18 months

I though I should do a little Olivia update. This little girl is so full of love and energy. It amazes me watching her grow up. I wonder where she learns everything from. Tonight as we were putting her to bed she grabbed a baby doll, wrapped it up and bounced it repeating "shh shh shh". It melted my heart. I guess she learns these things from me! It's amazing the influence I have! She is going to be an awesome big sister. She does so many funny things and is always making me laugh. Being a mother is truly the greatest responsibility in the world!

Look at these blue eyes! I love watching them all day. She learns so much from them and they are always so alert and searching to learn more.

Olivia teaches me so much every day. She is always reminding me to pray and turn to my Heavenly Father. I'm so grateful for her sweet example. 

As you will notice, most of the pictures of Olivia are in her high chair. Her favorite meal is a bowl of Cheerios. She would eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner if I let her. She has resently started drinking the milk from the bowl after eating all her Cheerios. Most of the time milk ends up all over her lap but lately she had perfected the skill. As you can also see in the picture, she puts everything in the bowl so in this picture there is sting cheese mixed with Cheerios...

We are trying to be creative with our time during the day. We don't go outside very much since it has cooled off so we have been painting a lot. Olivia is still trying to figure out if she likes her hands getting so messy. We play with play-doh and color a lot too.

This is something that makes me think she is growing up so fast. She colors like a big kid now. I remember laying down and coloring like this. It is so cute!! Everything she does is so cute! Look at her tiny hand holding the crayon. 

On October 21 Olivia turned 18 months old. This is a big age because she can go to nursery at church now. All week I couldn't stop worrying about how I would do without her for 2 hours. I have never left her with anyone but family. I stress just leaving her period even if it is with Michael. Sunday rolled around and she fell asleep right before she was suppose to go to nursery so she went to the second half. I walked her in and she looked around with wide eyes. The group played ring around the rosie and circled around Olivia and she didn't like that. She ran to me and we sat there for a few minutes before the group headed to the next room for snacks. She got a little nervous and she walked into the room but once they placed the snacks in front of her I snuck out and she was fine for the next hour... Me on the other hand was not ok! I fought back tears and when people tried to talk to me all I could say was "I will be ok". I think I was telling myself that I will be ok more than anything. She made it through the whole 2 hours last Sunday and I was just fine. 

Olivia's vocabulary is increasing. She babbles all day long but repeats a lot of what we say. Some words she says are:

Mom (mom means EVERYTHING!!)

Dad, dada

Go

Dog

Sock

Hi

Bye

Car

Ball

Cracker

(I'll finish this list as I pay attention to the word she says)

She knows the sounds of:

Dog

Cow

Horse

Duck

Any animal that roars

(I'll finish this as I remember the different animals she knows)

She knows the letter:

A

(A few friends of mine who have 18 month olds have thaught them the ABC's and I am starting to work with Olivia. It's hard to get her to pay attention but after working on the letter A for a week she is starting to point out the big letter A on the fridge and say "A ah".)

And she knows the tempo 1,2,3,4,5 and ready, set, (then she says) GO!

She has had an obsession with socks since she was 4 or 5 months old. She use to love holding a pair of folded socks in her hands now she likes to get my socks out of the drawer and put my fuzzy socks on. 

Let's not forget about the binks! Opa wouldn't approve of this photo. He thinks she needs to go to binky rehab or binky anonymous. He can come take care of her the week we get rid of them!! I'm not looking forward to that day, but I don't have any plans for that day to come any time soon! Olivia is an out of sight out of mind kind of girl so if we put them up high during the day where she can't see them then she usually forgets she wants them. 

A few other things about my sweet girl, she loves the movie tangled! We sometimes watch it 2 or 3 times a day. She loves pascal and max, they always bring a smile to her face. She also loves Shawn the sheep and any show she can pull up on my amazon prime account on my phone. 

I am trying really hard not to be a hovering/over protective parent, so this week I took the baby gate down and let her go down stairs by her self when she wanted. This is huge for me. I get sick to my stomach watching her on the stairs. I know she can do it but the what ifs always make me hover. I can never get the memory of watching her fall down the entire flight of stairs and not being able to stop it from happening out of my head. But this week I have made great progress.

She is a great breakfast eater and as the day progresses she gets picky and eats less. She loves fruit! We have to plan it just right when to give it to her because once she sees some fruit she won't eat anything else. She LOVES pizza! She is her fathers daughter. Every Tuesday we meet Michael at a local pizza place and she eats an entire slice. She also loves sugar but what kid doesn't? She drinks water all day and can never get enough. She also loves to eat crackers still but not nearly as much as when she was 1. 

At 18 months she had 6 teeth. 4 on top and 2 on bottom. This last week she added a third tooth on bottom and hopefull more will come! 

She is growing up so fast. I want it to slow down. I love every second I have with this little girl. I'm nervous to add another, I don't want her to feel pushed aside or forgotten, I want her to know she will always be my best friend. I love her with all my heart!! Being her mommy is the greatest blessing in my life... Right next to being Michael's wife!

Here are some blooper pictures from her 18 month picture... We wanted to take pictures and she wanted to eat grapes.