It's obscene how
long its been since I've been on here regularly, giving updates about the
little snuglets. But I guess there is no
better time than now to get back into it a groove. Let's hope this can stick…
Livvy turned four
this week, and well, sometimes four seems just as difficult as two. And sometimes, she seems as old as
eight. Olivia wanted a Peppa Pig themed
birthday party, and when mom realized how little Peppa stuff was available in
town, in Fargo, and on the internet.
Well, let's be honest, I could source anything on the internet - if A) I
was willing to pay an arm and a leg for it, and B) Mom had planned more than
two weeks to source said items, when they would have had to arrive from England
or Australia! But I digress… so, when I
realized how tricky it would be to source items, I tried to negotiate a
change. I brought it up a few times at
home, and even took her to the party aisle in Walmart and asked if there was
something else she fancied (there's some British Peppa edging into even a
chance to change her mind!). She looked
around and said, "No, I really want a Peppa Party". I do love that she is so strong in her
convictions. Well, generally speaking,
but not in a daily tactical "let's get ourselves out of the house sort of
way".
If you give Olivia
an inch, she will take a mile.
If you teach Olivia
to fish, she'll smile pleasantly and tell you about how much she loves you, or
may she'll scream at you and throw a fit about how she never wants to learn
anything ever.
She is smart,
brilliant, humorous, adventurous, nurturing, active, and thoughtful.
And, sometimes, she
is just a terror. And the backtalk. and the whining. and the try for trantrums.
She clearly keeps us
on our toes…
One thing she has
been doing quite a bit lately is coming out of her room after she's been going
to sleep for a little bit, and say "I just wanted to tell you I am going
to have a dream about loving you". Well,
isn't that precious. Now, um. Go. Back. To. Bed.
She is amazing with
Lincoln, and as you can expect from all the above notation, sometimes she
isn't.
Olivia is currently
taking a six week Spanish Pre-school course.
She's adorable in it. I want her
to have more opportunities for language learning than I did when I was young. Starting in High School just doesn't work.
She took a Park and
Rec class for Strider bike. But we still
need to get her some swim lessons; we heard the park and rec ones weren't that
great, so we are hoping to get some time for her and a friend of ours who has
previously taught swimming lessons - one on one might be a good thing for her.
At home she likes to
do artist stuff (painting/drawing/coloring/collage stuff) or play games with
mom or dad. She has just recently
started to play more in her room and be more motherly with her dolls, etc. She also likes playing with her brother, well, maybe not, but kind of. Lately, they do a lot of rough housing and wrestling with each other. Sometimes, she will read Lincoln books; she has a few of the Sandra Boyton books memorized and does a great job of reading through them, along with a few of our other regular books.
She's always talked
about grandpa Kevin, and she reminisces… but regularly, she has been giving me
some really tough ones, really drilling me about why he can't come back.. And
why did he have to die. And the hardest
one, "I just want to get a hug from him". Oofta..
That's hard. Then she followed it
with touching her heart, and saying "but he's always with me, right
mom". We've obviously talked about
this, but it doesn't make it any less breathtaking to hear her process it like
that. Her connection to him is pretty
strong, considering she was 22 months when he passed away.
She is pretty sharp
with observations and draws parallels to things you wouldn't expect. When talking about Grandpa Kevin's death, she
often asks why and we say because he was sick, his body wasn't healthy anymore, and so his soul got to be taken to
heaven. So, in an unrelated conversation
at a completely different time, she was
asking why I was working out (which she probably hadn't seen me do before in
such a direct fashion). I told her that
I was trying to get fit. And she said
"why do you want to get fit", and I said, because mommy wants to be
healthy and lose 'this stomach'. Later,
by about 3-4 days, she told my friend who was over for dinner "Mommy's
getting fit, she is trying to get rid of her big tummy so she can be healthy,
so she won't die". -okay, not
exactly what I said… but I can see how she's putting all of it together. Those wheels are turning in that little mind
of hers!
As far as eating,
she has her favorites: Mac and Cheese,
first and foremost. I think she would
eat that every night if she could. She likes peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches, A LOT. She is mostly
refusing all fruits and vegetables when offered or put on her plate, with the
exception of: avocadoes, cantaloupe and cucumbers.
Strawberries but only if I include powdered sugar on them, and then
sometimes still not. Even grapes have
been off the table for her lately; until I coated them with whipped cream. Honestly.
Oh, and cheese, she will eat all kinds of cheese. As far as dinner, she asks for stroganoff
quite a bit… and occasionally she wants beef and beans.
I love it when Olivia comes in from outside right now, as she generally brings me some 'flowers' (those little dandelion type ones) - and she's always very excited to give them to me and tells me we have to keep them alive. She also uses some hilarious terminology right now - she will say "I've had this for a thousant years" or "I've done this for a million days".
Back to her memory…
as it continues to amaze us as parents... she also has a really good recollection of lyrics. She loves listening to music, and she
regularly asks for specific songs. When
we are listening to the radio she always wants to know what the name of the
song is. She did a good job at
pre-school this year for remembering the words for all the songs she had to
learn. She likes to sing several of them
still.
I just laid her down
for a nap and she said "Mommy remember that time when you laid me down for
bed time, and after you left the room I was feeling something under my
shoulder, and I felt it and it was your earring, so I brought it out to
you" - that happened last winter, and we really hadn't talked about it
since. You have to be careful in front
of this one! ;-)
Olivia, you are so
much work sometimes, but you are full of love and you have an absolutely great
spirit. You make us very proud, and we
can't wait to see how much you grow in the next year!!
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