Dear Olivia,

Today your Dad woke me up from my nap by throwing you on the bed with me. (Okay so he didn't physically throw you.) For the next 15 minutes or so it was Mommy and Olivia time! Seriously we spent so much time giggling together! You just thought I was hilarious and laughed at everything I did! I swung you around, threw you up in the air, kissed you, blew raspberries, and so much more. You are becoming more and more fun by the minute! (Not that you weren't fun before) I love watching you get older and grow and explore more! :)


You have started this thing where you HATE your car seat, high chair, and being changed or having your diaper changed. I think it's because now you can move and get yourself around that you hate to be in one place. You always want to be going! You also stand up all the time now! You will pull yourself up and it's adorable to watch how proud you get of yourself! :)


I love you beautiful little girl. I wish I could portray in these letters how much I love you! How adorable and funny you are! You are just the sweetest little baby and I love you more than I could ever put into words. I can't wait to watch you grow some more! I can't wait to teach you things and be able to do girly things like paint your toes! I'm totally planning on doing that this summer by the way! ;)


Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

You got a tooth! It actually came through on your Aunt Stacey's wedding, May 9, 2014! It's about time too! Just today I realized I am beginning to see it! Before I could just feel that it had cut through the gums but now there is physical proof it's there! :) It's a little bittersweet. You are getting older and it's hard to watch! But it's a great thing too!


I love you beautiful girl!


Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

Your vocabulary is pretty impressive. You say 4 words. Which for a 9 month old is pretty dang cool. You of course say Mama and Dada. I love watching you reach for me saying mama! :) You also say uh oh. And you now say bye bye. It's more like bah bah but it's pretty close! And you wave! So stinking adorable! I love watching you wave your little hand up and down!


Today I had you in the bath tub and you would stand up, purposely fall down, and say uh oh, laugh, and do it all again. It was the cutest thing ever! I just sat there and laughed right along with you! You are so stinking adorable I can barley stand it!


Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia and Bently,

Real Life. That is what I am living. Well I guess that's what we're all living. :) When I imagined growing up, getting married, having children, I expected the fairy tale. Adoring husband, perfectly behaved children, white picket fence, of course I would be a stay at home mom, and the house would be spotless and smell of chocolate chip cookies. This is not my reality. My reality right now, today, is as follows. Husband is sick, throwing up every hour or so. Livvy is teething and is crying and wanting to be held almost constantly. Also not napping. Bently is adorable and is such a trooper for taking the back seat. The house is a mess. Seriously. Dishes are stacked everywhere, the family room floor needs to be vaccumed, badly. The bathroom is starting to look like a public bathroom (eww), and the list could go on and on. The kia needs an oil change, but we're out of money for this pay period. I am trying to clean and cook and take care of 2 crying kids (yes one of those is daddy! ;) Plus working full time. I am currently living off of 4 hours of broken sleep and it's making me extra emotional! I sat here at work thinking of all the things I had to do and feeling very overwhelmed. I suffer with comparing my life to others. I want that picture perfect life I dreamed about as a child. I want to be home all the time with my babies, I want to buy a house and fill it to the brim with memories. As I sat, wallowing in self pity, I realized, this is real life. No one, NO ONE, has the perfect life. All lives are filled with trials and sorrows. I guess what I am trying to say, is when you grow up, get married, have babies, don't be surprised if it's not exactly how you pictured it. If you don't have the nicest furniture, or a full set of matching dishes, or a house. Don't feel overwhelmed when the dishes pile up in the sink and the children are screaming and you make waffles for dinner because frankly, you barley had time to do that. Because I learned today, I need to enjoy these moments. The moments when my kids are little, where I am a 911 dispatcher and have the opportunity, every single day to help someone. The time where your Dad gets to be home, to share in special memories with you. There is so much beauty in my life. Bently and Olivia, you guys are a big majority of that beauty. You and your Dad. You guys are my happiness, my happily ever after. You make every single day amazing. I have so much to be grateful for and I truly feel like I am living my fairy tale. Sure it has it's downs and twist and turns, but how boring would your story be if it was perfect? I guess this long rambling letter is just to tell you, life isn't always perfect. It hardly ever turns out how you plan, and that is ok. Because you can do hard things. You can overcome and move on, and become a better person because of what you've been through. Trust in the Lord and his plan and his timing and all will be okay in the end. I promise.


I love you both so much. Thank you for your smiles and endless hugs and kisses. I can't get enough of my adorable babies!


Love,
Your very tired and rambling Mom.

Dear Olivia,

Yesterday we were walking around Target when your naughty brother dropped something he shouldn't have been playing with and exclaimed, "uh oh!" Without missing a beat you copied him with your own cute little "uh oh". It may have been the most adorable thing I have ever heard in my entire life! The rest of Target we all took turns getting you to say "uh oh"! It was seriously too cute for words!

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

We celebrated your very first Easter today! You missed the egg dying yesterday due to your napping through it. This morning we did the egg hunt and you were really too little to find eggs so you mostly played on the floor while Bently hunted. You loved chewing on the plastic eggs though! You looked so cute holding them in your hands gnawing away! ;) Speaking of which, I think your first tooth might finally be coming it! :) It's getting so close! I can actually feel the bump now! But back to Easter, you got a toy for your first Easter! You love it, and unfortunately so does your brother! He is constantly taking it away from you poor girl. We're still working on the sharing thing! ;)


You are getting so much closer to crawling on all fours. You can actually crawl on all fours, but you only do it for a short while before you drop to your tummy and army crawl. I always get excited when I see you crawling on all fours! It makes me realize how soon the day will come when you'll be walking! Your Dad and I were actually talking about it today! We both can't imagine it right now but I know it'll come soon enough! You are only 3 months away from being one which is completely crazy to me! Time has gone by too fast! You are so big! Where the heck did my baby go? To be honest I am excited as much as I am sad that you are growing up! I'm excited for summer where hopefully both you and Bently will be running around like crazy people. I have been secretly propping you up to standing so that you can gain the leg muscles required to walk. Bently walked at like 13-14 months and I really want you to walk sooner! Don't tell your Dad! He's dreading having 2 walkers! ;)


You have gotten so giggly lately! Seriously you laugh all the time and I love it! I cannot get enough of your adorable giggle!


Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

This is something I kept telling myself to write about and I kept forgetting. So here I am months later writing about it. Well technically it's still happening but whatever. So from probably about a month old and on you have been a gassy baby. Now that's not unusual for a baby but what was unusual I how badly your stunk! I mean they were doozies! Every single one of them! It was a little bit embarrassing. I mean, we can say it was you, but people just assume we're lying! ;) It's still a problem but the stink has definitely gone down.


I love you my stinky little girl! ;)

Love,
Mom