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