Our Little Toddler

It's official, Olivia is not longer a baby but a growing toddler. Ok, technically, I think she became a toddler the day she turned One, but we're now seeing her act like a toddler. Her first word, other than Dada and Mama, was Kitty and then came baby, doggy, and birdy. At nursery school this past Sunday the volunteer told me she pointed to a dove in a poster and said "birdy," we're so proud of her. This morning we heard her practicing saying Daddy, first by going Da Da Da then adding the 'ddy' for the full Daddy. It's just amazing how her little brain works and absorbs everything...must remember to keep pottymouth words in my head the next time I stub my toe.

Like most toddlers, Olivia likes to test our reactions. For instance, she'll slowly get down off the chair she's not supposed to be climbing then smile afterwards waiting for our praise. We do say "thank you for listening," but she does get put in time out quite a few times a day still. Yes, she might not exactly understand why she's there (we do get down to her level and give a short explaination)...she's only in timeout for less than a minute...but she is slowly, very slowly, understanding there are consequences to her actions. I need to call Robin and ask how she got her boys to listen to her without raising her voice...her boys, now 9, 7 and 4, are very well behaved.

Olivia also goes completely limp if she knows we're mad at her for something, or she doesn't want to do what we want her to do. When ever one of us is cooking dinner, and the other is doing nothing in the living room, she'll ultimately want to be with the one cooking dinner. To keep her safe we try to keep her out of the kitchen, so when we turn her around and she wants to stay, she'll go limp. Also, and here's the funny part, we try not to laugh at this but it's just so darn cute. She'll lay herself down on the ground, head and all, to throw a tantrum and will either find a soft spot for her head and lay down or slowly put her head down as to not hurt herself on the tile floor. We chuckle at that even though we shouldn't.

It's just funny to watch her learn how to try and get away with things, to figure out how to get what she wants and to show us she's mad. Just thought this would be something fun to share as she is our first born and this is all new to us...