A few weeks ago I caught Olive in the act of being such a mommy. It was so wonderful. First, she tucked her dolly into a makeshift bed with a cuppy and blanky, turned on the humidifier, turned the light off, and shut the door. This was especially sweet because that's exactly how I tuck her in every night. A little while later she set up a little tea party in the kitchen. And in the same day, she sat on the kitchen floor holding her dolly and feeding it from her own cuppy. I took a couple pictures.

Recently the girls and I spent a couple of hours at an outdoor mall in Vegas. They had this big fantastic park in the middle of the mall, and the park had a little stage in it. Olive was in heaven. She got on stage and sang and danced. She still really loves to sing and dance and perform for anyone and everyone. It's in her bones. Here's a picture.

Olive went sledding for the first time during our Thanksgiving trip to Utah. She looked so cute all geared up and puffy. Here she is with Alexis.

For Christmas in our family, our kids get one big gift from Santa, one from us, and they give one gift to each other. So Olive got 3 gifts - a kitchen from Santa, Your Baby Can Read from us, and some play food for the kitchen from Lucy. On Christmas morning, we always read Luke 2 together before we dig into the presents. We celebrated a week early this year because we took a trip to northern California and wanted to have our own thing at home beforehand. It was lovely. Olive has really enjoyed her kitchen, and we have big plans for the Your Baby Can Read program in the coming year. She already really enjoys it (we first noticed her proclivity for it while visiting David's house and he did it with her). Anyway, it was fun showing her Christmas lights, telling her about the baby Jesus, singing Christmas songs, baking treats, finding charity opportunities, and just seeing Christmas through her eyes. Here are a few pictures.

I've been amazed with how much Olive feels more like a little girl and less like a baby these days. She's talking a ton, saying things I don't even realize she's picking up (we LOVE the way she says chocolate and color - oh my gosh!). Her hair is getting longer, and I love to just throw it up in a little bun. She's just such a doll. She's really cute with Lucy, such a big sister. She's very outgoing and friendly, which a lot of times goes unreciprocated and that makes my heart ache. But she's amazingly secure and self-assured. She's pretty and funny and independent and feisty and a stinker and sweet and affectionate. I know there are a million details I'm leaving out. But we are crazy about her!

22 months

Halloween was fun. Olive dressed up as a witch, but started taking articles of clothing off the minute we got to the Trunk or Treat. So she ended up running around in a black t-shirt and green and white striped tights, and that was pretty much it. She had a really fun time.

A couple weeks ago I took Olive with me to Lucy's doctor appointment so that she could get a flu shot. When it came time for it, I was holding Lucy in one hand and was supposed to hold Olive's arms down with the other hand. The trouble was Lucy was screaming and squirming because she had just gotten 5 shots, so I didn't have a good grip on Olive. And so when the nurse put the needle in, Olive broke free and ripped the needle out of her thigh. She's so feisty! I couldn't help but laugh, but not until after I knew everything and everyone was OK. Yikes!

Chris and I left the girls with his parents for 2 days, just to have a little getaway. It was the first time I'd left Olive overnight, other than at Lucy's birth of course, since she was born. I expected to have a really hard time with it, but I did a pretty good job preparing myself with prayer and knowing they'd be perfectly fine. And they were. Olive pretty much makes herself right at home wherever she goes, and I love her confidence and independence. But I also love how much she wants her mommy too.

We started putting Lucy in her bed in hers and Olive's room. Olive has been going to bed so easily these days. It's adorable. I'll lay her down and cover her up with her blanky, and she'll just say, "Night night," and roll over. So cute. And even if Lucy's crying wakes Olive up in the night, she just goes right back to sleep. She's awesome. And I love that my girls share a room!

I noticed yesterday that Olive is getting a couple of new teeth.

Lately Olive will say "show" which means she wants me to put a show on for her, and give her a cuppy and her blanky so she can cuddle up on the couch and watch for a while. It's cute, but I'm definitely trying not to let her do it as often as she would like to.

Mom and Dad and the girls came down this weekend, and Olive had such a good time with them. I love how comfortable she is spending time with almost anyone and everyone. And it's so gratifying to have my family dote on my girl and see how great she is. I love her like crazy.

21 months

Well, we've put potty training on hold. She actually did pretty well for a while there. But then we started traveling, and we had visitors, and it was just a little too stressful. She's back in diapers, but still tells us once in a while when she has to go to the bathroom. So it's not a total lost cause, and I don't feel terribly discouraged. We're just following her lead.

Olive has had lots of excitement lately. We've tried to make getting ready for Halloween lots of fun. We checked out Halloween books at the library, we carved pumpkins, she's been wearing festive shirts, we colored Halloween pictures and bought Halloween stickers. There isn't anything very fall-ish in Havasu, but when we went to Chicago we got to go to Goebbert's and that was a blast.

Also when we were in Chicago, Olive bonded with Morgan and it was so cute. She would confuse the word pumpkin with Morgan's name. They sounded pretty similar coming out of her mouth. But she loved Morgan to death. She went on Morgan's little electric moped with her, and loved it. We cracked up watching her tiny self riding around on that thing with Morgan. So cute. She also had 2 good injuries while we were there. She fell of a chair at Gino's East and got a huge knot on her head. That was almost 2 weeks ago, and it's still yellow from the leftover bruise. The day after that happened she walked into Lisa's iron patio table and gave herself a black eye. That's still there too. Olive's a pretty tough kid, she doesn't cry over falling down or whatever. But those 2 accidents were rough ones, and she needed a lot of love afterwards.

