22 Months

Olivia can count from 1 -10, but usually stops around 5. Sometimes a minute or so later I will hear her finish 6-10. She also likes to count according to what she is playing with. Ex: 1, 2, horsie. 1, 2, 3, chickens. She also has started singing the alphabet and knows up to E. The other morning I found her in the rocking chair in her room looking at an alphabet book singing to herself. One morning she woke up and said, "Mom let me out!" I am so impressed with her vocabulary. She also called my Grandma's bear Pooh Pooh - which everyone thought was hilarious. She had made the connection from her Winnie the Pooh Bear.

She has a little play kitchen that she has started putting food into. Obviously prego mom was laying on the couch one day not paying attention and I was letting Olivia eat plain noodles from a bowl. The next day she told me she wanted noodles and while I was getting her some, I saw her grab the old bowl from her kitchen cabinet and start eating. Yikes! We now {try} to check daily to make sure she isn't hiding anything.

We are making progress in the potty department. She tells us she needs to go during the day, but once we sit her down, she doesn't go. Usually about 10 minutes later she will poop in her diaper and tell us. So at least she is making a connection with her body. On the 8th of September I bought all of the stuff and sat in the living room with Olivia all day having her drink and pee. She did great with minimal accidents. But the next morning she started bawling when I asked her to sit on the potty. I think it was a little too much going at it all day. So we are trying throughout the day, but not nearly as intense as I thought we would be doing it. Princess Sophia panties and stickers along with peanut butter m&m's are part of her bribery.

This month we bought a toddler bed for Olivia. Her room is super small already, but somehow we made it work with both a crib and bed. She loves sitting in it and reading her books, or bringing all of her stuffed animals and babies into bed with her. The first week naps were basically play time but she has improved and now naps after a short play time. Some nights she sleeps in her bed and some nights she sleeps on the floor next to the door. As long as she is sleeping it doesn't matter to me. Since she can't reach the door knob, she will knock on the door when she wakes up each morning.

Lately she has been super whiney. When she wants something, she wants it right then. I have been trying to teach her about "nice voice" and such, but it's definitely a work in progress. "Please Mom, please show." {Please Mom, can I watch a show?}

She is definitely on a baby kick. She gets all of her babies and stuffed animals that she is loving at the moment and brings them to me. Then she grabs all of her blankies and we swaddle them up. They also get milk and juice throughout the day by bottle.

Her bottom right I tooth is mostly in and the left is on it's way. I am sure it's related - but is quite annoying that she has had a runny nose almost all month. I swear her nose is a fountain.

She is obsessed with all farm animals. We play with her little barn, animals, tractor, and people for at least an hour each day. A friend who babysits for us has a field of cows near her house. It makes dropping Olivia off so easy, because she gets distracted by the cows. There also is a pasture of horses right next to our new church building. Olivia now relates church to horses.

She calls my Mom, "Mama Sue, or Grandma Sue" and my Dad is now "Papa Hales." She is getting really good at remembering the names of people. I need to print off some of Ayrika's pictures from her mission so she can become familiar with her. Hopefully by the time we Skype at Christmas, she will recognize her.

I broke my finger this month and Olivia has let everyone know that she also has one too. She tries to take my little finger brace and wear it. Then she will use her sad voice to tell everyone that her finger is broken and she is sad.

We have a bunch of containers in the living room with Olivia's toys. She has been dumping all of the toys out and stacking them. THen she likes to stand on top of them and jump. She also calls this doing a bow.