made X modern

Olivia West | Three Years

MotherhoodCatharine KlepacComment
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I feel like so much happened this past year with me going back to work, Olivia starting school, and her transforming into a tiny human overnight that we can have full blown conversations with. I still can’t believe she just turned THREE. I am also so unbelievably glad that quarantine early last year allowed us to spend more time together so that I didn’t miss these incredible moments. 2020 wasn’t great, but it was kind of the best way to transition to going back to work if you ask me, as I could WFH but still got to be with my girl. Although at times it was WILD (seriously I still don’t know how we did it all) I am so thankful for our extra time together.

| STATS |

Since her last update she has had a 3 year checkup where she weighed in at a whopping 34lb (90th), was 38” long (70th), and even had a hearing test which she passed with flying colors. Also. She was such a pro. Just marched up and stood on the scale like she does it everyday, sat through her hearing test like a champ, and answered all of her doctor’s questions. Although when he asked what her favorite vegetable was she said cheese. Which is funny because she actually loves lots of vegetables but her pedi will never believe me. Also given how underweight she was for so long, it’s just blowing my mind she is in the 90th percentile. I never thought we’d see her that high. Girlfriend loves her snacks. Also she’s wearing 4T pants because her legs are so dang long the 3Ts look like capris. My parents are both tall so you’re welcome.

| EATING |

After literally eating veggie tots for every meal for far too long, Olivia is finally starting to get more adventurous with food. I’m also getting a lot more chill and have introduced (gasp!) cookies. I know. I’m a monster. Olivia and I are both vegetarian (and Derek is about 90% of the time) so I always make sure to watch her protein and iron intake. We all switched to oat milk (Oatly is our jam) and never looked back. I was tired of buying 3 different milks for everyone’s aversions so we all just made the leap to plant based milk and she just devours it. She is at preschool full time so I pack her a lunch which consists of a sandwich, cheese stick, fruit, and carrots. They provide breakfast (usually cereal) and snacks. Oh and cupcakes whenever it’s someone’s birthday. And trust me. We always know when it’s someones birthday because that girl is bouncing off the walls when I pick her up. For dinner she has a version of whatever we’re eating, but on days when I haven’t already prepped a meal she rotates between black bean and cheese tacos, chickpea pasta with plant based meatballs, mac and peas, yogurt (with alllllll the fixins), or a smoothie. Now that we’re all on the same schedule it’s so much easier to sit down and eat together as a family, and I’ve noticed that she is more likely to eat what we’re eating if we’re all sitting together. Lately she will ask for seconds or thirds which usually results in a banana or orange slices so that we can reserve some of the leftovers for our lunches at work lol.

| SLEEPING |

Olivia has been on the same sleep schedule since about 13-ish months. However, since starting school we’ve had to start waking her at 7am and have pushed her bedtime back to around 7:00-7:30 so that we can spend more time with her in the evenings. But depending on how exhausted or feisty she is from a full day at school, sometimes we skip a bath and get her in bed by 6pm ha. At school nap time is from 12:30-2:30 and she’s used to at least a 3 hour nap so she’s definitely tired when we pick her up. On the weekends she will sleep in until 9 or 10am and then nap for 3-4 hours just to catch up on all the sleep she isn’t getting at school. Girlfriend loves her sleep. Although it sounds great, it also kind of makes us sad because we don’t get to see her as much (but we wouldn’t dare wake a sleeping toddler woof). Side note: If you are in the throws of an infant (or toddler) sleep schedule (or are struggling with sleep regressions) I highly recommend this post to read about the method that worked for us and in turn created this incredible sleep schedule and happy child.

Oh. And she’s still rocking the crib. Her and no less than 50 stuffies (or buddies as we call them), 2 blankets, and a pillow.

