little fishy

so thanks to the hot tip from my cousin shelly, i found this little get up at the wal-mart for olivia. it makes me a bit nervous because it makes her think even more than before that she knows how to swim, but she seemed to notice the difference between when she had it on and when she didn't. so swimming lessons are in the near future, but for now it is hilarious to see her jump right in and swim off! she took a few gulps (maybe about a gallon or two :)) of water before getting the hang of things. don't mind her random friend in the pool cheering her on. she was loving playing with olivia but asked me a few times, "does she understand people?" apparently she was looking for more conversation....(ps this video is from my phone...sorry about the quality.)

here we are trying it on in wal-mart last night :)

dinnertime

i made this for the second time last night so i thought i'd share. i think it's pretty good. bonus to last night: olivia tried it and loved it! her sample turned in to like 10 bites. so far i don't think she's found anything she doesn't like. she also had salmon last week. girl loves to eat! 

chicken curry in a hurry

1 1/2 T olive oil

1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced

3/4 c heavy cream

1/2 c plain yogurt

2 t curry (i probably use a little more)

1 rotisserie chicken (obviously you could use any shredded chicken, but it's nice that these are already flavorful)

1 (14.5 oz) can of diced tomatoes, drained (optional-- i leave these out)

white or brown rice, as much you want to make

salt/pepper to taste

heat oil over medium heat, add onions and cook for about 7 minutes. sprinkle with curry powder and cook for another minute or so. 

add the yogurt and cream and simmer gently for 3 minutes. stir in the s&p and tomatoes (if using). remove from heat.

toss shredded chicken in mixture and serve over rice!

lame-o

this is the most idiotic thing ever. i almost feel bad for that principal because you know everyone is totally ganging up on him...

can you tell adam's studying for a work certification thing tonight so i'm home alone watching tori & dean re-runs while reading dumb news stories? :)

happy...

...11 months, little miss fancy. are you really almost a year old? ps i may have had this same bathing suit in the 1980's...that's why i couldn't resist it for $5.99 at tjmaxx. love it. and who knew she would blend in to her pool like camo?

summer update

my baby loves her strawberries. i used to be nervous about letting her go at the whole thing, but she is a pro at gnawing a huge strawberry down to the stem and then throwing the little teeny green piece that's left on to her tray. more, please! we also just go 21 lbs of blueberries from a grower (my mom put in a big order), so we are enjoying lots of berries. and blue diapers. ha.

unfortunately she is a little messy. not sure why we skipped the bib on this day.

olivia also got a fancy new toy. she thinks it's pretty cool and was practically clobbering me when i put it together. she couldn't get enough of all the gadgets.

look mom, no hands! 

last, the hair. olivia has quite the crazy mane and she is getting in to taking out her bows in secret places like the store so i can never find them. it's just about long enough to get in to a little mini pony so i tried one today. she even got this out after some serious work in the car. this may or may not have involved hairspray so who knows how much hair she pulled out. and yes i cut myself out of this picture because it was just frightening.

birthaversary

this is what adam kept calling our trip this weekend. a little birthday anniversary combo. my b-day was friday and our anniversary is august 3rd. thursday night when adam got home from work, he totally surprised me and said we were heading to the beach. i have to say- adam has planned some good "surprises" for me in the past, but i think this might be the only time i haven't had some sort of hunch. usually i annoyingly crack the case. i am a total surprise spoiler. so this one was a winner. caught me totally off guard. i was literally just about to put olivia to bed when he said we were leaving, so we did a little speed packing and headed to NSB! olivia was quite excited about all the commotion even though she didn't know what was going on. all she saw was 1- she wasn't going to bed and 2- we were going somewhere with bathing suits and beach toys! it was pretty funny. she kept crawling around banging on the walls doing her little squeals. needless to say, she totally thought this was her vacation and acted like the royal queen the whole time. she loved it and so did we! we had lots of sun, swimming and food. maybe not so much sleep, though. olivia was waking up at the crack of dawn and heading straight to the sliding glass door like a little puppy dog wanting to go out. we obliged.

checking out the new digs with dad. she started going crazy. we have been doing the beach a lot so i think she knew what was up.

lots of this face and squealing when we got there...

olivia has mastered holding on to the edge in the pool, but i think she thinks it just free drinks off the ledge. gross.

