Gallantry

We are visiting my family in Ohio, and of course, along with the usual hubbub that comes with the holidays, have made several appearances as "the Wonder that is Olivia... and that lady who is her mom." Especially since my family lives too far for regular visits from us.

Last night, we visited my father's sister and brother-in-law for a pre-Christmas dinner. It was really tasty (as all dinners should be), and Olivia did mighty well eating her cheesy potato casserole. I love how casseroles are staples at any large family gathering. Then she was off exploring the house, which was a great child-friendly place, with lots of non-breakable things right at her level. Hooray Aunt Jan & Uncle Ladd! She also got a peek at some of my uncle's rat snakes, which I love love love. Although Olivia was a bit startled by them. I am determined that she will not be afraid of them, since they are really so cool!

Anyhow, it took Miss Olivia a while to warm up to everyone, and of course in her case this warming up coincided with being very very tired and time to go. So as I sat around the table with my aunts & uncles and showed off Olivia's tricks (which now include animal sounds, the alphabet & reviewing the names of the people present), my parents got ready to go. Before we all departed, though, I thought that it would be nice for Olivia to have a photo of the family assembled, so that we could know who people were (I hate family gatherings where I can't remember folks' names...). I stood up from my chair and asked my mom & dad to join us for a photo. As I was arranging people, however, there was a bit of a scuffle with my dad and Olivia. I looked over and saw my dad jump up with surprising speed from the chair I had just occupied. Perplexed, I asked what had happened.

It turned out that Olivia had decided that that particular chair was Mommy's chair. And when Grampa tried to sit in it, he got an earful of "No! Mommy chair" along with a grand sweeping hand gesture indicating that if anyone tried to sit in said Mommy chair, s/he would be at the wrong end of Olivia's wrath. Then she started to cry which, of course, is the real clincher, since no one wants to be the cause of making a baby cry, even if it was unintentional. Needless to say, no one else sat in the chair for the rest of the evening which (also needless to say) was very short, since it was clearly Miss Olivia's bedtime. We scooted out of there fast before anyone else had a chance to try and usurp Mommy's things.

*Sigh*

Shoes

As a quick addendum to the previous post:

Sometimes Olivia will wake up in the middle of the night, too hot, and request that various items of clothing be removed from her person, such as a shirt or socks, and occasionally we will wake to the tune of "take dipuh off, pease."

However, the appearance of a new pair of shoes changed all that. Last night, after a long day, Miss Olivia was getting ready to go to sleep. As I was trying to take off her play clothes and put of her pajamas, I hear the request "mo shoe pease." This was repeated as I moved closer to the shoes, and while trying to take off her pants and still honor her "more shoes" wish, this request reached a rather loud note, so that, even when the jeans were successfully removed from her legs, and her feet appeared triumphantly with shoes still attached, she needed a minute to calm down. How dare her mama try to take off her shoes?

Even in the middle of the night, when everyone was deep in slumber, even the sneakiest shoe remover would be warned, at the slightest velcro pop, with a sleepy "mo shoes."

I've learned my lesson. Don't mess with the shoes.