23 Months

I can't believe my little girl is almost 2 years old. Next month we will be celebrating her 2nd birthday with a new family member and I can't wait.

Olivia has turned into quite the singer this month. Her favorite songs are ABC's, I am a Child of God, Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam, Go Cougars, Patty Cake, 5 Little Monkeys, & A Ball for Baby. She can be heard singing them throughout the day, and making requests as we put her to bed each night.

Her favorite foods are sausage, pumpkin pancakes, macaroni, carrots, broccoli, apples, grapes, pizza, yogurt, pb&j's, and anything sweet. She has been asking for chocolate a lot lately. She still doesn't eat a ton, but she eats enough to have a crazy amount of energy each day. We went out to eat the other night with my family and she ate a good portion of Bob's side salad. It was the first time in a long time that we were able to enjoy our dinner out and not wrestle our toddler.

One of her favorite activities of the day is to go downstairs and visit Mama Vonne, Papa Hales, and BoBo. We have been visiting them for an hour or so around 4-6 each afternoon while we wait for Dad to get home from work. While we are there she likes to play with the tractor, put the babies down for naps, tease the dog, sing songs, run laps around the coffee table, give kisses, and get drinks of water. She definitely entertains all 3 of us adults as we sit and watch her.

She is sleeping great in her bed, and continues to impress us by sleeping 8:30 - 8 or so each morning. There were a couple nights this month that she woke up crying saying she was hungry. Since then we have been trying to get her to eat more before she goes to bed. Every once in a while she will get busy playing in her room and then fall asleep on the floor, but as long as she is napping I don't care.

Potty training is on the back burner for now. I wish I could say she did great and is a pro, but it was really hard on both of us. She definitely uses potty language, which can be embarrassing when she does it so loudly in public. But I am glad she knows when she needs to go, so when we try again it will be a bit easier. Bob's parents visited this week and while walking around BYU campus Olivia kept telling Lowell that she needed to "poop in the potty."It had been since May that we last saw Bob's parents and we have been working on her learning their names. She was great at saying Mama Shannon, but Papa Lowell turned into Papa Hole. L's are really hard for her to say right now. She loved spending time with them, even though the visit was so short. (And 9 month pregnant me couldn't remember to take one single picture.)

Before her bath the other day she weighed in at 20.4 pounds on our scale. She is still wearing size 3 diapers and anywhere from 18-24 month clothes. Her size 3 shoes are actually getting a little snug so we are moving up to size 4's. I bought her a pair of boots, but couldn't get a 4 knowing she might outgrow them before the season is over. So I got a 5, and she definitely needs thick socks to keep them on. She has been so used to sandals and moccasins that when she first tried walking in the boots she looked like she was just learning to walk.

Her favorite toys right now are her stuffed kangaroo, giraffe, baby doll, farm & animals, and all of her books. She can't go to bed unless she has Roo and her baby along with her giraffe blanket or her bird blanket. Her bedtime routine has been working great. We brush teeth, read the Book of Mormon (picture edition, usually looking at animals and talking about Jesus), prayers, and then songs in bed.

She absolutely loves nursery and playing there with her friends. I am not sure how much she actually plays with them, more like by them. She loves to try and sing the songs they sang that day, and tell us that they had a yummy treat. She loves her teachers and was so cute to say goodbye using their names last week.

This month she has been playing a lot with the quiet book pages that I have made and gotten from friends. Hopefully sometime soon they will all be put together in a book for her. Her favorite pages right now are the barn with animal finger puppets and Minnie Mouse bow changing page.

She has been telling us a lot lately that she is scared of ______. I am sure she picked it up from TV or a movie. Because we haven't really talked about what being scared means. I know she doesn't know what it really means because she will say it about my mom, or BoBo, or a toy. She can count from 1-12. And her vocabulary is increasing each and everyday. She still loves to parrot whatever she hears. The only word that I haven't been loving lately is 'mine!" Everything is mine to Olivia at this point in her life. After watching Frozen, she started telling me that she was going to run away like Elsa. It's crazy how much she picks up from shows.

My old cell phone and camera are always fun for her to play with. She takes pretend pictures of everyone and pretend calls people to say hello. Lately she has been calling Uncle Brad to tell him hi. One day we were driving to Sunday dinner and she was taking pictures in her carseat. She said, "Cheese Ayrika!" When I emailed my sister on her mission, she was so happy to hear that Olivia knew her name.

On Monday's we go to our friends house for girls day and Olivia runs wild playing with her friends while I catch up and have adult conversation. Tuesday's and Wednesday's we go to the Springville Library. We attend story time and singing class. Olivia loves both as long as they include some sort of animal puppet. Thursday and Friday mornings are open to whatever. We eat lunch around 12:30 and Olivia goes down for her nap around 1:00 - 1:30. Naps usually last 1.5 - 2.5 hours long. Then we play, have snacks, run errands & get the mail, visit Grandma and Grandpa downstairs, and then make & eat dinner. Around 7:15- 7:30 Bob gets home and I seriously love seeing Olivia run to the stairs after hearing him come in. She is always so excited to greet him and spend the next hour with him before bedtime.