The Lee Family: Olivia at 23 Months

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Olivia at 23 Months

Our little girl is four short weeks away from being two! She's such a fun, sweet girl and is more laid back than Sofia was at this age (although we're more relaxed parents too). She's easy to giggle and goes with the flow of whatever we are doing. She's still working on the words we can actually understand, although she loves to babble on and on as if we can understand everything she's saying. She is 31.5 lbs and is now 35 inches tall. She wears 2T clothes and still loves shoes. She wears mostly Sofia's hand-me-downs and I love her in them. She also has Sofia's shoes, although she has several of her own pairs and seems to prefer them. Sofia has a pair of sandals that she absolutely lived in and are still my favorites, however, Olivia has never wanted to wear them. After getting dressed, she must pick out her own shoes.

She still loves her food and will eat just about anything in front of her, which I'm sure will change at some point. She is hit or miss with meat, but will at least try it. She loves to snack and cheese sticks, crackers, and grapes (or strawberries, peaches, bananas) are her favorites. She's also become unnaturally addicted to chewing gum and miniature Altoids. In the middle of playing, she'll stop and find me to say "I wanna piece" which means "a piece of gum." She's good about spitting out her gum and putting it in the trash when she's done with it, usually.

She adores her big sister and loves any and all attention from Sofia. Last week, we drove Sofia to meet her friend Grady and go to a movie with him and his mom, Mya. I left Olivia in the car while I let Sofia out of the car and chatted for a bit. After a few minutes, I jumped in the car and drove off. Olivia started crying and saying "Sissy! I want sissy!" She was so sad and missed her sister for the entire drive home. Back to school for Sofia might be a sad affair for Olivia.

Olivia loves to swim. She will often go into her room, find her swimsuit, find me and say "I need my suit." If I tell her we will go swimming in the afternoon, she carries her swimsuit around with her for the rest of the day, even taking it with her in her crib during her nap. She loves the water and could easily spend hours in the water. She's become quite a good swimmer for a little one who isn't quite two years old. She jumps in, holds her breath and kicks to the surface. She has very good breath control after so many afternoons in the pool and can "swim" a good amount before having to come up for air. She still needs a little assistance getting her mouth out of the water to take a breath, but will immediately take another big gulp of air and put her face back in the water and try to propel herself across the pool.

Similar to Sofia, she enjoys time to herself and will usually go into her room by herself to "read" books and play. It's a nice break for me and I think she enjoys her time alone as much as I do. She remains a great sleeper, taking a nice 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon and sleeping at least 11 quiet hours at night. She still prefers to go to bed around 7:30pm but we can stretch her a little later when necessary. She still doesn't have a lovey, like Sofia had at that age but loves puppies and has a bunch of stuffed animals and dolls in her crib with her every night.

Although different than Sofia, Olivia also reminds us of Sofia in many ways. She's very outgoing and social, she loves reading and trains, loves food and sleep, and she's a little girl who knows exactly what she wants. We look forward to watching her grow and change.

Olivia and her friend and neighbor, Antonio. She's another little fish.