| DOING |

Well with the theme of 2020 there hasn’t been a lot of “doing”. Which makes me sad because she is at such a fun age that I’d love to take her to splash pads, museums, the arboretum, zoo, vacations, etc. But sadly we haven’t been able to do any of those things. For the first half of the year we pretty much just stayed home and made our own fun. We read so many books, went on lots of walks (and talked about everything we saw), did lots of crafts, and tackled potty training (more on that later). Derek and I were both working from home while keeping her busy and would trade off mornings and afternoons, we’d work before she woke up, during naps, and then after she went to bed just to catch up. We took conference calls with her running around in the background which is basically just so normal now. We even broke down and got Disney+ for rainy days or when we both had meetings at the same time. She never really cared about screen time before and would never sit through more than 5min of a show. That was until we introduced her to Frozen. Now that’s our secret weapon when we need to hunker down and work without disruption. Her love for Anna and Elsa runs deep (hence her Frozen 3rd Birthday Party). Her vocabulary exploded around 26-27 months and we can legit have full blown conversations with her now. Which is tricky because she is so smart and knows so many words we have to remind ourselves that she’s only 3 whenever she acts out and doesn’t listen and we’re trying to reason with her (iykyk). In June I had to go back to working in the office so we enrolled her back in school and just continues to learn and grown everyday. Having her in school for a month, then taking her out for three, then putting her back definitely created some behavioral shifts which we weren’t prepared for. She started acting out at school (biting, running, hitting, potty training regression, etc.) to the point where we had to sit down with her teachers and come up with a plan. We bought all of the books, and all got on the same page so that our response at home aligned with what they did at school and within a few months she was back to her happy self. Can you imagine how confusing that would be for these kids? Being independent, then with your parents 24/7, then independent again. Poor thing. All is well now and we are all stronger and closer from it!

| MILESTONES |

Olivia has all of her teeth now, and I definitely think her 2 year molars (which took a while to come in) played a large part in her behavioral changes too. Between 24 - 26 months her vocabulary went from 25 words to over 1,000. I mean she even uses filler words like “because”, “actually”, “already”, and will say “I don’t think so” or “I don’t want to” rather than just “no”. She also loves to practice identifying letters and can even spell and read the word “love” regardless of the font, size, or color of the text she always knows when something says “love”. She can say her full name, which is pretty impressive since most adults don’t know how to say our last name. She can count to 20 and is working on counting to 100 and basic math. She knows her ABCs, but is still working on letter and number identification. She knows O for Olivia, B for Becky, D for Daddy, and G for Geoffrey, and many others (without word associations). She is working on tracing letters and numbers and holds her pencil better than most adults I know. She knows all of her colors, shapes, days of the week, seasons, animals, and we’re working on identifying different types of flowers. We also used our time at home to tackle potty training, which she mastered in about two weeks, but we’re still working on nighttime dryness. She even tells us when she needs to go potty when we’re in public or in the car. Which I am about 1000% against public restrooms even in a non-COVID world yuck. She knows how OCD I am and will literally keep her hands above her head the whole time we’re in one lol. Another huge milestone was learning empathy. This was a big struggle for a long time, and after reading lots of books about kindness and feelings she now understands when someone is sad, to the point that when we were deflating balloons from her birthday she scooped up each one and asked it if it was okay, while cuddling and kissing it. Empathy. She also understands consequences and cause and effect much more now which helps when redirecting, or disciplining her when she could get hurt or hurt someone else by her actions.

| FAVORITE MOMENTS |

We bought a house about a week before she turned 2, so we’ve been able to spend this year with much more space (which worked out since we were cooped up for most of the year). She has her own dedicated playroom now which she just loves and will constantly ask “will you come play with me?” We tried to make this year extra special since we felt like she was being deprived of so many activities and adventures, so once the summer heat started subsiding, we started going to a different park each weekend early in the morning before other families showed up. We would always leave when social distancing wasn’t an option and would hand sanitize immediately. We quickly learned which parks were the least active at any given point. Anyway. Watching her master playground equipment was incredible to see. She has no fear (thanks to a year at Little Gym) and will try any ladder or obstacle. She still doesn’t love crazy slides, but will do the more basic ones all day long (and make us crawl through all the things which makes me feel 100). She now asks us for hugs (Derek more than me) and randomly says I love you and it’s just the best. Meeting Anna on her birthday was also just the sweetest moment, and makes me super excited to take her to Disney World one day. She also loves singing songs she learns from school, teaching us what she’s learned (and literally sits like a teacher with a book and tells us all about it and quizzes us saying “good job mommy, you did it!” when I get it right. I’ve also enjoyed cooking and baking together and she just loves helping so much! The holidays were amazing this year (which made me sad that they were altered due to COVID but we still made sure they were special for her). For Halloween she kept changing her mind about her costume so in the end she was a cat lol but loved trick-or-treating. We only went to the houses where we didn’t have to interact with too many people and she really enjoyed it. Christmas was just magic. She was obsessed with driving around looking at lights, waiting for Santa to come, and hugging every blow up in our neighbors yards when we went for walks. I think my absolute favorite thing though is seeing her sense of humor blossom (which reminds me a lot of my sense of humor which makes me oh so happy). Like for example she has call backs from jokes made weeks ago. She holds onto them and will spit them out and we’re just on the floor laughing like how on earth did she remember that! She’ll also sarcastically give you a thumbs up when she’s not impressed but knows you need affirmation. Dead.

