You may know that Olivia is relatively neat. Everything has a place where it belongs, and at times she can be quite distressed if we try to continue with the day before putting something in its proper place. One morning, Bryan was in a hurry and left his clothes on the bathroom floor after his shower. Later that day, I heard an "uh-oh!" and saw Olivia walking through the middle room. I went to investigate, and she had picked up his clothes off the floor and taken them into our room where she deposited them in the dirty clothes basket. Now she cleans up after him every morning, encouraged by Bryan, who heard of her exploits and decided to leave his clothes on the floor on purpose. For Olivia's enjoyment, of course.
Last week we had some nice weather, so Olivia and I went for a walk. She wore her tennis shoes. We came home and one shoe fell off while she played. I eventually removed her other shoe so that she wasn't so lopsided. An hour or so later, we wanted to go on another walk. When the time came to put shoes on, though, we could only find one. I looked in all her hiding places, but couldn't find her other shoe. Finally we tossed on her pink cowgirl boots (which are her favorite shoes anyway) and went for our walk. Her tennis shoe remained lost all week. We'd look for it periodically, and I kept an eye out for it as I went about the house during the day, but all for naught. Saturday morning, Bryan finally found the missing shoe. It was... In the box where he keeps his shoes. Of course. Ten minutes later, it was missing again. Or perhaps it was the other shoe this time. Luckily, it was much easier to find the second time around. This time it was in Olivia's shoe box. At least she knows where shoes go.
Poor baby girl started catching a cold at the end of last week. She was coughing and sniffling by Saturday but otherwise seemed fine. Sunday morning she was coughing a lot and wouldn't eat or drink anything, so we left her in pajamas and took turns going to church. While I was at church, Bryan managed to get food and drink in her and she was playing happily by the time I came home. She ate lunch pretty well before her nap and seemed to be feeling okay when she woke up, so we gave her a bath and decided to keep our Superbowl plans of visiting the Kleins. Olivia was glad to get outside and excited to play with Eva's toys. She slept in their spare crib until the game was over, and then we came home. Monday morning, Olivia was up early and looked miserable. She took two baths and we read some books before she fell asleep in my arms just before 11. Bryan came home for lunch, and I transferred Olivia to her crib, expecting her to sleep for another hour or so. She finally woke up at 3:40 and seemed to be doing better. She even ate a snack. Another bath before Bryan came home, and then it was dinner and bed. Happily, she was doing much better when she woke up Tuesday morning and she's been fine since except for some residual coughing.
Tuesday night we put Olivia in a toddler bed for the first time. What is a toddler bed? Well, we didn't have a twin bed, but we DID have a spare crib in our attic (a drop side from my parents that we decided not to use as a crib because it was recalled). Bryan butchered one of the sides, cutting out five slats or so to make a hole through which Olivia can climb in and out. The rest of the side stayed intact, to keep Olivia from rolling out unintentionally. We didn't show her how to use the hole, just plopped her in a different bed one night. Wednesday morning, we heard a very awake and (cheerfully) vocal Olivia around 5:45. ... This is not acceptable; she usually sleeps until at least 7, and lately it's been closer to 8 or 8:30. Bryan thought maybe I should check on her, but I figured I'd let her see if she could figure out that she was able to escape. I thought I heard her once, but when I peeked out of our room, her door was still closed. About half an hour later, her vocalizations dropped to an inaudible level, and I thought maybe she'd gone back to sleep. No such luck. About five minutes after that, we heard the very distinct sound of her door opening and closing. Guess she figured out the bed. I listened for her footsteps to see where she would go now that she had discovered her freedom; since we have hardwood floors and she likes to take her socks off, she's usually pretty easy to hear. Not that morning. There were no footsteps, so I finally got up to check on her. There she was, still in her socks (so I wouldn't have been able to hear her anyway), standing in the dark hallway in front of her door. Apparently she discovered the house was still dark and was unsure where to go. I showed her how to get to our room, and then we went back to her room to start the day. She slept until 7 the next morning, so I'm hoping that the early wake-up call was a fluke rather than a product of the new sleeping arrangement.
This week, Olivia added elephant and snake to her animal sounds repertoire. As she learns more sounds, she's more likely to blurt out the wrong one if she doesn't stop to think first. I've found that a similar thing happens with her words. As her vocabulary grows, her correct usage percentage goes down. I'm sure it will even out eventually. :)
Pictures and Videos:
Helping make bread. This was really the first time I was organized enough to let her do more than sit next to me and point at the dough.
Putting the bread into pans: Olivia Makes Bread
A test picture, to make sure the camera was in the right place:
Our sleepy, sick baby. Bryan took a picture because, of course, that's what one does. He must be taking lessons from my mom:
Aww...poor Olivia...she got sick...a lost in her own house :(
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