A lazy Saturday morning (with lions)

Olivia is 3 and 1/3 years old. She imagines invisible lions. Last night it was a lion that woke her up and drove her into our bedroom. Here she suggests warding off lions with a knife, even though, as she says, they only eat beets.

Normally on Saturdays we get up and go to music class. Olivia slept in very late this morning, so the second video portrays the creative/musical self that needed to rely on improvisation rather than structured lesson time today.

Tales of our Dinos

Nanny cooked up the FAO Schwartz Dinos in Rock Cave gift for Christmas this year, and then worried mightily when Olivia preferred to play with Baby Paityn rather than her gift. Luckily, Team Dino has emerged as a frontrunner in the Christmas Gift Popularity Sweepstakes, with herbivores and carnivores alike doing everything from fighting to kissing, getting married to drinking in harmony from a communal sippy cup. Oh, they are also having monkey babies.

Summer archive vid: How to keep cherries yummy

This video makes me think of summer. It also makes me hungry for cherries, and admiring of the carefree Olivia as she eats them in her underwear.

Bee Halloween (2010)

Olivia is making her way up the hill with Nanny and Grampy for Trick-or-Treating ROUND 1 (of three total rounds). Clearly she is excited about what awaits her.

The Grampy Post

Olivia has a special relationship with her Grampy. Now before you say that this relationship springs from a shared, and perhaps unnatural, love of both butter (hold the bread) and whoopie pies (see pics here), I have to attest that there appears to be slightly more involved.

Today on the way to school, Olivia simultaneously steered and pushed her scooter while maintaining vigorous conversation. The chat moved from the treasure she had discovered earlier on the path (an "almost-dead cricket"), to her eyeballs, which she said were really good at spotting treasures.

Not one to pass up the opportunity to make a Public Service Announcement regarding healthy eating, I answered, "Do you know why I think that your eyes are so strong? You eat so many fruits and vegetables."

Her response: "I love my grampy."

Now, I KNOW that fruits and vegetables do NOT evoke Grampy. So I followed up, "What made you think about Grampy, right now, Olivia?"

Her answer: "My heart."

Boy if that isn't the most perfect morning conversation. It even topped the two New York bakery croissants I had later for breakfast. And they were REALLY buttery.

The New Room

Only the first 30 seconds or so of this video are good: Olivia's reaction to her new-new, big-girl room. Once you see that, feel free to move on to "A Wavy Windstorm," which is much more chock-full of classic Olivia-isms.

"A Wavy Windstorm," by Olivia Thomas

Olivia enjoys her new home. Here she does some painting on the patio, as well as some impromptu one-foot balance-dancing. It's a multiple artistic medium day, I guess.