Social Interaction at 18 months

Lately I've been able to watch as Olivia really develops socially. This is a hilarious process.

A few months ago, she would play around kids, through kids, and next to kids, but play time was her own thing. Next she started noticing kids her own size, and just watching them. This meant for a few weeks every time we went to the park she would pretty much just wander around staring at others, not really playing at all.

The next few steps all happened around the same time, but led to me realizing I should step in a little more when I caught her kissing a little boy in the mall play area today! She usually "meets" someone by walking up as close as she can get, totally in their personal space, and not saying anything. After the other person makes the next move, she considers them friends, and quickly points to me and yells "MOM". I take this to mean she is very advanced and already introducing me to all of her new friends :).

She loves to give hugs, but isn't a huge fan of receiving them. She also recently started kissing other people. I watch this pretty carefully, mostly to make sure that the other moms are okay with how close she is getting. She has only kissed a few kids, but today the little boy was actively involved in the kissing as well!

She still spends most of her time in her own world when we are with other kids, but it's so fun to see her interest in other kids, both older and younger, and how she chooses to react when they are friendly, mean, or anything else. Just another fun moment as a parent.

18 months!

Skipping forward just a bit, because I want to write this post while it's still fresh.

On April 28, Olivia celebrated her 18 month birthday! Okay, so we didn't celebrate per se (in fact that is the day that Alex and I left her with cousins for the night so we could get away...stories later), but she did officially turn 1 1/2. It's crazy to me to see her grow up so fast, and I wanted to jot down some stats and milestones, as well as share her 18 month pictures.

I know I'm totally biased, but Olivia is just a beautiful girl. She has such a fun smile and shares it with us often - though it's getting to be a "guilty" smile more often than not! I'm constantly amazed by her big blue eyes...we may never know where she got them, but they are stunning. As of the 18 month mark, she officially has 12 teeth (8 in front and 4 molars). She measures in at a not-so-whopping 22 lb 0 oz (about 18th %ile), and is just short of 34 inches tall (88th %ile).

Olivia has many favorite activities, my favorite of which is reading. She has a whole shelf of children's books, and will sit in front of it for up to 40 minutes pulling off one book at a time, flipping through it - all the while talking excitedly (and sometimes quite loudly) about what she sees - and then pulling off then next. When I come in after a while she is usually buried in books, which completely cover her legs and are usually all open a random page. We are still working on the skill of putting books back on the shelf!

However, that being said, Olivia is a great helper. One of her favorite things to do is put stuff in the garbage can, sometimes even bringing something up to me asking if she can throw it away. We will have to watch the day that she learns how to click the can open by herself, as I'm sure I'll find lots of fun things in there! She is also great at helping mom and dad clean up her toys and books, as has started picking up her mom's knack for organization. She is quite particular about how her stuffed animals are placed, though it only takes moments for her to jump into the pile, effectively disregarding all of her work :). I'm sure in a few years she will pick up more of my tendencies, hopefully they are all as helpful as toy organization!

Olivia loves playing with other kids. Lately she has taken to running right up into some other kid's personal space, getting about one inch away, but never touching them. In fact, one little girl hugged her after she came right up, and Olivia seemed quite put out by it. She and I both enjoy the gym, because she gets to play with a whole bunch of other kids, and I get a little bit of mom time in the middle of my day. She also has a lot of fun at the park, and we are anxious to be back in Oregon where it's not too hot to stay for more than 10 minutes!

P.S. This next picture is my favorite!

Olivia is very excited for her baby brother (to arrive in August). She points out babies everywhere we go, and is quick to pull up my shirt to show off her baby at all of the most convenient times :). She shows off her own belly as well, but that doesn't seem quite so inappropriate! At home, she loves to give the baby hugs and kisses, which inevitably ends with her blowing raspberries on my stomach until I make her stop. She loves that she can make such a funny sound, and I enjoy feeling the baby kick in response to his sister's love. I can't wait to see how they interact together, and know she will be a great big sister.

