Olivia at 4.5 years

Oh Olivia. This girl hasn’t sat in this rocker for an update since she was two, but she wanted to today. And then in true Olivia fashion…she acted like I was somehow forcing her.

I still can’t bring myself to do yearly updates on this kid, because she just changes so much. Probably the biggest change since her four-year update has been her hair, namely that she hardly has any now because I cut it off like some hack-job horrible hairdresser from hell. I meant to give her a trim of a few inches and somehow half a foot of hair was gone.

Seriously, this hair. Cutting it has been both good and bad. It was so tangly. She’d complain and cry almost every time we’d comb it and it was becoming such a hassle. I was actually going to bring her to my hairdresser but then COVID hit and her hair ain’t getting any shorter, so…it was a dilemma. She doesn’t like it in ponytails, so that option was out. Still, it was so hard to cut her hair for the first time and knowing I would do such a shit job at it.

But it’s so much more manageable now. I think it actually made her look younger. She was on the fence about letting me cut it and I asked her what toy she wanted (bribery for the win) and she requested a singing Jasmine doll and now I’m regretting giving her that choice.

Otherwise, Olivia is living her best life, or as much as we can being that we’re at home all the time. She’s just getting to be so big and grownup that I have to constantly remind myself when she’s acting like a jerk that she’s still only four.

Stats

Olivia is 45 lbs and 3 feet 7.5 inches.  She’s in 5T clothes, and size 10 shoes (although she seems to be growing into a 6 and an 11 at an alarming pace).

Physical Milestones

This girl is beast mode on her scooter. And she’s gotten so much better on her balance bike. In fact, she’s been going on actual bike rides with Chris and they’ll go 2.5-3 miles at a time. We’re ordering her a “big girl” bike on Amazon (delivery for everything we own nowadays). The plan is to immediately take the training wheels off and have her practice in the backyard until she’s balanced enough for the road. I think she can do it.

She’s been getting better at catching big beach balls and playing catch in the yard with Chris, using the bat and ball. She can skip and hop and run, but she’s clumsy and trips over her feet and/or falls almost every time we’re out on a walk.

She can cut with scissors really well. I got her a book dedicated to cutting activities for Easter and she does really well with circles and all the other shapes. She does great pouring ingredients when we have her cook and bake with us.

She can completely dress herself and is getting pretty good at doing her buttons. She loves drawing people and painting and telling us stories.

Language/Reading

Olivia is really getting a vast imagination. Whenever she’s in trouble, she’s quick to explain herself, “I just wanted to tell you I had a bad dream about a tiger and um, a squirrel, and a bear!” Nevermind it’s 4:30 and we weren’t even close to the topic of dreams. She calls toaster strudels “toaster doodles” and “pepapinos” for jalapenos and then wants us to play the “Pepapino” song which is Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. One time while she was in the bathtub, she told me her drumsticks got wet and I had no idea what she was talking about until it occurred to me she’s talking about her eardrums.

She does that. She stretches her language and knowledge of things and then when you gently correct her, it’s like, Oh, of course, Mom. I knew that.

Like the time I was washing dishes and she came up to me decked out in dress up clothes and said, “There’s always time to see Mexico!” Obviously, this was a line from a TV show somewhere.

I asked her if she knew what Mexico was.

“A magical place!” she drawls, with a wave of her wand.

“A country,” I said.

“Oh yes, a country!” and then she clomps off in her pink heels.

She loves trying out new words and asking us questions. She talks. All.The.Time. She still can’t say her Fs or Vs but so far, her teachers say that’s normal.

She’s been practicing her handwriting on this app Chris got for her and can recognize a lot of the alphabet, both upper and lower case. I credit Chris with this stuff in working with her on it. She can also now successfully use “he” and “she” properly. My favorite, and what she’s been saying for a long time now, is when she’s playing make-believe and there are a mommy and daddy and the honey, as in “OK, I’ll be the mama and you be the honey.” I think it’s from calling her “honey” so much that it’s now known as the term for the child. It’s so cute I can’t correct her.

