Olivia at One and a Half

I suppose I should take advantage of this "extra" time before our new baby arrives to update y’all on Olivia’s latest achievements. She is really growing up lately and is all toddler – in fun ways and a few not-so-fun ways, too. Every day I am amazed at what she understands and everyday she shares a little more of what she’s thinking with us. Her vocabulary has grown quite a bit and she is fond of words like feet (her favorite body part) and Abby (her cousin). She can also say apple (which pretty much means fruit in general), all done, baby, ball (also means balloon), bird, boat, book, bubbles, bye-bye, cookie (pronounced khaki and useful for anything in the grains & cereals category), Daddy, dirty, drink (pronounced wong-wong), eye, hello (used only when talking on the phone, remote, or whatever phone-like device is handy), hi, hot (pronounced ice and generally referring to anything uncomfortable), light, look, Mommy, more, mouth, night night, no, nose, open, out, pupec (second favorite body part – Czech for belly button), Red (pronounced led), TV, uh-oh, and her first sentences are "I want more" and "I need more." I have to admit, it’s pretty hard to deny her whatever she "wants" or "needs" when she uses them!

She knows all her basic animal noises (baa baa, bock bock, meow, moo moo, neigh neigh, quack quack, woof woof, and even oooh oooh oooh ahhh (monkey)). If you ask her what the pig says, she scrunches up her nose and breathes through it, but doesn’t make any noise. It’s pretty cute. She also learned what the frog "says" – if you ask her what a frog says she sticks her tongue in and out like the frog on an MSN Messenger wink. She can also point to all the parts of the body. Great Aunt Patti & Uncle Joel gave her a really fun book called "Counting Kisses" and that has helped us find fun ways to learn about her chubby yummy knees and tickly dimpled chin. Most of all, Olivia is our little copycat and wants to try whatever we’re doing – especially whatever Daddy’s doing. This morning JR pounded his fists on the table at breakfast like he was about to make a big announcement and Livy spent the rest of breakfast pounding on the table and giggling. She thinks anything Daddy does is hysterical and really enjoys having him home to mimic. I can’t count the number of times she asks for Daddy when he’s at work. I’m sure paternity leave will be a special time for these two.

We’ve done some updating of furniture for Olivia recently. You might have noticed the new bed in the photo gallery and she also has a new table & chairs in the living room. Both are from IKEA (my new favorite place to shop for children’s furniture). The table & chairs came unfinished, so JR put a nice stain & finish on it. Livy enjoys drawing and coloring and we finally got some finger paints so I know the table & chars will see a lot of use. Like I said, she also got a new bed, but she isn’t sleeping in it quite yet. We won’t put the new baby in the crib for a few months, so I figured we’d let Livy get used to having the new bed in her room for a bit and then start taking naps there and finally sleeping at night there as well. For now it’s a great spot to read books – still her most favorite passtime. She is such a good little bookworm and will sit on her big bed piled with books and pour over them with utter fascination. My favorite is when she picks up a little song book from Grandma Kane and sings to herself. She also reads "What Does Baby Say?" very well by lifting the flaps and making the right baby sounds for each page (another good pick by Great Aunt Patti & Uncle Joel).  

Watching Olivia play is when we realize just how much she’s growing up. She’s started pretending with the baby dolls she got at Christmas from Aunt Lisa & Great Grandma Andrews. Both have eyes that shut when they are lying down, so we put them to bed multiple times a day. All the baby equipment set up around the house (bassinet, swing, bouncer, etc.) has made Livy much more interested in being a little mother. I’m really excited to see what she does when her real baby comes home from the hospital. She also loves to dance and listen to music. She has a CD player in her room and she’ll just go in and press play and dance to her nursery rhymes. And when we’re out in the living room, she stands in front of the entertainment center asking us to turn on the radio. For family walks, we got her a steer & stroll tricycle so that baby can ride in the stroller and she can learn to ride a bike. It has nice rubber (air-filled) tires and a handle so that we can push it without bending over. She is very excited to get it out when Daddy comes home from work and head around the block.  

As adorable as she is, Livy has also started throwing fits (most small and some not-so-small at all!) and using typical toddler words like "mine" and "NO." One of the most demonstrative epidsodes took place at Chik-fil-A when we were all supposed to share an ice cream cone. She immediately called out "mine" and then refused to unhand it so that Mommy & Daddy could have a bite. After forcing her to give it up, she screamed, "NO, MINE" over and over and cried hysterically making quite a scene. So we are bracing ourselves for those "terrible twos" which seem to be arriving just at the same time as the new baby (coincidence?). Another big milestone doesn’t appear to be far off either. She’s not quite ready for potty training yet, but I think she will be around the same time I am (shortly after we get settled with the new baby). She knows when she has dirty pants and requests clean ones by saying "dirty" and making a disgruntled face. She’s also started needing dry pants when they are wet, too. Such a big girl!

With the new baby coming any day (or so they tell us), she and I have not been getting out as much lately, but in addition to visits here and there with friends, we did try two regular things this summer. Fridays we met with a "Bebes Bilingues" playgroup where all the moms and babies spoke in Spanish. It was really fun (and I must admit challenging) to use my Spanish after so long. I think it will be good for the girls (and me!) to keep up with it after we are settled in. We also started a regular playdate with our friends Marlene and Farah. It’s been really nice to have that to look forward to and the girls are becoming such good playmates. Marlene is expecting her second in December, so the new babies will be just right to follow in Farah & Olivia’s footsteps. Really, it has been a great summer. It’s been one of the coolest Texas summers on record, for which I am eternally grateful, and Livy and I have enjoyed getting out and playing at parks and pools and enjoying the last few months of it being just us. Now we are looking forward to sharing our days with baby sister!!