Happy Birthday, Olive

I am terribly, shamefully late with this post. Today is February 24. Olive turned one on February 8. Yikes. But what's two weeks (and then some) really, when you think about it? Oh, well, enough regrets and on with the post.

First up, the stats. Olive is a perfectly proportioned little thing, measuring in the 80th percentile across the board.

• Weight: 22 pounds, 2 ounces (80th percentile)
• Height: 30 inches (80th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 18 1/2 inches (80th percentile)

In a nutshell, Olive is her very own person. We went to Union Station and Crown Center today to play in Funville (I am not making up that name) and see the trains. Olive walked all the way across the Link, she walked most of the way through the main hall in Union Station, and she walked around Funville. Milo walked, yes, but he was always wanting to be picked up or to ride in the stroller. On the way home, Andrew said (referring to the walking/riding difference), "It's almost like we have two totally different kids." And that sort of sums it up.

Olive is so unique, such a different kid than Milo was at the same age. Anything we thought we had figured out the first time around is all fair game again. But enough with the comparisons. Let me tell you about Olive.

She loves to climb on things. She steps up on the step-stool in the bathroom and strains to see over the counter. She climbs the stairs and even attempts to go feet first, rather than on her knees. She climbs on Milo's lunchbox to get up just a little higher. She climbs up onto our kid-sized chairs and stands on them, tempting fate. She's a daredevil everywhere she goes.

She loves snuggles. When she's sleepy, she wants to be held and she wants to lay her head on your shoulder. She holds on tight as you carry her, gripping your shoulder or shirt or whatever she can get her hands on. She also likes to be the snuggler. She carries around her baby doll, patting her on the back and giving her kisses. Sometimes Olive just calls out "Beh-bee? Beh-bee?" and isn't happy until we've located Baby for her to hug. However, if Baby isn't available, she'll be content with a stuffed animal. It's pretty stinking cute, and something we never saw Milo do (whoops, another comparison).

Olive knows quite a few words. "Yes" is her newest, and due to her lack of top teeth, it comes out "Yesh." You can ask her pretty much anything and she'll say "yesh" to it. Unless it's something she knows she doesn't want, like a certain food item. "Do you want more broccoli, Olive?" "No," she says and shakes her head. Like I said, she's a girl who knows what she wants.

Other words she can say include Daddy, Mommy, Mama, Dada, kitty, Zadie, Milo, yes, no, thank you, baby, mmmm (for hug--does it count if she doesn't use it correctly?), yum-yum, nose, eyes. She babbles long strings of syllables with perfect mimicry of our enunciation. She's going to be a talker, I think. None of this second-child syndrome where the older kid speaks for the younger one. I bet Olive won't let Milo get a word in once she figures out how to say the things she wants to say. Also, she understands many, many words. I couldn't even begin to guess how much she understands, but I truly think she knows what we're saying and asking her a lot of the time.

She, too, is a bath-water drinker. She obsessively seeks out the toys in the bathtub that can carry water. Cups, washcloths, squirty toys. Anything and everything ends up in her mouth. This is becoming slightly less gross now that Milo is pretty consistently peeing before getting in the bathtub.

Olive loves to dance. Music can play for the briefest of moments and she's swaying and bopping her head. She also dances when there's no music. She'll just start spinning until she's so dizzy she falls down. She loves this game.

She wants to be where Milo is. He can still make her laugh like no one and nothing else.

Her hair is getting longer so it almost lays flat. Still sticks up a lot though. It's getting long enough in front that I think it's time to find some barrettes or something. Her hair is just about in her eyes. If she were a boy, we would be at the "definitely need a haircut" stage.

She tries to run, can't quite get herself off the ground. She hardly ever falls just when walking--unless she's crazy tired. Then she falls all the time. She tries to jump, but again, can't quite get herself off the ground.

She is finished with formula and bottles. About a week ago we ran out of formula, so we cut her off. She has been drinking whole milk for about four weeks now, maybe, and doing fine with it. She also loves water. Our pediatrician just said to quit the bottles then, if she's drinking plenty of other fluids. It's different this time than it was with Milo, because I was still nursing Milo at this age and didn't wean until he weaned himself. With bottles, it's totally different. We had to make the choice.

She has been totally into feeding herself lately. She has no interest in being spoon-fed, but she has started to try to hold a spoon to feed herself. She's not bad at it, either. It's messy, and stuff falls off the spoon sometimes, but overall, she's pretty dexterous. I do wish she'd let herself be fed more, though. At her one-year check-up, the finger-prick test showed she was headed toward being anemic, so we needed to get more iron in her. We're focusing on red meat and spinach, but the girl just loves bread. What can you do?

Olive still just has the two teeth on the bottom. Sometimes I think the top two are there, but they always kind of go away. Don't listen to anyone who tells you teeth just come in and boom, there they are. In my experience, the teeth come through, then the gums swallow them back up, then they come through, and then they're gone. Repeat.

