickly, and this year was no exception! At this point in my pregnancy, I probably should take it easy. But, as I posted earlier, the reality of Olivia being our only child for just a little while longer before Callie arrives is really tugging at my heart. And it's not just that, but she is just plain growing up! I can't keep up with what she is learning new everyday. I didn't think I would be so emotional to get Olivia ready to start pre-school, but I think it's going to be a blessing and an enriching experience for all of us. So the end of this summer has been full of good times spent with my "baby girl." 

 Our newest obsession is frozen custard from Fergy's just down the road from us. "Fro-tard" is quite possibly the best invention EVER!!

 

 

 Tuesday morning storytime at the library. She is practicing her gluing skills.

 

 She's showing off her dinosaur she decorated at another storytime.

 

 Visiting the "dinosaur museum", aka Museum of Natural Science, with my cousins.

 

 

 Everytime we head to the Children's Museum, she has to find this certain "blue bear" to carry around with her everywhere. It's cute, until someone else wants to play with it. Sharing is not the easiest thing to teach a kid!

 



 We both woke up late one morning before a doctor's appointment, so what could be a better opportunity to have breakfast at what Olivia calls the "donut store?" YUM!

 

 

 I'm showing Callie some of her new clothes I bought at Marshall's.

 

 

 Back-to-school haircut. Hello bangs!

 

 

 Riding the carousel at Memorial City Mall.

 

 

 

 

 

 Lunch and dessert at City Centre with my sister Maomi before she moves back up to University of North Texas for the year.

 

Fro-yo at Red Mango in City Centre....2nd best invention ever.

 

 

 Playing in the courtyard at City Centre

 

 

 After Olivia's first dentist appointment!
I think we were prepared. She's at the age where she will understand most of something we discuss (except potty training, ha!), so we discussed the appointment well before the actual day. I let her bring Purple Bear for comfort (we typically never let her take Purple Bear out of the house). She enjoyed seeing the x-ray machine because it was like seeing Big Bird's from a Sesame Street episode, but she did get a little upset while the dentist poked around in her mouth. But overall, I think it was a success: no cavities and she walked away proudly with a goodie bag!

 

 

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Pre-school at Lakewood United Methodist:

 

 

Meet-the-teacher day: with Ms. Melinda

 

Meet-the-teacher day:  with Ms. Angie

 

Today gave Olivia and us the opportunity to meet her teachers and become familiar with her classroom. Again, just like prepping for the dentist, we made sure to talk about her teacher's names and how the experience could be. Olivia did not get shy at all! I think with going to her Sunday School class at church every week and having attended Community Bible Study all last year, she was quite ready and was not shy at all.

 

 Meet-the-teacher day: sitting at the storytime corner with daddy

 Meet-the-teacher day

 

 Meet-the-teacher day

 

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First Day of School - September 4th

This was an exciting day for which we've been waiting a long time! Neither Olivia or I could sleep last night as we wondered what today would be like. I obviously wanted to fall asleep fast and quick, but I enjoyed cuddling with Olivia in the rocker in the middle of night. I think it was in God's plans to let me have just one last moment with my "baby girl" before the big day. When morning finally arrived, Olivia was all giggles and got to spend time with Daddy while he worked from home in the morning. I probably could have been a little more organized and on-time with packing her bag and lunch and getting dressed. Note to self: DO NOT leave my cell phone at home on school days! Here are some pictures we took at home and school before dropping Olivia off.

 Having a tri-pod comes in handy. By the look on her face, I think Olivia was confused about why there was no one behind the camera taking pictures.

 Schedule for each day. I don't know how many times I looked at the clock today wondering what she was doing!

 Standing outside her classroom waiting to file in. She's in the Penguins classroom (Turning 3's)

 Showing Olivia where her cubby is and teaching her to put her bag and lunch in there each morning on her own.

 I did not cry saying goodbye. Not even a minute after the doors opened, she's already got her purple doll she fell in love with on meet-the-teacher day!

Dictations for the day. I love what Olivia said, "Play baby."
It was a great day! She was so hyper when I picked her up, so I know she had a good time.


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One of the themes at her school this month is "Family." So, the teachers asked us to bring in a recent family photo to display all year in the classroom. We sent in this first one, from a couple weeks ago when I was 30-weeks pregnant with Callie. 

