Olivia at five years

I’m not really sure how it’s been five years. Holding her as I was being put back together after the C-section, both literally and figuratively. The sleepless nights in those very early new mom days. The fog of infancy. The healing after six years of trying for a baby. And now she’s five. My breathtakingly beautiful baby girl. My miracle. My firstborn.

Olivia has a huge heart. Her enthusiasm is off the charts, and she always makes an effort to include others. She’s kind. She’s spunky. She cracks us up and knows it. She always wants to help and loves her sister more than anything. I can’t believe how much she’s grown.

She talks about her “coworkers” now like other kids have imaginary friends. “Mom, my coworker like chocolate on his macaroni!” If Chris and I were discussing one of his coworker’s kids’ distance learning, she’ll pipe up with, “Guess what? My coworker’s daughter? She doesn’t like to be on the computer!” She’s so inquisitive. She’s been asking more about Adam and why he went to Heaven, and she can’t wait to hold him. She told her entire class about how her mama had a baby in her tummy, but he died. Death is just so abstract to her. We talk about God and Jesus like they’re friends coming to dinner. In fact, one time, she had an entire discussion with me on how much Jesus would like this picture, and can we send it to him?

One day (during her mermaid phase) she came up to me with one of her mermaids that she plays with in the bathtub. “It’s a mermaid girl!” she shows me. “I mean, woman, I mean!” We’re very politically correct around here.

She talks about reproduction as everyone being frozen embryos that doctors put in, and was I frozen? and we’d say, no, you weren’t, but your sister was. I still remember back almost a year ago when we were talking about the facts of life and she asked how she got in my tummy. So I asked her how she thought she did. And she looked at the ceiling, brows furrowed, and then looked at me. “Um, Mom, did you..eat me?” Which—props for that. So we talked about uteruses and how babies are in there versus being in stomachs. No, we can’t put Emelia back into my tummy. She knows her sister came out Mommy’s vagina, but she was “cut out” “because that’s how some babies come.”

This kid is all sorts of awesome.

Stats

Olivia is 49 lbs and 3 feet 9 inches. She’s in the 91st percentile for both weight and height. She’s gained 5 pounds and grew 3 inches this year.

She’s in size 6 clothes and size 11 shoes.

Physical milestones

Olivia is far less clumsy than she used to be, but she still has her moments when she’s being daring and won’t listen to us telling her to be careful. She can run, hop, and skip without falling on her face (usually). She’s become quite the daredevil on her scooter and bike. She loves taking bike rides with Chris. We initially had the training wheels off when we first got it, since we’d been working on the balance bike with her, but that was proving to be unsuccessful, so back on they’ve stayed. We’ll try again next summer. She was struggling to balance, steer, and stop all at the same time, so I don’t blame her.

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She’s completely independent in dressing herself but needs help with zippers sometimes. She can get her outdoor gear on by herself, brushes her own hair and teeth, flosses, get her shoes on. She loves helping out around the house, sweeping, washing windows, helping with laundry. Bless her heart, she’s made bringing a second kid into the family so much easier.

Language/Reading

Olivia’s always liked using big words, much to our entertainment. Sometimes, I make her say big words because it sounds adorable coming out in her munchkin voice. A few weeks ago, she came up to me with her water cup and goes, “I’m… dehydated.” (something like that) Shifting eyes, looking uncertain. “Dehydrated?” I asked. She nods. Then for the next week, she’d chug water and then gasp, “I’m DeHYdrated now!”

“Hydrated,” I’d correct.

“Oh yes, HYdrated!”

She spells her name like a champ, even out of order and can count up to 39 on her own. She’s all about doing her “homework” and loves practicing her handwriting, which is remarkably good for a barely five-year-old. She’ll pull out her Dr. Suess books and copy down the words. She can’t say her F’s and V’s yet but is speaking so articulate otherwise. Chris brought this up at her well-child exam. We found out she can say, for instance, “Four” perfectly when asked to repeat a word. When her practitioner asked if she could repeat: “My favorite color is purple,” she doesn’t say her F’s and V’s correctly, smushing her words together. Her practitioner said she notices it for sure for her F’s, a little for her V’s, and a few others, but she encouraged us to talk to Olivia’s preschool teacher. I happened to have a phone conference with her teacher this afternoon, and she said she’ll pay more attention when Olivia talks, but as of now, she doesn’t think there’s a concern and that she seems to be developmentally on track.

Health

With the shutdown, even despite daycare and now preschool, she’s been remarkably healthy and I hesitate even writing that down for fear of jinxing it. She had some sniffles and a cough back in October but has been doing really well. She’s amazing at wearing her mask, even though we’ve been working on not biting/licking the inside of it. (Ew)

She’s complained a few months ago about growing pains in the middle of the night, and there were a few times we gave her some Tylenol and that seemed to help.

