Olivia's First Drawings

Olivia drew this on her aquadraw mat the other day, pointed to it, and signed 'bird'.







Olivia drew this next, and signed that it was a 'horse'.

Our little artist in the making!

Learning Curve & Fun Developments

words: "wawa" for water, bumpy,
signs: beautiful, friend, happy,
avg nappies used per day: 2! :-)

Somehow, I always seem to learn pertinent details after acting on a lack thereof. After buying Olivia a taller potty, I read about how squatting is actually the healthiest position for pooping. Well, Olivia likes both her potties and alternates between them. She is becoming a master of their use, though, and really only goes not in a potty when she is wearing a nappy. I try to leave her nappy-free when we are in a home and we've had a couple outings to the grocery store. It just means that sometimes we're moving from the vegetable aisle to the toilets pretty quickly!
We had a little xmas party at our house Sunday, and so Bob's and my attention was largely elsewhere alot of the time. I had dressed her in a very short dress (only) so that she'd be free and easy when it came to potty use and this seemed to pay off because half the time she went to her potty and sat down without even informing us first. In fact, at one point, Bob and I were both in the kitchen when Bob walked into the hall and met Olivia going the other direction, potty bowl in hand on her way to the bathroom to dump it out. Nobody in the living had even noticed that she'd used it! Bravo, Olivia!
The feeling of accomplishment is tempered a bit by the fact that I've been reading lately about "Natural Infant Hygiene" ("Diaper Free" by Ingrid Bauer), and realize that we could have avoided the whole toilet-training issue, not to mention a whole lot of nappies! Ah well. Hindsight, and all that...

More Olivia!

I just wanted to jot down some of Olivia's newest words, before they got completely passed by.
Let's see... She said "puppy" when a lady with a cute black lab puppy stopped to let her and Olivia get acquainted. Both were on their way home for a nap. Tonight, she signed "why?", though we won't know how well she understands it until she really starts using it. A woman in the post office told me she said "dog" the other day, but I didn't hear it and she didn't repeat it. Olivia charmed everyone in the post office that day with her smiles and pointing out interesting things like dogs and cats on the cards. At the end, she helpfully lugged my big bag down past the queue and out the door, after being stopped near the door by the press of people smiling down at her. One lady opened the door for her, and another exclaimed how she had livened up everyone's day :-)
Today, we went shopping for a bigger little potty for Olivia, as I had gotten tired of her knees being up around her chin. She picked it out. Quite a plain, white one. Not the pretty blue winnie-the-pooh one that I'd tried to interest her in... She likes to sit on it(spent quite alot of the evening on it), though she signed that it was _cooold_! to sit on after having been towed home in the bike trailer in the freezing air.
Olivia's been spending alot more time at home un-nappied. She likes to not have one on, and it makes it that much easier for her to sit on the potty. It still helps for me to look for cues that she has to go, though, and help her to sit on the potty.
I know there have been more words and I'm just not coming up with them - next blog!

Another Day

Olivia had a much more interesting day today than yesterday, and though she seems to have alot of energy now at bedtime, she _seems_ to be going to sleep more easily. I can still hear the occasional "mummy" or "mama" from upstairs though, as Bob is singing her to sleep.
It wasn't too chilly and the sunlight was peeking hopefully through the clouds this morning. Then it started to RAIN. Hard. We all threw on our raingear and went outside to watch Papa trim the base of the xmas tree before it got too wet, and dragged it inside. Then, since we were already geared up and rained on, Olivia got on her bike, and we pulled on our galoshes and we went for a walk in the rain. Olivia had a great time alternating splashing through puddles on her bike and stomping in them.
Home for a warming lunch of grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup, then a shortish nap for Olivia with mama. After the nap, we put up the tree, then Bob took Olivia for a fun outing to Scotsdales to see the owls(Olivia looks forward to seeing the owls all week), xmas displays and fish(some koi are HUGE and scary but compelling). Mama stayed home to vaccuum like a fanatic and at least get _into_ the shower before they got home. Then another nap with mama for a very tired girl.
We all sat down to a nice tea of banana bread that Olivia helped papa make yesterday, hot (lukewarm) chocolate for Olivia and hot-buttered-rums for us :-) and xmas music. Then Olivia went between mama putting lights on the tree and playing with xmas ornaments in the living room, and papa making dinner in the kitchen. She spent most of dinner spinning around and having us pop the occasional bite into her mouth. Then, upstairs for a pee in the potty and getting ready for bed, and Bob is downstairs again and it's only 8:30pm. Later than usual, but nothing like as late as last night - whew!

Some new words for Olivia from last week. She said 'Olivia' for the first time! 'Got it', 'Yehwow" seems to be both yellow and hello. 'Potato', immediately shortened to 'tato'. She said 'onion' today. She named her doll Lyra (Lala).
She's been using some more signs lately too. 'I like', 'happy', 'star', 'fork', 'scared', 'dizzy'(a favourite while spinning around), and 'stop'.

Total Aargh (Bob's Summation)

Well. Olivia has finally turned in after a long day. Most of which occured in the last 3 hours. We began the bedtime ritual at 7:15 and she fell asleep at 10:15. Mama and papa are _tired_. Not sure what kept O up so long, though she asked for the toilet alot and eventually had a poo on her potty before finally settling down in bed. Poor chick. She had a weird day too. We ran errands this morning, including getting our xmas tree, stopping at the post office, impulsively hitting a local Saturday market, and looking at new bikes for mama, so she was _very_ late for her morning nap, which was short. Then, mama had some present wrapping and packaging to do, so Olivia's activities in the living room and access to mama were certainly constrained. It was a crummy, rainy day too, so not alot of incentive to get outside to play. sigh. Olivia has started to deliberately pour her drinks onto the rug, too, which can be quite vexing under the wrong conditions.
This really isn't a complete entry, but I'm _very_ tired and it's time to go to bed!
Hopefully, O will sleep well now that she's asleep!

Hair and Baby Dumpling

Olivia with pigtails























Olivia "sshhh, don't wake the baby" with baby dumpling and book"























Olivia rocking baby dumpling, with her Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star book.


New words: Bobby; Thursday: bamboo, carrot; Friday: feeling crummy, no new words; Saturday: big toe(I think), poke(for the toes poking out of her pajamas, sounds alot like 'pooh'); Sunday: Potato and tato