Olivia's Frozen 3rd Birthday Party

MotherhoodCatharine KlepacComment

Up until Olivia was 2 she really didn’t care much about TV or movies. That all changed when the world shutdown and we were forced to all stay home and pull out alllllll the stops to try and keep her busy while we both worked from home. Enter: Frozen. Frozen 2 had just come out, but we hadn’t seen the OG yet, and we heard so many kids her age were obsessed with it, but we had our doubts. And were oh so wrong. What is it about this movie that just captivates everyone? Derek and I are even obsessed with it and I always have the songs in my head.

Anyway, ever since last spring Olivia has requested an “Anna Elsa” (that’s what she calls it) birthday party. The party planner in my cringed a bit picturing all of the Disney branded plates and napkins and everything cheesy. So I decided that I would embrace her theme, but make it modern and more my style ha. Even though we couldn’t have a full blown party with all of her friends (it’s okay she had one with her class at school), we still wanted to make her day special. And you know I don’t hold back when it comes to parties. So we kept it to immediate family only, which for two only children our immediate family is 5 people lol. We also required that everyone wear masks the whole time and everyone was always socially distant throughout the party. And honestly who knows isolation better than Anna and Elsa? This whole party was so on brand.

Once again it all started with the invitation. I threw in lots of inside jokes from both movies for all of the true Frozen fans out there. I couldn’t help myself.

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In true form I stayed up allllll night baking and getting everything setup. And Olivia slept until 10am and honestly would have kept sleeping but Geoffrey woke her up with his barking.

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I’ve tagged all of the sources at the end of the post in case you’re curious about where anything is from. I mostly focused on the large blank wall in our living room where I hung lots of iridescent streamers, balloons, stars, you name it. Part of her gift from Derek and I were the Anna and Elsa dresses, so I had Derek build a small dress up rack for her to hang everything on in her playroom. What’s nice is it can fold up when not in use, and we can always lengthen it as her dress up wardrobe increases.

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Obviously all of the snacks had to follow the theme so I made snowflake cookies, a very magical Elsa cake, the most delish rice crispy treats, and even included carrots for Sven! I even cut the cheese into snowflakes because I’m crazy.

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Olivia was just beside herself and immediately hugged Olaf and then just bopped balloons around for a very long time. All while wearing one glove just like Elsa. There was even a bowl of snowballs for a snowball fight, which she was all about getting to throw things in the house without getting in trouble.

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THEN! A surprise guest arrived!

Sidenote: Olivia has loved Anna from the first time she saw her. I mean lets face it. She’s the real hero of both movies, why does Elsa get all the credit? Anyway. I was super pumped because my friend at work looks EXACTLY like Anna and this was going to be a huge hit until about a month before her party when Olivia wouldn’t stop raving about Elsa and how Anna was old news. Shoot! Considering I didn’t have any blonde friends (and the wigs totally look so fake, Olivia wouldn’t buy it) I stuck with the original plan and I was so nervous that she’d be like “not you! where is Elsa??” But boy was I wrong.

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Olivia wasn’t shy or scared or mad it wasn’t Elsa, she was just smitten that Anna would come all the way from Arendelle for her birthday party. She was such a good little hostess and immediately made sure Anna had a plate of snacks, and lots of balloons to play with. Then promptly asked her if she wanted to color.

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Olaf had to color too ha.

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Then it was time for cake and presents! I was very impressed that Olivia blew out all of her candles in one puff.

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When you love Anna, but love tools a little bit more.

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Then it was more dancing with balloons and Anna recounting her adventures as we watched them on the big screen. Which was just cracking everyone up. “Oh man I remember that! Don’t worry I’m really fast, see the snow monster can’t catch me!”

