Olivia is growing up

Everyday, literally everyday, Olivia is growing up and learning something new. Miss Erin, the Kindermusik teacher, commented on how social Olivia has become and how she has "come out of her shell." She has. She is crawling all around the Kindermusik room, getting into other moms' laps, touching other babies, grabbing toys and offering them up in hopes of a "Thank you." That is one of her favorite things to do now. She loves to give you something and have you say "Thank you" for it. She smiles every time.

Olivia has had two different teachers this week at school, and has done really well with each. Kalynn wasn't there Tuesday morning for the first hour, and missed today due to a funeral. So, Olivia's social network is expanding, and she is adjusting beautifully. On Tuesday evening we went to my friend's house, and Olivia really took to Susan and her daughter Claire. Of course, she needed Mama's reassurance every now and then, but she did great for the hour plus that we were there and ended up crawling after Claire when she walked out of the room.

Other things Olivia is doing:

Standing on her own for a few seconds at a time. This is so exciting since it is the first step to walking even more than all the cruising on furniture that she does.

Olivia gets the giggles almost every day around dinner time. It is so funny and cute, and fortunate that it is close to bath time since all that laughing while I am trying to feed her often leads to a messy Olivia--oatmeal in her hair, her clothes, and behind her ears!

I've given up on the no-TV-until-2 idea. (Mostly because the baby we had over on Sunday, who is talking, watches TV. So, I can't believe that it hinders language development.) We had been watching a few minutes of Sesame Street a couple of times a week while I cut Olivia's finger nails, but now I am allowing up to 30 minutes of TV a day. I hate the new Sesame Streets, so we are now watching some shows on NickJr --Wonder Pets and Backyardigans. Today we didn't watch any, but I'm finding that it helps for me to turn on the TV and let Olivia play by herself for a few minutes while I put away dishes or fold clothes. I can still see her, but it is teaching her that playing alone is not a punishment. Sometimes she crawls over to me in the kitchen, sometimes she watches the TV (but not for long, she is kind of intermittent with it), sometimes she plays peek-a-boo with me by ducking where I can't see her over the couch, and sometimes she just sits and plays with her toys.

She has discovered taking things out of and putting things back into containers. She does this with her blocks and their tub, the coasters and their wooden holder, and today with her peas and the little snack container I had them in. She is always proud of herself to put them back in.

She really likes music. When I turn the music on in the living room, or wherever, she makes the sign for music, which kind of looks like you are pretending to play the violin.

Olivia is really trying to sign. I think that I can see the sign for music, clean-up, and sometimes more.