Livi Lou, I Love You

Today marks Olivia's 25 month birthday.   I wondered if after she turned two if I would still be posting these monthly updates and it looks like I am.  I guess I will do it until I stop.  {Makes sense, right?}

I took Olivia in for her 2 year well-check yesterday and let's just say it was a whole lot different than all other well-checks before it.  Olivia has always done pretty well at the doctor's office.  When she was just 15 months old,  she stepped up on the big-kid scale to get weighed and measured.  She did it again at the 18 month appointment.  But, yesterday, she wasn't having it.  She knew something was up, despite our having talked about going to see Dr. Thompson and all that the visit would entail.  She refused to stand on the scale {does she get that from me?} and had to be weighed on the baby scale.  I was able to convince her to stand up to be measured though.  She weighs 28 pounds and is 34 inches tall - she is right at the 60% percentile for both, so I am thankful for that.  When Dr. Thompson came in to the room, she clung to me like a baby monkey and kept saying, "Olivia wanna go home now," over and over again.  Which, I guess is good, considering he is pretty much a stranger to her.  She gave a little verbal fight when he went to look in her ears {she gets that from Magnum!} but eventually cooperated.  Ironically, the easiest part of the whole visit was when the nurse came in to give her the vaccination.  She fussed for just a second, but was completely fine before the nurse even pulled the needle out of her arm.  I'm glad we won't have to do that again for another few years.

We ran errands after the appointment and she was as good as gold.  Maybe she thought I was going to send her back to the doctor if she got out of line.  All afternoon she kept asking, "What's Dr. Thompson doing?"  She even asked for him this morning.  

I am currently reading the book Positive Discipline for Preschoolers and we are awaiting the arrival of Love and Logic, Magic for Early Childhood.  Overall, Olivia's behavior is great.  It's especially wonderful when she is free to do all the things she wants to do.  Unfortunately {for her}, that doesn't get to happen 100% of the time.  We are working hard to be pro-active on what could potentially be a really tough year on all of us.  The tantrum-like behaviors we do see are completely age-appropriate and we are trying to arm ourselves with various tools so we can best handle the situations as they arise.  

I think I mentioned before that we were having some difficulty getting Olivia to sit in her highchair for meals.  She generally does great with breakfast, but by dinnertime, she is absolutely not interested in being buckled into ANYTHING again.  We have a small portable highchair that I got off of craigslist for when Jill and her girls came to visit and it pretty much works like a booster chair.  After a few days of struggles, I pulled the chair in from the garage and attached it to our dining room chair.  She absolutely LOVES sitting there and feels like such a big girl eating at the same table as us.  

I just read the chapter on social skills and it really is such a relief to know that her not wanting to share things is totally normal at this age.  I've been doing a lot of modeling with her over the last few weeks about sharing, because in my opinion, it's not too early to demonstrate what she should and will be doing.  

I've also been working with her A LOT on manners.  When two of my friends on facebook posted this list, I knew I was off to a good start.  Obviously, a big thing for 2 year olds is to say "NO" a lot.  {And, it is something I try not to say.  I would rather tell Olivia what she can do than what she can't do.}  So, I started teaching Olivia to say "No, thank you."  And she is totally picking up on it.  Granted, she may still be telling me no, but it is a lot more pleasant hearing her say it politely.  The other day I could tell she had a dirty diaper and so I said, "Olivia, I see that you have a stinky diaper.  Can Mommy go back and change it?"  And, she said, "No, thank you," which was a lot better than what would have normally been a screaming NOOOO.  She is really good at saying please and thank you and she even thanked the nurse at the doctor's office after she gave her the vaccination and a sucker.  I was impressed.

Olivia LOVES to sing and also loves to be sung to.  One of her favorite past-times is reading books.  Her friend Kendall got her Pinkalicious for her birthday and yesterday she flipped through the first six or so pages of the book and recited a couple of sentences from each page.  She'll even take our books and pretend to read from them.  Her favorite thing to say is, "The next day..."  

Her Grandma Irma got her a Land Before Time dvd and put it in her Easter basket.  It has become Olivia's FAVORITE dvd lately.  She watches it in the car and talks about "Chomper" and how he lost his tooth and says, "Snasshhhh it down," which is another phrase said in one of the episodes.  

I have gotten in a very bad habit of snuggling up with Olivia during naptime and falling asleep holding her.  She is just so precious and STILL, something that rarely happens - the still part, not the precious part - and I just want to soak in as much of it {HER} as possible.  Plus, I enjoy a little twenty minute nap while I'm doing it.

And, while Olivia is doing all of this learning, David and I are learning as well.  One of the lessons I am learning is to enjoy the time with her as much as I can.  If that means spending more time on the floor playing puzzles and baby dolls and less time doing the dishes, well, I'm okay with that.  We spent two hours yesterday afternoon playing in her playroom and just watching her face light up when she does something on her own brings me more joy than any clean kitchen ever could!

Here's to 25 months!

I love you sooooo much.