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She seriously had the very best day ever! I’m not sure how I’ll be able to top this next year!

Sources

invitations - DIY

three balloon

happy birthday headband

olivia’s pajamas

olivia’s dress - old navy last season

balloon arch

iridescent stars

happy birthday banner

fringe backdrop

snowflake garland

light up snowflake - decade old outdoor christmas decor I borrowed from my parents

olaf balloon

cake - homemade

cake topper

brown butter raspberry marshmallow treats

snowflake cookies - secret family recipe

powdered donuts

iridescent plates

iridescent cups

snowballs

elsa dress + accessories

elsa shoes

anna dress

adult anna dress (seriously blown away by the quality!)

garment rack - DIY

coloring book

Olivia's 2nd Birthday Paw-ty

MotherhoodCatharine KlepacComment

Well this post is only 6 months late, but if that isn’t the theme of 2020 I don’t know what is. Back in JANUARY Olivia turned 2, so it seems appropriate that I finally share her adorable puppy party with you all the week she turns 2.5. AKA When I start planning her 3rd birthday ;)

For most of Olivia’s life she has been beyond obsessed with puppies. She will wave to any puppy over a person when we’re out in public. Puppy was even one of her very first words. So I just new her second birthday had to revolve around puppies. Enter the Puppy Paw-ty.

It all started with the invitations (as it usually does) and then just snowballed from there. I found this cute little assortment of watercolor puppies which I used throughout all of the stationary and signage I designed for her special day.

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I stuck to a simple color palette of kraft paper, black, white, pink, and hunter green throughout all of the decor and snacks. Minus the goldfish because let’s face it. You can’t have a toddler party without goldfish at your disposal.

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The Olivia sign was reused from her Rainbow 1st Birthday Party, and I picked up the little black houses (which I felt looked like little dog houses) at Target from the Hearth and Hand collection during the holidays. I made the kraft paper banner by typing up letters and hollowing them out in photoshop, then just cutting them out and stringing them on some light pink yarn.

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For the balloon arch I did a lot of research before tackling this. I saw all of the pre-made kits you can get online, but none of them came with the exact colors we wanted (plus the paw print balloons). So I ended up getting some 25’ balloon tape and used about 2/3 of it. I picked up a mix of 6” and 12” balloons and bullied my family into helping me blow them up in varying sizes so that it would fill out the arch nicely without looking like we were setting up a prom photo op.

Being a party planning hoarder comes in handy to spruce up toddler parties because I always have cute little buckets, cake stands, and color coordinating plates and napkins on hand. When I found these adorable Meri Meri puppy plates I just knew I had to recreate that little guy for the cake. Which gave me way too much anxiety but I love how he turned out.

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I decided to have a cute cake for the table which would be served for the adults, and then cupcakes in the same flavor and icing for the kids. For the cupcakes I just iced on vanilla buttercream and topped them with little plastic puppies I had leftover from my gold animal painting days of yore.

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For the food, you know I had to stick with the theme so even for the foods that weren’t obvious to the theme, I made them theme-y. Plus I served everything out of dog bowls of course. I cut out a variety of cheeses with a bone shaped cookie cutter to pair with crackers. I had to include toddler crack (I mean veggie straws) and called them fetch sticks. The goldfish crackers were cat food lol. We had puppy chow (my fave), scooby snacks (which are basically just bone shaped cinnamon graham crackers, who knew?), and I used the same bone cookie cutter to make my family’s famous sugar cookies. Which most kids took one bite out of and set back on the platter. Toddlers am I right? I also included some toddler faves like pouches and Honest juice boxes.

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For the party favors I picked up a zillion of these golden retriever puppies for each child to adopt on their way out. There were even adoption certificates where they promised to take care of their new furry friend. I also had a little station where they could name their puppy and make it a cute collar to wear. I’m sure the parents loved this ;) Olivia still sleeps with her puppy every night and named him Roo Roo after my parent’s dog Rupert.

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Olivia’s outfit was so HER. It was cold out (her party was the first weekend of February) so she sported her I love puppies tshirt over a watercolor dress that perfectly matched the party palette and leggings. Oh and rain boots because she would wear these 24/7 if we’d let her. Also that random dino favor bag was given to her at another party and she hasn’t set it down since.

