Squirrel!!

Saturdays at my house usually begin the same way. Around 7:30 in the morning, Olivia comes in and almost always says the following "Mommy, I want some cereal please. My tummy is hungry." which is followed by me or Anthony saying "OK, in a minute". This Saturday started a little different. Anthony was up because he had to go to work which meant I got an extra hour of sleep!

So, Olivia and I shared some cereal and watched her favorite cartoon, Spongebob Squarepants. She then asked me if we could go for a walk. For some reason, Olivia really likes to take walks no matter the weather. I am not really sure why, but I sometimes wonder if it has to do with the fact that during pregnancy Anthony and I took a walk almost every night after dinner. Or, maybe it's because as a baby we took a lot of walks with her too. Either way, it is not uncommon for her to ask. I told her we would go in a little while.

Around 12:00 we got her shoes on, brushed our hair and got ready to go. Now, for those who know me, I love taking pictures. I worked part-time at two different studios for the past four years, just recently leaving one. Because of that love, I thought to myself this would be a great day to get some pictures. We headed out the door and began our walk.

I thought I would ask Olivia to give me some shots over by some trees. Here is what I got...

Now parents of photographers know that kids of photographers usually go through a phase where they "hate" the camera. They usually run, complain, whine or even give the usually fake "cheese" smile. Olivia did all of the above. I decided to just let her do her thing and catch some shots if I could. We headed to the playground and that is when the fun began...

To me, the best part of our walk was when Olivia went squirrel chasing. As she was playing on the playground she started noticing the little furry friends running around the trees. And for some reason, like the dog in the movie Up, Olivia would stop what she was doing, yell "Squirrel" and chase after them. I laughed so hard as she kept trying to catch them...

While she didn't catch any of them. I can say without a doubt that she had fun and so did I. It was a great Saturday afternoon spent with my "mini me"!