Personality

Man, where to start? She’s got a big one, as evidenced from the moment she was laid in my arms years ago. She’s saucy, to the point of rude and it drives me crazy. The attitude on this kid is fierce, but for the most part, she’s so incredibly sweet. She loves life, and so many things are exciting and must be discussed in a loud voice. She’s stubborn and wants to do things her way. Her clothes must now be picked out by her. She wants to be independent and will make it known.

But then she’s so funny. Like, every day she’s cracking us up with her words or her sense of humor or how she tries out new words but doesn’t understand the meaning.

She wants to make sure everyone is taken care of and she’s very much a nurturer.

Health

Thanks to our shelter in place orders, she’s been perfectly healthy. Actually, since last November, she’s only had 1-2 colds even with daycare and preschool, so I consider that lucky for us.

She had an episode a few weeks ago with a rash all over her body during her bubble bath and I wonder if she was breaking out from that soap. It cleared right away once she got out.

Besides that, she’s just been getting her share of bumps and bruises and cuts from biffing it outside being too clumsy or daring.

Eating

Olivia is in no way what I would consider a picky eater, but she does have her preferences. Her top favorite dinners are tacos, spaghetti, “shrimp pettechini alpredo,” and pizza. She shows dislike for things like chicken, bell peppers, and steak, but she’ll eat them if we don’t make a big deal about it. Breakfast is her favorite meal of the day and it’s what makes me miss going out for Friday breakfasts with my mom. She’s been into Kraft mac n cheese cups, Uncrustables, and chicken nuggets for lunches. She continues to love her berries, cucumbers, tomatoes, all fruits in general, plain yogurt, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

By the way, her taco salad is dolloped with greek yogurt, not gobs of sour cream, in case you were wondering.

She will set the table for dinner and clears her dishes without being asked, then running to the bathroom by herself and washing her hands and face. We’re still working on her remembering by herself to wash her hands before she eats.

Potty-training

I have a feeling this will be the last time I post on this with her because she’s now totally night-trained and there really haven’t been any issues. I think we’ve had a handful of accidents earlier in the year, but she’s been doing amazing. Much to my annoyance, she wants to use the bathroom on her own terms in the morning and fights us if we tell her to go potty when she wakes up. Sometimes she’ll go right away and a lot of the time it’s 30-45 minutes after she wakes up.

Sleeping Habits

She goes down around 7:30-8:00 and is pretty good at staying in bed all night, save for the occasional nighttime wake up where Chris gets up with her if she has growing pains in her feet, or has to go to the bathroom. She’s up between 6:45 and 7:30 am.

Her naps have been officially done since she was just over 4 years old. We tried doing a quiet time, but that didn’t work out well unless she was watching TV. So now it’s just a regular day for her. I miss her naps, but we’re adjusting to a new normal.

Favorites

Toys: Her art supplies, her “Barbie-like” dolls, since she’s all about using her imagination, her Legos (both Duplos and the regular kind), particularly her big girl Frozen Lego set.

Books: She continues to love her Elephant and Piggie books and has a lot of them memorized. Loves her princess books (Lord help me. She particularly loves her five minute Disney princess story collection, but only always wants to read the Jasmine ones which weirdly make me really uncomfortable because it seems like she’s obsessed with the husband/wife theme of the Jasmine stories and it makes me cringe.), and her Highlights magazines

TV shows/Movies: The Trolls TV series (I can’t stand it), Frozen 2, any superhero ones, though I have to monitor because she likes the more tween shows filled with makeup and hair and boy crushes and seriously, what is this crap? She loves picking out the movie for Friday family night which lately has been Onward and Wall-E. She also loves the Tangled TV series.

Activities: Playing outside and going for walks, using her balance bike and scooter, coloring, drawing pictures, painting, helping us cook and bake, picking dandelions.

Looking forward to

The summer! Even though they’ve closed the parks and beaches for the summer, I’m still hoping we can utilize the backyard pool and sprinklers. I’m also planning on having picnics out in the backyard for lunches and sitting on the deck for dinners.

Olivia keeps us on our toes. It hasn’t been easy being at home 24/7 and she’s taking it in stride. My outgoing daughter who loves being around people has been having to adjust being with just us constantly. And now she’s getting closer to five than four and that blows my mind. Where did my baby go?

You can read all of Olivia’s other updates by clicking here.