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I wasn’t sure how to entertain a gaggle of toddlers in the dead of winter, but it ended up being such a beautiful day, so I hired her old Little Gym teacher Mr. Barry (IYKYK) to come sing songs, blow bubbles, and entertain the little ones while the adults had a chance to visit. I called it the Dog Park.

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After a while we went back inside to have cake and sing “Happy Yo Yo” as Olivia calls it, and snack a little more before everyone went home.

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Please disregard our hideous brick and “stained” front door. We had just moved in a week before her party and didn’t have time to paint the exterior yet. More on that soon!! I also owe you a home tour. Anyway, back to the paw-ty. I printed up this fun sign on the door to welcome guests to the paw-ty.

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Olivia had so much fun hanging out with all her buds and grandparents, and I was so thankful to be able to pull this whole thing together the same month that we moved into our new house! All right after the holidays and before quarantine. What a start of the year! Now that the dust has settled a bit and we’re halfway through the year, I have several blog posts lined up, so stay tuned! I’ve listed the sources for all of the party details below, but if there is anything you have questions about let me know.

Sources

Invitations - DIY using these watercolor puppies

Happy Birthday banner, Adopt a Puppy banner, Woof banner - DIY

Olivia letters - DIY using these and painting them coral

Balloons - 5” black, 12” black, 5” white, 12” white, 12” matte blush, 12” paw prints, balloon tape

Grid backdrop

Cake - I make cakes, did you know?

Cake topper - DIY using glitter paper

Cupcake toppers

Plates

Wood forks

Bone cookie cutter

Dog bowls

Tassel banner (made from recycled paper!)

Puppies

Plastic letter beads

Signage - DIY

Olivia West | Two Years

MotherhoodCatharine KlepacComment
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Well this post is about two months past due, but luckily we’re officially transitioning to annual updates now that Olivia is TWO. How did that even happen? And then I look back at photos of her being super teeny tiny and I’m like oh yeah that feels like a lifetime ago, and also yesterday. Time is a funny thing.

| STATS |

Since her last update she has had a 2 year checkup where she weighed in at a whopping 30lb (85th), was 34.75” long (70th), and they no longer measure their heads after 2. Also. NO ONE prepared me for the fact that she no longer gets weighed and measured on the giant table, and now stands on the adult scale like a big girl! Also 30lb? No wonder my arms are so sore all the time. If you’ve been following along with her growth over these past 2 years then you’ll understand how elated we are that she is in the 85th percentile for weight. She’s never been in anything higher than 60th, and usually hung out in 30-40th. So we have made huge strides in her first two years of life.

| EATING |

Where do I start? I wouldn’t say Olivia is a picky eater, but she’s not an adventurous eater. She’s also weary of new textures, and will randomly hate something she used to love and then love it again a few weeks later. This is toddlerhood though right? So from 12m until 18m probably, she ate overnight oats every single morning for breakfast and then one day just refused. I assume she just grew tired of them as her tastebuds were expanding and realized there were other things out there. So now breakfast is all over the place from cereal, to fruit, to waffles, to pouches, to fig bars when she just won’t eat anything. Lunch tends to be a sandwich with fruit and cheese, a quesadilla, waffles, veggie tots, bagels, but mostly sandwiches. Dinner tends to be a smaller version of what we’re having, pesto tortellini is life, pizza fridays, mac & peas, and vegan corndogs. When all else fails and we know she is going to fight her meal (usually when she’s overtired or sick) we’ll give her pesto tortellini which she devours every time. We have also learned that a full belly = a happy toddler, so we push the snacks alllllll day. Her eating routine goes something like this: wake - breakfast - snack - lunch - snack - dinner - bed. Without fail. We know within minutes if someone forgot to give her a snack haha. But usually she wakes up from her nap saying “cookie pouch!” which means a fig bar or a fruit+veggie pouch. Or both. I think her first combination of words was “more please” (“mo peas”). Hey at least she’s polite.