We're in a bit of a difficult phase right now. Everyday is a battle of the wills between Olive and me. She tells me to "stop it" several times a day. We have a hard time putting socks and shoes on and leaving them on, getting her hair done and leaving it done, and sometimes I have no idea why she's mad at me. The other day she asked for cheese, so I gave her some. But when I gave it to her, she threw herself to the floor in violent protest. I was baffled, but I simply walked away and went on with life. Soon she was happily eating the cheese like nothing ever happened. Little things like that happen a lot. I want to really let her be who she is, but still help her understand she's not actually the one in charge. It's a tough balance to manage. Laurie said the other day she wonders if this means Olive will be an easy teenager. Hope so!

Some of the fun things Olive is into these days are: still tons of singing and dancing. She closes her eyes and really feels it when she's singing sometimes. Cracks us up. She goes down the slides at the park so easily, even the biggest ones. It made me nervous at first, but I just let her do her thing and she's great at it now. She taps her foot when she's sitting idly. I totally love that. She has been able to open doors for a while now, so we've kept them locked. But now she can unlock them. So I'm having to be on constant guard for where she is and what she's doing. She also hangs from the door handles lately too. She loves to sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. She loves to sing anything really, but that's the first song I could tell she was really singing along to. It started out with, "uppabuh" for "up above," and now she even says, "Minkle, minkle." Not sure why the Tw is an M, but I love it! I've done Miss Mary Mack with her since she was about Lucy's age, and now she goes around the house saying, "Mack, Mack, Mack!" She also sings "Go, go, go, go!" which is from the Cat in the Hat cartoon on PBS. Lately she's been flicking her tongue across her lips back and forth a lot. I don't know where she picked that up, but it's funny to watch. Oh, and she is such a copycat lately! It's so funny! When I put my leg up on the tub to put on lotion, she'll come stand next to me and put her leg up and rub it. Or if I'm tapping my leg she'll do it too. Tons of little things like that she'll just copy. I love it.

She is a handful, but she's so much fun and I love spending my days with her.

20 months

Day 2 was a disaster. Unsuccessful and frustrating.

Day 3 was the first time Olive pooped on the toilet. She also peed several times. She had one accident, but all in all it was a great day.

Day 4 was alright. She started saying "Poop!" when she needed to go to the potty, regardless of whether it was gonna be pee or poop. She did pee on the kitchen floor at one point, but we still like her.

Today, Day 5, she did pretty well. She told me "Poop!" at one point, and went pee. So I took her off the toilet, but then realized she meant the real thing. She had 2 poop accidents today where she went half in her pants and half on the toilet. It was not fun to clean up. The biggest thing today was that we left the house for the first time since Day 1. We ran a few errands, and then I took her into the grocery store with me and thought I'd just give it a try. She went pee on the big scary public toilet! I was so proud of her, I got her a big frosted cookie.

I try to make the day as normal as possible, giving her little reminders here and there about the potty. She does a pretty good job telling me when she needs to go. I still put her in a diaper for naptime and bedtime. Until we're past that, and until she can get in and out of the whole bathroom process on her own, I won't say she's really potty trained. But we're certainly making progress. I'm proud of her!

Day 1 of potty training... A couple months ago I bought a training seat that goes over the regular toilet seat. Olive has enjoyed sitting on it and even asks for it now and then, but she's never gone potty on it. I had the thought that maybe we should try one of those training seats that sits on the floor, so I bought one and very enthusiastically showed it to her this morning. I also bought this little gumball machine and gave her a gumball out of it so she could be excited about that. I put panties on her and went at it. She peed on the potty all day today! And she woke up from a 4-hour nap with a completely dry diaper!! I'm so proud of her!!! She did have one accident, but it was during an attempt at doing everything herself. And she didn't poop all day, so I'm a little worried about that. But all in all, she's doing great. I have been trying to make this very joyful and exciting and very much in her control. It has taken a ton of energy, and today has been one of the longest days of my life. But my little girl is peeing on the potty. I cried the first time she did it this morning. And I've been so delighted for her every time since.

19 months

Olive's been calling grapes apples. So I keep saying "grape!" to her very emphatically each time I give her one. She very emphatically says back, "bake!"

There's a knob on our treadmill that Olive has discovered is the perfect height to use as a pulpit. She gives long talks at it, and sometimes she'll hold a paper and pretend she's reading it into the microphone. And of course she sings into it and dances (there's always lots of singing and dancing going on). We're amazed at her creativity in this discovery.

I put the alphabet up on Olive's wall the other day, and now almost every time she passes it she starts singing, "A B..." That's as far as she gets in the song, but I love that she knows what it is. I also put up a sheet with shapes, one with colors, and one with numbers. They're what we use for her Smarty Pants Hour everyday. I keep being amazed what she picks up and retains. Dr. Oyas said kids are like a sponge at this age, and I really see that in Olive.

Olive and Lucy's interactions are the most delightful thing in the world for me to witness. They're always smiling at each other and even laughing together sometimes. And there's plenty of affection going on. I love it.

