Little Livie

Olivia is at such an adorable (most of the time) age right now, it's time I record some of the things she's up to.

She can dress herself completely independently - and reached this stage much faster than the boys ever did.  I think at this point, she is more skilled in this department than either of her brothers, because she actually cares if something is on right side out and frontwards.  (Harrison is notorious for wearing his pants backwards.)  She has mastered buttons, zippers, tights and buckles.  So in the morning, I just tell her to go get dressed, and she can do it completely on her own.  On many days, she requests that I help her get a dress hanging in her closet, and so if I'm up there, I usually pull out coordinating items (tights, shirt, shoes, etc.), but for the days she does it all on her own, she sure comes up with some interesting combos.  I wish I had taken pictures of all her creations, but here's her latest two:

And here she is buckling her shoes all my herself.  Even if they are on the wrong feet.

Ever since starting Primary this year, she has become obsessed with "trying to be like Jesus."  But she doesn't quite get the concept.  It's really sweet sometimes, when she's being really good (as we are out running errands or helping me around the house) and she says, "I'm being like Jesus, right?"  But then other times, when she's jumping around the living room, and stops to ask, "Jesus jumps, right?  I'm being like Jesus!"  And the other day, when I was trying to get her to take a nap, she asked, "Does Jesus take naps?"  To which my response was an adamant, "Yes, very long ones."

She really likes her room, and will play in there for hours on her own (usually when she's suppose to be napping..), so when I moved the glider out of her room and into the babies room, and started to recover it, she was pretty upset.  So I told her we would recover a chair just for her room.  We had an Ikea Tullsta chair that I had been meaning to put in her room, and it needed a cover, so we went to Joann fabrics and she picked out some fabric.  I followed the tutorial on missmustardseed.com, and was pretty happy with the result.  So is Olivia.

 She loves her new chair.  One of my favorite parts (which also happens to be the part I wish I had done a little better) is the back of the chair.  No zippers or hand stitching. Just some ties to make pretty bows.  Mine turned out a little skiwampus, due to some poor planning/cutting (measure twice, or three times, cut once, always.) but it's still super cute.  And no one will ever really see it.

I also recently added some art to Olivia's room - my sister Sarah made me this adorable poster, and I put it in a frame side by side with one of her baby pictures.  I think it's adorable, and is a pretty good description of her, especially when she was a baby:

It reads, "Though she be but little, she is fierce."  I guess it's a quote from Mid Summer's Night Dream.  She certainly was a fierce baby...

 
She loves to dance around, and when I interviewed her for her recent spotlight in primary, she answered, "dance" to her favorite activity with her family.  She also responded, "Making spirits bright," when asked her favorite way to choose the right.  It was probably due to the timing of the interview, which was early January, and jingle bells being one of her favorite songs this Christmas.  And mangos are her favorite FHE treat.  She loves singing too, and has a CD player in her room.  She loves to listen to the primary songs for this year, and has words to many of them already memorized.  But I think her favorite primary song is still "I Love to See the Temple," which she also knows by heart, and requests often for a night-time song.

She is quite the why? asker.  Everything.  Even things that don't make sense.  She always wants to know why.  And sometimes she asks me why she just did something.  

She is quite easy to take around on errands, and actually likes to come with me when I go.  And if Sam is going out, she usually requests to go with him also.  She recognizes several signs for stores that we frequent, like Target, Walmart and Costco. 

She loves being outside, and recently Noah and Olivia decided it would be a good day to run through the sprinklers.   We had turned one on to help prep the lawn for over-seeding, and despite the temperatures hovering around 60, they both changed into swim suits and ran through the water.

And then they hung out on the porch like it was a hot summer day.  

The next few weeks are going to bring some big changes for Olivia.  She will be dethroned as youngest (although she will keep her title as sole princess).  She is very excited about a new baby joining the family, and has offered to be the new baby's mommy on numerous occasions. But her days of my full attention all morning long are numbered.  She's already lost access to much of my lap, and I have devoted a lot of time preparing for the baby.  I hope for a smooth transition, and I look forward to seeing Olivia in her new role as big sister.  She was my hardest baby, but I think she's making up for a lot of that with the sweet toddler and preschooler she's become.