Time is Flying by at 16 months

Olivia is growing up way too fast! She is 16 months today! Olivia is definitely into toddlerhood- the tantrums and today I even thought of it as Jekyll and Hydish.  One minute happy and playing and the next crying.  Olivia has gotten a little clingy sometimes and will run to our legs and throw her arms around them and if we don't pick her up then the crying starts.  She is very curious and loves to empty things and put them back where they came from.  She loves to clean up! This girls loves to help with the dishwasher and laundry! She loves her shape sorters and puzzles!

Olivia's speech has really taken off...lots of words.  Sometimes I think she likes to test us or else she is mimicking us when we ask her, "What's this?" Some of her favorite words are owl, airplane, apple, flower, water, dog, mama, daddy (also every male she sees she says daddy too), fish, and dirty.  Some of the more difficult words that she can say are octopus, lawnmower, watermelon, baseball. and animal.  It is so funny how she picks up on words.  She even says, "apple tree" when I pull out of the driveway.

Olivia is starting to like some fruits even though I still puree some stuff for her.  She likes apples, bananas, watermelon (sometimes), and today she ate 2 grapes (cut into tiny pieces).  Olivia LOVES her veggies though...this girl can throw down some peas and green beans! She also loves squash (yellow and acorn) and zucchini.

I think my main concern is her teeth at the moment.  She still only has 6! I have done lots of reading and lots of people say that it is ok.  I even spoke to my dentist about it.  She said not to be concerned until she is 2.  So from now until then those teeth better start popping through...even though teething is not the most fun.  I have given up on using teething as an excuse for when she is cranky.

Today Brendon was in the kitchen for a long time...her made apple sauce and apple butter.  He canned both of them- Olivia wanted no part in helping! It was kind of rainy off and on today.  We cut the grass quickly and made it to church.  Olivia was SUPER GOOD at church.  The best she has been in a long time.  Then we came home and had dinner and watched some baseball!

Applesauce!

Preserving the apple butter

Trying to get a good picture of a 16 month old is rather difficult!

Apple Picking

Shortly after we moved into our house we ordered some trees from the Arbor Foundation.  At the end of the driveway we planted 2 flowering crab trees.  They have really grown over the years and finally 2 years ago my mom noticed that there were apples on them. So we kind of just left them on the trees the past 2 years because we weren't really sure what to do with them, and Brendon ate a few last year.  We have planted other apple trees like Red Delicious and Granny Smith because we like those kinds of apples.  Well this year we have tons of crab apples.  Brendon found out that you can eat them.  Finally today Brendon decided to pick the trees.  I brought out Olivia to "help" pick apples.  She had no interest in pulling them off the tree.  What she did enjoy is putting the apples from one container to another.  She was quite entertained with that.  Brendon decided to stop picking once the bees started trying to attack him.  It seemed the higher he picked the worse the bees got and would chase him around the yard...literally.  Now we have a bunch for apple sauce which we are going to try to make tomorrow. 

Checking out the apples

Brendon trying to convince Olivia to pick them off the tree

I like these apples

What Brendon picked today...and yes there are still more on the tree!

Kindermusik, Lunch, and Pretend Play

We had quite a busy day today! First we went to Kindermusik and pretended we were at the farm! So much fun!! Then we had the worst ride home....cried almost the entire ride.  I cried when I got home because it really just wants to make you cry because they are crying.  Then we went to our old neighbor Susan's house for lunch.  Olivia was pretty good.  She played a little and then ate a little bit of lunch.  Susan made such a yummy lunch! We love her new house, especially her basement, but miss her as a neighbor! It was nice to visit her though! After that we came home and Olivia napped but woke up in the worst mood.  She cried and cried for about 20 minutes.  I didn't see anything wrong with her though...I guess she just woke up on the wrong side of the crib.  She ate a decent dinner and then played.  She has started doing pretend play.  Tonight she played with her baby about 20 minutes.  She put the baby in the stroller and took her for a walk.  Then I told her the baby might be hungry and need a snack.  Olivia went over to her pretend food and picked out some grapes (which ironically she ate a little bit of some for lunch!).  She then tried to feed the baby grapes and was talking to her.  It was so cute.  I have never seen her so engaged in her baby and taking care of her.  She would even take the baby out of the stroller and then tell the baby to sit and would place her in the stroller. I guess she was saying that because we say that when we put her in the stroller.  Such a cute moment though to sit back and observe her pretend play.

Trying to feed baby grapes!

Talking to her baby

Taking her baby for a walk

Books, Shoes, Climbing, and Moving up to Level 4

Olivia just loves her books and her shoes.  Every night she has been taking her shoes out of the drawer (I guess I need a new hiding spot for them).  She is even trying to put her shoes on! After she takes her shoes out then she reads her books.  I think a good majority of the books she has memorized by now or at least recognizes them and makes correlations between picture and spoken word.  She often points to the pictures and says- dog, octopus, daddy, baby, teeth, eyes, duck, etc.  I am glad that she is making those connections already.