| SLEEPING |

Olivia has been on the same sleep schedule since about 13m probably. She goes to be around 6pm, wakes at 9am, and naps from 12-2:30 everyday. I know I know, this sounds like an amazing sleep schedule (and it is!!) so if you are in the throws of an infant sleep schedule (or are struggling with sleep regressions) I highly recommend this post to read about the method that worked for us and in turn created this incredible sleep schedule and happy child. If she wakes early from her nap and isn’t crying (she rarely does), we’ll just leave her in her crib for some quiet time and we can hear her just quietly playing with her stuffies or singing songs. Speaking of stuffies she used to hate anything in her bed. Pillows, blankets, stuffies, you name it. She wanted to be completely alone and unbothered. Now she has to sleep with the whole gang (which she has named) Roo Roo (a lab puppy from Ikea), Foo Foo (a little grey bunny Derek randomly bought for her), Lulu (her Madame Alexander babydoll), and Puppy (a big fat puppy lol). We’ve also since given her a muslin blanket and an afghan my mom knit for her, and a pillow. If anyone from the stuffie gang is missing we have to hunt them down before nap and bedtime. It’s fine. We created this obsession.

| DOING |

Wow so many things have happended since her 18m update. She completed an entire year of Little Gym classes. She started as a Bird and moved to the Beasts class at 19m where she was thrown in with much bigger kids from 19m-2.5y so she started to see what the bigger kids were doing and learned to face her fears and perfect her skills. She literally never cared about the bar. I’d have her try to just hang from it and she’d immediately let go and walk away. Not anymore! At around 23 months she was swinging from the bars with the best of them. To the point where that’s all she wanted to do and wouldn’t do any of the other skills lol. We spent the end of summer, fall and winter going to parks, enjoying splash pads, music class at the arboretum, and exploring our favorite museums. She loves to help around the house, tell us where to sit, throw her own trash away, pick out her own clothes, feed Geoffrey, and practice playing cups (the summer camp cups song that Anna Kendrick does in Pitch Perfect).

| MILESTONES |

Olivia has 16 teeth now! For the longest time she just had the four center ones on top, four on the bottom, and the same 4 molars. And then all 4 of her canines grew in at the same time like a little vampire. Prior to two her vocabulary was pretty minimal and only had about 25 words at her 2 year checkup (which has since escalated but more on that on her next update!) by 2 her words included: mama, dada, hi, night night, Geoffrey (“ghee” - and points at him), ball, yo-yo, nose, no, apple, uh-oh (when she drops something), kitty (“key”), hi, buh-bye, banana, nana, yes, sure, puppy, me, this, bubble, push, moo moo, roo roo, grover, elmo, foo foo, lulu, please, and more. She loves to say “hi” or “buh-bye” with a full arm wave to anyone she passes. Which always makes strangers say it back. Except for when they don’t and I hope she doesn’t notice because she is just so sweet with her little greetings. She also calls any and all bunnies “foo foos”. Even if it doesn’t look like an actual bunny. Like the gold bunny sculpture at Northpark, she pointed at and yelled “hiiii foo foo!” I was blown away because prior to that her only concept of a bunny was my finger shadow bunny I made when I sang Little Bunny Foo Foo. Even though up to this point her vocabulary is limited she understands everything we are saying and asking her. After six months of treatment, she received a clean bill of health from her Ophthalmologist who had us patching her right eye for 12 weeks to help build up the muscles in her left eyelid, which would droop when she was tired. He was concerned that if we didn’t correct her weaker eyelid now, she would need to start wearing glasses to help prevent a lazy eye from developing. Which honestly didn’t surprise us as Derek wore glasses at a young age, but I was hoping that my (not as bad) eyes would help balance things out, and so far so good! That was a huge (and expensive) relief! We’ll still go back annually to evaluate her progress, but so far we are on the right track and her eyelid is stronger than ever. We took our very first flight at 21m to Chicago and while seeing family and my favorite city was beyond fun, traveling with a toddler was horrendous and we won’t be doing it again for A WHILE. We took Olivia to her first Christmas tree farm, and had our first successful photo with Santa! And about one week before she turned two she started Preschool full time! Which she absolutely loves. With me going back to work full time, this was a happy milestone for everyone!

