Olivia is walking!
She really is walking!  She started around her birthday – a step or two here and there. In the past few weeks it’s really picked up to the point that she’s 95% of the time walking.  Our baby is growing up!

Teeth everywhere!
I’m losing count!  She has three on the bottom. And four or more on the top. She hates me “checking” for them so it’s hard to tell until they’ve sprouted. The four on the top are really coming in and you can see them.

Eating
Olivia loves to eat. She does a “chipmunk” thing where she stores the food in her cheeks and cries because you won’t give her anymore! Silly girl still working on swallowing after gumming it up.  Olivia will eat anything and everything.

Some new foods:

• pork tenderloin
• strawberries
• blueberries (a favorite)
• pasta
• tuna fish
• turkey (deli meat)
• hot dogs
• eggs

Pretty much she eats what we eat.  If only Maddie Rose ate what we ate, we’d be in great shape!

Maddie Update
Maddie starts kindergarten in 13 days!  She is all ready to go and excited. It’s nice that she’ll know 4 children in her class from her current preK program and there are 3 others in the other class (including her best friend and cousin Christopher). Maddie wants to take the bus but Arnie and I haven’t decided for sure yet. It seems like she’s too small to be ready for kindergarten.

Maddie is learning fast that she cannot get away with as much with Olivia anymore. We had the first incident of Olivia “striking back” this past Saturday.  Maddie and Olivia were playing with something and Maddie kept taking Olivia’s hand off the toy.  Well, Olivia had just about enough of it and grabbed a fist full of Maddie’s hair. Of course Maddie cried and Arnie and I laughed.  Just wait until Olivia starts tattling!

… and speaking of tattling …

Talking
Now this is going to sound ridiculous but it’s true. It’s not just a “Mom heard that because she wants to” situation.

• Diana (daycare provider) was putting Olivia down for a nap on Friday afternoon. Olivia kept popping back up (stood up). Diana said to her “Olivia, you need to take a nap” and Olivia responded with “I don’t want to!”  Diana’s husband Steve was home at the time and heard her say it as well!

• On Sunday afternoon we were telling Maddie it was time to get ready to go get ice cream.  Clear as day Olivia says “I want ice cream”.  Laura Fetridge was sitting right there and heard her say it as well!

Heart Friends
Speaking of the Fetridge family, we had the pleasure of spending Sunday with them.  They have a daughter Emma who is 4 – she and Maddie had a BALL playing together.  And Lily (Olivia’s heart buddy) is going to be a year in September.  It was so nice to spend time with a family who “gets us” in that they know where we’ve been and we don’t have to explain it.  We are so blessed to have been put in touch with such wonderful people!

Swimming
I signed Olivia up for the Parent and Me swimming class at the YMCA.  It starts September 10.  I’m really looking forward to it since she LOVES playing in the water. She will try and climb into the tub – lifts her leg up and everything!