The Lee Family: Olivia at (almost) 21/2!

Olivia is a month before being 21/2 and seems to be changing daily. She is 37 inches tall and weighs 33.5 lbs. She wears 3T clothes because she's so tall. She is really starting to talk a lot and loves to repeat anything you say to her. So, if I say "Are you ready to get dressed?" she'll usually say "Ready to get dressed..." She is pretty good at annunciating her words, although there are times when I have no idea what she's trying to say to me. She absolutely loves princesses and fairies and knows all of her Disney princesses from her books. She always wants to wear a "princess dress" and princess shoes and then tells people "I a princess" which is really cute. She almost exclusively wears a "princess dress" and tights, although at times I can convince her that a non-fancy dress is actually a "princess dress." She basically wears five dresses out of the entire closet full of Sofia's former dresses as well as her new dresses. She certainly has her mind made up when it comes to what she wants to wear! She is amazingly good at clomping around in her princess shoes too and spends most of her time in the house walking around in them. Unlike Sofia at this age, she could care less about trains and cars and only has interest in princesses, fairies and horses. She plays for hours with her "Papa Neigh" which we bought at a yard sale for $5. She absolutely loves him and uses a paper towel as a blanket and rides him all over the house. She loves brushing his hair, although at this point it's pretty well tangled in a big mess.

She still calls horses "neighs," sheep are "baahs" and cows are "boos" but has very recently started saying "horsie" and "cow" and I know we'll miss her cute words when they are gone. Her favorite books right now are Cinderella (a tattered coloring book version that was originally given to Sofia from her Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Jay when she was around two, is her favorite, although she loves the "real" book that Grandma and Grandpa gave her at Christmas). She has very recently discovered the four Fancy Nancy books we own ("Fanciest Doll in The Universe" was given to Sofia for Christmas by Aunt Cynthia and family) and wants to "read them" before each nap and before bed. While we read Fancy Nancy, Olivia loves to pinch at Nancy's crown and say "I wear it now" and then pretend to put the crown on her head. She also likes to pretend eat cookies and grab at things from books. By "read them" she wants to hold the book and turn the pages while I read to her. She has a series of fairy books and princess books that are very simplistic and are her favorites. We also read "Time for Bed" to her before going to sleep too and she will often read it and actually has memorized most of it. CK started singing to her before bed and so before bed and naps, one of us sings "Send Thee" and "Old MacDonald" to her.

Olivia loves to chew gum and still loves the taste of mint over other flavors, although she isn't wanting Altoids much anymore (not a bad thing). She loves mac and cheese and yogurt, cheese sticks and Cheerios as well as most fruit. She isn't quite as interested in food as she used to be and usually likes to snack, especially around 4/430pm which is just before dinner.

She adores Sofia and loves playing with her usually. Sometimes, she'd prefer to stand off to the side and watch Sofia make up her stories and play instead of joining in with her sister. Throughout the day she usually asks "Where's Sissy?" and "Where's Papa?" which is cute. One of her favorites things is to watch for Sissy's bus to arrive after school. While Sofia loves to stay at home and play and would rather do that over doing just about anything, Olivia is our "lets go" girl! She is always ready to head out and wants to be included in anything that we might be doing. If I ask "Do you want to go....?" Sofia will almost always answer "no" while Olivia will say "I wanna go."

We recently joined the story time at the Colleyville Library and she enjoys it, although she's a lot more shy than Sofia was at this age. It usually takes her 20 of the 30 minutes to warm up enough to participate in the song singing. In the car she loves listening to toddler music and sings along to most of the songs, which she's gotten pretty good at! It's so cute to hear her little sing-songy voice behind me.

Olivia's princess shoes all lined up in her room