Last year at Sunshine Soup we learned this little chant: Super duper 1, 2, 3, can you say your name for me? Olive always liked when I did it, but she never said her name. Until recently! She says her name almost every time we do the chant, and I love love love hearing her say it. It's so cute.

We went to Utah last weekend, and Olive put on quite a show with her little microphone. She would stand in front of the fireplace and sing into her microphone and dance. Granddaddy and Grandma Gail and aunts and uncles and cousins all got a kick out of it.

Olive is mimicking a ton, talking jibberish a lot, sings all the time, makes us laugh often, folds her arms and bows her head and says Amen during prayers, and is always just very curious and helpful. We do have a little bit of a battle of the wills sometimes - she's very strong-minded - but I love her confidence and self-assuredness. She's such a delight!

Took Olive for her 18-month checkup yesterday. She's pretty average in height and weight, and her head is on the large side of the scale. Dr. Oyas said he wished all kids were as cooperative as she was when he was checking her out. He said everything looks great, and that we can start thinking about potty training since she's showing interest. Oh, and when he was checking Lucy out Olive was feeling very protective and worried. It was so cute. Olive did great as usual, so we got a chocolate shake as usual.

Olive's been folding her arms a bunch lately. Usually she does it when we're saying a prayer, and she says amen with us at the end. But she'll do it other times too. It's very cute.

Today Olive learned what sound a pig makes. I showed her a picture of a pig, and then snorted. So then she went around trying to snort. It was funny. I was amazed that she knew that picture was a pig. I probably only mentioned that once or twice. I keep being amazed about the things she retains. We started doing a Smarty Pants Hour everyday - 10 minutes of reading, 10 minutes of letters, 10 minutes of numbers, 10 minutes of colors, 10 minutes of shapes, and 10 minutes of flash cards/vocabulary. She loves reading, and she's great with the flash cards. The rest are slow coming, but I'm sure it's getting through to her on some level. She's a really smart little girl.

Also today, we were playing on the floor and then she went into the other room. I was very sleepy, so I laid my head down on the floor. When she came back into the room, she picked up my arm and then tried to pick up my head. She helped me stand up and then led me by the hand into the kitchen and she said, "Snack!" My cute girl.

I'm sure I've mentioned what a fish Olive is. Her confidence in the water is amazing for her age. Recently she even started jumping in from the side of the pool. As long as she's wearing her floaties, she doesn't need to be caught. She goes down the bigger little kid's slide at the aquatic center, and she enjoys have the waterfall fall all over her. I think most kids her age would avoid the waterfall or at least be flinching like crazy. She loves it. She's just such a natural in the water. It's great.

Olive loves her cuppy. Also her blanky. The two of them together make euphoria for her. She has been going to bed with her blanky and her cuppy since about the time she turned 1. But we're starting to prepare for potty training now, and one of the things we'll need to do during training is not give her a drink for the last couple hours of the day. So tonight I decided to start putting her to bed without her cuppy. Today was kind of out of the ordinary because she didn't sleep her usual 12 hours last night and didn't get a nap today (we were all over Henderson, it was crazy). Needless to say, she was pretty delirious when it was bedtime. I gave her her blanky, and told her to say goodnight to her cuppy, and we left it on the kitchen counter. She dramatically cried out, "Cuppy!" as we were walking away, but then she fell asleep within 10 minutes of getting into bed. Again, it's an out of the ordinary day. So I don't know if tomorrow or the next day will be as easy. Hope so.

In other news, Olive has recently figured out how to cluck her tongue and she was trying to wink earlier this afternoon. She also likes to whisper secrets. Very cute.

Olive has started saying Elmo. I think it's funny because I rarely say his name, and I certainly don't encourage her to like him any more than any other characters we see on TV. But when he shows up, she points at him and says his name clear as day. She must really like him! Lots of other words are making their way out of that little mouth of hers as well. She's really learning and growing a ton these days.

She has moved from 2 naps down to one. Our morning routine goes breakfast/scriptures, Sesame Street, and a little bit of play time. I used to put her down after that between 9:00 and 10:00, but now we wait until noon. She still goes to bed for the night between 6:00 and 7:00, sometimes 7:30, and always sleeps for a good 12 hours. Lately she hasn't been very resistant at all to going to bed, which I love. She just wants me to give her her cuppy, cover her up with her blanky, turn on the humidifier, and she's all set. She absolutely does not want to sleep with or even near us, which is a bummer sometimes when I wish she'd cuddle up to me to fall asleep. But it's mostly a good thing because she goes to bed so easily in her own room. Besides, she's pretty affectionate throughout the day. She gives kisses and hugs. And I love when she squeezes her arms around me and pats or rubs my back. Oh my goodness! What's better than that?

I know I've mentioned it about 1,000 times so far, but lately Olive's dancing has been happening way more often with way less compulsion and with lots more groove. Holy cow! Sometimes she'll even hold a "microphone" up to her face and dance and sing. Yikes, what do we have on our hands!? Such a little character!

18 months

For Family Home Evening on Monday night, we read a recent conference talk, sang "I Love to See the Temple," and then showed Olive pictures of the temple and tried to teach her the word. She said it! It was so neat.

"Shoes" is another word Olive has started saying lately. And she's also been wearing my shoes around. Very cute.