She has become quite a talker recently, and has a whole bunch of words that she uses all the time. Besides any and all animal noises, she says:

Up please, More please, *insert anything here* please - 'mu muuuuuhhhhh'
Dada
Mama
Names of many relatives (grandma, grandpa, Ashley, Andy, Amber, Maely, Kade, Elli, Teag, Amelia, and more...these are just the most common) - she always wants to sit at the computer and go through pictures of everyone with me pointing out who they are, then she repeats the name back to me

Okay so my memory is failing, but she says all sorts of other things as well. The funniest is whenever she is in protest of anything. She waves her hands in front of her and yells "whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa" very fast. The first couple times she did it Alex and I just couldn't stop laughing, but it does get her message across!

She's a very active girl, running around most places, and she loves to jump. Her toes are yet to leave the ground when she jumps, but she gets plenty of bounce! She also climbs. Anywhere she wants to get, she finds a way (I swear nothing can prepare you for coming out of the back room to find your baby standing on the kitchen counter rummaging through the cupboard!). It's fun to see her little personality developk, and to see how she learns to express herself. I'm sure in 10 years I'll be wishing I hadn't said this, but right now it's a blast.

Overall, she's just my happy girl. It seems like we've had her forever, and at the same time this last year and a half has gone faster than any in my life. Our little monkey is growing up way too fast, and is teaching us every day. She is a huge blessing in Alex's and my life, I couldn't imagine it without her. It's hard to stop calling her my baby girl, but she is a total kid now, and loving every minute of it.

Vegas, Baby!

As part of our tradition of one major trip per month, we spent the second week of March in Las Vegas on a "business trip". Here are the stories including and surrounding that week, from the first half of March.

One of my big aspirations as a mother is to cook and bake with my children. Neither of these skills come naturally to me, and I don't particularly enjoy even eating baked goods, so I will really have to work on this in the future. As of yet, Olivia isn't a huge help in the kitchen. Her natural reaction to anything in a bowl or container is to grab it and spread it around the floor (yes this goes for toys and clothes as well), so when I try to have her help me add ingredients it usually ends up in funny tasting food and lots of mess to clean up. However, she loved using the cookie cutters to cut shapes out of sugar cookie dough, and once they were baked and cooled, she loved frosting them even more. Here is a collage of frosting pictures :)

Yes I let her use a baby knife to frost with, and didn't stop her from licking it...I wasn't about to stop one of her first genuine times being interested in silverware!

Now on to Vegas the next week. Alex was in charge of Fresno State's ticketing for the WAC Basketball Tournament at The Orleans Hotel. So for him, this was a work trip, and included working basketball games, coordinating with the teams for ticketing needs, and going to various meetings for the WAC. Olivia and I, however, decided to go along for the fun in Vegas, and Mary and Gary met us there for  some adventures. We learned that Vegas is very different with a toddler, and we were limited to the Orleans most of the time because of Alex's responsibilities, so we did a lot less than I thought we would, but we still had a great time, and I'd take kids again in a heartbeat.

