I guess I spoke too soon about Olive being a stinker lately. The past several days she's been really delightful and mild-mannered. Either way, I'm crazy about her. Here are a few things I meant to include the other day:
Olive knows and recognizes President Monson when she sees him. I had noticed this a little bit before, but it became really clear this weekend during Conference. I printed out a packet for her to color and it had a couple of drawings of him, and she kept saying "Monson" when she saw him. Cute.
Olive will ask, "Where's the box?" when looking for the remote. Chris brought that terminology to our little family - calling the remote "the box" - and I think it's adorable to hear Olive ask for it that way.
Olive cannot stand seeing me pull my hair up! It's fine if I've entered the scene with it already up, but if I pull it up in front of her she totally yells at me. I have no idea what that's about, but it's so funny to me.
When Olive wants water she says, "I wanna winkawata." Gotta love that one.
Olive has been biting her nails! I feel awful because I'm sure she learned it by watching me. But I can't believe a kid her age would do that, and I'm so not happy about it. I gotta come up with a plan to get rid of that habit quick, for both of us!
Olive loves when we sing hymns in sacrament meeting. She and Lucy will often sing or yell at the top of their lungs. But last week she added a few graceful dance moves to the routine, including a slow graceful raise of her leg. Chris and I were laughing so hard.
Olive has a wicked sore throat right now, and her voice is so raspy. It's adorable!
We love our girl.
The biggest news of late is the arrival of George. When we brought him home, I showed him to Olive and her face just lit up with delight and concern. For the first several minutes of him being here, she was frantically looking for pacifiers and blankets for him. I've been so surprised at how gentle and sweet she's been with him. Yesterday I left her on my bed with him sleeping while I was in the shower. I could watch them from the shower, but I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. She did great. I watched her kiss him and caress him so gently. It was wonderful. I love hearing her say his name. She's just such a natural at this big sister thing. I thought there would be some big ugly transition time where she felt jealous or mad, and I suppose there still could be some of that, but it's mostly just been so natural and seamless for her having him here. It's like he's always been here.
A couple small things about Olive lately: she has recently started talking in a super high sweet voice. Also, in place of "yes" she often uses "OK" - like if I say, "Do you want to go to the park?" she'll say, "OK." Or, "Do we need to change your diaper?" she'll say, "OK." It's pretty cute. She has started singing and talking much more coherently lately. Today from the back seat she sang Anna Banana, Pokey Bear, and the creeping hands song, and a few others. And she asked for both Oatsie and Gramma by name. She asks for Anna a lot too. It seems like she's just starting to explode with vocabulary and with being more understandable. She did a lot of coloring with Gramma Gail while she was here. She knows her colors really well, and even prefers purple when it comes to cuppies or dishes or bibs. Each morning at breakfast we read scripture stories, and Chris often sings "Scripture Power." Lately she's been asking for Scripture Power, or just for the scriptures. It's super cute to hear her say that. The other night Olive stayed up a little late and Dancing With the Stars was on the television. She loved it! She wanted to dance like them so bad, so Chris twirled her around and dipped her and everything. She just really loves to dance and sing and perform. Love that kid.
