We have been spending a lot of time at the house these last couple of weeks due to multiple snowstorms keeping us from venturing outdoors. One of my New Year's goals (although I hate using the new year as an excuse to do something I should already be doing) is to be intentional about teaching Olivia something new every day. She's demonstrated already that she's a quick learner so it's fun to see her try new things. We mostly work on vocabulary or sensory things involving touch or sound. I am amazed at her interest in some of things we work on and the blatant disintrest (sometimes construed as laziness) in others. For example, she mimics (or tries to mimic) virtually everything we do, yet she REFUSES to use her signs to ask for things like "drink," "milk," "please," "all-done," etc. I know she knows these signs because she has done them before but since she's learned the secret of pointing her finger she just points at everything she wants and makes this cute high-pitched "Ahh-uuu" sound.
She is going through a challenging phase right now with eating. For instance, she went an entire week without eating one thing from a spoon. She would vehemently shake her head and turn away quite dramatically if the evil utensil even entered her sight. This has made eating quite difficult since her food allergies already make it challenging to find things suitable for finger foods. Argg. The no-spoon preference has lifted somewhat and she's eaten her breakfast cereal the last few days without too much trouble. However, she's now decided that throwing her food is wayyyy more fun than actually eating it. Meal after meal, day after day, I'm on my hands and knees cleaning up the remainder of her breakfast, lunch or dinner as she peers over the edge of her high chair laughing at me (well, not really, but inside I know she's laughing). I finally bought one of those washable floor mats to place under her high chair since it's a lot easier to find the food to clean than on my oak hardwood. Her favorite foods by far still seem to be the orange vegetable family (winter squash, carrots, sweet potatoes), any kind of fruit with the favorites being pears, blueberries, apples and figs, and the newest food of choice is...wait for it...peas!! No, not the steamed peas that I made her probably 50 times and they ended up all over my kitchen. Rather, she fancies $6 freeze-dried peas from the grocery store that a friend recommended as a good snack. She LOVES them. She would eat the entire tub every day if I let her but due to their high price-point, we try to only go through 1 tub every couple weeks. She's so finicky right now with her food choices that I figure there are worse things for her to be obsessed with so at least she picked something with some protein and fiber. They do make for a messy cleanup when inevitably she throws a couple (just for fun of course) into my living room where I end up stepping on it hours later and hear the "crunch" into my white rug. I then end up once again on all fours picking green flakes out of the rug fibers. *Sigh*
We are starting up Gymboree again this month as a gift from Grammie and Grandpa Lennex for Olivia's birthday. We tried out a Gymboree music class today which was lots of fun. She is very interested in music and had a blast shaking the maracas and banging on a huge drum. She also is into dancing and knows the meaning of the word so any time she hears it either from someone's mouth, on the radio or in a book she bounces up and down. SO CUTE! Some of the other words and phrases she recognizes now are: belly, book, brushing teeth, combing hair (and will comb her hair with whatever she has in her hand, although she specifically can recognize a comb and a brush and uses them appropriately), and peas (ha ha). Some of the words she is currently saying include: hi (which she draws out like she's from the south in this girly voice like "hiiiiiiii"), hhhhot (thanks Grammie for teaching her that one!), e-i-e-i-o (which she produces at the end of the "Old MacDonald" song - more props to Grammie), Daddy (made the switch from "dada), wow, and "shhhh." The "shhhh" is her most recent word and is especially cute because she seems to use the word appropriately. We have a Peekaboo book that she loves and we read it regularly before bed and at the end of the book it says "Shhhh, don't wake the animals, they are sleeping." So now, when we're in the rocking chair reading to her before bed she occasionally interjects a "shhhhhhh" as if she understands that she's about to go to sleep and we're not to wake her!
Olivia is still using rolling as her main form of transportation. We are really working with her using her walker and holding our fingers to take steps around the house. We are both a little concerned at the fact that she walks and stands way up on her tip-toes (something her Auntie Kimmy did until she was 7!!). Fingers crossed she decides soon that her heels are fine to have on the floor.
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