Show Me Your Happy Face

Sunday, June 6, 2010 - Update

So Bow-tiful!

Mom, bow out! (Exact words)

My little girl who hates having things in her hair, wanted to put an entire package of bows in her hair this morning. I remember when she didn't even have enough hair for one bow, so I gladly obliged. I think her girliness is starting to come out. :)

Full Of Beans

Autumn: What is this?

Olivia: I think it's kitty food

Autumn: No, it looks like a new litter box for me.

It's a tub full of beans

Becoming one with the beans. :)

Because of Olivia's sensory difficulties, I recently made her a tub of beans to play with. She started out barely touching it. I think part of that is because she thought it was kitty food and knows she shouldn't play with that. Later, she dug both hands in to find the toys that I hid inside. As you can tell, she quickly decided to put tons of her toys in the tub. . .and later sat down in the beans. She now loves playing with her beans. She practices pouring them into a bowl by turning her wrists instead of shaking the beans out. This will help her transition to utensil use. I just have to remember to keep the lid on because Autumn is very curious about it as well.

Gymnastics

It was a rough morning. . .

Well, we had an awful experience with Olivia's first day of gymnastics. We ended up leaving early. . .both of us with tears in our eyes. Olivia didn't do anything that she was suppposed to do, she wanted to run around everywhere and when she didn't get to, she threw herself on the floor and screamed. . .loudly. I am embarrassed to show my face there again. I know that she needs to familiarize herself with new places and people, but we were so disruptive to the class. Nobody there understood how far Olivia has come and the fact that she can even jump is miraculous. We didn't even know if she would walk. Olivia is very spirited and likes to be in the middle of everything. She is not one of those kids who stand quietly by their moms and watch. Olivia is not a tantrum-thrower though, so I was shocked when she threw tantrum after tantrum and each time she did, I felt worse and worse. Whew. . .don't know if this is the right thing for her or not. I do know that this wasn't a good way to start the day.

Exploration Place

Grandma Mary surprised us this afternoon with a trip for all the grandkids to Exploration Place. We all had a blast. It's exciting to see Olivia's interests blossom since our last trip there.

Where there's a water table. . .there's Olivia, although she wasn't nearly as excited to play in it as she was last time we went.

Giddy-up, Olivia

She loved playing in the kitchen and helping mommy eat some yummy food.

All of the cousins weighing in on each other.

She found a slide. . .and didn't care that it was part of a stomach in the Grossology section.

Their favorite part, however, was running the vet clinic.

" I need an IV in room 5. . .STAT!"

A long day at the office

Playing with blocks. . .a great way to end a great day!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - Update

Olivia has grown up so much in the last few weeks. I feel like we're de-baby-proofing the house as we threw away all of her bottles, packed up her high chair, took the padding off the coffee table, put away a lot of old "baby" toys, etc. Today, she came up to me and said she wanted to try to peepee in the potty and that's exactly what she did. So, we might start potty training sooner than I thought. She had a brief peak of interest a few months ago, but hasn't shown much since.

She's also starting to show interest in changing her babies' diapers. Every time I change her, I also have to change baby's and duck's and otter's, etc diapers. And, we can't just change their diaper. . .we have to use wipes too. Of course, I can't put the same diaper back on them either. . .I have to get a new one. Boy, I'm going to have to buy some doll diapers. I did save some of her preemie and newborn diapers for this very reason. Olivia LOVES her birth size doll. It wasn't intended to be a toy for her. . .more of a keepsake, so she knows that she has to be very gentle with it. In the above picture, she carefully put the doll on her bed, covered her up and informed me that she was sleeping. She knows this doll is very special.