It's hard to believe that a month has come and gone. It doesn't seem like Lisa's really been with us that long. We have loved having her here, I can't really wrap my head around the fact she won't be around anymore. I don't think Olivia will either. She and Lisa are best buddies. I have loved watching the two of them together. Because Lisa was on her mission for Livi's entire life (17 of her 18 months), I wondered if it would take Livi more time to warm up to her; no worrying necessary. After the initial hesitation that first day, Olivia has been glued to her Auntie's side. That became even more the case during this past month. It was as though Mommy ceased to exist - only in times of necessity: food, baths, bedtime, etc. Olivia insisted (often pulling or pushing if necessary) that Auntie Lisa go everywhere and do everything with her. They played chase, ran from one end of the apartment to the other, danced to music, did a funny little dance on the couch (consisting of Lisa bouncing and hoisting Livi into the air in front of the mirror), played with all Liv's toys, and let's not forget all the playtime at the beach.
One of my favorite routines to watch of theirs was their morning routine.
Olivia usually wakes up earlier than I want to wake up. I get her out of bed, change her diaper and then bring her into bed with me and Aaron. She watches home videos on my phone or reads books for about half hour, just until I decide it's time to finally get up. However, with Lisa around, that routine changed. Olivia would still lay with me for a couple minutes, but then she'd shimmy off our bed and head into the front room to find her Auntie. Lisa has an iPod with several of Pixar's short films; Olivia would crawl under the covers on the couch with Lisa, put on the headphones, and watch all of the short films, and sometimes more than once! If it wasn't the iPod, it was the box full of mini books. Livi is still a huge reader, and she loves her chubby little Sesame Street books. She would dump all 12 out on top of Lisa and insisted that they read each one! Livi would be content there all day if it wasn't for breakfast.
I taught Livi a sign for Lisa (the letter 'L' and rotating it from side to side - it resembles 'juice', which is funny because 'mom' and 'water' are the same sign), it took me all of 3 times showing it to her before she caught on. She finally had a name for her best buddy. Watching the 2 of them together made me wish that Olivia lived closer to all of her aunts and uncles. She would be equally as close if circumstances were different. When we lived with my parents, she was inseparable from her Uncle Jordan; when the Ericksons came to visit at Christmas, she assigned her different aunts and Uncle Matt to different activities that they had to do with her (for example, Chandler always had to play with her on the slide); Michelle came to visit often, and Olivia thought it was she was the cat's meow, mimicking almost everything she did (that's where she got opening her arms out wide as "amen" after prayers). Although she can point out everyone when I ask her "Where's ______?", I don't know if I can come up with 8 different signs for all her aunts and uncles!
The original plan for this post was to share our last beach trip together to Will Rogers. Talk about a long tangent, but well worth it.
Although it was only 67 degrees at the coast (and there was wind!), we knew if there were blue skies, we were heading to the beach. After finding out the snack shack is only open on weekends (yeah, should've known that), having to coax the parking guy to let me leave and re-enter, and me running to Subway for lunch, it was a relaxing and beautiful afternoon! Olivia played in the sand, we all laid out, we took turns playing with Livi down by the waves, and talked. The coast is a safe haven for all of us Phelps women. Life just seems better when you're at the beach - it's definitely the rejuvenation we often need. There was no bird poop-age, and Lala saved Livi from a bee sting (we really didn't want to figure out if she's allergic to them like her Daddy and Grandpa Erickson). With the wind, it was cooler than we would have liked, but the sand was hot and kept us warm. It was especially sad for Lisa to leave the beach - she's most likely headed back to Utah to find work/housing - and the "beaches" at Utah Lake are nothing in comparison to the California coastline.
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| The first time Livi actually let me bury her in the sand! She loved it! |
I can't wait for warmer summer days (although I can wait for all the masses of tourists to arrive) - and hope that Lisa (along with the rest of our family) gets to visit again. Gotta love these SoCal beaches.
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