It's finally happened...

I knew it was inevitable, I knew it would happen, well tonight was the night--my child has pooped in the tub. What's funny about the entire ordeal is that Olivia totally told me that it was about to happen, I just wasn't listening. First of all Olivia kept trying to stand up. She knows that she's not allowed to stand in the tub. She knows it so well that by this point the only time she ever stands up is when she's ready to climb out of the tub. Well tonight she kept trying to stand up and when I told her to sit down she would shake her head and say "boo boo." At this point Olivia is making new sounds every day so I didn't think anything of it when she said "boo boo". I thought she was just babbling. Then she did it again but this time it was very clearly "poo boo". I still didn't get it. I asked her if she was talking about "poo boo" her new book and I told her we'd read it when she got out of the tub. Finally she just shook her head again then she squatted in the tub and went "poo boo". Well that's certainly one way to tell me what she was trying to say. I responded with oh, you were saying poo poo to which Olivia very clearly replied, "ess" her word for yes.
How could you possibly be mad about that. The child told me she was going to go! Don't worry, I did not take pictures of this precious event but I just had to share.

Two Year Old Check-up

I still can't believe that Olivia is really two years old. We just finished up with her 2 year check up. Olivia weighs a whopping 33 lbs and is almost 36 inches tall. That puts her in the 90th percentile for height and the 65th percentile for weight. Olivia identified most of her body parts correctly for the doctor today, she did experience a moment of confusion when asked where her tummy was (we use the word belly). When the doctor asked where her belly was she promptly walked over to me and showed the doctor my growing belly, lifting up the shirt and all. Olivia did have to get one shot today, it was a quick one so there were only a few tears and as I carried Olivia out of the room she looked over my shoulder to the nurse and gave her a loud and tearful "bye". It was hilarious.

I love being the mom of a two year old! I feel like my life has turned into an elaborate game of diplomacy, toddler diplomacy that is. Olivia loves going to the doctor's office, they have a really neat playhouse in the waiting room. Of course they called Olivia's name right after she'd started playing so she didn't want to go. I tried coaxing her out of the little house using every bribe I could think of (you can have a snack, some juice, etc) and she wasn't having it. Finally I went over to the window of the house and said can you climb out the window, it's time to go and out she came, all on her own, no bribe necessary! At the end of the appointment I was trying to load Olivia into the stroller to make the trek back to the car but of course Olivia did not want to be buckled into her stroller. I told her she could walk like a big girl, congratulating myself on my flexibility, but no she refused to walk. Olivia wanted to push the stroller all on her own so that's what we did. She put the diaper bag into the stroller and proudly pushed the stroller all the way to the car. I really am loving being the mom of an independent little two year old but sometimes I wonder....should I be more strict? I keep going back and forth on this issue. I feel like I'm letting her win the small battles now about the things that don't really matter but am I actually setting myself up to fail later on? Does it matter? Today it doesn't seem to matter that Olivia didn't want to come out of the playhouse when I told her it was time to go, I find it amusing that she was willing to climb out the window, but should I be more concerned that I told her it was time to go and she didn't listen to me right away? I'd love to hear what you think!

More cell phone pictures....

To continue last week's post on pictures taken with my cell phone I have these to share today. Olivia's first taste of cotton candy. These were taken at the Puyallup Fair shortly after we moved to Washington. The Puyallup Fair is a huge fair held here every September. I can't believe that they started advertising for the fair this year, that means we've lived here an entire year! Why do I feel like I'm still learning my way around?

Speech Therapy Progress

So Olivia has been going to speech for a little over 3 months now and she's made tremendous progress. I just have to stop and share some of the highlights with you. When Olivia started speech in April she was 21 months old and she consistently made one sound, "da". She expressed happiness with the word "da" and anger with the word "da". She would make sentences with the word da, "Da daaa dadadddda". She would stand there talking with her hands and point to things and tell stories, all with the singular sound "da".

In just 3 short months Olivia now mimics a multitude of words some of which include: mama, dadda, ball, apple, down, up, off, on, open, hi, bye, goodbye, carry, up, down, duck, book, more, bath, bubbles. And just last night purple and pig were added to her list. She has added many more baby signs to her vocabulary and she's combining signs with words to make sentences and tell stories.

None of this process has been easy but it's been such an experience for us to grow as a family. I have more respect for Olivia and the progress she's made. I have come to love and appreciate my husband in a new way when I see how patient and understanding he is with our little girl. I have more confidence in myself as I've learned to be a more patient mom. I am so thankful to have found such a great speech therapist that was able to start working with Olivia right away. I am thankful that the doctors and pediatricians we've seen so far have been receptive and understanding about my concerns with Olivia's speech development. So stay tuned, I'm confident Olivia will be talking up a storm one day!