| FAVORITE MOMENTS |

This season was full of favorite moments since it took place during the holidays! Olivia was a carrot for Halloween this year and trick-or-treating was so much fun! We weren’t sure if she’d grasp the concept yet, but it only took about two houses before she quickly learned the drill, and would immediately point at a house and then point at her pail. Christmas was also THE BEST this year, as she’s getting old enough to start to get excited about the magic and sparkle of it all. We gave her Derek’s old easel that his grandfather made him as a child, and she is obsessed with it. She could literally spend hours coloring her little heart out if we let her. Which she calls “bubbles” thanks to a Baby Shark coloring book she got from her Grammy and Grampy and my mom taught her to color in bubbles, so now all coloring = bubbles. We moved out of our temporary apartment into our “forever” home in January and it has been so nice getting to see Olivia (and Geoffrey) really have room to run around. She has her own playroom now and a big yard to play in and is so much happier. You could tell that the 800sf apartment walls were quickly closing in on everyone and we were all ready to spread out. We also loved celebrating her 2nd birthday with (her favorite thing) a puppy paw-ty!! More on that later. It was so cute and she loved all of the puppy themed items.

Fall + Halloween Books

MotherhoodCatharine KlepacComment
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It’s fall ya’ll!! Which obviously means it’s time to swap out Olivia’s summer books for some more seasonally appropriate titles. We’re talking changing leaves, giving back, sneaky tricks, black cats, nighttime stories, ghosts, owls, magic, nature, pumpkins, foxes, and more! If there was a book on Pumpkin Spice Lattes, you bet your buttons it’d be on these shelves.

— from left to right top to bottom —

One Thousand Things - This is such a beautiful book to start introducing everyday words and concepts. I love how it’s divided into categories and the illustrations have sort of a mid-century vibe and aren’t too overwhelming. This whole series is so great.

A Tale of Two Beasts - This is such a funny story about a chance encounter of a girl and an animal. It’s told first from the perspective of the girl and then from the perspective of the animal, and it’s a great example that there are two sides to every story. The animal’s perspective is my favorite, and sometimes I feel like that’s what Geoffrey thinks about us haha

That’s Not My Owl - This is such a great touchy-feely book for sensory exploration. There is also a cute little mouse to find on each page (Olivia’s favorite part). There are also lots of other fun fall + halloween animals like a fox, hedgehog, bat, witch, and monster.

I Wish.. - This was a fun random find at a local children’s boutique. We have another Jellycat book that Olivia just loves, and this is a really sweet story about being true to yourself.

Bear Has a Story to Tell - This story is all about hibernation and how Bear wants to tell his story to anyone who will listen, but all of the other animals are too busy getting ready for the changing season.

This is Owl - This is such a fun and interactive book where your little one gets to be a part of the story. Sort of like Press Here. You get to blow on the pages, shake the book, and make silly noises to help push the story along. So fun!

Boo! - This is a great little board book for babies and toddlers with lots of peek throughs as we try to figure out who said “boo!” (spoiler alert: it was a ghost)

The Curious Case of the Missing Mammoth - I am obsessed with this book. Olivia will literally squeal as I turn each page because the illustrations are just incredible. So many fun flaps to lift for a picture book, all of which reveal interesting facts about animals and dinosaurs. The museum comes to life at night and Oscar must help the mammoth find his little brother before the clock strikes midnight and the magic of the museum wears off.

How to Make Friends With a Ghost - This is such a whimsical story about how to first of all spot a ghost, and then how to make friends with one. It’s so well done with all of it’s charts and figures as your reader gets schooled on the ins and outs of ghosts. Hint: if you’re kind, ghosts will want to be friends with you.

Ava and the Spectacular Spectacles - This is a great book for anyone who hates wearing their glasses (definitely not me as a kid, I begged for glasses lol). But it talks about how if each character in our favorite fairy tales had worn their glasses, things would have turned out much differently. I see you little red riding hood. Bet you’d realize that grandma was a wolf if you would have worn your glasses ;)

Little Owl Lost - This is a fan favorite in our home. No surprises there since it’s by the same author has Olivia’s favorite book Oh No George! The little owl falls out of it’s tree and is trying to find his mommy by describing her features to other animals. It is so cute and Derek laughs so hard at my voices. Books are SO much better with voices amiright?

Triangle - Oh my gosh this book. I don’t know about the others (Circle and Square — which are on mega sale right now btw), but this one is SO funny. Bonus for it’s gorgeous and moody watercolor illustrations. You learn shapes, you learn about sneaky tricks, you get to see stunning illustrations. It’s everything I could ask for in a book.

Last Stop on Market Street - This is such a beautiful book if you’re looking to introduce social justice issues. It’s about a boy and his grandmother who ride the bus every week to volunteer at a local soup kitchen, and the importance of acceptance and giving back to your community.

