May 14, 2012

Olive loves this time of year because we're in the water nearly everyday. There's a splash pad in town that Chris has taken the kids to a few times, and we have a bunch of water stuff in the backyard. She's a little fish.

She loves to wrestle Chris, and I'm figuring out that she definitely plays rougher than other little girls her age.

Olive scrunches the right side of her face when she's explaining something or when she's confused, or whatever. It's pretty cute. She knows I like it, because I do it back to her, and so she does it even more.

She will follow up most questions with a selection of answers for me to choose from. Like, if she asks a yes or no question she'll say, "No or yes?" after she asks it. Or like if something doesn't fit her, she'll say, "Is it too big or too little?"

She still adores singing and dancing. She sings on key, and she has rhythm, and it's fun to watch those talents arise in her. She is very excited to start "ballerina school;" her dance class starts in July.

Olive is like Chris in that she gets over things pretty quickly, I mean with regard to being in trouble or getting in a fight with Lucy. She just forgets about it and moves on fast. Lucy, on the other hand, is more like me.

Olive has always been pretty independent. Lately she's been scooting chairs or stools to places she can't reach. She does it several times a day when she wants to get a snack. And she even knows how to unwrap a package of popcorn, scoot the chair over to the microwave, and push the popcorn button. I don't know who taught her that one, but we've had a million popcorn messes lately to show for it. I appreciate her independence, but I love it when she wants to cuddle and rest with me too.

Olive has had a few nightmares lately. She wakes up upset, and tells us details of the dream. I've noticed it's started happening around the same time that she's begun to pretend. She pretends things all the time. So I think it's just her little imagination running wild. Still, I don't like her having bad dreams. Poor thing.

She's energetic and creative, and always wants to know what we're doing next or what friends we're seeing today. She runs the show, or at least thinks she does. She's charming and witty, and I adore her.

May 2, 2012

Two Sundays ago we went to Utah. We went to Jenny's where everyone was having a Sunday dinner together. Before we got there, and actually a few times in the previous weeks, I was thinking about how much I don't like trampolines. And I thought to myself, I better give Olive a big talk about being careful before she gets on. We got there. Olive ran into the house ahead of me. I took about 3 minutes saying hi to everyone before I headed out to the backyard where she went. I was going to give her that talk. As I was on the way outside Shane was on the way inside, carrying Olive who was shrieking in pain. That's how fast it happened. The way witnesses explained it, she was trying to do a front flip (What the heck?? She's never done that before in her life!), and landed funny. She cried for an hour straight, nothing could distract her from the pain, and that's how I knew something was really up. We went to the ER, the nurse there said we were the sixth trampoline accident case in 2 days. Sure enough, Olive had a tibial buckle fracture. No cast, and the doctor said a splint really isn't necessary. The thing I found really interesting was that upon Googling "tibial buckle fracture" a couple of the articles that came up near the top talked about how it's kinda common for a kid near Olive's age to suffer that exact injury when jumping on a trampoline with older kids or adults. Olive was jumping with Dane, Brock, and Shane, so it makes sense. And it only affirms my dislike for trampolines. You can bury it or put a safety net around it, but this injury would still happen. Olive went 8 looooong days of crawling and being carried, and then finally started walking yesterday. She's still limping and favoring it, but she's definitely on the mend.

in the ER

sporting the unnecessary splint

April 6, 2012

Olive's first visit to the dentist. She was brave and cute, and the dentist said her teeth look great!

March 27, 2012

Just a few quick updates about Olive --

She loves to boss me about my driving. She tells me when to go, and she tells me to "win" the other cars. It's annoying, I won't lie, but it's also been a good opportunity to talk about left and right.

She's been saying, "You know," and, "I think," before or after a statement.

She loves to pray. Her usual prayer goes as follows: "Thank you da Father, ashoo da food. And Mommy and Daddy be safe..." And often she'll include a narrative about the day's events. It's pretty cute, but it has caused a little contention because she always wants to be the one to pray and becomes devastated when it's someone else's turn.

She thinks she's the third parent around here, asserting her bossy self to Lucy and George and telling them what to do, and what not to do. Today she whacked Lucy in the head with a wand, and then almost immediately wiped her tears away and said so tenderly, "I'm sorry, little sweetheart."

I keep being surprised about how much she knows and how much she says. Yesterday we were playing at the park and she could hear her echo. Just as I was about to explain to her what an echo is she said, "I hear my echo!" No clue where she learned it, but then again things like that happen all the time. She's a really bright girl.

She's very, very eager to go to school. She asks me several times a day if she can go, and she even gets upset if I tell her it'll be a while before she goes. I may start looking into preschools just for the sake of giving her some stimulation and satisfaction.

She loves all things romantical. She has asked several times, "Mommy, who is my prince gonna be?" And she loves to hear me or Chris tell her about getting in a white princess dress and marrying her prince in the temple. She seems to listen so reverently when we tell her those kinds of things.

Uncle Dave said recently how agile Olive is. It's true. She's really coordinated and agile, and she's always running and climbing and riding a bike or scooter. She can really hold her own. And if she does fall, she bounces back pretty quickly. Today I saw her trip on Chris's longboard outside. She sat for a second, didn't even look my direction, got up and sighed, "I'm okay."

Other than a few power struggles a day, I really can't complain about life with Olive. She's such a great kid.

March 14, 2012

Olive had her 3-year checkup today. She is 34 pounds heavy (50-75%) and 37 inches tall (25-50%). Dr. Denise said she's healthy and happy and bright. I agree!

February 4, 2012

Olive is 3! Happy Birthday, my sweet girl!!

January 30, 2012

Today Olive really showed some bright ingenuity, and I had to write about it.

First, this afternoon she came into the kitchen while I was cleaning and said, "I want to make a box house." I said, "You want me to get a box, and then we can make a house out of it?" "Yes," she said. So I got one of Chris's millions of drug boxes out of the garage. I asked her a bunch of questions, and she gave me very specific answers and instructions until we came up with the box house she had imagined (picture 1). The house is orange and has a brown door with a black door knob. The roof is purple. The back of the house has a pink garage. There are two windows on the front of the house and one on the back. She did most of the coloring, and I did all of the cutting. After it was finished, she played with the Little People with it for hours.

picture 1

Then at dinnertime, I was busy getting things on the table when suddenly I looked down and saw this (picture 2). She had taken the separator from the pizza box, which obviously resembles a tiny table, and put her Little People at it to eat their dinner while we ate ours. Chris put a single pepperoni on their table to finish off the scene. Pretty awesome.

picture 2