We are so very grateful to have a happy, healthy 18 month old! Olivia has such a pleasant and sweet personality. She is very affectionate, and gives the best hugs and kisses. She is especially generous with her baby dolls and stuffed animals, often carrying them around the house giving hugs the whole way, stopping here and there for a good kiss on the nose. She has also grown quite fond of Sadie, and loves to give her very huge but gentle hugs, kisses, and just giggles when Sadie’s tail wags in her face (she’s at just the right height).
We are loving watching Olivia grow, and boy is she! We have always coached her with things and get
excited when she catches on. But lately she’ll do or say something completely
new that we haven’t intentionally tried to teach her, and it’ll just blow our
minds. She really has become quite the chatterbox. Sometimes she’ll tell us a
whole story (that seems pretty detailed based on its length) in a language that’s
all her own. But we are also surprised each day by how much more she can say
and put together. And she's really starting to make connections about the world around her. One example: We were reading a book, and the dog's name was "Bingo". I started singing b-i-n-g-o. She got down and went over to her little tablet - it plays a different song (only music, no words), each time you press the button. She cycled through the songs until she came to the music for "b-i-n-g-o". I couldn't believe it.
Some new words and phrases:
Olivia – pronounced “thza”, hello, please, this, again, help, apple,
hat, hippo, packers, cute, a-choo, bless you, puppy, mess, home, house, sit,
sit down, on, off, no, nope, round-round, loud, down, down-crib, candle, poop,
teddy, whale, hat, out, more, watch, Sadie, luv you – pronounced “a-do”, luv
you so much, table, couch, chair, high chair, milk, hey boo-boo, knock-knock,
night-night, light on, back on, hat on, baby hat on, car baby, color, want to
paint, mommy ready, picture, tree, pop pop, bubbles, blow bubbles, myself,
open, gift, oooo, blueberries, snowman, big girl, babies, read books, olivia’s
baby, hug, eye, arm, foot, toes, fingers, stuck, yuck, shoe, here go baby, ok
baby, bye bye baby, mommy coffee, daddy coffee, mommy(‘s) food, daddy(’s) food,
Olivia(‘s) food
She is also developing strong preferences and opinions. She
definitely knows and makes clear when she wants or does not want something. She
often lets us know she wants something by saying “this?” or “again?”. If she
wants something very badly, she might say “please?”… or she might whine a
little until we remind her to say “please”. When she doesn’t want something, she says “no”
or “nope” very matter of fact. Sometimes she’ll gently push it away. Unless it’s
her toothbrush. Then she throws it. When she’s incredibly frustrated, she’s
learning to say “help”. When she’s incredibly angry because she doesn’t want to
get ready for a nap, she throws herself on the floor and cries, kicks, and sometimes
even bites her fingers (or even –gasp-her baby) in anger. And then once we’ve
pretty much wrestled our way into the rocking chair she’s ready to peacefully
read books.
Some new things
she's learned and loves to do: coloring, painting, wearing a
tutu or princess dress, putting sunglasses on, learned to stomp, high five, kick
balls, walk on her tiptoes, push the shopping cart or stroller, asks us to light
the candle every day, asks for the fireplace to light up at grandparents’
houses, stacking her sippy cups, tries to jump, Says bless you when we (or she)
sneeze, cough, or burp. (She also randomly practices by saying “a-choo” then
“bless you”)
Some favorite activities:
- Anything outdoors: going for walks, being at the playground, sitting on the porch. Now that it’s cold, she got an indoor/outdoor slide for Christmas, and just loves when we bring it in from the garage. She plays on it till her legs are wobbly and feel like jello I’m sure
- Reading books: her love for books is insatiable! Often she’ll ask to read a book over and over again. Side note: We now regret owning a book that is a collection of 10 (TEN!) Biscuit stories. It seemed like such a good idea at the time. But reading front to back approximately 8 times in a row is more than I was expecting out of that purchase. It now resides in a basket of washcloths in the laundry room and may or may not ever see the light of day again.
- Taking care of her baby(ies): She carries her baby just about everywhere, and pats her, feeds her, gives her a sippy, puts a blanket over or lays her on a pillow when baby is sleepy. She even “shows” her baby what is going on in the world around her. She’ll hold her baby up facing whatever object of fascination is in front of her – a-dorable. She has babies at each of the grandparents’ houses, and Grammy Evely gave her for Christmas her very own American Girl Bitty Baby who she LOVES and always looks for first thing in the morning. (Grammy Evely also loaned us a baby from her house for the months leading up to Christmas). She even has a “car baby” that Daddy got her. And needless to say Baby Jesus was a hit this holiday season.
- Looking at pictures: she is her mommy’s daughter. Her favorite is looking at pictures of our family and friends. She points and asks who they are each time, even though she knows. When we ask her “where’s so and so” she’ll usually point to the correct person.
- Going to her grandparents’ houses: It just makes my heart so happy when she gets excited and waits at the door when we tell her where we’re going. She asks to go almost every day that we’re home, and we are just so blessed (or as Olivia says “beth-d”) to have grandparents that love our baby so very much! Beyond having awesome childcare when we are both at work, I just love knowing how rich her relationships with them are, and how meaningful they are in her life!
- Watching the washing machine. For some reason our washing machine is terribly loud. One morning it startled her a few times. So I re-assured her, and we went into the laundry room and it’s a front loader so you can watch it work. We talked about how it gets our clothes clean, and even spins the water out! INSTANT obsession. She would watch it for hours if it ran that long. She always asks us to do another load. She even asks for us to read her books in the laundry room while she keeps an eye on it. It’s always a good fall back for cranky times when re-direction is almost an emergent situation. She used to “tell” us how it worked in her jibberish and motioned her hands emphatically for the spin cycle. Now she can actually tell us “round-round”, which is also the phrase she uses when requesting a feature presentation.
- “Cleaning”: she likes to take a wash cloth or towel and wipe down basically the whole house. Which is awesome, and I hope it’s an activity she doesn’t lose interest in as the years go by! So cute watching her wash the chairs, table, floor, wall, baby, stuffed animals, her hair, and the list goes on and on. Some times she’ll even take her sippy cup and try to get a few drops out before wiping them up. so funny!
- One morning Dusty was getting everything around to go. She was playing with Baby Jesus at the time. When she saw me getting things around, she carried Jesus to the door. He said “Olivia, we can’t take Baby Jesus with us. He needs to stay here.” So she looked at him, gently set him down on the floor in front of the door, gave him a little pat and said, “Bye Bye Baby.”
- I went to the garage and she quickly followed me to the door. When i came in with the vacuum, she immediately turned around and said “nope” while quickly toddling the other direction
- One night she was resisting going to sleep, and we were just rocking in the rocking chair for a little bit. She started saying “a-do” (her way of saying I love you) and wait for me to say “I love you” … then she would say “sooo much” and wait for me to repeat “sooo much”. This just completely melted my heart. Then she started to play with my hair at the same time – so gentle, she just kind of strokes my hair, and likes to run her fingers through it sometimes. So sweet, I just never wanted it to end. A moment I’ll treasure until the end of time.
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