Itsy Bitsy Spider - I’m personally not a huge nursery rhyme fan, but this book has a modern twist with poppy illustrations and textured finger trails on each page. Olivia loves to flip the pages faster than I can recite the nursery rhyme and get’s so mad if I don’t immediately switch to singing the next one after she turns the page lol

I’m Not (very) Afraid of the Dark - Ohhhh this book. Fair warning, this is not a great book for little ones who are still rough on their books. Each page has intricate laser cut details that are just so stunning, but very delicate. It’s all about a little boy who is only afraid of the dark at night (I feel you kid). But then learns that the night can be beautiful (like when he goes camping and gets to see all of the stars) and the bumps in the night and shadows in his room are just the wind outside and the moon shining on some of his toys. I can’t say enough about this one.

Yum Yummy Yuck - When I found out Amanda Jane Jones wrote a children’s book I had to have it. When I realized it was for kids who put literally anything in their mouth. Even better. This is such a fun book about what you should and shouldn’t eat, and the gorge modern illustrations are the cherry on top.

Wolfie the Bunny - I think it’s safe to say this is Derek’s favorite book. Again 95% sure it’s because of the voices. A bunny family is raising a baby wolf that was left on their doorstep, even though Dot (their daughter) is not convinced he isn’t going to “eat us all up!” Such a sweet story about family and protective little (but big) brothers.

ABC Color - I’m obsessed with this illustrator and have been slowly accumulating (hoarding) all of her books. I love how her ABC series always starts out talking about “you probably know these basic colors red, orange, yellow, etc. but do you know these?” and then goes into all kinds of colors, which makes my color loving heart so happy.

The Stinky Cheese Man - This is such a nostalgic book for me. It literally has nothing to do with fall, but the warm (and kind of creepy) illustrations begged to be on display for this season. I love all of the ridiculous stories and twists on old classics. I remember my cousins and I just obsessing over these stories growing up.

Gus Was a Friendly Ghost - This was a baby shower gift from a friend that grew up loving this book, and we quickly found out why. It’s such a sweet story about Gus the ghost who lives in the attic of the Scott’s summer home. He loves to make noises so that the Scotts talk about how they have a ghost, but when a mouse comes to ruin everything and starts to terrorize the Scott family, Gus is not having it and puts his foot down. So cute.

National Parks of the USA - Another stunning book. These illustrations are just SO beautiful. Derek grew up going to national parks so this is such an important book for our family, so that we can teach Olivia all about them. This book goes into all of the cool facts about each national park, the animals you can find, the stats, the sights, everything! It’s also on mega sale right now if you haven’t already snatched it up.

Peek Inside Nighttime - Olivia loves all of her Peek Inside books, and this one is so well done. The nighttime element is perfect for spooky Halloween nights with so many flaps to lift, cut outs, and finger trails. Girlfriend loves an interactive book.

Cat and Mouse - We picked up this fun board book at The Menil in Houston, and it has fun peek through elements as it introduces readers to prepositions. It’s a classic story of a cat and mouse chase, but the end is very surprising (don’t worry the cat doesn’t eat the mouse haha).

Peek-a-Flap Boo - Okay this book totally surprised me. My mom and I randomly found it on the Halloween book end cap at Target because Olivia has a couple others from this collection and just loves the super thick flaps. Well little did we know, this book is FULL of random Halloween facts. Like did you know that people used to carve radishes? Or that candy corn was originally called chicken feed? Who doesn’t love random facts!

Olivia and the Missing Toy - This book also has nothing to do with Halloween or fall, but the cover is very spooky! It’s also full of mystery as Olivia (the pig) tries to figure out who stole her missing toy.

Fairy Friends Seasons - This whole collection is so beautiful with the pressed flower illustrations, but Seasons in particular is just so perfect for this time of year.

Fall is my second favorite time of year (right behind Christmas + winter). I love the crips air, the pumpkin flavored everything, the changing leaves, and cozying up with my family and a big ol’ stack of books to read and explore. And * bonus points * when they relate to an activity we did that day that we can learn more about. If you’ve missed my other book round ups here they are:

Favorite Books

Christmas Book Advent Calendar

Valentines Books

Easter Books

Summer Books