We got a turtle a few months ago. We're not sure if it's a boy or girl yet, but we named it Don Mattingly. Chris has been getting Olive acquainted with it, and she just recently started saying turtle. It's so cute to hear her say it. When Chris gets it out of its cage, Olive loves to watch it walk around and eat.

Olive wants to help take care of Lucy. She gives her her pacifier, and pats her back when I'm burping her, and is always pretty concerned and interested in her. She kisses her a lot, and she lays with her or on top of her. Sometimes her affection gets too aggressive. But mostly she just wants to be helpful and sweet with her, and I love that.

Olive pooped in the bathtub tonight. That makes twice! Chris and I were in the living room and we heard her fart in the tub. We looked at each other and laughed. And then when I went in there to get her out I realized it was more than just a fart. Yuck!

It's obvious that Olive is catching on more and more to communicating with us. I say the word yucky when I'm changing a smelly diaper or when she puts her fingers in her nose. You can tell she gets what I mean by it, and now she says it appropriately too. She also parrots a lot of words that she hears. Today she heard the word backpack on Dora the Explorer, and she tried to say it a few times. It seems like she's just dying to talk with us. I have a feeling once she starts it'll be a lot less quiet around here.

Yesterday after packing up our hotel room, I sat down and sort of zoned out for a few minutes. Olive brought me her flip flops, climbed up on my lap, and had me put them on her feet. After I finished doing that, she climbed off my lap, went over and picked up one of my flip flops, brought it back over, and put it on the floor beside my foot for me to put on. I obliged. Then she brought me the other one. Once we both had our flip flops on, she went to the door and slapped it. I guess she was ready to go!

The last 24 hours of Olive's life have been exhausting...OK, probably more for me than for her. We went to a splash park with Amber's ward play group in the late morning yesterday. My girls are younger than her kids, and so they were done with the heat and the sun a bit sooner than them. (It's so hot right now, hovering right around 120). The plan was to go to Costco for lunch after the park, so I told Amber we'd just meet her over there after her kids were done playing. Amber said they'd only stay another 10 minutes anyway. The heat of the day had already sucked a lot of the life out of me and Olive and Lucy just in the hour we were at the park, and I was inclined to just head back to the hotel and stay in for the rest of the day. But I wanted to give Olive a little more time with her friends (I'm a big believer that keeping kids socialized helps them be well-adjusted and pleasant), so we went to Costco and walked around while we waited for them to get there. Amber's 10 minutes turned in to almost an hour, and I certainly understand that her kids wanted to play. But keeping Olive happy in a Costco shopping cart while trying to pacify Lucy and be a sweet fun mom all at the same time was a tough juggling act. Amber finally arrived, along with 3 other moms and their kids, and we sat down for pizza. The trouble was, with all those kids there, Olive was way too distracted and excited to eat anything. She's too little to sit at the table on her own, but too big and busy to be confined to my lap. So after several times of her falling off a seat or hitting me because she didn't want to be on my lap or running halfway across the store, I decided to call it. We came back to the hotel and stayed in the rest of the day. Coming in from the heat of the day to the cool of the hotel room was way refreshing. I figured I'd put both girls down and have a little time to myself to cool off and calm down. That didn't happen. Olive didn't go to sleep, and didn't even stay laying down for longer than 20 minutes. I let her cry for a while thinking she'd poop out, but she never did. Bottom line is she didn't get a nap all day. She usually takes a good morning nap, a decent afternoon one, and then sleeps a solid 12 hours at night. But not yesterday. So the rest of the day was full of trying to keep us all entertained and happy here in the hotel room. It wasn't bad. Olive had a couple of tantrums where she threw herself to the floor in dramatic protest of whatever it was we were doing at the moment, but other than that we had fun wrestling and reading and going for walks around the hotel. Around 5:00 I could tell she was starting to wind down. So I ordered some Chinese food, and we ate it, and then we began our nighttime routine. I put her in bed just after 6:00 (we put her crib in the bathroom when we're at the hotel - it's better that way for her and us). At about 7:00 it became clear she wasn't going to stop crying and go to sleep anytime soon. So I went in to reset her. That was when I discovered she had had diarrhea. Not only that, but she had opened her diaper and there was poop all over everything. So I whispered a little prayer for strength, put her in the tub, cleaned everything up, put her in some clean jammies, and then held her for a long time. She was shivering and clinging to me. I hated it and loved it. I brought her crib out of the yucky bathroom and put it next to the window. I gave her some cough medicine to help her get to sleep, put her back in bed around 8:30, turned off all the lights and TV and everything, and laid still while she went back and forth between scream-crying and self-soothing. She finally ended that volley and went to sleep around 10:00. She woke up to fuss several times through the night (she never seems to sleep well when she's in the same room as us). So between that and Lucy's night feedings, I saw the clock at least once an hour between 10:00 and 5:00 which is what time Olive decided to start her day today. Brutal! But it looks like she's feeling better, and that's the important thing. She ate a little breakfast, was laughing and playful all morning, and just woke up from a relatively good morning nap. I think we'll all be glad when Daddy comes home.

I have so much I haven't written about that needs to get down before it escapes my memory. I'm sure there are a million tiny details that have already escaped, but here's me trying to get out what I can.

