All About Olivia

It was almost a year ago now that Beatrice first fell in love with the cartoon pig Olivia.  As part of our Christmas activity advent calender I took Beatrice to a bookstore and told her she could pick out any Christmas book she wanted.  She picked Olivia Claus (in which Olivia loses her beloved stuffed toy on Christmas Eve and imagines herself as a Santa who delivers missing toys to the children who lost them).  After reading it to her at least a hundred times, I bought a second Olivia book just so I could have something new to read. 

Flash forward to today and we have about a dozen Olivia books, from Olivia Plants a Garden to Olivia Leads a Parade.  I haven't bought her any Olivia toys* (yet) but she does have a set of Olivia temporary tattoos.  And of course, after having been vigilantly anti-TV for the first three years of Beatrice's life, I relented and downloaded two seasons of the "Olivia" cartoon show. 

The arc of every Olivia story is the same: Olivia encounters some problem in real life; she retreats into her imagination to picture some far-out solution; she applies a version of that solution to real life and it saves the day.  Almost all the problems are external (ie., a freak sunny day ruins her chances to win a snowman-building contest) and there's almost no interpersonal conflict between any of the characters.

As I've mentioned on this blog before, Beatrice insists on being called Olivia and even renamed all of her relatives, friends, and pets after their Olivia counterparts.  She quotes long passages from the books and television episodes and "Olivia" is one of only a few words she can sight-read.

This picture always makes me laugh.

So anyway, I was thinking about the "messages" of Olivia and whether or not they were good ones when it occurred to me that Olivia's character is pretty much non-stop preschool wish fulfillment.  Most characters in cartoons have some flaw (a smart but nerdy teacher's pet, a nice but dumb sidekick) but Olivia is just an entirely perfect girl.  She's good at every single thing she tries, from mountain climbing to turkey calling (really).  She's the smartest kid in her class but also the best liked and most popular; she can be sort of bossy and a know-it-all but whenever she gives her friends advice they immediately thank her and do what she suggests.  She's generous with her brothers, obedient to authority figures, and never gets in trouble.  Her parents and teacher are sometimes mildly exasperated with her but overall she's adored by every child and adult she knows.

This was amusingly confirmed the other day when Beatrice said, unprompted, "I'm Olivia.  I'm smart and funny and nice and good and Mr. Richard likes me and everyone likes me."  Who doesn't want that?

Needless to say, she's already decided to be Olivia for Halloween - luckily there's a cute store-bought costume already available so that makes my job easy.  She also wants an Olivia party for her birthday and (of course) I already have some ideas for that, too.

* One nice thing about Olivia is that there are only a few licensed toys that are only available online so at least you aren't bombarded with them at every store.

Beatrice Loves Soccer

Today Beatrice had her first day of soccer through the Burbank Parks and Recreation department; she'll be going Friday evenings at 5pm at Jordan Middle School.  Not surprisingly, she absolutely loves it (as she has loved ballet, gymnastics, art, swimming, music, and every other thing she has ever tried - her new preschool teacher Mr. Richard recently commented that she is "extremely enthusiastic").

Beatrice makes a goal

We arrived a few minutes early for B's first lesson while another class was still winding up.  Before I could stop her, B ran out onto the field shouting, "THIS IS SPORTS!" 

"This is sports!"

We finally got her a little more focused, and by the end she was doing pretty well.

The entire way home all she talked about goals, dribbling, Coach Jason, and how there are "no hands in soccer."

Dev went out on the field to help Beatrice (B is in the beginner class which includes parental involvement; when she turns 3.5 she'll be out on the field on her own).  

 

 

 

Meanwhile Arthur and I had fun watching and photographing from the sidelines. 

 

Beatrice leads Arthur around the soccer field 

Personally, I just like being outside on fall evenings.  And because I usually make crockpot meals on Fridays, when we got home at 6pm we already had dinner waiting for us.

B was very impressed by her "Kidz Love Soccer" hand stamp

Quilting Class

You may remember last year when I tried unsuccessfully to make a pair of baby quilts for Lucas and Veronika's twins.  Though the process was difficult and the results uninspiring, I did learn that I liked quilting, so last month I signed up for a quilting class at Sew L.A. to learn how to do it right.

 

 

I just finished the five-week class, which covered every step of the process - design, cutting, piecing, quilting, and binding.  At times the class was intimidating - I learned from experience that quilt-making is extremely precise and meticulous, cutting or sewing errors of even 1/8-inch can lead to major problems.  But I like how this mini quilt turned out - still definitely not perfect, but far better.

 

After the holidays I'd like to start another quilting project, maybe a large throw blanket we can use outside in the evenings.

Photos from Hot Dish

Thank you, Amy Robb, for taking some awesome photos from the last Hot Dish on Wednesday night - I think everyone had a great time.

 Eve Troeh reading an essay on her disastrous time living in Norway

Adam Novy reading from his new novel, The Avian Gospels

Me reading a new essay on swimming and parenting

 

 Sofiya Alexandra making the audience cry with a story about her grandparents' marriage

Unintentional twins

Mary Hamilton reading a wonderful essay on young love

Hot Dish co-producer J. Ryan cracking up the audience with a piece on his lack of useful skills

 Please tell me I'm not always making that face.

Back to School

The only downside to having Beatrice enrolled in a year-round preschool is that we don't really get to celebrate the official first day back to school.  Nonetheless, today is the first day of a new school year. 

Beatrice started St. Mark's one year ago.

One year ago, on her first day of school

At the time Beatrice was in the Red Room, for two-year-olds, with Miss Maria and Miss Charlie.  Last March she graduated to the Green Room with Mr. Ricardo and Miss Ana and now she's moving on again already to join Mr. Richard, Miss Amy, and the four-year-olds in the Yellow Room.  She now attends school Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings from 9am-1pm, plus she'll be taking drama lessons at school on Tuesday afternoons.  I'm happy, too, that Beatrice loves Mr. Richard, he might be her favorite teacher so far.

Starting the Yellow Room today

And this time next year, Arthur will be heading to school, too - he's already on the list for the Red Room in 2013.

Final Days of Summer

A few last photos from another very full summer of road trips and family vacations, remodeling and vegetable gardening, splash pads and swimming classes, outdoor films and plays, summer camp and kids' concerts, popsicles and fireworks.
 
Shakespeare in the Park:

 

Beatrice meets her "favorite actor," Mr. Kay, and friends at the Hollywood Bowl:

 

 

An evening walk to the park in pajamas:

 



 

Beatrice incredibly excited about watching "Toy Story" outdoors:

 

Playing in the backyard:

 

At Travel Town:

Arthur's first pony ride:

 

Enjoying the Annenberg Community Beach House with Lucas and Veronika:

At Miller's birthday party:

 

And now it's fall!  Time for soccer and ballet lessons, trips to the farm and the county fair, new grades in school, and most importantly, getting ready for Halloween.