Bunny Love

Miss O's recent developments have been of the verbal kind. Yale's favorite word that she says right now is down. It sounds sort of like "dow" with the "ow" extending for two syllables rather than one. The word I like to hear the most is "mama". Yes, she's finally saying mama. I don't get to hear it very often, but when I do I get pretty excited. Some other words that are included in her vocabulary are: up, sit, go, meow, shoes, snaps (which sounds like "aps"), and ouch. The phrase she says most often, which she has been saying for several months, is "what's that?", but it sounds more like "wha S'at". Some mornings it seems like she says it about nine hundred times. Yale thinks it's really cute when she's having a crying fit, but, in the middle of it, she will take the time to point and stretch out a long "what's that?" For those of you who have spent time with Olivia in the past six months, you know that she is quite attached to her furry pink bunny, which is a very soft blanket with a velvet lining topped off with a rabbit head. It sounds kind of weird, but she really digs it. I got it from Pottery Barn Kids; they call it a "thumbie". I guess because kids like to suck their thumbs while they hold on to it. Anyway, it seems that within the last couple of weeks Olivia has gotten even more attached to her bunny. She wants to have it nearby at all times. One way you can score a lot of points with Olivia is to give her bunny some attention. Either a hug or kiss will do. She also rubs her bunny on things that she likes. For example, she will rub her bunny on another stuffed animal or on the TV when it's playing her favorite video. My pregnant belly (and her baby sister) even gets a little bunny love now and then. As I've mentioned before, our cats aren't too fond of Olivia, but she loves them. It's pretty funny when she chases one of them around trying to spread some "bunny love".

There's a Baby in Mommy's Belly

Olivia has really been cracking us up lately (I think I might say that every time). We're always telling her that there is a baby in my belly and that she is going to be a big sister. We weren't really sure how much it was sinking in until a couple of weeks ago she stuck her play baby bottle in my belly button. At first I wasn't sure what she was doing and then my sister pointed out that maybe she was trying to feed the baby. She also likes to put a diaper across my belly. At first I thought that's where she thought a diaper belonged, and then it dawned on me that this might be her way of putting a diaper on her yet-to-be born baby sister. We are looking forward to telling her this story when she is older. Oli had an exciting Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with our friends Matt and Laura and their son Nathan. Olivia and Nathan are just starting to interact some, but Olivia spent most of the night sitting in Nathan's new musical chair watching him dive and tumble across the room. Christmas day was spent with my sister's family. Olivia loves to hang out with her cousins, plus she gets a lot of attention from her Aunt Beckie and Uncle Sam. She is working on becoming better friends with their dog, Satchmo. She doesn't understand why he doesn't respond to her signing. I kept trying to tell her that she needed to say No to him, rather than just shake her head. I think hanging out with Satchmo and kids her age will encourage her to talk more rather than just relying on signing.