Our travel experience getting to Vegas was the worst of my life so far. Alex had a free ride on the team bus (about a six hour drive), so we decided just to buy me a ticket and I would fly with Olivia. At this point I was 17 weeks along, and didn't really think anything could go wrong with a short 45 minute flight to Vegas. Boy was I mistaken! When we woke up the morning of March 6th, it was pretty windy. Alex had to be at work around 9, and the bus left around 10:30, and he said the wind was affecting his driving, but it was still drivable. We didn't fly out until two, so I didn't really think anything of it. Sometime during the morning I looked at our weather report, and saw that we had a severe wind warning all day and through the night, but I still figured I was safe to get to the airport, and that was the end of my travel responsibilities. Everything good so far. We got to the airport, I managed to wheel the suitcase, carryon, and stroller into the airport, and we got all settled in the terminal. Olivia took a very short nap, and I knew she would be a little grumpy, but she woke up just as we were boarding, so all was good. We had to walk out into the elements to board the plane, and I had to walk all the way around the terminal because I couldn't do stairs. I was barely able to push the stroller in the wind, and was very surprised when about halfway through the walk my escort told us to stop and just listened into his earpiece. We were standing under a plane that I could only imagine was about to take off, and I was just standing with my baby in this crazy wind! After a minute he explained that our plane was being deboarded, and we needed to go inside for more information...At this point I was getting grumpy. We went inside, waited for all the rest of the passengers, then learned that we had a 45 minute delay because the wind in Vegas was causing a total ground stop. Alright, I could handle a 45 minute delay, I just grabbed out a couple toys and got to work entertaining Olivia. I didn't want to wander too far from the gate, just in case they decided to board after all, but Olivia only wanted to run, so we ended up doing laps around the terminal while we waited. After a little more than an hour we heard another anouncement...our flight was cancelled. This has never happened to me before, and I didn't really know what was expected, they didn't say anything about getting us to Vegas or anything like that. I went up to join the line at the counter, and was very glad I did so quickly, because I ended up getting the last seat on the next plane, which left in about 3 hours.

Alright...I couldn't get a hold of Alex, who was expecting us at the hotel before he got there, and now had the dilemma of whether or not to wait at the airport for three hours when home is about 15 minutes away. I decided to go home for a while, just for the fact that I could let Olivia play and make messes and I could rest. We had already been in the terminal for over 2 hours, and I didn't feel like sitting there any longer anyway. So we went home, I rested while Olivia trashed the toy room (aka living room :)), and we changed into cold weather clothes (now I'm wondering if I packed right, but our luggage was already checked, and it was too late to fix it, so that was worrying for nothing). After way too short of a respite, we headed back to the airport. We parked, made our way back inside (me barely keeping control of the stroller in the wind), and back through security. We immediately learned that we had another delay, and my mind is now debating if we should just trash the whole idea. I could stay home for the four days with Olivia and not bother with the stress of getting there, but I really wanted the break, and to hang out with the Casqueiros, so we pushed on. After another 45 minutes of waiting, we boarded the plane. I found out that I was seated in the first row (of a tiny airplane with no room whatsoever), and the stewardess told me I couldn't have anything (including my purse) at my feet. This set me over the edge. I fought back tears as I explained that I didn't know if my toddler could make it through the flight without some entertainment, and as the flight was full, I couldn't place her book or baby or snacks on the seat next to me. There just wasn't any way I could hold all of that for the whole flight. I asked her to move me, and she said she couldn't. I just started crying. I sat down, grabbed everything from my bag that I could manage to hold, and waited for takeoff. Then the worst thing I could imagine at the moment happened. A stewardess boarded the plane and explained that because they were unsure that they would be able to land in Vegas (still super windy), they had to take extra fuel, and four people needed to get off the plane. She offered credit and explained that those four people would fly to SF, and be in Vegas by midnight. No one volunteered. She then explained that she had a list in her hand of four people that she would choose if no one volunteered. I looked over (I was in the first row so I could totally see it), and saw my name was the third on the list. AAAHHH!! Would this awful travel day ever end! I couldn't imagine boarding a plane for SF, with absolutely no guarantee of getting to Vegas any time soon. I didn't really care about the flight credit, I just wanted to get to Vegas and rest. Alex at this point had checked into the hotel and promised me he would meet me at security of the airport so he could take Olivia and all the stuff. I just waited as one by one, people volunteered to get off the plane. I was so grateful for them, I couldn't even say anything as I sat there choking back tears. Yes it's silly to cry over all of this, but it was one of those days, and I'll blame pregnancy hormones.

