February 10-17

Taxes are done!  I figured it'd be good to have them out of the way before Reggie came.  Also, our refund is instrumental in paying the hospital bill.  To all of you who don't have your taxes done yet (even through no fault of your own), neener neener.  :-P

We have recently discovered the youtube channel kidstv123.  Sometimes when I'm working on the computer, Olivia gets impatient, so I used to look for animal videos for her to watch.  Then one day I discovered these, and she likes them better.  It's just a bunch of songs about shapes, numbers, colors, phonics, the alphabet...  Most of them aren't bad at all, and they keep Olivia occupied while I finish whatever I'm doing.  ...Although, some of them ARE catchy enough that I wake up singing them at 3 in the morning.  While Olivia was sick last week, she got to watch many more kidstv123 videos than usual.  It got to the point where every time one of us sat down at the computer, she thought she was going to watch videos.  So my computer time has been reduced to only what I can get done during naptime.  Luckily, I don't have a lot I HAVE to do, so this is usually more than enough time.  5:00 is Olivia's computer time.  She's allowed to educationally rot her little brains until Bryan gets home from work sometime between 5:15 and 5:30.

Olivia's 18-month check-up was last Saturday.  She's 24 pounds, 6 ounces and 32.25 inches long.  She also had an ear infection.  It seems she has an ear infection every time she sees the doctor.  They never bother her, but she gets antibiotics anyway.  I guess it's good that she doesn't have to go back until she's 2.  No ear infections until then!

Our dishwasher is still broken.  :(  Whatever Bryan did to fix it didn't work, so we're still washing dishes by hand.  The good news is that I remembered that I actually like washing dishes, at least in reasonable quantities.  The bad news is that washing dishes makes my poor fingers split more than usual.  I'm having a terrible time with dry skin this winter (worse than usual), so Bryan told me I'm not allowed to wash dishes.  Of course, if he doesn't get to them right away at night then they pile up on the counter and I end up doing them later anyway...

We implemented a toy rotation this week.  I sorted all Olivia's main room toys (except big favorites like her dolls) into four baskets and only one basket is out at a time; the other three baskets live in my closet.  I made sure to include a couple things I knew she really liked in each basket along with other toys that don't usually get much attention.  So far it's been going well.  She rediscovered some toys she'd forgotten that she had, and has been enjoying them this week without seeming to miss the ones that aren't out.  I haven't decided yet how often I'm going to rotate baskets.  Probably once every week or two.

When Olivia "reads" books to herself, she does so in a sing-song voice.  Why?  Probably because I have songs that go with about half of the books I read to her.  It looks like we got (or I molded?) a musical child.

On Tuesday, Olivia started saying "bleck."  I was trying to keep her out of my dirt pile as I swept dust bunnies from behind the couch, and told her it was yucky.  She followed me around the rest of the morning, pointing at my dirt pile and exclaiming "bleck!"  Lest we think it was a one day phase, she also used her new word to describe the egg she accidentally knocked on the floor on Wednesday.  Bleck, indeed.

Olivia's favorite new game to play is "Where are they?"  She'll hide something behind her back (or, more recently, she'll hide her fingers in a glove) and say, "Uh-oh!  Where are they?"  Then she'll get a contemplative look on her face and say, "I don't know."  Usually I'm required to make similar observations.  Then, she'll suddenly reveal that which was hidden, start laughing, and say, "There they are!"

I entered a contest to get a chance to try out Infantino's Fresh Squeezed line.  They're picking 50 people from across the country to get a free set of baby food making supplies -- including their new squeeze station, which lets you store food in the little pouches that Olivia loves -- in exchange for honest reviews once you've tested it out with your friends.  Although I assume the company has final say, most of the voting is done by facebook users liking and commenting on ideas.  If you haven't already, I'd appreciate it if you'd "like" my idea and pass it on to anyone else you think would participate.  I'll give 2 points to everyone who does it!  (You have to tell me you did, though, because I can't see WHO "liked" my post, just how many.)

Directions:

1. Go to this page: https://www.facebook.com/InfantinoMomsRule?ref=ts&fref=ts

2. Click on the Fresh Squeezed Party link

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3. Go through the comments until you find one by Jojo Viola (my facebook page for entering giveaways).  They're grouped by number of "likes," so I'm probably near the middle right now.

4. "Like" my comment, leave a reply if you want to, and share with your friends if you think they'll vote, too.  :)

Pictures:

Back when she was still sick, but starting to feel better:

Everyone needs TWO cups:

At the doctor's office.  She thought maybe if she put her socks and boots back on then they wouldn't be able to give her shots:

Playing the "Where are they?" game.  I never did get a picture of the "Where are they?" face, and the video is kind of blurry and far away:

I don't know.  Do you know?

There they are!

 Watching videos: