• 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.