June 23-30

When my parents came to visit, they brought with them a toddler bed that they'd found.  We set it up where the crib used to be and moved the crib to the other side of the room.  Olivia was excited to climb in and try it out.  Then naptime happened, and she spent the first half hour diligently relocating every book from the middle room bookshelves to her bed.  She ended up in her crib, and that night we bought a gate.  The gate turned out to be unnecessary, because Olivia refused to sleep anywhere but her crib for the next few nights.  Then one night, she thought she might give the bed a try.  Bryan sat in her room with her until she fell asleep.  Around 3 in the morning, she woke up scared.  I calmed her down, but she wouldn't let me leave.  Finally I brought some blankets and pillows into her room and set up camp on the floor, where she promptly joined me.  When I left to go take care of Gretchen, Olivia fell asleep on the pile of blankets on the floor.  Since then, she's been adamantly against the crib and equally adamantly against the bed.  She used to accumulate all of her things in a pile by the gate and fall asleep there, but Bryan didn't like her sleeping on the hard floor, so we moved the blanket bed to right in front of the gate so that she's at least comfortable.  Bedtime is routine again, and I don't have to stay in the room until she falls asleep, but we definitely have an almost two year old who thinks the proper place to sleep is on blankets in front of her doorway.

Last weekend we visited Bryan's sister and her fiance in Cleveland.  While there we went to a water park.  Olivia was hesitant at first, but accepted all of the water as the day went on.  She reluctantly tried a couple of slides in the kids' pool, and then decided they weren't so bad.  At least, they weren't so bad when she was in the process of going down or once she'd reached the bottom.  At the top, they were pretty terrible.  Bryan coaxed her past the edge every time, though, and she happily slid down into my arms.  We did a lazy river ride that Olivia seemed to enjoy, and she also played in the fountains squirting up from the pavement.  I think her favorite part of the water park was her life jacket, though.  She had to put one on for the lazy river and didn't want to take it off, even when it was time to go home.

I don't really remember consciously teaching Olivia to say any words.  We just talked to her and she picked them up.  Recently, though, we've made an effort to teach her to say the word "up" so that she doesn't just stand there and whine when she wants to be picked up.  Olivia's rendering of this word comes out as "upt," but it's pretty adorable and serves its purpose.  :)

Gretchen had her two-month checkup on Monday.  She measured 12 lbs, 2 oz and 25 inches long.  She's one pound lighter and half an inch longer than Olivia was at the same age.

Gretchen is very smiley lately. Olivia was is often accused of being crusty, but Gretchen is (at least for the present) rather sociable and happy most of the time.

Recently Olivia has developed a quieter side.  She's also working on her noisy side ("nononononono" shrieked at the top of her lungs is a good example), but that's always been present.  Now, however, she'll sometimes just shake or nod her head.  Especially at nighttime after we turn off the light, she's more apt to pat the blanket where she wants me to sit than to yell "dit!" at me.  If I ask a question, she'll turn her solemn little face towards me and shake her head.  It's a nice change of pace.

Pictures and Videos:
Olivia on the way back from Cleveland.  Note the stylish flip-flops.

Olivia likes to hold Gretchen.  Gretchen is less excited about the situation:

Olivia showing off her dance moves: