Olivia seems to not be scared by any living creature (dinosaur bones coming to life and chasing Ben Stiller is another story though as I mentioned in a previous post.) She got very excited over this little bug that was climbing on our window. No, it was not a cockroach as it appears to be when you first see it in the video so don’t freak out. She also loves spiders and will chase them on the ground if she sees one.
Figured I would throw out one more bubble video since it is all I have right now.
Olivia has somehow lost the word “kitty cat.” The word for cat now is “ssssss” It is frustrating because kitty cat was one of my favorite words she said, and now it seems like such a lazy word. A cat will be on tv or outside and she will laugh, point and say “sss”.
I am also sad to admit that Brooke and I have become those parents that now have our own language, as well as have to spell things out. For example, if I am in the kitchen and Brooke is feeding Olivia, she will ask me to bring her some “dobbies” (strawberries.) or I will tell Brooke she ate a whole “mana” (banana) this morning. We don’t use these word with Olivia though because we want her to know the real words, but we do use it when talking to each other. What is with that?? We will also spell the fake word to each other instead of the real word if we don’t want her to know what we are saying. For example, if Olivia is not eating well, I will say, “do you think she wants a D-O-B-B-I-E?” Again, why??? Parenting makes you do strange things I guess..
We brought Olivia’s tent out again that Grandma and Grandpa got her on their last visit. She really likes it, and even can get the dogs in there on occasion with her. There have been a few times where she tries to exit the tent but ends up dragging the entire tent with her because it is stuck to her head.
Grandma bought Olivia some bubbles when she was in town a few months ago. She didn’t show much interest back then, so we decided to try again. First, Mima tried when she visited last Wednesday, then we had bubble fun on Sunday. She liked them a lot until she got some blown into her eyes, then she would run away from them when ever they were blown. I am sure if we give it a day or so she will be excited about them again. You should have seen her hair, looked like she just got out of the shower and forgot to rinse. She was the bubble soap queen by the end of this bubble session.
So Monday I had to take a 1/2 day at work because Brooke had a Dr. appointment and I needed to watch Olivia. I wanted to put something on that Olivia would watch so I could get a little work done before I gave her my full attention and had just recorded Night At The Museum the day before because we heard good things about it (though I was hesitant because it looks pretty boring.) She was 
She was standing in front of the TV when the dinosaur roared and started chasing Ben Stiller in the hall. Olivia immediately got a sad look on her face and slowly walked backwards all the way across the room while watching. I got the remote and fast forwarded through the chase scene and resumed when the monkey was running around. She liked that and went back to the TV and watched. Then a fight broke out with some other characters and she again backed up across the room.
Up until this point I have watched some pretty scary movies and most of it seemed to go over Olivia’s head, but as of now, I think it is time to cut out the violence and creepy stuff. It was fun while it lasted, but now it is time to switch to Discovery Channel or other programming like that. Most of the stuff I have on is just background filler anyway. Sorry Lee for exposing you to that, it will all be kittens, doggies and birdies from here on out.
The words keep coming these days. Some come easily, others just never seem to happen. She just has no interest in learning colors, but other words like applesauce, swimsuit, chip, all come in the first try. Her latest is applesauce (sigh sigh.) She also loves chips and learned to say “chip” real quick. And I also have to show off the crown jewel of her talents. You can see it right here in this video. “What does a crow say?” Enjoy….
Brooke met up with a friend and her daughter on Wednesday and went to a place called Giggle Bug. This is a huge indoor play area for kids. Wednesday mornings it is reserved for kids under 4 only until 12:00 PM. Livi had a great time playing in the ball pit and running around in the jump house. They didn’t spend too much time there as Ellie wanted to leave early, but she did have a good time. I want to go there sometime with her as it looks like a blast.
Before we went to Mima’s and had Olivia in the pool, Brooke let Olivia play in her pool at our house. Same pool she played in last year, except this year she can walk (and walk away from the pool as seems to be the case most often.) She seemed to be most happy just running around and exploring.
She was looking good in her bathing suit
Her usual point-in-the-air point
Strange noises always make her do this face
Eating weeds, keep up that fiber intake!
Quick picture of her real ponytail. Finally has long enough hair to pull this off
Sunday we went down to Columbia for a family get-together. We left early so Olivia could have some good play time before her nap. She had a great car ride down there which is a first. Only had to swap toys a few times, but no meltdowns.
Rob and Marcia had bought a small inflatable pool for Olivia to play in so we also brought her swimsuit along. She didn’t really take to playing in the water as running around the backyard was way more exciting. At one point, we saw a little green lizard that she got excited over so Rob and I tried to catch it for her. We were probably more amusing to everyone trying to catch the lizard than the actual lizard was to Olivia, but she liked seeing it either way.