After the four people left, they shut the door and the stewardess began shuffling people for the best weight on the plane. At this point, there was a wonderful couple behind me who saw me struggling to keep Olivia on my lap and asked the stewardess if they could sit in the front row and let me sit behind so I could bring my bag back down. She agreed (hesitantly), and I was SO grateful! It was getting later (I think around 8) and Olivia was more and more tired and grumpy. Just being able to bring my bag down allowed me the room to have her toys and books to keep her entertained, and the woman who was now sitting in front of us even held Olivia for a minute so that I could get situated. She was the "grandma of the day" and she will never know the impact she made on my evening. We commenced the flight, which ended up being just over an hour of the craziest turbulence I have ever experienced. Olivia loved it (she is SO ready for Disneyland again!), and I managed not to puke, and finally we could see the Vegas lights and I knew we were close. We circled the airport a few times, getting lower and lower, then suddenly pulled up and I was terrified that we would have to land somewhere else, but I guess we just had to wait for our turn to land, because sure enough we got to Vegas in one piece, after only 8 hours!

There's not much else to say about that day...We went to the hotel room, I went to bed, and Alex stayed up until Olivia was settled. I was very happy to wake up the next morning with my little family all in one place, and was excited to have some sinless fun in the City of Sin.

I love these pictures of Olivia playing with her grandparents. She had a blast playing and being in charge, and was glad to get away from her mom for a majority of the trip.

We watched a lot of basketball during the week, at least part of 4 different games. I can't imagine this was very exciting for Olivia, but she did remarkably well. Her favorite part of the games by far was the Bulldog mascot. Her eyes followed him everywhere, and she was very excited to meet him in person. Very excited, that is, until we got close and she discovered how big he was :). You can't tell from the pictures, but she had a super tight grip on me and was leaning into my body the entire time. She touched him for maybe 1/8 of a second before she was ready to go back to our seats, but she still watched him for the rest of the week, and it kept her more content to sit in a seat than I thought she would be.

On Friday we had a free afternoon (Alex's game was in the morning), so we hit up the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. It was very fun (and hot!) inside this indoor aquarium, and we all had fun reading about and seeing the different exotic animals. Mary even got to see her favorite animal ever, the komodo dragon (fuzzy picture...oops)

Olivia was more into people watching than the animals, but that's the norm for her.

Not at all interested in touching the sting ray, but I think that had more to do with the fact that she had to lay on her stomach and reach in, because other times she is more than anxious to splash around in the water!

That night we enjoyed a fabulous Vegas buffet for dinner (I think at Mandalay Bay, but don't quote me on that). We all had our fill (to say the least), but Olivia's favorite part was the coconut cream cake that she got to eat all by herself!

Watching some cartoons in the room while I got ready...not really sure why she's hiding, I think she was watching Curious George.

Some exploring on the strip on our last afternoon in Vegas...We had fun in the M&M store, but Olivia wasn't at all willing to stop for picture opportunities...too much so see and do!

When we got back from Vegas, we tried to get back into our routine of going to the gym, the park and playing at home. I know that these toddler years go fast, but I'll be the first to admit that finding out ways to entertain a toddler all day and trying to mix it up with new activities makes each individual day go quite slowly :). But we do our best, and I love that I get to spend every day discovering the tiny advances that together make great growth each week and month in Olivia's life.

Here she is 'getting her swoll on' with my weights, I think this one is like two pounds, but it's quite heavy for her, and I love watching her struggle to do exercises with me when I work out or stretch at home.

 Mmmm....just a yummy lunch that I made one day. Most days are sandwiches, quesadillas, or macaroni, so this lunch of French Dips and fresh fruit made me quite proud.

And just a couple cute pictures of Olivia taking her baby for a walk. We go on walks around the apartment complex often (basically whenever I need to get out of the house but don't want to do the prep work of actually going anywhere), and it's always fun to see what she chooses to bring with her. Some days she just stands by the door and waits for me, but others she grabs a ball (meaning she wants to go to the tennis court and play), or her baby stroller to push around. I love seeing how she chooses to express herself and get her desires known even when her vocabulary is quite limited.