Olive just recently started riding the tricycle without constant help. It's really cute to see her go, and she loves doing it.

When we ask Olive, "What are ya doin'?" she says, "Nothin'." Chris especially loves it.

She calls going poop "pooping it." She'll say, "Mom, Lucy pooped it," or, "I pooped it a big one." It cracks us up.

Olive says, "I'm sorry," or, "I'm so sorry," all the time; and more often than not, there's no reason for it. She also says, "What are you doing here?" just to make conversation. She'll call my name, and when I answer her she just says, "What are you doing here?" We have that conversation probably 20 times a day.

She loves to say her name. She says Olib Shell Baygan. And she'll say other people's names with hers: Lucy Shell Baygan, Mommy Shell Baygan, Oatsie Shell Baygan. It's super cute.

I'm working with her on counting to ten. She does it pretty well. And because I've always used my fingers when I've counted with her she tries to do that too. She doesn't quite have the motor skills to hold her fingers in certain positions, so it's really cute to watch her try.

Her hair is growing out, and it's in her face a lot. I absolutely love watching her push it out of her face. It's so cute!

She's talking a ton, it's almost seamless to communicate with her now. And she echoes me a lot. Today I heard her singing, "I wonder when He comes again..." and I just loved hearing that.

She regressed with the potty training because of our vacations, but we started back up again yesterday and she's doing great. Peeing on the potty is no problem. Pooping is another story, but we'll get there again.

Sleeping is tough these days. We're doing a lot of bandaid measures instead of finding a permanent fix. It's hard because I think the kids all really need their own room right now, and we only have 3 bedrooms. I think they need their own rooms because George and Olive each need to just cry it out right now until they get used to it, and because Lucy does so well that I don't want her routine wrecked by one of the other two. Presently, Lucy is sleeping happily in her room, George just finished crying it out in his room and is asleep now, and Olive conked out about an hour ago on a spare crib mattress on our floor. It's tough. I keep calling it Sleep Crisis 2011. I'm really hoping to find a 4 bedroom house before too long. Because I really just don't know what else to do.

Olive is behaving surprisingly well considering her lack of good sleep routine. She's actually mellowed out a lot lately and it seems like maybe the worst of the "terrible 2s" are behind us. She's as energetic as ever, but there aren't nearly as many tantrums or freak-outs.

We're doing a lot of taking turns and sharing these days. It usually goes over pretty well, she seems like she's really understanding the concept. But I do think I'll have to work with Olive on being less bossy often throughout her life. She gets that from Chris.

The other day she was sitting quietly while I was in the middle of a conversation with Brandy in our hotel room in Vegas. I noticed only subconsciously that she had walked over to the bathroom and gotten a towel. And then she burst into tears. For Olive to genuinely cry means she's genuinely hurt or bummed or whatever, so I knew she wasn't just looking for attention. I went over to her and she had this towel wrapped around her hand. She didn't want me to look at her hand, but I finally got to it and saw that she had gotten a big bad paper cut on one of her books. She kept the towel wrapped around her hand for a long time. I was so sad that she had suffered quietly for the first few minutes and that she got the towel on her own. Poor kid! But she's a tough one. She was over it after a little while of me holding her.

Earlier today George was in the swing in his room and I heard him start to fuss. My guess was that Lucy was bugging him, and as I started down the hall to referee the situation I stopped and watched quietly as this happened: Olive had Lucy by the hand and walked slowly with her (Lucy's still wobbly on her feet) from George's doorway into our room. She sat her down and stood over her, and very sternly but lovingly said, "You can't get Georgey." Lucy just looked up at her seeming like she was earnestly listening to what Olive said. Then Olive sat down and they stared at each other silently for a few seconds. Then Lucy lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Olive's neck and they wrestled to the ground and laughed. Man, I hope I never forget what it felt like to watch that interaction.

About a week after George was born Olive started climbing out of her crib every time it was time to sleep. So we went through a big transition - moved Lucy's bed into George's room (George is still in with us), and took the front rail off Olive's crib. So now she's in a toddler bed. It was pretty stressful for me at first because I didn't know how to handle her getting out of bed and tearing her room apart and stuff like that. I definitely didn't want to get her used to us staying in the room till she fell asleep, and I definitely didn't want her getting into bed with us every night. I had a bunch of anxiety over the whole thing, especially about how much sleep I knew she was losing. We just kept putting her to bed and hoping for the best. And now, as with all things, we've settled into a groove. Now, at naptime she stays in bed and does great. At bedtime, we say prayers and kiss her and leave the room, after which she'll fuss for a little while and then get up, turn on the light, and fall asleep on the floor just inside her door. We both kind of hate the thought of her sleeping on the floor. But I think it's the best thing, as opposed to us staying with her till she falls asleep, or her coming out of her room, or trying to sleep with us or whatever. (Although, sometimes she does come and get in bed with us early in the mornings, and she's always so affectionate, and Chris and I both love cuddling her). She won't sleep on her floor forever, and there are some nights she doesn't do it. I used to have such a strict set of standards for my kids' sleeping habits, among other things, but one really big lesson I'm learning lately is to be flexible. I have a routine for our kids, and I have guidelines and rules. But if I go through life trying to stay with my ideals at any cost then I'll go nuts, and so will my children. So I'm laying back. I'm adjusting. It's a huge lesson, and I'm glad to be going through it. I'm glad Olive is teaching me this. She's my little pal. Here are some of her latest Olivisms:

