Anneke & Olivia

Olivia is pretty generous with kisses and hugs. Here she shares a kiss with a (surprised) Annikke.

snips and snails and kitty cat tails

Yesterday Olivia was pestering a napping Ingrid (who, by the way, has been incredibly tolerant of O's attention, pats and hugs). Despite the cat's best attempts to remain asleep, Olivia kept picking up her tail and saying "tail!" over and over and over. After a few minutes of this, Olivia pointed to her own rear end and said "Tail." I laughed and told her that she didn't have a tail, but realized that without the benefit of being able to see for herself, she couldn't really know for sure. I told her it was her "butt." "Butt," she said, pointing to her butt. "Butt," she said again, pointing to the cat's rear. Someday we'll get all the relative physiologies figured out!

Little Helper

Olivia isn't crazy about the actual act or even idea of having her diaper changed -- she views it as an unnecessary interruption of her near perpetual motion. That is, until recently. Well, she still sees it as an irritating interruption, but there is some change in behavior. In the last few days when we wiggle a diaper in front of her, or say "time to change your pants," she walks over to the carpet in the living room (we don't use the changing table any longer), sits down and then carefully lays down. Maybe she's just realized that it's an activity that will be done regardless and she's decided to save her fight for other, more winnable fights? More evidence: She's taken to helping out on other odious tasks, too. For example, taking Ibuprofen. She hates the taste of it, but it really helps with her teething (4 molars!). She see's the syringe that we use to administer the meds, and she crabs a little. She used to run away, but now she'll run to me, crab briefly, swallow the medicine, and get up and run. It's a fake cry - just long and loud enough to let me know that she's not happy about the activity, but quickly complies. Where once there was breast feeding necessary to calm her, now it's just a slight grimace and off again to fun time.

Reggiano Parmesan

Tonight, while throwing together spaghetti and meatballs, Olivia was helping me cook. She was "washing" dishes, and splashing away in the sink. I was grating some Parmesan, and she stated grunting in the way that can only mean, "I want that." "Would you like some cheese?" "Shcheeeese?" I sliced her a bit and she grabbed it and quickly ate the whole chunk. She reached for the remainder of the wedge. Grunt, Grunt. I sliced her some more and she ate that, too. It's become obvious that her tastes are not limited -- except that she limits her taste for foods that cost more than $10 per pound. Next up, caviar.

Wuh-Wuh, Boo-boo, Barney

As the weather remained OK, we decided to get some exercise by taking a walk around the neighborhood. Olive spent the bulk of the walk in her stroller, but as we rounded the corner toward our house she wanted to walk. Once on the ground, she decided that she also wanted to walk the dog (wuh-wuh). So we handed her the leash and let her go at it.
It went well, until we hit some congestion on the sidewalk, Pilot got confused and ran a little and pulled Olive right off her feet. She hit the sidewalk with a splat. (I didn't take pictures -- as obsessive as I am, I do have a heart.) I rushed over, and Jenny and I picked up our little hysterical girl. She sobbed, cried, screamed, wailed with everything she had in her. Big Tears! We took her inside, and she remained inconsolable. We got a bowl of soapy water, band aids and the neosporin. She wouldn't let us look at her boo-boos. So we showed her boo-boos on our hands, and showed her how we washed them, and showed her how we put a band aid on. She just grew more hysterical. [JENNY'S NOTE: It should be stated that said booboos were in fact pretty nasty. Several layers of skin were grated off the knuckle of her thumb, resulting in a deep, pocked scab. And about a quarter of the fingernail on her ring finger got torn off. By no means life threatening, but man it must've hurt. It was, in fact, her first moderate wound.] So we just jumped in and washed her wounds, and bandaged her up while she wiggled and screamed.
Once we got the band aids on, we got the bright idea to turn on the TV. We switched the Tivo to an episode of Barney, and IMMEDIATELY when the theme song played, she smiled big, teary smiles and forgot all about the boo boos. And then! Then the kitty jumped up on the couch, and her mood really improved.
Barney and Kitty, an awful powerful cocktail for mood improvement.

Puddle Stompin'

Olivia's fascination with water isn't limited to sinks and bath tubs (or the dogs water bowl, for that matter). She's a puddle stompin' monster. After the recent winter storms, we saw a break in the clouds. We got dressed up in our rain gear, waved good bye to Momma and headed out to the Ohlone Greenway.

Playing With Water

Olivia loves to play with water. We set her up on the step ladder in front of a partially filled sink and wash toys, fill up cups and empty them, drink the water, splash, add objects, remove them, and on and on.