Monday, July 30, 2012

14 months

Our girl is now a sturdy little walk-runner everywhere she goes.  She loves to play outside always, now that she can hoof it through the grass and carry things around with her on the go. All of this walking, crawling, carrying, climbing has made her sweet little baby rolls almost disappear.  Also, she is obsessed with stairs.  She likes to go up and down, up and down.  At home we can just put a gate at the bottom when we are downstairs, but at other peoples' houses if there isn't something else to distract her, either Jack or I have to resign ourself to stair duty; 'cause girl might be a climber but her skill doesn't yet match her ambition, and close supervision would result in a gnarly tumble while trying to climb down.  She knows she isn't supposed to go up the stairs without one of us with her, so she will usually sit on the second step and yell for us before continuing up.

She is still a good eater and is willing to have a variety of whatever at meals, but her actual appetite has gone waaaaay down.  So much so that it worried me for a bit until I looked it up and read that a baby triples it's weight in the first year, but only gains a third of it's weight in the second year so a decrease in appetite is normal.  I still have a little panic moment every time I notice how skinny she is getting because it means she is growing up.  This month her favorite foods are: crab, yogurt, grapes, cinnamon Chex in milk, and zucchini.

She loves to push things: shopping carts, strollers, lawn mowers (toy lawn mowers), laundry baskets, trash cans, etc. and if there is a container to be found, she is right there filling it and emptying it.

She also loves gum and can chew it without swallowing.  If she ever has something in her mouth that she shouldn't, as soon as I ask her to spit it out she will do so.

She can understand a lot of what we are saying and is very good to mind when we ask her to do or not to do something.  The two things she has a hard time staying away from are the buttons on the DVD player, and the bar of soap in the tub.  She will usually laugh as she gets close to these two things because she knows she is being naughty.

Olivia is very quick to learn things, and usually only has to watch me do something once before she catches on.  The other day I was going through about a dozen of her Little People toys and noticed that a couple of them had water in them from her bath.  When I got to one with water, I would shake it to get the water out.  I hadn't noticed that she was even watching me but once I was done, she came and sat by me and then went through and picked up each of the Little People as I had done.  She remembered exactly which ones I had shaken and she would shake them too, but not the ones I hadn't.  This morning, almost 5 days later, I watched as she did it again.  She went through and shook those same ones, even though the water is gone now.  I wonder what she thinks the purpose is, or if it is just a game she thinks we play with the Little People.

We got her a small stroller today to push her dollies in, and she got so frustrated when it wouldn't go the way she wanted it to that she threw a massive tantrum.  She was so angry and worked up that she wouldn't let me hold her or nurse her and got to the point where even touching the stroller would cause her to get mad and throw herself on the ground, screaming.  If round two with the stroller causes the same reaction, we'll probably just take it back.  My mom says I used to have the same reactions to things so I'm not too worried.  We'll put the anger management classes on hold for now ;)

Olivia is terrible in church.  Like really, really awful.  It is hard for her to see other babies or little kids and not go play with them in Sacrament meeting or Sunday school, and by Relief Society it is nap time and she has hit a wall.  Jack used to be able to take her to Priesthood and then home early for a nap so I could enjoy RS in peace, but he got called to be a Primary teacher (the CTR 7 class) so I've got Liv all to myself for the last two hours of church.  We usually spend them walking around in the hallway or outside the building.  Two weeks ago I gave in and turned on Tigger and Pooh on my iphone in RS to keep her calm.  I'm sure everyone judged me, but at least I was able to hear some of the lesson.  Needless to say, my church attendance has seen better days. I don't even feel bad.  Only four more months 'til nursery!!! :)

Jack keeps a travel bag with toiletries in it under the sink upstairs.  Last week I followed Olivia up the stairs and watched her pull the bag into the hallway.  She then proceeded to pull each item out and 'use' it.  She rubbed the chapstick lid on her mouth, brushed her two bottom teeth with his toothbrush, rubbed his deodorant on the front of her little armpits, and rubbed the little bottle of hairspray on top of her head.  I didn't even know she had noticed us using these things, but apparently she had taken note of what each thing did.  It was pretty amazing.

She added "Hi" to her arsenal of words and can now give fives and wave bye bye.  I should teach her more hand gestures since she catches on so fast, but she is very selective about doing them for other people so I'm not too motivated.

Olivia is super sweet and affectionate with us and with other kids.  She likes to hug and 'hold' other babies and readily shares whatever she has.  When she is eating, she makes sure she gives mom and dad a taste, and she will usually share her toys with other kids without being prompted.  If she is holding back, all I have to do is ask her and she will hold out the toy for the other child.  She has such a sweet little spirit.
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