Birthday blog post for Olivia

So, today is Olivia's birthday. 8th birthday, in fact. It seems weird to me that I am old enough to have an 8 year old! Anyway, I am very excited for the opportunity I will have on April 11th to baptize Liv, crazy but awesome.

Anyway, I wanted to post some random memories and thoughts on my baby girl and talk about the fun dinner we had for her tonight.

I remember when Jaime first told me that she was pregnant. She called me at work (I was working part time at a Apple Reseller called Mad Mac) and said, "I hope you are ready to be a father". I definitely did not feel that I was as we had only been married for 9 months when she told me and we were so poor and had no health insurance. I remember Jaime being pregnant and always wearing the same gray sweater as we didn't have much extra for maternity clothes. I remember Jaime always telling me, "What are we going to do with a baby!?" I remember that Jaime thought the baby was a boy but I had a dream that it was a girl and I was able to speak with her in the dream. In my mind now, she looked like she does today at age 8 in my dream. I remember searching name books and having long discussions into the night on what to name our first child. I remember choosing Olivia Paige because we thought it was beautiful. I remember living in a one bedroom basement apartment and wondering where we would fit a baby. I remember how traumatizing it was to be present during her birth :) and having the doctor have me cut the umbilical cord. I remember loving Olivia the first time I saw her. I remember her being such a good baby. I remember feeding her food and having her kick her feet while sitting in her jumpy chair on the large kitchen counters we had in that tiny basement apartment. I remember how funny she was when she would kick her feet like an engine when we put her in the bath. I remember her crazy hair, she had the first faux-hawk and then had awesome pig tails. I remember her loving shows like Blues Clues and Maisy. I remember how cute she got as she started to toddle. I remember struggling with her as she began to go to nursery at church, trying to sneak out but that would make her so mad. We eventually just had to reason with her and explain that we would be back for her. I remember how her little personality started to really show as she would boss her uncles and her whole family around by making them stand where she wanted them to stand for no other reason than because that's what she wanted. I remember her absolutely hating the Birthday Song and crying every birthday when it was sung to her. I remember when she started at Challenger when she was 3 and witnessing her love of learning and being amazed by how smart she is. I remember her continuing her education in the 4 year old program at Learning Dynamics and being so proud as she started to learn how to read and write. I remember her going to Primary and being so proud when she was a sunbeam and her teacher told me she was the brightest in the class. I remember watching her as she became a big sister and how great she was with her little brother. I remember how helpful she always tried to be. I remember what a strange feeling it was as she started kindergarten and how much I missed her even though I was at work in the office all day. I remember her taking gymnastics classes at some crappy gym in American Fork and how cute she was doing her tumbling. I remember her starting dance and liking it but freaking out when they started to teach her how to sing and perform (she was terribly shy). I remember her starting first grade and being gone all day every day and missing her even more (I was home office by then and could legitimately miss her). It was a crazy thought to think that she spent more time away from me than with me on most days. I remember her being in dance last summer and only thinking it was OK but being fascinated by the karate studio that was next door. I remember taking her and her brother over to the karate studio to investigate classes for her brother but her asking if she could try as well (she will be getting her purple belt this month on the 27th). I remember asking her last month why she wanted to be baptized and what it meant and being blown away by the depth of her answers.

These are just a few of the memories I have of how amazing an experience it has been to be able to be father to Olivia during her first 8 years. She is such an incredible person and I am so excited to see what she does with her life. She is truly funny, beautiful, talented and smart and my life is better with her in it. What an honor that I have been asked to be her steward and father.

Anyway, enough mushy stuff. We had a great chance to begin our multi-day festivities tonight with a dinner at the Tucano's (Olivia's favorite restaurant) with Grandpa Paul and Rene. We had a great time and it was nice to be able to catch up. Paul has always been a positive influence in the life of my children and I am glad he is still involved.

It was funny to have Olivia be sung to in Portuguese. She gets embarrassed by that sort of thing as you can see in the picture below.

Anyway, Olivia said she had a great birthday and I was happy to help provide that for her. We will celebrate with my family on Friday, she will have her fancy birthday party with her friends on Saturday and then we will have Jaime's family over on Sunday for a large-scale party at our house. Let the festivities continue!