She says cwywin instead of crying. She says bom-bom instead of bottom. She says ban-ban instead of Bandaid (everything's been about owies and Bandaids lately). She says beard instead of bird. She says Plup Plup instead of Pull-up (which reminds me, she's doing great with the potty). She says "shut a button" instead of "push the button." She calls the movie "Despicable Me", "Pickle Me" (and we've watched it about 100 times since it came in the mail from Netflix).

When she doesn't want to do something, she says she can't. Like, "I can't go nigh-night."

The other day in the pool she started floating away on a raft and she playfully yelled, "Help! Help!" and then, "Ayudame!" I cracked up.

She climbs all over everything, she has no fear, and she's a leader. She loves going to nursery at church. She loves going to the beach or the pool. She loves going to Bubba Jump and the park. She's very self-assured and well-adjusted. And she wants to make friends wherever she goes. She is my best little friend.

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.

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.

Olive is definitely 2. Wow! She has been biting and spitting lately, and is super defiant. I am comforted that Dr. Oyas told us to expect this at her age, so I know she's not just a rotten kid, but I must admit I'm stunned! We're learning a lot about how to discipline, how to show lots of love after disciplining, and how to give lots of positive reinforcement in the meantime. It's good for us and her to go through all this. But sheesh!

One funny thing she does, thinking she's being very mean and defiant, is to yell, "I promise!" I don't know where she got it, or why she thinks it's a mean thing to say. And who knows, maybe she's not even saying I promise. But that's what it sounds like, and it's all I can do to keep from laughing when she yells that at me.

A couple other cute things she's doing lately - she'll often tell Chris or me to "come hur," and "sit hur." When we oblige and sit down, she'll say, "So what do ya think?" So cute. She has become able to open the refrigerator. Today she opened the fridge, took the grapes out of the drawer, and put them in front of Lucy on the floor. Lucy immediately started munching. Then Olive went back to the drawer, took out the carrots and ranch, and set herself up with a snack at the table.

Her vocabulary is expanding, and she's doing really well with colors in particular. She wants to watch Dora the Explorer all day everyday. She has picked up a few Spanish words from that show. As always, she loves to read with me and scribble and color, and do puzzles. It's fun to watch her learn and progress.

She's still very much a performer - singing and dancing, and creating a stage anywhere and everywhere. She's bossy and lively and funny and fun. And this is a bit of a tough phase, but of course we are as in love with her as ever.

Things Olive is doing lately:

When she wanted to be held she used to say, "I wanna holdju." I would say, "I wanna holdju too." Now she just says, "I wanna holdju too." Very cute.

I try to limit TV to 2 hours a day, but she throws a fit and would watch it all day long if I let her. She usually requests Dora the Explorer, and we pull it up on Netflix on the Wii. She has figured out that if she pushes the A button on the Wii remote that it will start the next episode. So if I'm in the other room, she'll go ahead and help herself to another episode. She's also figured out that if she stands on something she can turn the TV on by herself. We are not fans of these discoveries at all!

Every morning we read a story out of the Book of Mormon stories and one out of the New Testament stories (since that's what we're studying this year at church). After we read the New Testament one, Olive always wants me to turn to the page where there's a picture of the baby Jesus. When Chris is the one reading, he always tries to fool her by showing her the picture of the baby John the Baptist. But she's no fool. She tells him emphatically to show her the right baby. It reminds us of the scene in Talladega Nights when Will Ferrell says he prefers to think of the baby version of Jesus when he's praying. Irreverent, yes, but so funny.

Each day Olive and I have about an hour of education time where we do puzzles, play Memory, review letters and numbers and colors, and color pictures. I print off 3 or 4 pictures from a website that has free coloring pages, and Olive waits by the printer for the pictures to come out. She loves pulling them off the printer and then getting to work on them. Olive loves to color, and I tell her, "Make an O for Olive," and she does a very crude circle. It's a start!

Olive runs super quick, she runs from place to place, and it often morphs into a gallop.

She's very affectionate these days, loves to hold your face and give long lingering kisses. We die over it!

She has started saying, "Go-to go-to park," or "go-to go-to car," or "go-to go-to pool," or "go-to go-to church."

On Sundays we tell her we're going to church, and she says, "Lundin!" (Sister Lundin is the nursery leader).

Olive has never been jealous or territorial with me since Lucy was born, but lately she totally is! If I pick up Lucy, Olive comes running over for me to pick her up too. Or if I'm playing with Lucy, she totally wants in on it and often wants Lucy out of the equation entirely. She's really never acted like this before, and it'll be even more interesting to see the dynamic once Georgey gets here.

Olive is smart and bossy and funny, and I just can't get enough of her.

Craig was here visiting this weekend; he and Chris made this video of Olive...