Olive likes to play peekaboo and be chased. She is starting to like reading time and will sit still for quite awhile listening to books. She likes to play dress-up and will put anything around her neck like a necklace (like my sweaty, fresh-from-a-run underwear that were lying on the bathroom floor).

She leans into me and says, "mmmmm" the way I do when I give her hugs. This melts my heart.

She's my sweetie-pie, sweet baby, baby girl, Olive May, and she's full of fire. I love her more every day.

How many times can I say the word pee in this post?

Ah, potty training. We're doing it, baby.

Andrew and I had been following that whole wait-'til-he's-ready thing, but about a week ago we changed our tune. Pretty sure Milo was not going to be one of those kids who just up and decided it was time to pee in the potty. Milo is stubborn and determined and willful. He likes to make his own decisions. And so far, he has not wanted much of anything to do with the potty. Not for Skittles. Not for marshmallows. Not for cotton balls (our reward system for Milo: he earns cotton balls for his cotton ball jar when he does something good, then when the jar is full we go out for ice cream or some other fun thing).

Then last weekend, about a month before his 3rd birthday, we just kind of decided it was time. We talked up how Saturday was Big Boy Underwear Day and isn't that soooooo exciting? We get to go to the Big Boy Underwear store and pick out some Big Boy Underwear and—ooh!!—maybe the Big Boy Underwear will have THOMAS on it!! Lots of verbal exclamation points were used.

And thank Sir Topham Hatt, Walmart sold Thomas underwear. Milo and I picked out three (identical) packs for a total of 21 pairs of Big Boy Underwear. I figured that this, combined with the seven pairs of Old Navy truck underwear we already had, would be enough to get us through the first few days, even though the truck underwear was basically unacceptable (to Milo) because the trucks were all on the butt and Milo could not see them and therefore would not wear them.

Milo was very excited about his new Thomas Big Boy Underwear. Upon taking them out of the package, though, Milo was EXTREMELY disappointed that Thomas was on the back. Seriously, underwear manufacturers, get a clue! Little boys want to look at Thomas! And they can't see their own butts! Put the Useful train on the front!! Fortunately, a few of the pairs had all-over patterns, which were acceptable though not as good as the big Thomas.

That first day, Milo had two pee accidents and peed in the potty once. He mostly stayed dry and did not poop all day. I think he was pretty good at holding it from the start of our little potty training adventure. He was still in a diaper for naptime and overnight. And after that first day, there has been no looking back. He no longer wants to wear a diaper ever, though he accepts it at naptime and overnight. He's doing great. He has pooped in the potty TWICE!! and peed several more times.

He's still had accidents every day, but more successes, too. I think he is starting to realize how he  is controlling things and what happens. He likes the candy rewards, but I don't think that is a huge motivator for him. He has gotten to play games on Daddy's tablet while sitting on the potty, and I think that's what really getting him in there. We also set a timer so he knows when it's time to go try to pee. (We've been using the time for other things, too—like so he knows when it's time to go take a bath or read stories before nap, for instance. The timer is good for this kid.) 

This morning he woke up with a dry diaper, which is AMAZING in and of itself, then he went and peed on the potty right away. So proud of him. In less than a week, he's gone from fulltime diaper to waking up dry!

And he looks adorable in his little underwear. Of course, he wears them backward half the time so he can properly see Thomas. This is pretty hilarious, as it causes major wedgies and he's always picking at his undies. But you know, some battles are not worth fighting, and if he wants to wear his underwear backward, so be it.

Parents of little boys, tell me: did you potty train standing or sitting? We have been doing both, but seem to have much more success with sitting. So pretty much sticking to sitting for now. I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to this stuff. Advice, give it to me!

Happy Valentine's Day

This is the tenth Valentine's Day I've celebrated with Andrew. Here's to many, many more.

Happy Birthday, Olive

Olive's regularly scheduled monthly stats will come soon. Until then, enjoy this video of my girl's first year.

Babies in the Bathtub

If I can't manage to post a bunch of words, at least I've got another video of adorable kids, right. (I know it's long, but if you stay tuned until about halfway, it is totally worth it.)

Short Video

I know, I know, I need to do a complete Christmas post. (And a Thanksgiving post. And a Halloween one. Ahem.)

But here is a brief video of Olive sitting with Grandpa Russ on Christmas Day.

Olive Walks: The Video

Get this: Milo and Olive starting walking AT EXACTLY THE SAME AGE.

Yes, it's true. Eleven months and three days.

As you know, Olive has been tossing around the idea of walking for a long time, but hasn't gotten her act together to just do it already. But on Friday, she did. Andrew and I set up camp about six feet apart and helped her stand until she was balanced. Then we would let her go and the other one would encourage her to head his way. Wouldn't you know it, she actually did. She took a whole bunch of steps.

Hooray for Olive!