Olive is becoming more and more communicative these days. Today it became clear that she knows what the word "hot" means. It's about 110 degrees, and every time we get in and out of the car I say the word hot as I try to avoid letting the metal seat buckles touch her skin. Tonight I grabbed us some pasta at Fazoli's for dinner, and it was still very hot in the bag. Olive touched it when it was on the counter, and she said "hot." She gets it. Some other words she gets include cuppy, doggy, Jesus, cookie or kaka, poop... I'm sure there are more. Chris says he can't wait for her to start talking, but I already feel very tuned in to the way she communicates. But I guess that comes with being with her nonstop. I can read what she means in pretty much any situation.

I mentioned that she understands Jesus. It didn't take more than one or two times of me pointing to our "O Jerusalem" print while saying "Jesus" for her to get it. Now, wherever we are, if Chris or I ask her, "Where's Jesus?" she looks at the walls for a picture of him. And she recognizes him in pictures other than just the "O Jerusalem" one. It warms my heart to see my little girl recognizing the Savior. It seems like she can tell when I'm singing songs about him as well. She can feel the difference between those songs and more fun playful songs.

Speaking of songs, she loves music! I know I've mentioned that more than a few times in her journal. But really, she loves it so much. She stops and listens whenever there's music being played. She sings "ebah, ebah" a lot. She loves for us to sing silly or sweet songs to her. Often Chris will make up one of his fun little songs, I'll clap or snap to the beat, and Olive will just thoroughly enjoy every minute of it. She dances all the time. It makes us laugh so hard. I really need to get it on video. She bends her knees and opens her legs, and gets her elbows and shoulders into it. Sometimes she'll do this fast little wiggle. Oh man, it's the best.

Olive really adores Chris. She likes me, she's soothed and comforted by me, and we do have fun. But it's obvious she and Chris are special friends. She definitely seems to have his social astuteness. Like him, she thrives on the company of anyone and everyone. She has been a little moodier lately (mostly due to teething, and I think she's beginning the "terrible 2's" a little early), but she's usually pretty delighted by having any audience. And that is so much like Chris. But she really prefers her dad's company to anyone else's. They wrestle and tickle and play. She's had a little trouble sleeping lately because we've been traveling and she's been out of her routine, so there have been several nights where she'll sit in Chris' lap and watch Sportscenter or something like that late at night while I doze in and out. They both look very satisfied when that happens.

Chris and I are amazed at the things Olive figures out that we definitely did not teach her. The dancing is one thing, but there are others. She started saying "cheese" when we aim the camera at her. She must've heard it somewhere, but neither of us taught it to her. At a friend's house recently she picked up a toy gun and made a gunshot sound. No idea where she got that. There are other examples that I can't think of now, but it's just really interesting.

Oh, how could I forget this one - Olive is a fish!!! She absolutely loves the water, and has taken to it so naturally. She doesn't need help when she's wearing her floaties, and she needs very little help when she isn't wearing them. She's fearless - she'll just walk off the steps and go under the water and come out smiling and laughing with her eyes open and everything. It actually startles other parents. We were in Santa Cruz a few weeks ago, and when we got to the beach she went running for the water just as a wave came breaking right over her. She was totally pummeled by it, and loved every minute of it. (She also ate lots of sand that day, and pooped out sand patties for a few days afterward). She loves the water. We swim every week at the aquatic center in Havasu. We also swim at the pool at the hotel in Henderson we stay at regularly. That hotel is not far from the Vegas airport, so there's lots of planes overhead. She loves to find the planes and point at them as they go by.

Olive's hair is getting a little longer. It's pretty light, and pretty curly. It usually ends up getting all nappy and frizzy by the end of the day. Her eyes are so dark, you can hardly tell where the pupil ends. We call her Chocolate Drops. We also call her Lolla and Goodny, among a few other nicknames.

She's so so sweet and affectionate to Lucy about 90% of the time. My cup runs over when she kisses and hugs on her. The other 10% of the time she's a little jealous or sick of her, and so she'll get a little rough with her.

Olive loves phones and cameras and computers, and all things electronic. She eats crayons and hair elastics (and has pooped both out recently), and puts just about everything in her mouth. Yesterday I found her eating my strawberry chapstick. She loves pens too. I try not to let her have them, but today she got a hold of one and wrote all over her shirt. My little darn-it.

She loves PBS shows; we watch Sesame Street just about everyday, and sometimes we watch the whole lineup of shows. I don't let her watch Caillou because he's whiney, and there are a couple Nick Jr. shows that I don't like. I'm pretty prude about what I'll watch myself, much less what I'll let her watch. I try not to keep the TV on longer than an hour or two each day, but she enjoys pretty much anything especially if there's music involved.

Olive loves to take things out of drawers and cabinets. If I had a nickel for every time I put all that kinda stuff away... She seems to like organizing things too. She's lined up her bath toys in the tub a few times, and the other day she lined up our 4 coasters on the coffee table and put cups on each one.

She loves bananas and blueberries and cheese, and just about anything sweet. She also loves to drink from her cuppy. She needs it and her blanky to go to sleep. Lately she's been tucking her hands behind her head when she's sleepy or asleep. I love that. I think I'll go look at her sleeping now. It warms my heart to do that. I love my girl.

