The Olson Zoo Weblog

Merry Christmas to all!  We wish God’s best to you at this special time of year.

Here is our 2009 Christmas card:

All three of our girls LOVE books! I am not really sure if it is genetic but they all love to be read to and to read on their own. Helen has even been known to be browsing through chapter books without many pictures - probably a direct result of wanting to imitate her big sister who wants to have her eyes in a book at all times. Laura is just starting about the 25th book in our collection of the “Box Car Children” series! She is so engrossed in her reading that she has been known to run into walls while reading a book and walking. When I went to pick up Esther a couple of weeks ago from the nursery at church, she was sitting in a chair and “reading” a book all by herself.

They really do love hanging out with other kids and people as well, just to quell the thought that they are all anti-social book nerds. A couple of weeks ago Esther made friends with two different children at the library all by herself. Helen makes friends wherever she goes - even in the elevator at the mall. Laura makes friends quickly as well even though she is a little quieter.

As most of you have heard, we have another girl in the making. Since all three of our girls that we have met so far are so different in personality, I really am looking forward to meeting this new one and getting to know her as well.

Today, we had friends over to play for the morning. Esther skipped her morning nap. At lunch, she was so tired she couldn’t make it through.

Helen sorted all these pieces by herself! What a accomplishment! Yeah Helen!

Laura says, “I keep on having new ideas.” She has taken initiative to start doing some things on her own. We have a list of things that she needs to do for everyday. I direct her to the list and she marks them off by herself. It is pretty nice to just be able to ask her if she has done the things on her list instead of asking about each individual thing. She is growing up so much!

Laura wanted me to write, “Mom puts me in charge of the dust mop. It takes a little of my time.”

Esther has starting getting on her hands and almost knees to reach for things. She also has been playing on her stomach without getting upset - unless she sees you watching her and then she wants to be rescued.

Our guest blogger today is Esther Olson, age 5 months:

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Helen has developed to new heights. She has finally decided against knocking down the three to four blocks that she has built to adding as many as she can. She is now up to 10 blocks!

She has also started potty training this last week. We are going at a very laid back pace. She is not really sure that she loves the idea but definitely loves the praise and attention she gets afterward. I certainly love changing less diapers, although any of you people that have already potty trained a child know that the process of getting them to do it consistently in the right place is usually harder than changing the diapers themselves. I am not expecting this process to end any time too soon. I was happy to hear that one of her friends from church who didn’t have much interest previously, decided that she wanted to go on the potty because Helen was too! The peer pressure starts already?

Esther is now into clothes that both other girls have worn. I couldn’t  find a picture of Laura wearing it, but I remember her doing so. Helen is pictured in the shirt at 23 months. Now Esther is in it at 5 months. What luck (or not) she has of being the third girl!

Esther is now 5 months old! She is so big! She really is attentive to what is going on around her especially people, lights, Martha, and any kind of screen (especially the computer screen when it has the psychedelic screen saver or the T.V. playing a movie - I know, she is only five months and she is already watching Veggie Tales).

Of course, there is the proverbial question of “Who does she look like?” There seems to be an awful lot of people saying, “Oh, she looks just like you!’ (mom), or “She looks just like Jeff!” or Laura, or they really don’t know. Here is my thoughts for today. I think that she has Jeff’s mouth, my eyebrows, Aunt Jennifer’s hair, Aunt Emily and sister Helen’s social personality, Laura’s eyes, and a whole lot of other characteristics just her own that wrapped up into one baby makes her one of the cutest, lovable little human beings on the face of the earth.

She has started eating rice cereal this week and usually seems to go at it with gusto. Just like Laura, she really does not like to lay on her stomach. She has started rolling on to her side from her back and likes to stand whenever she gets the chance.

Helen is one ball of energy and happiness (unless she is hungry or really tired). She is growing and developing as well. Her new tasks are running, hopping, eating with a fork and spoon, and talking (she says 84 words spontaneously to date).

She craves attention from anyone but definitely loves her Papa’s - all three. We pick up Jeff’s grandpa, Stan, on Sundays to bring him to church with us. Whenever Helen sees him walking to the van she says “Papa Papa!”. Recently, Grandpa Ross was coming to pick her and Laura up to go the Science Museum. We thought he was coming around 10 am. He came closer to 11 am because it was so cold outside. She said “Papa Papa” about 30 times a minute for about an hour and a half because she was so excited to see him. When he is there, she comes over and gives me a hug on the leg and says “Bye Bye!” and she is ready to go. Sometimes when she knows that she is going somewhere, she gives me the hug and says “Bye Bye!” before anyone has come to pick her up. She just loves going places. This fall when we had family over she was in route to give someone a hug and then she saw Grandpa Matejcek and changed courses to yell, “Papa!” and then give him a hug.

Her favorite toys are her dolls, blocks, balls, water, any kind of play with food - like tea parties, and picnics, crayons, and of course, whatever her big sister is into.

Laura is a great big sister! She just loves to hold and comfort her new little sister Esther. She thinks that Esther is the cutest one in the family because she is so little. She says she loves kids and especially babies (hmmm….I think that I have heard that same statement coming from her paternal grandma). She loves to read and do math. She told me yesterday day that she has said that she wants to be a lot of different things when she grows up but she is not sure what she really wants to do. Some of those things are veterinarian, dentist, pediatrician, mother, teacher, horse owner. The last couple of days, Laura has been asking, “When is the next time I get to see the dentist?” When asked why she wanted to see him, she exclaimed, “He is just so nice!” I told her she could see him at church tomorrow and she smiled and jumped up and down. Wouldn’t all dentists like to get that reaction?

Laura is involved in ballet, swimming, and homeschool co-op where they do art, gym, and a weather class. She has an awesome imagination and loves to pretend that she is the mom. She loves cooking, coloring, creating things, playing in the snow, sledding with Dad or Grandpa, movies, field trips with Grandpa, among other things. Her new favorite color is cherry red since she saw the red dough when we made candy cane cookies for Christmas.

All is well at the Olson household and things are starting to tame down after the addition of number three. Esther is developing more of a routine and so is the rest of the family. Of course, there are still upsets to the routine every week, like when Jeff wanted to have his gallbladder taken out, and this or that kid (or mom) didn’t get enough sleep to function well. But such is life, right?

Esther turns three months old tomorrow.  She has grown so quickly!  She is smiling a lot now and is just getting cuter every day.  Here are a couple recent pictures.  More in her photo gallery.

For Halloween, our three girls got all dressed up.  Laura was a butterfly, Helen was a daisy, and Esther was a hot dog.  Here are a few photos:

As usual, more photos are available in the photo gallery.

I’ve updated the summer photo albums for all the girls.  Take a look!

• Laura’s Summer 2008 Album
• Helen’s Summer 2008 Album
• Esther’s First Month Album