For the first year of Olivia’s life everyone said, "Soak it in. It goes so fast!" But that first year for me seemed to go just right – not too fast and not too slow. I was home with her all the time and she was learning and growing a little everyday. Since her first birthday, however, it is going a little fast. She has gone from our sweet baby to an adorable little girl. So many changes in the past few months – she walks, she talks, she whines, she laughs so hard she falls over. It’s amazing! Don’t get me wrong, I’m thoroughly enjoying this new phase, but it’s setting in that our baby is growing up and life will never be the same. As always, Olivia is a very pleasant, sweet girl. Her best bud is still Red and she gives her lots of hugs, rides her like a bull (even holds onto Red’s collar for support), and wrestles her like a UFC champion. Red is as wonderful to Olivia as you could hope. She tolerates anything and everything and only occasionally gets up and walks away. Not surprisingly, Red has inspired Livy’s favorite word – woof! She’s got the whole word together now (started with just "ff") and everywhere we go, it’s "woof, woof, woof" to everyone’s delight. She can also say: baby, bye, daddy, dog, eye, hi, light, look, mama, more, no, nose, quack, thank you, and up. We haven’t done much with signs the last few weeks as she doesn’t show much interest and seems to be communicating well with gesturing and words. We’ll have to see if we need it. Her favorite snacks are fresh fruit (especially pears), cheese, Ritz crackers, and fruit smoothies. She loves anything you can drink out of a straw, especially juice boxes.                

Just like her father, she is happiest outdoors and whenever she hears someone grab some keys or sees a jacket in my hand, she runs to the front door and starts laughing. She’d give anything to spend all day running around outside and since the weather has been beautiful the last couple weeks (70s and 80s), we’ve done a lot of that. The first thing she does when she gets out the door and down the front step is run to the sidewalk and take off toward the mailboxes (at the end of the block and around the corner). I really have to watch her because she is faster than I think and if I dilly-dally at all, she’s about to round the corner. We’re going to hang a swing for her in the backyard and redo the fence so that it is a more child-friendly playground. No plans for a swing set for this summer, but we will get a wading pool to help us survive the Texas heat. Her favorite indoor toys these days are stuffed animals. She has her special bunny that she sleeps with and any other little animal that is about the same size is an instant friend and she’ll tuck it up under her chin and pat it like a baby. We’ve also joined a toy library (like a regular library that also loans out educational toys) and that’s been a fun way for us to get out and meet other families, as well as try out a few toys and see how much fun they are. This week we have magnetic blocks and those are really interesting. We also got a ride-on toy that she is warming up to. It was a little scary at first, but she’s starting to see how fun it can be. Our neighbors, Rick & Jennifer, kindly gave us their daughter Cecilia’s old one last weekend and it fits her a little better, so I’m sure we’ll be having hours of fun with that this summer.

I’ve started letting her watch her first regular TV program – It’s a Big, Big World on PBS. I turn it on after breakfast and it gives me 30 minutes to organize my day and have some quiet time for prayer (my Lenten resolution). It’s a nice educational show about science, animals and nature and she really enjoys watching it. There is a super cute photo of her watching it with her bunny here. Much to our delight, Olivia has become a bit more cuddly in the past couple months and we are thoroughly enjoying more snuggles from her. She is still an independent girl, but seems to appreciate little signs that we are supporting her in her latest adventures and wants to give and receive hugs more. I’m surprised on a daily basis by what she understands. She can do just about anything you tell her to like "get your shoes or go to your high chair." She knows what direction to run for just about any activity. She’s also learning how to be ornery and has decided that sometimes it’s more fun not to come when you ask and not to give you what she has when she’s been told to. Along those lines, one of her favorite pastimes is still taking books, CDs, etc. off every bookshelf in the house. The good thing is that she is starting to show some interest in putting things back! Books can be tricky to re-shelve, but she can open the drawers on her new dresser and take out socks (and everything else) and put them back all by herself. The thing she loves most of all, though, is reading. She is a little bookworm and I catch her more often than not, sitting in a little corner in her room taking out her board books one by one and reading to herself in a sweet little cadence. Every time I’ve tried to catch her on video, though, she looks up and gets distracted.

It’s a good thing we have a new baby on the way because this one is really growing up fast!