The last six months with Olivia have been great. Her obsession with babies still continues: she has babies/dolls named: Ariel, Ava, Bella, Clara, Isabella, John, Lucy, and Sophie. The "Our Generation" doll she received for Christmas (an 18" doll with hair), Clara, is actually played with quite a bit. I was curious as to how she would react to having a non-baby doll because in the past she was only drawn to bald babies, but she welcomed this one with open arms.
Olivia played soccer for a couple months in the Fall. She was never excited or eager to go, but when she was there she participated and seemed to have fun.
Olivia started showing an interest in being a ballerina this summer and that carried into the Fall, so for Christmas we gave her a tutu, tights, ballet shoes, and signed her up for ballet classes through our local recreation centre. She LOVES it. She was quite nervous the first class as all of the activities were new to her (but familiar to the other girls who had clearly been in ballet before), but we did a little practicing at home before the second class and she has been confident ever since. She pays very close attention to whatever her teacher, Anelia, asks them to do, and does it amazingly well. I may be biased, but I think she has a natural ability for it. She even loves practicing dance moves at home in the kitchen. There is one boy in her class, and after one class with him Olivia exclaimed, "He didn't even have to carry (lift) me, Mom!"
She still loves watching shows on YouTube on the iPad, especially those involving dolls or Lego. I think her ability to imaginatively play with her Barbies his grown even more because of her exposure to watching others play that way.
She is fantastic at playing independently. When she no longer wants to play with her older siblings, she willingly drift to playing with Barbies, Little Ponies, or vTech Flipsies. She creates worlds and storylines and can play for a couple hours. She doesn't even care if she is by herself in the toy room.
Olivia can recognize and name all of her letters, and we are introducing her to sounds they make. She is great at rhyming. Crazy to think that Nathan was almost reading at her age, although he had more exposure because I was diligent in making sure that Matthew and Kayla were reading aloud to me at least a few days a week. Right now, Matthew, Kayla, and Nathan are all great at reading and so most of their reading is done on their own, in their beds at bedtime.
Her favourite food is still french fries. That girl can pound back french fries like it's no one's business. It's unreal how many she can consume in a single sitting!
Over Christmas holidays, I finally put my foot down and told her that she could not climb into my bed in the middle of the night anymore. It had been happening every night and I was started to really feel sleep-deprived. We made a chart and knew that when she had slept in her own bed for ten nights, she would get a donut. The first few nights were extremely rough. She tried to come into my bed and was extremely angry when I brought her back to hers. I laid with her in her bed until she fell asleep again for those nights, and then eventually she stopped being angry when I brought her back to her own room and then she just stopped coming to our room. There have been a few nights since then where I've let her sleep in our bed (she is my baby, after all!), but it's been much better that what it was.
Olivia likes to pretend she has a secret to tell, but then just blows in your ear instead.
She will only wear the fanciest of dresses to church. Skirts don't even do it for her. They have to be fancy flower girl or Christmas dresses! Her church shoes have a bit of a heal, so she calls them her "high shoes."
Olivia ended up being the only child in her swimming lessons class in the Fall, and the one-on-one attention allowed her to pass two levels at once, something that their teacher had never heard of. She is now in the highest level that she can for her age. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of this summer I could have confidence with her being in the deep end of a pool without me right beside her (but watching, of course!).
She loved sledding this year! She has absolutely no fear, and sleds wherever the big kids sled.
