20 Months Old

It doesn't seem long ago at all that I was planning Olivia's 1st birthday. Now we are only 4 months away from her 2nd birthday. During the time from Olivia's 1st birthday and now, she has grown so much, more developmentally than physically however! She's only a couple pounds more and a couple inches taller, but has a whole lot more wisdom than she did when she was a year. (And a whole lot more beautiful, blonde, curly hair!)

She surprises us every day with a new phrase or sentence she has learned. She can also be very demanding, but yet polite at the same time. If she wants you to do something she will not hesitate to tell you what that is, but has learned that she only gets results if she says please. It is so cute to hear her say "mommy, please sit down right now" and then she'll crawl in my lap with a book and say "please read book." She loves books and somehow our night time ritual of reading 1 book and then bed has turned into 2 books.

For being around mostly boys all day, I am surprised how girly Olivia is. She still LOVES bracelets and now loves to accessorize as well. She will find items around the house that look like either jewelry, a belt or a purse and use them to accessorize. You can often find her "getting ready" at her vanity set that will one day be moved up to her big girl room whenever I get it finished.

At school, Olivia has been named the teacher's helper. She helps the teacher keep the kids in line by telling them "no, what they can't do, and then their name." I also find it interesting that she tells the kids they need to share...sounds like somebody needs to listen to their own advice! I am also told that while all the other kids are sound asleep on their mats, Olivia will just lay on her mat, depending on the day, for 10 minutes up to an hour just singing or talking to herself before she falls asleep. I've experienced this several times at home where I have put Olivia down for a nap and after hearing her talk and sing for over an hour just go ahead and give up on her napping.

She still loves to sing all the time and has added some new songs to the mix. "Twinkle, Twinkle" is her favorite song to sing, but some new favorites are "Jesus Loves Me", B-I-B-L-E", "Tomorrow (from Annie)", "God Our Father" and "Ba Ba Black Sheep." Some of these songs she knows all the words to, others just bits and pieces, but whether she knows all the words or not, she always sings the correct tune. She really loves her music!

She also knows her entire alphabet and can count to 10. She loves to play hide and seek but will only play the finder role. Even though she peeks through her fingers, she'll count to 10 before coming to find me. Then as she is looking for me she'll keep saying "mommy, where are you?" When she does find me, her face lights up and she excitedly exclaims "I found you!" Then she is ready to go again, "mommy, go hide!"

I just love watching the world through Olivia's eyes as everything is always a new adventure and I can't wait for our many more adventures as a family!