17 months

We just got home from a few days in Henderson. So that means we were in the car for a long time. Whenever we've been in the car a while she's a little stir crazy. Right now she's hurrying from one thing to the next, not really playing but just getting reacquainted with the house and getting her energy out. Another thing, whenever Lucy is crying Olive goes running to her and wants to save her. Love it.

Olive pays a lot of attention to her dollies these days. When she sees me with Lucy she'll often go and get her doll and we'll hold our babies together. Just now I gave her an empty bottle and she put it up to her baby's mouth. She's a little mommy. I love it.

You should've seen Olive in the pool today! She's just such a natural in the water. She'd stand on this step in front of Chris and then just walk into the water and go completely under. He'd let her "swim" for a second and then scoop her up into his arms, and she'd always come out of the water smiling and laughing. She's very good in the water.

I've mentioned a million times how much she loves music and how dexterous she is. Today when we were cleaning at the church, she climbed up and sat on the piano bench in the primary room and played on the piano. 

It's neat to start to see and speculate what her talents are.

(As I was just writing all this, Olive was taking a bath. I went in to check on her and discovered she had pooed in the water. Awesome).

Olive says "one" whenever there's anything involving numbers. Just now we were reading a book that had numbers 1-15 on each of its pages. As we turned the pages, she'd look for the number, point to it with her cute finger, and say "one."

16 months

Olive says "yummy" when she's eating. Another thing she came up with on her own.

Today she climbed all the way to the top of our pub height kitchen table. Yikes!

Olive has started to say amen at the end of prayers. Love it! She also has started wanting to be super helpful. Today she handed me a diaper when I was changing Lucy. And she brings me things and wants a big "THANK YOU!" So cute.

• laughs when she, or someone else, toots
• makes kissy noises
• opens and closes doors
• says Mommy instead of Mama and Daddy instead of Dada
• says Mom more often than Dad now
• definitely communicates more - says cookie and baby; I can easily figure out what she wants or needs by her communication nowadays; she mimics words and sounds a ton
• still loves to dance, she bends her knees and twirls her hands and nods her head

5/13 -- Came to Vegas this morning. Went to lunch and the park with Amber. Olive is so independent, and Merick wants to micromanage everything she does. But she doesn't seem to mind, so although it annoys me I just gotta let it go. I love having Amber so close and being able to see her so often.

5/14 -- Got to Dad's this evening. Olive immediately got to work exploring the place. She even went down the stairs to the basement. That was the first time we just let her figure out stairs, and she didn't even hesitate-just wiggled her way down on her knees and then her bottom.

5/16 -- Olive found a black Crayola marker and was sucking on it this morning. She had black all over her mouth and hands. Awesome!

5/17 -- Spent the afternoon at Laurie's. She watches a girl about Olive's age, named G. At one point we heard laughter from upstairs and discovered that Olive and G had wandered up there on their own, so we went to eavesdrop on them. As we started up the stairs G came around the corner carrying a wire hanger. Then Olive came around the corner with a ball cap in each hand and a hat on her head. It was so cute. I cried.

5/22 -- Olive loves to be helpful with Lucy. She puts her pacifier in her mouth and gives her lots of kisses. And she's concerned when Lucy's crying. She stays pretty busy, but she checks in on her every so often. Mom says that's how Timmy was with me. She found a microphone here in Dad's house and immediately started singing into it. How did she know how to use it? She's been saying "uh oh" a bunch lately. I don't know where she picked that up. She's gone from saying "Dada" all the time to saying "Mama" all the time. She has a very cute relationship with Craig. He's really fun with her. She went with Chris to hang out with him this morning. They'll have a good time.

Olive just came walking into the kitchen pushing a push toy and wearing a purse and around her neck she had a lanyard and a pair of underwear. I had to just stand there and take it in for a minute. She smiled at me and said, "bye," and waved, and pushed the toy back down the hall. I took a picture but nothing could capture that moment exactly. Funny girl.

Olive's been saying "uh oh" the past few days. It's funny because neither Chris nor I taught it to her so we don't know how she picked it up. She's doing tons of mimicking and repeating things we ask her to say. We took her to the doctor today for her 15-month checkup. She's in the 50th percentile for height and weight, but 97th for her head! Dr. Oyas said he's very happy with her progress. She has a few molars that are trying to poke through. She has dry skin so we have to use Aquafor and/or Eucarin on that. Dr. Oyas also said to basically just go at her pace with regard to eating, sleeping and potty training. Like don't force anything but don't ignore them either. That made me feel relieved because I tend to stress a bit about whether she's eating or sleeping enough. I don't think she's ready to start potty training even though I am. I'll be anxiously watching for the signs! These last few months she's really started to show her personality. She seems advanced - socially and physically - and very independent. She's sweet with Lucy and talks to her in a high voice. She gets a little rough with her once in a while. Everyone says how much they look alike, but they're very different to me. Olive is playful and fun and pretty self-sufficient. We have a great time with her these days. She's such a delight!

15 months

She's squinting her eyes all the time these days. People think it's adorable, but I think it's her being dramatic or pathetic. It is funny to see.

She runs away when she knows she's got something I don't want her to have. It's rotten, but it makes me laugh.

A couple weeks ago I was getting her ready for a bath, but got sidetracked after stripping her down. I let her run around naked for a while before bathing her. About an hour later I sat down on my bed to nurse Lucy. I looked over into my closet and saw a poop on the floor. Like a little puppy!