 

catching some mickey mouse clubhouse between beach/pool trips

getting crazy at manny's pizza. what was in that greek salad?!

i'm so funny on my vacation

waiting for our ice cream...

i gave this to her as a joke but she though it was normal. she kept looking at me like, "ok, where's yours mom?"

"mmm. i love mint chocolate chip. so glad i got the double scoop."

me looking like garbage in the early morning

 

a rare shot with the usual family photographer

sad that i just realized we don't have one family pic from the trip. oops. here's to my next birthday surprise! :) 

2-a-day

adam and i hit a real milestone in our lives and watched 2 movies in one day this weekend. we're the type that has all these intentions of renting movies all the time and watching a few on a friday night, yet somehow, when we sit down to put them in the dvd player, one of us always says, "let's just watch it later." and for the theater, it's gotta be a real winner before we go. i guess the combo of adam getting increasingly bored and asking to leave if it's lame + the ridiculous cost of  2 tickets has caused this. anyway. 

first, we watched taken. mess you up. that night when i was putting olivia in the car i was seriously watching my back waiting to get kidnapped. it was a little heavy for me (why couldn't it just have been a kidnapping w/o any of the details of why she was kidnapped?), but also pretty feel good at the same time. liam neeson was great in it. i won't spoil anymore in case you haven't seen it. but i recommend it.. just keep an eye/ear closed during a few parts i guess unless you want to have a nightmare like i did. needless to say, olivia- you are NEVER GOING TO EUROPE ALONE. thank you.

next, we went and saw up in the theater. yes, we took olivia. she was a little sleepy but i figured maybe she'd just doze off if she got bored. she didn't fall asleep, but she was great! she was wide eyed for all the scenes with the little chubby kid russell you've probably seen in the previews. it was too funny. it lost her attention for a while but she was okay as long as i gave her a piece of a golden oreo. we were out of town for my b-day (next post), so she was loving all the treats as queen of the vacation. this movie was also a little heavy for a cartoon? cute story. adam cried. sorry. had to tell. 

sorry this post is kind of annoying to read with the picture placement, but i'm too lazy to change it.

13 hours of sleep....

will make you as happy as a clam (and apparently give you a weird, sideways mohawk)! olivia has always been a great sleeper, but last night she treated me really well and slept from 630pm-8:00am. she normally doesn't go down till 730 or so, but i was not feeling well last night and adam wasn't going to be home till late, so i opted for a household early bed time. what a nice baby! 

GOOD morning!

time to party!

so silly with that binkie...

mag mystery

so, here's the thing: have any of you ever gotten a magazine sent to you in the mail that you didn't subscribe to? i figured this is blogworthy since i'm always telling everyone about this phenomenon slash scam. i'm guessing it probably only happens if you already subscribe to some magazines, since lots of them are owned by the same companies and that's how they get your address, etc, etc. anyway- this happens to me ALL the time. i've gotten family circle and allure to name some most recent ones. and these are not one time mailings. i get a full on subscription's worth. i'm blogging about this because recently i've received the mother of all mags.. us weekly. it has come to me in my name, to my address, for several weeks now...and i'm not a subscriber. so, even though i am thoroughly enjoying catching up on the j and k + 8 scandal (SO SAD), i'm curious when this will end. i have suspected that these are all attempts to make you think you subscribe to something that you really don't, so when a "renewal" notice comes, you'll feel all remorseful if you don't sign up for another round. and...ding ding ding.. i'm right. i got a notice from us weekly the other day that was like "LAST CHANCE TO RENEW!!" yeah right suckers. keep sending me my freebies. i'm not renewing anything.