Happy 2nd Birthday Abigail Ann!

We celebrated Abby's 2nd birthday in March with her cousin Ephraim (they are two months apart), but she officially turned two on Thursday. She was very excited about the presents and the cake and was singing Happy Birthday Abby all day long. Pretty darn cute!

When I dropped off Jackson at school on Abby's birthday, his teacher asked me, "What were you doing at this exact time two years ago?" Hmmm....eating White Castle breakfast! Yes, that was our choice for breakfast on our way to the hospital. I had finished working the Friday before and my awesome doctor asked me if I would like to be induced instead of waiting around to go into labor. YES! YES I would! We couldn't do Monday, because she had tickets to the White Sox home-opener, so Tuesday, April 8th it was. The whole day went so quickly and without one single problem, concern or issue. When Dr. Brennan told me that the baby would be here in just one more push, I said, "Shut up!" Seriously, I couldn't believe it. Sure enough, Abby came out just that easy. That might have been the last easy thing she has done. :) She isn't easy, but she sure is cute! Rumor has it that the grandmas did a little dance in the waiting room when they heard about the little girl who was named after each of them. So, what is our little girl like at age 2? Well....

1. Abby is fiercely independent. She wants to do everything by herself...get dressed, get in her chair, climb the stairs, comb her hair, brush her teeth (including putting the toothpaste on her brush), get undressed....you name it, she thinks she should do it all by herself. We are always hearing, "Self!" (meaning, I will do it by myself), "Got it!" or "Abby do it!". It's so great that she wants to be so self-sufficient, but she is only two. Sometimes, she does need some help, despite what she might think!

2. She loves to change her doll's diapers. She takes off their diapers and says "Yucky!" "Poopy!"...puts on another one...and then repeats. Apparently her dollsa re very poopy.

3. Climbing and jumping....two activities that she would do all day long.

4. Reading books. The other day Abby was sitting in the den looking at books and I heard her yelling, so I rushed in to see what was going on. The book she was looking at was "The Monster at the end of the book" with Grover. If you don't know the book, Grover tries to convince you to NOT turn the pages because he is scared of the monster. So she was sitting with the book yelling, "You turned the page!" I have noticed more and more that she has memorized parts of a lot of books. She will sit and read and make a pile of books taller than her.

5. Santa Claus. Seriously...I can't tell you how often she insists that we sing, "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus". Although recently, she changed the words so that Daddy is kissing Santa. Hmmmm, that's a whole new story!

6. Her Hello Kitty cup. So, about a month ago, I lost her Hello Kitty sippy cup. She would not stop talking about it. On our trip to Door County last month she talked about it for about 30 minutes straight. She was really traumatized about losing this cup. Well, the Easter Bunny bought her a new one. So, she still talks about it, and then adds to the story..."New Kitty Cup!".

7. On Tuesdays and Thursdays Abby and I go to a Moms & Tots class. We play, sing songs, do crafts...and Abby thinks it is the greatest thing ever. She talks about "class" all the time. She sings the songs from class, talks about her teacher, the other kids, and asks when we are going to class. It is a fun class, I will admit and it is nice to have some nice Mommy & Abby time every week!

8. Abby is like one of Pavlov's dogs when we get into the car. You buckle her in and she immediately wants a snack. And then another one. And then another one. Not sure how to break her of this bad habit.

9. She must be tucked in at night with Cookie (her doll), Blue (the bunny), Pink (the bear) and Ella (the elephant) by her side. She lays down, positions everyone around her and then commands, "Tuck!" Cute.

Happy Birthday Abigail Ann! We love you!

Look! I got dressed all by myself!

Happy 4th Birthday Jackson!

Four years ago today, Jackson Harper Olson joined our family! After 31 long hours of labor, he was finally born. His tiny little 5 pound 14 ounce self was rushed away to the neo-natal care room and was given an IV in attempt to give him some nurishment. His umbilical cord had been wrapped around his neck and he hadn't grown much in the weeks prior to me being induced. Despite a few scary moments in the delivery room, he was perfect! Now, he is four years old! WOW! It is hard to believe that it has been 4 years!

What is Jackson like at age 4? Well....

1. He LOVES trains. That might be an understatement. At any given time we have 2. 3 or 4 train tracks set up around our house. Currently, the Geotrax are in his room, inching out into the hallway, the Thomas tracks are at the bottom of the stairs and his new Lego Duplo train track is set up in the living room. Amtraks, Metra, Thomas, El trains,Geotrax....he loves them all!

2. He loves to go fast! At any time he will be happy to demonstrate just how fast he can be by running from here to there as fast as his little feet can take him.

3. He could watch Chuggington all day long! It's a new show on Playhouse Disney, and he is hooked. They have yet to produce any toys that we related to the show...thank goodness!

4. Sugar is his friend!...frosting, fruitsnacks, candy, cookies...he lovess anything with sugar! He has yet to ever complete a full cupcake though. He licks off the frosting and leaves the cake behind. Every single time! :)

5. He is oh-so-silly! This manifests in all sorts of ways each and every day! He likes to make silly faces, make silly noises, do silly dances, write his name silly, eat silly, jump silly, make up silly stories and words and then say, "that's silly, right?"

