'appy' girl

Olivia's most-used word right now is "happy". It's often surprising the circumstances under which she'll use it. She can find something to be happy about. She's just now recovering from a flu-like illness which had her unable to keep anything down except for breastmilk. Of course the most intense vomiting times were 1 or 2 am! But after a vomiting spell, when getting some comforting breastmilk, she'd often say "Appy!" between sides.

Other words are more specifically situational... She's learning to pull her pants down and up by herself. Her commonest comment upon pulling up her pants is "wedgie". Brand new today: Blueberry. Guess what we had in our scones for Sunday breakfast!

Trains!

Olivia does love trains.
Mama went to IKEA for the first time ever and went nutso! Came home with lots of things, like this train set, that weren't on my original single-item list. But she loves it! It's a real winner. And the thanks really go to Grandad and GrandMary who sent $ for a little table for Olivia with chairs plus shipping. But they don't ship the table anymore, so we went to the store - and so got lots of things "for the price of one" as it were. The table's great. O loves having a place just her size to sit and serve tea. (pic soon). O also got a handy toybox that matches the table.

So the big new developments are in Olivia's sleep. Knock on wood, but she has been sleeping the night through! Tonight, after breastmilk and a song, she rolled off my lap and crawled to her spot on the bed and virtually collapsed. Her first time putting herself to sleep! Quite a surprise and very exciting. Although it can leave one feeling just a little redundant. Just a little, though :-)

Answer: She's Breathing

Question: How can you tell when Olivia is hungry?


Olivia likes food.























It makes her happy.

























She wants more.

Growing Girl

Olivia discovers spaghetti noodles. And my, is it fun, except when it gets a head start down your throat while the end is still hanging out your mouth and mama has to pull it back out by the dangly end. Urk. It's a knack Olivia is still working on acquiring.

Olivia is getting talky. She is now trying to say alot of words each day - often only recognisable in context, but it's fun to hear her trying! She is now regularly stringing together a couple of words verbally, whereas her signing tends to be more complex. Or words and signs in conjunction to convey her thoughts. She likes to tell about the interesting and exciting bits of her day. Trains, planes, dogs seen, cats petted, friends seen. Today, we watched a huge tree get pulled down, which was a big topic of conversation for the afternoon. I thought it was pretty impressive too. "More!", Olivia signed. Sorry, honey, I think that tree is only coming down once.

Right, Olivia has had quite a growth spurt over the past few months. She shot up by a couple of inches and a couple of kilograms. She's at least 36 inches tall and 38 lbs heavy. And she still loves to be carried... The other day, when the petite Sebastien hopped up into my arms, Sophie offered Olivia a ride in the sling and immediately paused for thought, but valiantly carried(ahem) through on her offer.

Olivia has slept through the last 3 nights. We'll see what happens next...

Day Out

The other day, we went to Fulbourn Fen with Wim and Lyra. It was clear, cold and a beautiful day to be out and about. Olivia and Lyra outdid themselves with running after each other and doing almost all their own walking(Good news for us as Olivia has had a growth spurt and now weighs over 38 lbs!).
Olivia likes playing peek-a-boo, and had fun popping out at Bob from behind a tree. "Boo!"

We haven't had much rain lately, so the walk wasn't _too_ muddy, but Olivia was still reluctant to step off this bridge into the mud while Wim and Lyra watch. She signs "cow" to papa, "Poop!". I did end up lifting her across to the grass since she just wasn't quite willing to step into a puddle of what she thought looked like cow poop. We _do_ see alot of cow and sheep poop around here. The mounds in the field are mole hills though. Honestly.

Olivia and Lyra did eventually give in to tired legs and opt for a ride. "Baby!" said Olivia, wanting to be cradled like Lyra. What sweet girls.

Busy Girl

Getting ready to go outside the other day, Olivia took matters into her own hands. Grabbing her shoelaces for the first time, she circled them around each other elaborately for several tries. Her shoe didn't end up tied, but it was sure fun to watch.

Olivia has a creative streak and is really enjoying her pretend play. After helping to put the cord back on the vaccuum, she decided it was time to clean her hands, so turned on what was obviously put there to be a tap and rubbed her hands underneath to wash them. She has various versions of this around the house - a round, plastic thing in the bed can be used to fill her doll's bath. Today, she was bringing me 'bananas' to peel and taking the 'peels' to throw away. "Actually, Olivia, those go in the compost!"

Last weekend, we went to Wicken Fen, which still has one of the windmills that was used to drain the fens. Olivia really likes windmills, so we went to visit it and give her a closer look. What are the shafts and wheels mentioned in her favorite bedtime song? She got to see them up close and personal. "Whoom!"(read:'around!'), she says when she sees it.