I’ve written about this before, but we’ve had some new issues with carsickness as a result of hardly leaving the house during March-May, something I’m now massively kicking myself for. But we’ve done a few longer rides lately that she has been fine for, so I’m hoping we can kick this.

Eating

I’ve noticed we’re having a bit more of an issue during dinner. Breakfast is always a hit. Since Chris has been working from home indefinitely he’s her short-order cook and gets fried eggs on toast, or scrambled eggs, or pancakes whenever she requests it. Lunch is something she obviously likes and the current favorite is a PB & J. For preschool, she almost exclusively requests an uncrustable, which makes life much easier for me. She’ll always have tomatoes or cucumbers or carrots and hummus, and a fruit.

I haven’t adjusted our dinners for her taste, so it can be a hit or a miss. Actually, unless it’s tacos, her coveted shrimp fettuccine alfredo, pizza, hot dogs, or spaghetti (or, apparently, chicken noodle soup), she’s kind of “Eh” about dinner otherwise. She’ll definitely eat most foods, but there are some meals she just won’t (like, she likes the idea of orange chicken way more than she likes eating it) and we’ve always left it as “you are in charge of your body, and you get to decide what you eat.” We talk about protein making us full, and all the foods our bodies like. I am working so hard to give her a good relationship with food, and that includes not having to clear or plate or force her to eat something. She is good at trying new things and we talk about the different flavors we can taste.

Sleeping habits

Olivia goes to bed at 7:30 pm and wakes up at 6:30 am (and many mornings it’s earlier). It got especially bad for Daylight Savings when she tried to get up for the day at 5:30. On a Sunday. So now we’ve been enforcing her OK to Wake Clock and she needs to stay in bed until her light turns green at 6:40. The hope is we gradually shift it later and later until it’s at least 7 am.

She gets her usual two bedtime books, brushes her teeth by herself (we finish off), floss, lotion on now that it’s cold out, and then it’s in bed where Chris and I take turns telling a story. She loves it. I’m… I know I’ll look back and enjoy these memories when she’s grown. Is that bad? It’s a little bad. But I’m tired at the end of the night and am just ready for some alone kid-free time.

On Friday’s we have Family Night with homemade pizza and a movie and she gets to stay up “late” and by late I mean 8:30 tops. It’s going to suck when she realizes it’s not that late.

Favorites

Toys: Her art supplies, her PJ Masks characters, Disney dolls, Legos, and weirdly, a lot of Emelia’s toys, dress up clothes

Books: Highlights magazines. I haven’t noticed her having favorite books, but she loves being read to at night. She does continue to love her princess stories, but we’ve been limiting the Jasmine ones in her big princess storybook since, as I explained in her last update, it’s very focused on her husband Aladdin and being married, and I don’t know. It’s just awkward and annoying, so, therefore, we have limits.

TV shows/Movies: Trolls, Trolls 2, Star Wars, Frozen 2, Masha and the Bear, Ninjago, Peter Pan, Harry Potter (up to the scene with the troll in the bathroom)

Activities: Watching TV (I’m a terrible parent), painting, Legos, playing outside, playing games, imaginative play, telling stories, helping cook and bake

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Big sister

This girl. She’s the best big sister. She’s so helpful, even to the point of trying to parent Emelia and Chris and I are constantly telling her that she needs to stop that. She loves to smother Emelia, kiss her, rub her face on her All. The. Time. I’ve given up on trying to prevent the spread of germs between the two and as a nurse and germaphobe, it’s been a bit trying.

They keep each other company and that’s been huge for all of us. Olivia has a play mate, the baby is distracted and I can get a few moments to myself. Win win win.

Birthday

Our plan was originally to have my parents over for her birthday dinner, but COVID came and that was no longer an option. So this morning for her birthday, she woke up to a bunch of balloons in her room and Happy Birthday banners in the kitchen.

We ordered in IHOP pancakes for breakfast.

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She got to open one present in the morning and then we picked up some cupcakes and delivered some to her grandparents for later.

I made her favorite meal: Shrimp fettuccine alfredo, garlic bread, and Caesar salad.

Then we Skyped with my parents while she opened her presents.

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In August, Olivia and I went to a house where they were selling brand new Lego sets, so I got the Frozen ice palace 700 piece set for $39. She clearly must have forgotten about it, because it was a big surprise for her.

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Then it was cupcakes and Happy Birthday and blowing out candles, while Gigi and Pop ate virtually with us.

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She loved getting happy birthday videos, texts, calls, and messages. My girl was showered with so much love on her birthday. I read her the messages from Facebook and she says, “Wow! That’s really nice!”

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She said she had a good birthday. And then we just put her to bed, as a five year old. Man, time has flown.