Climbing has started! Ahh.... 2 days in a row after her nap she is trying to climb out of the crib! Yikes!!! She puts her feet on the bars and pulls on the rail.  We are so not ready for this.  Also tonight she handed me back her toothbrush and wanted to climb up the cabinet! I do think we are ready for a step stool.  It will make life easier to wash hands and see herself. 

We are moving up to Level 4 at Gymboree! We are excited and sad.  Excited because we will be 16 months and running around like the others but sad to leave our class with friends.  Olivia even said, "Bo, bo" today for Gymbo! So cute!! She did great today at Gymboree and played with lots of musical instruments.  She banged some maracas on a drum and loved it.  She even threw a ball in the basketball hoop.  She is getting too big, too fast!!

Reading her books in the middle of all her shoes! Look at the stack of books behind her that she already looked at!

All done! Next book!

How to get your Toddler to Clean Up!

We had a fun trip to Wal-Mart this morning to pick up a few odds and ends.  Then we did lots of playing today.  It wasn't the best of weather today and it stormed REALLY bad this afternoon.  Miss Olivia slept through the whole storm!

So we did lots of inside activities today.  The focus of most of this post is cleaning up.  Olivia is messy.  Let's just face it- she doesn't realize what a tornado she is.  She goes from one toy, book, puzzle, etc. to another.  Most nights and days the house looks like it has been hit by a toddler tornado.  There are blocks and parts of toys all over.  We really have been working on her cleaning up after herself.  When she finishes playing with something we try to have her clean it up so it is not all over the place.  I must say she is getting better at it.  Yesterday when she finished her snack she walked the bowl all the way back to the kitchen by herself without being asked saying, "All done!" and trying to put the bowl on the counter.  Today she found a pad of sticky notes on the floor and without being asked opened the correct drawer they were in and put them away.  There is no trick, but some diligence in showing them and modeling a few times on how to put stuff away.  She loves to help with the dishwasher (only the safe items) and likes to put the laundry in the dryer when I hand it to her.  Olivia has also started cleaning up at places like Kindermusik and Gymboree.  We put the instruments or equipment where the teachers ask us to.  The thing about it there is no reward when she does it.  Most of the time we tell her that she did a great job or that she is a good helper or a good girl for helping.  We sometimes give her a high 5 or a hug and a kiss for it.  Hopefully it will continue in the future!

Olivia the toddler tornado!

Messy bedroom!

All Clean! Olivia the super cleaner!

Change of Plans

This week we were supposed to be pretty busy with some things but all that changed.  First, Michelle and I went and walked/ran early this morning since I was supposed to meet Malissa t 8:00 to work in our classroom.  We did our miles and I made it to school.  Then I saw the sign about waxing the floors....oh no! So Malissa and I could not work in our room today... we were sad! We decided to have a play date instead.  I brought Olivia over to her house to play with Karson.  They played really well together.  I wish I brought the camera with me.  They were so cute.  We even had lunch there.  Olivia ate ok and tried a few grapes and watermelon.  Then we played outside for a few minutes then we new they were getting tired.  The cutest part when we left was Olivia gave hugs and kisses to Malissa, Karson 3 kisses, and Gus (their dog) a kiss.  So cute! After nap we had to stay inside since we had some rain again.  So we did some laundry, played, colored, and read lots of books! Tomorrow Olivia was supposed to stay with Susan for the morning but she is still out of town so we have another free morning tomorrow...our busy week went to not so busy anymore!

Finally figuring out her car and wanted to give her puppy a ride.

Then she wanted the cookie jar to go along too...which didn't work out to well.

Daddy and Olivia at Kindermusik last week!

Lots of playing Sunday

Today was a relaxing day.  We didn't have any plans this weekend.  It was kind of weird.  We did lots of playing both inside and out today.  She was not very content with just doing one activity though... it seemed like we played with every sing toy, puzzle, and read all her favorite books a gazillion times today.  Olivia played with her bubble mower a little today and Brendon caught a picture of her.  We went swimming and she ate a great dinner!

Forgot to mention this yesterday but Olivia played with her phone yesterday.  Not the cell phone type of phone but the Fisher Price play Rotary phone.  I am sure she will never see or use a rotary phone in her lifetime.  But I made it ring by dialing it and she picked it up and said hello.  It was hilarious and she did it twice! Brendon and I were cracking up!

Also our humming birds are back! Brendon really wants to try to get a great picture of them!

Lawnmower!

Just strolling

Hummingbird

Funny face that Karyn captured the other day!