Livi 101

It has been a while since I have done an actual post with more than 20 words, so I figured I would try and update everyone on what Lee is like these days.

Sometimes it is hard for us to notice how much she is changing, but recently she has had quite a few changes.  To start with, her speech is getting more complex, not better in regards to pronouncing words, but her sentences are getting longer and contain multiple ideas in them.  What used to be “Daddy, please put in hairbow” is now “Daddy, please put hairbow on me, get the hair out of my eyes” or (in regards to her dolls) “Please put cupcakes on her table so she can eat them for breakfast.”  All of this and she still pronounces Bunny as Money.  Someday we will celebrate the milestone where that changes.

Livi has moved up another room in school, she is no longer with her (our) favorite teacher full time, Ms. Carolyn, but does spend a few hours in the morning in Carolyn’s room before moving into her home room.  She is also starting to wear pullups occasionally in the new room.  Peer-pressure is going to start getting her to be potty trained we think, as most kids in that room are potty trained, or well on their way.

This last week Olivia has been suffering from a double ear infection.  She had been pulling at her right ear a lot, but when the doctor looked, she said both ears were infected.  She has finished her 5 day run of antibiotics, but still seems to be in pain.  Brooke is planning on taking her back Tuesday to have them look again.  Though the day she seems fine, meltdowns ensue when it is bath time.  I think the water gets in her ear and irritates it more.

She still loves her music class that she now does on Wednesday nights.  Normally it is 1/2 hour, but 2 weeks ago it was only about 10 minutes (for her at least) since she just didn’t want to behave.  Brooke warned her twice that if she didn’t listen she would take her out for the day, and Livi didn’t listen, so home she went, with what Brooke says was the biggest, loudest fit she has ever heard from Livi.  She was ANGRY!!!  We have officially reached the power struggle age with her and are battling it daily.  She learned her lesson this last Wednesday, though she wasn’t perfect by any means.  We are living with a lot of snappy “no’s” and “uh uhhh’s” and a lot of direct defiance (“Livi, take that toy out of your mouth”….. followed by a long stare with her holding it against her tongue, but not quite in her mouth, leaving me to recalculate in my mind what exactly I define as ‘in your mouth’) then choose my battles.  She is VERY strong willed.  As soon as she knows something is a no-no, it intrigues her and she pushes to see just what is acceptable.  Her thought process:  No splashing in the tub means no water flying on the floor, but does it also mean no water on daddy’s face?  Does it mean no water on the wall?  Does it mean I can splash around and hit the water as long as none of it comes out of the tub?  I will try all these methods while staring at daddy, studying his expressions and sometimes slowly working up to an extreme, just to see what happens.

It is also very interesting seeing her play with her dolls, because it lets us have insight as to what may go on at daycare.  We hope none of this stuff is said to her, but she will cover up her doll and say “go to sleep right now, I mean it!”  or “Stop moving and go to sleep, you’re making me angry!”  Among other phrases that make us cringe (that we know are from the other kids rather than the teachers) such as “shut up”, and my personal favorite (I’m being sarcastic), “want to fight me.”

All in all she is the best little girl ever, and I wouldn’t change a thing.  We still do our Sunday morning Waffle house and then trip to either the field, or the store.  She has shown no interest in swimming, or even learning (well, by learning I mean being taught.)  She is a very fast learner if she decides she wants to learn something.  But if at any time we make any game or interaction a learning experience, we are ignored or walked away from, or sometimes just fussed at with “no!” until we stop or she frustrates us with intentional wrong answers.  Thus is our strong willed little LEE!!!  Oh, and I forgot to say, she has a very distinct southern accent (when we aren’t taking video of her of course) she pronounces pink as paynk, peach as paych, baby as baybay.  She is destined to be southern.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.3