Scratch that last post. I just showed it to Olive, and she said, "That's not love. That's an L for Lucy, an O for Olive, and a G for George." This story just got way better.

Olive wrote love! She writes a lot, always asking me how to spell things. But this time it was completely on her own. We were visiting Grandma Gail's office, and she has this tiny mailbox on her desk so Olive wanted to put a tiny letter in it. These are what she put in it. Smart girly.

She drew Rapunzel and put her at the top of this "tower."

Chris is going to be coaching Olive's soccer team, so I asked her what our team name should be. She said, "The Januarys."

Everything was perfectly quiet in the house a few minutes ago, until I heard Olive softly crying in her bed. I went in and got in the covers with her. She held me really tight and said through big tears, "Mommy, I'm sad if you get died." I don't know where that came from, I imagine she's just very tired and emotional, but I told her I'd always be with her. And then she fell asleep peacefully.

I adore Olive.

Yesterday we found a bug, and didn't know what it was so we looked it up and learned about it. She was so delighted about finding out about it, and we watched it closely for a long time. (Incidentally, we think it was called a lacewing).

Today we did a ton of yard work. I was  clearing weeds and rocks out of a corner of the yard, and thought the kids would like to wash off the rocks and start a rock garden. Olive really took to the idea, and worked on it for a good hour or more. She hummed and sang as she carefully washed rock after rock, and arranged them according to size. She talked to me in detail about each of their distinctions. I must've taken 20 breaks from my work just to go and watch her do hers. She was so beautiful.

Tonight Olive came up from the basement, and told me she had created a game for all the cousins to play. I was tired and really just wanted all the kids to go to bed, but I listened to her explain the game. She said all the cousins would find a bag she had hidden, and that there would be a prize in the bag. I said that was a neat idea, and then told her to go get in the bath. Fast forward to a few minutes ago, she's been asleep for a couple hours and I went down to turn off all the basement lights. In the craft room I found a line of bags, each with either a stuffed animal inside or a picture she had drawn. One of the pictures was of a lot of kids, I'm guessing all the cousins. I called Chris down and we looked over her hard work and planning, and both felt so much love for her. I wanted to go wake her up and smother her with kisses and tell her  I think we knew before this life that we'd be best friends. But I let her sleep.

I adore Olive!

Here's today's worksheets. She was so determined to color inside the lines. She was at the table much longer than the other kids, and even told Lucy, "I can't play yet, I have to do this." And she had to take a few breaks to shake her wrist out because it was getting tired. I love how much she loves to learn.

Also, on Wednesday we went to see her new preschool. Her teacher, Miss Jo, is a delightful lady, and her facility is fantastic. She said her goal is to have each of the children be able to write their first and last names, using uppercase and lowercase appropriately, by the end of the year. Olive already does that! It was one of our Summer Smarts* goals for her, and she has nailed it. Her other Summer Smarts goal is to count to 100, and that's a bigger challenge, but we're getting close. Proud of my smart cookie.

*Summer Smarts is the little program I made up for the kids to do educational stuff for a few minutes each day. They each have a goal or two, and if they reach them then we get to go to the water park at the end of August!