Temper Tantrum v.1

Well, it had to start eventually. Today was a tough day for Livvy. She woke up and Mama was already gone to work. She didn't like that. She started slowly with general whining and crying for Jenny, and then she shifted gears to standing, dropping to her knees and slapping her hands on the ground. Repeat 30 times. Trying to pick her up, she scrunched herself so that i couldn't hold her close. She pushed, wiggled, writhed and screamed. It took about 20 minutes for her to calm down. Then, later tonight, Jenny had a meeting at the house. Livvy was needy, but seemed ok. We went out to the back garden and looked for raspberries. She seemed happy, and then wanted to go inside. Immediately she went straight through the roof. She screamed, cried, threw herself down, and pounded her head against the floor. Headbutt. Headbutt. Again, trying to pick her up she fought me, pushing me away, clawing, screaming. Big tears. She would walk, stiffen her body and throw herself down. Look around to see if we were watching, stand up, take two steps forward, throw herself down. Scream! Bang, bang her head. It was almost like extreme performance art. Jenny suggested we do some reading and come up with an agreed strategy for dealing with this. I have no child rearing experience aside from Livvy, so I've never encountered this before. It's disturbing. Jenny said that in the past (with her little brother and sister) , what as worked was to ignore it -- leave the room, and let her work through her frustration. that'll be hard for me, so we'll see. More bad with good. Still primarily good, though. [NOTE FROM JENNY: during the evening temper tantrum, it really was a performance - she'd bonk her head on the floor, and then look straight at me to see my reaction. So it stands to reason that the best way to defuse the "performance" is not to watch it. Plus, I remember having tantrums at Livvy's age. I clearly recall screaming, throwing myself on the ground, and flailing my limbs. So she may very well have gotten this from me!]

Couch Potato

When Olivia watches TV, she can't be bothered to pay attention to the photographer.

Welcome Home

Last night I got home and was greeted by Olivia in this way: "Hi, T. Jay!"

Umbrella Dance

Olivia bought a chair that came with a sun umbrella. She loves it, and marches around the house, tapping it like a cane, twirling it like a true showman.

she goes to eleven at four in the morning

This morning had us up for awhile at 4am... Olivia has a nasty cough and needed some medicine, plus she's still settling back in after four days away. I was holding her near the front windows in the dark, hoping to lull her a little. She was going a mile a minute, however, waving to the cars on the street: "Hi, cars! Hi, our car! Hi black car! Hi red car!" Pointing at each car in turn, and speaking in a very measured voice: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven!" Yeah, she counted each car multiple times. But she goes to eleven!

Waking Up With Grandma

An extra special treat -- waking up with Grandma.

Playing in the Car

Today, after returning from a few errands, Olivia didn't want to leave the car. She wanted to sit in the driver's seat. Jenny helped her up, and I sat in the back of the car. I just watched her for about ten minutes. She mainly pantomimed the things she's seen us do thousands of times: buckling the seat bealt, adjusting the radio, gripping the steering wheel, turning the lights on, etc. The she decided she wanted to climb across to the passenger seat. I said "OK, don't fall!" and she responded in a deep voice: "Don't Fall!" "Don't Fall!" "Don't Fall!" Then she climbed across and said, "I didn't fall!" The language adoption is just insane.

Fun and Fine Dining

Olivia and mom have been having a real treat of a weekend: four days with Aunt Sarah, Grandma Carol, Buffy Ya Ya and Crystal Ya Ya (in from Louisiana especially!) in the Napa Valley. The first night and part of the first day Olivia asked to go home every few hours, but after awhile she settled in to the fun of the occasion and began enjoying herself in earnest. There have been many trips to the moon, many refrains of the ABCs and other favorite songs, and general revelry. And there has been amazing food.
I wasn't sure about how Olive would do in restaurant settings. The first night she was cranky and we beat a hasty retreat to eat a burrito down the block from the restaurant. (When she was satisfied we were able to go back and eat ice cream.) The next night, however, we went to Tra Vigne, and Olivia seemed to really dig it. She had her first sips of champagne (kept remarking "More Wine!"), charmed all the wait people, and began a love affair with olives of many colors and sizes. She sampled roasted eggplant with chevre, toasted semolina pasta with braised pork, a pile of spicy pasta, and lots of pistachio ice cream. The evening went very smoothly, thanks in great part to Auntie Sarah's frequent trips outside with the lass. Today we went to Cindy's Kitchen for lunch, where Olivia enjoyed sweet corn and potato soup with lime and avocado, and blue cheese by the spoonful... that is the TABLEspoonful. We've decided that she's a good eater with a rather sophisticated palate. She's not shy about grabbing new things off our plates and seems to enjoy selections that have a bit of heat to them.

Potty Training

We've been trying to reinforce the use of the potty for it's apppropriate uses. Here, Sarah pitches in to help in Spring Training.