Funnily enough, we were at the mall. Down in that play area by the carousel. Andrew tried to take a crappy cell phone video, but he had it in still-camera mode and took a probably-blurry-and-instantly-deleted photo instead. FAIL. And also we were trying to keep an eye on our other child. (And yes, sadly, that is what we did for Friday night entertainment: went to the mall for Panera and playtime. Parenthood! It does wonders for your social life!)

But didn't someone say something about a video? Oh, yes, that.

Olive is 11 Months Old

Oh, Olive. You are such a big girl.

You are becoming more like a big girl and less like a baby all the time. Milo still calls you an "itty bitty TINY baby" (he calls one of the other kids at Kristin's house a really big baby--a kid who is closer to two than one).

You mostly eat table food. You're very particular about what you eat. If we are offering something that you like (yogurt, for instance), but you see something you'd rather have one someone else's plate (a bagel, for instance) you refuse to eat another bite of anything BUT the something else.

You are getting so good at drinking from a sippy cup, appropriately tipping it back and rarely spitting all the water out. I can't believe it's almost time to switch from formula to regular milk. No more bottles? What? I think I need to soak up some bottle cuddly time with you while I still can.

You're quite the adventurer. You climb. You test the limits. You have propelled yourself into the bathtub (and cried about it), something Milo never did. You climb into the kid-sized rocking chair and stand up, making my heart race with nerves. You climb all over our laps, attempting to stand on our legs, our stomachs even.

Still, after months of thinking it would be any day now, you are still, STILL not really walking. You have taken a few steps, up to maybe three or four at once, even, but you always catch yourself and drop back to crawling. For once, I checked the archives. Milo walked at 11 months and 3 days. Really walked. None of this "a few steps here, a few there" thing. I'm sure he crawled after that still, but I even have video proof that he had taken off by 11 months and 1 week. Not that these Two Completely Different People ought to reach their milestones at the same time. It's just that I was completely convinced that you were going to walk by eight months, and here we are at eleven.

You're wearing 18-month clothes and they're not even big on you anymore. You're in size four diapers. I don't know how much you weigh, but you're getting heavy to carry around for too long. Especially since you are always curious about what's going on below, and you lean over to get a better view, making my arms and back work that much harder.

Your hair is amazing, as always. It is starting to lay down more on top, though the back of the top sticks up as usual. Your hair is also getting thicker and really covering your scalp. Still not enough hair to stick a barrette in or anything. Let's not get crazy.

You do not like to have your nails trimmed. Unless you're extremely distracted by something, like the TV or your brother, you twist and writhe and scream and shake your hands around when the clippers come out. Sigh.

In general, you shriek a lot more than I remember Milo doing. You express yourself verbally and loudly. You know quite a few words: Mama, Daddy, no, kitty, Milo, all done (sign language), more (sign language), hi, byebye. You blow kisses. You say "mmmuh" and lean in for real kisses. You wave. You give high fives. You hug. You understand "no no," "no touch," and lots and lots of other things. (You don't like to be told no, of course.)

You smile when smiled at. You start to laugh when you see us laughing, even if you don't know what's funny. You love being upside-down and being tossed in the air (thrown while right-side-up of course).

You adore Tara, our nanny, and for this I am grateful. It does make Mommy a little sad, though, when you reach out your arms for Tara while I'm holding you. I like to think you just know that this is the transition time so you're trying to make it easier for all of us.

Sometimes you hit things for no good reason I can see. Sometimes those things are our faces. Sometimes it is your own head. Sometimes it's the table or a toy. And you hit hard. It definitely hurts when you whack me in the head.

You got a monkeys-in-a-barrel sort of toy for Christmas and you adore those little plastic monkeys. You also like the babies that came with a dollhouse we inherited. And a light-up, singing remote control is also popular. Mostly though, you don't seem crazy about any particular toy so much as you are crazy about attention. You don't like to be set down. You want to be carried around. You want to be played with. You want to chase Milo and play with him. You want us to play peekaboo and tickle you. And that is all fine by me. Unless I am trying to cook dinner.

You like petting Zadie. Thankfully, Zadie is very nice to you.

You're sweet, sometimes laying your head down on my shoulder just for a snuggle or a hug. You're funny, and I love laughing with you. You're maddening, too, as well as demanding, persistent, and loud. But I wouldn't change a single thing. Except your wake-up time, maybe (definitely). 5:45 is still too early, even though it's an improvement over 5:15. But still. Give your tired parents a break.

Being upside-down is the best.

Andrew tried again later to take Olive's picture because we didn't think we had gotten any great shots. She was tired. Big difference between a wide-awake happy girl and a very sleepy girl, huh?

Very Amelia Bedelia

We went out to dinner the other night. Andrew and I had just gotten our much-appreciated beer, and Andrew suggested a toast. He and I held up our glasses to clink.

"Do you want to toast with us, Milo?" asked Andrew.

Milo glanced at him, then picked up his toasted bread.

I'll drink to that. Cheers.

One of these things is not like the others...