They're letting her go to nursery now even though she's too young. It's nice.

14 months

Mom sent an Easter package with a stuffed animal lamb for Olive and lots of candy. Olive carried it (the lamb) around and called it baby. She sat on the front porch and put flower petals inside her EAster egg. It was so cute.

I said "banana -- ba" when I gave her some bananas at breakfast. She said "ba" back to me. At dinner I gave her some grapes and said "grapes -- ga" and she said "ga" back to me. Smart girl.

Today I asked Olive where her eye was, and she pointed to it. So cute. I hadn't told her that for a long time, so I was surprised she knew it. She's a smart girl. It's been a bit of a tough week, bringing Lucy home and having Rosemary here. I worry almost nonstop about Olive's feelings. To a fault, I'm sure I am projecting my anxiety on her - assuming she's sad or dejected when she's actually doing fine. She is a little more aggressive lately. But she's teething and we've had visitors and stuff. I'm sure everything will fall into place in the coming weeks. I just love her so much and want her to feel good.

I am having a bit of baby blues right now, and I just mostly want Olive not to feel any difference in my dynamic with her. We've had such a special year together. It makes me ache that it's over. Chris pointed out that when Olive grows up she'll never have known life without Lucy and so she won't feel bad like I do that this year is over. It's a good point. I'm sure he's right. But my heart is still so heavy. I think Olive will understand how I feel once she's had her first and then second babies. I just hope she knows, always knows, how much I love and adore her and that she'll always ben my special girl. In other news, she's been pretty cute with Lucy - kissing her and patting her, sometimes a little too hard but we're encouraging lots of interest and contact. She's a lovely big sister.

Oatsie told Olive "ssh" today and put her finger up to her lips. Olive did it back to her. She's so cute! She actually does a lot of mimicking these days. Lots of waving and talking and kissing and gesturing. She's wonderful.

We brought Lucy home tonight. Olive lit up and kissed her when we showed her to her. It melted my heart.

It feels like Lucy might be coming very soon. I know my alone time with Olive is over, and my heart is broken because of it. This has been the most special 13+ months of my life. Olive is the most wonderful thing in the world to me, and I hope she always knows how special she is to me. She's going to be a big sister and she'll never even know life apart from that. I know she's going to do a great job being a sister.

I love you, Olive. So so so much. You've been a delight to everyone since the day you were born, and the more your spirit and personality come out, the more and more of a delight you are. Your dad says you're a peacemaker. I believe that. I see you leading your sister and others. I see you making people laugh. I see you being so happy and loving life. You are everything to me. Please always know that. 

I LOVE YOU, MY GIRL!!

Olive is saying the word baby more and more.

Olive giggles so hard when I clean her ears with a Q-tip.

She says "num num num" and hums while she's eating.

I love when Olive sneezes. She loves it too. She always smiles afterwards. Often she'll do a phantom sneeze before a few real ones come. So cute.

Yesterday I asked Olive, "Where's the baby?" and she picked up her dolly. Today I asked her to say baby and she did it a few times. I think she's ready for Lucy!

Olive was invited to her first birthday party. It was tonight at 6:30 for Lane Burgener. Lane is the son of our friends Rhett and Doone Burgener. He turned 4. Doone said he was super cute and enthusiastic about wanting to invite Olive. We got him a little Transformer. We put her down for a nap around 5 thinking that she'd be up and playful in time for the party, but when she didn't wake up by like 6:15 we decided to let her keep sleeping. Chris called Rhett to let him know we likely wouldn't be there, and he said Lane had been asking if Olive was coming. Darn it! Anyway she slept till after 8, got up for a little while so we could change her and put her in jambes, and then she went back to bed at 9. I'm bummed she missed her first party, but I wanted her to rest. I love her so much. My sweet lovely smart funny girl.

We got Olive a front-facing car seat, and today was the first time I saw her in it. She was just looking out the window, grinning at us, and enjoying it. It was definitely time. We went to Red Robin for lunch and got her her own kids meal. That was a first. She was so cute and fun for part of the day, and very needy and difficult for part of the day. She had no problem going to bed right at 6. Oh and we've been putting her down with water instead of milk and it's going well. Love her!

These are my last days alone with Olive. I want to cherish every minute.

Olive was sick this morning. When Chris got her out of bed she had vomit all over. He put her in the shower with me, and then we rinsed out her jammies and sheets and stuffed animals. Then we put all that stuff through the wash. It was so gross. I gagged several times. It was our first experience dealing with our kids' vomit. I'm sure there will be lots more chances. As for Olive, she was lethargic most of the day. She just wanted her mom. I love that.

• Olive smiles and claps her hands when we sing If You're Happy and You Know It.
• Plays peek-a-boo!
• Chris says he thinks Olive is a peacemaker.
• Got her 7th tooth a few weeks ago (to the right of her bottom teeth) and the 8th one is poking through now (to the left of her bottom teeth).
• Olive doesn't like the microwave. Every time we put something in it, especially her milk, she gets upset.
• She nods a lot.
• She started this soft hack several days ago. No idea where it came from but it's funny.
• She does this new face lately - squinty eyes and a fake cry - it's so pitiful and funny.
• Still loves music, dances a ton, does a lot of shoulder movement and even looks like she's breakdancing at times.
• Loves phones. She puts them up to her ears and talks. And she chews on them too.
• She blows kisses! She started that a couple weeks ago with Nestor and has done it a few times since. She gives kisses (without blowing them) too. She gave Chris and me a bunch today. Loved it!
• She climbs everything these days!
• Yesterday at the store I let her hold this styrofoam sward, and she took a bite out of it. I guess that marks the first time I was forced to buy something cuz she broke it. It was $1.

