We met Brandy at the McDonald's play place today. Olive made fast friends with this little girl, and then proceeded to ride her around the joint. Brandy and I were mortified, and totally cracking up.

Olive's first visit to the dentist. She was brave and cute, and the dentist said her teeth look great!

Just a few quick updates about Olive --

She loves to boss me about my driving. She tells me when to go, and she tells me to "win" the other cars. It's annoying, I won't lie, but it's also been a good opportunity to talk about left and right.

She's been saying, "You know," and, "I think," before or after a statement.

She loves to pray. Her usual prayer goes as follows: "Thank you da Father, ashoo da food. And Mommy and Daddy be safe..." And often she'll include a narrative about the day's events. It's pretty cute, but it has caused a little contention because she always wants to be the one to pray and becomes devastated when it's someone else's turn.

She thinks she's the third parent around here, asserting her bossy self to Lucy and George and telling them what to do, and what not to do. Today she whacked Lucy in the head with a wand, and then almost immediately wiped her tears away and said so tenderly, "I'm sorry, little sweetheart."

I keep being surprised about how much she knows and how much she says. Yesterday we were playing at the park and she could hear her echo. Just as I was about to explain to her what an echo is she said, "I hear my echo!" No clue where she learned it, but then again things like that happen all the time. She's a really bright girl.

She's very, very eager to go to school. She asks me several times a day if she can go, and she even gets upset if I tell her it'll be a while before she goes. I may start looking into preschools just for the sake of giving her some stimulation and satisfaction.

She loves all things romantical. She has asked several times, "Mommy, who is my prince gonna be?" And she loves to hear me or Chris tell her about getting in a white princess dress and marrying her prince in the temple. She seems to listen so reverently when we tell her those kinds of things.

Uncle Dave said recently how agile Olive is. It's true. She's really coordinated and agile, and she's always running and climbing and riding a bike or scooter. She can really hold her own. And if she does fall, she bounces back pretty quickly. Today I saw her trip on Chris's longboard outside. She sat for a second, didn't even look my direction, got up and sighed, "I'm okay."

Other than a few power struggles a day, I really can't complain about life with Olive. She's such a great kid.

Olive had her 3-year checkup today. She is 34 pounds heavy (50-75%) and 37 inches tall (25-50%). Dr. Denise said she's healthy and happy and bright. I agree!

Olive is 3! Happy Birthday, my sweet girl!!

Today Olive really showed some bright ingenuity, and I had to write about it.

First, this afternoon she came into the kitchen while I was cleaning and said, "I want to make a box house." I said, "You want me to get a box, and then we can make a house out of it?" "Yes," she said. So I got one of Chris's millions of drug boxes out of the garage. I asked her a bunch of questions, and she gave me very specific answers and instructions until we came up with the box house she had imagined (picture 1). The house is orange and has a brown door with a black door knob. The roof is purple. The back of the house has a pink garage. There are two windows on the front of the house and one on the back. She did most of the coloring, and I did all of the cutting. After it was finished, she played with the Little People with it for hours.

picture 1

Then at dinnertime, I was busy getting things on the table when suddenly I looked down and saw this (picture 2). She had taken the separator from the pizza box, which obviously resembles a tiny table, and put her Little People at it to eat their dinner while we ate ours. Chris put a single pepperoni on their table to finish off the scene. Pretty awesome.

picture 2

Olive saw her first movie in the theater today! Beauty and the Beast was playing for a limited time, so she and I went and saw it. 

Showing our tickets.

Eating popcorn.

She thought it was a little too loud.

Having fun!