6. His favorite colors are red and black. If it is red or black, he likes it.

7. His favorite new food is Cheeseburgers. Who can argue with that?

8. He will sit and listen to you read book after book after book. His Pre-K teacher Ms. Mary always tells me that he is the best when it is story time at school. He will sit and read books forever.

9. He is obsessed with The Polar Express! Christmas is long and gone, but both Jackson and Abby refuse to let it go! Jackson likes to draw the polar express, pretend his trains are the polar express, sing the polar express song, dance to the polar express song and watch the Polar Express movie. (In the meantime, we have to sing Santa songs to Abby all day long!)

10. Sticky tape. (That's what Dora calls it!) He has taped paper and art projects to his wall, has fixed broken cars, made windows out of tape on Abby's doll house and taped trains together. It's wasteful, I know. But he has so much fun with it!



We have been celebrating his birthday all weekend long. Jackson requested a Lightning McQueen Party for his birthday, so we had Cars cake and cupcakes, decorations, presents and even cars made out of boxes to celebrate yesterday. The kids raced up and down the sidewalk and couldn't have been any cuter! Today we went to the ChooChoo restaurant for lunch where the train delivers your lunch (and your birthday cupcake!) and have been playing trains (Duplo, Thomas, Geotrax, Amtrak) all day long. Tonight when we dig into his last 2 cupcakes after dinner, it will be his 4th birthday cupcake this week! When we celebrate at the Olson household, we celebrate big! :)

Happy Birthday Jackson Harper Olson! (Choo-Choo!)

Abby, Jennifer...same thing.

Anytime I am out and about with Abby in tow, I hear, "Oh my God, she looks exactly like you!" or "Oh, she's just a mini you!" I get it. Abby looks just like me. Last night, my mom brought this to a whole different level...

Yesterday my mom and I drove with Jackson and Abby up to my brother's in Wisconsin for a birthday party. After a long day of cake, presents and playing, we packed up the car and headed home to Chicago. While Jackson was focused on watching The Lion King, Abby was making up her own songs and singing, stopping every few seconds to yell Mama or Grandma to make sure we were listening. My mom turns around to face Abby and responds with, "That's a very nice song you are singing Jennifer!" :)

Two Little Monkeys...

Thank you!

Today we had a playdate with some friends at our house. At one point, Graham says to Abby..."Abby, you're cute!" Abby continues to play. Graham says, "Abby, say thank you." Abby says, "Thank you!" Just plain cute.

The Fantastic Fours?

When Jackson was turned two, I remember waiting for the "terrible twos" to start. I waited and waited, but no temper tantrums from my little boy. No screaming and yelling from my sweet little boy. Then he turned three...oh, the terrible threes! Jackson proved that he could in fact have terrible temper tantrums, yell, kick, scream, argue and be just plain old naughty! Now, of course Jackson has had plenty of sweet nice moments in the past year, don't get me wrong. But age three was way harder than anything he could dish out at age two. I don't want to jinx myself, but I think that might all be behind us. Yes, let's usher in "the fantastic fours". It hasn't been an empirical study by any means, but note the following stories as my current evidence:

1. On Sunday I was cleaning the bathroom. Jackson jumped up, leaving his train tracks behind, and asked for a sponge. That sponge paired up with a bottle of Windex and Jackson went to work! He sprayed (and sprayed and sprayed)and sponged the toilet, the wall, his bathroom stool, Abby's bathroom stool, and he even helped me clean the floor. I don't think I have ever seen him so proud as when I told him that he was the best bathroom cleaner helper ever! (and I wasn't lying, Matt never cleans the bathroom!)

2. The other night Jackson insisted on sleeping in the upstairs den on our air mattress. We put Jackson and Abby to bed and went downstairs to clean up. Abby was screaming and screaming. She doesn't usually do this, so we thought maybe we should just let her cry it out. About 5 minutes goes by and she suddenly stops. Then we hear on the monitor, "It's okay Abby, I'm here. I'm right here. You don't have to cry. Do you want me to go get Mommy? I will be right back. I will go get her. Don't cry while I'm gone, ok Abby?" He had gotten up and gone in to check on her while her neglectful parents left her to cry it out! So cute. I went upstairs and tucked both of them back in and everyone fell fast asleep.

3. Abby will not let us help her get dressed any more. Sometimes she can manage to put on her pants on her own. She can do shoes and boots, no problem. But she does need help sometimes, she isn't even two years old yet afterall. The other day we were in her bedroom getting ready and she will NOT let me help her. (She will no doubt NOT escape the terrible twos, but that is another post altogether!) Then Jackson comes into her room. "Here Abby, let me help you!" Jackson says. "Yack" she replies, smiling from ear to ear. He helped her into her leggings, explaining each step as he did it. He then helped her into her top, again explaining it step and step. I think I will be enlisting his help again in the near future. Abby seems to appreciate his help, mine, not so much.

So, what do you think? Have we left the terrible threes behind us and entered into the fantastic fours? Let's hope for yes. I don't think I can handle Abby's terrible twos if the answer is no.