 

 

 

We are slowly getting ready to welcome Callie, so this past weekend Ethan and I worked on Callie's name sign. And here's the final product! I got the idea from Etsy, but knew I could probably make one myself for much cheaper. The sign is made up of spray-painted cardboard letters on ceramic tiles adorned with scrapbook paper. And then we glued the tiles onto a piece of scrap wood that we spray-painted as well. I think we spent just about $25 for something that would have cost us almost $100 to buy!!

 

Almost 32 weeks pregnant.

Back to some fun

Since the last time I blogged, we've had our share of rain, floods and sick babies here in Houston. I think over the span of a week, our area received 14-16" of rain and many streets around our area in Cypress were underwater for days. Luckily, our house was high and dry, and we only had to take minor detours to get around. Ethan braved the weather commuting to and from Downtown each day, but luckily he takes the ParknRide bus and has a pretty good carpool system with a friend if it gets really nasty.

In the Martin household though, little Miss Olivia suffered from a minor cold and ear infection. When Olive is sick, I think the neighbors even know it. She doesn't act like her normal happy-self and is very attached to her mommy. I don't blame her though, and luckily, we were able to give her some antibiotics to help it. Her being under-the-weather coincided with the nasty weather, so we had a LONG week of stir-crazed cabin fever. I really want to thank Sesame Street for providing endless entertainment for a sick baby and tired mommy.

Fast-forward to this week! Olivia is feeling MUCH better and we've been able to take advantage of our new YMCA membership. Olivia is slowly adjusting to the kids care, and I have been getting in some much needed cardio. My sciatica is acting up pretty early with this pregnancy, so I needed to get back into some sort of routine to strengthen those muscles that have gotten too weary. We went twice this week.

Today, we ventured out to the Galleria, just the two of us. One of Olive's favorite Sesame Street episodes has a segment at the ice rink, so I told her that I would take her to watch some ice skating. We got there before open skate time, so Olivia was able to see the kids in skate lessons doing twirls, racing and skating backwards.

 Afterwards, we stopped to play at the "Little Galleria" , a miniature version of the Galleria fit for toddlers. She loved being able to get up and down all the areas by herself. There were even cars to show the typical traffic jams!

For lunch, we ate at Rainforest Cafe. If you've never been, the entire inside of the place  is decorated as a jungle along with life-size robotic animals. Every ten minutes or so, the animal scenes mist up like a rainforest and the animals roar. I had to be smart and warn Olivia that these animals werent real, because we sat only two feet away from a family of tigers. Typically at places like these, you pay for the ambience while the food quality lacks, but I really enjoyed my soup and salad combo. Well, really, anything I don't have to cook is just awesome.

We also stopped at Dylan's Candy Bar for some gummy candies for me and Ethan, and also a couple lollipops for Olivia. I crave sweets all the time, so I really had to limit our time in here or else I'd have to get a job to supplement this habit!

I am trying to do as much together with Olivia right now while I have the energy and before Callie arrives. With only three more months to go with this pregnancy, it has really sunk in to me how fast Olivia is growing (just look at how big she's getting in the stroller in the picture above!), and sometimes I find myself just staring at her for a long time so that I can soak her all in and not miss a thing. On our way home from the Galleria, we made our weekly stop to Cypress Assistant Ministries Pantry to donate some cereal. Olivia has made good friends from the pantry coordinator, Margo, and likes to play with her flower pens and business cards on her desk. As we were leaving, I asked Olivia why we donate, and she answers "to help people. Just like Jesus. He washes His friends feet." My heart melts.

I know my love will multiple when Callie arrives, I'm just trying to figure out how it will all happen. I'm a worrier, but God tells me not to be. He takes care of my todays and tomorrows.

Happy Birthday, America

Ethan was very excited to celebrate Independence Day this year. We bought a new flag for the house and a few little ones to decorate our lawn. Olivia has always been fascinated by the fireworks on the Taylor Swift DVD, so we thought that she'd enjoy seeing some up close and personal. We had a small cook-out at home with burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, corn on the cob and pecan pie. It doesn't get any more American than that!

Decorating the lawn with mini-flags

 Pooltime on the 4th.

 Fireworks time!

Click on the image above to watch Olivia with some poppers.

Walking over to see Mr. Troy, Ms. Kim and Julie.

 Click on the image above to view Ethan's new RC truck with sparklers attached. We almost got ambushed by our neighbor's firework gone awry. Olivia didn't quite make it to stay up this late, but it was nice sitting out with just Ethan in the breeze and enjoying all the sights and sounds.

Happy Birthday, America! We are so thankful for the freedom countless men and women have provided for us.