Olivia turns two!

The baby turned two last week.  Her mommy feels like it is going by too fast!  I love her at this age, and want her to stay tiny forever.  She makes us laugh so much, and is so sweet and easy going.
At her checkup, she was perfect!  She weighed 30 pounds, which was average.  Her height was at the top of the charts, though.  She's going to be tall!  I looked back at Sis and Bub's stats from their two year checkup....she's taller than Bub was, and she's a little heavier than Sissy was.  (But Sissy was TINY)
All of a sudden, she's not so much of a baby anymore.  She tee-tee'd on the potty for the first time yesterday, and looked so proud as Shawn and I danced around like fools.  I think the tee tee was an accident, but she was sure excited about it.  She talks in full sentences all day long, and surprises everyone with how verbal she is.  Today in HEB, she told me, "Mommy, I a silly girl.  I a funny girl." and then two minutes later, was telling me, "Mommy, I a very fancy lady."  We laugh at how she tries to copy everything her siblings do....she adores them.  She loves animals, and points them out wherever we are.  She keeps showing me her Eeyore tattoo and saying, "Look, Mommy!  It's a goggie."  So far, she's been the easiest baby to discipline....she just started being a little oppositional, which is normal.  She had her first REAL moment last week when she refused to sit in her high chair in La Fonda, and told me NO when I asked her to sit down.  She had to go sit with me in the car while the twins went to Baskin Robbins and got ice cream with Mimi.  She doesn't like having a dirty diaper, and will take it off when there's poo in it.  She knows she's not supposed to, and when you talk to her about it, she says, "I no take my diaper off.  I get poo poo eeeeeevvvverywhere.  I get poo poo in my hair!"  She realizes it's a bad idea, but still does it from time to time.  She is really, really funny, and does this whole schtick of pretending to be grumpy, or happy, or excited.  She loves when we laugh at her, and it makes her act even sillier.

We are in love with this tiny girl, and can't believe she's not a tiny baby anymore.  It feels like yesterday that I was spending my days in the big chair with her, holding her little newborn body and marveling at her perfect self.  We still want to sit and love on her, but she's a lot busier now, and harder to snuggle....she lets us love on her, but squirms and wiggles when she's ready to move on....sigh.  Isn't that just the way it always goes?  Regular readers of this blog know about my ongoing battle with "baby having"...that is, I know three is "enough" for us, but I can't wrap my mind and emotions around the idea that I'll never be pregnant again....never hold a tiny newborn with frog legs again...never feel a baby kick me from the inside......I think I could go for one more.....especially since this one is speeding towards being a preschooler, and out of babyhood.  I'm just scared I will turn around seven years from now, and wish I had another baby.  It's now or never!!  Who would have thought I would have turned out to be someone that LOVED tiny babies so much?  I have always been a marathon sleeper, so you would have thought I wouldn't have liked being woken up and sleep deprived.....but in reality, I mind it so very little.  Even with the twins, I was always blessed with the feeling of gratitude, and of knowing how short and precious these "hard times" were going to be.  My sweet husband is looking forward to these babies being bigger, and more able to do "fun stuff" with us....he has nicely encouraged me to try to enjoy the next phase and try not to be sad about the "baby phase" being over, which I'm trying to do, really..I am!  For now, I'm just trying to soak up these last months of having a tiny person...I know in a few months, she won't sound or look like a baby at all anymore, and I'm going to have to work really hard to wrap my brain around that.

If I had my child to raise all over again,

I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.

I'd finger-paint more, and point the finger less.

I would do less correcting and more connecting.

I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.

I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.

I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.

I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.

I'd do more hugging and less tugging.

~Diane Loomans, from "If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again"