After playtime we put Livi down for her nap and ate lunch. She got in a good nap and woke up refreshed. The rest of the day was watching her dance to music and run around and play inside. She was a very good girl. She did however keep wanting to go back outside (“side, side, side”) but we kept telling her no. Auntie Steph learned the power of Livi’s sad and pleading eyes, and broke down and took her outside, even though we warned her that once she did, Olivia would not want to come back in and probably throw a fit. She is definitely hard to resist. However, she was a good girl and came back inside just fine.
We left around 5:00 (Livi’s dinner time) and were worried about her being hungry in the car. After about 20 minutes she started getting restless so I gave her a cucumber slice. She loved it and every few minutes I would her her say “bite, bite” so I would give her another. She probably ate about 1/2 a cucumber on the ride home. We all had a great time, thanks again Mima and Grandpa for having us all over, and as always, Livis loves seeing her Auntie Steph!!
Below is her “what is that sound” face she makes every time there is a new loud noise.
We did take some pictures while at the Thornwell Farm on Mother’s day. Olivia really likes the animals (shocker) and was very curious when she heard the cows mooing. I don’t think she has heard that before but it stopped her in her tracks while she was walking down the road. She loved it and laughed every time there was a moo.
On another note, school is all done for Brooke now for the summer (unless her summer class fills and she is able to teach it.) We asked Young World if we could go part time with them, just Tuesday and Thursday, and they agreed. This will give Brooke time to get her stuff done and keep Olivia in a social environment and keep her getting used to napping away from home. She did have to lose her cubby though since she is part time. Poor cubbyless Lee. I think it will be good for her to continue to go to YW part time, she really does seem to like going there.
Oh yea, and Choomb got to wear the little hat that came on Brooke’s Mother’s Day flower arrangement.
We had a good Mother’s Day weekend. We took Olivia to the Thornwell farm and tried taking a mini hike, but the trail was too grown over to hike on. Olivia cried every time we put her down in the tall grass. After that we went out to Fatz for dinner. Olivia had her first meal entirely from the restaurant (not snacks we brought along.) We ordered her pasta (with butter) and she ate the ENTIRE dish. It was not off the kids meal. She was very good and ate most of it with her fork, until the end when she started eating with her hands because she knew it upset us. The pasta went into her mouth with her hands while she evil eyed us as she did it. It is interesting how much slower the pasta approaches the mouth when she is staring you down and doing something she knows is wrong. All drama. “oh, you don’t want me to use my hands, well, watch this.” But she was great. Waved at everyone as they came in and was very well behaved. No screaming or throwing things (except her crayon once.)
We even had a chance that morning to catch Olivia doing some of her tricks. She was being cooperative, so we took advantage of the moment and started running through some of them. Such a talented little bean!
Olivia is pretty much back to her old happy self now. We decided to take her off all of her medications early, including Zantac. She was just taking so much for so long and had been miserable that we decided to give her system a reboot. This seemed to work, and so far no puking from lack of Zantac yet either. Good to have happy Lee back.
New words keep showing up in Olivia’s repertoire daily now. Some of the latest words are strawberry (dobbie), banana (mana), fish (shhhh), outside (siiiide), night night (nie nie) and no (no no no no.) We work on getting her to say the actual word correctly (except no, she says that one too well), but it is so cute how she says each word her way.
Ok, I wrote the first two paragraphs before Olivia woke up. Now that she is up she is totally congested, can’t drink and breathe at the same time and in an ok mood, but gets pretty angry. She came up to me and said siiiide (to go into sunroom, but Zoe was eating so she can’t go out there while that is going on) and I said not yet, she punched the air towards me, threw her little cow at me, dropped to all fours and gave a cry face, then crawled away. However, now she is perfectly happy playing with her Cozy Coupe. You never know what you are going to get.
Anyway, for all of you that have gone through this (or are currently going through this) Happy Mother’s Day!!! We couldn’t do it without you.
Today is Olivia’s 18 month birthday. I can’t believe she will be two years old in 6 more months. Time flies.
She seems to be getting a little better health wise, but still not totally acting like her usual self. Very irritable and unpredictable. So much so that we really don’t want to take her anywhere because she can turn into a monster on a dime and is inconsolable. But a lot of times she is happy as can be.
Tonight we took her to her favorite park and had a lot of fun. She even loved the swing this time. She never loves the swing, but she didn’t want to get off of it at all. We spent about an hour there and Olivia didn’t want to go home. She turned crazy when we put her in the car and didn’t stop until she was in bed. Ok Livi, I hope you wake up in a good mood…. Tomorrow is PC’s Baccalaureate celebration and we plan on you having dinner with us and represent!!
Poor Lee, time to go home!!
Quick video of Olivia asking for one of her favorite snacks. She has never made a “C” sound as in corn or car but she will get there. By the way, she is puny here because this was filmed while she was getting sick again.
The other night Livi was feeling so bad that she actually fell asleep at 5:30 in the living room. Brooke could not keep her awake so she got put to bed at 6:00 (1 hour early) and we had to wake her up around 8:00 (about 1 hour late) the next morning. Hopefully she will be feeling better soon, we miss our cheery Livi!!