13 months

We just got back from Olive's 1-year checkup. She is 21 pounds and 28 inches long, which means her weight is average and her height is short! It's about the 10-20th percentile. I'm kinda glad about that because maybe she won't have to go through what I went through being the awkward tallest girl in class all the time. Ha! Olive reached for the doctor when she came in the room, and when the doctor picked her up she put her head on her shoulder and loved on her for a few minutes. The doctor just melted. She was really delighted at Olive's personality and progress. She said she's very advanced socially and with all her skills. She was impressed that she's walking so well and eating everything we give her and being off bottles. She went on and on about what a great baby she is, and that was really gratifying for me. I asked about putting her to bed with milk, and she said we really shouldn't do it because it causes all kinds of dental issues. She suggested putting water in her cup instead of milk when it's time for bed. So that's my homework - transitioning her from milk to water to go to bed. I want to make that transition before Lucy comes so that Olive doesn't have any extra stress at that time. And I think that'll eventually make it easier for her to go to bed without anything at all. She got 3 shots in her thighs and a little heel poke to check for anemia (which I guess is something they do once the baby has moved from formula to whole milk). She cried for about 2 minutes and then forgot all about it and just wanted to play. She's a champ! Now that we're home, she's sleeping soundly in her comfy new bed. We really are so blessed with such an easy, independent, funny, smart, pretty little girl.

Happy 1st Birthday, Olive! She danced, and went to the park for a picnic, and ate lots of cake, so you know she celebrated properly.

Olive started whole milk this week. It was no big deal at all moving her from formula to milk. She's made so many transitions very easily, I'm lucky. I also took her off her bottles yesterday. She has this sippy cup with a soft spout that's a lot like a bottle nipple, so that was an easy one. I want to get to the point where we put her to bed without milk though. I feel like it's a bad habit.

The other day I started asking her, "Olive how old are you?" And then holding my finger up and saying one. She's getting the hang of it. I can't believe her birthday is a week from today!

When I went to the doctor on Monday Olive totally started dacing when she heard Lucy's heartbeat. It was so cute!

She loves to play in our closet and play with our shoes. She also loves to open and close doors. She continues to love music and be very talkative and funny. We are pretty crazy about her!

So much to write about! I made a list of all the things Olive's doing these days --

1. Biting! She thinks it's so funny to bite with her 6 tiny teeth (4 on top and 2 on bottom). It's very cute, but she's done it a little too hard a couple of times.

2. Olive loves to pull things out of cabinets or get into our shoes or laundry basket. It's fun to watch her kinda sort things when she gets them out, but it's frustrating to clean her little messes all the time. When she pulls the laundry out she'll often put it on her head as if she's getting dressed or something. And if she's made a little pile of laundry, or if there's a blanket on the floor, she loves to get down and rest her head on it and get cuddly and just smile.

3. She pushes the bar stools around on the tile. I'm not sure why that's entertaining to her but she does it all the time.

4. She gets pretty squirmy when it's time for a diaper change or to put on clothes. Unless I give her a bottle or something to occupy her. It's quite a battle. She also loves to pull her socks and shoes off. Not fun for me.

5. Sometimes I'll give her her little comb or brush to play with, and she puts it up to her head. Guess she knows what it's for.

6. There's a lot of gibberish and "talking" going on. She "talks" all the time. Some of the sounds she more frequently makes are "data" and what sounds like "what." The other day I asked her, "Olive where's the birdies?" And she immediately looked out the window. She's done that a few times since then, so I guess she pretty well recognizes that word. She still does a lot of Dadada and Mamama. More Dad than Mom lately. I think she's really gravitating to Chris a bunch these days.

7. When she's tired or wants me to hold her she'll come to me and hug my legs. I love that. I told Chris that when she does that it makes me feel like a real mom.

Olive and I are staying with Laurie's family for a few days. Laurie always gives Olive cute clothes she finds at thrift stores. This time she gave her a baby doll too. Olive loves it. She went straight for it when she saw it. She hugged it and talked to it in a high voice. My little mommy.

Yesterday in Vegas we had lunch with Amber and the kids. When Olive saw Merick she wrapped her arms around him and they hugged each other. It was so cute. She's definitely more cuddly lately - putting her head on my shoulder, and stuff like that. Can't get enough of that girl!

11 months

Olive is really sick. She caught a bad cough and cold. I hate it for her. I swear I'd have a thousand colds if it meant she'd never have one. We're doing our best to make sure she's getting lots of fluids and rest. We give her a little dose of Benadryl before bed each night, and just try to give her lots of love. She's been pretty miserable. Chris gave her a blessing. I'm so grateful he can do that. Hopefully she'll get better soon.

Oh! I wanted to write one cute thing she started doing recently. When she's sitting on the floor on her bottom she'll spin herself around by walking her feet around herself...tough to explain. It's very cute though, I'll try to get it on video.