Well, we've put potty training on hold. She actually did pretty well for a while there. But then we started traveling, and we had visitors, and it was just a little too stressful. She's back in diapers, but still tells us once in a while when she has to go to the bathroom. So it's not a total lost cause, and I don't feel terribly discouraged. We're just following her lead.

Olive has had lots of excitement lately. We've tried to make getting ready for Halloween lots of fun. We checked out Halloween books at the library, we carved pumpkins, she's been wearing festive shirts, we colored Halloween pictures and bought Halloween stickers. There isn't anything very fall-ish in Havasu, but when we went to Chicago we got to go to Goebbert's and that was a blast.

Also when we were in Chicago, Olive bonded with Morgan and it was so cute. She would confuse the word pumpkin with Morgan's name. They sounded pretty similar coming out of her mouth. But she loved Morgan to death. She went on Morgan's little electric moped with her, and loved it. We cracked up watching her tiny self riding around on that thing with Morgan. So cute. She also had 2 good injuries while we were there. She fell of a chair at Gino's East and got a huge knot on her head. That was almost 2 weeks ago, and it's still yellow from the leftover bruise. The day after that happened she walked into Lisa's iron patio table and gave herself a black eye. That's still there too. Olive's a pretty tough kid, she doesn't cry over falling down or whatever. But those 2 accidents were rough ones, and she needed a lot of love afterwards.

We're in a bit of a difficult phase right now. Everyday is a battle of the wills between Olive and me. She tells me to "stop it" several times a day. We have a hard time putting socks and shoes on and leaving them on, getting her hair done and leaving it done, and sometimes I have no idea why she's mad at me. The other day she asked for cheese, so I gave her some. But when I gave it to her, she threw herself to the floor in violent protest. I was baffled, but I simply walked away and went on with life. Soon she was happily eating the cheese like nothing ever happened. Little things like that happen a lot. I want to really let her be who she is, but still help her understand she's not actually the one in charge. It's a tough balance to manage. Laurie said the other day she wonders if this means Olive will be an easy teenager. Hope so!

Some of the fun things Olive is into these days are: still tons of singing and dancing. She closes her eyes and really feels it when she's singing sometimes. Cracks us up. She goes down the slides at the park so easily, even the biggest ones. It made me nervous at first, but I just let her do her thing and she's great at it now. She taps her foot when she's sitting idly. I totally love that. She has been able to open doors for a while now, so we've kept them locked. But now she can unlock them. So I'm having to be on constant guard for where she is and what she's doing. She also hangs from the door handles lately too. She loves to sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. She loves to sing anything really, but that's the first song I could tell she was really singing along to. It started out with, "uppabuh" for "up above," and now she even says, "Minkle, minkle." Not sure why the Tw is an M, but I love it! I've done Miss Mary Mack with her since she was about Lucy's age, and now she goes around the house saying, "Mack, Mack, Mack!" She also sings "Go, go, go, go!" which is from the Cat in the Hat cartoon on PBS. Lately she's been flicking her tongue across her lips back and forth a lot. I don't know where she picked that up, but it's funny to watch. Oh, and she is such a copycat lately! It's so funny! When I put my leg up on the tub to put on lotion, she'll come stand next to me and put her leg up and rub it. Or if I'm tapping my leg she'll do it too. Tons of little things like that she'll just copy. I love it.

She is a handful, but she's so much fun and I love spending my days with her.

20 months

Day 2 was a disaster. Unsuccessful and frustrating.

Day 3 was the first time Olive pooped on the toilet. She also peed several times. She had one accident, but all in all it was a great day.

Day 4 was alright. She started saying "Poop!" when she needed to go to the potty, regardless of whether it was gonna be pee or poop. She did pee on the kitchen floor at one point, but we still like her.

Today, Day 5, she did pretty well. She told me "Poop!" at one point, and went pee. So I took her off the toilet, but then realized she meant the real thing. She had 2 poop accidents today where she went half in her pants and half on the toilet. It was not fun to clean up. The biggest thing today was that we left the house for the first time since Day 1. We ran a few errands, and then I took her into the grocery store with me and thought I'd just give it a try. She went pee on the big scary public toilet! I was so proud of her, I got her a big frosted cookie.

I try to make the day as normal as possible, giving her little reminders here and there about the potty. She does a pretty good job telling me when she needs to go. I still put her in a diaper for naptime and bedtime. Until we're past that, and until she can get in and out of the whole bathroom process on her own, I won't say she's really potty trained. But we're certainly making progress. I'm proud of her!

Day 1 of potty training... A couple months ago I bought a training seat that goes over the regular toilet seat. Olive has enjoyed sitting on it and even asks for it now and then, but she's never gone potty on it. I had the thought that maybe we should try one of those training seats that sits on the floor, so I bought one and very enthusiastically showed it to her this morning. I also bought this little gumball machine and gave her a gumball out of it so she could be excited about that. I put panties on her and went at it. She peed on the potty all day today! And she woke up from a 4-hour nap with a completely dry diaper!! I'm so proud of her!!! She did have one accident, but it was during an attempt at doing everything herself. And she didn't poop all day, so I'm a little worried about that. But all in all, she's doing great. I have been trying to make this very joyful and exciting and very much in her control. It has taken a ton of energy, and today has been one of the longest days of my life. But my little girl is peeing on the potty. I cried the first time she did it this morning. And I've been so delighted for her every time since.

19 months

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!