21 Months

Olivia is 21 months today!  I wasn't planning on writing another monthly post until she turned 2, but so much is happening so fast around here.  I was reminded yet again that I will want to be able to look back and know exactly what happened when.  So here I am, writing what has happened in the last month or so.

I don't know any measurements, but I did weight her a few days ago and she's still hanging out at around 28 pounds.  Hopefully she is gaining height so she can start thinning out like most toddlers do around this age.

She is mostly in 24 month stuff, although I did buy a lot of 2T stuff for the summer.  She is wearing a size 7 shoe, and they are big on her.  I wish more kids shoes came in half sizes.  I think a 6 1/2 is really what she needs.

She is still in a size 5 diaper.  I think we'll be in this size for a while.  We ran out of nighttime diapers a few weeks ago and I just decided to give it a test and see how she does with normal diapers at night.  She is definitely wetting less, so I figured we could get away with it.  We've been doing it for almost two weeks now with no leaks.

She has no interest in potty training at the moment.  She will sit on her potty with clothes on, no problem.  She also likes to play with the actual potty (it's never been used, so still clean!) and has figured out how to make it sing without making any deposits--which sort of defeats the purpose of a singing toilet.  If I try to take her pants and diaper off and sit her on it, she hops right up and wants nothing to do with it.  I'm not in any hurry.

(Making faces at herself in the mirror)

She has become considerably more picky about the foods she will and won't eat.  We are trying to stick with the "this is what you get" deal, but she's perfectly happy to go to bed with little dinner and wait until breakfast for something she likes. :/  She would live on plum organic food pouches and applesauce if I let her.

Her sleep has been rough for the past three weeks, but seems to be getting back on track.  She goes to bed between 8 and 8:30 and wakes up between 7 and 8 most days.  She naps one and a half to two hours.  I am good with this.  It's the middle of the night screaming wake up calls that I don't love.  She is just like her father, in that if she wakes up in the middle of the night then she is up for at least an hour--usually more.

Her knowledge and memory continue to impress us on a daily basis.  We are aware that she is advanced in some areas.  We are trying to give her as many learning opportunities as possible, while still maintaining a fun and worry free toddler-hood.  We are taking it as it comes.

She recently began to speak in complete sentences on a pretty regular basis.  She's been speaking in 2 to 4 words phrases for a while, but now she makes almost everything into a sentence.  Last week I sent Michael and email saying, "I just had a legitimate conversation with Olivia."  She also likes to use adjectives.  She asks a lot of questions and uses the appropriate voice inflections.  She cracks us up on a regular basis.  She likes being funny and getting a reaction out of us. :)

Shapes she can recognize on a consistent basis are--circle, square, diamond, rectangle, star, oval, triangle, heart, octagon and crescent.

An example of her memory related to shapes: She got some shape flashcards and Michael was introducing them to her.  He taught her octagon.  That was on Saturday morning.  We went about her day and about 8 hours passed before she wanted to play with the flashcards again. She immediately picked up the flashcard and said, "octagon".  The next day she still recognized the flashcard.  Fast forward two days and we met Michael for lunch.  We were standing in line at a fast food restaurant.  Michael was holding Olivia.  She looked out the window and said, "It's an octagon.".  There stood a stop sign.  She also picked up a hanger one day and all on her own said, "It's a triangle".  It took me a second to realize it was indeed a triangle.

Colors she knows are--white, black, pink, brown, red, orange, green, blue, and purple.  She did recognize yellow yesterday while playing, but I haven't asked her again since then.  I'm not sure if she's got it or if it was a fluke.

She can pretty much sing her ABC's--including "Now I know my ABC's, next time won't you sing with me."  She does better if she's not asked to do it or if she doesn't think anyone is paying attention.  I've attempted to get it on video a couple of times now, but she starts getting crazy.  She likes to sing it while dancing in a circle.  That's not the best way to capture it. :)
 

I've already mentioned this, but she can look at any letter of the alphabet and tell you an animal that begins with that letter.  For some letters, she can tell you two or three things that begin with that letter.

I was finally able to see how many letters she actually recognizes.  Shockingly, it's 21.  I thought it was going to be about 5.  She also knows some of the letter sounds, but I didn't try to figure that out yet.  The one I know she knows for sure is "P", because she says it often when point to the letter P. 

 She can count to 12.  She recognizes about 3 or 4 numbers consistently.  She also has the beginning steps of matching the counting to objects.  She doesn't always want to do this though.

She has mastered all of the puzzles she has.  This includes ones where there is no picture to match the piece up to.  I don't know that she is matching the puzzle piece shape to the empty shape on the board.  I think she has the puzzle memorized, so she knows where it goes.  I recently bought a beginner jigsaw type puzzle from the dollar store.  I'm going to see how she does on that.

She is as sweet as they come.  She hands out hugs and kisses and pats on the back as often as she can.  She is full of compassion and has a tender spirit.  She is funny and full of energy, yet she is thoughtful and focused when she wants to be.  She has a cautious personality.  She is extremely observant.  So much so that even strangers comment on how she is paying attention to everything.  She is so much fun and brings us so much joy! :)

Funny things she's said this week...

I was talking to myself the other day and she looked at me with this funny look and said, "Are you alright, mommy?"

She wouldn't eat a Lara Bar I bought her.  I didn't want it to go to waste, so I threw it in her smoothie.  She did not like this.  She'd be drinking and then come across a little piece of nut.  She'd stick her tongue out for me to get it off.  Then she'd say, "You like this smoothie?"  Ha ha!