This Guy

Five years ago today he climbed up into my heart and has been making the most beautiful, incredible, joyous mess in there since. I cannot believe how lucky I am to be his mom.

2 Years and 20 Questions for Vivienne

We started this tradition with Ollie when he was 3. We thought Vivi might be a little young, but nope—she's got plenty of opinions of her own!

2 Years and 20 Questions

Happy Birthday Vivienne!

Happy birthday to my sweetest little girl. Although if I told you that, you'd say, "I'm not sweet, I'm Vivienne!" We've spent the first part of your birthday doing really fun things like...

Changing tires. 

And standing in line to vote.

But don't worry, we'll have a proper party tonight. (Thanks Zadia for the crown.)

Vivienne, I can't believe you're already 2! You are such an amazing person. It's incredible how much your laugh can make my heart hurt with love. Or how I could sit all day and listen to you tell stories with your animated hand gestures and expressions. You are curious and fearless. Ollie loves you and takes care of you and protects you, but you are so strong that I think you will be doing those things for him one day, even though he's your big brother. You are kind and generous and loving and you give snuggle hugs better than anyone I know. You are smart and persistent and opinionated to boot. You might be the small, but you are one mighty little ball of fire. My mighty little ball of fire and I am the luckiest mama in the world to get to be your mama.

 

 

 I love you Vivienne Shae.

Family Pictures

This was Ollie's drawing of our family a year ago:

 

This is his depiction of us now. Just like in real life, we all got fatter:

And here's one of Ollie and Mama—Mama is thinking of a heart because she loves Ollie:

And here's a real picture of our family:

On Your Left!

Thanks to Grandma Ruthie and Grandpa David for giving us their bikes!

It's our new favorite thing to do on the weekends.

This boy rode SEVEN miles!! SEVEN. MILES. He's definitely a 3-set Maurer.

See you on the trails!

School Update!

Ollie and Vivienne's school is AMAZING and they both love it. Here are some pictures that their teachers took over the last month.

OLLIE

Morning circle time.

Building ball tracks together.

 

Playing superheroes.

With his new friend Si. 

It's not cold, those are just superhero gloves.

And a batmobile?

Then inside to make pages for their class superhero book. 

Ollie's says, "Help, Si!" because a cage is going to fall on him.

Taking a break with some lazy train play.

Then back to work on some clay projects.

Fired and then painted.

Ollie's unicorn!

And if clay gets boring, maybe we'll try something else. Yep, Grampa, he's learning to saw.

Ninjas need to learn their letters too!

His current favorite animal is the cheetah (because it's the fastest, of course), so it's good to learn how to spell cheetah.

Then back outside for some more fresh air.

These guys go outside every day, even if it's raining... so awesome.

Never know what you'll find in there...

A game of "cheetah and owner".

Ollie can't get enough of "reading".

With his friends.

And with teacher Emily.

Nor can he get enough of superheroes with Si...

But somehow there's still time for art projects.

And they're always building things.

Inside.

And outside.

With water.

Or tires.

So I was a little surprised when he came home one day and said they'd watched a movie at school. Turns out it was a movie that the kindergartners had made!

Maybe that's what inspired some storytelling.

And a puppet show.

What an awesome class, teachers, and new friends.

VIVIENNE

It's really wonderful to see what Vivienne's doing in class since she still cries when I drop her off :(

Clearly she's not having any fun at school at all...

And how her teachers get 10 kids under 2 to sit still for circle time, I'll never know.

Although sometimes it's a little more chaotic.

Lots of exploring.

 

She loves to get messy.

Pretty much every day she comes home wearing different clothes than she left with.

Cooking is also lots of fun. Is that elephant soup?

And lots of time outside every day.

Which requires the smallest rain boots ever.

Searching for something edible in their gardens?

Playing doctor.

And learning new skills.

Even really useful ones...

And one of the coolest parts is that Ollie gets to come say hi to Vivienne sometimes during the day.

And boy is it all exhausting.